List items
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Completed May 22nd 2011 (again 1/9/2013)
A decent game with some good story elements, characters, car chases, neat new face tech and crime scene investigations. But the open world was boring, the interrogation responses were sometimes frustrating and the entire homicide desk was a waste of time... other than your grumpy partner named Rusty. Here's hoping for a sequel, with some reworking it could be amazing.
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Completed (again) January 16th 2013
ONE OF THE GREATEST GAMES OF ALL TIME. Yeah...that's right, ALL CAPS. You land on planet Zebes to recover the stolen Metroid hatchling. The controls, power-ups, atmosphere, music, and graphics just mesh together perfectly. Another major element is the sense of absolute solitude and apprehension as you explore the seemingly abandoned structures underground.
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Completed January 26th 2013
A fun platforming puzzle adventure game by Ron Gilbert. Like Maniac Mansion, you pick three characters out of seven to go explore the cave. Each character has it's own story specific section that centers around the special skills of that character. Zero skill is involved in the platforming and mainly exists as a failed attempt to liven up traversing between puzzles. The three characters are individually controlled, which is good and bad. Bad if you are playing alone, because that means you need to do three times the platforming. Good if you are playing with people because you can work together to solve puzzles and carry multiple items which greatly cuts down on backtracking. Overall it's a fun puzzle oriented adventure game with a good sense of humour.
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Completed January 27th 2013
I usually don't care much for mashy-combo-oriented hack and slash games because they usually end up just putting you in a room, block the doors and endlessly spawn in enemies until you are about to turn off the game. Then the door opens, you go to the next area and repeat the same thing. While DmC does lock you inside these kill rooms, it does a great job with the pacing. You never spend too much time in one area and combat is broken up by platforming sections. The story is decent, but the thing that stands out the most in this game is the visual style of the levels, enemies and bosses. With most of the game taking place in limbo, the designers went crazy with the freedom that setting provided them. It's a fun game with lots of replay value for the people that like to collect and perfect all the combo moves...which isn't me.
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Completed February 1st 2013
Deadlight is a poorly executed but semi-entertaining 2D platformer set in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. You are usually jumping on trucks, moving boxes to climb through a window or jumping across a rooftop to get away from zombies. The jumping is unresponsive, the voice acting is awful and the gameplay never evolves into anything interesting.
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Completed (2 of 4 episodes) February 6th 2013
A decent adventure game that follows FBI agent Erica Reed as she tracks down a serial killer. The story is interesting enough (so far) and the style has a gritty "Seven" meets "Saw" feeling. Two more episodes remain to be released.
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Completed February 23rd 2013
The best way I can describe Zafehouse is as a turn-based zombie survival strategy game told entirely through the text of a diary. You scour the town for the supplies and information on how to evacuate the town. Everything is randomly generated, including the map, item locations, encounters and characters. The most interesting part is the ability to add yourself and friends as playable characters, adding more weight behind your choices.
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Completed (again) February 24th 2013
Earthbound is one of the greatest RPGs of all time and a personal favourite of mine. It stood out as unique and quirky back in 1995 and it still does today. It takes place in a modern setting where a group of young kids go on a journey to defeat an intergalactic evil entity known as Giygas. It's filled with funny dialog, zany characters, odd enemies and memorable events throughout the lengthy journey.
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Completed (Episode 1) February 27th 2013
An atmospheric adventure game where you are trying to find a highway to deliver a package. It's kinda boring so far and relies heavily on its art over any real substance. I may check it out again when all the episodes are released.
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Completed February 20th 2012 (again 2/24/2013)
An awesome platformer that feels like the NES Castlevania but faster paced with great graphics for it's time and awesome soundtrack. Two big problems are the enemies that constantly respawn at the edge of the screen and the unforgiving and near impossible final boss fight (unless you cheat with save states, but I'm playing on the actual cartridge). Maybe one day I will fully complete this series, or go insane trying.
