Review! God of War: Ascension Campaign

System:  Playstation 3
How far did you get:  One completion

NOTE:  This review is for the campaign only.  I wanted to try out the multiplayer, but I received the game through GameFly and it requires an online pass to play online. 

When any series decides to go back and make a prequel, it's usually a sign that you ought to be concerned.  Very rarely have I ever played a prequel that was on par with the mainline games.  I've rarely seen a good prequel in films, for that matter.  While God of War: Ascension does feel a bit stunted, I'm not sure it's fair to categorize in this way.  It's still a good game in it's own right. 

The game takes place before the first God of War, following a blinded Kratos on his search for the truth.  It's a really basic story and really doesn't add anything to the lore.  The "amnesiac hero tries to find himself" story trope has been done to death, and isn't done differently here.  The cast of enemies aren't particularly interesting, either.  I don't remember any of their names, and the large monsters they summoned were cool to see, but forgettable. 

Combat and visuals is where this game shines.  It's slightly disappointing that you spend most of the game attacking with magic enhanced versions of the same weapon, but you do pick up other weapons that can be used temporarily that are pretty useful.  Once you level up your magic abilities, you can do some pretty devastating attacks that not only do a lot of damage, but look pretty amazing too.  It doesn't really play any differently than the other God of War games, but that's not really bad a thing.  The series is known for having very fluid and fun combat, and this game upholds that. 

God of War: Ascension is stunning to look at.  It doesn't amaze quite the way God of War 3 did, but this can be attributed to having played God of War 3 already.  This game looks a lot like God of War 3, and that's a compliment.  The kills are gory as ever, and I actually like some of them in this game better than I do in God of War 3.  Split heads, guts pouring out of cut open enemies, and mangled body parts make for a disgusting and fun time. 

The puzzles in this game were actually really well done.  Throughout the game, you receive items that can be used to help you figure out these puzzles, and some of them were quite clever.  An amulet you receive can make the backdrops heal or decay, and another item will allow you to create a clone man to hold some things in place.  I got frustrated a few times, but that's a sign of a good puzzle. 

Though God of War: Ascension could have used some better writing, it's still an epic looking and fun God or War game.  If you're into the series, there's no reason you should pass it up, but if you're new to it than I'd recommend starting with the the God of War collection or God or War 3, as they are slightly better than this game. 

Rating:  75/100. 

How to Beat Titan Hard Mode in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

This guide is going to seem amusing coming from me, as I have not actually beaten Titan on hard mode.  The reason I'm making this is because I, personally, am perfectly capable of beating Titan on hard mode.  I know this because I dodge everything and am usually amongst the last living characters in my group.  The reason I haven't beaten Titan on hard mode is because of my fellow group members.  I'm not going to give you a step by step guide on how to beat him.  Instead, I will inform you as to where most people screw this up, and tell you how to not be one of those people.

1.  Before you do anything, head over to youtube and watch a video on this fight.  Watch it several times, until you are familiar with his rotation.  If you have to, watch it a few times, queue for it in the duty finder and try it yourself, then watch the videos again so you are more familiar with what is going on.  If you know what he's about to do, it's much easier to dodge it.

2.  Dodge.  Every class needs to know this.  If you are a tank, it's still imperative that you dodge landslide.  After Titan's first Geocrush, the sides of the arena are knocked off, and you can be knocked off.  Everyone else must dodge everything except tumult, and the only reason you don't dodge that is because you can't.  Landslide is very easy to dodge, but weight of the land can be tricky.  This is why it is helpful to know the rotation beforehand.  If you know weight of the land is coming, make sure you're not standing too near other people, and go ahead and get a head start running.  You'll get out every time, I guarantee it.

3.  Make sure you are zoomed all the way out.  This is necessary to know the order the bombs are placed, and it helps you notice when someone else is captured by a granite gaol.  You should probably be playing this way anyway, but the game doesn't set you up this way, so I feel like I should mention it. 

4.  Speaking of granite gaols, make sure you destroy them quickly, with the exception of one.  During the heart phase, do not destroy the second one.  You will not have time.  After the heart is dead, then you can destroy the second gaol.  The first gaol in the heart phase is especially important to destroy as soon as possible. 

5.  If you are damage dealer, you must live until after the heart phase.  The heart phase is a dps race, so you need to be there for that.  Don't expect a raise, as they are very difficult to pull off in this fight.  They can happen, and you might get lucky, but don't count on it.  Oh, and if you get knocked off, you can't be raised.  It's preferable for you to live until the end, but if you die during the final phase, it's still possible to finish Titan.

6.  If you are a healer, you must live until the end of the fight.  If either healer dies, it's a wipe.  You'll have to constantly be healing everyone thanks to tumults, and during the last phase Titan will start using mountain buster, which will do a very large amount of damage on the tank.

7.  If you are a caster (healer or black mage) and you find yourself standing in something, stop casting and move.  I'm going to reiterate a particular part of this:  STOP CASTING and move.  This is important for healers as they must live to the end.  It's important for black mages because they not only need to make it to the heart phase, but they also have less hp than any class in the game and not getting hit by anything is going to be a necessity.  I would know, I play a black mage.

So watch the vids, memorize the rotation, and take my advice.  I need more people who know how to win this fight, because I'm getting really frustrated losing over and over again, knowing it was because someone can't move out of attacks or simply don't know what to do.  The fact that the hardest part of this fight is finding a group of people that can actually do it is really, really obnoxious. 

One more bit of advice.  Be geared for this.  Have all of your darklight gear, and try to at least have a primal weapon or a crafted ilvl 70 weapon with materia on it. 

Thanks for reading, and good luck finding a decent group for this fight! 

Edit:  I have defeated Titan!  My tips still stand :)  

Review! Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

System:  PC (also available on PS3 and soon to be PS4)
How far did you get:  Main story completed, Level 50 Black Mage, Level 15 Archer, Level 47 Botanist, Level 46 Goldsmith

Final Fantasy XIV version 1.0 was released back in 2010 to almost universal disgust.  Personally, I spent about a month trying to figure it out, but getting nowhere.  Quest lines were difficult to find and follow, crafting was confusing, and the combat was incredibly bland.  The disappointment was heard by Square Enix, and they chose to shut the game down in December of 2012, with the promise that the game would be back, new and improved.

I wasn't going to play Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (FF:ARR from here on).  I didn't think the framework was good enough for them to be able to salvage this game.  After reading that beta testers were enjoying it, and remembering how much I love Final Fantasy, I decided to give it a shot.  Am I ever glad I did.

Square Enix didn't just build on the framework.  They completely turned FFXIV upside down.  The graphics aren't even the same.  They decided to use a more animated look, and the game is better off for it.   The battle system is flashy and fun.  Crafting makes sense now.  The quests are now laid out in a way that makes sense.  Everything that made FFXIV version 1.0 terrible is now fixed.  Even after playing the game since early access, I still can't believe how good this game is. 

On paper, it isn't that much different from any other MMORPG you may have played.  It borrows nearly every concept from other games.  However, it's refined all of them into near perfection and leaves out all the bad stuff.  Did you like the world events in Rift and Guild Wars 2, but didn't much care for the weapon switching and obnoxious combat?  Check out FFXIV: ARR's FATEs.  Very rarely are they in the way of other things you may be doing, and they are a lot of fun.  In fact, I'd say about half the community spends most of their time creating FATE parties and just running around looking for new FATEs to do, and there are a lot of them to do. Some FATE's even offer unique rewards, like minions and gear. 

The combat is similar to what you may be used to in games like World of Warcraft.  You map your skills to your number keys and let the attacks fly.  It seems fairly well balanced, though there is no way to know for sure currently, as there is no DPS counter.  Difficulty for world leveling is done fairly well.  Tanks don't die because they have a lot of HP and high defense, healers can heal themselves, ranged damage dealers kill things before they get hit and melee damage dealers do a lot of damage and can take a few hits, too.  These are things you've seen before, but it's still fun. 

