My Top 5 Games of 2013

      Let’s do this before we get too far into January!

      I was toying with doing a Top 10 but am kind of pressed for time so… here’s my Top 5 favourite games of the year!

      These aren’t necessarily games that were released in 2013 – just ones I played during that year and completed.

      Oh and before you ask “where’s (insert game here)…”, I didn’t get to play GTAV, The Last of Us, Assassin’s Creed IV or finish Telltale’s The Walking Dead… or anything else you think I may have missed, so that’s why they aren’t included. I’ll do some special mentions afterwards too to see what else could have been in if there was a Top 10.

      If you are interested in 2012 and 2011’s best games lists, just click HERE or HERE.

      Anyway, here are my Top 5 games that I played this year.

5. Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics)

      Yes, this franchise reboot played very similarly to the Unchartedseries - which is probably a big reason why I liked it – but with a more open space to explore, it was different enough to stand on its own. Whilst neither the story, characters or platforming and gun mechanics can quite match up to Nathan Drake’s adventures, there was some terrific verticality involved (with beautiful views across the island) that made much of the exploration a joy.

      I’m not so much a fan of the old Tomb Raider games – they often featured stiff movement and clunky combat and were often bogged down in elaborate puzzles that just killed the pacing. There are tombs to raid in this one, but mercifully their puzzles are often simple, realistic and entirely optional.

      Not amazing but enough to keep me playing to collect 100% of everything and a promising new direction for a previously withering franchise.

4. Lego Marvel Superheroes (TT Games)

      With over 150 playable characters and a fully open sandbox Manhattan to run around in - you spend just as much time running around and mucking about with different characters as you do playing through the story levels. Flying through the city as Iron Man or freefalling down from the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier as the Hulk is surprisingly exciting – despite the relatively simplistic gameplay on offer.

      The story missions themselves are diverse in their locations (the X-Mansion, Deep Sea, Outer Space) and the different characters that you are assigned to use for each one makes every level feel fresh. However the core gameplay doesn't vary that much throughout and remains, as with all the Lego games, fairly shallow (smash everything, hold a button down to build something, use a certain character’s special ability to progress to the next bit, rinse, repeat…).

      If you are a fan of a deeper gameplay experience this probably wont hold that much long-term interest for you, but the sheer level of fan service and references to Marvel properties here is astounding.

      Whilst there are a distinctly fewer levels than other LEGO games out there, the massive hub city (with plenty of collectibles and side missions) more than makes up for it and will keep completionists going for a long while.

3. Dragon’s Crown(Vanillaware)

      So there was a big furore over the art style and character designs when first announced but it didn't bother me at all… A classic fantasy scrolling hack-n-slash from Vanillaware? Sold!

      That being said, the game indeed has a beautiful hand-painted look to the sprites and the backgrounds, the fighting is solid, the six characters all play differently and there are absolutely tons of bosses to fight. The multiple difficulties, side missions, branching levels and co-op play (online and couch)  - all revealed gradually as the game progresses – adds plenty of longevity.

      There are a few gripes to do with the amount of repetition and grinding you will probably have to endure (expect to play each level over A LOT) and there are occasional instances of slowdown when things get a little hectic, but all in all it’s a beautifully presented loot based scrolling beat-em-up RPG.

      I’ll most likely keep sinking more hours into this to further level up despite having finished it with four of the six characters.

2. Rogue Legacy (Cellar Door Games)

      As a fan of the Castlevania games this one was right up my street. It plays very similar in that you explore a huge castle, fight bosses, use magic and sub weapons, and so on.

      The are two main differences here though. Firstly, it has a random ‘rogue lite’ aspect to it – every time you enter the castle, everything is slightly randomised: the rooms, the enemies, the loot. There are a limited amount of presets (which is actually good as it breeds familiarity with what to expect whilst still retaining that randomised feeling) and each different zone of the castle is always roughly in the same direction each time (up, down or right) so it’s not a total stab in the dark each time.