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Completed March 7th 2013
A decent reboot to the Tomb Raider series. The shooting/action sequences were always the worst part of the previous games, and has been greatly improved. Unfortunately it relies heavily on these action sequences, leaving out much of the puzzle solving Tomb Raider is known for except for a few physics based puzzles. The platforming, while still fun, is greatly simplified. The climbing path is always very linear and never requires you to figure anything out. While it may be missing some things I like from previous games and it's a little heavy on the action side, it was still a decent amount of fun.
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Completed March 12th 2013
Persona 4 takes place in a rural Japanese town and just as you arrive to spend the year attending high school, local celebrities and classmates start turning up dead. The story is great and stays interesting throughout, but the main draw is the large cast of main and supporting characters you get to interact with. The battle-system is your typical JRPG turn based affair, but with a larger focus on using the correct Persona/spell to find your enemies elemental weakness. You can spend a lot of time going back into previously completed dungeons and fighting new bosses, completing fetch quests and obtaining all the different Personas, but I put most of that stuff on the back burner and focused on the many social links. Even after 60 hours, that new game plus mode is tempting and I hope the “Golden” edition comes out for more than just the handheld.
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Completed April 1st 2013 (again)
This NES platformer is pretty simple, but the 2 player cooperative mode is always fun to kill an hour with.
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Completed March 29th 2013 (again April 3rd 2013)
Bioshock Infinite is narrative driven FPS taking place in the incredible floating city of Columbia. It strikes a near perfect balance of exploration, story and combat. Columbia itself is visually stunning and you will want to poke around every area to find out more about it. The combat itself is your standard FPS setup with spruced up weapons, but is improved by combining it with super powers/abilities and creative enemies. The story is one you won't soon forget!
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Completed April 7th 2013 (again)
This is one of my favourite adventure games. It has a great story about a girl named April Ryan who must restore the balance between Stark and Arcadia. There are many memorable characters and locations. What set's it apart is the amount of well written and acted dialogue which does a good job of keeping this surreal story grounded and mature. It does have some flaws, like the first couple puzzles being ridiculous and large chunks of the game having large expository speeches without a break. But those are nitpicks, and this is a must play for adventure fans.
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Completed April 8th 2013 (again)
Heavy Rain is a cinematic adventure game about tracking down a serial killer and is mostly comprised of quick time events (QTE). It starts out slow and tedious, but once certain events take place things get really interesting. Using the PS Move instead of the normal controller fits this game well. I know...it's hard to believe motion controls actually improving a game. Most people hate QTE's, but the way the game adapts to your mistakes and branches the events accordingly instead of making you retry the same section again works really well and encourages multiple play throughs. It's not without it's faults like spotty voice acting and characters that control like tanks, but it's a unique experience.
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Completed October 11th 2012 (again 10/17/2012 & 10/21/2012, DLC completed 4/16/2013)
A brilliant combination of Deus Ex's freedom of choice, Thief's stealth and steampunk setting, and Hitman: Blood Money's creative assassinations. I can't summarize all the things that make this great without going on for several paragraphs. Every aspect of the game just feels, plays and looks great. I wish it was longer, but creating such open-ended missions with countless ways to tackle them must be very time consuming. On the other hand, the replayability is very high because of the numerous ways to go about everything.
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Completed June 3rd 2012 (again 4/18/2013)
As a Max Payne game it lacks what made Remedy's Max Payne special and not just a cool third person shooter. But, when you get over that it's a character resembling Max Payne dropped into Rockstar's GTA4-esque world, it really is a great game. It tells a story that keeps you interested, and action that is top-notch.
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Completed November 29th 2012 (DLC completed 4/13/2013)
Assassin's Creed III starts out pretty slow, but once you you are let off your introductory leash there is a decent amount of fun to be had. While I prefer the settings of the previous games, the American frontier is a nice change of pace and considerably changes the feel of the game (sometimes for the worst). Instead of free-running on rooftops you are free-running through trees or on horseback. They seemed to have lost focus seeing there isn't much assassination going on in this Assassin's Creed. I think I assassinated more innocent beavers than I did human targets. While some of the new mission types don't work well or just aren't fun, there are several that are fun, like the naval missions which are surprisingly well implemented. There are a number of changes AC3 has made that I like and dislike but overall, it's still a decent game, but a low point for the series.
