It was a weird year for video games, and hip hop was just as weird in my opinion. I will admit that I pretty much skipped the the second half of 2014 when it comes to games. I still enjoy video games, but between October and December I played pretty much only Call of Duty 4. However all the cool kids are doing it, so here's my top 10:

Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze

I'm not sure what happened on the GOTY podcast but this game actually has an amazing soundtrack. I don't like this game as much as its predecessor (which I played on 3DS) but this is still one of the best 2D platformers around, only surpassed by Rayman Legends in my opinion. The final boss is a giant piece of shit however, this game would be higher on my list if it wasn't for that.

Watch_Dogs

Yeah this game was nothing like what was promised, but I still had tons of fun with it. I loved sneaking around and wasting dudes like some Sam Fisher wannabe, looking into people's homes like some disgusting pervert and just driving around Chicago buying every trech coat I could. If they ever make a sequel, that could be the greatest game ever made by Ubisoft.

Destiny

I feel the exact same way about Destiny as I do about Watch_Dogs. It is a fun game to play and the core is solid, it just lacks variety. Hoping a sequel is good, cause I'm sure as hell not paying $20 for those expansions.

Wolfenstein

This is how you make a corridor shooter in 2014. You give me the option to either be stealthy or just mow down people with dual wielded assault rifles. DUAL ASSAULT RIFLES!!! YOU GO ON THE NAZI MOON!!! YOU FIGHT A GIANT BRITISH ROBOT! HOLY SHIT THIS GAME IS AMAZING!!!

Dark Souls II

Enemies that don't respawn infinitely is the reason I prefer this game to Dark Souls. It's not that I can't deal with them, but running through the same area doing the same thing over and over on my way to a boss got pretty boring in Dark Souls. I hope Bloodborne is good, and I hope to see more souls games too.

Forza Horizon 2

What a beautiful game...

I loved the cars, the setting, the offroad stuff, the races, the exploration. There was literally nothing I disliked about this game. Why is it not my number 1? Well because there were a few games I liked even more.

The next Horizon game should take place in Japan. Just imagine racing down the japanese countryside and then hitting the streets of Tokyo in your modified NSX...hhmmm I get excited just thinking about it.

Titanfall

Big robots are just as fun today as they were back in April. No other FPS lets me be as acrobatic and badass as Titanfall, so it's no surprise most shooters are going in this direction now. Lack of content is the only downside to this, but that's only because this game came out a time when Call of Duty and Battlefield have 50+ weapons and perks and not the small amount the they had back in 2007-2008, when those games were still good.

Valliant Hearts

Ubisoft had a tough year when it came to broken games, but the next two on this list were overlooked gems in my opinion. I guess it's not as good a story when a good game just works, it's more fun to talk about glitchy faces right?

I laughed, I cried, I learned, I experienced so many different emotions just from a simple puzzle game...and I hate puzzle games. The collectibles were so well done, it reminded me of the time I tried to beat Brother in Arms on the hardest difficulty just so I could see the historical collectibles. Oh and that ending...dear lord! I think only the ending to Read Dead Redemption (game of the generation) hit me harder.

Child of Light

This game combines the best music, best storytelling, best combat, best exploration and best overworld into the second best game of the year.

Listen to this track below. I loved the GOTY deliberations but I was genuinely furious at how this music was overlooked and dismissed so quickly.

Bravely Default

**I live in North America so this is a 2014 release**

Child of Light would be my GOTY if I hadn't dislocated my knee. I was off work for 2 weeks and only had my 3DS to keep me entertained, and that's when I finally unwrapped my copy of Bravely Default and played the best game of the year. I was supposed to relax and recuperate but instead I spent 16 hours a day playing this game. When I wasn't playing the game I was waiting for my village to be constructed while my 3DS was in sleep mode. For a whole two weeks all I thought about was Bravely Default.

The thing that hooked me so bad was the job system, where you equip a "job" and level up the skills specific to it and then mix and match skills to build the ultimate party. Of course at one point you build an amazing party that rolls through everyone but then a boss comes along and wipes your party in one hit. You then have to figure out what you did wrong, get new skills and build an even stronger party.

The 'Brave' and 'Default' system was also an mazing addition, and it integrates into the job system so well. Mechanically this game beats out every other game on the list, even though they may be different genres.

The story was actually pretty cool for a JRPG. Towards the end they use the story as an excuse to make you do something really pointless but I could easily overlook it because I was having such a good time.

There's a lot I could say about Bravely Default, but the best way to desribe it is that it's a game any JRPG fan or 3DS owner should play.

Here's to Bravely Default, my favorite game of 2015. Hoping that Bravely Second is just as good if not better!

And now, we talk about hip hop.

What a weird year. There were some amazing releases early on, a batch of mixtapes that beat out most full albums released by big labels, the dumbest beef between artists yet, Lil Boosie was released from Jail, songs like 'Hot Nigga' and 'Coco' became mega hits and Riff Raff became a roided out wrestler?

This is the year I stopped trying to be elitist with my taste and just started listening to everything. Most of it was still garbage, but I discovered some things I never tought I would enjoy before. Here's my 10 favorite rap albums of 2014 in no particular order:

Boosie Bad Azz- Life After Deathrow

The youngest of da camp was finally released from jail and came out with his first full album of new material since 2008. When a rapper is released from jail they usually produce some pretty weak stuff (see Prodigy and T.I.) but Boosie is a nice exception. On Life After Deathrow he talks at lenght about his imprisonment and how he's back and about to take over the whole rap world. It's a free mixtape that is better than most full albums I've heard in the past 10 years.

If you never enjoyed Lil Boosie before, I would still give this a try. You may find something you like on here.

Cormega- Mega Philosophy

You take Cormega, one of the most under-rated NY rappers and Large Professor, one of the most celebrated producers in hip hop and have them collaborate on an album you get one of the best works to come out in 2014. It's about as short as an album can get and the chemistry between Mega and Large Prof really makes this album something else.

Give this a listen if you love Cormega's prior work but also want to hear something different from him.

PRhyme- PRhyme

Much like Mega Philosophy, the comination of Royce and Primo is a fantastic idea that hopefully continues into the future. One of the main ideas behind this album is that DJ Premier only samples Adrian Younge (Black Dynamite OST, 12 Reasons to Die). The production is top notch but amazing verses from Royce da 5'9" and various guests really brings the project together.

This is DJ premier's best work in a while, don't miss out.

Rich Gang- Tha Tour Pt.1

Yes we've all heard the unintelligible drabble that is 'Lifestyle' and we are all sick of it. But when you combine Young Thug with Rich Homie Quan, give them some amazing beats and have Birdman do his best Diddy impression it becomes a curiosity piece that I could not stop listening to.

What is Young Thug saying? Why is he talking about fucking grandmothers? Why does Rich Homie Quan seem to get better every time I hear him? Why is Birdman still the exact same person as he was in 1999 when he and Mannie started the whole trap music thing?

Give this album a try, even if you hate it you might have a good laugh. Just don't tell anyone because holy shit do hip hop fans hate this whole "Rich Gang" thing...people need to chill a bit.

Schoolboy Q- Oxymoron

Schoolboy Q talked a big game about this album before it came out. Although it wasn't as good as Good Kid MAAd City, it was still a great album that let Schoolboy Q really shine.

Most of the TDE gang is here and Q also brings some OGs like Raekwon and Kurupt as guests but I never felt like they took the spotlight from him. He also ends the album with what I consider to be 3 of the best songs he's ever made.

My only complaint would be that a lot of good tracks are lost to the deluxe edition, the iTunes deluxe edition and Target deluxe edition. Artists need to stop this bullshit!

YG- My Krazy Life

Remember all those skits and verses Kendrick would spit about "bad influences" and "being in the wrong crowd" during mAAd City?

YG is "the bad influence" and "the wrong crowd". This is the perfect companion piece to Kendrick's album. It is the other side of the coin. While Kendrick Lamar would rap about the problems in Compton and strive to be better, YG just celebrates the insanity of a place like Compton and the gang violence that plagues it. He's not a fatalist nor is he exactly saying that it's something to be proud of, but he brings a different perspective to the listener.

Yeah some songs don't exactly make sense or fit in right, but overall YG made pretty much what you'd expect from him and he does it spectacularly.

MadGibbs- Cocaine Pinata

Although there is no real order to this list, Pinata is probably my favorite album of 2014. I'm a huge Freddie Gibbs fan and knew he could spit on whatever beat you gave him, but I still worried a bit about this collaboration.

But Gibbs delivered. Every song is amazing on this album. Gibbs brings his versatile flow and great storytelling skills and it matches perfectly with Madlib's production.

Even if you hate Gibbs (not sure why....maybe you're a Jeezy stan?) you should give this a listen.

Run The Jewels- Run The Jewels 2

I had some serious doubts about Killer Mike and El-P making a better sequel to Run the Jewels, but they somehow did it.

Never again will I doubt them. They delivered in spectacular fashion. No two artists compliment each other better than El-P and Killer Mike right now. They took RTJ and cranked it up to 11.

get this album NOW!

Migos- Rich Nigga Timeline

I knew of Migos, but beyond 'Versace' I never paid much attention to any of their work. From the outside it seemed like they rapped in that annoying style and simply repeated the same word over and over and over.