      Gold is the name of the game – it’s used for levelling up and buying upgrades - so after each run you spend it all (you need to relinquish all gold before entering again) which lends the sense of continuous progression – a very addictive trait. Oh, and then there’s the ancestor thing with unique helpful/unhelpful traits (colourblindness? dwarfism? IBS?) that each new generation is randomly assigned which can affect gameplay but is also hilarious in its own right.

      It’s easy to pick up and play, the randomised element keeps things interesting and the progression is highly addictive. There were times I literally couldn't stop playing.

      Just. One. More. Go.

1.Dishonored (Arkane Studios)

      Alright, so it was released in 2012 but who cares - this game was just so impressive to me.
      I was slightly dubious at first that it would live up to the hype (any first person game that is not a shooter is difficult to pull off for a start) but this game just works so well in almost every aspect.

      The story is top notch – a kind of Victorian steam punk alternative universe where you play a wrongfully disgraced assassin attempting to clear his name. The graphics are wonderful – the environments, levels and characters: grim but stylised art similar to Bioshock.

      But the best bit about all of it is how it plays: namely the level of choice it affords the player. If you want to go in all guns blazing you can do that - the game offers guns, crossbows and swords. If you want to go full stealth you can do that also – hide in shadows, put people to sleep, poison them… And that’s even without mentioning the supernatural powers you can acquire: ‘blinking’ (a short range teleportation move), temporarily shifting your consciousness into various animals, knocking people back using windblast and so on.

      Some games that profess to have this level of choice often fall short. Either the 'choices' thy offer are largely meaningless and game progression is the same regardless of what you do (eg: Bioshock - shoot everything, go to the next area), or too free so that everything seems half baked and wobbly (Skyrim - come on let’s be real guys the melee is horrible in that game).

      It's all about balance and Dishonored does that fantastically. The areas are open enough to explore and find alternative paths (multiple entry points into the same building for example), without being too open (so environments can still be incredibly detailed and you always know what you are supposed to be doing or where to go). You have a primary mission to advance the story, but also many side mission to complete should you wish to.

      These can also genuinely affect story points or missions later on in the game (eg: the interactions with Slackjaw and Granny Rags) and are not just token optionals like in other games. The whole place feels alive. There's a real sense of place. Houses are built like houses and not like levels. Scaling the architecture is sublime.

      The PC-like ‘save anywhere’ feature is also a godsend. Despite sounding like it makes the game too easy (it really doesn’t), it allows you to play the game in the way you want without the frustration of having to restart huge sections and allows for experimentation. In fact, it encourages you to play the game differently - for example finish the whole game without being spotted once, without using any supernatural powers or without ever killing anyone – all perfectly achievable and with just the right level of challenge using this saving method.

      That's right – for every assassination mission in the game (there are a handful) not only is there multiple ways of dispatching your target you can even choose a non-lethal way to put them out of commission. You can really play this game how you want to without ever losing direction or focus of the great overall story.

      It's highly liberating - and that's why Dishonored is my game of the year.

If you want to read an earlier article I wrote about Dishonored and the element of choice, click HERE.

      Special mentions (if I was to do a Top 10) would also go to Bioshock Infinite, Catherine, DmC: Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time.

      Oh, and I recently finished Fezand started Bastion – both good games – but too late to include in this article.

6th Jan 2014

Read More

Cult For The Sake Of Cult - Deadly Premonition - The Director's Cut

        Some games I just can’t get into.

        I got half way through Borderlands 2 before I realized I was just repeating the same things over and over again and that I was wasting my time. I fared even worse with Skyrim - made it all the way to the first village but ended up being shanked to death by the townsfolk just because I had killed one of their chickens…

        I just didn't feel like it deserved my time.

        And this is coming from someone who plays A LOT of videogames, finishes many of them and owns more games than he can possibly ever have time to play. So yeah, I play games a lot – often to completion - but some games I just cant get into.