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Completed October 26th 2012 (again 4/21/2013)
A brutally violent top-down action game set in the 80s, DeLorean and all. At first glance it looks like a fast paced skill-less murder-fest, but each move must be perfectly planned and executed in order to progress. It's fun, very weird at times and has an awesome soundtrack throughout.
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Completed April 21st 2013 (again)
Muscle cars with guns on top, 70s funk soundtrack, and a family member that needs to be avenged. Interstate '76 is a lot of fun even after all these years. The various missions types include eliminating all enemies, escort missions, races, and attacking or defending buildings. What makes it unique is that the gameplay leans heavily towards simulation instead of arcade. Car preservation, salvaging weapons and car parts as well as proper car setup is essential. Driving straight into an encounter will get you killed pretty quickly, and each weapon configuration requires different tactics for success. Multiplayer (back when it was new) was a ton of fun, specially the capture the flag mode. Graphics wise it's pretty dated with almost barren locations, environment popping in (which was annoying even back in '97) and characters that don't have mouths in the cutscenes. The Nitro mission pack is more bare bones story and presentation wise due to lack of cutscenes and over-arching story, but it adds a good amount of fun missions.
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Completed May 12th 2013 (again)
You play a roadie summoned to the land of heavy metal which is visually inspired by awesome metal album covers of yore. Too some success it mixes open-world exploration, melee combat, and RTS battles. The soundtrack and celebrity driven voice cast is a highlight. While it doesn't perfectly excel in any one area, it still ends up being an enjoyable experience.
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Completed May 20th 2013 (again)
When I first played Super Mario 64 back when it was new it was completely mind blowing. I'm happy to say it still holds up very well. This is an important and revolutionary game for many reasons, but I don't want to get into that. Let's keep it simple, it has tons of fun creative levels, great controls and so many secrets to discover, it's just amazing.
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Completed May 26th 2013
Inconsistent is the best way to describe Metro 2033. Some sections feel very polished, while others are near broken, but that's the way these Eastern Bloc games usually are. Gameplay wise it is mostly a generic FPS which includes shooting things while you wait for doors to open, shooting things with a mounted gun in on-rail sections, waiting for your AI partners scripted sequence to kick in so they can open a door so you can shoot more things. Then you get to parts where you aren't shooting dudes (or monsters) in the face and get to enjoy the good atmospheric setting this game has. Managing your gas mask filters and flashlight power is annoying at first, but really adds to the game later on. Overall, it's a decent game that unfortunately relies on tired FPS tropes.
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Completed June 4th 2013
Dust is a great side-scrolling action-RPG with “Metroidvania” exploration. The backgrounds and characters animations are simply stunning, even without considering it was the work of just one person. The story and characters are well written, the combat is fun (once you increase the difficulty level), and it is filled with lots of areas to explore.
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Completed June 6th 2013
Remember Me is mostly a linear platformer with melee combat. The combat system consists of simple customizable combos that boils down to just using the same two or three button combinations for slightly different damage stats. The platforming sections are very easy, with only one single way to climb, and an orange arrow guiding your way. It does well visually, with decent graphics and a great style. The main redeeming things are the story which kept me interested throughout and the “memory remix” sections, unfortunately there are only a short few of those in the entire game. Overall, it's a decent game with some great ideas bogged down by just average gameplay.
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Completed June 8th 2013
With the wealth of content included with this game, and a never ending stream of player created tracks this game never really ends. This is the most complete trials game yet, with a nice combination of longer speed oriented cross-country tracks, slow methodical stunt tracks, and a multiplayer mode that reminds me of ExciteBike. The big highlight is the inclusion of a track editor and easily accessible track sharing system. It's a fun game to occasionally kill an hour or two with.
