Games Finished: 11
================
Hitman Absolution
Farcry 3
Lollipop Chainsaw
Spec Ops: The Line
Transformers: Fall Of Cybertron
Rayman Origins
Darksiders II
Castlevania: Mirrors Of Fate
New Super Mario Brothers 2
Dead Space 3
Tomb Raider

01.  Ni No Kuni (PS3) - Beaten 22/02/13

And my first game for 2013 is on the list.  And what a brilliant game it is.  A beautiful RPG from the developpers who brought you Dark Chronicle, Dragon Quest VIII, Jeanne D'Arc, Rogue Galaxy and Professor Layton and the animators who brought you Laputa, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.  The game is a joy to behold and it's full of moments of child like wonder.  I played very few RPGs in my life comparatively (not because I don't enjoy them, but simply because they require too many hours to finish, and my gaming time is very scarce now) but I can tell it's one of the greatest offerings in the genre from Japan in recent years.  I won't go into the gameplay specifics as I'm sure you've all read at least one review, suffice it to say that the battle system is great fun, stream-lined yet detailed, fast paced yet nuanced, easy to learn yet quite deep.  This was the first RPG I think which I finished without needing to level-grind.  I still have a lot of end-game stuff to do before I wrap it up (I have had about 60 hours so far) and I really want to stretch my time with the game as much as possible (I don't see me replaying such a long game but I will get as much out of it as I can before putting it away).  I recommend it highly to fans of JRPGs or just good ganes in any genre.

02.  Dragon Age: Origins (PS3) - Beaten 18/03/13

Game number two was again massive and took me a great many hours to do.  In contrast to Ni No Kuni however where I made a point of trying to do almost every quest and seeing as much as there was to see in the game, with DA after a certain point it just felt overwhelming, so I just played it to get to the end.  I think this may have been the first game of this nature I played to completion (I guess Diablo and Diablo II are too old and not similar enough to count).  I enjoyed it well enough but I'm not sure I'll be looking to play anymore anytime soon.  It's just too long and I didn't find the core gameplay that much fun.  That may have been my fault because I chose to avoid learning it properly which made me think the game is probably too easy because I died very few times despite not bothering with specific strategies or even skills and upgrades etc.  Also the "moral" choices and the paths one can take are kind of gimicky, and there is always a very binary system at play.  It's side with A or side with B, or kill C or kill D etc which doesn't feel all that deep considering the games reputation.  Anyway, decent enough time sink but it won't suddenly turn me into a lover of WRPGs

03.  Dead Space 2 (PS3) - Beaten 30/03/13

I only got to play the original Dead Space sometime last year.  And I loved it.  Apart from a few annoying bits there was so much I loved about it.  The atmosphere, the horror, the suspence, the storyline, killing necromorphs.  When I finished the original I almost jumped straight to number 2 but I thought I'd give it some time.  Which was a good thing, and maybe I should have waited even longer.  A lot of what I loved in DS1 is intact in Dead Space 2 but it starts to get very predictable, boring and at times very annoying.  Also the game is quite hard (even on the normal difficulty) but in the most annoying manner.  Enemies always creep up on you from behind, all they come at you from all sides or you are flooded with big numbers of really powerful ones.  There are also some new enemies, all of which tend to be much faster and your character moves way too slow to be dealing with all that is going on from all sides at certain times.  There were times when I was close to giving up because dealing with annoying difficulty spikes when I had already had enough of this is very demotivating.  The story is mostly throw-away sequel material.  I sort of expected it but it was still disappointing because the story in the original is reminiscent of some of the greatest moments from the books of Isaac (Asimov) and (Arthur C) Clark.  Anyway, that's another one down from the ole backlog.

04. ICO HD (PS3) - Beaten 02/04/13

I've had this HD Classics collection since it was released two years ago even though I have both games on the PS2.  I finally felt like revisiting the games on a decent TV and in HD.  Actually I felt like playing Shadow of the Colossus but thought I may as well take this opportunity to experience ICO in HD as well since it's on the disc.  

The game looks beautiful.  I love the use of light and shadow, the sun-bleached colours of the environments, the cinematic feel of it.  The castle the game takes place in is huge, daedalian and harrowing.  It is a place where shadows dwell, the spirits of hundreds of kids left in sarcophagus tombs to die.  ICO is one such boy, born with horns and considered cursed by his village he is taken to the castle as a sacrifice to prevent something terrible befalling the village.  Breaking out of your tomb, your task is to make your way out.  You soon meet Yorda, a weak and pale girl whom you literally free from her cage and thereafter assume responsibility to keep her safe and to help her gain her freedom.  You also need her because she appears to posess some magical properties and opens doors for you which you can't do yourself.  You basically have to find your way through the labyrinth of the castle by solving a series of room puzzles.  The only enemies you are faced with are a bunch of shadow guys who basically try to snatch Yorda from you and carry her into the shadows.  