But then I grabbed their free mixtape and was blown away by the 6 and a half minute intro track. They have a rapping style that you may hate, but it grew on me. They stick to a particular style of production, but they actually have a great ear for beats.They dress in ridiculous fashion and say ridiculous things, but it's no worse than what Cash Money Records was doing in the early 2000s.

The whole album is on constant overdrive. Yeah it's ignorant rap, but without this genre we would never be able to appreciate "intelligent" rap. Sometimes you need to turn off your brain and just enjoy some nonsense, and this is the best album to do it with. Never have I heard a rapper make cow noises on a chorus...

Deniro Farrar- Rebirth EP

If you're unfamiliar with Deniro Farrar, this is the perfect place to start. This album is pretty much the greatest hits of all his prior work. A perfect representation of what he does as an artist.

His deep voice and sharp lyrics work so well with the cloud rap beats he mostly uses.

It is an extremely short EP however. I hope that he releases more stuff in 2015.

Thank you for reading by blog. I wish you all a happy new year duders!

Here's part 1 in my adventures into backlog city.

I was under the impression that I made some good progress this year with this whole undertaking, but it's still a losing battle. Seems like every day a new game is added to my list because I can't resist a game that only costs $3.75 plus tax. I'll try to keep it short because, well, I got things to do and games to play but feel free to let me know if I'm right or wrong about these games. I get through them very quickly (with some exceptions) so it's possible I'm totally off base here.

Forza Motorsport 5

It may have had a shaky start with the terrible microtransactions, lack of cars, lack of tracks, and unfinished menus, but with time Turn 10 has actually listened to the community and have been diligently updating the game since release. They are giving out free tracks, new cars and improving the game overall but it still feels like a launch title and if you've been a long time fan, you're better off skipping this one.

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

This is a rough one. It has the trappings that made me adore Blood Money (my first Hitman game) but it's missing so much. Big levels, multiple kill methods, decent sneaking, good controls...all of these things aren't around and it makes the whole experience feel super restricted.

Hitman Contracts

I should not have played this right after Hitman 2. I simply resorted to shooting everyone after the first hour and it made the whole thing moot. I will admit however that this game has way more of the elements that made Blood Money spectacular and that were missing in Hitman 2, only problem is that they were wrapped in a shitty story and boring missions.

Dante's Inferno

This game looks dope. The art style and presentation are what a horny 14 year old would come up with, but I still really enjoyed looking at this game. Yeah the technical aspects of the graphics can look bad at times but all the art and the halfway decent combat made this a fun experience. The last bit before the end boss was bullshit but everything before that was a good time. That cliffhanger ending better pay off Visceral.... :( :( :(

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

I'm glad they're making a sequel to this. It may not be for everyone but I quite enjoyed this twin-stick shooter/puzzle adventure. I never got around to the co-op, the main course of this game, but I still had a good time shooting mercenaries, giant spiders and dinosaurs.

Trials Fusion

If you liked the last two Trials games and want some more, get this game. If you didn't like them then this isn't going to change your mind.

Wolfenstein

This is the 2009 game I'm talking about here. Honestly I had the most fun in the first mission when I was just shooting nazis and blowing up trains. It reminded me of Allied Assault. After that the game goes into nazi occult bullshit and although shooting them is still fun, I no longer cared about the story or the characters which is too bad. There was a lot of potential there for a bit.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

Fly to this place, solve this puzzle, beat this boss, get this item, unlock the next place. Now I know this may sound mundane, but it is done very well here. It's a solid game, just nothing out of this world.

Civilization Revolution

This my only experience with these types of games, so by default Civ Rev is the greatest strategy game of all time. There you go you heard it here first.

Deadlight

This game wins the award categories for:

1. Least Original Premise

2. Least Interesting Narrative

3. Least Interesting Characters

4. Least Interesting World

5. Least Original Gameplay

The Deadlight team would like to thank their families, friends, god, the academy of interactive arts and sciences and their biggest inspiration of all: The Walking Dead.

Thank You

Child of Light

Ubisoft is 2 for 2 with their Ubi-Art Framework initiative. This is more of a JRPG Lite rather than a full on 80 hour adventure and it makes for a tight experience with awesome fights, awesome art and awesome music. Probably one of the best games of 2014.

That main theme music....can't get enough!

Dead Island

How this game ever passed certification by anyone is beyond me. The in-game models eyeballs jump out of their eyelids....that's how little care was put into this. Also it's boring as hell and all of course you have to fight humans at one point and of course it's the worst fucking part of the game, you don't even need me to tell you that, but I will anyway!

Super Mario Galaxy

This starts off very slowly in what I assume is a way for younger kids or newer players to get used to the controls and mechanics but after a few hours I was totally invested in getting every single star I could. This is a beautifully crafted game and I finally get what all the hype is about. It's not hard to beat, but if you're a completionist you're going to get just the right amount of challenge from this. It may not be as revolutionary as Super Mario 64 was back in 1996 but it is definitely up there as one of Mario's best outings.

Wolfenstein: The New Order

This game is very similar to the 2009 game but the main difference is that after the first mission I was still totally invested into the world, the story and the characters. I love a shooter that lets me play in a variety of ways (Deus Ex, Metro Last Light) and this does just that by letting me choose to either blast every nazi in my path of stealthily slit their throats. I hope Machinegames is given more opportunities to work on Bethesda IP, maybe they can bring new life to DOOM one of these days.

Watch_Dogs

If you avoided all the outrage around this game like I did then you may have a very skewed opinion about this game, at least that's what I've been lead to believe when I bring up my feeling about Watch_Dogs.

Yo this game is pretty cool. Yeah the story was completely forgettable but Chicago was fun to explore and the amount of detail was astounding. The problem comes from the things you can do within the city; all of the activities seemed designed by committee. If they make a new city I just hope they come up with better things to do than 40 driving missions and 13 towers to climb.

I loved the missions, the stealth, the feel of the weapons, the enemy AI, the driving, and the combat scenarios but all the extra bits felt totally superficial. If they could focus down their effort and make 5 meaningful side-activities rather than 50 forgettable ones Watch_Dogs 2 could be one of the greatest open world games of all time.

Mario Kart 8

I bet this is really fun to play with friends :( :( :(

In single player you either win very easily of loose very badly. It looks great and plays great, what else can I say?

Dust: An Elysian Tale

I'm pretty sure the person responsible for choosing the color palette in this is color-blind....Unless I'm the one who's color blind....

Holy hell does this game look shitty and it's only because the colors make it look like a 4 year old had their hand in this. I can't fault the artist for the design of the characters but I can certainly blame him or her for choosing the colors they did.

I know it's very petty of me, and the game plays just fine, but I just couldn't stand looking at it, and no...it never grew on me either.

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

This game is amazing. Put aside your feeling for Banjo Kazooie of old for a minute enjoy the fact that for once your capacity to think critically and build your own abilities (ie. the vehicles you create) are how you get the Jiggy. It used to be that if you found the ability and were good enough to press some buttons you could reach your goal easily enough. But in Nuts and Bolts you are solely responsible for building a vehicle that will net you a Jiggy. It's truly amazing and it's sad that it went right over the heads of so many BK fans.

This is also the reason the challenges that have pre-built vehicles are the worst because they limit your imagination and creativity.

Now if they could fuse the concept of crafting your own powers and abilities into a true platforming world (rather than a mission based system) they could make one truly amazing platformer.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Wow...Ubisoft is on a roll with these quick Ubi-Art games. Much like Child of Light was a simple take on the JRPG, Valiant Hearts is a easy and light adventure game but set in one of the least represented eras of video games. This is one of the only games where I was actually searching out collectibles and reading all of them because they were so interesting, I learned so much about the first world war and I was already pretty knowledgeable on the subject. This is another front runner for best game of 2014.

Also, the ending....gawd damn....

Vanquish

Hell ya Vanquish!!!

This was the perfect game to play after Valiant Hearts. You feel so powerful in your ARS suit, and your mobility on the battlefield is unparalleled in any 3rd person shooter. The game has a weird blue tint to it, the voice acting is especially bad and the story twist can be seen coming from a mile away (you won't believe who the real bad guys are!) but the way you can mow down enemies and bosses with such ease (even on hard difficulty) will make you forget all the bad parts of Vanquish.

Even with so many games to finish, I still took the time to beat the game twice because it was so much fun.

Gotham City Impostors

If you're going to make this type of game, you need to front load the first levels of progression with a wide variety of weapons, have the middle section be populated by more specialized weapons and have the last few unlocks be powerful but hard to use weapons.

Imposters has 100 levels, no good unlocks until level 20 or so and tries to pass off costumes and calling cards as important unlocks.

Nope I say to that. I'll go back to playing MW2.

Perfect Dark

I kept seeing list after list claiming Perfect Dark to be one of the best ports on xbla ever and I finally decided to see what all the fuss is about.

The reason people cite Perfect Dark on xbox as one of the best ports ever is because the base game is absolutely amazing. Yes I've played tons of shooters since 2000, and even in 2014 it amazed me with the smoothness of the shooting, the cool story, the challenging missions, the creative weaponry and the solid multiplayer. I felt truly bad for never having played this before.

