Darkness Rises: Arkham Knight (ps4)

A man about a horse: Witcher 3 (PS4)

Red-Headed Step Child: Assassins Creed Rogue

Released to little fanfare on last generation consoles this past holiday season, Assassin's Creed Rogue was dwarfed by its bigger louder and broken brother AC:Unity, While Unity was in many ways a step back for the franchise Rogue tread new ground, introducing mechanics borrowed from Far Cry, and melded them seamlessly into the already stellar Black Flag model.

A direct sequel to Black Flag, Rogue spans the period between that title, Unity and Assassin's Creed III. It fills in bits of back story for Connor's supporting cast and ties directly into the setup for the events of Unity. Unlike Unity, which reveals itself to be a literal waste of time, Rogue embraces both the modern day and the past lore of the series and runs with it.

Excessive Force: Battlefield Hardline

Good thing it's pretty: The Order 1886

The only good bug: Helldivers

A road not taken: Evolve

The same but more: Far Cry 4

Outstaying your welcome: Alien Isolation

I hated playing The Evil Within. I quit after two or three passes with the first encounter and its unfriendly checkpoints.  It felt tired and forced, and held back vital mechanics from the player in favor of cheap scares.  It annoyed me and did not value my time.

I reminded myself of this the 10^th time I tried to make it through the medical section in Alien:Isolation.

2014 "Of The Year" Awards Part II

2014 Worst Entry to a Franchise

Assassin's Creed: Unity

Assassin's Creed is my favorite franchise and it has completely gone off the rails with Unity. Telling a smaller in scope story than previous entries, it follows a young man (Arno) who is orphaned as child and taken in by a powerful man and his family during the French Revolution. Creating a literal interpretation of Romeo and Juliet that skirts the outside of the French Revolution rather than embedding in historical fact a la Assassin's Creed III, the narrative is thin but has some emotional connection. Broken in every, Unity continues to be buggy months after release and multiple patches. Unfortunately the common issues that have affected the franchise, ie jumping off a roof to your death and other mechanics are still present, diminishing the series further. Hopefully Ubisoft takes the horrible launch and fiscal ramifications of this game to heart and rethinks their current design by committee methodology.

2014 "Of The Year" Awards Part 1

2014's 2013 Game finished in 2014

XCOM: The Bureau/Enemy Within

 XCOM: The Bureau is slow slow burn but once the AI teammates have leveled up enough to stay alive it becomes a Mass Effect-esque romp through XCOM's past. If you can stave off the frustration of micromanaging the survival of your team The Bureau is a perfectly entertaining game.

XCOM: Enemy Within presents as a glorified expansion pack to Enemy Unknown but is so much more. Layering on new mechanics and new enemies over the original EU campaign improves on excellence and makes one wonder if this is the game they originally wanted to make.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare: Too Little Too Late

COD:AW is ostensibly  set in the near-ish future of 2050, where Metal Gear Solid style PMC’s are fighting wars on behalf of countries until a single PMC, ATLAS, becomes the big dog. Led by a scenery chewing House of Cards style Kevin Spacey doing as easy day’s work, ATLAS is the macguffin on which the plot revolves.

Still Playing: The games of 2014

New to 2014, the following are games I have begun but not completed.

Assassin's Creed 4: This nut will crack sometime in January. It's a great game and far superior to the mess that was Assassin's Creed 3.

MARK OF THE NINJA: A taut stealth side scroll-er with beautiful art and great mechanics, this XBL Arcade game is always beckoning to me.

RED FACTION:ARMAGEDDON: I had heard how terrible and linear this game is compared to its predecessor, and while it is linear, it is a perfectly fine third person shooter. It is gorgeous on PC and just the thing for a lazy afternoon of "working" from home. Hit the same long checkpoint enough times to finally give up towards the end. Endlessly repetitive and far too long. Feels compromised.

F.E.A.R 3: I ignored this game when it was released, but having finished and enjoyed F.E.A.R. 2 and love the original, I wanted to give it a shot. Graphically impressive on PC, the mechanics are as expected with the new addition of co-op. The story is nonsense but as a satisfying mouse and keyboard shooter, I am digging it.  Enjoyed this until my save disappeared.

Dead Rising 3: A sluggish poor PC port, this bad ass needs a reasonably beefy rig to run well. Slowdowns happen in the same parts of the map like clockwork. Sticks to the Dead Rising formula but seems confused about what it wants to be. Story is as dumb as ever.

Alien: Isolation - I barely touched this before it went back to the library by accident. Playing it fills me with actual dread as the atmosphere and suspense are amazing. Can't wait to get back into it.

Thief (2014) -  Played for about 2 hour before I decided I hated the controls and look of the game on console, so I bought it on sale on PC. Curious to see if that makes it more palatable.

Here I discussed a bunch of games I had not yet finished at the end of 2013,  few of which are now in the can, unfortunately.

