I didn't let my Afghanistan deployment hold me back from what I love doing: playing videogames! Despite being in pretty atrocious living quarters, I field crafted a decent gaming set up and had good support from my family back home and retailers that shipped to that part of the world to prevent a climbing backlog. I couldn't play a lot of downloadable titles at first, but remedied that when I returned home.

Looking at my GOTY lists every year, I incidentally craft a theme. Some sort of indication of what games were each year and what the experiences a gamer should expect. Last year was all about telling stories in non-conventional ways. With Saints Row: The Third telling an absurd plot, Dead Space 2 utilized a lot of environmental story telling, and Bastion's narrator was new and effective.

This year, the journey was important. It wasn't the destination that took precedence for better or worse. Every game here presents the player with incredible journeys. In The Walking Dead, we lived in Lee's shoes as he traveled through Georgia and struggle to survive the epidemic that tore society apart. The Darkness II was all about getting to the game's conclusion to figure out what reality was. And Hotline Miami didn't take players on the narrative journey like all these other nine games did, but made the trek through every stage meaningful. That game intelligently made the every move of the player count.

1. The Walking Dead

The first season of The Walking Dead is going to have a legacy. This is simply where videogames are going from a storytelling standpoint. I may be jumping the gun, but this game will probably go down as a modern classic. If I had to write down my Top 10 moments in videogames, half of those would come from this game alone. That’s how much of an impact The Walking Dead has had on me. I’ve never been as emotionally invested in fiction before. Characters I met in this game were people that felt real, and I connected with theme on an emotional level. Certain moments like the suicide and Kenny’s story arc were fucked up in ways that were never over-the-top and after many turning points in an episode’s plot, I had to seriously consider taking a break. I was emotionally exhausted after completing each of the game’s five episodes.

What makes this game phenomenal is the writing and characters. The “Zombie” part of the Zombie Apocalypse doesn’t matter too much. This is a group of normal people thrown into extreme situations. It casts a light on both extremes of humanity. By focusing on a small cast, the writing remained tight and focused. The game never painted a picture of the rest of the world or even what was going on down the road from the cast. This was a tale about Lee, Clementine, and the rest of the survivors.

It takes talented voice performers and incredible writing to invest players on this level and treat them like an adult. Every time a character said something to me, one of the response choices is the reaction I thought of in my head. There were few good and bad choices or responses. Every situation in this game is dark. I played Lee how I believe I would’ve reacted in real life. I would’ve given the food to the men performing the hard labor and the children. Sometimes silence was the only reaction I had. Other times, I backed up my best friend. And there were instances I had to square someone away or threaten them for the good of the group.

***Major Spoilers***

Clementine was a true connection to innocence. She is the resemblance of purity in a world gone mad. I made it Lee’s mission to revolve life around her. Protecting her was my watchword. Every action was done in her best interest. That moment in the farm when I stabbed the man and she gasped after seeing my actions, I felt horrible. In later moments in which I was tempted to do some morally grey things, I held back in fear of her witnessing any negative actions on my part. I trained her to shoot and brought her to Crawford’s in hopes of training her to deal with realities of the apocalypse for I came to the realization that I couldn’t be there for her forever. I honestly cared about this little girl and sought her satisfaction. That alone is beyond powerful for a work of fiction. I made sure she took care of me at the end and that she kept her hair short.

***End of Major Spoilers***

I wouldn’t say The Walking Dead is the watershed moment that halts the videogame train and changes everything. But it has certainly made an impact. I think this is a game we’ll look back on years from now and remember characters like Kenny and the dark moments of Episode 3. For the first time, a videogame has treated me like an adult. I’ve never been so interested in a game’s choices and possibilities. The Walking Dead is about the journey. This is a journey that has cemented itself in my mind and is crazy enough for me to have long conversations about it with total strangers. I went on an emotional ride with these characters, and while that ride was mostly depressing it was a powerful experience that won’t leave my mind anytime soon.

2. Persona 4: Golden (Or "The" Golden, whatever)

Simply looking at Persona 4 from a distance is the reason that it took me until a 2012 re-release of a critically acclaimed 2008 game to finally play. This is an very-anime looking JRPG that uses “dating sim” mechanics and takes a serious time commitment to sink your teeth in. All of these elements are typically things that make me run far away from a game, however in this case I not only welcomed it but fell in love.

Persona 4 is the complete package. Its got the best turned-based combat I’ve ever played, intensely (but manageable) strategic dungeon-crawling combat, and incredible characters. I wasn’t so confident in the game’s quality the first few hours. But after giving the game a chance to sink its teeth in me, I was glad to let it take over my life. I feel like I’m literally getting to know interesting fictional characters. Not to mention that the level of anime in this game is pretty tolerable. This game has a dizzying number of mechanics and activities. But they never feel too overbearing. In fact, all of this game’s elements blend almost perfectly; creating a cohesive experience that shouldn’t be missed by anyone.

3. Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3 shares its best quality with my 2011 GOTY, Saints Row: The Third with being the most consistently fun game of 2012. While borrowing aspects from games such as Assassin’s Creed and Red Dead: Redemption, every mechanic in Far Cry 3 blends together perfectly. The game gets a lot of mileage with virtually every element.

In an ingenious move, Ubisoft doesn’t just dump all the content onto the player’s laps from the beginning directly. They crafted the game in a way that the player chooses the pace. Want to just discover the whole map immediately? Go explore! Or just do what I did and discover small landmasses and chew through all that content before proceeding. It’s incredibly easy to burn 12 hours of game time without even touching the main story.

Not since Mercenaries have I been dropped into such a fun virtual playground that will supply its own unique stories of hilarity. One time I was about to take over a Pirate Outpost. I was tactically approaching my target while conducting reconnaissance with my Sniper rifle. In my head, I crafted a brilliant strategy to sneak and stealthily take each foe out. As I approach my first victim, a tiger came out of nowhere, killed two pirates and immediately turned on me.