I was prepared to hate this because of its history as one of the first console shooters but it still holds up 14 years later.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger

I've never played a CoJ game before but RDR is one of my favorite games ever, so I gave this a shot. It's a solid shooter with a cool story-telling mechanic where the game you're playing is literally being narrated as you play through it. It leads to some interesting situations and although it isn't the longest game, it also doesn't overstay its welcome.

I must say however, the dueling mechanic is a giant mess. I've completed maybe 25 duels and I still have absolutely no idea how it's supposed to work.

Oh it ain't over yet...

Damn, it's an overwhelming feeling to see a list that never seems to shrink. September 9th marks the day Destiny comes out and a whole new crop of new games might destroy me as a video game enthusiast and as a person. Here's what I need to finish within the next two months:

-Viva Pinata TIP

-Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

-The Orange Box

-Dark Souls

-Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze

-Super Mario Galaxy 2

-Paper Mario Sticker Star

-Bravely Default

-Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

-Zelda: Skyward Sword

-Donkey Kong Country Returns

-Bit Trip Runner 2

-Castlevania Lords of Shadow

-Final Fantasy XIII

-Battlefield 4

-Borderlands 2 DLC

-Super Metroid

-Max: Curse of Brotherhood

-Halo: Spartan Assault

-Pikmin 3

-Bully

-Condemned: Criminal Origins

-Guacamelee

-Paper Mario

-Far Cry Classic

-Beyond Good and Evil HD

Wish me luck...

Here's my thoughts about every game shown at the conferences at E3 2014. There were some good conferences and a shitty one and once again 3rd party games have me the most excited.

Microsoft

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare

I felt like my love for this series was over, but something here managed to pique my interest. It looks sharp as hell but also seems like it plays pretty different from the last 6 games or so. Campaign hasn't been good since MW2, and although I'm still not interested in multiplayer, I'm excited to give this campaign a shot.

Forza Horizon 2

I love every Forza game, and Horizon is one of my favorite driving games ever. I can't wait to explore and go off-road in this new setting. I have a hard time imagining them fucking this up.

Assassin's Creed Unity

Looks beautiful and the co-op stuff looks interesting, and it helps that the last game (Black Flag) was one of the best in the series. Also they finally added a crouch/stealth mechanic so it can play more like splinter cell in certain environments....fucking awesome!

Sunset Overdrive

I'm still on the fence about this. Looks like Deadrising X Tony Hawk, two franchises I enjoy but don't go crazy over, so I have yet to see anything from this that makes me go "Whoa!" a la Black Rob.

Dead Rising 3 DLC

Genuinely funny reveal, really enjoyed watching that. As for the game? I'm still on the fence (see above), so if I ever get around to buying DR3 I will probably wait for a special edition that includes all the DLC.

Fable Legends

Deep combat and co-operative fun are at the bottom of the list of things I come to Fable for. They didn't show anything here that I actually want to get Fable Legends for.

Project Spark (feat. Conker)

One time I almost downloaded this from the games store, but then something came up. I have no love for Conker, but if someone remakes Bad Fur Day in it's entirety in Project Spark that would be insane.

Ori and the Blind Forest

Looks good and it doesn't use the played-out pixel art style, so that immediately makes me more interested. Hard to form an opinion with so little information though.

Master Chief Collection/Halo 5

Too bad they didn't show any campaign for Halo 5 but hey man they're giving us an enormous collection of games and I couldn't be more excited. I have all these games already, I can play them anytime, but I'm a sucka and I'm going to buy this anyway. I'll finally have achievements for Halo 2 after all this time (fuck Halo 2 Vista btw, can't even sword fly in that piece of shit).

Inside

That was one intense trailer, but much like Ori I can't really get excited with just a minute long trailer. Never played Limbo either, but I will one day.

ID @ XBOX

I'll say it again, fuck every game that uses pixel art, it's fucking bullshit and I hate it. They say don't judge a book by its cover, but if your game uses pixel art then fuck you and your game!

Having said that, yo that Cuphead game looks incredible, maybe the thing I'm most excited for, even though all I've seen is a quick trailer. Game studios need to stop with this pixel art bullshit, it's grating and new art styles need to happen in more games. Call me a shallow idiot but it's how I feel and I stand by it...fuck pixel art!

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider was a very fun game with shit multiplayer. Hopefully they realized this and only focus on singleplayer, and make a game with more tombs, less murder (but still some murder) more puzzles, and bigger worlds to explore.

The Witcher 3

I didn't play The Witcher and didn't enjoy The Witcher 2 but every single time they show The Witcher 3 I get more and more hyped. This looks incredible, and I hope it lives up to the expectations.

Phantom Dust

I'm happy for the 6 people who have been waiting for this since 2004 but there is a whole catalog of games I would have rather seen come back before this. Hopefully it works out and they decide to bring back some real good games, like Brute Force or Blinx the Time Cat....some real shit nah mean?

Tom Clancy's The Division

You are tasked by the US government to clean up NYC (NYC isn't Detroit, I don't see how the government would let New York turn into...that) . You use cover and shoot bullet sponges and can acquire "rare loot" and can have buddies drop in and out. It looks good but I'm not sure what it is they're trying to do here gameplay wise. Games that show up at 2 E3s in a row always leave me wondering.

Scalebound

Platinum games is making moves, they've got exclusive on like every console now. Nobody can really say what this is based only on a CGI trailer, but it seems kinda like....Lair, a game where you control dragons...hah!

Crackdown

I liked Crackdown but never played Crackdown 2. Superhero open world games have come a long way since 2007, so here's hoping they bring good things to the table in 2015.

Electronic Arts

Star Wars Battlefront

Huh okay so no actual gameplay, I guess I understand. Star Wars is stupid, and the hype for the new movies blows my mind, did you people just forget how pissed off you were after episodes 1-3? I'm the last person who would care about this, as I have no love for Star Wars or Battlefront, but it sucks that fans get nothing more than some short making-of featurette.

Dragon Age Inquisition

I liked Dragon Age 2 but I'm in the minority. This game has a lot to prove after Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3. Well it's cool that there was game footage, but that tactical view stuff was skipped over like an unwanted child.

New Mass Effect/ New Bioware Edmonton IP

Uhh okay we doing this Battlefront thing again? No gameplay or anything? Alright moving on.

The Sims 4

I feel no type of way about the Sims, this looks like every other game in the series. Good or bad? I couldn't tell.

EA Sports UFC

I can't wait to mount Bruce Lee and pound him repeatedly into submission.

NHL 15

Last NHL game I played was NHL 2005 and it was garbage. Is this the time to come back? How will I feel after 10 years away? What will I say when we meet after all this time? Should I go through with it? I'm all sorts of confused about this.

New Criterion IP

Ya'll fucking with me EA right? The fuck is up with these docu-dramas about game developers, I ain't here for this shit. A first person perspective extreme sports game? Shit looks disastrous (the first person part especially).

PGA Tour

Tiger Woods must be rolling in his grave seeing this battleship fantasy nonsense.

Madden 15 (or is it 16 I forget?)

I'm pretty sure they just printed the pitch they had saved on their computers in MS Word from last year and read it again.

Dawngate

Gotta get that MOBA money right? It ain't for me so I can't speculate but I doubt this will dethrone LOL on the front page of Twitch (that's the only way I can judge these games' popularity).

Mirror's Edge 2

Ubisoft can't be any worse...

FIFA 15

Better stadiums? You said that last year too! You focus on the pitch when you play FIFA, who gives a shit how good or bad the stands look?

Battlefield Hardline

This looks like a bad mod that I have to download off a shady website. I hope Visceral can rise again and give us something even one tenth as good as Dead Space, that's all I really want from EA.

Ubisoft

Just Dance 2015

If you drop a Wii-mote it is at worst a $40 loss. If you drop your smartphone that's a way different story.

The Crew

I really really hope that there actually are towers you have to climb (somehow) to unlock stuff in the open world. Horizon is coming out, so it's hard to get excited for this as well.

Shape Up

Okay this looks genuinely interesting. Doing pushups for high score seems like the right evolution of that Wii fitness stuff. Xbox already has a fitness game/app but kids can't really get excited for fitness with P90X style exercises. If this can help even one person reach their fitness goals then they've done their job.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Where's the EA "all the feels" guy when you need him?

Ubisoft is getting behind their Ubi-Art initiative and so far it's been paying off. Hope this game is good too.

Rainbow Six Siege

The French are a traditional people, and again we get the Yves moment thanking us and then giving us one extra game to end the show. How do you take the Rainbow Six concept and turn it into an adversarial shooter? Ubisoft believes they can do it. Let's see if this actually turns into anything or goes the way of RS Patriots.

Sony

Destiny

If you play Destiny on anything other than a PS4 you might as well take a shit into the disc slot of your non-PS4 console and play that because Destiny is shit unless it's on PS4!!!

At least that's how it feels sometimes with their promotion of this game. But on a serious note, this game lives or dies by the enemy A.I. Halo enemies were fun to fight and figure out their tactics, if these enemies just act like Borderlands enemies and rush me then forget it.

