Completed Games
This is a list of the games I can recall completing or mostly completing (some of those NES boss battles are impossible). Further down in the list are the recent games I've completed with short summaries for each.
This is a list of the games I can recall completing or mostly completing (some of those NES boss battles are impossible). Further down in the list are the recent games I've completed with short summaries for each.
Completed August 21st 2010
Such an addictive game. Just when you are about to get bored of it, they add in a new gameplay element that changes it enough to make you keep playing. A good sense of humor throughout.
Completed August 28th 2010
Chainsawing dudes is lots of fun. A fun side scrolling beat/shoot-em up game. Also has a fun co-op campaign.
Completed September 2nd 2010
A nice little taste of Dead Rising 2.
Completed September 11th 2010.
A good Lara Croft game? What? A fun top down 2 player co-op XBLA game.
Completed September 21 2010
Awesome, some stuff improved over Dead Rising 2. But many of the main complaints/quirkiness still remains for better and for worse.
Completed September 21 2010
All around an amazing game, but not enough of a change from the original super Mario Galaxy. Which isn't much of a bad thing I guess.
Completed October 1st 2010
A good hack and slash game combined with bad humor that tries way too hard to be funny.
Completed October 3rd 2010
My favorite Trauma Center game. I enjoyed the story, characters, and the operations. Be warned, this is built with 2 player co-op in mind and a couple operations with skin grafting is pretty frustrating without a 2nd person.
Completed October 5th 2010
Do what this game says on startup and play it in the dark, alone and sound turned up. A scary game done very well. All you have is lantern dude.. a FUCKING LANTERN!
Completed October 9th 2010
Completed Pigsy's Perfect 10 January 16th 2011
Some really great stuff in here. Love the look and style, the combat is decent and the traversal, while too simple, is still fun. Pigsy's DLC was really great, a completely different play style than the main game and Pigsy as always is entertaining.
Completed October 10th 2010
As a Splinter Cell fan, it's disappointing. Taking away fanboy expectations, it's an average stealth/action game.
Completed October 17th 2010
It's simple and so damn cute.
Completed October 18th 2010
A new version of NBA Jam done well. Boom shaka laka!
Completed October 31st 2010
I love Ghostbusters, and this is the first game that has actually been decent. But it really is average at best. This was probably the last time we will ever have this much involvement from the creators/actors from the original movies, and it is mostly wasted. At times you feel like you are one of the Ghostbusters and it fucking awesome, but mostly it's bland.
Completed November 6th 2010
Completed Dead Money DLC August 11th 2011
Completed Honest Hearts DLC August 14th 2011
Completed Old World Blues DLC August 17th 2011
Completed Lonesome Road DLC December 8th 2011
The main story is not as engaging as Fallout 3 and once you reach the strip (which is near the halfway mark) your character has no personal reason to continue the main story. But it's still a great game and once again it's the side quests/stories that make up the bulk of the game.
Completed November 14th 2010
I love the visual style and the combat system is pretty good.
Completed November 15th 2010
It's one of those games that doesn't understand pacing. There is a reason why even the best action movies only have a couple epic action scenes. When you get (unavoidably) knocked down for the tenth time and about to be executed and your partner bursts in and blows him away saving you in the nick of time, it loses it's effect. The only part I can actually recall is the frozen soviet ship wreck because it's the only brief part where the game isn't trying to one-up itself with insane action set pieces. Decent game, but completely forgettable.
Completed November 20th 2010
Started out really good but gets bogged down by way too much combat and bad vehicle sections.
Completed DLC November 21st 2010
Everything you had an issue with in the original is fixed and improved tenfold. Aside from the huge gameplay improvements, my favorite is the fact that you have character with a story you actually care about.
Completed November 23rd 2010
Wow! Lots of fun, a much better balance of traversal, puzzle solving and combat. Plus amazing visuals.
Completed December 2nd 2010
Completed DLC April 5th 2011
Story is not as engaging as Assassin's Creed 2 and only takes place in Rome, but minor combat improvements and multiplayer almost make up for it. And of course maintains everything that made Assassin's Creed 2 amazing.
Completed December 21st 2010 (Completed again February 18th 2012)
While the main story arc of recruiting a team and fighting a big bad dude is pretty basic compared to Mass Effect 1. The subplots and missions of each recruit is more entertaining and fleshed out than anything the first game had to offer. Not to mention the better visuals, combat, inventory system, side quests and removal of boring vehicle sections!
Completed December 22nd 2010
See final episode for a summary.
Completed December 26th 2010
This game is fucking crazy. Are you sick of just shooting dudes in the face with your red dot sight? Play this. You ride a motorcycle on a giant flying missile while your clothes come off and your hair turns into a monster and you suck on a lollipop.
Completed December 27th 2010
Disappointing for the price of admission. I liked the presentation, but you run through it very quick and has no replay value at all. Should have waited for a sale price to come around.
Completed January 1st 2011
A love/hate game. Some great side scrolling action here, but mostly ruined by the waggle happy wii-mote controls. Plugging in a classic or GCN controller would fix my only issue with the game, but that is NOT allowed by the game.
Completed January 1st 2011
Well it's better than the first one, but that doesn't say much. The digital handy-cam style is neat and bad at the same time. The first couple hours are pretty bad, then it has a really great event and starts to get interesting. Then it just straight up ends. WTF!
Completed January 7th 2011
A fun and addictive little XBLA game. Really innovative way they did the split screen and I hope other developers take note.
Completed January 9th 2011
Totally unexpected. I really enjoyed this Zelda meets God Of War type game. It took both of those and made it's own great thing.
Completed January 9th 2011
I really loved the setting and the visual style, but I'm not really a fan of the straight up "solve this sliding puzzle that has no real context in the game world" type game.
Completed January 9th 2011
Machinarium was okay. A couple neat parts, but mostly just complicated puzzles one after the other.
Completed January 16th 2011
Prince of Persia, the Forgettable game. I remember jumping and stabbing some skeleton dudes.
Completed The Signal and The Writer DLC January 17th 2011 (Completed again February 27th 2012)
A well done 3rd person shooter by Remedy. The shooting mechanics with the gun/light is so well done it almost overcomes the repetitiveness of only a couple enemy types. Good story and characters even though I'm still not sure of what is going on. The DLC went batshit crazy and I'm glad they went that route.
Completed January 30th 2011
A truly amazing and well told story. A very interesting take on the adventure genre. One of my favorites. The developers have done an amazing job taking the best aspects of Phoenix Wright and putting it into a unique adventure on the DS.
Completed January 30th 2011
Shoot aliens, flick switch, alien jumps out at you, get on tram, shoot aliens, flick switch, alien jumps out at you, get on tram. A decent game with some interesting ideas (like the zero-gravity stuff), but pretty repetitive.
Completed February 10th 2011
Completed DLC April 6th 2011
A funny kinda puzzle/adventure game. Hitman meets Russian stacking dolls? Really enjoyed it.