Its seemingly random moments like that and hunting sharks with Jet Skis that supplied me with more than enough “wow” moments that left me stoked to talk about with other people. Far Cry 3 celebrates the freedom players can have in games. The story never reached the potential I saw in the fantastically dramatic opening. Unlike most of the other games on this list, I didn’t care about the quality of Far Cry 3’s plot. For it’s easily the greatest open world game I’ve played and sets the standard for making a game fun.

4. The Darkness II

Having faint memories of the original game, I picked up The Darkness II not expecting much out of it. I was shocked to find a game that had an impressive attention to detail in virtually every mechanic and narrative element. The story is well told and complemented by phenomenal motion capture and voice acting. The protagonist, Jackie Estacado is ultimately battling whether or not he’s insane and if the events of the game are just visions in his head. Each stage of the game is leap-frogged by a segment in a mental institution that may or may not just be Hell in disguise. The play on sanity had me even questioning what elements of the game were “real”.

Combat doesn’t get more brutal and fun than with The Darkness II. The malevolent demon in your head is constantly throwing out deviously dark one-liners and giving you access you rip foes apart in satisfying ways. With the demonic abilities being as fun and gruesome as they are, it’s a fun surprise that the gunplay is fun to boot. Developer, Digital Extremes succeeded in blending everything that makes a shooter great.

5. Asura's Wrath

I’m a very visual person. Asura’s Wrath isn’t a game in the traditional sense. Yeah, you to take control of the game’s protagonist enough to constitute this as a “videogame”, but that isn’t really where the game shines. It’s when this game take power struggles seen in Dragon Ball Z and makes that even more intense. I played Asura’s Wrath in front of a few people who didn’t care too much for videogames, let alone anime. They literally couldn’t take their eyes off the insanity played on the screen. Every time an event comes like a crazy Earth-sized demi God being blown up by a man-sized hero, we all screamed that it’s impossible for the game to get crazier. But it constantly raised the bar with each passing minute. This is literally a game you have to see to believe.

6. Halo 4

Any Halo that understands the badassery of the Needler is automatically a game I want to champion. 343 went the extra mile with developing a fantastic Halo experience. I’ve voiced criticisms against this game for not taking advantage of an opportunity to write new and interesting fiction, and the Prometheans are far from interesting.

Despite these faults, Halo 4 looks and plays phenomenally. The singleplayer is littered with beautiful vistas and impressive set pieces. Master Chief and Cortana’s relationship is far more developed here than in games past. Cortana serves as the anchor for the overall plot, and her story arc has enough high points to look past the weak introduction to the new antagonist.

What really sealed the deal for me was the multiplayer. It isn’t often I get into competitive shooters, but I was more than glad to return to the Halo arena after many years of being away. Halo’s multiplayer stays true enough to the original formula for someone like me that loved playing Halo 2 to get into. The persistence and unlock system isn’t nearly as involved as other modern shooters, but makes Halo 4 feel like more of a breath of fresh air than anything out of date. For me personally, I’m tired of worrying about unlocking new optics. I just want to drop into battle and shoot dudes. And Halo 4 offers tight first-person action and functional multiplayer for me to scratch that itch.

7. Dishonored

With the disappointment Assassin’s Creed III ended up being, I’m so relieved another game took it upon itself to deliver a tight and involving assassination experience. A lot of games these days tend to feel bloated and often collapse under their own weight of meaningless content. Dishonored takes the linear approach by delivering a laser-focused experience that still customizable and give the players control over their own experiences.

I opted to play stealthy. Negotiating the environment without raising alarms and killing as few people as possible proved to be the most rewarding experience. The game world wasn’t too convincing of being a living-breathing space, but was more of a giant puzzle laid out for the player. Dishonored shines by expertly blending its world and the game’s mechanics. Every stage felt like it was specifically crafted for me to engage in, but gave me enough freedom for me to choose how I wanted to tackle it. At no point did the game communicate, “Hey, you need to kill that guy and use this skill here!”

The narrative got especially dark with how it tasked me with eliminating assassination targets. I always had the option to tactically murder the target, or show “mercy” by giving them a fate arguably worse than death. In one mission for instance, I sold out my female target to a man promising to keep her safe. However, it’s clear his intentions with this woman were less than noble.

8. Hotline Miami

I never fall into games that are hard on purpose. Typically, I can't get into games the require a specific mode of thinking or rhythm to be successful. Hotline Miami is a puzzle-ass-puzzle game. The kind of puzzle game that has zero mercy and will kick your ass and rarely communicate how you fucked up. I've never approached a game so carefully and tactically. Before going into a room full of foes, I would have to anticipate how the entire stage would react to the actions I was pre-planning. Things rarely happen by accident. Each time I was successful, each move I committed was planned and executed in specific cadence. This Super Meat Boy approach to action was somehow not frustrating. This was something I wanted to master. All this white-knuckle action accompanied by the psychedelic atmosphere and totally bazar affection for violence makes the whole package a total joy.

9. Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect 3 did not have a good destination by any means. Despite the abundance of criticisms against the end-game, the journey was phenomenal by virtue of supplying plentiful memorable moments such and Moridin's goodbye and the epic space battles against the Reapers. The combat was just about as good as any other 3rd person shooter and the visuals were sharp enough to be an adequate replacement for the nuance the original game's film grain presented. Virtually no other narrative has as much cohesive attention drawn to the narrative and universe as Mass Effect's. The fact I know all the species and all their quirks is astonishing. And while it my be nerdy as Hell, I was obsessed with learning everything about this universe's fiction. While all the plot points ended too cleanly, seeing so many different characters interact in well told stories is something that just doesn't happen across any medium. Mass Effect is one of Science Fiction's best. While totally not the best Mass Effect in the trilogy, Shepard's final adventure was as engrossing and epic as a final chapter should be.

