A little over a week ago, I completed Tales of Vesperia (360). The sprawling quest took around 78 hours to finish, some it spent on grinding for the heck of it. Having been introduced to the Tales Of series by Tales of Symphonia, I was familiar with many of the things Vesperia has. The new twists and wrinkles to the series, such as the skill setting system and Fortune Market shops, are very welcome additions. Another thing I liked very much is the pretty shading used on the characters and creatures. Through out the game, I felt as if I was controlling my own animated adventure which is very much what I want out of a Tales Of game.

While I'm aware of the Japan-only PS3 version that has a lot more content, I rarely felt that I was getting an incomplete adventure. I do hope that more of this series is localized across the world.

Clocking in at 38.2 hours, I finished Adam Jensen's story in Deus Ex: Human Revolution on the PC. I received the game as a Christmas gift in 2011 and it has proven to be a lovely gift. Playing as an augmented company agent with a police history in a cyberpunk world reminded me of the lovely Blade Runner movie and Ghost in the Shell series. I tried to have no fatalities in my story, but that changed when a tense and dramatic event in the back half of the game demanded decisive and lethal firepower. I kept to the shadows as best as I could which made the majority of the game a sneaking mission.

The times where stealth wasn't an option was in the game's annoying boss fights. While the firearms mechanics are competant, they aren't at a quality to make a one-versus-one boss fight entertaining. Another disappointment with the game is the lackluster ending. I grew attached to Adam and the company he keeps, and would've liked a little epilogue for all of them.

After what feels like 9 or 10 hours, I reach the ending of Infinity Blade 2. It took me 12-13 rebirths to amass the stats, equipment, and items to complete the journey. Of the three weapon types available in the game, I like the dual swords the most. Parrying your opponent is quite fun, though I hate it when I can't parry the punch, kick, or shield bash. The game goes a long way with its swipe-to-slash system by letting you block, parry, combo, scratch, and dodge. The importance laid on the direction of your slash reminds me a lot of the sword combat in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Like Skyward Sword, I sometimes have frustrating moments where the touch controls didn't register as I expected.

The story of Siris and his search for the Worker of Secrets is a plain affair. Thankfully, the game looks and sounds gorgeous on my little iPod Touch screen. I hope the promised updates of Clash Mobs and more items come soon.

After a lengthy 42 hours, I reach the ending of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. This is no thanks to the many widgets and interruptions my Link encountered in proving his worth as a hero and finally be allowed to vanquish the big bad evil thing of the game. The game's story doesn't do as much of a good job of making you feel like a hero as it does making you feel like a errand boy. And there are so many hazardous errands to do and things to fetch. This is a shame because the actions required of the player are mostly interesting and fun. The contextualization of those actions can be rather poor at times. The helper character, Fi, embodies this as she often reminds you of your current task and surroundings in incredible frequency.

The problems with pacing and player hand-holding don't dismiss the fun dungeons and combat the game has. The Ocarina of Time feeling of completing a dungeon bit by bit is present and satisfying. The Wii Motion+ combat is a great addition to Zelda as the combat of previous titles were a bit too simple and easy.

Overall, I enjoyed the adventure Skyward Sword has to offer. While history may prove to be unkind to the game in its place in the Zelda series, that doesn't mar Skyward Sword of being a good game.

I bought Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective for my shiny new iPod Touch a while ago, and in ten days of near-daily play I finished its wonderful story. There's no play time counter that I can find on the iPod Touch so I estimate it took me at least 12-14 hours to complete the story. I went from one puzzle game to another with Portal 2 and Ghost Trick, but I did not tire of the all the puzzles. That's because Ghost Trick has a wacky and humorous tale and mesmerizing animation. The puzzles in Ghost Trick can be quite tricky even though there is only one correct sequence of tricks to solve the puzzle. This can lead to situations of trial-and-error, but frustration hardly sets as the game provides many clues to find the correct sequence.

Ghost Trick is a great game that I'm glad to have the chance to play. I missed out on it on the DS so I'm happy that it has come to the iOS. Now, on to Infinity Blade 2.

