What a weird year. I can't remember a year list where I've had such dividing games peppered throughout.
What's next? I have the following on my To-Play list... in order of likely order:
Showing 1-10 of 21 items
I admit that I probably won't ever beat XCOM. I'm terrible at strategy games, and this one in particular feels... off. It's stressful. It's glitchy. It's repetitive. And after 12 odd hours playing it, the "base-building" mechanics haven't really sunk in. Honestly, I think both FTL and Super Hexagon are better games than XCOM, and that makes me kind of sad.
A fantastic iOS game that occupies my time on the LRT every work day. It's short; depending on playtime, it's usually 60 seconds or less, which makes it an ideal commuting game. It's harsh but fair. During my best time of 94 seconds, I felt like Neo from the Matrix.
What a great game. I typically don't like to play strategy games, but even though FTL is harsh, it never feels punishing. If you die, you just restart your game and try again.
Sleeping Dogs is a solid open world game. The story is great, the setting (Hong Kong) is fantastic, and on the PC, it's a damn pretty game. The controls are solid too, with a fantastic melee system that feels like it's straight out of Arkham City, but with decent shooting mechanics as well. Very highly recommended to all open-world fans.
Since I seem to be playing 2011 and 2012 games lately, might as well keep it up with Asura's Wrath. I don't care for anime, but Asura's Wrath is so mind-blowingly over the top that I _needed_ to see what was coming next. I think I would have been disappointed to pay $60 for this game, but for $20 (plus $7 for the additional episode), it was an experience that I was happy I had a chance to try. Thanks to Brad for consistently talking about this, otherwise I think I would have missed this gem.
[Not complete] I was hesitant to put Halo 4 on this list since I haven't finished it, but maybe that's telling. I've played through every FPS Halo game, and have enjoyed all of them (except ODST, which felt like a padded out expansion), with Halo Reach and Halo 2 among my favorites. Maybe I have shooter fatigue from Borderlands, but something feels really off. On my upstairs 37" HDTV, the fonts on the main screen are FAR too small, almost being unreadable, something I haven't seen with ANY modern game. Something about the level design seems wrong, and I can't put my finger on why that is. At the same time, it also feels far too safe and familiar. Why are we fighting the Covenant again? The last time we saw M.C., we had been thrown from some crazy wormhole to somewhere in the Universe. Why not go out on a limb and put us impossibly from home? Maybe I'll find out why they chose this route, or maybe it's best to just leave the Halo universe behind and remember it as fondly as I do before it ends up jumping the shark.
What a mess. Honestly, don't bother. I might come back to this one day when the game is patched a few more times and the always-on online functionality is fixed, but for now, there's way better ways to spend your money and time.
I've never really been a fan of the series (I think I owned the original at one time as a pack-in with a video card), but I loved the Uncharted series, and it's hard to discuss the reboot without thinking immediately of Nathan Drake and Co. There's something about Uncharted's over the top exploration and set-piece moments that makes Drake feel like a modern Indiana Jones. The problem with Uncharted is that the combat, which takes up a solid 1/3 of the game, can be a boring grind. An almost unlimited army of enemies come at you, each one sucking up far too many bullets, and you generally slog through until you hear a chime and go back to doing something fun. The rebooted Tomb Raider is a much grimier and brutal Uncharted, without the globe trotting and fewer set-pieces, but with incredibly fulfilling combat. This game rates _very_ highly for me, and I can't recommend it enough to fans of the Uncharted series. 2013 _is_ the year of the bow.
After finally getting a chance to finally get my teeth sunk into Far Cry 3, I pretty much devoured it over the course of two and a half days... a relatively rare occurrence when time seems to be at a premium. The open world leads to such dynamic/emergent gameplay that you're never quite sure what's going to happen. Try to sneak up on an enemy outpost, only to have a cougar start taking out enemies first? A couple of times, _I_ was the prey. Most missions also can be approached in many ways, whether or not you want to play stealth or Rambo your way through. All this, along with some of the best acting I've _ever_ seen in a game, makes the world feel alive. I'll leave it as that, as I feel like I'd just be repeating all the existing Far Cry 3 reviews out there. A fantastic game, even though it suffers from a climax at the end of the 2/3rd of the game, making the majority of the last third to feel poorly paced. Regardless, this could potentially be the best game I've played so far this year, and I almost missed out on this gem. Highly recommended.
OMG Bioshock Infinite, you were wonderful. I don't want to say anything spoilerish, but I will say that the story, the characters and the setting are amazing. I enjoyed pillaging for loot Fallout 3-style as much as I could, and I should have done even more. I sucked through the game in about 11 hours, and I want more. My _only_ complaint is that the combat feels outdated, which I think is especially pronounced at two particular sections in the last third of the game. Other than that, Bioshock Infinite is a gem that I _will_ replay through again.