List items
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Played for more than 40 hours and my PS3 died, losing my save. Haven't had the heart to start over but I loved what I played. It's a shame the PS3 version was so buggy but I didn't run into as many issues as others reported.
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A beautiful game with unfortunate controls. Despite trying out several options, including the Classic Controller, I never found something I liked. It sounds silly but by mapping jump to 'up' on the d-pad was a deal-breaker for me in terms of enjoying the combat. Still, every scene is stunning, the art is fantastic, and the story, though non-sensical to a Western player like myself, was pretty cool if you love Japanese culture.
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So many bad game design choices here. Everything from the malaria to the obsessive and omni-present enemies took what should have been an immersive FPS into a teeth-grinding chore of a game. I was so disappointed and annoyed by this game I was so glad to be done with it. The ending was a let-down too oh god this game just did not click with me at all.
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What a breath of fresh air this was coming off of Far Cry 2. The lush visuals, the story of a world gone wrong is told so well (expressed in the scenery rather than through clunky exposition). The characters, the animation, the story, all were beautiful. Trip is beautiful without feeling objectified, Monkey's performance is fantastic thanks to Andy Serkis, Pigsy is great, and I for one loved the ending. It was a game that stuck with me after the credits. My only criticism was that I didn't always love the combat but it was serviceable and had some unique qualities.
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I was sorry this game took me so long to get to. What a rare treat for FPS fans who are tired of the same old thing! The combat is pitch-perfect, the points mechanic keeps things fresh, and the story is surprisingly terrific. I feel like many will write it off thinking it's for dumb meatheads but the game is relatively self-aware and embraces the whole "macho" motif and blows it out to ridiculous proportions. What results is an engaging game with genuinely funny moments inside of one of the most diverse single-player shooter campaigns I've played in a long time. Unlike the lasted Modern Warfare and Battlefield games, I feel like Bulletstorm actually delivers on the promise of a non-stop thrill ride, without getting bogged down in monotony or bad scripting.
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What is perhaps the swan-song for my beloved Wii, this is a good game to go out on. It can be challenging but because of the accessible nature of its controls, makes you want to try again and again. The game looks great with an art style that suits the series. However, some of the best times I had with the game were when I struggled with a rhythm, closed my eyes, and played the game using only audio. It always helped and it showed me how strong the mechanics really are. It's all about listening, the visuals are there to thwart you rather than hinder you. Catchy tunes, I might add.
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One of the most eye-opening experiences I've ever had with a game. Journey is a rare and precious thing in video games. Many flowery words have been written about it already but I can't deny I felt a full range of emotions during my time with it. From mysterious wonderment in the game's blazing hot opening scenes, to fear as I traversed the dark depths of the underground, to frustration and dispair as I trudged through the unrelenting cold, to loneliness as my anonymous companion left me, to overwhelming joy while I ascended to the end. What a beautiful thing.
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My old favorites are given another chance and I've played through them all more time than I care to admit. I loved them then, I love them now. Played MGS 2 and MGS 3, did a no-kills run on the latter.
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Having played DJ Hero 2 first, it's obvious to see the original game had seen some improvements when they moved on to the sequel. The game's mixes are just as good but there's an almost impossible-to-describe quality to the gameplay in that it's not as "tight" as it is in DJ Hero 2.
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One of the best experiences I've had with a shooter in a long time. I'm a sucker for cyber punk settings and this game really nails the whole aesthetic. The look and feel reminds me of Mirror's Edge in all the right ways. The story is just the perfect amount of Blade Runner. The shooting is INCREDIBLY SATISFYING. The hacking abilities add just the right touch of strategy. The only knock against the single-player are some of the tedious boss fights that feel like they're from a bygone era of game design but it's made up for overall by one hell of a campaign. Then the co-op. Oh, the co-op! So good. It reminds me a bit of the cooperative missions I loved in Resistance 2 only not so class-based. It's just so much fun to play on a moment-to-moment basis. I just loved this game completely. As of March, it's my game of 2012.