Completed February 11th 2011
A pretty good improvement over Dead Space. Great graphics, sound, varied locations and satisfying weapons. Forgettable story and characters, and once again, constant jump scares are repetitive.
Completed February 19th 2011
See final episode for a summary.
Completed February 21st 2011
A great setting, humor, characters, and story. The actual platforming is kinda clunky but everything else is so enjoyable that it glosses over the fact that the core mechanic of the game is kinda broken. Any game where you use a strip of bacon as telephone is automatically awesome.
Completed February 25th 2011
Shoot dudes with glowing eyes in face. The weapons have a nice feel to them, everything else is forgettable.
Completed February 27th 2011
A fun and buggy little hack and slash game, but for ten bucks it's an enjoyable game.
Completed February 27th 2011
Whip dude into the air...then shoot them in the face. It does a good job at what it aims to do, but totally forgettable.
Completed March 2nd 2011
Like Fight Night 3 and 4, a really great boxing game. But this time with a story mode. The story mode is good for a first attempt and I hope they try it again with more matches and a branching story.
Completed March 7th 2011
Great, atmosphere, setting, story, characters, puzzles and graphical style. A nice mix of an early 1990s adventure game and Blade Runner with a few new tweaks makes this one of the best games I've played in a while... and it was made by one dude.
Completed March 8th 2011
This shit it fucked up. Minus out the bad puzzles and what I saw as a disappointing ending and keep the messed up craziness and even the terrible voice acting that adds to the level of fucked up this game has going for it, and it could have been a really fucked up classic.
Completed March 10th 2011
Joey, your robot sidekick and the banter between him and Foster is the greatest part of this game. Unfortunately you are without him for a good chunk of this very short game. Then you are left with bland graphics (even for the time), only one real locale and terrible music. Another chapter or two with more locations and more Joey and this could have been so amazing.
Completed March 17th 2011
I appreciate the developer trying to add greater variety to the Trauma Center series, but there was not enough actual surgeries. First response and orthopedics were a nice addition, but endoscopy was torture. Forensics doesn't belong and diagnosis was good, but way to drawn out. Also, the story was bat shit crazy in a bad way. Butterflies, WTF?
Completed March 25th 2011
I didn't feel like the story was as strong as Hotel Dusk, but they did a really great job with the characters and it really felt like you knew each one by the end of it.
Completed March 29th 2011
See final episode for a summary.
Completed April 3rd 2011
Shooting dudes in the face done pretty well. I liked the way it funneled you to the next objective then opened up enough to let you approach the situation how you wanted. Forgettable story and characters, but enough to keep you moving forward.
Completed April 13th 2011
See final episode for a summary.
Completed April 13th 2011
See final episode for a summary.
Completed April 15th 2011
See final episode for a summary.
Completed April 18th 2011
See final episode for a summary.
Completed April 18th 2011
A great return for the Monkey Island series. Thoroughly enjoyed every episode and was really pleased to see Murray the demonic skull.
Completed April 19th 2011
They did an amazing job fleshing out Portal into a full game. The actual puzzle game aspect took a back seat for many parts of the game, but I found those story building parts just as entertaining. The co-op campaign is a nice addition and I find it makes up for the easier puzzles found in the single player. Also, Wheatley is awesome.
Completed April 28th 2011
Really disappointed with this one. It falls victim to trying to hard to be crude and ends up not being funny at all other than a couple lines. Puzzles were not enjoyable either.
Completed May 1st 2011
See final episode for a summary.
Completed May 2nd 2011
See final episode for a summary.
Completed May 3rd 2011
See final episode for a summary.
Completed May 7th 2011
See final episode for a summary.
Completed May 9th 2011
Another enjoyable adventure series from Telltale. I'm not really familiar with the franchise itself but was still entertained by the characters. Not laugh out loud funny like Sam & Max, but still fun with some gadget oriented puzzles.
Completed May 15th 2011
A fun combat system, an interesting take on time travel/alternate history jumping, and a decent story make for a good (and lengthy) JRPG. Not mind blowing, but above average at the very least.
Completed May 22nd 2011 (again 1/9/13)
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.
Completed May 28th 2011
If your game can give you an genuine adrenaline rush you have done something right. More rally was nice to see and hope the next one focuses even more on rally events, but the other modes are still fun as well.
Completed June 8th 2011 (No end to this game, but I've put my time in)
You can and will lose track of time and dig endlessly for hours. The loot/crafting system and boss monsters are a nice addition and helps to give more direction to the game. With updates being released regularly it will be interesting to see how Terraria evolves over time.
Completed June 19th 2011
An indie 2D action platformer with great art style and an amazing soundtrack. Wish it was longer than 3 hours, but for a game under $10 it's still a good deal.
Completed June 23rd 2011
A decent platformer with a great twisted atmosphere. Unfortunately most of the levels drag on too much and certain elements feel dated.
Completed June 23rd 2011
Another great adventure game series from Telltale. While it's light on puzzles, the story strikes a nice balance between paying tribute to the original movies and breaking new ground.
Completed June 26th 2011
A decent XBLA mech game combined with tower defense and a cool loot system. Fun with other people, but boring to play single player. Bad framerate and unreliable connections online dampen the fun sometimes. The different types mechs/trenches look great but the levels themselves are generally very bland. Solve the framerate/connection issues, add in missions where you attack instead of just defend and a bit of liveliness to the levels to match the creativity of the enemies and this would be the mech game everyone has been waiting for.
Completed June 29th 2011
Suda51 of Killer7 fame and Shinji Mikami of Resident Evil fame team up successfully and bring the craziness of Killer7 into a 3rd person Resident Evil 4 type shooter that nears a Bayonetta level of craziness. Garcia and Johnson (your talking skull sidekick) are both entertaining characters, the visuals have an awesome dark style to them and your weapons have a good feel to them. This game also successfully walks that impossibly thin line of self-awareness and crudeness without feeling like it's one lame joke or trying too hard to be edgy.
Completed July 3rd 2011
The first of the "Metroidvania" games. A thoroughly enjoyable game. The controls, visuals, music and the castle itself are awesome. The amount that this game "borrowed" from Super Metroid is staggering, but still manages to feel like a Castlevania game.
Completed July 6th 2011 (Completed again and again 9/30/12)
What can I say about my most favorite game? The characters, the story, the style, the music, the beginning, middle and end... all perfect. The only nitpick I can mention is the controls can be a bit odd at first, but grab a gamepad and your problem is solved.
Completed July 12th 2011
After playing and thoroughly enjoying Symphony of the Night, Dawn of Sorrow is a little disappointing. While most of the gameplay elements are a carbon copy of SOTN, the art style, music, the castle and the bosses themselves just don't feel up to par. Forced touchscreen usage to finish off bosses was annoying and unneeded. Still a good game, but overshadowed by SOTN.