Technically the game has some huge glaring issues.  Namely the camera and the controls.  The camera behaves as though it's main purpose is to piss you off.  You are constantly fighting it to try and get it into a half decent position but it has a mind of it's own.  You constantly have your thumb on the right analog stick even as you're trying to jump on walls and ledges and swinging on ropes and pushing blocks etc leaving you with no easy way of pressing the face buttons.  It never stays in a natural position for you to do what you have to do.  It contantly takes the weirdest of diagonals making even a simple jump seem more like a leap of faith.  The controls are very wonky and imprecise.  Especially the jumping and the latching on.  Also your movement is based on where the camera is pointed, and since that is constantly moving and swinging this way and that, it makes moving Ico a nightmare.  But anyway the puzzles are good, the setting and the locales are breathtaking, and the underlying story is very moving and leaves a lasting impression which stays with you forever.  I love this game.

05.  Shadow of the Colossus HD (PS3) - Beaten 06/04/13

I went into this right after finishing ICO.  Fumito Ueda said that it's kind of like a loose prequel to ICO.  You can see several connections and the world feels like it's the same or at least connected to that of ICO.  In this game you play as Wander (or Wanda if you're playing the PAL version).  At the start of the game you carry the body of a dead girl (presumably your love), which we are told was a result of a sacrifice, into a huge temple reminiscent of the castle in ICO and you place her on a kind of shrine.  Then a voice from above (or is it from below) tells you that you will have to slaughter 16 ginormous beasts who roam this forbidden land, the titular Colossi, in order to have a shot at resurrecting the girl.  But there are no guarantees.  And this is what you set about to do, one after another you fight these sixteen beasts to get to the end and to see what will happen.  However it's not long before you realise that these are in many ways innocent giants merrily grazing and minding their business while you are the invader who hunts them down to slaughter them for your own reasons as well as to serve the machinations of whoever it is that is guiding you.

The game is breathtakingly beautiful, even more so than ICO.  You have a massive sprawling land to explore in your quest to find the colossi who are usually hidden in secret areas you get to by following little "secret" paths off of the main map.  The environments are huge and greatly varied but everything has this soft light hue, much like in ICO.  There are deserts, forests, lakes, underground passages, waterfalls and various bits of masonry waiting to be discovered.  To move across the huge map you have your trusted horse Argo (or Agro).  

The game is plagued with the exact same issues as ICO.  The camera is your worst enemy.  Here you are fighting these hulking huge creatures trying to cling on for dear life and to jump from limb to limb to get to their vitals and the camera is doing its best to obscure what it is you need to be looking at.  So again you are having to keep your right thumb on the camera stick (for all the good it does) and having to come up with fun new ways of pressing the face buttons.  Wanda controls abysmally.  The Colossus battles are meant to be like puzzles, not endurance fights, nor technical skill contests.  Supposedly your task is to discover what you have to do to kill them.  Instead, even after you know what you want to do, you may have to try it a dozen times because Wanda can't jump where or when you want him to.  The horse AI, well this is either brilliant or terrible depending whether you believe the developers.  She has a mind of her own and will very rarely do what you want or think you are asking her to do.  It's very annoying but Fumito Ueda said they wanted her to behave like a real animal so that was their intention.  The biggest problem the game had when it was released in 2006 was the frame-rate.  During the fights with the Colossus it would get very unsteady and sometimes dip to very low numbers.  This has been taken care of in the HD version, which is a huge deal.

Despite the flaws and frustration caused by the controls, this game is a masterpiece for me in several ways.  I love how focussed and single-minded it is.  You have one goal.  You fight only bosses.  Your path is determined.  Your fate decided.  You don't have to mow a thousand cabbage heads to get to a boss fight.  Most of the Colossi are very different and you have to make good use of the weapons at your disposal (your sword and bow and arrow) as well as your horse as well as the terrain and the environment.  It is also very thought provoking in ways games don't normally care to be.  The feeling that grabs you when you land the final blow to kill the Colossus and bring it down is really hard to describe.  It's not the elation you feel when you get the "You Defeated!" screen in Demon's Souls.  There really is no other game like this.  Anyone who has played it (I trust most have) will know why Fumito Ueda is so highly revered as a game director despite a resume of just two games, and they will also know why it is so sad that we will never get to see and to play The Last Guardian

06. God of War: Chains of Olympus (PS3 - Originally PSP).  Finished:  17/04/13

I don't know why but I decided to play every God of War game I had ... in a row (it must have been a moment of enormous self-loathing).  Originally I decided to play them chronologically in terms of story, so Chains of Olympus (as the prequel to GoW I had to be first.  This is a pretty mediocre by the numbers action game the main draw of which was "Hey look it's God of War on the PSP WOW!!"  At least it's short.