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A fun iOS game from the Scribblenauts guys. Not very challenging, managed to burn through all the levels in one sitting but it was definitely worth 99 cents.
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Definitely easier than previous Angry Birds games. I really dug the addition of playing with gravity but I have to admit I never really understood why this game started such a craze. Worth a buck, cleared all the levels in a day.
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Like a lot of RPGs, this didn't really get its hooks into me until after about 10 hours. Once it did, though, I was feeling pretty addictive. The combat is refreshingly satisfying for an RPG so the whole marketing pitch there seems genuine. The world is unfathomably deep with almost too much to explore. My only knock against the game is the art design which I think is an ugly hodgepodge of purple fairy fantasy bullshit. However, the combat and lore make up for that. It's a damn fine game-- MIGHT be my first game I get all the achievements in.
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Picked up a PS Vita with this and I am so happy I did. This game is such a technical showpiece for the system and it was a joy to play. It's kind of hard to believe all the marketing-speak for Vita but this game made me a believer. It just looks stunning and the controls feel spot-on. My only gripe is the game's shoehorned moments with touch and tilt but with a 9+ hour campaign it's hard to get too mad about a component that takes up less than 1% of the time spent playing. Liked it more than the first Uncharted game for PS3, actually, because it manages to avoid any late-game supernatural bullshit.
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Got this for free with my Vita and really liking it a lot. At first, the controls felt off but I remapped functions to the buttons I prefer and it's been great ever since. Super challenging but pretty addictive. Not as pretty as a game like Uncharted but for a free game this is a real easy one to like. Heck, I'd like it even if it weren't free. If this were a $10 game on PSN I'd be sold!
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The minigames that come with the Vita. Played it for the trophies, not much else to say except those sliding blocking puzzle trophies haunt me.
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This was my first Lumines game and I was kind of taken aback by how difficult it was, at first. The gravity in this game is brutal! For the first few hours of Voyage mode, I didn't get much higher than 75,000 points. Hoping I get better. The best part of this game is, without a doubt, the soundtrack. Loving the look and sound from top to bottom.
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I actually won this game from the developer in a photoshop contest on Twitter. It's a pretty neat puzzle game with an awesome aesthetic. My only complaint is that sometimes the input methods hamper my ability to solve a puzzle, even though I know the solution. The hard adherence to the various touch mechanics can make executing certain movements difficult which is a drag. Overall though it's pretty cool and I'm thankful I got to try it out the way I did.
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I got this for $1 at some crazy Sears game liquidation sale. For a licensed game it's, well, not terrible. But it does get nice and cozy in the mediocre range. The look of the game is great, mimicking the Tron Legacy movie very well. I love Tron so I enjoyed this game enough based purely on its connection to the series. As a game, however, this thing has some issues. Mostly it's plagued with moments where it feels like not enough play-testing had occurred. During many of the games light cycle and platforming segments, I found myself hitting a wall (literally and metaphorically). Play it on casual, scoop up a bunch of easy Trophies, and call it a day.
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For some reason, I played a lot of AC2 and quit. It just didn't click for me. Picked this up dirt-cheap and ended up getting hooked into it. My complaints about the series remain including some of the frustrations about the way Ezio moves and will often jump where I didn't intend, etc. But the story and world are so great, I stuck with it until traversal got easier. This brought me around on the series. Now I'm considering playing the missing pieces of the series before the third game comes out.
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The PSP game, running on my Vita. The story levels are damn long but super enjoyable. It's pretty crazy how they fit what seems like the full LBP experience (I played the first two PS3 games) onto the PSP. If anything, this has me more excited for the Vita game, whenever that arrives.
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Played the Vita version and while the game is visually stunning I felt like there was something amiss with the controls. Specifically, the way Rayman runs. You have to hold down a button but it's not like conventional platforming running like a Mario game. He has this running-in-place animation that threw me off. Rayman has an odd sense of momentum to his character. I still liked the game a lot even during its more difficult levels. Holy hell that last level in particular is enough to give me PTSD.