Classes are done slightly different in FFXIV: ARR than most MMORPGs.  You don't really need more than one character, because your character can learn to do everything.  This includes all combat classes, gathering classes, and crafting classes.  All you have to is switch your weapon.  Gathering and crafting classes are actually classes all on their own, and are leveled just like combat classes, including their very own gear sets.  It's refreshing to play an MMORPG that will allow you to take control of everything yourself, if you're willing to put an extreme amount of time into it. 

The game doesn't have PvP yet, but it seems to be in the works.  The Duty Finder has a PvP option listed, and my Black Mage has spells that seem pretty useless in PvE, but would be very useful in PvP. 

Story quests follow a path the helps you see most of the areas in the game.  They take you to different areas in the world, and offer you a few side quests in each quest hub.  Each quest hub also has a Levemete, which is a place you can do levequests.  Levequests are short extra quests you can take to grab some extra XP when you find yourself a bit too low of a level to handle story quests.  You get a certain amount of allowances on these quests, though you probably won't blow through them until you start crafting.  Yes, you get levequests for crafting and gathering too. 

The Duty Finder is a tool that works similarly to World of Warcraft's Dungeon Finder.  You can use to queue for dungeons, primal battles, and guildheists.  Dungeons are exactly the same thing you've played in any other MMORPG.  Primal battles are fought against a single large enemy, and are unlocked through the main quest.  Guildheists are mini-dungeons, where you have one objective that you must complete with a group, and they are based on your level. 

That seems like a lot of ways to get XP, doesn't it?  Well, there's more!  You can also use your hunting log to kill certain enemies and gain extra XP.  About halfway through leveling, you'll gain access to one of the main companies, which has it's own hunting log to do, as well.  If that's not enough for you, you also get a sizable amount of XP just by exploring all of the areas of the game.  It has an achievement system, too.  

FFXIV: ARR is visually stunning.  While it's probably not on par with Guild Wars 2 or Rift on a technical level, I found it to be much more visually appealing.  It's an incredibly colorful game with a wide variety of things to look at.  Every race is very distinct, all of the armor properly reflects the class wearing it, and the enemy designs look great. 

The music and sound are great, too.  Check out a couple of tracks I personally enjoy.  The first is the theme for the main city Limsa Lominsa, and the second is Cortheus, a snowy tundra found in the 35-40 level range. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQHAUw3wb9U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbtWmze50ag

Crafting and gathering are a bit of a pain right now, but that has a lot to do with an undeveloped game economy.  Unless you have leveled all the gathering classes to level 50, crafting is going to be pretty annoying, and gathering takes a very long time to level.  I will admit that even though gathering is a long process, it's still not quite as bad as in some other major MMOs.  Crafting is fairly fun to actually do, as you have to try to even out quality and actual progress when making something.  Gathering, on the other hand, is busy work and nothing else.  Gathering is probably the only thing I've done in the game that I didn't particularly care for, as it's not only a boring time sink, but the rewards are pretty low as well.

In it's current build, FFXIV: ARR is the best apology I've ever gotten from a gaming company.  They turned something that was complete garbage into the best MMORPG on the market, and that not only takes time and dedication, it also takes respect for it's fans.  For the first time since FFX, I feel like Square Enix heard our cries and honestly wanted to make a game we would spend hours in.  I have, and will continue to do so. 

Rating:  96/100

Review! Shin Megami Tensei IV

System:  Nintendo 3DS (exclusively)
How far did you get:  One completion, Chaos ending, 56 hours

Shin Megami Tensei IV (SMT IV from here on) was easily my most anticipated game of 2013, which may make it seem like I'm biased.  However, this also means I'm really disappointed when the game doesn't deliver, and on occasion, SMT IV does not.  Most of the time, it does. 

The Shin Megami Tensei series is known for a lot of things, and SMT IV upholds nearly all of them.  It's apocalyptic, dark, mature, and painfully hard.  If your only experience with the series is the spin off Persona games or Devil Survivor games, you're going to get a slightly different experience here.  SMT IV isn't really about it's individual characters so much as it is about the big picture.  What you're doing to the world around you is much more important than what you're doing to your friends. 

The game starts off a bit slow and very unlike a Shin Megami Tensei game.  The very first thing that happens in the game will actually be very familiar to anyone that has played the first SMT title, but after that quick intro, you'll be spending most of your time in the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, a 1400s Japanese land filled with castles and Samurai.  Fortunately, you find out that a Samurai's duty has more to do with killing demons with a futuristic armband and summoning your own demons than it does with swords and ancient Japan.  You become one of these Samurai, and head to a cave full of demons with your fellow Samurai.  The other Samurai, while not particularly interesting people, are key to the game in that agreeing with certain friends on certain issues determines your alignment, and ultimately, the ending you'll get when you finish the game. 

Everything really opens up when you reach Tokyo.  I don't want to spoil any more of the game, so we'll leave it at that, but I'll say that Tokyo is absolutely nothing like the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, and you'll be glad for it.

While the story is interesting, the game really shines in it's combat.  It uses the press turn system, so if you've played Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne or the newer Persona games, you should be fairly accustomed to the battle system.  It's really simple on paper:  exploit weakness, and get more turns.  It gets more complicated when you have attacks that hit all of the enemies, and you fight new enemies that have weaknesses you don't know about yet.  The battles as fast as you want them to be, but animations are smooth and quick so they can be quite fast if you already know what you're doing.  Different attacks result in different death animations, some of which are pretty cool looking.

The game has it's ups and downs when it comes to how it looks.  Outside of battle, you run around in a 3rd person perspective though some pretty elaborate dungeons.  It also has this pretty cool system where you can jump up or down into certain areas, which is new to this series.  The bad part is how simplistic the battles look.  The art design on the demons is actually really good (most of the time), but you'll still never forget that you're playing a 3DS and looking at 2d sprites.  When you talk to the demons, you'll see hand drawn versions of them, which usually look pretty amazing and a lot better than the on screen sprites.

Speaking of talking to demons, that's another really awesome aspect to battle.  It's a really deep system with a lot of choices.  The most important aspect of talking to demons is recruiting.  It's basically like Pokemon, but a lot more fun.  Instead of just throwing a ball at your enemy to make them your friend, you have to convince them through conversation that it would be worth it to them.  Considering you're trying to convince demons to join you, you'll definitely have some pretty wacky conversations.  The different demon races all have different attitudes, so while buttering up one demon might work, it might piss off another demon.  In addition to scouting and recruiting, you can also ask them for money and items, as well as trying to convince them to stand down and let you go.  These can be useful when you're not sure if you can beat a demon, or a fight is going badly. 

Oh, and fights will go badly.  SMT IV is not only hard, it's at it's hardest right at the beginning of the game.  You don't have any demons right off the bat, and you'll need to fill your roster as soon as possible.  The game doesn't make it very clear that it's necessary to do that, though if you're a Shin Megami Tensei veteran, you'll know already.  When you die, you're sent to the River Styx, where Charon will resurrect you for a price.  After dying twice, you're given the option to lower the difficulty.  Most newcomers will do this, and most veterans will refuse.  The game also allows you to save anywhere.  This is the first Shin Megami Tensei title to allow you to do any of those things, so theoretically it should be one of the easier Shin Megami Tensei titles, though it certainly never felt like it. 

It's difficult to get bored with SMT IV.  For the first time in the series, you have a quest list.  It's split into main quests and challenge quests.  Challenge quests are basically side quests, and you'll spend most of the game doing these.  If you're not doing quests, you can work on increases your demon compendium, or fusing them for better demons.  When not doing that, you can work on leveling your characters and demons, so you can create higher level demons and get more app points.  Apps are a new feature to the series as well.  By using app points, you upgrade your armband and open all kinds of possibilities, like increasing the amount of demons you can hold, regaining hp and mp as you walk, and increasing your dialog options when talking to demons. 