07.  God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PS3 - Originally PSP).  Finished: 21/04/13

After finishing CoO I decided I couldn't be bothered to make the effort to play the games chronoligically.  There was another game on this disc and I needed to play it so I went ahead and did that.  Ghost of Sparta is another fairly mediocre game the main draw of which was again the fact that it was on the PSP.  I don't even remember much about this game and I only played it last week.  I just about remember that Kratos has a brother and your main purpose in this game is to find him.  And that the final boss is Thanatos (the Greek god of death).  The psp GoW games are unremarkable and hardly worth bothering with.

08.  God of War (PS3 - Originally PS2)  Finished 25/04/13

Ahhh, at last onto the proper games.  This is the one that started it all, and it was the only one I'd played to completion before (when it was first released).  This game is shit.  It's not aged well at all.  I don't even know why I and so many other people were impressed when this was first released.  The platforming in the game is just appalling - half the time the perspective is such that you can't judge the distance of your jump.  Anyway there's a lot that's wrong with it and which annoyed me but I can't even be bothered to write about it.

09.  God of War II (PS3 - Originally PS2).  Finished 29/04/13

This was one of the PS2's last hurrahs and I remember a lot of people saying it should have been a PS3 game.  Whatever, the game is great.  I think I'd this stage I'd have really given up if this was not top quality.  At this stage it looks like they took all that was rubbish about the series and minimised it or ditched it (I'm looking at you awful platforming) and took what was god and exemplified it.  Tons of great bosses, large ones, small ones, huge ones... some great boss fights.  Puzzles are fun, someitmes not entirely obvious.  Environments are varied and beautiful.  You feel as though you go on a real journey for this quest.  Great game, thoroughly enjoyed it.

10.  God of War III (PS3).  Finished 02/05/13

This game looks stunning.  This is the shiniest, most impressive looking and did I mention shiniest game I ever looked at.  The other aspects of the game were also upgraded.  Whereas in all the previous games you were never faced with more than three or four baddies this one at times has you fighting hordes.  There is no slowdown like in the previous games, this is smooth as silk.  In terms of what is actually going on ... well it's a little less impressive than GoWII.  There's still a good number of nice boss fights (but also some very underwhelming ones almost entirely consisting of QTE sequences) and some nice puzzles.  The setting and the environments are somewhat disappointing.  You seem to be constantly going to and fro Olympus to Tartarus with this sort of vaguely cosmic/apocalyptic background.  Anyway, good game, beautiful game, but not as good as II.  Phew

11. Guacamelee (PS3) - Finished 07/05/13

Pretty long game I'd say for a downloadable game, especially if one bothers with all the optional secrets and sidequests etc. Also pretty hard at times, partly because the controls get kind of ridiculous after a point and you need to be pressing a dozen different buttons in the right order and in quick succession to get through some tricky bits and the PS3 controller proved wanting (I feel sorry for people playing it on the Vita).

Thoroughly enjoyable game. Certainly the kind of game I want more of. The influences and tributes are too many to mention. The most obvious would have to be the metroidvanias but it borrows and winks at so many games it's ridiculous. There's the switching worlds mechanic that was also used in Outland, there's bits which will remind you of Portal, there's VVVVVV in there somewhere. There are nods to Mario, to Zelda and even Journey which I'm sure will delight some of you. And I shouldn't forget to mention Grim Fandango, the whole game world is based on the Mexican day of the dead and the duality of living-dead world. I am sure there are tons more references and tributes to other games in there which were lost on me so I'm kind of looking forward to others like Leo playing it as I'm sure they'll spot more.

Great 2D game. If you like Metroidvania type games and want to support a small independent studio you could do a lot worse than this.

12. Ucharted: Drake's Deception (PS3) - Finished 04/06/13

Fun game.  Follows the exact same template as the previous ones in the series.  Adds new locales, some fun new set pieces, nice new puzzles etc.  The story is the usual Indiana Jones cursed antique and lost city hunting stuff that's been in all the previous games.  It's good but very by-the-numbers sequel.  It also has some major annoyances such as dream/reduced conciousness sequences where you move very slowly and your view is very hazy and it's almost like a cut-scene except you have to pretend you are controlling it.  It's bad, and it happens way too much and way too often in this game.  Also, complete lack of bosses (I know they are frowned upon nowadays and looked like a thing of the past only japanese games do anymore but I would like even this type of game to have something resembling a boss fight or two).  The ending is very anticlimatic.  The bad guys just die and you walk off with Sully and the girl (yeah major spoiler there sorry!).  So, fun game but I probably wouldn't altogether mind if no more Uncharted games were made (hopefully The Last of Us will be really good to give Naughty Dog something new to work with.