White Playstation 4

It's Glacier White muthafucka! I'm excited to see the giantbomb unpacking video.

The Order 1886

This looks amazing. The transitions from cutscene to gameplay are really impressive but they leave me wondering...upon repeat playthroughs will I be able to skip cutscenes and how will that work? I like a good cinematic but I like it even more when I can skip it.

Entwined

This game looks fun and seems like it can get extremely challenging (in a good way) if you have bad co-ordination. Not sure about this love story stuff though, seems kinda moist if you ask me.

Infamous Second Son DLC

Just like Deadrising 3 earlier I haven't played the base game (although here I don't need to, which is neat) but this reveal wasn't nearly as ridiculous and stupid as DR3'. If they release a GOTY edition I might get that.

Little Big Planet 3

Never enjoyed these games, but it's cool that it's finally coming to PS4 with all the previous games user generated content in tow.

BloodBorne

I'll bet the spiritual successor to this will be called BloodBound when it becomes multiplatform. The souls games are good, I hope this is good as well...what else can I say with only one CGI trailer shown?

Far Cry 4

It's been confirmed that you cannot skin an elephant. I'm out...seriously what differentiates a "majestic" elephant (producer's words not mine) from a "majestic" tiger or "majestic" great white. It's arbitrary bullshit if you ask me.

Seriously though this looks like genuine fun, just like the last game. Maybe the story will be worth a damn this time?

Dead Island 2

Dead Island was a giant flaming pile of garbage. I don't know how it ever became a platinum hit on any console.

Magicka 2

Great trailer.

Grim Fandango

Never played this.

Indie Games

FUCK PIXEL ART!!!

Let it Die

This is the sequel to Skate or Die right? Shit went dark...

Abzu

I can't wait to take a journey into the water to know.

Also what was up with them showing a screen for Flower and not saying anything about it? Did I just miss something?

No Man's Sky

I would of loved a live demo. The trailer was great and I'm excited to play this, but they haven't really said much about the actual gameplay :(

Playstation Now

I bough a Sony Bravia last Christmas and it had an awful screen mark, I returned it for another and it had the same problem. I eventually settled on a cheaper Samsung with far superior image quality and haven't looked back since. Sony TVs are overpriced, I'm not surprised they're bleeding money in the TV department.

Last of Us Remastered

I didn't enjoy Last of Us but 300 GOTY awards makes me think that some people did, so it's cool that they're bringing this to PS4.

MGS5: Phantom Pain

That was a weird trailer even by MGS standards. I'm still hyped for this, if it ever comes out one of these days.

Batman Arkham Knight

Looking at this after playing Arkham Origins felt like comparing Mario Kart 64 with Mario Kart 8. Arkham Knight just looks mindblowingly good. Leagues ahead of anything else out there.

But then Batman glided around a bit, beat up some dudes and interrogated a bad guy....I don't know if I can play another Arkham game, no matter how good it looks and I doubt the batmobile will be enough to get me back on board.

I'm so sad, I want to love and play this beautiful game, but it looks like yet another Arkham game :(

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

It's not a prequel....good!

Again I can't really say much with one quick trailer like this.

Nintendo

Super Smash Brothers

My history with Smash is to have my ass whooped repeatedly by my friends who owned the game and only used jigglypuff and then proceeded to act all high and mighty about it. I'm never going to play or buy this game so let's just move on.

Amibo

Pokemon cards with RFID chips in them. There you go nintendo, I just made you 500 million dollars, you're welcome.

Yarn Yoshi (I forgot the actual name)

They're really gonna use that SNES era egg throwing mechanic on a modern console WITH A TOUCHSCREEN? I'm with Jeff, fuck this shit. I was actually excited for this before I saw what they were actually up to.

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker

It was cool to do once per overworld but to have a whole game of these puzzles? i don't know man, hopefully there's more to it that they have yet to show.

Zelda WiiU

They're saying the right things to get me excited about a console Zelda (handheld is where I'm at when it comes to Zelda) but they aren't showing much. Big open world means nothing if it's a big empty field (I'm looking at you Ocarina of Time).

Bayonetta 2

They are including Bayonetta 1 in Bayonetta 2. The smartest move nintendo has made in years.

Hyrule Warriors

Didn't Zelda invent Z-targetting?

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse

They're making a sequel to one of the best nintendo DS games of all time? Hell ya nintendo good on ya!

Xenoblade Chronicles

♫ANIME ROBOTS AND PEOPLE DISCOVERING THEMSELVES WHILE FIGHTING EVIL THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT YEAH YEAH♫

Mario Maker

I fear they'll find a way to mess this up real bad so I'm cautiously optimistic for now.

Splatoon

This looks genuinely cool, but that presentation...man it's like they just discovered what a competitive shooter was. It's cool that nintendo is getting behind this.

At the beginning of 2014 I made a promise to myself to finish a whole bunch of games that are sitting here unplayed. Like any project I undertake I began with a list, and that only made me more depressed. There were 43 games that I haven't completed yet, not including the unreleased games and new announcements that are happening every other week. We are now a third of the way through the year and I've only managed to complete 16 games. I'm hoping to finish the whole lot before we are bombarded with more games this holiday season.

I'm going to quickly review all of these and follow up later again in the year. I may have won the battle, but the war against this massive backlog is still not over. I'm doing this mostly for me but feel free to tell me how wrong I am about these games.

Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

If this is truly the last Zelda of this type, it's a great way to go out. I never played A Link to The Past but that didn't detract at all from the experience. Phantom Hourglass is my favorite Zelda game (yeah I'm not the biggest fan of the series) and that's probably why I like this game so much, overhead Zelda is just better! The music, the dungeons, the non-linear approach, the story, everything about this game is wonderful in its execution and simplicity. Bare-bones but finely crafted is the best way to put it.

Alan Wake

Something about the controls irked me all the way to the end. I see what they were going for but I would have preferred a stiff 3rd person camera rather than the weird floaty changing-sides-every-other-minute over the shoulder view. Ah yes, the story was pretty good, but it really dragged on towards the end. Besides a few cool encounters, most of the fights were pretty tame and not worth it. A cool premise but they fumbled on the execution.

Rainbow Six Vegas

I loved Rainbow Six Vegas 2, the sequel to this, but playing the story backwards was really weird. Both these games are a little too similar to each other, down to the UI and music, but both are extremely solid games. I like me a brainless shooter but I much prefer having to figure out how to take out a room of baddies tactically without getting shot up. I'm really hoping something new finally comes out this year with the words "Rainbow Six" on it. It's about time Ubisoft.

Pokemon X

This was my first completed pokeman game (I was big into the cards, never the games) and I finally understand what all the hype is about. Capturing the monsters, building your ultimate team and then becoming wold champion is a universally awesome concept that is brilliantly executed here. Yeah it's probably waaaay too similar to the other 12 pokemon games but you probably already knew that.

Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

As stated above, overhead zelda games are preferred, and even playing what is arguably the best zelda game of all time didn't change my mind. I'm not saying that this is a bad game, in fact it is very good, and made even better with the changes in the HD version. I had a ton of fun exploring the dungeons and killing the bosses, but being stuck in the empty overworld not knowing what to do next was awful. I thought Hyrule field was pretty empty back in the 90s, but this is almost even more pointless. The story was pretty good tho!

Batman Arkham Origins

You have to really really really like the Arkham gameplay to excuse the "been there done that" feel of this game. It's not bad, but this is the third time I've cleared this room of bad guys by way of stealth or violence, and it's gotten very stale. I found all the secrets in AA and AC, but I couldn't be bothered to do a single side mission in this. Also there are massive game breaking bugs (such as loosing all your progress) that left a really bad taste in my mouth. So not only was this a stale saltine, this saltine also had some mold on it.

Prototype 2

There's nothing really bad about this game, besides the dialogue, but there's also nothing that makes this stand out, even in a genre that isn't as overplayed as this (open world superpower games are nowhere near as prevalent as shooters or racers). It's not a stale saltine but it's not sirloin steak either, it's just mac-n-cheese: simple and quick. It ends and you're just left with a big "eh this was okay" feeling.

Fable Anniversary

I adored the original game back in the day, and this HD remake proved to me that it was more than just nostalgia. Yeah the game never lived up to the promises made by a certain British gentleman but it was still a solid action adventure game at the end of the day. The combat is simple and the story is nothing too special, but I still managed to do every side quest and find every secret because it's so much fun to just be in Albion.

Mario and Luigi Dream Team

Yo fuck this game! It starts off great with your typical Mario story but with RPG elements that are really fun and dialogue that is clever and humorous. Then it drags on for 40 hours, and you skip all the witty dialogue that pops up every 5 steps, and you restart every battle on easy mode because you're sick of the combat, and you throw your 3DS on the ground because the big boss battles aren't battles at all but rather long quick-time events that you need to perfect otherwise you need to restart the whole sequence all over again, and then you lie on the ground crying because you're 35 hours in and still haven't gotten the power that lets you break boulders. This is the polar opposite gameplay of South Park Stick of Truth.