On the more negative side of things, the Tokyo map is a total pain to get around, and it's not particularly nice to look at, either.  You eventually get to option of flying around the map, assuming you do the right challenge quest, but it comes really late in the game.  For most of the game, you'll be controlling a little peg on a map that does not have clear paths at all. 

Even worse is the DLC for this game.  New small bits of DLC is released every week for this game, and very little of it has impressed me.  I preordered the game at Gamestop, and received an armor set.  If you equip the armor set at the beginning of the game, it makes you weak to physical attacks, and you'll never survive.  Thanks a lot, Gamestop!  In addition, Atlus released 3 booster DLCs where you get pretty much unlimited access to experience points, app points, and macca (money).  If you want to completely ruin your SMT IV experience, try these out.  They completely ruin the challenge.  I did enjoy some of the armor sets, but I do not approve of releasing DLC where you can max level your main character in an hour. 

I don't really think SMT IV is the Shin Megami Tensei game I would recommend to a newcomer to the series due to it's extreme difficulty, but it's going to make a lot of veterans really happy.  It's not quite as good as Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, but the demon collection, dark story and addictive battle system are enough for me to give this game a thumbs up. 

Rating:  91/100

Review! DMC: Devil May Cry

System:  Playstation 3 (also available on Xbox 360 and PC)
How far did you get:  One completion

Devil May Cry is a pretty old series at this point, and the more modern entries were a bit stale.  In my opinion, very few video games need a reboot, but if any game did it was Devil May Cry.  Though many reboots may end up being shadows of their former selves, DMC: Devil May Cry took something that was already pretty good and made it awesome. 

DMC decided to take a slightly more lighthearted turn.  While the game is still full of dark themes and over the top weirdness, it doesn't take itself too seriously.  This can be bad for some games, but when you're working with the material DMC is, taking it seriously would make it seem legitimately silly.  Dante, the main playable character in DMC, is a violent, sex obsessed jerk with a touch of amnesia.  His brother Virgil is tasked with convincing him that he's half demon and half angel, and demons killed his mother and took his father to Hell.  In addition, the demons are currently controlling humankind and Virgil wants to set them free.  It's certainly not game of the year material, but it sets the stage perfectly for an over the top action game. 

DMC's gameplay is an absolute blast.  It's fast and frantic, and very rarely lets up.  I'd say it's even faster and more frantic than any of the other games in the series.  Fortunately, you can't just button mash you're way though the game.  You unlock different weapons with different properties as you play through the game, and certain enemy types can only be damaged by certain weapons.  This becomes particularly challenging when fighting large groups of mismatched enemies, forcing you to switch between weapons several times mid fight.  The controls are all very responsive and fluid, though it could have benefited from a target button. 

In addition to being fun to play, it's fun to look at too.  You'll spend most of the game fighting in Limbo, which is basically a regular area with a red foggy tint to it.  The world basically explodes around you as you move from place to place, keeping you on your toes.  There's one area where you fight inside a television, and the digital effects are really amazing. 

If you have any interest in action games, DMC: Devil May Cry is a no brainer.  It may not be the most complicated or deep game on the market, but it's fast, crazy and a whole lot of fun. 

Rating:  87/100

Review! The Witcher 2: Enchanced Edition

System:  PC (also available on Xbox 360)
How far did you get:  One completion

The Witcher 2, a game originally released for the PC and later ported to the Xbox 360, is the sequel to a game where you play as Geralt of Rivia, a white haired monster slayer who seems to have lost his memory.  The Xbox 360 version was released as the Enhanced Edition from the start, and the PC version was updated to the Enhanced Edition for free when this happened. 

The most notable addition is that there is a legitimate tutorial.  The original game had an opening that sort of acted like a tutorial, but it didn't really tell you how to do anything.  To be honest, the new tutorial isn't that helpful either.  Rather than tell you what keys to press, it will give you a general idea of what button to press.  For instance, instead of "press left click", it would say "press the attack button."  At one point I was actually stuck in the tutorial because I didn't know which button threw bombs, and I actually had to exit back to the main menu to access the key configuration. 

Once you get through the tutorial, you're in for a really deep, mature story.  Every decision you make in this game has consequences, and for everyone that you do something good for, someone else is going to get screwed over.  Every time you are in a position to make a decision, there is never a real right answer, and it makes for a really intriguing experience.  At the end of chapter one, you are given a choice on whether to side with one of two different factions, and chapter 2 and 3 are vastly different depending on which you choose. 

The PC version is stunning to look at.  In fact, the only PC games that probably look better than this are the last two Crysis titles.  It does require a very powerful PC to run on Ultra, and a pretty good one to run at all.  It manages to load big open spaces without a hitch, and look absolutely amazing in the process. 

The game is designed in an interesting way, too.  It's not quite open world, but it's not quite linear either.  It's a bit like Dragon Age, but more open world.  It has a prologue, 3 main chapters, and an epilogue.  In each, you are exploring entirely different areas, but most of the time you are allowed to explore them at your own pace, and you can do whatever quests you want to do in whatever order you want to do them in.  Side quests are entirely optional, but the rewards make them worth it.  The side quest stories are also incredibly in depth and no less interesting than the main quests.

The combat is a mixed bag, though.  It's different from any western style RPG I've played, but it doesn't always pay off.  The controls are not very tight.  There's a delay when you click to swing your sword, making the game feel almost like a free to play MMO.  Fortunately, it is in depth and challenging enough to keep you feeling engaged.  While many games of this sort will have you relying on health potions and healing magic to keep you alive, The Witcher 2 wants you to not need to do something like that in the first place.  The idea is to use buff potions on yourself before battles, so you'll survive the fight.  If you're getting low on health in a fight, you're just going to have to play better, buy or craft new armor, or use different potions before the fight next time.

The crafting system is a mixed bag, too.  The mechanics of it are actually quite good, but you only need it for particular things.  If you do all the side quests, you'll almost never need to craft armor or swords, as the side quests give you some really awesome gear.  Potions and enhancements are a different story.  They aren't exactly lying around to pick up in most cases, so you're either going to need to buy them, or craft them.  Considering how plentiful ingredients are, you'd be silly not to just craft them in most cases. 

The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition is truly a must play for fans of the western style RPG genre.  Despite a few snags, it's unique, challenging, nice to look at and tells one of the best stories the genre has seen yet. 

Rating:  88/100

Review! Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers

System:  Nintendo 3DS
How far did you get:  One completion

Like most Shin Megami Tensei games that have released in the past 10 years or so, Soul Hackers is a side story to the main entries in the series.  Soul Hackers is a bit different, because it's actually one of the first side stories, released on Sega Saturn in 1997.  The game has been updated and ported to the 3DS, and is available in the US for the first time ever. 

As the game has eluded us in the states for so long, it garnered a reputation of being one of the best Shin Megami Tesnei games, causing fans of the series to be rather frustrated until this game was finally announced for released here.  The truth is, there isn't anything particularly special about Soul Hackers. 

With the exception of the sprite art, this game is full of visual ugliness.  The dungeons are all bland and boring.  I spend most of my time in dungeons looking at my map on the bottom screen, as I knew I wouldn't miss anything on the top screen.  The cinematic movies were all ported as is from the Sega Saturn version, and they look terrible.  It almost looks like stop motion, which might have been cool if that's what they were going for, but I don't think it was. 

