The turn-based strategy genre has been largely stagnant for ages. Sure, I greatly enjoy the semi-regular Fire Emblem entries, though there’s surely room in the market for more, right? 2K Games agrees, as they took a huge risk with XCOM: Enemy Unknown. I’m so glad that they did, as its earned a slot in my top 10 games of this generation.
Outside of the fighting game community, most saw Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as an overpriced DLC pack for the original game. While that argument wouldn’t necessarily be wrong, it was moot in the eyes of the competitive community. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was a game that was scorching hot at tournaments, but contained a number of flaws that stopped it from living up to its full potential. This game addressed all of those faults, from a shortage of characters, to the dreaded DHC glitch. For someone like me who had played hundreds of hours of the original and still hungry for more? This was excellent.
I never understood the insanely high praise that Grand Theft Auto IV got from critics. Sure, it was a great game for its time, but I had some fundamental issues with its story and gameplay that stop me from calling it a masterpiece. I wasn’t much of a Niko Belic fan, whose empty words about chasing the American Dream meant nothing when his in-game actions reflected those of a cold-hearted sociopath. I thought the game’s story took too long to ramp up. I also hated driving in that game, as all of the cars were a nightmare to steer with any sort of precision.
Grand Theft Auto V goes well beyond simply addressing those faults to provides an experience that’s incredible in scope and detail.
Continue reading
There is a sense of unadulterated joy that Rayman Legends creates that few other games of this generation have. It’s that type of feeling that you felt playing your first Super Mario game where traversing every level is an opportunity to overcome a challenge while exploring every nook and cranny for the next cool thing. Despite the fact that I’ve been playing platformers for decades, this recaptures that magic through a plethora of fresh ideas and solid platforming action is executed to perfection.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was a bit of a write-off. Sure, it sucks that we as gamers got a sub-par experience due to the turmoil between Activision and former studio heads at Infinity Ward, but there’s nothing anyone can do about that now. With Ghosts, now is an opportune time to make good on their last misstep while proving that they can continue to deliver the goods even without many of the staff that originally established the franchise. On one hand, I think they’ve done just that by providing an experience that is on par with their past efforts. However, the innovations we saw in Black Ops II are sorely absent here, while Infinity Ward’s new ideas do little to liven up a stagnant formula.
Over the course of this generation, the Assassin’s Creed series has seen its fair share of ups and downs. Right now, the series is arguably at its lowest point, as Assassin’s Creed III was mired with bugs, poor game design choices and an uninteresting protagonist. Though Ubisoft has dug themselves quite the hole with their last two sub-par entries in the series, I continue to hold out hope that they’ll find a way to recapture the magic they created with Assassin’s Creed II.
Pictured above is a receipt about two feet long. After making a snap judgment to trade in Battlefield 4, I also decided that there were 21 other games that were due to go, too. I generally don’t like to trade in games. Part of that is from the relatively low payouts that stores usually give. Also, after an incident many years ago where I was robbed of almost all of my video games, I’ve grown reluctant to let anything go. If a game has any sort of sentimental quality to me, or if I feel like I’ll ever want to play it again, I’ll keep it. However, over the course of many years, I took chances on a number of games that ultimately didn’t prove fruitful. Along with Battlefield 4, I blew out many of them in one fell swoop.
Batman: Arkham Asylum surprised the world. Expectations for licensed superhero games were at an all-time low, and this was far from the usual crap. For many (myself included), Arkham Asylum was a legitimate game of the year contender. Instead of falling into the sophomore jinx, Batman: Arkham City builds upon a solid foundation to create the pinnacle superhero game.
If this was a list of the most influential games of this generation, the original Gears of War could very well take the #1 spot. It’s take on the third person shooter and cover mechanics became the blueprint for third person action games. However, despite enjoying it enough to beat the campaign 3 separate times (including on insane difficulty), I felt like that game was rough around the edges. Some of the action outside of its core mechanics felt sloppy, the last boss encounter wasn’t fun or satisfying and its dumb story felt tacked solely as a means of justifying the gameplay scenarios rather than being integrated at a root level.
Gears of War 3 cleans up all of the mistakes of its predecessors to finally reach the franchise’s full potential.
Injustice: Gods Among Us won me over long before it came out. At Fan Expo 2012, I got to play an early build of the game featuring only Batman and The Flash. Though I didn’t have very long to play it, something about it just felt right. More right than even the Mortal Kombat reboot, which I also really enjoyed.
What I did not anticipate was how far down the Injustice rabbit hole I’d go. Having played virtually every major fighting game released this generation (most of which are good), most of them just fall out of my rotation while I continue to play the same old Street Fighter and Marvel. But once this game hit, I couldn’t put it down.
In Third Person 