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From the first game play preview I'd seen of The Walking Dead, I knew it was on to something special. Previous Telltale games have just missed the mark with me by not quite living up to the standards set by my childhood of Lucasarts adventure games. This one changed all that. It's the characters that hold this whole puzzle coherently together. While my actions didn't seem to directly impact the ending in the long run, the structure of the episodic content was clever in making me feel like I needed to know more the second I finished each episode.
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I haven't owned a Vita for very long. But with the small amount of time I have spent with the device, few games have shown me just how precise the touch and gyroscopic sensors are. Escape Plan is not an easy game. Occasionally it can be somewhat unforgiving. But ultimately, no other game this year (besides Journey) has been packaged so beautifully with matching music and visual style together. Often times I don't even care that I will fail a puzzle. Watching the elaborate death animations is part of the strange charm contained in this gem.
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Journey is a hard game to box in to one particular category. In a sense, it isn't even really much of a game. Sure, there's some puzzles to solve and collectables to find. But the best part about Journey is the fact that it feels like nothing else I've ever played. And while it's only about a hour and a half long, I found myself returning to it several times this year. Each time having a different experience. The anonymous drop in co-op really helps to change specific areas and creates attachment to a stranger. This is counter to just about any multiplayer experience I've had online and very well implemented.
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Max Payne was an important game to me growing up. I didn't have the best PC to play it on. But I did my best to get the most out of the first two games. They showed me the beginnings of what would later follow regarding both Rockstar and dark narrative storytelling. Max Payne 3 continues this trend. Tighter shooting mechanics based on Rockstar's impressive engine and animation technology added a lot to the immersion of Max Payne 3. The story maintained its roots in gritty neo-noir while changing the location drastically from the previous games. It was a welcomed changed and I couldn't help but continue my past trend and play this one it its entirety more than once this year.
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I've never been too patient with stealth games. I recognize the reward, but rush through them anyways. Dishonored kind of changed that, but allowed me to do what I wanted without feeling like I was punished for doing so. The main difference between Dishonored and many other stealth action games is that in Dishonored, action is actually fun to play. Often times I'd start large scale fights just because I didn't want to waste any of the fun tools provided to me.
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Hitman is a series I try not to overlook. IO Interactive knows what they are doing when it comes to crafting small scenarios and are great at hiding all the mechanics and tricks within a dense environment. Absolution tightens up these mechanics and builds on a solid foundation. Contracts mode is a welcome addition as well. For a game I already planned on playing through again on a higher difficulty, contracts adds an extra layer of re-playability by adding essentially an endless amount of scenarios for new hits.
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The first Borderlands took me way too long to finish. Somewhere around the two year mark. Most of this was because I didn't want to play in Public games online and no one else owned it for my platform that I knew. But finishing that off finally with a partner then moving straight on to 2 was probably the best choice I could have made. It allowed me to realize just how much more Gearbox had fine tuned a solid formula. Handsome Jack was the best kind of love to hate antagonist and the humor was dark, but spot on. Very few games kept me coming back for more day after day like Borderlands 2 did for the first few weeks it was out.
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Far Cry 3 was a game I didn't know that I wanted until it had already come out. I was excited for 2 and then deeply disappointed with the result. 2 was a broken mess. And a game ending bug I hit at the 75% completion mark ensured I'd never finish it. So I had all but completely written the series off. Far Cry 3 changed all that though. It's clear the team working on 3 took the criticism of 2 very seriously. Characters like Voss add a lot of depth to the world that 2 was missing. Most importantly, everything you are tasked to do is straightforward and worth doing to further your character. This is everything 2 should have been and more.
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Like Escape Plan, Mutant Blobs Attack! was a perfect way to show me how the Vita stands out among other systems. Its intuitive controls and smart puzzle design never wore out its welcome. And the story was quite entertaining to boot.
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I don't often play racing games. And I think Most Wanted is the first one I've purchased during this generation of games. But when I heard about the autolog hooks and knew a handful of my friends were playing this, I figured I'd give it a shot. Criterion has done it again. While this isn't a renamed sequel to Burnout, it's about as close at you could come to being one while still maintaining the feel of a Need for Speed game. Which lies somewhere in between real racing simulation and arcade style driving. The challenges from my friends keep me coming back to this game and I think I may start paying more attention to racing games in the future if this trend continues.
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