The amount of fun your going to have with this game depends a lot on how long it takes you to figure out how to actually play it.  As a jrpg, you expect a certain amount of stat handling, but this game doesn't make it obvious as to what you should do with certain stats.  For instance, there is are 2 currencies in the game, macca and magnetite.  Macca is just your money, but magnetite is where things get confusing.  Magnetite is required for your summoned demons to live.  If you run out, they take damage for every step you take.  You also get magnetite for winning battles, but you don't get macca.  If you want macca to buy things, you're going to need to stockpile magnetite and sell it for macca.  If you try playing the game with 4 demons summoned at all times, you're never going to be able to stockpile any magnetite, which is a fact I didn't come to realize until I was about halfway through the game.  I thought I needed my demons to win fights, but the truth is, you only need them for bosses.  If you build your two human characters right, you should be able to defeat all the regular enemies using only them.  In fact, you'll find that fighting regular enemies is actually much easier when you don't summon demons, because you won't have to worry about trying to keep them alive and you won't spend magnetite trying to heal them.  Once you figure that out and buy some anti-death magic armor for you two humans, the game quickly becomes the easiest Shin Megami Tensei game.  The hard part is trying to figure it all out. 

Soul Hackers also doesn't help you out much when building your human characters.  When you level up, you are allowed to distribute points into whatever affinities you want to.  While this sounds great, the game doesn't tell you that your main character never learns any magic, despite what you do.  So you may spend the first part of the game throwing points into magic and intelligence on your main character for absolutely no reason.  Fortunately, I decided from the start that I was going to use my main character as a tank, but not everyone will do this.

On the more positive side, the battle system is just as great as it is in any Shin Megami Tensei title.  It doesn't have the press turn system that some of the newer games do, but it does focus on buffs and taking advantage of enemy weaknesses.  The demon recruiting system is as in depth and fun as it is in any SMT game, as well, though I found the personalities began to repeat themselves far too early in the game. 

The story is fairly good for it's time, but it didn't impress me as much as other titles in the series, and reminded me more of Persona than a main series game.  It's dark, but not as dark as I had hoped.  The main cast of characters, called the Spookies, are a hacker group trying to explain all the strange things happening around the city.  They all have pretty distinct personalities, but I didn't get all that attached to any of them.  The ending was pretty lame, too. 

Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers would probably be a pretty good starting point for anyone looking to get into the series, as long as they can figure out how to play it fairly early on.  I'm less inclined to recommend it to Shin Megami Tesnei purists, though.  It's a bit too easy, the story isn't really up to par, and the visuals and sound weren't very good. 

Rating:  68/100

Review! The Last of Us

System:  Playstation 3
How far did you get:  One game completion, played around with multiplayer

Naughty Dog, the developer behind the incredibly well received Uncharted series, has returned with what will likely be the last game they make on the Playstation 3, at least exclusively.  The Last of Us is a stealth driven survival horror game set in a post-apocalyptic United States.  This is clearly a different kind of game than Uncharted, so if you expected this game to play like Uncharted in an apocalyptic setting, you might want to get into a different mind set.  It has the same visual style and great storytelling as Uncharted, but controls more like Resident Evil and plays more like Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell.

The controls are what stop this game from being one of the better games I've played recently.  The combat design is actually really well done.  The enemy AI is great, the buildings are all strategically laid out, and the stealth system actually makes sense.  Unfortunately, maneuvering around enemies is an absolute pain, particularly after they've spotted you and you're fighting for your life.  Despite what many people will say about this game, it is absolutely in your best interest to attempt to never be seen and play the game as stealthily as possible.  Not doing so will put you in some of the most annoying situations I've encountered in video games.

The zombies are where this is most frustrating.  They're harder to sneak up on than humans, more difficult to kill once you do sneak up on them, and god help you if they've noticed you're there.  I consider myself a pretty calm gamer (and person in general), but this game had me yelling and getting very close to throwing my controller.

While the enemy AI is pretty amazing, the partner AI is the absolute opposite.  Despite who I had running alongside me, they were almost always getting in my way.  The game doesn't have the nice feature where you push people aside like Assassin's Creed has.  Fortunately, for some reason, the enemies never seemed to notice them.  It's bad game design, but I was happy to catch a break.  If my partner is going to run around like a moron, at least they aren't screwing up my stealth strategies.

On a more positive note, the game tells a wonderful story.  It has a few dips middle, but it starts strong and ends strong, and most of the game that doesn't involve you actually playing it was pretty awesome.  While the event scenes were all very well done, you get the most from the story when listening to the chatter between Joel and Ellie, the main characters.  At first they're relationship is a bit off putting, thanks to Joel telling Ellie what to do and Ellie just doing it, but it doesn't take long before they form an interesting, albeit complicated relationship.

Visually, it makes you wonder why we need new consoles.  If all developers were as skilled at making beautiful looking games as Naughty Dog, I'd be perfectly happy sticking with my Playstation 3.  It looks at least as good as Uncharted 3, and at times even better.  There was a particular scene where Ellie is hunting a rabbit, and the animation on the rabbit was mind blowing.  The Last of Us uses the in game engine the whole time, and it was hard to believe in many instances.

The combat itself is at least pretty set up to be pretty interesting.  If you like the thrill of not having enough ammo and supplies in a world full of dangerous things, you're going to like what's going on here.  This isn't a third person shooter.  You're never going to have 100 bullets for your gun.  In fact, you'll rarely have 20.  Certain zombies can only be taken down with certain types of weapons, which can be frustrating, but it keeps you on your toes.  For instance, you can't punch a clicker.  It will bite you.   

There's a crafting component in the game that adds a lot to the survivalist environment and gives you something to do besides hide and kill stuff.  You can't ignore it, as you're going to need healing supplies, and a few of the other components you can craft are incredibly useful when you're in a tough spot.  Most of your down time in this game will be spent scavenging through houses and building looking for crafting components.  They're one of the few things in this game that are plentiful.

The multiplayer is plagued by the same problems the main game has, and it's all a bit too simple.  Both multiplayer modes are survival style modes, which isn't anything you haven't seen before.  It's a lot like a stripped down version of Uncharted 3's multiplayer, only there is less ammo and you don't hug walls when you crouch next to one.

The Last of Us is a decent game, but a better interactive story.  I'd be more inclined to recommend it to someone that likes Resident Evil and stealth shooters than I would someone that likes Uncharted.  I certainly don't think it lived up to the hype, but it is worth looking into for the story. 

Rating:  74/100

Progress through The Witcher 2 and Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers

Here's a video update for where I am in the two games I'm trying to play. 

Review! Fire Emblem: Awakening

System: Nintendo 3DS (exclusively)
How far did you get:  Completed the campaign, did most of the side missions, and some of the DLC

The Fire Emblem series is known for it's intense difficulty.  Strategy RPGs are generally pretty tough anyway, but the Fire Emblem games had something other games did not.  If one of your characters die, they are dead forever.  Considering these games have always come out on Nintendo systems, it's odd to think that they are one of the most hardcore games around.

Fire Emblem: Awakening took a different approach.  While you can still play this game in the same manner as the older Fire Emblem titles, you now have the option to play in "casual" mode, where your characters are only gone for the battle they are defeated in, and not permanently.   Fans of the previous games may gawk at this, but it's entirely optional and gives newer players a way to enjoy the game without getting too frustrated.  Most veterans to the series understand that if you lose a character, you're supposed to reset the game and be more careful, but novices won't know to do that.

There is a downside to casual mode, though.  You learn to play better when you reset your game to make sure your people don't die, and you won't get as skilled at the game by playing in casual mode.  This can be problematic if you want to play some of the higher level side quests and DLC, as they are legitimately challenging for all players and if you're not up to snuff, you're probably going to die a lot.

The game is easily the best presented Fire Emblem game yet.  The battle sequences are absolutely awesome to watch, and you'll see a ton of them.  Each character has their own unique appearance and voice.  Some of the battle shouts and victory boasts are genuinely funny and give you a better understanding of the characters.  The menus are all easy to use and navigating them is quick and snappy.  It also gives you a lot of control over what you want to sit through and what you don't.  All dialog can be skipped (though I wouldn't recommend it) and you can fast forward battle animations if you're in a hurry or just tired of seeing them.  You can also pause them, which is a fantastic addition as in the older games, I often found myself needing to do something in real life during an enemies turn and had no way to pause the game.