10. Spec Ops: The Line

Spec Ops: The Line aimed to be thought provoking and mature. The game is a third-person shooter and took the definition of that genre very literally. The weapons you fire and the enemies to fight are unremarkable making the entire gameplay portion of Yager’s shooter is very by-the-numbers and won’t go down as the most robust shooter in 2012, but will probably go down as the most memorable.

A lot of games that deal with morality have some sort of contrived game mechanic to compliment it. Spec Ops relies on the player to think about their choices and live with consequences despite that none of theses moments are tied to an actual mechanic. To put it simply, Yager is banking on you feeling like a complete dirtbag throughout the whole game. And the game is mostly successful. It constantly makes the players second-guess themselves at whether or not they’re the hero or villain and to what extremes they’re willing to go though in order to accomplish their goals.

Any game that is inspiring someone to write a book about it is crazy enough. I went into Spec Ops just expecting a generic shooter to take up some of my free time. The story itself isn’t very great, but how it’s told is what makes this game a standout. I quickly found myself emotionally invested and in need for a hard drink after the credits rolled. The disconnect between the gameplay and narrative elements is jaunting, making the focus on the morality of war feel disjointed. However, that doesn’t do enough damage to the finished product for me to be totally blown away by the game’s atmosphere and powerful late-game moments.

Thanks for reading!

-EpicSteve

@stevenbeynon

NOTE: I can't figure out why Far Cry 3's text keep returning to bold when I fix it. This happened with my last blog too.

2012 is coming to an end and that means it’s time to look back on the past year of games. I’ll be writing blogs on various GOTY-related topics, but I figured I would get all the negative stuff out of the way. Today, we start off with what I thought were biggest bummers this year.

1. Assassin’s Creed III

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood was on my GOTY list back in 2010. Like a lot of folks, I took a break and passed on Revelations. After seeing how confident Ubisoft was in their new setting and protagonist, I was stoked to return to the series.

I had the same thoughts as most of you during the early hours of the game. Those thoughts can probably be boiled down to, “Seriously, what the Hell is this!?”. The six-hour tutorial felt like echoes of Final Fantasy XIII, but there were enough plot points for me to give a long exposition a pass in trade for returning to the game I loved in Brotherhood.

Then of course the technical issues really started to get to me. The framerate was a joke, the menus were clunky, and simply getting from Point A to Point B wasn’t as fluid as it should be. This sure as Hell didn’t feel like a product that has come from a massive team with a huge budget. But this goes into my other issue with the game. The entire experience feels disjointed. There’s so much side content and busy work that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme I’ve convinced myself it has to of hindered Ubisoft’s care to the main game. After finishing the game and looking back, I don’t feel like I even assassinated many people. All the assassinations were just tougher dudes in normal groups of Redcoats. Most of my time was spent traveling from cutscene to cutscene. Maybe it was a lack of good leadership, but perhaps Assassin's Creed III's problems root in having a nice-big team?

Assassin’s Creed III had too many elements that never clicked together. The protagonist’s motivations to assist the war effort was questionable and was just a backdrop for the story to play out and for you to conveniently run into every important American in that era. There was never any fluid movement between plot points. It has been interesting watching the Assassin’s Creed franchise grow, but the series has had more stumbles than triumphs. Despite how much I have enjoyed previous games in the series, I’m not confident in whatever Ubisoft may have in store next.

2. Mass Effect 3

While not hitting as high of a note as the second game, Mass Effect 3 was a pretty outstanding game for the first 95% of the time I spent with it. Once again, I got to step into the shoes of my FemShep and explored the galaxy solving social problems and winning wars. Yes, a new and powerful foe was committing mass genocide on my home planet, but I still got to hit the dance floor on the Citadel! Maybe how time passes in games is an unsolvable problem in non-linear games. I mainly just had the suspension of disbelief to enjoy Shepard’s less-important missions that are taking place while humans are dying by the millions every hour.

What really got to me was the ending, of course. I played Mass Effect 3 in front of a handful of guys who aren’t even that into games, but in utter boredom they got into watching me close the book on Shepard’s adventure. You can imagine how my jaw hit the floor seeing how unsatisfying the ending was, but imagine a collective “What the fuck!!?” from a room of guys that aren’t even that invested in the Mass Effect universe.

I’ve given over 100 hours of my life to this franchise. I’m not even one to get super nerdy and learn about fictional races, political problems, and technology, but I did. To see a franchise go so far to create such a believable universe and craft an amazing sense of place for it to just throw it away with a weak 5 minute nonsense ending is insane. Bioware basically stuck a middle finger on the screen in service of an ending.

3. Resident Evil 6

Resident Evil 6 is the worst game on this list. It doesn’t take home my “award” for Most Disappointing Game of 2012 mainly because it was terrible from the start. Assassin’s Creed III actually had promise going in and continually fooled me with some decent moments into going further and further into the game. Capcom’s latest Resident Evil 6 will probably go down as the worst big-budget game in a long time.

The game was technically incompetent. All the spirit that make Resident Evil 4 one my favorite games ever died here. Instead of finding a focus, Capcom decided to give out a half-assed campaign for all play types whether it be a more horror-approach or fast-paced. The early moments of Leon’s campaign just sang tunes of a Michael Bay movie and nothing else about the other campaigns were interesting enough for me to even think about giving it my time.

EDIT: Tried to get rid of the RE6 text being bold. That isn't happening for whatever reason.

Talking about videogames is one of my favorite things to do. I've been desperately trying to get back in the mojo of playing games and coming over to this fabulous website to bitch or praise. It isn't as easy as that now. The deployment is so cemented in my mind it's hard to think about much else right now. I got a fat stack of videogames right now that I've barely touched! I decided to trick myself into writing a thing and look into the relationship between war and entertainment.