13.  Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon (3DS) - Finished 24/06/13

Finished Luigi's Mansion 2.  I really enjoyed it for the most part.  Great Nintendo games have that certain hard to define quality which you don't find elsewhere.  I think this is one such game.  I loved the original on the gamecube and this is just a more fleshed out game along the same basic premise.  It has nice clever puzzles, a good variety of levels and a handful of bosses most of which are fun to fight and very different from each other.  The game is quite hefty, especially compared to the original LM on GC.  The mission structure is nice as it makes the game a bit more focussed but it's slightly annoying not to have the option to save during a mission is a little annoying as some of the missions can feel slightly long and you can't play the game in short bursts.  There's a bunch of hidden things to find which offer some incentive towards replaying certain missions, like some hidden gems, or a Boo in each level.  And when you find all the Boos in any of the "mansions" you open an additional level.  You also get a rating on how well you perform on a level but that's probably the worst of all the reasons for replaying.

I haven't tried the multiplayer.  I've read that it's a lot of fun but I'm not a very multi-player minded gamer.  And probably not too many people are playing this online now as it's been a couple of months or something since it was released.

14. New Super Mario Bros. U (WiiU) - Finished 15/09/13

I started this game before I left for nine weeks during the summer.  I didn't have that much left so I thought I'd finish it and I did when I got back from holiday.  This game (and the fact that I haven't felt like playing much) made me question whether I should still consider myself a gamer or not.  I used to love these games.  As a child I used to love this games ... they were largely the reason why I loved games on the whole, and yet here I was playing the latest instalment on Nintendo's brand new HD console and I felt very little except boredom and mild irritation.  Where was the fun?  Where was the excitement?  Maybe something just died in me.  Maybe I was wrong to still consider myself "a gamer" if I couldn't even enjoy the latest Mario platformer.  Oh well.

15.  Dark Souls - Prepare to Die Edition (PS3) - Finished 04/11/13

After Mario I spent several weeks playing nothing except for a few minutes of Animal Crossing (mostly on the bog) every other day.  I wasn't going to force myself to play anything just for the sake of doing so.  The I started thinking about playing Dark Souls.  A game I bought and started almost two years ago when it came out, only to hit a brick wall and eventually give up (seamingly for good) feeling I wasn't good enough to beat it.  Yet here I was wanting to have one last go at it.  So I did, started it from the beginning and played it very meticulously and with great care and organisation.  And I loved it.  And I finished it.  And I got quite good at it.  Seriously, there's just nothing like it (except Demon's Souls and the soon to be released Dark Souls 2).  I love this game so much.

Edge's Finished Games of 2013:

• #1: Assassin's Creed 3- Wii U

• #2: The Walking Dead- PC

• #3: Mario Kart Wii

• #4: Alpha Protocol- PC

• #5: Legend Of Zelda Skyward Sword- Wii

• #6: Xcom Enemy Unknown- PC

• #7: Goldeneye 007- Xbox 360

• #8: Tomb Raider- PC

• #9: The Walking Dead Survival Instinct- Wii U

• #10: Resident Evil 6- PC

• #11: The Last Story- Wii

• #12: Resident Evil Revelations- PS3

• #13: The Last Of Us- PS3

• #14: Pikmin 3- Wii U

• #15: Crysis 3- PC

• #16: Civilization 5- PC

• #17: Metro 2033- PC

• #18: Timesplitters 2- Gamecube

• #19: Eternal Darkness- Gamecube

• #20: Mass Effect 2- Xbox 360

• #21: Mass Effect 3- Xbox 360

• #22: Splinter Cell Blacklist- Wii U

• #23: Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker HD- Wii U

• #24: Hitman Absolution- PC

[-3] to total for the removal of Killzone 2, Spec Ops co-op and extrenous 47 minute Papers, Please playthrough.]

1. 9th of January: A Virus Named Tom.

Genuinely great. Some crappy pacing, but its best moments are just incredible. Demon's Souls? Lolz, try this instead.

2. 19th of January: A Book of Unwritten Tales: The Critter Chronicles.

Not as inspired as the first, but a whole lot more consistent. The lack of moments of genius means it's probably equal with the first, but as such it doesn't have the same charge. Nate is much improved, and they tried their best to add some challenge to the gameplay, to mixed results. Good stuff all in all.

3. 30th of January: Journey.

Uh, okay. I don't see what all the fuss about it is. That goes for people who love it and people who hate it.

4. 2nd of February: The Ship Single Player.

The worst game I have played in a very long time. No doubt the worst game I will play this year. The mission design is frustrating, the level design is retarded, and 50% of the time the game doesn't work. Why did this happen when the multiplayer is so good? Ugh. Oh well, the characters are quant and all I suppose. But fuckity fuck is it boring and frustrating: worst combination ever.

5. 23rd of February: Antichamber.

Better than Portal, there I said it. Not really got much to do with Portal either, so the relevance of that statement is low, except that Portal is fucking good, and this is better.

6. 3rd of March: Nikopol.

Some pretty easy puzzles, and some incredibly stupid ones that have the audacity show up again later on in the game! Rather bad condensation of the source material, and amusingly bad voice acting and script. But Nikopol has an awesome voice, and the atmosphere and look of the game is great. Soundtrack isn't bad either. So pretty much how I expected it to be, and an enjoyable experience. A hell of a lot better than the Nikopol film, though with no hilarious rape scene. Oh well.