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Completed June 9th 2013
The Swapper is a clever puzzle platformer that takes place on a space station where some bad stuff has gone down (like every space station in movie/videogame history). You are able to create four other clones of yourself and swap your consciousness between them, the clones also match your exact movement and actions. You only get bits and pieces of the story from text logs and a few audio conversations, but it is still interesting. The puzzles themselves quickly get difficult, but only a few of them were really frustrating. Overall, it's a good atmospheric puzzle game.
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Completed June 16th 2013
999 is primarily a visual novel combined with “escape” sequences that requires a set of puzzles to be solved. The branching story is very interesting and requires two or three playthroughs to see the proper ending. The game allows you to skip the dialog you've already read, but you are not allowed to skip the escape/puzzle sections. Which brings me to the worst part of the game, the puzzles! Math based logic puzzles aren't fun the first time around, having to do the same puzzles again is dreadful. Overall, it's a great story with some tedious puzzles.
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Completed June 16th 2013
Like all of the “New” Super Mario Bros. series this sticks to the same gameplay as the NES/SNES era of 2D Mario games. Which isn't a bad thing, because everyone including myself loves those games, but it does lack any kind of real innovations other than the multiplayer modes. Being the first HD Mario game, it looks great with a couple standout levels like the painted swamplands. Overall, it doesn't break any new ground like most of the main franchise Mario games do, but it's still tons of fun. Oh, and it has a flying squirrel suit!
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Completed June 23rd 2013 (again/120 stars)
Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 are both incredible games and among the best Mario games ever. The variety of levels, power-ups and sheer creativeness is staggering. One of my all-time favourites.
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Completed June 26th 2013
Last Light continues with the same great setting of the original Metro 2033, but this time everything just feels polished. It keeps a good pace throughout, the shooting is actually fun and has a decent variety of levels. They haven't re-invented the genre, but it doesn't feel as tired as most of the FPS's nowadays.
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Completed June 28th 2013
Radiant dawn is the direct sequel to Path of Radiance. It's a very hard and unforgiving tactical RPG where one wrong move usually means death. The story is good, mostly revolving around nations battling each other, internal political strife and racism between the Beorc (humans) and Laguz (half-beasts). There are a ton of different units and most maps had an interesting gameplay change to keep things fresh. The presentation is defiantly bare bones, with the graphics being on par with the original Gamecube game, and nothing but a few short cutscenes being (poorly) voiced with the rest of the story being told through barely animated character portraits with text windows. While I don't play a ton of tactical RPGs, this is one of the better ones.
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Completed June 30th 2013
Reloaded is a remake of the first Larry game, and it shows. It lacks many of the standard features of newer adventure games, like a show hotspot toggle, or a cursor that indicates if you are hovering over something you can interact with. There are only a few locales to visit, a small amount of people to briefly talk too, and a basic plot. Graphically it looks pretty good, with the same style as Larry 7, but all the animations are pretty stiff in comparison to the 17 year old game. The original voice actor for Larry returns and most of the voice work for everyone is well done. The humour is never laugh out loud funny, but it is consistently chuckle worthy. Overall, it's an old game with a new coat of paint and is still enjoyable despite it's old ways.
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Completed July 1st 2013
Nintendo tried something different with Sunshine, but I don't care much for it. The graphics look great for Gamecube, except every level is the same tropical island theme and the camera just isn't up to par on the more complex sections. The design of the residents of Isle Delfino is just bad and they are really annoying to talk with. You are lacking most of your moves from Mario 64, presumably because the FLUDD water backpack is suppose to replace them and it really doesn't. There aren't any power-ups, just a couple different lame attachments for the FLUDD. Most boss fights consist of spraying water at them for a few minutes. The level variety is another big issue, there are only 7 main locations, less than what was in Mario 64 and all of them forgettable. If this wasn't a Mario game, I would barely be complaining about it because it is a good 3D platformer, but it is a Mario game and this one has missed the bar set by Mario 64.