I was mostly disturbed recently while reading a GameSpot article written by Laura Parker (whom I think is a wonderful journalist) titled, "EA, guns, and the dangers of brand identity". The article mostly goes into how stupid selling real weapons through Medal of Honor: Warfighter is. EA had the intention to donate some of that money from sold weapons to the families of fallen Special Operations troops. I think the intent is great, but who's really buying guns through a link on an EA site? Your opinions on that may vary, but this quote from Parker's article expresses this business adventure is wrong for the wrong reasons:

This is not the first time's EA's definition of authenticity has come into question. At E3 this year, GameSpot editor Tom Mc Shea questioned Warfighter's regenerating health as being in clear contrast with the game's painstaking efforts to be as "authentic" and realistic as possible.

"Military games have turned war into a silly good time, and yet they hide behind their realistic claims as if they're doing justice to the armed forces," Mc Shea argued. "In reality, they're exploiting the people who give their lives for a cause they believe in. By focusing on instant satisfaction and extreme accessibility, they turn real battles into a virtual fantasyland where no harm is lasting and no danger exists."

So is this stuff offensive? Maybe EA is throwing around the word "authentic" too loosely, but that's an individual opinion and reviews will judge the final product. Trust me Mr. Mc Shea, I appreciate the attempted defense but you're being the disrespectful one here, not EA. I thought about articles based around the idea of the above quote during my first firefight...

It was my second day in Afghanistan, my Platoon and I were conducting a dismounted patrol down a known Taliban supply route. I heard a snap of a traveling round and saw one of our Afghan Army allies go down. The awesome power of Taliban mortar fire and sporadic machine gun fire was louder and more intimidating than any range I've been on. A lot was on my mind that day, but the whole world stopped for that moment to happen. In my mind, at that moment, nothing else existed. The whole world was this mountain and the entire population was shooting guns. I immediately jumped into a ditch, for my first time “in the shit” was the most disorienting moment of my life.

“Happy Halloween and welcome to Afghanistan!”, said a soldier next to me. While our medics were working on the fallen Afghan; I returned fire with my SAW to allow the safe evacuation of the wounded. It wasn't something I actually thought about doing, it was reflex. The bad guys were only getting closer, self defense and preservation of my friends took over any rational thought like staying inside that nice comfy ditch. Then I learned that the guy with the machine gun (me) gathers a lot of unwanted attention. There I had a realization that I’m living a cliché moment that I’ve taken in as entertainment since I could walk. I was nearly deaf from the barrage of rockets and my own weapon; branches were snapping above me, there was constant movement everywhere, yelling from friendlies and enemy, it was utter chaos.

I’ve spent my whole life watching war movies, playing guns as a kid, and enjoying shooting games. That evening, some of us gathered around the TV to play a few rounds of Call of Duty. I thought to myself that this should be fucking weird. I mean, I just fired real weapons in a real war. But it wasn’t. Playing Call of Duty that evening felt as natural as any other play session. I'm not really a fan of the game in the first place, but I took advantage of the opportunity to unwind. It reminded me of all the controversy around violent videogames in the mid 90’s. That controversy feels pettier than ever now. What war videogames are today cannot obtain parity with the real world. Therefore, those games have a virtually impossible time correlating with people’s negative or positive feelings involving anything real.

The bulk of shooters are so disconnected from reality, I get really put-off anytime someone claims these titles are glorifying war or that they’re disrespectful to the troops. Does Game Dev Story speak any volume to making games? I just throw a music guy in an office and magic trumpets make real videogame soundtracks better, right? Does that trivialize the hard work and creativity of developers? Clearly, I can’t speak for the entire armed forces community for I would be as guilty as some of these writers on the Internet making these claims. However, every soldier I know plays these games or respects them from a distance. And in my experience, soldiers are the most difficult people to offend to begin with.

Most Blockbuster shooters are so cartoonish, it’s impossible to take them seriously anyhow, and those that claim to be “military simulators” don’t go far enough in presentation to risk freighting anyone. We live in a world in which 1-3 American soldiers come home in boxes everyday. I can see why civilians would cause an uproar about Six Days in Fallujah letting you partake in a conflict that at the time was taking the lives of young American men and women, but you can’t spend your life being shield for a group you aren’t apart of. History will show American GIs are good at defending themselves. Medal Of Honor did a decent job at portraying the early days of the Afghanistan war as explained in history books and that's good enough for me to excuse the "authentic" label. At a certain point, it needs to be a videogame.

When EA bowed to pressure to take the Taliban out of Medal of Honor’s multiplayer in service of “Opposing Force” and Konami scrapping Six Days in Fallujah are examples of cowering from a vocal minority. With EA, advertising real weapons through a game that claims to be a salute to the Special Operations community is kind of weird. But no one in uniform is making a picket sign. I believe most soldiers have more important things to worry about. Art of War teaches that a society needs to acknowledge and (using this term loosely) respect their enemy. Going far enough to make muslim men in robes and AKs in a videogame fighting Americans but ignoring who they actually are is the real crime. EA can continue making weird PR moves with Medal of Honor, but the soldiers I know wouldn’t care to play as Taliban in multiplayer (maybe they’ll lose on purpose). But I know I do get up in arms when civilians with microphones but without service under their belt tell their listeners a videogame is hurting my feelings.