When it comes to the gameplay, very little has changed, which should excite most Fire Emblem fans.  It's not much different than any other strategy RPG, but there's something about it that hooked me more than other games in the genre.  I'm not entirely sure what it is, but it's incredibly hard to put down.  It still has the weapon triangle and flyers are still weak to wind and arrows, which is where most of the real strategy comes in.  I did notice a few balancing issues, though.  Fredrick, my Great Knight, was my strongest character for about half the game.  I continued leveling him and toward the end of the game, he was noticeably weaker than most of my characters.  My trickster (think thief with heal magic) could barely damage anything at the end of the game, despite the fact that I had leveled her more than most of my other characters.

The game has some interesting wireless features.  I was fond of the bonus box, which allowed you to grab some good weapons for no cost.  Sometimes the game would get updates and you would get new items in the bonus box.  You also earn renown by leveling your characters and getting new ones, and you can use your renown points to buy bonuses.  There's a support option that allows you to watch a scene between 2 of your characters, which increases their relationship level.  These were usually really funny to watch.  There's also a barracks option which lets you watch your characters walk around the barracks.  Sometimes they would talk to each other, sometimes they would find items, and sometimes they would have an epiphany and gain experience or weapon levels.  The conversations during these were usually stock quotes and not really worth reading, but the bonuses were usually nice.

Most of the DLC is designed for higher level players, but 2 of them stuck out to me.  There's one that's designed to help you level up, and one that is designed to land you a whole lot of gold.  I used these a lot, but I felt like I was cheating by using them.  I found a majority of the game to be quite easy because I was able to quickly power level and buy pretty much anything I wanted.  They're pretty much a necessity to do post game DLC and the endgame side quests, but personally I don't think they should have been there for players still early in the game.

Fire Emblem: Awakening doesn't do a whole lot of new things, but it improved pretty much every aspect of core gameplay and gave us the best Fire Emblem story to date.  If you own a 3DS, this game really should be in your game collection.

Rating:  90/100

Review! Halo 4 Campaign

System:  Xbox 360 (exclusively)
How far did you get:  One completion

Note:  Another campaign only review.  Still not paying for Xbox Live.

After my incredibly disappointing romp through Halo 3's campaign, I certainly wasn't expecting much out of Halo 4.  If it weren't for the fact that Bungie didn't make it, I probably wouldn't have bothered playing it at all.  As it turns out, handing the Halo franchise to 343 Industries was the right move.

First and foremost, Halo 4 is a very nice looking game.  This is coming from a guy with a pretty nice gaming rig for PC games.  It's not the best looking console game of the generation, but it probably lands a spot in the top 10.  There's a nice variety of scenery, which is a big improvement over Halo 3.  The game runs very smooth and it gets all of it's loading done before you start missions.

The controls are a lot tighter this time around, as well.  Using the right analog stick to move your reticule around doesn't feel super loose like it did in it's prequel.  It's still not as tight as many other modern first person shooters, but it was serviceable.  

Halo 4 tells a much better tale than Halo 3.  It's told in a way that makes sense the entire time, and it's pretty fun to follow as well.  I think it's kind of weird how attached Master Chief is to his AI, but to each his own I guess.  Cortana is an interesting character and watching her deteriorate as the story goes is pretty heartbreaking, even if she is just an AI.  

Easily the biggest improvement Halo 4 has made is that strategy becomes important in the firefights.  Unlike many first person shooters, you can't just pick your favorite weapon and blast your way through everything.  Certain weapons are more effective against certain enemies, and if you choose the wrong one, it could be disastrous.  The enemy AI is quite good most of the time.  Some of the enemies are meant to be dumb, but the ones that aren't are a legitimate challenge, and a swarm of dumb enemies in tandem with some smarter ones can really keep you on your toes.   

343 Industries didn't fix every problem with Halo, however.  The floaty jumping mechanics are still there and they still suck.  The enemies still take a ridiculous amount of shots to take down, and it's still difficult to tell if you're hitting your enemies or not, particularly if you're using an automatic weapon.  Some of the alien guns are still completely useless, and usually they're the most abundant. There isn't much variety in the enemy types.  There's 2 races you fight in the game, but each only has about 5 different baddies. 

Halo 4 is a game that is fun despite itself.  Thanks to a really good story, nice visuals and improved strategic combat, the games flaws are far easier to overlook.  As long as Halo remains in the hands of 343 Industries, I'm willing to give Halo another a shot.

Rating: 74/100

Review! StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm campaign

System:  PC (exclusively)
How far did you get:  One campaign completion

Note:  Campaign only review.  More a time constraint, really.  It takes a really long time to get good enough at this game to play the multiplayer. 

StarCraft 2 was a surprisingly worthy follow up to the highly acclaimed RTS game StarCraft.  We were told from the start that two expansions would be in the works.  Where the main game focused on the Terrans, Heart of the Swarm concentrated on the Swarm (and the next, the Protoss).

Playing as Kerrigan and her swarm is an absolute blast.  Personally, I prefer the Swarm to the Terrans.  Sure, you don't have guns, tanks, or flying ships, but the Swarm's equivalent of these things are super cool.  Playing as the swarm is a lot more chaotic than playing as Terrans.  Though you will occasionally have to strategically place particular units in certain places to gain an advantage as you did with the Terrans, you'll more often than not find yourself in a position where numbers matter.  For the Swarm, the more the merrier.

Something that sets this expansion apart is that for most of the missions, you actually get to control Kerrigan.  In fact, you even get to level her up separately from the rest of the Swarm.  At any point in the game, Kerrigan is easily the most powerful unit you'll use, and it's fun to do so.  Leveling up your other Swarm units is done in a unique fashion from what you might be used to in the main game.  You do small missions where your units will evolve to best take on a particular situation.  You'll do two of these for each unit, and choose which one you think would be most beneficial.  It's helpful that it actually let's you use these improved units before choosing which you'd like to use.

The story is a tad corny, as it was in the main game, but it's a bit darker this time around.  It's to be expected, as the Swarm are naturally loathed across the universe and have a tendency to wipe the population from entire planets.  Impressively, when you play as the Swarm, that doesn't change.  Kerrigan will still send her brood mothers to wipe entire planets for resources, and even though she's regained some of her humanity, it doesn't seem to phase her a bit.  For most of the game, it really does feel like you're playing as the bad guys.

If you enjoyed the main game, there's no reason you should pass up on Heart of the Swarm.  It's a bit pricey, but it took me several nights to finish the campaign and there is a pretty significant multiplayer mode if you're into that sort of thing.  It's gameplay isn't incredibly different from the main game, but as an expansion and not an entirely new game, it does add enough flavor to be worth the plunge.  

Rating:  87/100

Review! Halo 3 campaign

System:  Xbox 360 (exclusively)
How far did you get:  One completion

Note:  I'm only reviewing the campaign due to the fact that I don't have Xbox Live and I'm NOT going to pay for a month of it just to review the multiplayer in this game.  Sorry.  Also, there are spoilers in this review.  It's an old game, get over it. 

You may be wondering why I'm reviewing Halo 3 in 2013.  Until now, I had never played a Halo campaign to completion.  I was going to start with Halo 4, but I decided to try to get caught up with the story a little before I gave Halo 4 a shot.  Boy oh boy, was that mistake.  The campaign in this game is terrible.

Let's start with how it looks.  Halo 3 has not aged well at all.  I'm sure it wasn't designed to be played on a 46 inch 120hz 1080p HD television, but I feel like the stats on my television only amplified how bad it looks.  This game came out after Bioshock did, and it looks miles worse.  Occasionally, the loading screens would stop you for several seconds, not letting you pass.  I don't know if this just shows how far developers have learned these consoles, but time has not been a friend to Halo 3.