STATE OF DECAY: This surprise hit downloadable game is a great if janky open world zombie exporation game that incorporates day/night cycles and mission timers like Dead Rising. I keep restarting it, hopefully I will find time to finish it.

DEAD ISLAND:RIPTIDE: A disappointing cut and paste of Dead Island with some of the more interesting quirks patched out, DI:R still has that combination of broken jank and open world combat that made the original compelling. However the linear nature and extreme familiarity to the first game make it a bottom rung choice.


SKYRIM: This game is like my white whale. I keep finding reasons not to play it.

FAR CRY 2: Like any other open world game, I get lost in wandering and lose interest in the main thread of quests. Rightfully lauded for emergent gameplay and player agency, I hope to give this game it's due. I have attempted to stick to the main quests, especially after finishing Far Cry 3, just so I can stop wandering. 

JUST CAUSE 2: The campaign story is pointless and best ignored in favor of exploring the massive game map, wreaking havoc. The lack of compelling direction makes this and Skyrim both hard games to stick with.*NOW WITH INSANE MULTIPLAYER*  
With much determination I finally waded through this batshit inane story to its deserved conclusion and just in time for Just Cause 3.

Time is never a friend

It's not that I haven't played games this year, not in the least. It's that I haven't had anything to say about them. This year has been a continuation of The Worst Year of My Life. It has been filled with change, very little of which has been good.

But here we are rolling into the end of 2014 so I have pulled together some thoughts on what I have been playing, including Still Playing and Game of the Year stuff.

I can only hope that 2015 is a better year for games, for movies, and for me and my family.

2013 "Of the Year" awards Part 2

2013 Worst Ending to a Trilogy

Dead Space 3 grinds the thrills of its predecessor into a microtransactioned mess that abandons the entire horror aspect of the franchise to become a straight third person action game. The first half is strong, as Isaac finds himself stranded in orbit amongst a ruined fleet of ships, recreating the isolated feel of the first two games. Once the second half forces the player to the planet surface the story spirals down a toilet of repetition and insanity resulting in a hilarious ending that only has meaning if one is familiar with Scientology.

2013 "Of the Year" awards Part 1

2013's 2011 Game finished in 2013

Far less tactical but more dynamic and fluid, Dragon Age II was rightly criticised for it's tiny scope and asset reuse. More of an expansion than a full game, if you burn through only the story quests, the narrative is rewarding with fun familiar mechanics. A far more attractive and well animated game than the original I am glad I finished it.

Still Playing:The games of 2013

From my Still Playing 2009 post I was playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I have abandoned that game as I got stuck in a level, completely under leveled and under equipped with only a revert to a previous save from hours earlier as an escape. Yeah so no. I have not started either of the sequels.

New to 2013, the following are games I have begun but not completed.

Assassin's Creed 4: This nut will crack sometime in January. It's a great game and far superior to the mess that was Assassin's Creed 3.

MARK OF THE NINJA: A taut stealth side scroll-er with beautiful art and great mechanics, this XBL Arcade game is always beckoning to me.

RED FACTION:ARMAGEDDON: I had heard how terrible and linear this game is compared to its predecessor, and while it is linear, it is a perfectly fine third person shooter. It is gorgeous on PC and just the thing for a lazy afternoon of "working" from home.

F.E.A.R 3: I ignored this game when it was released, but having finished and enjoyed F.E.A.R. 2 and love the original, I wanted to give it a shot. Graphically impressive on PC, the mechanics are as expected with the new addition of co-op. The story is nonsense but as a satisfying mouse and keyboard shooter, I am digging it. 

STATE OF DECAY: This surprise hit downloadable game is a great if janky open world zombie exporation game that incorporates day/night cycles and mission timers like Dead Rising. I keep restarting it, hopefully I will find time to finish it.

DEAD ISLAND:RIPTIDE: A disappointing cut and paste of Dead Island with some of the more interesting quirks patched out, DI:R still has that combination of broken jank and open world combat that made the original compelling. However the linear nature and extreme familiarity to the first game make it a bottom rung choice.

Here I discussed a bunch of games I had not yet finished at the end of 2012,  few of which are now in the can, unfortunately.

SKYRIM: This game is like my white whale. I keep finding reasons not to play it.

FAR CRY 2: Like any other open world game, I get lost in wandering and lose interest in the main thread of quests. Rightfully lauded for emergent gameplay and player agency, I hope to give this game it's due. I have attempted to stick to the main quests, especially after finishing Far Cry 3, just so I can stop wandering. 

RAYMAN ORIGINS:  Equally beautiful and punishing, I will push through until my skill runs out, which may be sooner than later. Abandoned.

JERICHO:  A dark and ugly curiousity, I will give it a go I gave it a go. Poor squad mechanics and relentlessly ugly. Abandoned.