Completed July 19th 2011
An indie game that takes its gameplay style from 8bit RPGs. It makes some improvement on the boring combat system used in the era, but not enough to make the battles very entertaining. I guess you could call it more of a parody of 8bit RPG's, poking fun at the cliches through dialog, enemy descriptions and items you can investigate in the world. Overall a decent little RPG. With less dungeon crawling and more hilarious dialog, it would have been better.
Completed August 3rd 2011
I'm on the fence with this one. On one hand, it's has an interesting story, cool atmosphere and many characters with really great authentic feeling dialogue. On the other hand, the combat and stealth is terrible, even with the fans patches it's buggy and lacks polish in many areas, and the last three hours of the game forces you into bland combat scenarios. The good outweighs the bad, specially if you turn a blind eye to the disappointing final chapter of the game.
Completed August 3rd 2011
Bastion is an action RPG with really great art direction, decent combat and a narrator that is entertaining to listen too throughout. The story and characters could have used some more fleshing out, and some tweaking to the combat so it was a bit more satisfying, but overall it's an enjoyable game.
Completed August 6th 2011
A dual-stick shooter with Metroid type exploring/item collecting, puzzle solving and Limbo (but much better) type visuals. While enjoyable throughout, I was a bit disappointed with completing the game with over 95% completion without even having to seek out the "hidden" items. The best part of a Metroid style of game is finding those super hidden locations and being rewarded with a really cool item, but none of that is found here and what you are rewarded with are concept art unlocks. It also includes a simple, but fun multiplayer mode called lantern run.
Completed August 28th 2011 (Completed again September 5th 2011) Completed "The Missing Link" DLC October 19th 2011 -
A very worthy sequel/prequel to one of the best games of all time. Human Revolution has managed to retain the great atmosphere and feel of the original Deus Ex while being updated with many of today's gameplay mechanics, with only a few minor miss-steps along the way.
Completed September 7th 2011
It's hard to believe that anything good came out of the FMV era, but here is Tex Murphy to show us how it should have been done. A decent adventure game with a lot of charm. The controls are a bit wonky, but forgivable considering it came out in 1994, was 3D, and uses a first person view. The FMV characters are pretty well blended into the world, unlike most FMV games where you are simply just watching a terrible low budget movie.
Completed September 8th 2011
A decent little side scrolling shoot-em up with a neat visual style and crazy looking enemies. Also, GUN STACKER! The controls feel a little awkward with mouse/keyboard, it could be better with a gamepad but I didn't try it.
Completed September 15th 2011
A decent adventure game about an struggling laid-back author researching his next book based on voodoo murders in New Orleans. The story, characters and numerous celebrity voice actors are easily the best parts. Unfortunately, it's dragged down by a terrible narrator (that you can thankfully mute), vague objectives at times and puzzles that would be difficult enough on there own without the added frustration of all the puzzle items in the world blending into bland backgrounds. It unfortunately forces you to click on everything with every item and interaction type you have in every inch of every area.
Completed September 25th 2011
A satisfying end to a great trilogy. While there aren't any huge changes over previous installments, the numerous small tweaks to single player and multiplayer brings just enough freshness to it. A few nice story elements are delivered well, which surprised me coming from a franchise which is mostly about chainsawing dudes in half.
Completed September 29th 2011 (HD re-release)
Shadow of the Colossus could be boiled down to riding a horse to sixteen giant boss fights, but the presentation and emotional weight ends up making the game feel like there is much more too it. I very much enjoyed it and the HD re-release runs and looks great.
Completed October 5th 2011
The second FMV Tex Murphy game. It follows the previous game in design but builds on it with multiple paths and endings. The story this time around follows UFOs, conspiracies and secret government organizations. While I enjoyed it, I liked Under a Killing Moon more.
Completed October 11th 2011 (HD re-release)
A competent platformer backed up by great visuals and atmosphere. Having to escort a girl by her hand through the entire game sounds like it would be a chore but ends up being a major component to why this game is great.
Completed October 16th 2011
One of the better non-Telltale made adventure games in the last decade. Engaging story and decent characters. The puzzles range from easy to medium in difficulty. So you are never stuck, but at the same time you don't have any sense of accomplishment. Music and background art is nice, but the character animations are very stiff and stand lifeless while dialog is delivered. Hopefully for Jane Jensen's next game she has a bigger budget or a better development team to keep the rest of the game on par with her great story telling.
Completed October 18th 2011
The first entry in the Blackwell adventure series. It's a short game (under 3 hours), the puzzles are easy, and mostly consists of conversations. The retro look, interesting story concept, Rosa, and Joey make it well worth playing.
Completed October 20th 2011
The second entry in the Blackwell adventure series. Pretty much the same gameplay, style and length as the first game with a couple improvements, different main character and of course a new set of souls to save.
Completed October 23rd 2011
The Dig is much different from other LucasArts adventure games of that era. Instead of being character and comedy driven, it is atmospheric and puzzle driven. Still an entertaining game and I appreciate a change to a more serious tone, but the lack of dialog to split up the complicated puzzles is big negative for me.
Completed October 23rd 2011
The third entry in the Blackwell adventure series. The same heavily story driven gameplay as the previous games. The jump up in the quality of the 2D backgrounds and character portraits is nice.
Completed November 4th 2011
An amazing and emotional adventure set in a world where it is possible to reshape a persons memories before death. Gameplay wise it is essentially an interactive story, but one you won't soon forget. I can't say much more without ruining the experience.
Completed November 5th 2011
While it has it's moments, this is my least favorite of the Tex Murphy FMV games. Way to many boring logic puzzles (my least favorite type of puzzles in adventure games) that the game allows you to skip if you want. The plot is filled with so many organizations, agencies and secret branches of government that you will lose track of what is going on. If you are looking for more Tex Murphy, check it out. Otherwise, play Under a Killing Moon.
Completed November 6th 2011
Uncharted 3 starts out with the same excellence as Uncharted 2, but falters a bit three quarters of the way through. Making the same mistakes they did with the first Uncharted game, Uncharted 3 throws you into several extended combat arena sections with enemies that soak up an insane amount of bullets. They give you a bit of hope by suggesting that you can stealth through some of this, but you can't even crouch, so good luck with that. If you overlook those frustrating sections, or drop down the difficulty so you feel like you are fighting humans and not the Juggernaut (bitch!), the game is very good (just not as good as Uncharted 2).
Completed November 6th 2011
After putting 25 hours into multiplayer (and much more on the way), I can say that they have done a really amazing job following up Battlefield 2. It looks (PC version), sounds and plays amazing. The addition of rush mode is nice, but the conquest large maps is where it's at. Single player is skippable and hopefully next time they do skip it and put that development time to multiplayer. It's Battlefield!
Completed November 10th 2011
After restarting the game four times because of several game stopping bugs and missable items present in the game, I completed it. It's a decent entry into the Larry series (if you ignore the bugs), but LSL7 is all around a MUCH better game. Skip this and play LSL7 and wait for the HD re-releases of the rest of the original series. If you do play it, save often, save in separate files and maybe take a peak at the known un-fixed bugs left in the game.