If a developer wants to make a Call of Duty style videogame based on my experiences, I would be flattered. While it would be inaccurate, videogames are for fun. Once I brought a small toy water gun to school in a post Columbine massacre world and paid hard for that mistake. People have a habit with freaking out over dumb stuff. Thinking about the ratio of shooters that have been released since 2001 and those that explicitly say "this is Afghanistan, you're fighting Taliban, GO!" is in the favor of non-descriped middle eastern towns fighting God only knows. Not all takes on war will be Generation Kill but I'm also always down for a silly tale of glorifying war. Remember Act of Valor? It was pretty much a SEAL recrutement video, but that scene with the boat was badass. Remember that sniper level in Call of Duty 4? Badass. Undo your ties and stop looking for controversy.

-Steven Beynon

It’s been a little over a week since my return home and it feels like I never left in the first place. Afghanistan just seems like one big blur. Despite a few bumps in the road, I’ve cemented myself back into civilian life. Which mainly includes me being able to buy Tacos made up of Dorito and not having to strap on body armor to walk outside.

While I’ve been filling my schedule with mundane adult tasks, I’ve been indulging myself in videogames. This seems to have been the best time to deploy; game releases have been slow at best. I’m confident I’ve played every major release I would possibly care about, but I feel making a GOTY list will not be so easy this year. I’m scrolling through my list of played games right now while examining upcoming games and honestly, it’s dull. We might not have “The Game to Beat” like previous years.

This isn’t to say I haven’t been having a great time behind a controller or keyboard this past week. And I’m no hermit; I’ve been exploring my newly found status as a 21 year old. But we can’t party everyday. I’m desperately trying to not come home to live a cliché veteran life. Incidentally, I’ve been exclusively playing loot-based games. And while these games are similar on paper, they’re all radically different in terms of tone, mechanics, and just about everything that makes a videogame unique.

First on my to-do list was Diablo III. With the lack of Internet, I missed out on Blizzard’s latest while deployed. I was stoked to get my hands on a game from the house that’s known for quality. I was aware of the horror stories revolving around the game’s launch, I assumed those issues were well passed. Boy, was I wrong! My game was plagued with server disconnects. I often couldn’t play 10 minutes without the game booting me off. Once I’ve gotten to the point of being afraid to play a videogame and getting into it in fear of my enjoyment being stripped at anytime, the developers have completely failed to pull me in. A player should never be consciously thinking about the game working.

Eventually, I was able to have a lengthy play-session. With that, I decided Diablo III wasn’t for me. It may have been due to the constant barrage of server issues, but I convinced myself that the game has no character or excitement. Action RPGs already have the tendency to get boring and when the world is dull and the gameplay is unchallenging, it’s impossible for me to enjoy.

That’s when I turned to Borderlands 2. I ordered my copy off Amazon months ago and after I realized it wouldn’t be delivered until the Monday after release, I went out like a sane person and bought a copy from Gamestop. That game is exactly what everyone says it is, Borderlands again but better. Despite some negative reaction to the over the top characters like Tiny Tina, I love most interactions in the game. Borderlands 2 is bursting with character. Something a lot of games fall prey to is riding a very safe line with dialog being strictly to service the game itself. Borderlands 2, however, revolves around its consistent tone making Pandora itself its own character. I can see how really specific callbacks to old jokes such as might put off some people, “I used to be a Vault Hunter like you then I took a bullet to the knee”. However, it’s never intrusive to the experience and only adds to the goofy motif.

The gameplay mechanics, however, are universally praised and rightfully so. I actually got a legendary weapon within the first 2 hours of play and at level 22 I’m still using it! I look forward to all the encounters and legitimately bummed when I’m not pulling the trigger. I feel like I’ve put a lot of time into this game thus far and I’m nowhere near tired of it. I seek out every quest and even when I’ve accidently wondered into a dungeon with no quest objectives, I don’t feel like its time wasted.

I am disappointed in the Commando class. In the first game it was very rewarding to be a major functioning element in a party. I was able to shield my allies with a rocket-shooting turret, shoot to heal and even be self sufficient enough to regenerate health and bullets. While one can argue the way I developed my Commando in 2009 wasn’t severally overpowered, it was the source of a lot my enjoyment with the first Borderlands. Now I feel all the skill trees just boil down to making me shoot better or allotting me more health. The turret shield doesn’t appear to be as useful as I remember it being in the first game either. Nevertheless, I’m constantly picking up amazing weaponry that serves as an amazing carrot on the stick. I love Borderlands and its pretty flawless in executing everything it sets out to do. But the lack of Dub-Step is a goddamn bummer.

Finally, I downloaded Torchlight II. I’m deep into Act II and playing as an Ice Wizard. Torchlight II is weird because I’m having a great time with it despite it lacking the most important videogame quality for me, a realized world. Borderlands 2 has an amazing and consistent aesthetic while Torchlight II never really nails down a tone or does a great job immersing the player in lore. That flaw aside, the mechanics are so solid I’m getting plenty of bang for my buck. At $20 who wouldn’t want this easy to run PC game? It doesn't feel like a spread sheet like Diablo III. I don't feel limited because I have a Wizard. My armor looks badass and I'm not locked down to wands. If I want to use a damn gun or sword, I can.

Torchlight II is super straight forward and probably won’t surprise anyone going in. It ultimately nails the most important element of this franchise, the loot system. It’s simple to compare new items and sending your pet to sell your junk and even buy potions in two for you just encourages you to constantly move forward. Which makes Torchlight II the antithesis of Diablo III, is does everything in its power to keep you playing.

Now I’m going to go play some crazy shit like Hell Yeah! and McPixel.

-Steven Beynon

@StevenBeynon

Within 48 hours I'm on track to be back in the US. It's been a wild year for sure. I originally sought out to write a blog entailing my adventures here in Afghanistan. I've been lucky enough to see a lot of the country and operate with various branches of military and other nationalities such as the British. I did indeed write a blog with full intent on posting it. I wanted something written out while Afghanistan was fresh in my mind. Something for me to look back on and to share my experiences because I feel like it's difficult to get real accounts of war straight from the soldier's point of view.