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Picked it up during the mega $1 PixelJunk sale. It's a cool game with great style and music. My only complaint is my uncanny and frustrating ability to always hit the bottom if I miss a critical jump up top. It's also a bit of a grind as finding each spectra in a level must be done multiple times.
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Played it because of the hype from all the Giant Bomb guys. A crazy game with an equally insane story. I liked it for the most part and fully appreciate what they were trying to do. Still, I left the game feeling like it just wasn't for me. The final boss fight was tough but beating it felt fan-fucking-tastic. BURST!!
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I like the world and style of this game, along with the stealth and hacking components of the gameplay. My first several hours with this game felt like I was forced to feel around in the dark, I had a really tough time in the first mission. Once I upgraded my augs, bumped down the difficulty, etc. I started to come around on it. I enjoy it enough although I do think it drags on for a bit.
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This game is a great resurrection for the character of Max Payne. The story is dark but a great addition to the Rockstar lineup. The world of Sao Palo is done very well. It's detailed, rich, and feels authentically lived-in. It's nice to see what Rockstar can do when they don't have to build a whole open world but can take all their talent building cities and focus on creating more contained levels. The bullet time still feels good but the shooting continues to have some of the hangups that plague Rockstar titles. With three settings for aiming, I got the feeling even they aren't sure which mechanics work best. I realize they want to give players options but in a world where so many third-person shooters don't need three levels of lock-on for shooting, I have to wonder if maybe Rockstar just hasn't nailed the mechanics yet. The ending is also a bit of a letdown as the gameplay begins to cycle: enter room, clear it of bad guys, Max narrates, exit room, repeat. It's a bit of a grind near the end and the final story beats were not as powerful as the rest of the game.
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I love games from Suda 51. For me it all began with Killer 7 and I haven't missed a game of his since. Last year's Shadows of the Damned was one of my favorite games of 2011 and represented Grasshopper's best efforts in combining Suda's insane style with fine-tuned gameplay. A lot of Suda games are slick but can leave you feeling like the gameplay could've been better. Lollipop Chainsaw is a fine action game but does lack the depth of other games in the genre. Despite the combat being simple it is satisfying and worth seeing through to the end though I admit I didn't have much interest in replaying levels for high scores and Trophies. The style is, of course, my favorite part of the game but with some pretty major caveats. The B-movie comedy repertoire between Juliet and her boyfriend Nick harkens back to the Garcia/Johnson duo in Shadows of the Damned. The dialogue is funny and I dug the aesthetic as always. However, the constant upskirts and degraded camera angles began to wear on the charm the game sets up in the beginning. The out there insanity can only sustain the game for so long until you start to wonder if Grasshopper was still in on the joke or neglected to stay on the other side of the line of good taste.
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I knew after enjoying Tiny Tower so much last year, this one seemed just as promising. Boy it really gets its hooks in me. Nimblebit have a rare talent for making free-to-play games with a palatable economy. The airline sim is casual but surprisingly deep and gets better the more you play.
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I seemed to like this game a lot more than many reviewers. I found the single-player campaign to be satisfying, faithfully recreating the grandeur of the Resistance series on the handheld. I think a lot of people overestimate the quality of storytelling in the previous games which is not to say it's bad I just think this game was basically on-par with its predecessors. My only real complaint is that the game can look downright ugly sometimes with some blocky textures but overall it was a really solid experience.
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A beautiful game with a great style, soundtrack, and refreshingly unique traversal/combat mechanic. Admittedly, the game is not without its share of issues, most notably some of the controls and a sense of disorientation. But these are not deal-breakers and seem more a result of Sony's Japan Studio trying something very new. I hope the team gets to take another swing at the concepts in this game so they can really perfect them. Liking this game a lot so far.
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Picked up the Vita version and while I am awful at fighting games, this one seems to pack a hell of a lot of content if I'm willing to really give this a chance. Looks good on the Vita, plays fine (although my moves are pretty limited), can't wait to really sink my teeth into it.
