I felt like Gears of War 3 was the perfect end for the series on Xbox 360. It further fine-tuned an already great formula while finally providing a narrative that was worth a damn. Had the series taken a hiatus until the next generation of consoles were ready, I would have been perfectly happy with that. Instead, we got Gears of War: Judgment, an unnecessary prequel that let me down in a big way.
Dishonored‘s premise is as simple as it gets. Corvo, the empress’ bodyguard, gets framed as her murderer as part of a plot to take over the throne. In the process, the empress’ daughter gets kidnapped. Now he’s out to save the girl, avenge the empress and clear his name.
The game at first blush was far from that for me. Struggling to grasp the game’s systems early on, I fumbled my way through the first mission; killing everyone in my path. Despite eventually completing the mission, the game’s heavy hand on leading you towards the stealthy route sure made me feel like a failure. Having killed 14 bodies in cold blood and the chaos level on high due to those actions, I feared that this wasn’t going to get any better.
“I’m holdin’ all the cards and ****** wanna play chess now” – Drake, Pound Cake
In the annals of history, we as gamers have used console sales as a measure of success. Oftentimes, we use that as the primary factor in terms of who “won”. These home console winners include the Atari 2600, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo, the PlayStation, the PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo Wii. Gamers always use sales as the primary measuring stick for why the NES or the PlayStation 2 won their respective generations.
Yet when gamers talk about the Wii/Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 era, the fact that the Wii outsold its competitors by a wide margin no longer matters. All you have to do is scour through one of many online threads about the matter to find all sorts of creative ways that people will spin the situation in Sony and Microsoft’s favour. The ways in which people always move the goal posts in this argument sickens me.
I remember the cartoon fondly, but my time with the cult classic DuckTales on the NES was limited. I do remember playing it, and I can hum the moon theme on command, but I don’t remember getting very far. Instead, most of my early Disney gaming came from titles like Chip & Dale’s Rescue Rangers and Aladdin. While my level of nostalgia for the source material was low, I was still excited to play DuckTales: Remastered for a taste of classic gaming with an HD facelift.
Hard Corps: Uprising came and went with little fanfare, but that doesn’t mean you should let this Contra: Hard Corps prequel pass you by. As I play through level 3, I also talk about my thoughts on the Contra franchise, my recent fascination with board games and some of my early impressions of Assassin’s Creed IV.
With the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era nearing its twilight, we saw a number of high-profile franchises stumble over themselves with one entry too many. God of War: Ascension came and went without a care. Gears of War: Judgment I felt was a huge disappointment, as it played like a shameless cash-grab. After playing an hour or so of Batman: Arkham Origins, I’m disappointed to also toss Bruce Wayne’s latest into that pile.
Aside from one attempt at a Need For Speed iPhone game, I’ve never played any of the games in this franchise. I’ve never held any sort of grudge against it, though its particular brand of racing action hasn’t really grabbed my attention, either. With Rivals, EA caught me at just the right point where their latest entry built up a lot of positive word-of-mouth during a weak console launch. Is this the game that hooks me in for good?
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Wolverine is my second favourite comic book character of all-time. I’ve always been a fan of his lone wolf mentality, heart-driven decisions, and adamantium claws that he liberally uses to slice foes into confetti. Upon the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, I picked him up right away and haven’t looked back. Even if he sucked, I’d probably find a way to make use of him, though he just so happens to be awesome in this series. In a modern world of Zero, Vergil and Dr. Doom players, here’s why I use Logan.
The Skylanders franchise fell victim to the sophomore jinx. Skylanders Giants failed to address the issues of its predecessor while its biggest innovation was a boring character class that actually made the game less fun and more difficult to play. Clearly having learned its lesson, the Skylanders are back in their best adventure yet.
In Third Person 