7. 14th of March: Tomb Raider.

Speaking of rape scenes...badoomtish.

8. 28th of March: Zeno Clash.

The combat system could have been something really great if the AI was better, and heavy attacks weren't so over powered. I'm yet to try "extreme" difficulty, though, so maybe that will help. The music was brilliant. Catchy piano with eerie ambience FTW, and the story would have been pretty damn cool if it wasn't for Golem which not only ruined the ending, but also made the story rather generic and made the actions of the protagonists completely meaningless. The limitations of each area kinda take away from the visual impact as well. Pretty damn cool all in all, though.

9. 8th of April: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzonoha vs. The Soulless Army.

Solid battle system that can get pretty hectic in the latter battles that makes good use of blocking and a few different attack styles. The demons are basically a simplified version of Pokemon, which is definitely a good thing...but the sound. It's going for a silent film look, and it works. The problem is the silent aesthetic simply means no dialogue. So there's still sound effects, and music (which is okay, but far too repetitious) which makes the lack of dialogue seem a little jarring. When a scene is silent the effect is actually pretty good, with the facial animation pulling off silent over acting reasonably well. Not at all what I was expecting, and the worst game I've ever played for random battles (closest two encounters: under 5 seconds) but really enjoyable all the same. Plus there's tentacle dicks, penis heads, Raidou appears to be wearing a bra and panties, and I was allowed to call him Staunche Cuntery. Good shit.

10. 10th of April: Spec Ops: The Line.

10. for the 10th game I've played this year. No, not really. 6. /dealwithit.

11. 23rd of April: Spec Ops: The Line co-op missions. [x]

Simple kill and move forwards, but simple works well in co-op. Satisfying on hard; a cakewalk on normal, and impossible on anything when the connection is poor, which it very often is. Battle spontaneous teleportation, and immortal enemies that eat bullets for breakfast...and the damned 33rd.

12. 27th of April: Killzone.

Fascinating playing it after 2 and 3, and pretty much confirmed my Helghast theory. Geurilla Games is the Paul Verhoven of gaming. And despite its mediocrity I couldn't help but enjoy it due to how damn ambitious it is. Better pacing and variety than 2 as well, but like 3 it lacks from originality issues. Rico is hilarious instead of annoying as well: "It's lucky for you you hold some vital shit in your head, you bald fuck, else I'd rip it right off and shove it up your---"

13. 27th of April: Dyad.

Visually and aurally an exceptional experience. I need to delve into the trophies and remixes to make full judgement on the gameplay, though, but it doesn't really seem to do anything with its hook.

14. 7th of May: Left 4 Dead 2.

Gore is great (except that dead zombies can't be further messed up). Them long intestines FTW. The level design and what not are lacking, like in most Valve games; it's not bad, just a little bland and boring. Last level setting is cool, and weather effects in the preceding level are a cool gimmick; even if you're backtracking. Fuck the carnival. Fuckity fuck the carnival.

15. 8th of May: Cursed Mountain.

Well this was a surprise. Controls are inconsistent, progression is sometimes boring, but the use of buddhism and Tibetan culture, the setting and the atmosphere make it a thoroughly enjoyable experience. There's nothing remotely scary about it, though. In fact, it's a wonderfully relaxing trek up a haunted mountain. I loved it

16. 19th of May: Resident Evil: Revelations.

So, so good. Loved it; but hey, I loved Cursed Mountain, so what does that say?

17. 22nd of May: Metro: Last Light.

It had me at the red flags.

18. 25th of May: Malicious.

Great last boss battle. Lacklustre rest of the game. Great art style and music; terrible short story, but kudos for its existance. Liked it, really.

19. 28th of May: The Walking Dead.

They dropped the ball so badly with Episode 4 and 5, though they both ended brilliantly. I have no faith in The Walking Dead Season 2, however. All in all really liked it.

20. 29th of May: Proteus.

Better than Journey, that's for sure.

21. 30th of May: To the Moon.

The fact that I didn't hate this goes to show that arguing about whether a game needs to be particularly gamey to be a game is missing the point.

22. 7th of June: Deadly Premonition: Director's Cut.

I don't know; what do you think, Zach?

23. 8th of June: Remember Me.

[Insert pun about rememberability or forgetability]

24. 13th of June: Uncharted. [Aproximate?]

One of the best platformers of the generation. Shame it's not a platformer. Eh.

25. 20th of June: Uncharted 2. [Aproximate?]

Is it a game? Barely. Who cares, though? It's great.

26. 26th of June: Uncharted 3.

One of the best---oh, no wait. Shame it is at all.

27. 27th of June: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadows of Chernobyl.

Revolutionary AI, stylised "simulator"-level ballistics, engrossing setting and atmosphere...buggy, unfinished, lazy...amazing.

28. 3rd of July: Bioshock.