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Completed July 11th 2013
Partners in time is a fun puzzle-platformer RPG for the DS. The combat system relies on perfectly timed button presses to properly perform attacks and dodges, similar to the Paper Mario series. When not in combat you are using your many abilities to get to switches, levers, gears and other things to traverse through the area. The story is lighthearted and fun, with a good sense of humour in the dialogue. Which brings me to what seems to be the main difference between the “Mario & Luigi” and “Paper Mario” series, characters to interact with. Partners in time really only has one area with NPCs, and they are mainly there to teach you about your controls while Paper Mario has many areas with entertaining NPCs to talk too. The writing is clever in this game, it just lacks in the amount of it.
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Completed July 13th 2013
Super Mario 3D Land is a perfect combination of the large open world levels of the 3D Mario games and the linear sidescrolling of the 2D Mario games. The 3D screen really works well, providing you with a good sense of depth. This helps solve the issue of misjudging jumps and obstacles in a 3D space. Content wise, it's not as huge as the Mario Galaxy games, but it still has more than enough to do. Overall, it is another great Mario game and a must have for the 3DS.
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Completed July 21st 2013
Fez is puzzle platformer that allows you to shift the 2D perspective to solve puzzles and traverse levels. It's pretty laid back, with no enemies to worry about and the only way you can die is from falling from heights or into pitfalls. Don't worry though, because you will respawn in the last safe location. The 2D/3D worlds look great and the soundtrack matches the peaceful setting. You are essentially scouring the levels for cubes to unlock doors. The initial 32 cubes you need to obtain mostly requiring platforming and minor puzzle solving. The next 32 “anti-cubes” require you to decipher numerous glyphs, which I find kinda tedious. Overall, it's another good indie 2D puzzle platformer with a “New Game +” mode for people that love brain teasers.
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Completed July 31st 2013
Snatcher has you tracking down body-snatching terminator looking robots in a Blade Runner-esque setting. It's a text heavy adventure game with a text-based interface. Most adventure games are point and click graphical interfaces by 1994, but the archaic text-based interface is acceptable because it's an English port of a 1988 Japanese game. The setting pulled me in and the story kept me interested throughout. The puzzles are straight forward “detective running down leads” type of thing that will have you writing down a few pages of notes. Overall, it may be very dated, but it was still an enjoyable experience.
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Completed August 6th 2013
Pikmin 3 is a unique real-time strategy game where you take command of up to 100 Pikmin at a time in order to retrieve parts for your crashed ship and fruit for your survival. Collecting the needed items is just as fun and refined as ever, but I find the fruit itself not as interesting as the “treasures” from Pikmin 2. The Wii U GamePad is actually put to good use here with the primary ability to view a map of the area and issue move commands, which comes in handy when trying to multitask. The bingo battle multiplayer mode is a lot of fun with a decent selection of creative levels. Overall, I love Pikmin.
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Completed August 10th 2013
I don't have much to say about this one. You wander around a small Japanese town, run a few errands and play with the neighborhood kids while investigating about Godzilla type monsters. You also need to collect card pieces randomly laying around to play a simple (and boring) card game similar to rock, paper, scissors. I expected the setting and small scope to focus on interesting townsfolk and their back stories, but I didn't find it very interesting at all.
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Completed August 18th 2013
In Gone Home you spend your time investigating every nook and cranny of your family's house trying to find out where everyone has gone since you've been away traveling overseas. There is no action, monsters, or shooting dudes in the face, just you and a house to explore with notes and journals to find. Gone Home is interesting and tells a good story, but not mind blowing by any means.
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Completed August 24th 2013
Dream Team is a fun Mario RPG on the 3DS. It has the same timing based battle system as the others, but with the majority of the special moves taking advantage of almost every feature of the 3DS. It's also lengthy compared to the other portable Mario RPGs, clocking in around 40 hours instead of 20. The main improvement is the amount of NPCs to interactive with to provide lots of funny dialog outside of the main story sequences. Dream Team hasn't beat out Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year door as my favourite of the Mario RPGs, but it's not that far off.