The blog ended up being over 8 pages long and was way too personal to share. I'm still struggling with how to articulate the past 13 months without getting too personal while still stating a clear message. My deployment was about as positive as one can get. I've grown as a person and while we're returning home with 3 less soldiers, I'm glad I experienced what I did. If I had to list everything from living conditions to day-to-day routines, it'll probably just read like a long list of bitching. But in reality, I wouldn't trade the positive and negative experiences for anything. For those were the moments that make me appreciate everything I had. Consider this an "Ask Me Anything", feel free to get curious in the comments. Just don't be an asshole.

So where do I go from here? I'm not getting married anymore. I kinda need to not be a bum and get a job. I also have to go back to living with mom for awhile. A deployed soldier just hopes to pick his life up where it was left off. Well, that isn't how life works. You want your life on pause, but the world still operates without you. It's daunting. So I need to find a place to live first and foremost. I'm debating going to school in Columbus instead of Cincinnati. I wanna get a dog to. School doesn't start until January for me, so for the next three months I'm just going to lay low. Perhaps get that job, maybe? I should probably be productive.

I'm still extremely interested in talking about videogames on the Internet. Instead of strictly writing stuff here, expect more video stuff from me. I'm going to build a mini studio in my apartment. Something I've always wanted to do. What does that mean exactly? Get some HD camera and some audio equipment. Writing about videogames is making less and less sense to me, so video content is an avenue I want to fully explore. Lately I've been examining what's missing in videogame coverage. I'm not 100% sure what the answer is, but I have some ideas. Maybe I'll make a documentary.

Going home is probably going to be a weird experience. I won't have to wear body armor anymore or carry a loaded weapon to the bathroom. The longest I've gone without someone trying to kill me this year was 4 weeks. Veterans have told me it's hard to readjust. But fuck that! I'm glad to return to my beer.

Gallery

To break it down, here's what I want to do:

-Get more into body building, eat healthy and lift weights.

-Get school done

-Acquire good internships

-Drink Yuengling a lot

-Find a place to live

-Get a dog

-Create and distribute quality content in which I talk about videogames

-Not end up going to the VA every weekend like every Vet does

-Find a job

If you got any questions about stuff, ask below.

-Steve

@stevenbeynon

In my final month in Afghanistan, I didn't have much going on. Our replacements were still a ways out, and the Taliban were occupied with their muslim holiday, Ramadan. I was able to finally sit down and play some damn games. The only issue with this is that every game in my pile involves shooting dudes in the face. My unplayed games included, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Vanquish, and Spec Ops: The Line. The good thing about living with 30 dudes is that there is no shortage of games coming in. The bad side of that is I’m the only one here that would consider videogames a hobby; no one really plays games of different genres. It was a great enough struggle to get the guys to check out games that weren't called Call of Duty. I can be credited with several sold copies of 2011's GOTY, Saints 3.

Up first was Ghost Recon, a game I didn’t finish because I was bored out of my mind playing it. I figured, yes it’s a shooter but maybe a more tactical pace would be a breath of fresh air. Boy, was I wrong! I have no clue what the Clancy name even means anymore, but the latest outing of the Ghosts was a snore fest to say the least. Not only was it a straight up shooter, the game isn’t even up-front with it. Future Soldier is the best example of a game with an identity crisis. Either the people involved with development weren’t clear on what kind of game they were making, or Ubisoft put out a title that tries to cover all angles including stealth, tactics, and 3rd person action without pleasing anyone.

Some of the stealth segments were interesting as they were set up like puzzles. I was tasked with methodically having my squad take enemies out without their comrades noticing. It’s unfortunate these segments weren’t more difficult or else it may have been strong enough to carry the generic action that makes up 50% of the game. It’s also strange that the game calls itself “Future Soldier”. For instance, none of the game’s elements feel especially futuristic in a videogame context. In reality, seeing soldiers turn invisible and throw out drones that can tag targets would be jaw- dropping. But in a videogame, it isn’t as revolutionary. Most of the “Future Soldier” stuff just explains gameplay stuff such as a HUD as technology the characters are actually interacting with. I think the game would have been better off going further with the futuristic approach or just be as-is without the “Future Soldier” tagline.

Next up was Vanquish, a game I actually finished. Directed by Sinji Mikami, the man behind one of my favorites games of all time, Resident Evil 4. Unlike Ghost Recon, Platinum Games did everything imaginable to distinguish Vanquish from the commonplace 3rd person-shooter. I’ve seen this game described as Japan’s answer to Gears of War, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. The only thing Vanquish has in common with Gears and our friend Ghost Recon is that the camera is 3rd person and the protagonist uses guns to fight. In fact, the game actually penalizes you for utilizing cover. That is, if you care about getting high scores at the end of a stage.

Vanquish is all about using the jets the protagonist Sam’s armor suit is equipped with to slide around the battlefield at 50 mph laying waste to Russian Space robots in Max Payne style bullet time. If that description doesn’t entice you, then you are one of those dead souls who can’t enjoy a Pixar movie. For a cherry on top, pressing the Left Bumper (360) has Sam smoke a cigarette mid-battle. Sometimes the flame distracts the Russian Robots. Seriously, this game is great. Vanquish has some of the best sense of movement I’ve ever experienced in a videogame before. The fidelity of sliding around while blowing up enemies is something all game developers should take note on. No game has made me feel so awesome and forget I’m holding a controller. And Vanquish has plenty of awe-inspiring explosions and Japanese non-sense action that is tastefully presented. Thankfully the game never gets too anime. I picked up a copy for $20 on Amazon; at that price I recommend everyone pick it up.