Completed November 14th 2011
If I were to describe almost any of the parts of the single player campaign they would sound amazing, unfortunately they end up feeling mostly flat and boring. The amount of hand holding in this game removes almost any feeling of excitement or suspense. You are either mounted to a gun in an on rails section, or you are constantly following another soldier that is telling you exactly what to do and when to do it. The level of scripting for all the sequences really shows this time around. Still a fun game(when you are briefly let off of your leash), but after COD4/MW1, MW2, WAW, and BLOPS all using the same formula and trying to emulate MW1 this franchise needs to change it up. Multiplayer I'm sure is passable, but I've had enough of it with MW1 and MW2.
Completed November 16th 2011
Another great entry into the Blackwell series of adventure games. While all of them have been pretty good, Deception is definitely the best yet. Once again, everything is a step up in polish and the story is as great as ever.
Completed November 20th 2011
Jurassic Park is definitely not Telltales finest, but it's a decent first attempt at a casual cinematic adventure game. It's mostly quick time events like Heavy Rain, but without the polish or dynamics of Heavy Rain (if you get it wrong you fail and retry, instead of the game just rolling with it like Heavy Rain). The PC version with a gamepad is the way to play it as the console versions suffer from worse visuals and bad framerate.
Completed November 24th 2011
Revelations while still a good game, once again only takes place in one city and only adds a hook for better climbing and a lame tower defense mini-game. The story is valid but not very engaging, basically there is a task that needs to get done (recover some keys for a door). We are at the point of diminishing returns for the series with its current one year development cycle.
Completed December 1st 2011
Completed Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC July 15th 2012
I'm Batman (and sometimes Catwoman). Arkham City combines platforming and investigation with a great simple, yet complex combat system. The large laundry list of villains may sound like a good thing, but they all get small bit parts instead of fleshed out stories.
Completed December 12th 2011
Alpha Protocol contains one of gaming's best attempts at proper branching story based on decisions without resorting to the lame save kitten/eat kitten scenario. But this is bogged down by poor AI, mostly bland graphics, bugs, unbalanced RPG elements and general lack of polish in a lot of areas. Despite this, I enjoyed it and will likely play it again to see how things could have played out differently.
Completed December 18th 2011
A terrible 90's FMV adventure game that doesn't realize it's a terrible 90's FMV adventure game. The Tex Murphy series acknowledged and had fun with the fact that it had mostly terrible actors performing terrible lines, but Phantasmagoria tries to play it straight and fails. This game is awesomely bad.
Completed December 21st 2011
Trine 2 is a beautiful looking combination of physics puzzles, 2D platforming and some combat. The great looking and varied visuals keeps your attention, making up for it being light on the story side of things.
Completed December 24th 2011
Another 90s FMV adventure game, this time they don't even try and make it a game. This is essentially a bad B movie filmed on a boring office cubicle set. Your only really interaction is clicking on things to initiate the next cutscene or frustratingly moving to a different area to initiate the next cutscene. It contains only a couple puzzles including one annoyingly awful one at the finale. When the final chapter does hit and you are expecting gruesome deaths of these awful characters, you are instead treated to disappointingly tame PG-13 scenes. Considering the game is already filled with nudity, you would have figured they would go over the top on the deaths. Avoid this game, play Roberta Williams' Phantasmagoria instead.
Completed (again) December 24th 2011
I remember the Super FX chip blowing my mind back in 1993. While it doesn't do that now, it is still a fun game to play and has some of the best music on the SNES.
Completed December 26th 2011
This game is usually pretty high on most peoples "best games ever" list, so I had pretty high expectations going in. Planescape Torment is best described as a novel disguised as a game. You go to many nice and creative looking places, but 95% of the time you will be reading the lower part of the screen rarely glancing up. The dialog itself is structured like it would be in a book. It tells a very good story about a heavily scarred immortal who loses his memory each time he dies. The combat system is basic and rarely used, I only really had to micromanage about two fights the entire game, the rest was simply clicking on the enemy with the normal attack. It is a great game that tells a great story, just don't expect much action and get your reading glasses out.
Completed December 29th 2011
The soundtrack alone makes this game pretty awesome. Super Meat Boy is fast paced and challenging platformer filled with extras. While the game get's really challenging, you never get upset with the game itself because of the tight controls. You only have yourself to blame for your death(s).
Completed December 29th 2011
A decent "rogue-like" type game that has you exploring randomly generated basements/dungeons with lots of different enemies and bosses. The visuals, while creative are kinda dull and the music isn't as interesting or exciting as Super Meat Boy. For $2 though, it's a decent distraction that you can quickly jump into. Like Super Meat Boy, you have loads of content even after "finishing" the game, but it doesn't interest me enough to explore it anymore.
Completed January 4th 2012
The second Gabriel Knight adventure game, this time using FMV! Surprisingly, it is actually a pretty good game that tells a great story with well written and delivered lines. I think it's all around a better game than the original Gabriel Knight.
Completed January 8th 2012
A "cinematic" adventure game where most action sequences are extended quick time events that bare a little resemblance to what is going on during the scene. It does have a really good sense of atmosphere to it and the few characters do grow on you a bit. But the plot goes completely insane, some may say for better, others for worse.
Completed January 11th 2012
A fun 2D platformer with a bit of Metroid style exploration mixed in with some Mega Man style shooting and level design. The graphics and music are also modeled after the 8/16bit era.
Completed January 12th 2012
SHIFT 2 strikes a good balance between simulation track racing and arcade racing. On the "Elite" mode (no assists) with a proper wheel setup (Logitech G25) and in the cockpit view (one of the best ever) the feel of racing the cars is awesome. The AI drivers while still not up to par with Codemasters driving AI, they are still fun to race against and don't try to kill you as often as Shift 1. The career progression is improved, but not as good as Forza, or Codemasters GRID or DIRT series. I wish someone could take the visceral racing of SHIFT2 and the fun career progression of Forza and combine them into one.
Completed January 15th 2012
Rage is a linear FPS at it's core, but is built around a small "open-world" and vehicle combat. The plot doesn't really start to exist until about 5 hours in, which is the beginning of the finale. Up until then you are just kinda lending a helping hand around town because you're such a nice guy. The vehicle combat is very arcadey and forgettable. If it went in the Interstate '76 direction of simulation it could have been tons of fun. Thankfully, if you want to skip the vehicle stuff then there is only a couple required races and the travel time to your linear FPS missions is minimal. The graphics and art direction at first will blow you away, then you will take a few steps closer and see the textures from 1999 that it's made out of (hoping for a high resolution texture pack). The game is a decent amount of fun when you are doing the main FPS missions.