The story is confounding.  I had no idea what was going on, why I was where I was, or how I got there for more than half the game.  Towards the end, things started making a bit more sense, but I wasn't particularly glad it was.  Halo 3 is campy in the worst way.  There are scenes where it will show Master Chief and make a horn noise, like "tada, here he is!"  He dies in the end.  Some badass he was. 

One of things a lot of Halo fans like to say is that Halo is so much better than Call of Duty, because it's sci fi and different.  I have news for you.  Halo 3 is Call of Duty in space.  It's exactly the same kind of game.  It's a squad based shooter, just like Call of Duty.  Most of the game, you run around listening to military guys shouting orders at each other.  Does that sound familiar?  To beat all, the story is Halo is harder to follow and the combat isn't as tight.  You can tout that stupid floaty jumping mechanic all you want, it sucks.

The enemies in Halo 3 take far too many shots to take down, and it's never apparent when you're actually hitting your enemy.  They make no type of animation to give you any hint they're actually being hurt, except maybe a small blood splatter.  In some parts of the game, you're fighting a swarm type enemy, and you're actually supposed to run through and not try to kill all of them.  At least, I presume that was the case.  The game didn't tell me that was what I was supposed to do, but there were far more of them than I was going to be able to handle.

I would say the campaign was far too short at just over 4 hours, but I couldn't have been happier to be done with it.  After my main character died and I watched the least emotional ending I've ever seen in a video game, I'm not even sure I want to even attempt Halo 4.  The only reason I'm going to is because another developer made it.  I can't believe people bought an Xbox 360 to play this game.

Rating:  40/100

Review! Bioshock Infinite

System:  PC (also available on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3)
How far did you get:  1 rather thorough playthrough (11 hours)

Anyone who considers themselves to be a gamer is most likely familiar with Bioshock.  It's often lauded as the best game of our console generation, and even someone who thinks it might be another game will at least understand that Bioshock is at least an incredibly strong competitor.  It took first person shooters in a very different direction than had ever been seen before.  A few years after it's release, it did receive a sequel, but it's mostly agreed that we'll all forget that ever happened.

Fortunately for all of us, Irrational Games took the past 4 years to make the new Bioshock game, Bioshock Infinite.  It's very clear that the developers put everything they had into this game, and gamers will likely be arguing for years to come whether this game is better than the first Bioshock.

The most important thing to note about Bioshock Infinite is that it succeeds with excess in everything it does.  Only two things bothered me about the game.  The first is that I had to download and install a beta driver in order to keep it from making my entire computer crash.  Secondly, the default mouse control settings are a bit too sensitive, which is easily remedied in the options menu.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about how awesome this game is.

After nabbing the beta drivers required to get this game to actually work, I was able to crank the game up to ultra settings.  I pity console gamers.  On ultra settings, this game is mind blowing to look at.  The Bioshock games have a very animated look to them, so if you're looking for something that's incredibly realistic looking, this isn't your game.  Don't let that stop you from picking it up to see how  amazing it looks, though.  It's stunning, through and through.  It's immensely colorful and everything that ought to be animated, is.  Everything from Elizabeth's facial expressions to the sheer depth of the cloud city of Columbia is a full of beauty and imagination.

With a little tweaking, the controls are also incredibly tight.  I rarely found myself in that infamous position where I'm yelling "I didn't press that!" or "Why didn't you do what I pressed!"  Jump controls feel just right, and being able to hotkey your powers on the PC version is quite helpful.

As is to be expected with one of Irrational Games' projects, the story is truly something to behold.  It's one of those stories that helps legitimize the games industry in comparison with the film industry and helps you understand why a movie only costs 20 dollars and you're paying 60 for your game.  It's in depth, masterful, and could only be told in a video game.  You play as Booker Dewiit, a man with a long, storied, and rather unpleasant past.  He has a debt to be paid off, and he needs to get Elizabeth in order to pay it.  He never seems quite sure what the debt is he needs to pay, nor who it is that is requesting it of him.  To his surprise, he is launched into the unknown city in the sky, Columbia.  There you'll be looking for Elizabeth, finding her, and trying to get her out of the city.

Bioshock Infinite has very dark undertones.  In order to even enter the city, you must be baptized in the name of The Prophet, also known as Zachery Hale Comstock.  The entire city sees him as a leader and savior, and it's all kind of creepy.  In addition. the inhabitants are nearly all white.  Blacks and Irish are used as slave labor.  It handles these touchy subjects with a nice blend of vigor and restraint.  It reminds me a bit of the Wizard of Oz.  It's a beautiful place to look at, but not all is at it seems.

So the most important question remains:  is it fun?  Bioshock Infinite may be the most fun I've had playing video games since Mass Effect 2, at least.  The best part of it is just how perfectly paced the gameplay is.  The action sequences are all insanely frantic, and you're given plenty to search and look for in your downtime.  For a game that is not open world, there is a lot of space for you to roam around in.  People are having their own conversations, adding to feeling that this could be a real place.  There are useful things lying around everywhere, from food and drinks to increase your health and "salts," to ammo and gear you can equip.  I especially liked the audio recordings and telescopes you could use to get a better look at some of Columbia's more gorgeous settings.

The action gameplay gives you several different ways to approach each fight.  You're only allowed to carry 2 guns at a time, but I feel this was done to help utilize the idea that you have other ways to fight.  You use "vigors" as powers, and they are awesome to look at, fun to use, and actually helpful.  I became quite fond of the shock vigor, which allowed you to stun your enemies and do pretty much whatever you liked to them (I preferred using my melee weapon).  Speaking of that, your melee weapon is this strange hook/wrench hybrid that can do some pretty brutal things if you decide to finish your opponents with it.  Actually, I highly recommend doing it whenever possible.  The reactions you get out of Elizabeth are hilarious.

In addition to all the crazy things you can do in battle, you have Elizabeth.  She isn't your typical video game heroine.  When you rescue her, the game actually tells you that you do not need to protect Elizabeth, because she can handle herself.  She not only handles herself, she's a wonderful asset in battle.  When you first get her, she helps you by throwing you whatever you may need.  In battle, she'll throw you health, salts, or ammo.  Sometimes she'll even throw you a weapon that may be useful in that particular situation.  Outside of battle, she randomly throws you money.  She's also responsible for bringing you back when you run out of health, which is an interesting way of explaining how you don't actually die when you...die.  Later in the game, she opens rifts into other worlds, which can help you pop in a turret gun or some cover into your world.  

Bioshock Infinite is one of those rare cases where not only is everything that makes the game come together done fantastically, but it more than lives up to expectations.  It's also one of the few campaign only first person shooters you'll actually want to play again.  I know I will.  

Rating:  96/100

Review! Mass Effect 3: Citadel

System:  PC (also available on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3)
How far did you get:  Hard to explain, but I did all the story missions and the party, as well as many other things. 

Mass Effect 3 is unfortunately known for it's rather confusing and unsatisfying ending.  People aren't wrong about this.  The ending sucked.  They patched it later and changed it a bit, but all it did was make the terrible decisions make more sense.  The game itself, however, is quite good.  In fact, if the ending was better, it would easily be the best game in the trilogy.  All we had to look forward to at that point was DLC.  After the mostly mediocre Leviathan and Omega DLC packs, I fear many people may have given up on Mass Effect 3.  Hopefully, they'll be willing to give it one more chance. 

Mass Effect 3: Citadel is the third and final DLC pack for Mass Effect 3, and boy did they ever go all out on this one.  Every Mass Effect play style is here.  Everyone from the Mass Effect trilogy that is still alive is here in some shape or form.  Everything that made the Mass Effect trilogy so amazing is here.

Despite the fact that there is a little bit of everything here, the main focus of this DLC is the character interaction.  If you started playing Mass Effect at Mass Effect 3, you'll probably still get some laughs out of this, but this wasn't really made for you.  This is for Mass Effect veterans, through and through.  Every time you turn around, someone is making an inside joke, and it's nearly always hilarious.  Even in dire situations, no one seems to be taking it seriously, and though that may sound bad, it's enough to put a smile on the face of even the most bitter Mass Effect fan.