Finally, I checked out Spec Ops: The Line. I was legitimately impressed, but confused at some inconsistence in quality. Spec Ops is successful at establishing atmosphere. From the beginning there’s a great sense of mystery adding to the game’s motif. The acting and writing is also impressive to boot. The overall presentation has all the makings of a great Blockbuster without all the Michael Bay bullshit. On the other side of the coin, the action is straightforward and littered with unresponsive controls. Or perhaps just coming off the outstanding movement fidelity of Vanquish just jacked my standards unrealistically. I’ll have to revisit that criticism. Maybe I’m just tired of shooting dudes. I even wrote a review, making it my 10th and final review written in the field. I carry the self-proclaimed title of "Afghanistan's #1 Videogame Correspondent".

That’s a lot of time on the trigger. With all these games I’m completely drained of any desire to shoot dudes or Russian Space Robots in videogames. I’ll be heading home soon, so I’ll be able to hop on the downloadable scene to check out games like Fez and The Walking Dead. Also, Diablo III.

-Steve

@stevenbeynon

The videogame industry is a young business that’s jam-packed with passionate innovators, controversial law suites, and fans that will continue to come back for more. Steven Kent spent years conducting hundreds of interviews to preserve the history of our hobby and presents it in an easy to read format, The Ultimate History of Videogames.

This book has existed for a while, so I’m not going to go too deep on the contents, but to tell you that if you haven’t read it you should probably do so. The book starts with the amusement game business in the early 1900s and progresses to the launch of the PlayStation 2. You’ll learn that a lot of big companies like Sega existed well before videogames were a thing. Readers won’t get a lot of insight on as much industry drama as I would have hoped (totally grazes over Nintendo fucking over Sony on the creation of the “Nintendo PlayStation”), but the book is mostly written from the perspective of the men and women who built this crazy business, with quotes and insights broken up by context from the author.

Kent hits the basics, nerds launch some consoles, Chuck E. Cheese, nerds get billions, industry crash, Nintendo saves the industry, Sega is successful for a console cycle, the government gets pissed off at videogames, Sony says “what’s up”, and finally the millennium. It goes into more depth than that, but you get the idea. You won’t get any deep insight to what makes Miyamoto tick, but you’ll learn some motivations and the business end of virtually every major event in the game industry. Any big-name that played a role before the millennium that you can think of has plentiful quotes in the book to shed some light on whatever even they were involved in. No major figure seems to be missing.

Possibly the most powerful element of the book for me personally, was putting in perspective of how young the videogame industry is. A mere forty years ago, no one knew what a “videogame” was. Now, videogames are cemented in popular culture and outperforming Hollywood and other popular culture in a lot of ways. A team of 4 men in a garage could create a masterpiece; now most videogames involved hundreds of talented individuals and millions of dollars to create. Just 15 years ago we had a lot of old people on capital hill yelling, “Videogames are the devil and cause kids to conduct mass-murder”. Well, not literally, but you get my point.

Looking back at the past, the failed consoles and weird business decisions like how Sega dealt with the Genesis and the Saturn shine a bright light on the game industry has had a lot of growing pains over the years but has matured and grown much faster than virtually any other form of entertainment. The release of the original PlayStation and N64 were when videogames outgrew their infancy, and studios began to think tactically about how to conduct business and present themselves to the public. I feel like now, with the current generation, videogames finally found their footing in American culture.

The book ends with the announcement of the original Xbox. It’s crazy how much this industry and gaming has changed since then. Entire genres have come and gone and the way we consume videogames is entirely different. I tip my hat to forty years of interactive entertainment and forty more years of an ever-changing medium.

-Steve

@stevenbeynon

I volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan back in 2010. In 2011 I finally got the call to come out here during my second day as Whiskey Media intern (remember Whiskey Media?). I will write a more personal blog about my war experiences and such, but felt that a thank you to all of you badass duders deserved to be separated into its own blog. I've gotten an amazing amount of support. Someone's always being super nice on Twitter and logging onto GiantBomb for the first time in months, I found my inbox flooded with supportive messages. I'm 99.9% sure I've responded to everyone.

CharlesAlanRatliff organized a game donation, calling upon the GiantBomb community to send some games to my platoon. It was met with great success, and we all appreciate it! Our days are pretty hectic, but during down time it isn't like we go down to the bars. All games that were sent to me will be donated to Veteran's Hospital in Cincinnati. I also wanted to thank my Twitter followers for emailing me GiantBomb articles and generally keeping me updated on the real world. My shitty dial-up speed bandwidth doesn't allow me to freely browse the Internet and GiantBomb.com is blocked from my location for being a "video streaming site". Also, thank you Ryan Davis for sending us some much appreciated GiantBomb media and being incredibly supportive.

I look forward to my return home in two weeks. I'll be downing some Yuengling, chilling on these boards with you guys, and probably checking out some Diablo III. Thanks duders, for being a collection of the most badass Internet people, ever.

-Steve

@stevenbeynon

There’s no doubt in my mind that the next generation of consoles come out next year. Games like Star Wars 1313 that are convincingly meant for future consoles only further back up the case for new hardware in the next 15 months. Not to mention that the entire year of 2013 is going to feel like a runner with an unexpected lap. Gears of War: Judgment and God of War: Ascension appear like totally unnecessary fillers in an already long generation. Remember Kameo and Call of Duty 2? That felt like forever ago!

This begs several important questions on what is going on with the rest of the PS3 and 360’s lifecycle. Where the hell are high-profile titles like The Last Guardian and Final Fantasy Verses XIII? Are these games simply going to translate to new hardware? Is that why they’ve gone dark for so long? Regardless on what’s going on with dumb over-dramatic anime games, I’m more concerned with how the new consoles will work and how soft the transition form the Xbox 360 to the “Durango” will be. To be honest, I think using fake code-names for things that haven’t been confirmed to exist is totally dumb. For the purpose of writing, I guess I have to call “the next Xbox” something.