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Was feeling good about the series after Brotherhood and have been liking what I've played of this. I can see some of the concerns people had about the series feeling a little overdone but I'm digging it nonetheless. Really love the new city, liking the direction of the story, and the added Desmond chapters.
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After taking a long time to get around to the original inFamous, I was shocked to see how much I liked it. Early on in the sequel, I began to feel a little concerned that the follow-up was not living up, story-wise, to what I loved most about the original. However, as the game went on, the side characters got a little richer, Cole's powers continued to improve/impress, and New Marais proved to be a much more vivid city than Empire City. I stuck to the Good karmic path and, as the credits, rolled, I was once again surprised by the series when I realized Sucker Punch managed to top themselves. I don't think the climbing is as good as Assassin's Creed but some of the new additions to Cole's traversal and offensive arsenal are fantastic. They also managed to mitigate some of the repeating level design that plagued the first game which was nice.
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Absolutely loved the game. The albums in the campaign are all unique, beautiful, and fun in their own ways. Add to that the Death Mode challenges, Beat School mode, and level creator and the title really becomes this fully-fledged indie hit. Making levels/music is actually fun because the editor is enjoyable to use. Building a level FEELS like play, not a complex chore like other games with UGC.
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I have had this game for almost as long as I've owned my DS Lite. So this is going back to something like 2006. I started this game twice and never managed to get through it. Once, I received the worst ending (of three possible endings) and the second time I got to the 86% mark (according to the in-game counter) and burned out on a difficult boss fight. Using a guide to tell me how the hell to get the best ending (because I'd never figure out you had to equip a random piece of clothing at the right cutscene) I was determined to FINISH THIS GAME ONCE AND FOR ALL. And today, I did it. So happy to put this game to rest. It is so great, I love the art design, music, soul system, and level design.
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I didn't plan on playing through this game in one sitting but that's what ended up happening. That's not a criticism of the game's length. I actually think at about 5-6 hours the game's campaign is the perfect running time. I have to admit I really was hooked by the story and appreciated the direction they were trying to take it. A lot of people felt like it was a mediocre shooter but I'd go so far as to say it's a step above that. It's not an amazing game mechanically or anything but it's certainly a gorgeous one that does some innovative things with storytelling.
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Won a code for this game on Twitter. It's a fun twist on two genres- rhythm games and shoot-em-ups. As a shoot-em-up in reverse, it's a fun game that really speaks to what makes that genre great; a short game that's built to be replayed for high scores. As a rhythm game, it's good too with a thumping soundtrack but it might not offer as much to music-game fans as shooter addicts.
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I'm making my way through some of my DS backlog. I played the first Phoenix Wright and really liked it thought I found some of the traversal stuff tedious. That remains unchanged in this sequel but the story and courtroom stuff is just as fun.
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After all the hooplah around this game I decided to give it a try. It's a good game but I'm not as in love with it as some of the people singing its praises. Still, it's a fun twist on puzzle games akin to Puzzle Quest. My only complaint from a technical standpoint is the touch controls for moving tiles has been unresponsive or difficult to manage under certain time-sensitive points in the game.
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A great story with some surprisingly deep character hooks. As I finished the first episode, I have to admit that the violence and gore didn't bother me nearly as much as the dynamic between Lee and Clementine. I enjoy their developing relationship as Lee is thrust into the role of surrogate father in the zombie apocalypse. However, there's something about a kid in danger that really hits a nerve with me, making the threats to Clementine the most hard-hitting for me.