Completed January 17th 2012 The Last Express is an interesting adventure game that takes place in real time. It's an interesting concept, but it ends up meaning you are constantly running around the train trying to make sure you don't miss anything important which could cause your game to end. Moving around the train in a first person view is very awkward. It takes place only on a small train, so there is no real "adventuring". The art style is nice and looks great on the few scenes where it is fully animated, but most of it is less than one frame a second. Fans of adventure games should check it out for what it attempted to do.
Completed January 25th 2012 You are just chillin' out in Paris on vacation and almost get blown up at a cafe. You take it upon yourself to find out who and why. An adventure game with a nice art style, good pacing, and the type of adventure game puzzles that I enjoy (ones that make sense in the context of the world). Not much for stand out characters other than your player character George and his assistant/possible love interest Nico.
Completed January 27th 2012
Mega Man X is my favourite of the Mega Man series, so I figured I would give X2 a try. It shares the same gameplay style of X, but something just doesn't click. The music isn't as awesome, the levels feel shorter and boring, the bosses are lame (a moth and a snail??) and the weapons are also pretty lame as well (bubble splash? really? we are going to sting peoples eyes?).
Completed January 28th 2012
A platformer that takes a bit of Super Meat Boy and a bit of Sonic (16bit era) and mixes them together with... dusting. The Sonic comparison comes from the fast flow of the levels when you are nailing all your jumps. The Super Meat Boy aspect is the challenge level. It's easy to finish a level in Dustforce, but to S rank a level is very difficult. Unfortunately to unlock all the levels you are REQUIRED to S rank everything. Unlike Super Meat Boy which constantly teaches you it's mechanics and slowly ramps up the difficulty until you are platforming god, Dustforce quickly expects you to be able to S rank everything and you are stuck on the same handful of levels until you do. I enjoyed all the levels I could finish, I'm hoping a patch or something will lower the rank requirement so I can see the rest.
Completed January 29th 2012
Mass Effect is set in a Sci-Fi setting that is actually really interesting. A great combination of shooter-based combat with RPG elements. The main draw of course is the story and character interaction which is done brilliantly. The branching story and multiple decisions to be made encourage multiple playthroughs. Unfortunately the side-quests aren't the same level of quality as the rest of the game and I encourage everyone to avoid them, unless you enjoy storming the exact same building (but on different coloured planets) again and again to flip a switch at the end of it.
Completed (again) February 11th 2012
What can I say about one of the best games ever? It's Super Mario Bros. 3!
Completed (again) February 12th 2012
My Mega Man game of choice. The original series is great, but the extra upgrades and added mobility in X takes it to the next level. The soundtrack is just great and one of my favourite of the era.
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.
Completed February 26th 2012
Yoshi Island is much slower paced than a normal Mario game, but it still an excellent game. Baby Mario sure cries a lot.
Completed March 4th 2012
Super Mario World...it's all around great and is one of the best Mario games ever.
Completed March 12th 2012
A good end to a great trilogy of games. Not nearly as good as ME2. No new races or characters of interest are introduced and instead the enjoyment comes from revisiting old friends. The citadel also returns as the main (and only) hub world, and is very overused. The endings were also a bit disappointing.
Completed March 20th 2012
The second RPG based Mario game, but the first Paper Mario. It's an enjoyable game that builds on and (unfortunately) simplifies the Super Mario RPG combat system. The paper aspect of the game is mainly a visual style, unlike the sequel that fleshes out the paper idea into an integral part of gameplay. Overall a great stepping stone for the series.
Completed March 23rd 2012
The first Darkness game seemed like it would have been a fun game if the "semi-open-world" wasn't just barren streets and an empty subway system... and if the controls weren't complete shit. Here is The Darkness II, first thing gone is the poorly executed "semi-open-world", second thing gone is the poorly executed "get through the gate" type puzzles and because it's on PC the controls aren't complete shit. The style of the graphics, pacing, and the feel of the combat are all pretty good. The streamlined darkness powers add a really nice feel to the combat which is nicely book-ended by interesting dream sequences.
Completed March 30th 2012
Being set in an alternate 1940s where the monsters from the horror films are real and trying to be seen as equals instead of monsters without any rights, the setting had potential that is unfortunately wasted. The art in this adventure game is very nice, but only really has a few locales. It also only has a small number of characters to interact with, and they are only there to facilitate the next simple puzzle to solve. Overall it's a short, forgettable, but pretty looking adventure game set in what could have been an interesting world filled with classic horror monsters.
Completed April 2nd 2012
An enjoyable puzzle driven adventure game. I usually don't care for this type of adventure game, but the Fargo/Twin Peaks type setting and characters are great.
Completed April 4th 2012
Yesterday is a decent and very brief adventure game about serial killers and satanic cults. The puzzles usually make sense, and if you are stuck you can get away with randomly combining items together. The visual style has a nice look to it, but barely anything is animated fluidly and is cheaply told through comic panels.
Completed April 5th 2012
Dear Esther can barely be called a game, but it is still enjoyable. You pretty much just walk around a beautifully crafted island, inside amazing caverns and up an ocean side mountain while you listen to letters being read. The plot is interesting, but is open to interpretation.
Completed April 18th 2012
I unexpectedly enjoyed this game. You are tasked with starting a hospital from the ground up. Once you reach certain goals you are promoted to another hospital and do it all over again, but with more challenges to tackle. It's a good combination of addictive gameplay and humor that will cause you to lose hours of your time before you know it. I still have a few "levels" to complete, but it's generally more of the same after a certain point.
Completed April 26th 2012
A very very weird but charming adventure game. I can't really comment much more on this, it is just so odd and funny that you have to see it for yourself.
Completed April 26th 2012
Order of Ecclesia takes place after Symphony of the Night and returns to the awesome gothic visual style instead of the anime style of the previous DS games. The music is also really well done. Instead of one huge castle to explore, there are smaller more varied areas. Unfortunately the difficulty becomes frustrating at many points forcing you to grind levels and retry boss fights many many times.
Completed April 28th 2012
The Tales series continues to have the best combat system of any JRPG. The fact that after 60 hours of gameplay I'm still going out of my way to battle enemies shows that it's doing something right. While the story doesn't escape the cliche of grow strong and save the world from evil, it is still very engaging. The set of characters are all memorable and endearing. Asbel may not be the strongest lead character, but the six other main party characters make up for it. Thankfully the graphics stick with the style of TOS and TOV which I think looks great despite this being a port of a Wii game to PS3.
Completed May 2nd 2012
Shank hasn't changed much since the first game, it's essentially more of the same. It's a decent,stylized, side-scrolling, and very violent beat-em-up. This is lacking the proper 2 player story co-op of the original game and instead has some instantly forgettable horde/survival mode. It's a good attempt at reviving the once popular genre of the mid 90's.
Completed May 9th 2012
After playing a couple hours of Microids other popular adventure game (Syberia) and finding it boring and soulless, my expectations were low for this one. Fortunately it's a competent adventure game with enough of a plot to keep you interested. You are essentially an FBI agent tracking down a serial killer. The background art feels a little more alive than the bland backgrounds of Syberia, but still has the same heavy JPEG compression. The puzzles are usually pretty poor. They mainly rely on switch pulling and sliding puzzles instead of relying on detective work based puzzles... because you know how often an FBI agent would need to solve sliding puzzles in real life cases...