One of the best looking games of the gen. Tremendous music and setting. Amusing voice acting and solid dialogue. Decent story....and alright gameplay. That's right, not "all right" Susan O'Connor FFS.

29. 8th of July: Bioshock 2.

Superior gameplay in comparison to the original...but the pastiche lacks soul, originality, and understanding.

30: 14th of July: Bioshock: Infinite.

Technically a big improvement over the original, but still behind 2. The presentation isn't up to the standard of the original with some glaring anachronisms and boring aproximations of styles, but it's still enough to make it more interesting than 2. Ken Levine needs a daughter.

31: 16th of July: Hotline Miami.

Were the bosses and stealth levels meant to be deconstructions? If so, they fail. If not, they're still shit. They're shit either way. But who cares when the rest of the game, and the music, is so damn good?

32: 16th of July: Odin Sphere.

Great story; great first 10 hours; pretty good 10 more hours in there somewhere; 10 mediocre hours; 20 hours of genuine, patented bullshit...amazing art and all that jazz, but at times I wanted to strangle George Kamitami to death. The fucking fuck! FUCK! But after the ending I can't even hate it. :')

33: 17th of July: The Walking Dead: 400 days.

An hour and a half of "gameplay" for a short interactive teaser trailer at the end.

34: 19th of July: Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards Reloaded.

Effortlessly endearing and enjoyable, though not totally transient.

35: 21st of July: Darkwing Duck (NES)

Interesting use of the MegaMan 5 engine. Actually feels tighter, with a stronger focus on platforming. It's a shame they didn't do more with the fan service, plot and characters, though.

36: 23rd of July: Killzone 2 multiplayer. [x]

Apart from getting the trophies or the number 1 ranking, there's no other way I could possibly finish online so fuck you I'm listing it.

37: 25th of July: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine.

Homoerotic. Hot in every way.

38: 28th of July: Retro City Rampage.

Disappointing. Rampaging is fun and the missions are amusing, but not for 7 hours. Needed more depth.

39: 29th of July: Thomas Was Alone.

Thomas is dead.

40: 31st of July: Another World.

Masterpiece.

41: 3rd of August: Zeno Clash II.

Horrible PS3 port. Horrible glitches. Otherwise just as good as the original, but for different reasons. More ambitious, too.

42: 10th of August: Max Payne.

Worst. Dream. Levels. Ever. Other than that, thoroughly enjoyable.

43: 11th of August: Vanquish.

Unfuckwitable.

44: 14th of August: Max Payne 2.

Sam Lake is a racist.

45: 24th of August: Papers, Please.

Technically I finished it.

46: 27th of August: Mafia II.

Molotov cocktail cutscenes.

47: 3rd of September: Killzone 2.

Dat lead up to Radec.

48: 11th of September: Papers, Please.

Achievement, Please.

49: 12th of September: Left 4 Dead 1 (in 2).

Way to ruin a good thing with your shitty streamlined l4d2 levels. This is SO much better than 2, Jesus.

50: 12th of September: Red Steel 2.

Did the same move 1400 times just to max everything out. FU UBI

51: 13th of September: Killzone 3.

Much better with the context of Killzone 1.

52: 14th of September: Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons.

Dat title.

53: 22nd of September: The Raven - Legacy of a Master Thief.

Glitchy as all hell, but another very endearing outing from King Art Games.

54: 27th of September: Saints Row 2.

Shitty shit shit port. Good game, but.

55: 6th of October: Dragon's Crown.

The smallest MMORPG ever.

56: 6th of October: Saints Row: The Third.

WTF IS HAPPENING?

57: 21st of October: Saints Row IV.

WTF happened?

58: 21st of October: Goodbye Deponia.

Sehr gut.

59: 26th of October: Resistance.

Metroid Prime 3 looks better you HD obsessed dickwads.

60: 29th of October: Resistance 2.

Looks better than Metroid Prime 3 now, though. Still pretty damn ugly.

61: 31st of October: Resistance 3.

Oh, now it looks way better than Metroid Prime 3, but isn't ugly to boot.

62: [aproximately the] 4th of November: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.

The Uncharted of Us. Better than both.

63: 6th of November: Pigsy's Perfect 10.

Really good DLC campaign. Wanves massively towards the end, though.

64:10th of November: Journey of a Roach.

Solid.

65: 15th of November: Call of Duty 4.

Aldous Huxley's favourite game.

66: 22nd of November: The Last of Us.

I didn't ask for this.

67: 5th of December: The Swapper.

Antimetroidvania-lite. Which is as good an idea as it sounds.

68: 13th of December: Steamworld Dig.

I can dig it.

69: 21st of December: Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory

Fucking finally.

70: 23rd of December: Gone Home.

Good ending at least.

71: 26th of December: The Stanley Parable.

Way better than the demo. You trippin'.

72: 27th of December: The Stanley Parable.

Should I throw in the demo too?