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This is a really tough one. I was so excited for this game because I absolutely fell in love with the characters and story of Persona 4. I've never been much a fighting game fan but because of it's Atlus connections I was dying to give this a try. As a huge P4 fan it is satisfying to see the return of the characters I enjoyed and the fighting game is as fun as I'd hoped. Even with a very basic knowledge of fighting game mechanics (see: button-mashing) I'm able to hold my own in the story & arcade modes. The game's story mode is divided into 10 storylines, focusing on each character. The plot is interesting enough though it might not add as much to the end of Persona 4 as I may have liked. The problem I have is that for many of the characters, the plot is recycled and I ended up getting very bored as Yu, Chie, Kanji, Yosuke, and the other members of the Investigation Team ran through nearly identical scenarios. Still powering through the other storylines now for the Persona 3 characters which have, thankfully, been more varied.
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This game rests comfortably in that B-tier of releases. At first blush, that sounds like an insult but I appreciate games of this ilk when they're done really well. Warhammer 40k: Space Marine is a solid third-person action game with great shooting and melee mechanics. The campaign doesn't do much to mix up the gameplay but the core shooting and chainswording is good enough to propel you through 8 hours.
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Insanely fast games that require so much twitching aren't usually my style but I can't help but like this game. It's a lot of fun, I got it free with Playstation Plus. I doubt I'll ever be posting high scores to the leaderboards anytime soon but it'll be a good game to pick up for 10 minutes when I'm trying to fill a small void of boredom.
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I don't know about this game. The action feels slow and there's this weird sensation of input lag when fighting that is putting me off. It's clear WayForward holds the original Double Dragon in high regard. They added a bunch of new elements like upgrade mechanics and some new fighting systems but they kept the same old-school approach to level progression. There's nothing worse than getting to the end of a level (that takes a long time to get there because, as I said, the game moves slowly and deliberately) only to die and have to start all over. Added to that, the game launched without online co-op which, at this point in the generation, seems crazy that a developer can't get that in a game on time.
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I usually don't put games I'm replaying on this list but I wanted to revisit this since I played it back in 2006 when the Wii launched. This really was a great game that I feel like has gained a bad reputation in the series. I'm not sure why, really. The Wii controls are good and for purists there's an option to disable the IR stuff. The story is dark, the adventure is sprawling, and I managed to sink more than 22 hours into it over the weekend. Not my favorite Zelda game but I'm glad I'm replaying it after all these years.
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Every game I play on my Vita feels like it becomes my new favorite game I've played on my Vita. LBP is no exception. I've played every entry in the series from the original LBP to the PSP version. The story mode levels in the Vita game are some of the best in the series. I honestly think the level design and the way it uses the Vita's functions tops even some of Media Molecule's efforts. If I had to point out a negative it's that I didn't enjoy the soundtrack as much as other games. The licensed music in LBP 1 and 2 included much more memorable tunes.
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Got the single-player campaign for free on PS Plus. I usually don't mind short story modes but in the case of Starhawk, I felt like I could tell certain parts were cut. The story wraps up without much punch and the tale it tries to weave just never really takes shape. Story quibbles aside, the gameplay is great. The shooting felt fun and calling down battlements from above never gets old. Flying the Hawk took some learning but by the end I was really liking it.
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Played REmake in preparation for RE6. Classic game I've always loved. Not much else to say about it except that it's funny to think how much crap we were happy to put up with back in the day.
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I feel like the reception to this game overshadowed the actual content on the disc. At 25 hours, the RE6 campaigns offer plenty of story, lots of shooting, an abundance of monsters, and more than a fair share of problems. After playing through the entire thing I have to say I really liked it more than most reviewers seemed to. Yes, there are some issues. Sequences like Chris trying to escape from a crumbling platform that have you dying over and over just feel like they were not play-tested. The game has a lot of moments like this where you ask yourself where was the quality control. However, despite what many people have said I actually grew accustomed to the shooting and camera, zoomed in and different though they may be. While I missed the weapon upgrading, I liked the skills you unlock though I do think the cost of each one is way too high. I am a huge RE fan so I was relieved to discover I did like the game though I'm probably more willing to overlook its flaws than most people. That said, I honestly believe a lot of naysayers were swept up in the bashing that came along with the release of RE6. There's no denying or excusing some of the issues but I seemed to have far fewer of them than a lot of folks.