Completed (again) May 15th 2012
One of my all time favourite games. It combines solid bullet-time induced gunplay, a gritty NYC story of a man with nothing to lose, neo-noir setting and graphic novels to tell the story.
Completed May 18th 2012
Diablo III makes clicking on stuff until cool loot pops out lots of fun. It's like continuously smashing open pinata's at a birthday party. The story is forgettable and consists of going some place, killing dudes, grabbing some type of needed artifact and continuing on killing. Lot's of fun, but I wish the graphical style was more gritty/brutal and less on the cartoony side. While it has a high replay value since they expect you to essentially finish the game four times, I wish they had a couple more unique looking areas.
Completed May 23rd 2012
A text-heavy adventure game set inside a courtroom. The first of the series to be specifically for the DS and not a GBA port. I was hoping that the archaic interface and bare bones approach to the visuals would get a refresh. Unfortunately nothing has been changed. Despite this, it still tells an interesting story with interesting characters.
Completed (again) May 23rd 2012
Another one of my favourites. I prefer the darker, Norse mythology, and conspiracy theory filled revenge story of the original, but the gameplay enhancements of Max Payne 2 greatly make up for it.
Completed May 26th 2012
A fun 2D platformer that uses really great 2D art. It has a good level variety and difficulty curve. The story is...well it doesn't really have one, but it's still fun. It also has a 2-4 player option that actually works pretty well, unlike other recent platformers that end up being impossible once you drop in more players.
Completed May 30th 2012
Saints Row: The Third aims for the complete absurd and does it very well. The story missions in the middle leave much to be desired but the beginning and finale were pretty fun. As usual for this type of game there are lots of extra side missions to do, but most aren't very interesting. The lack of proper radio hosts is disappointing, as well as some missions feeling like they are hacked together and missing cutscenes. Still fun and a nice alternative to the seriousness of Grand Theft Auto 4. All is forgiven though because of the Short Circuit 2 inspired ending featuring Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero".
Completed June 3rd 2012 (again 4/18/13)
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.
Completed June 5th 2012
An NES game that is a mix between Mega Man and Contra, but not as good as either of them. It is still a good bit of fun with a few stages having some really great music. If you can get through the final stage without smashing something, giving up or using GameGenie codes like I did, good job.
Completed June 15th 2012
Obviously there is no real beginning, middle or end to Minecraft, but I've spent a decent amount of time with it. If you loved building stuff out of legos as a child, this game is for you. If you aren't the creative type and choose to explore instead of building, then you will get bored pretty quick. I fall into the latter and prefer Terraria.
Completed June 20th 2012
Another compelling indie adventure game co-developed by Wadjet Eye Games (Blackwell Series & Gemini Rue). It has a fresh take on the conventional inventory and dialog trees. You take control of four main characters as you sleuth your way through solving the mystery of the Resonance project. The setting, style, characters and puzzles were all enjoyable, but Resonance has very few characters to interact with outside of your group (which is generally my favourite part of adventure games).
Completed July 1st 2012
A very fun top down shooter with 4 player co-op. The variety of ships is nice and the soundtrack is great. Unfortunately it doesn't have many levels and instead it encourages you to replay the levels at higher difficulties.
Completed July 3rd 2012
George and Nico manage to get themselves mixed up in another globe trotting adventure tracking down Mayan artifacts before some crazy dude gets his hands on them. Like the original it has a nice visual style and a good sense of humor, even poking fun at it's sometimes abstract puzzle solutions.
Completed July 4th 2012
Another Ace Attorney game following the same Ace Attorney format. They have changed the way you navigate around, now using character sprites instead of a menu system. Unfortunately, even though this game focuses on investigations they have cut out the more interactive parts that used the stylus (luminol tests and evidence reconstruction, etc). Like all other Ace Attorney games it still tells an interesting story with crazy characters.
Completed July 17th 2012
An interesting, but disappointing adventure game that revolves around a private investigator solving a string of murders on the very bizarre "discworld". The graphics unfortunately are very poor, with very stiff/non existent animations on the characters and muddy looking backgrounds (specially when you consider this is a year after the still amazing looking Grim Fandango was released). Most puzzles revolve around asking the right people about the right subject in your notepad. The discworld itself seems interesting, but much about it isn't explained in the game, I guess they presumed you read the series of books it's based on.
Completed (kinda) July 21st 2012
Nothing is as intense as nailing that perfect launch at the start of the race and slamming it into second gear at the exact right moment... oh wait...all the races are rolling starts and manual transmission isn't an option. Well, nothing is as satisfying as laying down a spike strip puncturing the suspects tire then continuing to try and pull him over while rubber and sparks fly all over... oh wait... it just takes away from his health bar and you ram him a little bit? At least it's a simple arcade race game that I can play split screen when my buddies come over...FOR FUCK SAKES... no split screen support? Instead you expect us to compare track times on a speed wall in a game where track times are pointless? FUUUUUUUUUUU
Completed (mostly) July 21st 2012
The combination of Dead Rising 2's sand box and weapon crafting, Left 4 Dead's co-op, and Diablo loot system sounds like it should be awesome. But they have gone above and beyond to make it boring as hell. The sand box aspect fails because not much in the world can actually be interacted with. The weapon crafting requires tedious material collection, and when you do build a weapon it just breaks after a few uses and wasn't that creative to begin with. The L4D co-op fails because nothing requires you to actually work together, and if someone misses a quest then they can't gain XP for completing the following quests. The loot system fails because the inventory system is terrible and not much is different in the weapons other than the colour of the name. The quests themselves are all consisting of going to collect something really uninteresting, or going to kill something uninteresting for very uninteresting reasons.
Completed July 22nd 2012 An enjoyable expansion/spin-off to Alan Wake. The combat has been improved and you have a greater variety of weapons including a kick-ass crossbow. Unfortunately it is a lot more combat focused than the original game, but is still a good follow up.
Completed July 27th 2012
Time Hollow is a very linear and straight forward adventure game. It tells an interesting story about time paradoxes and alternative realities. It's a good game, but lacks any type of puzzle solving and mainly consists of going to the correct area and talking to the correct people to progress the story along.
Completed July 27th 2012
The pioneer of the first person stealth genre. The detail and emphasis on sound/noise is impressive for its time. The missions that involve scoping out a place, getting in, stealing stuff, and getting out is really where the game shines. Unfortunately about half the missions involve running around in sewers, catacombs and labyrinths trying to find your way around.
Completed July 28th 2012
A first person puzzle game that is obviously heavily influenced by Portal...except it doesn't have portals, it has blocks. The puzzles are fun to solve and the game does a good job of steadily increasing the difficulty without it becoming frustrating. It sticks to being just a puzzle game instead of unexpectedly turning into something so much more like Portal did.