Thief (2014)

It's really weird when your first playthrough of a game takes you 16 hours to finish and then you second playthrough takes less than 4 hours. Talk about padding the experience out....This game isn't bad or anything, it's just that the overworld is poorly designed and the story is boring nonsense. If you liked previous Thief games you're probably going to hate this. If you love Deus Ex Human Revolution this will seem like a real B-Team type of game, and if this is your fist experience with a stealth game you might go "huh this is alright, I wonder if other stealth games are better?" (yes they are).

Titanfall

This is the closest I've felt to reliving my Call of Duty 4 days. Titanfall is pretty bare-bones but the simplicity is what makes the experience. I don't feel overwhelmed by weapon upgrades, kill streaks, weapon levels, perk upgrades, attachments, etc. Yes know there are a ton of these types of games that are simple and fun but I've yet to find on that lets me call in a giant mech from the sky. And the fact that you're never more than 3 minutes away from one just adds to the crazy hyped up feel of this game. It truly feels like Call of Duty on crack, everything is running at 110% speed at all times. This is how CoD4 felt back in 2007; when most other shooters were about slow ass weapons, and slow ass players scoping each other out on oversized maps, Modern Warfare came in and gave you big assault rifles, gave you fast movement speed and put you in small maps and let you fight it out to the bitter end, and even if you died you could still fuck someone over with martyrdom.

Metal Gear Solid 2

It's weird that "Raiden" was the reason so many people fell of Metal Gear after this game and not the shit gameplay. The controls in this game are probably the worst I've ever dealt with, and the "stealth" is nothing more than a huge distraction until the next boss fight. Nothing about being stealthy is important to the game or even matters because in the end you're in a big arena fighting some...thing....and the amount of enemies you've killed or left alone doesn't matter at all. And it's certainly not a matter of "play it how you want mayne" because you can't play this as a shooter or anything else either.

Metal Gear Solid 3

Which brings me to my next point: Even if you made the controls slightly better, and made the stealth actually matter, and made the levels more than just one oil rig, it still doesn't make the series any more fun. The story and characters are still lame, the gameplay is now even more boring and the bosses are somehow worse than before. I thought I was done and shouldn't bother with the next game in this HD pack, but then something happened....

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker

That thing was a game that actually game me options. I had the option to use different controls, I had the option to be stealthy or shoot up the place (and survive), I had the option to play with others, I had the option to go and level up before redoing a hard boss. This game is awesome, and it only sucks when I'm stripped away from having options and am forced to play a scenario in only one way (like MGS2-3 does). Maybe through attrition I finally began to like the story and characters but something finally clicked and now I'm excited for new Metal Gear, something I would have never said had I not experienced Peace Walker.

Dark Souls 2

If you've played Dark Souls before you'll know exactly why this game is awesome or why it sucks. If you haven't, well then I'm not good enough with words to explain it to you. It one of those games you need to experience to know if it's for you. For all of you Dark Souls fans, all I have to say is that Shrine of Amana is just bad, there's no excusing the design of that area. The rest of the game is awesome and much more accessible, which I really enjoyed. I finished this in 35 hours, and now feel way more prepared to finally finish Dark Souls Uno.

There's More to Come

And that's it up until today, March 29. I've still got a lot more to go, and I'll probably follow up in 3 months or so to see if I've made any real progress. The shotgun approach may not be the best way to formulate thoughtful opinions about games, but this backlog is something I need to get rid of, I just have to...

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Here's the rest of the backlog:

-Viva Pinata TIP

-Hitman HD Collection

-Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

-The Orange Box

-Super Mario Galaxy

-Dark Souls

-Forza 5

-Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze

-Paper Mario Sticker Star

-Lara Croft & the Guardian of Light

-Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

-Super Mario Galaxy 2

-Zelda: Skyward Sword

-Final Fantasy XIII

-Dead Island

-Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

-Battlefield 4

-Bravely Default

-Donkey Kong Country Returns

-Dante's Inferno

-Bit Trip Runner 2

-Castlevania Lords of Shadow

-Wolfenstein

-Civilization Revolution

-Perfect Dark

I know how you like it GB, raw and to the point. So here it is, simply every game I've played this year that I can remember. There are spoilers, you've been warned.

2013 video games I've played

	Dead Space 3 This game was not the shit show certain people will have you believe. It was a weak Dead Space entry and all the combat scenarios were getting real tiresome by the end. Fighting a big zombie moon was as stupid as it was awesome. Not doing anything to stand out was this game's weakest point, otherwise it played well and had no glitches. I did play through this 3 times in a row so maybe I liked it more than other people....
	Crysis 3 Well....the multiplayer was fun, but I can't remember a single thing about the campaign besides it freezing after you beat the final boss. Because of this stupid bug I had to beat the last boss 5 times...that shit is fucked. They improved on what was a solid but problematic multiplayer in Crysis 2. That's really all I can say about Crysis 3.
	Tomb Raider Honestly I was impressed by the first showing of this and was even ready to play the QTE interactive movie that was that E3 demo, but it was even better than I expected. It had a cool story, great set-pieces, good controls and fun puzzles. There aren't many things I can complain about here....hopefully Tomb Raider 2 has more tombs to raid.
	Gears of War: Judgment I'm one of the few who actually likes the Baird character, so this was right up my alley. It's really different from gears 1-3 because it prioritizes score and single segments of campaign over a larger narrative story. All the shortcomings were a bummer (bad multiplayer suite) but I'd had my fill with Gears 3. If you can find this for cheap and you like Gears give this a try, just don't spend $60 on it.
	Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon Having never played the first, I had no idea what I was getting into. Turns out Luigi's Mansion is one of the best Mario Spinoffs. It's so much fun to just explore every little secret in this game. There are some framerate issues here and there but it never affects the gameplay.
	BioShock Infinite This game....I don't care how wrote the whole "multiverse" premise was, it was still awesome. Guess what, Mass Effect 2 didn't exactly have the most original setting or plot, but it was still superb. Seeing baby Elizabeth's finger get severed because of Booker's bad decisions really hit me for some reason. This game was also way more fun to play than Bioshock, so there's hope that the next thing this studio makes will be even better in terms of gameplay.
	Metro: Last Light I found Lenin's tomb in the post apocalyptic Red Square. Now imagine if they made a game on the scale of Fallout 3 set in Moscow where you could go anywhere and explore 860+ years of history.But I can't fault a game for not being what I want it to be. Luckily even if it is another Half-Life derivative shooter, it is still an amazing game. It looks great, it plays great and has an awesome story. One of the best games of the year.
	Resident Evil: Revelations I never played RE4 so I can't hate on this game for being yet another failure to reproduce the magic of that game. I can however complain about how dumb the story is in this....like holy shit if there was a category for worst story, this would be up there. Luckily the gameplay is solid, if you have a couple of podcasts lined up and want to shoot some zambies this could entertain you for a few hours.
	GRID 2 I pretty much like everything codemasters has made this generation, but they've never been able to get me into the multiplayer in any of their games. Like every other game, I played the singleplayer to 100% completion and put this game away. It's almost sad in a way....hopefully one day they'll make a multiplayer racing game I'll enjoy.
	Animal Crossing: New Leaf I dunno, I haven't really finished this game yet so I can't speak too much about it.... Just fucking with ya, it's animal crossing ya'll. It's on the 3DS now. You're the mayor now. I really don't know what to say.... I guess it's cool I can go on that island and pay off my house in one beetle catching trip.
	Saints Row IV Talk about trying waaaay to hard to recreate a magical moment. This is the Marshall Mathers LP 2 of videogames.
	The Bureau: XCOM Declassified It's like a more complex Mass Effect combat system with allies that are completely useless. I ended up liking this more than I should, but it simply isn't worth $60. Read up on the ending to this, it's maybe as dumb as the ending to Dead Space 3 (before DLC).
	Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist I loved Conviction, but I feared that now Splinter Cell would never return to the days of Chaos Theory. Turns out I was wrong. It still doesn't have the suite of abilities that made Sam feel like an unstoppable badass in Chaos Theory but it's getting there. I was seriously scared that they would drop the ball like they did with GR: Future Soldier but they did good.
	Rayman Legends This is how you make a good 2D platformer. Getting stuck in a game like this because you're unable to beat a section is the worst! Also this is just super fun to play and look at. Oh and those musical levels are so amazing. I don't know if I can find a bad thing to say about this.... ...Okay when you finally get a million lums you get naked Rayman....talk about bullshit. In the words of Chief Keef: That's that shit I don't like!
	Grand Theft Auto V The fact that this game runs as well as it does on such ancient hardware is in itself an achievement. I still enjoyed the story in GTA 4 but the gameplay was so much better this time around; If I'm in the mood to just fuck around in a virtual city I'll grab this over GTA 4 any day. The story is nowhere near as good as some of the games Rockstar has been releasing recently but the gameplay is probably the best it has been yet.
	Pokémon X/Y This is the first pokemon game I really played fully, and I now see why it's so popular and addictive.It's pokemon yo. The new pokemon aren't (literally) garbage or ice cream cones anymore. Froakie is awesome, and getting a bike and XP share super early makes this so much better than the old pokemon games I've dabbled in.
	Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag I started off hating this game. I felt duped. I promised myself I wouldn't fall for another Assassin's Creed and here I was tailing dudes, hiding and waiting for the little awareness circles to vanish. However after a couple of hours of blowing up forts, plundering ships, climbing towers and hunting animals I ended up falling back in love with this game. Its got just enough peripheral elements to make me less pissed about yet another "tail this guy" mission. I'm not big on pirates but I still like the setting, and by the end I really enjoyed the story of Edward Kenway.
	Battlefield 4 Talk about disappointment. It's not even the fact that the game crashes every 30 mins. that bums me out, it's the fact that it's just Battlefield 3.1.1 and not actually Battlefield 4.This is an expansion pack to Battlefield 3. There I said it. I spent hundreds of hours playing BF3 and Bad Company 2, I don't want to play those games anymore.... I did however spend 10 hours playing Bad Company 2: Vietnam last week....which is....ironic?
	Super Mario 3D World This is like the Crayon Pop of videogames. It's simple and fun. It doesn't ask much of you. Just sit back and enjoy the pretty pictures and fun platforming. What else do you need?Hey if watching cute Korean girls Mario jump around and dance stomp goombas doesn't do it for you then I understand, but there is no denying the fun this game can bring to the table if you're wiling to accept it.Fuck the last level tho, that shit is stupid hard. They could at least give you one checkpoint....
	The Last of Us This just isn't for me. I'm down to watch some heavy stuff when it comes to movies but I play games to have fun, and Last of Us is no fun. "But that's the point!" is not a valid excuse that will suddenly make me like this game. By the time I had to shoot my way out of that hospital I felt like just giving up and watching the end on youtube. It had some great characters and a solid narrative, but the fact that playing this felt like a chore really detracted from the overall experience. Also the story blew it's load in the intro. No other part of the story felt as poignant as that opening sequence.