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Completed August 29th 2013
Blacklist turned out a lot better than I thought it would, but it still has many action elements that feel out of place. It has a decent amount of well made levels to sneak through, and a good amount of gadgets. The harder difficulty levels really force you into playing it like a proper stealthy Splinter Cell game, because open combat is not an option if you want to live long. My main issue is with the ending of every mission, where in an attempt to make it an adrenaline fueled Call Of Duty-esque finale you are thrown into combat heavy situations. After ghosting through an entire mission, your reward shouldn't be a cutscene of you triggering alarms/trackers/lockdowns that get your swarmed by kill-squads. It's better than Conviction, but it will live in the shadow of Chaos Theory.
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Completed September 8th 2013
Policenauts is Hideo Kohima's other Japanese adventure game that was released after Snatcher and fan translated in 2011. While it is classified as an adventure game, it's more of a visual novel due to it's lack of any conventional puzzles. Progressing is just a matter of exhausting every dialog option and the occasional Hogan's Alley style shooting sequences. This means it relies entirely on it's setting, story and characters. The setting is interesting, taking place on a space colony in the near future. The story is the main draw, which has you investigating a missing person that leads to a much larger conspiracy. Most the characters are forgettable, with the main characters pretty much being the guys from Lethal Weapon, even down to hair and race. I think Snatcher is the stronger of the two games, but Policenauts still manages to tell an interesting albeit cliched story.
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Completed September 10th 2013
Rayman Legends is a fun 2D platformer with amazing artwork. It has multiplayer that actually works well and it makes good use of the WII U Gamepad. There are a decent amount of original levels, challenge levels and it also contains most of the levels from Rayman Origins. Overall, it's one of the best 2D platformers in years.
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Completed September 12th 2013
Brothers is a short but memorable game where you control two sons at the same time, one with each analog stick. At first it's a bit wonky, but it doesn't take long to adjust to it's unique controls and really enjoy this emotional adventure across that takes you across the lands.
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Completed September 28th 2013
Rockstar once again proves that they create the best open-world games on the market. One of the most memorable missions from GTA IV was the heist mission, and now GTA V focuses on those for it's main plot. The three controllable characters are all great in their own way, but none of them are as lovable as GTA IV's Niko Bellic. The world is huge and detailed, from the main city centre, to the climbable mountains, and diveable ocean. Of course it's also filled with Rockstars usual brand of humour that lampoons American culture and is sprinkled throughout the main story, side missions, radio shows, television shows, Internet websites and even it's own version of twitter and Facebook. Overall, it's a really entertaining game that has an incredible wealth of content.
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Completed October 6th 2013
Xillia is another great entry in the “Tales Of” series. It has an all around likable cast of characters, decent main story and an improved version of my already favorite RPG battle system. It features two different main protagonists which offers a slightly different take on events if you replay the game a second time. I found myself swapping between which character I was controlling more than previous games instead of just sticking with the main character, providing even more variation to the battles. Xillia doesn't stray far from what you expect story and character wise from the series, but a few of the gameplay elements have changed or are missing. Cooking is absent from the game, instead replaced with buying pre-made food from shops that you upgrade to unlock items and equipment. Weapon forging is also gone. Extra character building side-quests are lacking, and the usual hot springs trip is nowhere to be found. It's hard to criticizing a 50 hour plus game as lacking in content, but there is no denying that some sections of the game feel a little light in content compared to previous Tales Of games. Overall, it's still a great JRPG and I'm looking forward to the sequel.