Completed July 29th 2012
An indie game modeled after tough as nails NES action platformer such as Ninja Gaiden, Contra and Vice: Project Doom. You have 3 lives and when you die, you go back to the start of the level. Like Ninja Gaiden it requires absolute perfection in order to complete a level because there is no use getting to the boss with anything but full health and power-ups. After you die many many times you will be cursing non-stop, but once you beat that level you will be cursing while cheering over your accomplishment.
Completed August 1st 2012
The last of the proper Splinter Cell games and luckily the best one too. With the addition of instant melee kills (or stuns) the frustration of close range kills of the previous games has been eliminated. All the missions were very fun to play and lots of bonus objectives to do. It felt a bit easy in places with guards conveniently glued to computer terminals waiting to be taken out, and some of the gadgets like the thermal vision felt underused compared to previous games. Overall though the missions are fun, the stealth works well and the graphics hold up surprisingly well.
Completed August 6th 2012
A good entry into the Castlevania series with linear levels instead of the "Metroidvania" style of the later games. You are now able to whip in all directions, but the jumping and moving is still stiff as ever. It's also much easier than the NES games because of your added abilities.
Completed August 7th 2012
The story in this game is as generic as the title, but this top down dual-stick shooter is good fun. The graphics are impressive for this type of game, the levels are large, the same screen/split screen works well, and the numerous types of upgraded vehicles gives it some variety.
Completed August 10th 2012
I don't have much interest in the fantasy genre and this game hasn't changed my mind about it. It's occasionally slightly humorous and entertaining. It lacks any type of direction or goal other than to ultimately save the princess from inside the castle causing you to stumble around solving puzzles you didn't know needed solving. Once my inventory racked up over 25 items and got to the dreadfully long and boring cliff side puzzle sequence that doubled as an anti-piracy measure by having you riffling through your game manual, I gave up trying to solve the puzzles on my own. The quality and amount of voice work is impressive for it's age.
Completed August 16th 2012
German made adventure games are usually very soulless, boring, and focus on horrendous switch pulling or block sliding puzzles with awful characters reading poorly translated lines telling a bland story. The German made Book Of Unwritten Tales avoids all of those problems and is one of the best adventure games in a long time. It is visually stunning to look at, the characters are charming and funny, the translation is excellent, and the puzzles make sense within the context of the game. I usually do not like the fantasy setting, but it lampoons the genre and is full of funny pop-culture references. Even after around 14 hours of gameplay (which is long for an adventure game) I instantly wanted to go on more adventures with Wilbur and the gang, or at least have a bit more closure at the end.
Completed August 19th 2012
As a big fan of the Hong Kong action movies in which Sleeping Dogs is influenced by, I think it does a very good job with adapting those movies into a great open world game. Hong Kong itself looks amazing (PC Version), feels alive and makes you feel the need to explore and appreciate the many different areas of the island. The focus is on melee combat instead of guns, which feels like a brutally violent version of the Batman Arkham Asylum combat system. The driving is fun and leans towards the arcade side for handling and movie inspired crashes (where a tire blow out means a spectacular end over end crash). It's not as gigantic or as fleshed out in all areas as GTA IV is, but where they have focused their attention is very well executed.
Completed August 29th 2012
This is more of an interactive novel than an adventure game that has you investigating what happened aboard this now lifeless Korean space ship. The "gameplay" consists of reading through text logs with the help of the ship A.I. program. It's a really creative way for this interesting story to be told.
Completed September 2nd 2012
Darksiders II is the combination of Zelda puzzle based dungeons, God Of War button mashing combat, Prince of Persia platforming, and Diablo style loot. The graphics themselves while technically unimpressive, still manages to look great with its dark visual style. The story is just enough to get you to your next objective, but there is not much else to it besides that. It manages to pull off all of those gameplay elements well, but doesn't improve on any of them enough to really make this anything but a slightly above average game.
Completed September 3rd 2012
A short, but somewhat entertaining adventure game about a kidnapped pro wrestler and his teammates quest to get him back. The art is very simple, and looks like it could have been made in MS Paint, but it gets the job done. It occasionally delivers a line that is chuckle worthy, and the puzzles are decent enough, but mostly it's a pretty forgettable game.
Completed September 7th 2012
In the third installment of the Broken Sword series they have decided to change from the traditional 2d adventure game into a 3D platformer. The graphics, while good for there time, don't hold up against the previous games 2D art. The platforming section themselves are boring, not challenging and are just something to sludge through to get to the normal adventure game stuff. Nico seems to get the proper adventure game puzzles, while George is forced to push an uncountable amount of crates and blocks around in his lame Tomb Raider-esque sections. I'm not sure if the good outweighs the bad on this one.
Completed September 9th 2012
A very small game about a spy, and... it's just odd.
Completed September 9th 2012
A "First-Person short story" about a heist. It's interesting, but not much else to it beyond that.
Completed September 13th 2012 (again)
One of the best adventure games ever and one of my favourites. A dog and rabbity thing track down a bigfoot who has been broken out of his ice block. This involves you trekking across some of America's greatest tourist traps. Even to this day the visual style and voice acting hold up well.
Completed September 16th 2012 (kinda)
This indie game has you trying to safely get your ship across the galaxy to warn the federation of the incoming rebel invasion. It mostly revolves around ship combat, which involves re-routing your limited power to shields, weapons, engines, life support and other sub-systems. You also deal with enemies that can teleport directly onto your ship, repairing systems and dealing with fires. There is also numerous ship types and upgrades. It's an entertaining game that you can get to the "end" of within an hour or two, but because it's randomly generated and has lots of stuff to unlock, you could potentially spend many many hours trying to fully see everything it has to offer.
Completed September 18th 2012
Thief II essentially took what was good from the original and kept it pretty much the same. The major changes are the removal of the missions that involved the boring mazes that were filled with zombies and monsters. Instead focusing on missions that involve sneaking around villages, churches, banks, and keeps. I found myself getting a bit bored with it near the end, but overall it's still a great game.
Completed September 26th 2012
Beyond Good & Evil is a flawed, but enjoyable and creative game. It has a colourful visual style and a few memorable characters. It's mostly an action-platformer-puzzle solver, but also includes a hub world that links the missions together, photography, various vehicles, and stealth elements. It's weakest point is with the forced stealth missions where there is only one exact way to progress and if you stray just a bit from the planned path, you are instantly killed by a laser beam. Overall it's a good game and I can see why it has a bit of a cult following.
Completed October 4th 2012
Diablo with guns is what Borderlands boils down to. It's greatly lacking any real story and it only serves the purpose of pushing you forward to a new area so you can collect/kill 10 more things for some other people. The gun's themselves mostly have a good feel to them and visually the game looks great. The menu system is awful for keyboard/mouse and becomes tolerable when using a gamepad, but it still lacks basic concepts like tracking multiple missions at once. The humor is a mixed bag, ranging from chuckle worthy to so terribly unfunny that you will cringe. It's a decent game if you go in expecting to mindlessly kill things for a couple hours here and there, but you will be greatly disappointed if you expect anything more from it.