It's been a solid year overall, maybe not as strong as 2007 through 2010 but still a strong showing of games. The 3DS had an amazing year as well, hopefully this trend continues.

So that makes them my favorites right? That's how that works correct?

So here they are. Unlike in many years past where I could play a game once and make up my mind about it, this time I found myself going through games multiple times just to figure out what it is I liked about them. At one point while playing through Max Payne 3 for a third time I could no longer just sit there and say "eh this game is alright I guess". Something was pushing me to play these games so much. So I did a bit of soul searching and managed to make a list that resembles a GOTY list.

Mark of the Ninja

Look at that dude. His insanity tattoos are way cooler than Jason Brody's. I love stealth games and this is one of the better ones on the market. This game does drag on towards the end, but once I finished the mostly forgettable story I went right back in and started playing missions in new ways with new toys but nothing was as satisfying as beating every level without killing anyone ever. I beat the game once, then I beat it in NG+, then I went and got all the suits and am now working on getting every seal. I spent a lot of time as a virtual ninja this year.

Syndicate

I really like this game. If Syndicate is the tip of the spear on this "sci-fi future shooters" then I welcome the next 5 years of futuristic murder simulators. But what makes this special is the cooperative gameplay. Once I beat the bland singleplayer I found myself replaying the co-op over and over and over. With a team or with randoms, with or without voice chat, I found the experience consistently enjoyable. It's a shame nothing came of it and the sales were so poor. I want more of this and I can only play the same few levels over and over again before I master them. I spent a lot of time in the corporation controlled future this year.

Trials Evolution

There is almost nothing as satisfying as crossing that checkered line and seeing attempt number 436 in the top left corner of the screen. As frustrating as this game seems sometimes, it's never cheap. It rewards patience and technique better than almost any other game around. Once I completed the hardest track in the game, after my 200th attempt or so, I went right back and tried to gold medal every track. Then I found out you can get platinum medals too and proceeded to fall deeper into the Trials wormhole. I also didn't help that there are literally infinite user created tracks too. I spent a lot of time on a virtual bike this year.

SSX

I completely understand if you were disappointed by this game as an SSX fan; there was no multiplayer to speak of and that's a big bummer. But that wasn't me. My last snowboarding game was 1080 Snowboarding on the N64 and this game just brought back all those awesome memories. The descents were great, the music was awesome, the controls were fluid and the autolog inspired "multiplayer" kept me coming back to beat my friends....records. It was so satisfying to be number one on your friends list after trying to beat their score for hours and hours. I spent a lot of time on the virtual slopes in 2012.

Forza Horizon

If you told me a new Forza game that came out just a year after Forza 4 would be one of my favorites just a year ago I would have laughed in your face. Many open world racing games don't work for me because there are just way too many events and they are all way to similar to one another, but with Horizon I found myself racing and enjoying every.single.event. without exception. Once I ran out of things to do and cars to buy I proceeded to play online against others and had a ton more fun. Safe to say I spent a lot of time in virtual Colorado this year.

Mass Effect 3

There was a lot to be disappointed about in Mass Effect 3 but there was a whole lot more stuff to be stoked about in the final chapter to one of this generation's best trilogies. As much as the ending bummed me out, I still went right back in and played again as a giant douchebag Shepard, then as a Ice Cube lookalike, then as an adept, then on insanity and so on. Yes I like ME2 more than ME3 in almost every aspect but when compared to other sci-fi RPGs, Mass Effect 3 is still an awesome game that plays well and has cool characters and settings. Despite the many hours I've already spent playing ME3 I'm still dying to see what that final DLC is and I want nothing more than to play this game again with all the DLC and new ending. I spent a gang of time traveling through the galaxy this year.

Darksiders II

Darksiders wasn't exactly a game I enjoyed or even wanted to finish at one point in time. I eventually finished it and found myself really liking it's dark take on the Zelda concept. However I was extremely glad when Vigil games threw all that bullshit out the window and started fresh with Darksiders II. This game outclasses Darksiders in almost every area if you ask me. The gameplay is much more fluid, the enemies are better, the environments are cooler and the music is absolutely fantastic. Jesper Kyd did some of his best work here, it's such a shame that so few people got to experience it. I beat this game twice, found all the collectibles, beat all the bosses and got all the achievements and still wanted more. I hope Vigil continues this great series after all this THQ business is over. I brought death to a lot of dudes this year.

Far Cry 3

I hated Far Cry 2....at first, but then I went back to it, learned its many intricacies and minimized my bad design moments and ended up kinda liking what Ubisoft did. However Far Cry 3 pretty much fixes whatever problems I had with FC2 and does so much more. Yeah the story is mostly pointless (I still liked it though) and some of the enemy AI is downright laughable but everything else is so great. The shooting, the missions, the driving, the open world, the drugs, the fire, the wingsuit, the takedowns and the awesome characters all come together to craft what is one of the funnest experiences of the year. I spent way too much time hunting for collectibles in the south pacific. I totally understand now what Ryan meant when he said he was disappointed that there wasn't more to do in Saint's Row the Third.

Max Payne 3

This is the game I spent the most time with this year. I played through the story three whole fucking times, then beat the New York Minute challenge, got every single grind and then proceeded to play the solid multiplayer for many hours. I'm not sure what hooked me so bad; was it the shooting, the story or the characters, or a combination of all three? Whatever it was I loved every minute of Max Payne 3. The haters will give me a million reasons why this game is a pile of flaming garbage but their arguments will always fall of deaf ears because love is greater than hate, and love is blind, and none of that makes any sense, just like my love of Max Payne 3.

Halo 4

My love of Halo pretty much only extends to the games themselves and not the extended fiction. If anything I would rather read the Gears of War wiki pages that anything related to the Forerruners. Yeah I enjoyed the narrative of Halo CE, being trapped on a mysterious world and discovering it's many secrets made for cool premise, as simplistic as it may have been. But when Halo 2 tried to tell me what was really going on I could not care less. This is perhaps the reason I enjoyed the setup of Halo 4 so much. You were the master chief and you were being sucked into a weird metal planet. Simple and elegant, a story for the ages. Yes what happened between the librarian reveal and the second to last mission in terms of story was garbage but Halo 4's strength lies in its gameplay being able to overshadow all that nonsense. It may not be your favorite flavor of shooter, but it is definitely mine. Very few FPS games are able to provide this level of satisfaction when it comes to shooting dudes in their alien faces.

Notable Mentions

• FEZ: it was alright, it didn't grab me.
• Sleeping Dogs: I did not like this game and it's lame story
• Black Ops 2: probably is the best multiplayer since COD4 but I just couldn't be bothered anymore
• Dishonored: It failed to deliver
• Assassin's Creed 3: The honeymoon phase is over; get out of those sweatpants and put on some makeup and maybe I'll call you again
• Hitman Absolution: I actually liked this, but there were better games this year.
• Ghost Recon Future Soldier: What happened Ubisoft?
• Borderlands 2: This is the secret 11th game on this list. Congrats on making it this far. Borderlands adds wonderful variety to a formula that is fun and addictive. No longer will you see the same desert for 60 hours and no longer will you fight some of the lamest bosses in video game history. I salute you Gearbox, and now humbly ask you to finally release a new god damned Brother in Arms game....pleeeaaaase I'm dyin' over here.

I didn't play Journey or The Walking Dead, I ran out of time. Also Driver San Francisco is my 2011 game of 2012 and I'm really excited for Metro Last Light, Bioshock, Gears of War Judgment and new consoles in 2013. Okay that's it have a happy new year duders.