        Case in point: Resident Evil: Revelations, the HD re-release for PS3 of the Nintendo 3DS title. Played it for a bit – decided it wasn't for me. Fair enough. That’s more to do with personal preference; it’s not a particularly bad game (I still love Resi 4 and 5), I just didn't feel I have time for it.

        And then there’s Deadly Premonition.

 

        Originally an Xbox 360 exclusive, this survival horror game was later re-released for PS3 as a ‘Director’s Cut’ with enhanced graphics and controls amongst other extras. Since the game had a cult following and a reputation for an excellent offbeat horror story (heavily influenced by David Lynch’s Twin Peaks), I thought I would check it out.

        …And no. Not for me. Despite the graphical overhaul this game still looks ugly as sin. Awkward character models, blocky textures, shoddy effects. Even some PS2 games look better than this!

        But that's all forgivable if it plays well… except it doesn't particularly. The character suffers from dated tank controls, the ‘improved’ combat is still abysmal and the gameplay consists of a lot of running/driving around looking for clues and killing the occasional zombie. There are long in-game cutscenes, insta-fail QTEs, a useless map and awkward menu system.

        Is this whole thing a joke? It’s not the worst game ever by a long shot but it begs the question – why would anyone want to spend time playing this when there are so many other games out there that are more worthy of your time? Was this really worthy of a 'Director’s Cut' re-release?

        Well… the fans cry, The brilliant thing about the game is the story! It’s worth playing through it just for that.

        Okay, I accept that a good story, writing and voice-acting can help elevate a technically inferior product into a effective game. The earlier Silent Hill games certainly are a good example. But this? Really? Just watch this segment of ‘gameplay’, situated a bit early on in the game shortly before I packed it in. Sure, it’s offbeat and quirky but different doesn't necessarily equal good. In my mind, gameplay is king and if a game is not fun to play, even Shakespearean levels of prose can't save it.

        Just having a good story in games is unfortunately not enough. Books, films and TV series already have that one sewn up. Now I’m not saying a game can't tell a good story – it just does so in a different way, integrated throughout the gameplay experience and not simply just through cutscenes and voiceovers.

        But… the fans continue, you didn't play enough of the game to make an adequate judgement… the story gets really good later on! That may very well be the case, but if it feels like a total slog just to get to that story then I really don't have time for it. Especially true in this age of YouTube where you can just watch all the cutscenes if you really wanted to, without having to bother to play the game at all. Or you could just go and watch Twin Peaks.

        Disappointed? Yes.

        Slightly jaded? Perhaps.

        But as we stand on the cusp of the new generation of gaming with the recent reveals of the PS4 and Xbox One, we should be expecting more for our precious gaming time.

        Sometimes I feel people go on about ‘cult’ games just because they are labelled weird and ‘cult’ and not because they are actually good games that are legitimately fun to play. And besides, as much as people were harping on about the excellent story in Deadly PremonitionI was yet to witness any of it within the few hours I spent playing it.

        Perhaps I have grossly misjudged it and overlooked a classic. I just don't have the time or the patience to find out.

11th June 2013

Read More

How I Decide Which Games Are Worth Playing

        Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything – the main reason being my taking time to steadily work through my huge backlog of games. Bought, borrowed and rented, they have been piling up on my table, begging to be played. I like to give each game the attention it deserves, so rarely do I play through more than one game at time – only moving onto the next once I have played through their story at least once and watched all those names roll up the screen.

  

        Recently I have worked my way through the following: the occasionally creepy but ultimately flawed Silent Hill: Downpour, the hideously botched Aliens: Colonial Marines, Borderlands 2 (the only game on this list that I actually got halfway through and could not be bothered to finish), two playthroughs of the utterly brilliant Dishonored (which you can read more about HERE), the visually stunning and yet slightly too ‘on-the-rails’ Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the western re-invention of demon slayer Dante in DMC: Devil May Cry and finally, yet another complete playthrough each of the superlative Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls (still quite possibly my favourite games of all time) to accompany a friend through his first time through both and to play the DLC expansion for the latter that wasn't available the first time I played it).