Completed October 6th 2012
A rail shooter where you ride a dragon and shoot things. There aren't very many good rail shooters similar to Star fox or Star Fox 64, so I tracked this one down in hopes of finding another good one. Unfortunately it's not good, not good at all. The movement is so restrictive that you can barely move out of the center of the screen. The "normal" difficulty is frustratingly hard due a terrible checkpoint system, not starting with full health, boss fights that go on dreadfully long due too excessive health, and enemies picking away huge amounts of health because of them getting stuck between your camera angles. If you switch it down to easy, it becomes a snorefest that requires little attention to breeze through it. Having the option to switch between three types of dragons with different abilities is nice, but you have to inconveniently cycle through them instead of pressing a button that brings you to a specific one. It also only have ten stages, which several of them just being boring boss fights. Just play Star Fox.
Completed (again) October 7th 2012
Day of the Tentacle is a classic adventure game for many reasons, but for me it's mainly due to it actually being a humorous game, wacky characters, and an art style that has stood the test of time. A tentacle drinks from toxic sludge and grows arms, which of course makes him want to take over the world. It also involves time travelling using porta-jons two-hundred years into the past, present and future with three different main characters. The only problem with the game is with the large number of items and puzzles going on all at once. At one point you can have thirty-five or more exchangeable items split between your characters. Even though I've finished this game a few times, I still had to take a look at a walkthrough a couple times to continue. Not recommended for people new to the genre, but it should be played.
Completed October 11th 2012 (again 10/17/12 & 10/21/12, DLC completed 4/16/13)
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.
Completed October 18th 2012 (again on iron-man mode)
There is not many big budget tactical turn-based isometric strategy games these days. Thankfully XCOM does a great job of remaking the 20 year old original game for new and old fans. It has a nice split between combat, research, troop and base management. The maps themselves have a good variety to them, but most of the mission objectives are essentially "kill all the aliens". It's a good game that has lots of options and random events that could warrant multiple playthroughs.
Completed October 21st 2012
A pretty good 2D stealth platformer. When the game isn't complete darkness it has some decent art for the backgrounds, but the style of characters doesn't do much for me. At certain times the stealth feels very forced and plays more like a puzzle/platformer as you decipher how the level designer wants you to get through an area in a very specific way instead of leaving it more open ended. It's still fun despite some frustrating parts, and the new game plus mode may have me come back for more.
Completed October 21st 2010 (again 10/22/12)
A fun Halloween themed game where you go in search of your kidnapped sister and fight monsters that are stealing all of the candy using your awesome Halloween costumes. It's a great concept, filled with funny dialog and a decent turn based RPG battle system. The battle system is simple, mainly revolving around timed button presses and unique special moves for each of the costumes. It's a must play every Halloween season.
Completed October 26th 2012 (again 4/21/13)
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.
Completed November 4th 2012 (again)
NOLF is a fun first person shooter that blends action, stealth, espionage, witty humour and retro/futuristic 60s stylings. It also stars Cate Archer, one of the few good female characters in games. This is all around an amazing game, but for me it's the memorable characters that stand out and the locales like the space station that is outfitted with shag carpeting and every other stereotypical amenities a 60s bachelor pad would have.
Completed November 7th 2012 (again)
NOLF2 improves the core gameplay of the original with a better stealth system, ability to move bodies, lean, more natural movement speed, looting bodies, searching file cabinets and a simplistic skill tree. It also sadly cuts down on the mission briefing/debriefings, and throttles back on the zany 60s style. It also isn't as clever or funny as the original, but it's still a very enjoyable game that once again successfully mixes action and stealth with a good variety of fun locales.
Completed November 10th 2012
At it's core, it a standard third person cover based modern military shooter. The shooting works well, the cover system is limited and broken at times, and it's all very linear. What is does differently is a story that attempts to guilt trip you, making you question killing all those people just because that's what you generally do in these type of games. Taking place in a sandstorm ruined Dubai also helps set it apart from other military shooters. Overall, it's a short, semi-entertaining shooter that attempts to leave you with your own post-traumatic stress disorder.
Completed April 25th 2012 - November 23rd 2012
Telltale Games has done a great job of encompassing almost everything that defines the walking dead comics into a episodic adventure game. The action scenes have been refined from the mess that was Jurassic Park and the comic book visual style is great. Every episode is top notch, successfully telling a story that puts you through every human emotion. Lee and Clementine are characters that you will not soon forget.
Completed November 24th 2012
Hitman: Absolution is not Hitman: Blood Money. While that makes me disappointed, Absolution is still a good Hitman game. It still has a hand full of Blood Money sandbox type missions, which stand out as the best parts of the game. The rest of the game is made up of smaller, more linear stealth dependent missions. The checkpoint system can get very frustrating in certain missions due to people seeing through your disguise a mile away, or accidentally putting your foot over an invisible line into a restricted zone causing guards to freak out without warning, or the entire mission not having a checkpoint at all. The graphics are noteworthy (on the PC) with some really impressive crowds in many areas. Overall, it's a good stealth game with some creative sandbox murder missions whose biggest flaw is not sticking to the Hitman: Blood Money formula more.
Completed November 29th 2012 (DLC completed 4/13/13)
Assassin's Creed III starts out pretty slow, but once you you are let off your introductory leash there is a good 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. 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 welcomed entry to the series.
Completed December 10th 2012
Primordia is an adventure game set in a post-apocalyptic world where the machines we left behind are scrounging for power and resources to stay alive. While I usually like the 90s adventure game retro graphics, they are a bit bland and a little too pixelated here. The main story revolves around you and your floating robot sidekick (who annoyingly calls you "boss" all the time) retrieving a stolen power core. The more interesting part is the back-story of how the current governing robots came into power. It's a rather short game, with a small number of locales and characters to interact with. The puzzles themselves range from easy to not very fun number crunching/code breaking that will have you alt-tabbing to a walkthrough. Overall, it's a decent adventure game with a good back-story, not very fun puzzles and a visual style that leaves something to be desired.
Completed December 12th 2012
Monolith Productions was not involved with this sequel and it shows in every aspect of this game. The atmosphere, story, level design, pacing, combat, AI, and graphics are sub-par, specially when compared to the previous entries to the series. Playing the co-op mode with a friend will give you about 4 hours of decent run and gun fun, but that's about it.
Completed December 17th 2012
A prequel to The Book of Unwritten Tales that mainly focuses on a thief named Nate meeting his muppet-like sidekick named Critter. The visuals are once again top-notch but there isn't as much variety of locales since it's a much shorter game than the original. The puzzles are decent and the few available characters to interact with are entertaining. Overall, it's a decent adventure game but not as good as the original Book of Unwritten Tales.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.