73: 28th of December: Depression Quest.

Eww. Fitting for my 70th? Eww!

1. Lollipop Chainsaw - Easily the stupidest game I've played in quite some time, and yes I loved it. It's Suda 51's take on the action game so the result is God of War with a sexy cheerleader. It's short, around 6 or 7 hours long, but there's definitely some replay value there. The length is probably ideal too. Just like with Shadows of the Damned, the longer the game goes on less focused it seems with more mini-games and gameplay varations being thrown in and each seems worse than the last. So any longer than 7 hours and it probably would have just been filled with more minigames. Anyway, very fun game.

2. Anarchy Reigns - It seems I owe Sega an apology. This was not a great game. Very big letdown from Platinum. It wasn't bad by any means, but there was a complete lack of focu on this game. The main story/campaign had a few cool moments, but overall it was bad. Story is just awful, and a lot of the battles get very repetitive. The multiplayer mode is fantastic though and alone justifies the game's existance. Unfortunately there aren't enough people playing so getting into group matches is tough. This is just a month after the game's release too. A few more months down the line the online mode will be just dead and worthless. Very sad.

3. Injustice: Gods Among Us - The quick and dirty is that Injustice is a good fighting game, just not as good as Mortal Kombat. Its still a lot of fun and NetherRealm Studios' sensibilities are perfect for an over the top fighting game. They just nail the larger than life battles that this game needed to have. Worth buying for any fan of fighting games or DC Comics.

4. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - I loved this game. I'm not entirely sure what adjustments were made from Monster Hunter Tri, but whatever they were they completely worked. I loved this game. 85 hours of gameplay to beat the story... and there seems to be at least that much post-game content and even more with online hunting. I'm taking a break for a while, but this is a game I will come back to for a very very long time.

5. Solomon's Key - I was infatuated with this game when it was originally out, mainly because it was virtually impossible to find. Anyway after playing it off and on for about 25 years I'm happy to say I've finally beaten it. It's a tough as nails puzzle game, and despite being old school in virtually every way it still holds up as a good game. All I will say though is thank heavens for for the Wii U's VC save anywhere feature. That was ultimately the difference maker.

6. Persona 4 - I really enjoyed P4, but I can't help but feel a little disappointed by it too. This was a classic case of a game being superior to the installment before, but not having it's predecessor's "wow factor," very much like Mario Galaxy 1 and 2. So with that being said I still stick with my original impressions that Persona 3 was the better game. Despite this, Persona 4 was excellent and I'm very happy to have this 70 epic experience under my belt.

7. Kirby's Dreamcourse - Fun little game. Nothing amazing, but it was a pleasant experience. Mini-golf + Kirby and his special attacks. Using his special attacks at the right times, and knowing which order to attack the enemies on the course so you get the lowest score possible almost turn this into more a puzzle game than a golf game. Kirby fans and even puzzle fans will both find something to enjoy here. Golf fans... not so much.

8. Persona 4 Arena - I have mixed feelings on this one. It was a good fighting game, though I wouldn't quite call it great. My biggest issue with Arc Systems' fighting games is that while the art style is usually great, the animation is pretty jilted and I always find that distracting, and once again that's the case here. Still it's good enough and the Persona and player team controls are pretty original and were integrated well. If nothing else, it was just nice to get a second chance to play with some characters I've grown fond of, and getting to see Persona 3 characters again was great. The story was bloated and repetitive as hell, but I will say it's gotten me even more excited for Persona 5.

9. Mega Man X - This was another SNES classic that I never actually finished back in the day. I think this was only a rental for me when I first played it, and I don't think I ever quite managed to get through the final levels. At any rate, it was tougher than nails, and now I'm looking forward to MMX2.

10. Game & Wario - A good, but uneven mini-game collection. There's a few mini-games that are absolutely brilliant, and a perfect example of what an imaginative developer could do with the Wii U pad. Unfortunately there just aren't enough, and most of the games really feel like $2 iPad games. Still for it's discounted price there's enough fun and quality to make it worth the buy, and its all wrapped up in that blanket that you only see in a Wario game.

11. Earthbound - Thanks to the Wii U's "create a saved game state" Earthbound has gone from a "weird boring game I didn't quite get" to "absolute genius." The pacing and random difficulty spikes are completely aleviated by being able to save anywhere, and finally I was able to appreciate it. Loved it, and very happy I got it.

12. Pikmin 3 - This is the most enjoyable Pikmin game I've ever played and the first one I finished. Not sure if it just too me a long time to understand, but I can say that I finally figured out how to effectively play the game and it made it a lot more fun. Even if I hadn't figured it out, the game is just beautiful and a visual treat. The microverse that it takes place in is still almost nonexistant anywhere else, and the Wii U's graphics did a great service to making the things we walk on every day look amazing.