        Oh, and I’m currently half way through the excellent Tomb Raider reboot…

        What is this compulsion of mine to spend so much time playing these games? Is it an addiction? Or a way of life? Does it enrich me in some way or is it simply a waste of time and I should instead be playing outside with all the other chil-de-ren?

        Most other ‘dedicated’ gamers that I know either only play a few titles religiously, or they like to play many games (especially ones that have just come out) but don't really get around to finishing any of them. I sit very much in the middle ground - there are many games that I am interested in playing but at the same time I generally don't like not finishing games (The exception being when I get the feeling that it’s really not worth the investment of my time).

        Woah Woah, hold up! I hear the fan boys cry, You finished the abysmal Colonial Marines but not Borderlands 2?! Well yeah. As bad as Colonial Marines was, I was only renting it and I knew I could finish it in a few hours just to see how the story panned out. With Borderlands 2 on the other hand (also a rental) half way through it I could sense that the mechanics of the game and the ridiculous amount of travelling was just really artificially lengthening out the whole experience for me not to mention the monotony of the combat had began to sink in. I knew it would take many more hours of repetitious (and not particularly enjoyable) gameplay to get to the end of a story that I ultimately didn't really care about - and so I left it. Time was better spent playing something else.

        You see, it’s all subjective about finding what is ‘worth’ your time and what is not. I know many people who rave about Skyrim. Me? Couldn't get into it at all. Get over it. Whereas Dark Souls… I’ll probably continue it into New Game Plus (once again) after I’ve cleared a few more games in the current backlog.

        And I still have a few unopened games sitting on my shelf, the Black Ops 2 single player campaign that I still haven’t touched and not to mention a handful of PSN titles and games on my Mac that I bought in sales but have yet to even start. And by the time I finish some of these I’m sure the more recent games to have come out would have dropped in price or arrive at my doorstep via the good folks at Lovefilm.

        I guess what I have learned (there’s always a lesson somewhere in there folks) is that for me, whether or not a game is worth playing (or more specifically spending time in playing) comes in two parts. Firstly, whether or not the game is worth playing through once, and then beyond that, whether or not a game is worth keeping to play through again in the future (possibly getting the plat too). If not, get rid. Move onto something else – life is too short.

        So I guess the games I play fall into three categories then: games I feel are not worth my time (eg: Borderlands 2, Skyrim, Fallout 3 - notice a pattern here?), games that I feel are worth my time to play through once either for the story or to see all there is to see in the game (SH Downpour, MGR: Revengeance, DMC – alternate endings, secrets etc can just be viewed on youtube these days without having to slog through the whole game again), and finally games that I can keep coming back to and replay indefinitely because they are a true joy to play (the Uncharted trilogy, the ‘Souls games, the Batman: Arkham games…). Invariably it is these games that I usually end up getting the Platinum trophy in too – just because I enjoy spending the extra amount of time needed to do that. These are the ones that I generally tend to keep and not sell on.

        Still, a lot of it is down to personal preference and although there are definite stinkers out there (yes YOU, Colonial Marines…) it’s all just swings and roundabouts – different people enjoy spending different amounts of time playing different things and that's that.

        It's also about priorities. As with most people, I find that I have less time to play games as I get older – so sussing out what is worth my time and what is not is often at the forefront of my mind when starting up a new game. If I don't intend to finish it, better to bail out early and move on to the next. That's why renting games is so great for me.

        So what’s the point of all this? Have you ever called into question your own personal game playing habits? Do you stockpile hundreds of unfinished games, or are you a completionist too?
        Never mind… just let me get back to finishing Tomb Raider so I can decide whether it’s worth going for the plat or not.

9th May 2013

Read More