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Completed October 12th 2013
Beyond: Two Souls aims to be an interactive cinematic experience, which boils down to mostly being a slightly interactive cutscene most of the time. The story follows a girl with a physic link to an entity with special abilities and the events that take place over several years. The story is sometimes genuinely good, and other times genuinely bad, but... still good in a cheesy B-movie kind of way. My main issue with Beyond is that unlike Quantic Dream's previous game Heavy Rain, the mistakes you make in the action sequences and choices you make in the dramatic parts don't really change the course of events. At most you will miss out on some extra dialogue, unlike Heavy Rain where events can play out very differently throughout the game. It also lacks support for the PS Move controller, which Heavy Rain actually benefited from when it was later added in. I still enjoyed Beyond, because despite it's problems there just aren't many games like this.
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Completed Episode 1 10/13/2013
Really enjoying it so far, but only 1 episode is out.
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Completed October 22nd 2013
The Inner World is a decent adventure game that has you searching out the mystery of why the wind fountains (which your world depends on to survive), have stopped working. You play the clueless but lovable Robert as he sets out of his home for the first time. The characters you meet are interesting and occasionally funny. The puzzles are mostly inventory based and if you get stuck it has a built in hint system that will gradually give you small hints until you figure it out. Overall, The Inner World is a charming adventure game that could have used a few more areas and characters to talk too.
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Completed October 23rd 2013
Justice For All is yet another Ace Attorney game filled with crazy characters and court room drama. It's mostly a visual novel with some interactive investigation bits so liking games like this rely on it's story, which in this case is entertaining throughout it's four cases. My main issue with this game and series in general is that when it expects you to raise an objection or find a contradiction in the court case, it only accepts one correct piece of evidence to be submitted during one exact statement even though what you are submitting makes sense, the game is oblivious to your solution. This just means that you may have to glance at a game guide every now and then, but more helpful hints from your in-game assistant would be nice.
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Completed November 13th 2013
Zero Escape is the sequel to the visual novel/adventure game “Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors”. The story and characters are just as good as the original with the same concept of nine people stuck in a building and forced to play the Nonary game to get out. Many improvements have been made such as the story sections are now fully voiced and the branching story can be navigated easily without having to replay the entire game several times.
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Completed November 23rd 2013
Cat Mario, what more do I need to say? 3D World is a great combination of elements from the 2D Mario and 3D Mario games. The four player co-op works really well for the first eight worlds with just the right amount of difficulty and open space so you aren't messing each others jumps up (unless you want to). The bonus worlds crank up the difficulty, which is a welcomed change, but I would suggest tackling those solo. It's not as huge or as epic as the Mario Galaxy games but it's a very enjoyable middle ground between the 2D/3D games. MEOW.
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Completed December 8th 2013
After Assassin's Creed III I thought I was done with this series, then Black Flag arrives and turns it all around. The main character is actually likeable again, and the story inside and outside the Animus is interesting enough to keep you playing through the main sequences instead of just randomly sailing around. On the land, you have several smaller cities/villages to roam with a similar feeling to AC2, which is a very good thing. The missions themselves feel much more open, leaving it up to on how you want to complete them. On the sea, the ship combat is even better with new features like ship-boarding, forts and dynamic weather. It has tons of collectibles, extras and things to craft or upgrade. They've added more multiplayer modes, but “Wanted” mode is still the only one that occasionally interests me. Assassins Creed IV is the best Assassin's Creed since Assassin's Creed II.
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Completed December 30th 2013
The Last of Us tells the story of Joel and Ellie trying to survive a journey across a post-apocalyptic world together. The story and characters are the strongest part of the game with the gameplay itself mostly being your standard 3rd person shooter affair. For the first half it plays like a survival game, sneaking by or silently taking down enemies in hopes to save your last three bullets for when you really need them. But after that (at-least on normal difficulty) you have enough of an arsenal to be much more reckless. Also at that point you've encountered all three or four enemy types and have figured out the best ways to deal with them. Several sections rely on the same “lift the door together”, “float Ellie around on a raft” and “move the ladder so Ellie can climb” parts. Overall, while it doesn't break new ground in the gameplay department it is still a very good game and I will likely replay it on it's “survival” mode in hopes that it brings back the tension to the latter half of the game.
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