The gameplay is really great, as well.  There's a mission where all you get is a pistol, an espionage mission, and a mission where you get to take back the Normandy from the enemy.  I won't spoil who the bad guy is, but it's a nice twist.  The enemies are noticeably tougher than the normal fare, and the last boss fight feels like the true final boss fight in the game.

It's important to note a few things about this DLC.  First of all, it can only be done after *SPOILERS* Cerberus attacks the Citadel. *SPOILERS*  Also, it's a good idea to play right up until you've unlocked everyone, so they can be a part of the missions and festivities.  It doesn't hurt to play on a file where Wrex is still alive, either.  

Mass Effect 3: Citadel is the true ending to the trilogy that we all wanted to begin with, even though it doesn't actually happen at the end.  You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll hope you never again drink enough to wake up in bed with a Prothean.

Rating:  90/100  

Review!: The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim: Dragonborn

System:  PC (also available on Xbox 360 and (GET THIS!) Playstation 3)
How far did you get:  I finished the main story and did a handful of side missions

Considering the high praise this DLC pack received upon it's release on the Xbox 360, I had pretty high hopes for this thing.  After playing the mediocre Dawnguard and the mostly dumb Hearthfire, I shouldn't have, and now that's I've played Dragonborn I wish I hadn't got my hopes up. 

This DLC starts off a bit different than the others.  You get attacked by some cultists when you go to a town in Skyrim, and one of them has an assassination order in his pocket.  You take a boat from Windhelm to Solstheim, an island that belong to Morrowind.  Then you go on your quest to find out who tried to kill you. 

The island seems pretty big at first.  The town you land in gives you plenty to do at the start, but once you start traveling the land, you begin to realize it's actually quite small.  The terrain isn't anything you haven't already seen, either.  Riversides, swampy areas, and snowy mountains are exactly the sorts of areas you've dealt with already in Skyrim.  Indoors areas are almost entirely caves.  However, things do get somewhat interesting when you open the Black Books.  It takes you to some wacky poison vine land where everything is hazy and nothing makes sense.  While these areas were very interesting to look at, the gameplay felt a bit stunted in these areas.  There weren't many enemies there, and the ones that were there were repeated throughout every trip. 

Dragonborn has a way of tricking you into thinking it's going to be better than it is.  I kept hearing about the Skaal in the first town.  When I finally met them, they were basically a nicer, coat wearing version of the Forsworn.  None of the quests there were entertaining at all.  In fact, the only part of Dragonborn I really enjoyed was running around with a wizard with a bad attitude.  The main game had many more characters that were far more interesting. 

The perks are something I can't fully talk about.  You do get a new kind of stone to make armor out of, but my smithing wasn't leveled up enough to use it.  You do get a shout that lets you control and ride dragons, but don't get excited.  They go where ever they want and you can't fully control them.  There were some nice weapons to pick up on my journey through Solstheim, but nothing that blew my mind. 

I'd say there is definitely 20 dollars worth of content here, but that doesn't mean the content is good.  When I get downloadable content, I generally like to see something a little different added to the main game, and Dragonborn does not offer that.  In fact, I'd say Dawnguard offered a more unique experience than Dragonborn did.  If you're a Skyrim fanatic, you're probably not going to pass on this, but prepare to be disappointed.

Rating:  58/100

Review! Uncharted: Golden Abyss

System:  Playstation Vita
How far did you get:  Completed the game once

So let's tackle a Playstation Vita launch title.  Generally during a console or handheld system's cycle, the developers tend to learn the ins and outs of the system and by the end of said cycle, they are making very good looking games.  If that ends up being the case for the Playstation Vita, Uncharted: Golden Abyss is evidence that the Vita is going to produce some very high quality visuals in the future.

This game is gorgeous.  I couldn't believe I was playing it on a handheld system.  It looks easily as good as Uncharted: Drake's Fortune on Playstation 3.  Even the mouth animations during dialog scenes were done well.  The only falter I could find regarding the way this game looks was that the explosions didn't always look that great, and the scenes requiring you to use your touch screen occasionally messed up some of the animations.  Still, if you want to see how far handheld gaming has come, this is the game play.

Speaking of touch screen functions, they were really cool in some parts, and a bit of a pain in others.  Generally, if you had to use it during action sequences, it was pretty obnoxious.  The Playstation Vita isn't exactly a small system, so having to move your fingers across the screen often forced me to hold the system with one hand, and in the middle of an action sequence, that is not optimal.  However, there were also sections of the game where you would find symbols that needed a rubbing, and a piece of paper would show up on your screen.  You would then use your finger to create the rubbing.  There were also parts where you solve puzzles with the touch screen, or clean off dirty artifacts.  These sections were all neat additions that couldn't have been done on any other system, and I appreciated the effort.

Other than the touch screen action sequences, the gameplay is as good as any Uncharted game has been.  If Tomb Raider with better gunplay sounds like a good thing to you, you'll enjoy this game.  The acrobatics are as fun and nice to look at as ever too.  If you've played other Uncharted games, the weaponry will all seem familiar, as well.  Most of the time, you'll be running around with a standard assault rifle and a pistol, and when you're in a position where an RPG or a sniper rifle would be useful, there's usually one sitting around nearby.

The story is great, too.  It's not Uncharted 2 or 3 great, but it's still an impressive outing for a handheld.  The voice acting is all top notch, which is to be expected for this series.  A couple old friends appear in this outing, as well, though this game is billed as a prequel.  You'll come to like the new characters, but Chase, the female lead, isn't quite as good as Elena from the other games.

If you own a Vita, Uncharted: Golden Abyss is a must have.  If you have a Playstation Plus membership, the game is free and you really have no excuse not to own the game.  It's well worth the hour or two to download it.

Rating:  88/100

Review! Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

System:  Playstation 3 (exclusively)
How far did you get:  Completed the game, finished all errands and bounty hunts that I am aware of, including post game

This console generation hasn't exactly been kind to those of us that are fans of the Japanese Role Playing Game (jrpg) genre.  Not only have very few jrpgs even been produced, but the ones we have gotten have been sub-par to downright bad.  If it weren't for a slew of pretty good jrpgs on the handheld systems, we'd be some pretty unhappy gamers right now.

Due to this, reviewing Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is challenging for me.  It very well may be the one and only good jrpg on this generation of consoles, so I'm a bit worried I'm going to oversell it, or I might just think it's better than it actually is.  I've seen many reviewers take the hard route and come to conclusion that maybe Ni No Kuni is not quite as good as the fun time they are having indicates.  I'm not taking that route.  Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is one of the best games I've played in years.

Let's start with how the game looks.  Ni No Kuni is easily in my top five best looking console games of the PS3/Xbox 360 console generation.  The game itself is developed by Level 5, a company known for it's incredible looking cel shaded graphics (see: Dragon Quest VIII and Rogue Galaxy).  In addition to this, the animated sequences are done by the popular animation studio Studio Ghibli, responsible for animated films such as Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle.  Stuido Ghibili's animation is as beautiful as ever, and Level 5 does a fantastic job of making the in game graphics live up to their standard.  The world presented here is much more colorful and vibrant than most games released these days.  The character models are all well done too, though I do question what they were thinking with Drippy.  As the most lovable character in the game, he is a bit plain looking.

Ni No Kuni doesn't have the most in depth or complicated story, but it isn't a bad one.  In fact, I was relieved to play a jrpg where I didn't have to rack my brain trying to figure out what is going on.  It's a simple tale of a boy who is drug into a fantasy world in an attempt to save his mother.  You'll find yourself moving yourself through lots of jrpg tropes, such as a forest level, a fire level, a water level, etc.  Not exactly the most creative choices, but it does give you a shot of nostalgia for the old days of jrpgs.  You'll also find that the game is quite long.  I thought I had finished it twice before I actually did.  You can probably run through the story in about 40 hours, though it took me 63 to do the story and side quests.  A platinum trophy would likely run you 80-100 hours.