What's the year been like since? Looking back, I can't say everything went according to plan. There has been some delays, some silence from the games media, some poor reviews and some "cancellations". The year is not over though, and some news from E3 definitely gave me a lot to think about. Honestly this blog would have made way more sense back in June or July but I do what I feel like, so August 10th it is.

Here's the original blog: http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/vinny_says/what-im-looking-forward-to-in-2012/30-89636/

	1. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning What was said: From what I've heard so far, this game is an Oblivion clone in 3rd person without the completely open world. Sounds like a mix of Elder's Scrolls and Fable, and I'm down for that. It's supposed to come out early 2012 but I believe Skyrim will release DLC at the same time and it would be a shame for me to forget about this. Rich is always talking up this game on the bombcast so it's time to see if there's anything there. Well we all know how this story played out. It's a bummer that the entire staff was laid off because from everything that was said about KOA one could say this game was pretty good. I wouldn't actually know because I haven't played this yet. I have played that Skyrim DLC though. From Jeff's and other people's reviews the whole "fable meets oblivion" thing turned out to be kind of true. A large world with plenty to do but not exactly an open map. The thing this game does very well (again, from reading reviews) is the combat and that's the one thing that still makes me want to play this, everything else just seems generic to me. I can say that the hype came and went pretty quick, and I feel slightly responsible for people loosing their jobs. Then again, I'm not the one who forced them to work on a MMO for years and years.
	2. Syndicate What was said: One time Jeff came back from a preview and said it was a bit like Deus Ex, that's good enough for me. I have no previous history with the series, I seriously have no idea what it is but apparently this announcement pissed off quite a few people. This I actually played, and boy was it good. Maybe it's the fact that absolutely nothing else was out at the time but I had so much fun with this. I have no prior history with the franchise, but I still felt like I knew what was up. The atmosphere was done well, and the missions were fun and engaging. The best part though was the co-op; all the upgrades, the mission variety, the difficulty settings and the awesome weapons make for probably some of the best multiplayer of 2012. Unfortunately reaching the level cap comes pretty easy, and a lack of DLC didn't help. Overall this was a pleasant surprise; like I said I was excited but only because it was going to be kinda like Deus Ex, it was actually way more than just that. Oh and those weapon sounds....this and BF3 are up there when it comes to the "feel" of firearms. Now the only thing BF3 needs is a sniper you tilt in close quarters. Genius!
	3. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier What was said: It's about time this came out, seriously what the fuck has Ubi been doing to this game? I've seen it in a million different states and each time it looked worse and worse. Honestly I'm more excited to see the result rather than play it. This is my Duke Nukem Forever. So this is what Ubisoft has been making this whole time? I remember so many things from E3 and previews and I swear none of it made it into this. Remember when the bombcrew was talking about a multiplayer mode where you got active camo if you stood next to a sniper? What the hell happened to that? What happened to all the cool stuff? I'll be honest, this game is average at best, it's really nothing special. It's no Duke Nukem Forever but if I compare this to the original PC Ghost Recon it might as well be. There are some stand out moments, like the stealth mission in a Russian base but the rest was just your run of the mill "let's save Russia from internal strife, because we are American and we love being the world police"....but without the awesome open maps and squad management that made the first game awesome. Also the faces looked like garbage.
	4. Mass Effect 3 What was said: I'll be honest, I'm scared to play this. Scared because I have 2 characters in ME2; one was my original playthrough of ME2 without a previous save and the other is the Shepard that's been through ME1 and ME2. I want my first ME3 game to be the true story of Shepard but I feel like I'll miss out on stuff, stuff like Wrex being there because he was dead in ME2....It's a confusing mess but my excitement remains everpresent for the series. Oh brother....do I really want to open this can of worms? I'll just say that I played as my ME2 Shepard, finished it, saw the ending, then played it again to get all the achievements. Yes everything was wrapped up a little too neatly (except a few things), but really that's what we wanted and that's what we got.
	5. Borderlands 2 What was said: Borderlands was ssssoooooooo boring, holy shit was it ever boring...but somehow I spent 50 hours playing it, alone. I'm excited because I know Gearbox will take the original complaints and its shortcomings and will make Borderlands 2 the greatest game ever made. Weird how these things can work out... Every time I see footage of this I get more and more excited, it seems like Gearbox are just doing whatever they feel like with this game and that's a philosophy I can truck with. I'll probably end up spending my 50 hours playing solo again and that's how I want it, and with the news of infinite levels I might just end up spending more time than that.
	6. Assassin's Creed What was said: This is really the last chance I'm giving this series. If it's not Assassin's Creed 3 then I'm done. I love Assassin's Creed, I love the original and it's glorious setting (perhaps the greatest setting in the history of videogames), I love AC2 and the myriad of improvements they made to the series. I love ACB and it's refinement of the AC2 formula and I even love Revelations despite it's lack of innovation. The ending to Revelations sets up AC3, not another spinoff...get it toghether Ubisoft! Logic prevailed in the end, and we finally get the proper third game of the beloved Assassin's Creed franchise. I still don't like the annual sequels but I reeaally want to play more Assassin's Creed, and with the reveals since January, I reeeeaaaalllyyy want to play Assassin's Creed 3. I mean c'mon! A native dude fighting templars in the middle of the american revolution? Awesome, just awesome.
	7. BioShock Infinite What was said: This is a game I'm looking forward to playing today, but ask me again tomorrow and I'll tell you how this game looks super stupid. Bioshock was a true achievement in games. I wasn't as impressed at the time but looking back I can easily say that it is a masterpiece. I have a feeling the team responsible for it can do it again, I just wish they had named this something else. Today? Today my feelings on this game is that it's probably going to be a disappointment. Ask me again tomorrow and you might get a different answer. It sucks that this was delayed, but there are probably very good reasons for Ken Levine to hold this back. Will this be received like Bioshock was back in 2007? We'll just have to wait until 2013 to find out.
	8. Far Cry 3 What was said: This right here is my most anticipated game of 2012. I never played Far Cry but I did play Instincts and it was glorious. Far Cry 2 had the major issue of playing like shit until you figured out the right way to play it, which is the worst thing a game can do. Far Cry 2 lacked the "trapped on an island and must survive" formula that made the previous games great, which doesn't seem to be an issue here. I'm looking forward to sneaking up on dudes and breaking their necks... Nah man....those boobs were....artistic brah.....it was art. Hey at least this game has a release date, so that's a positive. I still want to play this, but I'm hoping the whole game is a drug induced fantasy and at the end you find out you're just a dude who did too much meth and fell into the monkey cage at the zoo.
	9. Grand Theft Auto V What was said: Worst kept secret in videogames in recent memory. In a world where SR3 has managed to nail the over the top antics of GTA SA it's going to be interesting to see what Rockstar has cooked up for us. Will they continue the serious tone of GTA4? Will they revert to the crazyness of San Andreas, and if so will it take a piss on Volition's best game or just look like a sad attempt at humour? So I'm just going to come out and say it, as much as it pains me, this is probably not coming out in 2012. That trailer confirmed our suspicions about the setting, but told us nothing else about the game. If I had to guess, this game will stick with the "serious" tone of GTA 4 but we'll have to wait until 2013 (or later) to find out.
	10. Hitman: Absolution What was said: I loved Blood Money more than I had any reason to, and it's been a while since Agent 47 was in a video game. I remember watching "how not to play hitman" on gamespot.com, those videos were awesome. A recent trailer had the youtube comments proclaiming stuff like "RIP Hitman" and "Well there's another series killed off" so we have yet to see what this game is truly about. So we got the gameplay in chinatown, then we got the nun trailer, then we got the confirmed chinatown gameplay at E3, then we got the "the nuns aren't part of the game" news, then we got the gameplay where you assassinate those jocks and then we got the "the nuns are part of the game" news. I'm not sure what's going on in the marketing department over at square enix but what I do know is that this game is coming out this fall and I really want to play it.
	11. Halo 4 What was said: This is still called Halo 4 right? They should change that. Iconic series like this one aren't often just given to a brand new develloper with the intent of starting a whole new trilogy. I'm excited to see what 343 studios will acomplish with Halo....4....ugh what a dumb name.... It looks like they aren't going to change the name of this game.....oh well. At least all the footage they have shown has been solid. An entirely new campaign for John and Cortana is exactly what I want, and as launch day creeps closer and closer it seems like 343 is doing exactly what needs to be done to Halo.
	12. Max Payne 3 What was said: Wait actually I don't care about Max Payne, why is this on here? Oh right because I'm an idiot and will simply buy anything that has a Rockstar logo on the box. After playing this, I actually do care about Max Payne, or at least more than I did before. This game was really divisive, and the vitriol from some of the people on the internet was really crazy. So far this game is probably my favorite game of 2012; I played through it 3 times and got hooked to completing those mini challenges, and had a lot of fun playing the multiplayer. It's impossible for someone to spend as much time with a game as I did and not like it. I hope the shooting mechanics and refinements find their way into GTA5. So far Rockstar games' record is perfect this generation (yeah that ping pong game was pretty cool).
	13. Metro: Last Light What was said: Metro 2033 is an amazing game, especially when played entirely in Russian. More games should just let you play in the native language of it's characters. The struggle for survival of the Moscow citizens is something I want to experience again, few game can manage to pull off a feeling of helplessness quite like Metro does. Just go watch that gameplay footage from E3 and be amazed. It sucks that this game is also delayed but at least the devs confirmed that I can play the whole thing in Russian. I still can't wait to hit up the Moscow metro and have to scavenge for batteries and filters and ammo.
	14. Prey 2 What was said: E3 made this game sound like mass effect 2 where you are a dick for the space police, that sounds awesome. Yeaahhh....this is probably cancelled. A huge disappointment because I was really looking forward to this. I haven't been this bummed out since they cancelled season 4 of Bored to Death. Being a detective for the space FBI is something I'm still waiting for someone to deliver, unfortunately it doesn't look like Human Head studios will be doing it.
	15. Paper Mario 3DS What was said: I though this already came out. But seriously it's about time Nintendo put out some games. Super Mario 3D Land made me feel slightly better about spending $300 on a 3DS, and I realize only Nintendo will release the games that make me care about the handheld. Stuff like Luigi's Mansion 2 is great but the Paper series is my favorite mario format. If they keep on bringing the games, and finally release the true 3DS Zelda then maybe I will stop proclaiming that the 3DS is a failure... Paper Mario: Sticker Star is the title we got from Nintendo after E3, and it looks like the they are going back to the RPG mechanics instead of the real time combat of Super Paper Mario. What else is there to say? It's still a bummer that the 3DS has barely anything worthwhile on after all this time, and my statement still stands to this day. Yeah it's finally making money, but the games just aren't there....