13. DuckTales Remastered - For the most part I loved the game. The revamped end sequence however was a punch out of nowhere. Still, after beating it that experience wasn't quite as souring as I initially thought it would be thanks to a great ending. Anyway fuck critics who complained about difficulty or anything else. This game is strong and holds up quite nicely against modern games.

14. SteamWorld Dig - "Metroid with mining" is a fair way to describe the game, but doesn't quite do it justice. The mining element creates almost a "loot game" experience. Do you go back up and sell what you got? Do you keep exploring and look for more valuable items? It was a great game. Definitely the best indie title I've come across in years. It took some solid gaming conventions and wrapped it up in a new kind of world and made it feel very fresh and original. Very addictive too. I can see this game becoming a speed runners dream too.

15. NightSky - I probably would have enjoyed this game more had it not been accompanied with 4 years of anticipation (that's how long ago it was announced for the Wii). Anyway it's a good puzzle game. Not great. It switches back and forth between very easy and considerably harder, though it's never exactly a hard game. Aesthetics and music are extremely impressive. Worth picking up if it ever goes on sale.

16. Kid Icarus: 3-D Classics -  This game really sets the bar on how all games for how all 3-D classics need to be developed from here on out. The game is as good (or rough depending on your opinion of the game) as ever, but along with the 3-D enhancements they've added a neat little background to the levels. Nothing amazing, but just a nice simple enhancement. And as far as the gameplay, Kid Icarus is still the game that separates the men from the boys. Lots of fun, glad I bought it.

17. Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask - Pretty much everything you'd expect in a Professor Layton game.  They tried a few new kinds of puzzles to mix things up, but overall it's a by the books game. It's a solid formula, so that's not a complaint. The 3-D effects looked good for the most part, and the visual update from the DS to the 3DS is very nice.

18.  Lego City Undercover - Fun Lego game. It starts off well and the last quarter of the game is great, but there's a whole bunch of boring in the middle. The biggest problem this game has (aside from terrible loading times) is that the variety of puzzles in each level is in direct correlation to the costumes you have available. So in the first half of the game when you don't have many at your disposal things are very repetitive. Still the game is pretty funny, and that humor goes a long way in covering up some of the slower parts.

19. Super Mario 3-D World - Awesome. Absolutely awesome. Damn near flawless 3-D experience. A little more cohesion between the levels might have been nice, but it's hard to really complain about it because these really are some of the best levels I've ever seen in the series. The cat suit was surprisingly fun, and has absolutely carved it's niche into the Mario lore. Amazing final boss fight, and now onto the post-game content!

20. Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara - Not a bad compilation. Tower of Doom felt pretty repetitive and showed it age, but Shadow Over Mystara's additions were enough to make that game feel fresh. It's still about $5 more expensive than it should be. Nice to have an old school brawler to play with friends. Online mode is fine, but frankly it kind of loses something when the person isn't next to you.

21. The Mysterious Cities of Gold - This was a decent 3 person puzzle game like Lost Vikings, Gobliins, or even Trine 2 I suppose. It's a little on the easy side, and kind of repetitive, but for what it is (a family-friendly licensed game) it's not bad. My bigger issue is that they really skip around on the story, so it's clearly directed towards people who've watched the show (the French only) and leaves fans of the original series a bit out in the cold. Wouldn't quite recommend it, but I don't regret playing it.

22. NES Remix - A very pleasant end of the year surprise. It's a cross between WarioWare and Retro Gaming Challenge all with classic NES titles. Great idea and very good execution. I would have liked to have seen more cross-over remixes like Link in Donkey Kong, and some longer challeges as well more similar to RGC. A lot of people balked at the $15 price, but rest assured I got plenty of gameplay out of this, and will be going back to get those last few stars I couldn't get the first time through.

travo said:

1. Max Payne 3


2. Journey


3. Metal Gear Solid 2

4. Assassin's Creed 3

5. Fez

6. Metal Gear Solid 3

Nice run Travo. You are having a much better year than me so far (certainly in terms fo quality).

.

Just updated:

Homefront, THQ, 2011. (PS3 Version). *start cheesy informercial voice* Do you like Call of Duty? How about Half-Life 2?  Then you'll love Homefront.  To enjoy it even more invent a time machine and go back to 2003 and this would be GOTY (back before  Half-life 2 launched on PC).  Here in 2013 it's a mildy enjoyable 6 hour shooter with a very decent conceit -- the US invaded by a newly united Korea.  Art design is good, but the graphics are bad and the game froze up on me five times during play.  At least the checkpoints were decent.  If you like the idea of fighting a war agains "Norks" in the 'burbs and don;t mind a short game give it a try. Oh, and good weapons, particularly the sniper rifle.

Just replayed Xcom & Goldeneye.

Xcom I really enjoyed...it has great replay value. One of those gems I could replay over & over. Goldeneye on the 360...it was still fun but it doesn't have that magical replay value that the N64 classic had. I thought the better production values would help, but I still got bored towards the end.

Updated. I just finished Catherine. Awesome game!