I was lucky enough to craft a copy of Portal 2 for the PC from Chrismas coals. In around 7.8 hours, I finished the single player story of Portal 2. It was really fun to mess around with the portal gun again. The new testing elements the sequel introduced made for some really cool puzzles. I got stuck a few times which can be nice sometimes. Those times call for reckless experimentation.

The only bad thing I can say about the game is that I don't know if I need any more of it. At least for a long while. I guess you could say testing is exhausting.

After a comparatively brisk 7.8 hours, I finish the campaign of Crysis: Warhead, the follow-up to Crysis. The 2008 game still looks quite good even in 2011, and the new weapons and tools are fun to mess around with. The most disappointing thing about the campaign is that the levels the missions take place in are much less open. The one that sticks out the most is a level that takes place entirely on a train and railroad but even the design of the first few levels funnel you towards a single path. One of the unique things about Crysis are its wide open levels that let you approach them however you want (I mostly use the Nanosuit's cloak). It's a bit of a shame that Crysis: Warhead boxes the player in more often than the first Crysis.

With Crysis: Warhead complete, I hope to soon try out the Mechwarrior: Living Legends modifcation for Crysis Wars.

In an rare feat of fan frevor, I picked up the limited edition of Fate/Extra for the Playstation Portable. The limited edition extras of a sixteen-page artbook and soundtrack selection aren't worth the extra $10 but I don't care. It took me 33 hours and 19 minutes to fight my way through the Holy Grail War in the Serial Phantasm. The time I spent fighting and grinding levels was nearly equal to the time spent reading the text. Make no mistake, the main draw for this game is the story written by Fate/Stay Night creator Kinoko Nasu. The story contains the melodrama and philosphical ramblings I expect from Nasu and was satisfying for me. As for the battle system, it's a simple rock-paper-scissors system with skills and items to break up the three main commands. Successfully reading an enemie's pattern will reward you with a quick victory and barely any damage done to your servant. A misread can prove deadly and time consuming as enemies can hit as hard as you can. Worse is that there are no mid-dungeon saving so a few hours of grinding can be lost if you lose a gamble in any arena battle.

There are three servant classes to pick from in the beginning and I hope to try out the other two some time soon. I hope Fate/Extra sells well enough for Aksys games to bring over the sequel Fate/Extra CCC.

#MW3's campaign will be the pinnacle of turret and QTE combat, merging the two in a seamless experience of buttons and pointing at heads

To my surprise and pleasure, I won a copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Xbox 360) through a Twitter tweet contest on Gamespot presents The Hotspot. In a short 5 hours and 11 minutes, I finish the single-player campaign to its quick time event end. The developers at Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer games, Raven Software, Treyarch, and Neversoft really do know how to set up a scene. However, that doesn't quite defeat the repetition and boredom of running down narrow paths shooting dudes or being a passenger on a speeding vehicle shooting dudes. Also, there are a lot of enemies you shoot in the course of the campaign. It's kind of ridiculous. What's wholly ridiculous is the amount of explosions and firepower that surrounds you. It's a shame that they don't look or sound as good as they used to.

Playing the campaign was kind of fun and kind of boring. I hope that the developers rethink what they can do with a shooter's single player. I don't expect much given how much focus is given to multiplayer. Ah, is it too much to ask for a great, varied, and lengthy single-player adventure that involves firearms?

Thanks to a recent Steam sale, I picked up Bastion by Supergiant Games. I finished this lovely isometic-perspective action game in 10 hours. What surprised me the most about the game was how much fun each and every weapon is to use. Each weapon has benefits and drawbacks that balances well against the other weapons. This makes picking weapons more about style and preference rather than the best numbers. I'm sure there's a winning formula for the game's extra hard challenges, but at the regular difficulty all the weapons have their uses. The art is pretty and colorful and the music is great.

The new game plus mode is an attractive feature, and I can definitely see myself revisiting the Bastion in the future if only to fully upgrade all the weapons.