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