Those can't be the only games you've played so far right?

Well fellow duder, you are right! I did play other things and there were some pleasant surprises and some unpleasant disappointments. Here's a few things I left off my list back in January:

SSX

This was one of the pleasant surprises that came out of nowhere. I bought this on a whim and immediately fell into the addictive routine of beating my friends records on RiderNet. I heard this was also pretty divisive but I was too busy at the time having a blast to pay attention to internet comments. Recently this game added full on multiplayer and there has been some significant updates to the game. If you still own this, dust it off and give it another go; don't listen to what Ryan has to say.

The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings: Enhanced Edition: Arcade Remix: The Lost Tapes

This on the other hand was one of the disappointments that reared its ugly head about 10 hours into the game. Maybe I was just too caught up in the hype machine. At one point I just didn't even want to finish this at all. I eventually did and was left completely confused as to why so many people called it the game of the century. Maybe I just need to play it on PC....that's what it is! PC has fast travel right?

Alright....so objectively this is probably a good fantasy RPG but subjectively it just seems like a generic fantasy story with boring characters and a lot of boobs. The political aspects would of been so much cooler if not for the dumb magicians and witches, but then again this is a fantasy RPG. I'll give it another go in the future before passing final judgement (because I only did the main quests) and maybe I'll really like it upon a second playthrough.

Darksiders 2

So back in January I had not yet played the original Darksiders but ever since finishing that bad boy I simply cannot wait for Darksiders 2. Darksiders had its share of problems but it was just so damn fun and set up a sequel so well; Darksiders 2 literally skyrocketed up on my interest meter the minute I finished War's adventure through post apocalyptic earth.

Well that's it for now. Maybe I'll look back at this in December and see how things panned out, unless there's a terrible videogame apocalypse and nothing is actually released....that would suck, but at least the bombcrew can still entertain me with stories of dirty bathrooms and crawlspaces full of scorpions.

Is one of the greatest lines in video games in 2011. It's genuinely hard to make a humorous game and I must give props to Volition for getting it right.

I recently took it upon myself to play the original Gears of War and see why this series exploded into the phenomenon it is today. This series has always been written off as nothing more than a good 3rd person shooter with no story but the franchise has somehow ended up with 3 games, 4 books, graphic novels, DC comics and a wiki with over 1500 pages. There has to be something about the first game that caused all this. So I drove down to the video game store and bought the terribly named "Triple Pack" after being unable to find a copy of the original (It would look way nicer on my shelf that way but whatever....).

I've finally completed the game and here's part 2 of my thoughts on Gears of War.

Here's part 1

Controls

As I was playing throug the game I could not get over the fact that Marcus can't roll and switch weapons at the same time. Such a trivial thing resulted in so many deaths because each time a Wretch charged me I tried pulling out a shotgun while rolling back but nothing happened and I got killed. The controls are smooth and work well but the sequels improved greatly in this aspect. This was one of the only things I found lacking in the game (besides Horde mode).

Narrative

Seriously, why the fuck did I jump on this train? Like out of nowhere I'm in a train station and have to get onboard a train, no explanation at all. Why was the bomb on a train headed for the locust tunnels? Maybe I missed out on a conversation with Anya during a firefight about how the bomb was already on its way, I don't know. At least in the sequels I could follow along and know why I was suddenly underground, or in a submarine.

Music

Again, the music and score are absolutely awesome. I've already talked about the music in part 1 but I just wanted to say: the combat music on the train level is some of my favorite video game music ever.

Horror?

I know the game isn't promoted as a horror game but a whole lot of the middle part seems like a horror game. An abandoned refinery, scary beasts you can't see, spooky rain, eery music....sounds like a horror game to me. I was genuinely startled in some spots of the game. I wish the sequels had some of that but they were good enough as is.

Difficulty and Final Boss

I'm just going to claim that "hardcore" is the default difficulty (most of the achievements are for the hardcore difficulty) and say that the final boss isn't that bad. I died a few times but then I found his pattern and defeated him. As long as you're quick on your feet you can avoid his troika. There were much more difficult parts in the game and even though I died countless times I was never frustrated, it's rare that a game can do that. Getting killed by a lonely locust after taking out his entire squad might seem frustrating but not to me. The game never felt cheap; if I died it was simply my own fault. I wish more games were like that.

Multiplayer

I was not a big fan of Gears multiplayer until the third game. Everything GoW3 did to make the multiplayer accessible and fun to play for a newcomer isn't in the prequels. You will either hate or love the multiplyer in the original game, there's no real way of knowing until you play. Luckily this isn't an EA game so you can still play online 5 years later. Also there is co-op and it is very good because the game is designed for it.

Final Thoughts

Playing this game answered all of my original questions. I now know why so many people enjoy the series: the first game is fantastic that's why. Epic built the franchise on a solid foundation. Playing through this felt like playing through the original Halo, or the original Splinter Cell, both games laying a strong foundation for their respective categories. If you somehow haven't played any of the Gears of War games this is a good a place to start as any.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed. I want to do this for another older game I come across and see if it holds up as well as this did. Maybe I'll pick up Kameo: Elements of Power and do this again. If you have any suggestions feel free to tell me.

I recently took it upon myself to play the original Gears of War and see why this series exploded into the phenomenon it is today. This series has always been written off as nothing more than a good 3rd person shooter with no story but the franchise has somehow ended up with 3 games, 4 books, graphic novels, DC comics and a wiki with over 1500 pages. There has to be something about the first game that caused all this. So I drove down to the video game store and bought the terribly named "Triple Pack" after being unable to find a copy of the original (It would look way nicer on my shelf that way but whatever....). I've reached the part where you drive the APC at night and decided to write down some of my thoughts about this ancient game.

The music

One of the first things that jumped out at me was the music in the game. This aspect never stood out to me in Gears 2 and 3 but here it's almost impossible to ignore. Yes it does have the usual "battle gong" or whatever the bombcast called it but the combat music is way better than anything in the sequels, or at least more memorable. The aspect that really stood out was during the quiet moments. When night falls and you're walking through an empty city the ambient music really enhances the post-apocaliptic feeling. The sequels, from what I remember, had no ambient sounds or music during their limited quiet moments.

The graphics

For a game that came out in 2006, I must admit that it doesn't look dated. It's not on the levels of Unchated or The Witcher but whatever lighting trick Epic used makes the game still totally presentable in 2012.

The Kryll

I haven't finished the game but I really want to know why the Kryll aren't around in the sequels. Getting through that city at night was really fun. It made the combat much more interesting in spots. When you can't stay in the dark for more than 5 seconds it really makes you think about where to take cover and where to retreat.

The difficulty

This is the one aspect that feels dated. This game has only 3 difficulty options. Can you believe this? Your options are "Casual", "Hardcore" and "Insane". I sat at the menu for a few minutes wondering what I should play it on. Where was the "normal" option? I was seriously wondering why my only options were easy or hard (insane is only unlocked later). Luckily the "hardcore" option provides you with plenty of challenge, and the combat puzzles really feel like...well....puzzles. Gears has always been good at this so I wasn't to surprised. Some people (Brad Shoemaker) say that the end boss is a pain in the ass but that's for later.

So those are the few of my thoughts on the original game so far. I really appreciate the set up; the military posters on the wall, the stranded, the destroyed cities, all of that really sets up a world where humans are really on the verge of loosing it all. They are still holding on to some weird military regiment but eventually you can see it all about to fall apart and turn into a true post-apocalypse. I'm too early into the game to recomend you to play it (if you're like me and somehow missed out) but so far I'm really having a blast.