Achievements are my biggest question. Right now, I’m just shy of 70,000 points. Not to say I’m playing games on harder difficulties to boost my scores anymore, but it’s something I’m not comfortable with being completely ignored. Some sort of progression that covers every game someone plays on a central profile will exist. When I boot up my Durango and recover my profile will I have 70,000 points? Can I compare my Borderlands achievements wit friends? Would that be fair to new players? The guy who just gets on the Xbox wagon or can’t recover his profile for whatever reason starts with zero points. At some point in the Durango’s lifecycle the average Gamer Score would probably be like 500,000 points, who the hell is going to care about 10 point achievements? Then what the hell does Microsoft do with the next-next Xbox? Simply transferring Gamer Score isn’t the answer, but I also don’t want my profile completely ignored.

Rumors have been swirling around a “Kinect 2” for the Durango for a while. Since the Kinect’s launch, it has felt like more of a market interest test than a real piece of hardware anyone is going to seriously back up. Sony’s Move is just a depressing lack of vision. I’m curious how much longer companies are going to think motion control is a thing people are into. I’m not convinced that folks want to stand up to play games. Yes, mom bought a Wii Fit because she thought she wanted to lose weight, but when’s the last time she busted it out? Happy Action Theater and Dance Central are great to have on standby, but anything beyond that, I’m not interested. Is “Kinect 2” going to be packed with all systems? Is Sony just saying “fuck this motion stuff!”?

I’m looking forward to having new shiny things under my TV. I’m sure the new consoles will deliver great games. With the current hardware being built back in 2004, I can’t imagine what we’ll see with modern tech. Too bad the Wii U will probably be extremely outdated next year.

I would have written a full-fledged review. I don’t have access to any real Internet in Afghanistan, so I was unable to check out the multiplayer portion of the game. I know these reviews aren’t “official” or anything, but something in me can’t tie a score and call the article a “review” without seeing the full experience.

It’s been a decade since we’ve last seen Max Payne. Booting up the game it was immediately apparent that Max Payne 3 won’t be anywhere near the bro-shooter that makes up the bulk of the genre today. Center stage is a broken man living in the past full of regret. The pathos of Max Payne is clear. We aren’t reintroduced to the protagonist through sunshine and rainbows or heroics, instead Max is drinking liquor alone and swallowing painkillers like he doesn’t care if he wakes up. The game puts players on ride to see the self-destructive path of a man that doesn’t give a shit.

Max Payne 3 isn’t quite like Rockstar’s other titles this generation but still manages to hit similar beats. You could probably guess this is a Rockstar title without knowing upfront. The title’s character finds himself working in Sao Paolo as a body guard for the rich. Being Max Payne, things go downhill. The acting is fantastic and dialog is on par with RockStar’s other forays. But the plot has too many moving parts for the game’s pace. The action never slows down enough to get a real handle on what’s going on. Betrayals, plot points, new characters, and backstory are thrown at the player without time to digest before bullets start flying again. I enjoyed the story early on, but half way through the game the plot development’s pace doesn’t match the pace of the game. The entire experience would have been significantly better with larger breaks in combat.

Guns are star of the show. There are plenty of “kill everyone in the world” games, but Max Payne does it with enough style to not roll eyes. Firefights are better compared to a ballet than Black Hawk Down. Success depends on your competence with managing bullet-time. When the bullets start flying, you’ll be in slow-mo floating through the air taking out goons with well-placed headshots. Ran out of ammo? Simply roll over a dead foe’s weapon and upon getting back up, return fire. Every individual bullet is rendered allotting plenty of spectacles such as slowing down time and seeing a cone of fire around Max’s head.

To make up for bullet-time, Max is extremely fragile. Even the standard tactic of popping in and out of cover won’t work for very long. To be victorious in the countless gunfights requires tactical use of stylish fighting. No, you won’t want to switch between cover and pretend you’re Marcus Fenix, you’re Max Payne , and he dives over a staircase and shoots 5 dudes before he hits the ground safely behind cover. While the gun-ballet is impressive looking, the game falls apart any time momentum is lost. There are a lot of instances were Max will enter a room with huge gaps between cover and the enemies already have him in their sights. And every aggressor is a deadly marksman. This resulted in me replaying a lot of scenarios countless times. The cover mechanics aren’t reliable enough to maneuver safely through the environment causing a lot of needless confusion on how to proceed without loosing my head. Yes, I have bullet-time, but running out of it in the open is punishing.

The presentation is top-notch and is clearly were most the attention went to. No, the plot doesn’t make much sense but the cut-scenes are stylish. Rockstar did away with the comicbook panel storytelling but kept the basic idea alive with dynamic multi-frame cutscenes. Shots are often blurred, riddled with lighting effects and popping up key dialog. This style is shockingly beneficial to the game’s aesthetic and not annoying. The on screen flare is best compared to IO’s Kayne and Lynch 2: Dog Days, but without the shaky cam.

Max Payne 3 is one of the most modern feeling games I’ve ever played. The shooting is super accurate and intense which is literally the only reason to come to this game. The whole experience drives on the promise of offering a visual spectacle. The story is a very grim tale of a broken alcoholic and drug abuser that goes after crime organizations for reasons of self-destruction rather than being Batman with guns. It’s a very interesting concept and I was almost completely drawn into the Max’s macabre world. I felt like I spent way too much time shooting and not enough time getting to know the world around me. The mechanics aren’t reliable enough to combat the weird difficulty spikes making Max Payne 3’s most glorified feature fall flat. After finishing the game I was surprised I didn’t enjoy it that much. I figured out that every reason I like Max Payne 3 can be traced back to it just looking cool. Rockstar is great at crafting open worlds, but not so much with straight action.

Written by: Steven Beynon (EpicSteve)