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This game was fun for the first few levels but I found the latter half to be a bit annoying. Mostly this was due to the lack of checkpoints in the game. It's not really a knock against it because it was designed that way- it's not supposed to have checkpoints. If you run out of lives you start the mission over. Trouble for me is I was playing this solo, missions go on for 30 mins, and the difficulty only ramps up. So when I died on the last enemy in a mission, spending my last life, and had to start all over, it was frustrating. Casual mode is there for people who just want to blaze through it all (unlimited lives). Mechanically the game is great with good shooting and fun, though crazy, driving. My only issue with the mechanics is that I would sometimes get caught up on geometry in a level, allowing enemies to shoot me with impunity. It was annoying, especially when each life matters so much. Still had a good time with it though.
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BFG Edition. I played a few hours of the game back on the Xbox but was happy to try it again. This game really freaks me out, to be honest. The enemy encounters are never TOO difficult but there really is something about the lighting, audio, and design that makes this game scary to me. Playing it on Normal and hoping I don't live to regret that as I get into the later stages.
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This game proves the Vita is capable of a big open world but the lack of polish on some of the finer gameplay mechanics keeps this from being a great game. I still enjoyed it overall and appreciated the setting and how ambitious it is. Still, I felt like the story had wasted its potential, especially given the possibilities of a female protagonist. Also- the gimmicky tilt control nearly ruined the experience for me.
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Picked this up on the Halloween sale and blasted through it in one sitting. It's a short piece of DLC but a lot of fun. Maybe a tad too short considering I spent most of my time collecting every upgrade, etc. and I still beat it in under two hours. However, I wish more games had scary Halloween-themed DLC. This and Undead Nightmare for Red Dead Redemption are up there for me as shining examples.
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The similarities to Portal are there but this game's mechanics offer up just enough to make it stand out from the creator's previous work. While I liked the puzzles in this game and switching between various dimensions, some of the platforming and trickier sequences that required more finesse of movement than brain power left me frustrated. It happened more than once that I knew the solution to a puzzle but struggle with the controls to execute the answer.
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Like other games of this ilk (see: Deus Ex: Human Revolution) this game didn't grab me at first. It wasn't until about 3/4 of the way through that I really clicked with the various systems and started having fun experimenting. That said, I realize there were multiple paths and solutions to getting through sequences but I rarely found myself straying far from what already worked for me. My favorite parts of this game were undoubtedly the world Arkane Studios built (loved the whale-centric city of Dunwall so much) and the way systems built on top of one another. Don't have the inclination to go back for a kill-free run or anything soon but it was still a game worth playing. Dishonored marks the second game from Arkane I enjoyed, the first being Bioshock 2 which still feels better than the original. I'm in the minority thinking that one.
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I got a 3DS XL for my birthday and this came bundled with it. I've always liked Mario Kart games though I wouldn't say it's my favorite series of Mario games. I've always been split on whether Super Mario Kart or Mario Kart DS was my favorite entry. MK 7 is a bit of an odd game to me. The focus on drifting has steadily increased with every incarnation. If you want to come in first on 100 and 150 cup-classes, you're going to need to learn the intricacies of cornering. The issues of rubber-banding and bullshit blue shells still plague the game but overall it wasn't very hard to come in first on the 100cc difficulty. I just wish they'd done more with this. Like a lot of Nintendo's latest efforts, I had fun with the game but kept thinking it could have used, I don't know, 15% more effort. Playing this game alongside Wipeout 2048 really made the racing in MK 7 feel limp, by comparison. Still, there was a lot of fun to be had, particularly in the course design. If Nintendo had offered DLC tracks like they have with NSMB2 I would have bought some.
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This game passed me by when the Vita launched and I'm sorry it did. It's visually-impressive, of course, but I was really struck with how accessible the controls felt. I've never been the biggest racing fan but it's been nice to see that I can hold my own on some of these races and challenges. One issue with the game is the need to grind out XP to earn better vehicles so I can stand at chance on some of the harder races.
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