The few issues I have with the game come in the gameplay, particularly regarding the battle system.  The battle system plays like a cross between Pokemon, a Tales of game, and a little Final Fantasy XIII thrown in as well.  You'll do a lot of your fighting by capturing the creatures you fight, called familiars, and using them to fight for you.  Annoyingly, capturing a familiar isn't like capturing a Pokemon.  The familiars will fall over with hearts over their heads at complete random, and you can serenade them into joining you.  The randomness of it makes it so you don't really get to choose what you're capturing unless you fight in that area over and over until happens, and that sucked.  The familiars all come with particular strengths and weaknesses, and you can equip them with weapons, armors, and skills.  All of this seems to work pretty well.  What didn't work too well was when I was about 3/4s through the game, my main character learned a lot of really powerful magic and I rarely used my familiars with him anymore.  It made it feel like all the work I had put into leveling my familiars was all for nothing.  Another frustrating aspect of the battle system was it's connection to Final Fantasy XIII.  The battles continue moving while you're trying to shuffle through menus, and it was pretty aggravating most of time.   Several times during the game, I needed to defend but could not shuffle through the menu fast enough to do so.  There were a few buttons on my controller that could have been used to instantly defend, but this was not taken advantage of.  You do have an "all out defend" button, but that doesn't work on the character you are controlling.  I know this seems like a lot of complaints, but it's really not horrible.  With the exception of scrolling through menus in active battles, nothing else about it is broken and it's still fun most of the time. 

Outside of battle, the gameplay was much better.  It has it's own version of fetch quests, but generally they're tied to their own fun little story.  Thanks to the game having such a lovable cast a characters, doing these quests was a lot more fun.  It also gives you the ability to take emotions and character traits from a non playable character that has more than they need, and give that emotion to another person that is in short supply of it.  This was a really simple mechanic and could have been fleshed out a bit better, but it was still fun to do.  The bounty hunts are a lot of fun and a good challenge, as well.   

Ni No Kuni is the best jrpg of this console generation without question.  If you like jrpgs and own and Playstation 3, you must purchase this game.  Don't let the childlike appearance of it turn you away.  The game can get dark and it's much too good for you to pass up for such a silly reason, tidy?

Rating:  90/100

Review! LittleBigPlanet Vita

System:  Playstation Vita
How far did you get:  Completed single player campaign, played around with multiplayer and creation tools

If you've never played a LittleBigPlanet game and you own a Playstation Vita, this is the only one you'll ever need to get.

After playing LittleBigPlanet and it's sequel on the Playstation 3 and the PSP game and noticing there was very little difference between the games, I didn't really have high hopes for LittleBigPlanet Vita.  I mean, what could they do differently at this point, and why would they risk alienating fans of the series?  What Media Molecule decided to do was take full advantage of the Vita's capabilities, and it turned out great for it.

Rather than give you the option of using the touch screen or tilt functions or just using the regular buttons like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, LittleBigPlanet requires you to use the Vita's special abilities.  Not just in mini games, either.  The single player campaign has many sections that require you to use the front and back touch screen and the tilt function, and it's fun every time you do it.  It's the first Vita game I've played that makes players really use the system and it's one of the best Vita games I've played for that reason.

It's a visual stunner, too.  If you can tell a difference between LittleBigPlanet Vita and it's Playstation 3 counterparts, you have better eyes than I do.  Just be sure to keep a cloth nearby, because you will be getting fingerprints on your screen quite a bit.  It controls pretty well on the handheld, too.  The jumping is still a bit floaty, but once you get used to it, it becomes part of the appeal. 

The main story has never been a seller for the LittleBigPlanet games, but the story here is good enough to properly introduce you to a rather zany cast of characters.  This isn't really anything different for LittleBigPlanet, though.  The amazing narrator from the previous games returns with his snarky humor and pleasant voice.  The only bad thing there is that once you finish the tutorial levels, you never hear from him again.

There were a couple of things that disappointed me about Sackboy's Vita outing, however.  If there was any licensed music in this one, I didn't notice it.  There were a few tracks that might have been, but they weren't nearly as good as the first two LittleBigPlanet games.  When playing the first two games, I almost jumped out of my chair when I heard music from likes of Battles, Squarepusher, and Lorn.  I was sad that I didn't get to experience that here.

I won't complain that there are far fewer levels in the Vita installment, as that is to be expected with the small Vita fanbase, but I will complain about the quality of what is there.  I was never too good at level creation myself, but I knew it and chose not to make levels.  LittleBigPlanet Vita is bogged down with incredibly simple and boring user made levels.  I don't know if it has anything to do with the creation set they're working with or if uncreative people are making levels, but either way I was disappointed.  

Regardless, LittleBigPlanet Vita is easily the most feature filled LittleBigPlanet to date when it comes to gameplay, so if you have a Vita and have ever been interested in the series, I'd recommend trying it out.

Rating:  82/100

Review! Far Cry 3

System:  PC (also available on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3)
How far did you get:  Completed game and cleared all outposts

After Far Cry 2 released to near universal distaste, hype was one thing Far Cry 3 didn't have.  Then it came out. 

Due to a very late release in the year, this game was snubbed by a lot of game journalists in their game of the year awards, and it's a real shame.  It's easily one of the best looking games of the year (topped only by Medal of Honor: Warfighter, which wasn't a good game).  It's open world style brings back memories of other first person open world shooters like Fallout 3, only the shooting mechanics here are top notch. 

Far Cry 3 takes places on islands full of jungle and sand, not unlike the other two Far Cry games.  Several things set this game apart from other modern first person shooters.  Firstly, it has a single player skill tree, giving it a slight RPG element.  Most modern first person shooters also have very linear campaigns, and Far Cry 3 does not.  More importantly, Far Cry 3 is all about the single player campaign.  If you're looking for multiplayer to rival Halo 4 or Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, you're going to be disappointed.  However, when you get a campaign that spans anywhere from 25-40 hours, this is perfectly understandable. 

That is the argument most used when overlooking this game for GOTY awards, though.  It's not a "total package" and the multiplayer feels tacked on.  They aren't wrong, the multiplayer is pretty mediocre.  The co-op is pretty good except it's bugged to the point where it's almost unplayable.  The co-op is also not you and some friends playing through the story mode.  There are missions designed specifically for co-op and you play as a different set of characters than those from the main story.  The buggy co-op is probably my one and only real complaint.  I really wanted to see it through, but if I have to struggle to make my "w" key make me move forward, then your game has problems. 

What's great is that it is hard to pin down what I liked most about this game.  Due to it's openness, incredibly funny and random things would happen throughout my time on the islands.  You might be hunting a deer, when a tiger jumps out and takes care of them for you.  Perhaps a tiger will take care of an outpost for you.  If you're lucky, you'll get to see a bear and a pack of tigers go at it.  The wildlife is about as unpredictable as it is in real life, and it made for a pretty hilarious and fun experience. 

The main story is really impressive, as well.  A few modern entertainment jabs make their way in there, but overall it's pretty grim and unpleasant (in a good way).  I do enjoy a story that starts out one way and gives you another option later, and this game delivers in that aspect.  You even get to choose your ending, and let me tell you:  there will be a part of you in the back of your head screaming "pick this one."  Listen to it. 

Far Cry 3 controls like a dream.  It's taxing even on high end video cards if you choose the PC version, but it rewards you with some of the best visuals of this generation.  Just make sure you update those drivers, especially if you're using a Radeon card. 

Overall, Far Cry 3 is easily the best mainstream game I've played from 2012.  Everything except the multiplayer is top notch game design, and it comes highly recommended from me. 

Rating: 92/100