DRAGON AGE II: "Streamlined" and repetitive I should be have been able to tear through this in short time, especially in comparison to the enormous time I put into Dragon Age:Origins, but nope. I enjoyed Dragon Age II a lot. The animations are beautiful and the combat is fantastic. By skipping virtually all side quests I was able to finally finish it in due time.

HYDROPHOBIA: Released, tweaked and released again in a perpetual feedback loop, the graphics and mechanics make the janky parts bearable, but just. The broken just couldn't be patched out. I finally abandoned.

ODDWORLD: STRANGER'S WRAITH (Maybe HD): Be super if remake developer JAW finally released the promised patch so I can play it on PC with an ATI card and a stable framerate. When and if it comes, I can't wait to beat this game again as I loved it on OG Xbox. It finally required upgrading to quad-core to get the game to hit 60 fps at 1080p so it is clearly under optimized for PC.

JUST CAUSE 2: The campaign story is pointless and best ignored in favor of exploring the massive game map, wreaking havoc. The lack of compelling direction makes this and Skyrim both hard games to stick with.*NOW WITH INSANE MULTIPLAYER*


OLDER CONSOLE GAMES:

I have a bunch of older 360 and PS3 games to attach as well  Abandoned

Bully (360)
Metal Gear 4 (PS3)
Resistance 1 & 2 (PS3)
Psychonaughts  (PC)

The Short and The Terrible: Games I didn’t care enough to finish 2013

Killzone: ShadowFall:   Momentarily beautiful but deeply devoid of substance, Killzone:SF was so unmemorable I entirely forgot I had played it until I made this list. It's unfortunate because the basis of the narrative had the potential to be extremely compelling as a metaphor for the Isreal/Palestine conflict but the game is bland and toothless.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter

This game is as horrible and boring as rumored. I liked the previous MOH and respected it as a tribute to the lives of soldiers. Warfighter takes that good will and shits on it with a pained grimace.

Spider-Man Web of Shadows:

Web of Shadows is well remembered as the Spider-man game to beat, mostly due to its open world nature and free movement. While WoS does both better than any other Spider-Man game, I found the controls to clunky and the mechanics repetitive.

X-com: The Bureau

What a tragic waste of talent. Too long in development, and originally a first person shooter, it has all the ingredients of a great game. Using design inspiration from X:Com Enemy Unknown in both art and mechanics combined with a squad based third person shooter perspective, The Bureau slows time to allow a Mass Effect style radial wheel to assign tactics.

Unfortunately the extended development cycle has stripped this game of any inspiration. I made it past the first major set piece with little or no effort on my part and quit playing the game. I might give it another shot.

Meh of Duty:Mehs vs BattleMeh 4

Call of Duty:Ghosts is a mechanical retread of previous COD entries, but it has a dog. Launched simultaneously on current and next gen platforms the aged engine is showing it's seams especially in comparison to Battlefield 4 on next gen.

COD is COD once again, with slight tweaks to the perks and rewards system. Mechanically it is still a functional divider of those who run and die and those who run and shoot. I was most successfully using only a knife during my time online on PS4. MP graphics are startlingly poor on next gen and extremely disappointing. Perhaps this is the rose that loses the bloom.


Battlefield 4 is a broken mess across all systems. I played the campaign until my save was destroyed by the game itself and then realized I didn't care enough to start over. The graphics are gorgeous on PS4 and as close to PC as consoles will get.

Specular lighting, ambient occlusions and massive particle effects make BF4 a treat for the eyes,even in multiplayer.

When I was able to find a game, it was a functional divider of those who run and die and those who run and find cover and die. I found the most success using a sniper rifle and camping.

I have fundamentally lost interest in this type of  FPS.

Still Playing: Games of 2012

Here I discussed a bunch of games I had not yet finished at the end of 2011, all about half of which are now in the can.

From my Still Playing 2009 post I thankfully still only have one game lingering, and that is the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R, despite now having Clear Sky as well, which mean I will never ever finish this game. I will just keep adding mods to it.

SKYRIM: Spoiled by the emergent riches and pandemonium of Far Cry 3, returning to Skyrim may be a challenge.

FAR CRY 2: Like any other open world game, I get lost in wandering and lose interest in the main thread of quests. Rightfully lauded for emergent gameplay and player agency, I hope to give this game it's due. I have attempted to stick to the main quests, especially after finishing Far Cry 3, just so I can stop wandering. 

RAYMAN ORIGINS:  Equally beautiful and punishing, I will push through until my skill runs out, which may be sooner than later.

JERICHO:  A dark and ugly curiousity, I will give it a go.

DRAGON AGE II: "Streamlined" and repetitive I should be have been able to tear through this in short time, especially in comparison to the enormous time I put into Dragon Age:Origins, but nope.

HYDROPHOBIA: Released, tweaked and released again in a perpetual feedback loop, the graphics and mechanics make the janky parts bearable, but just.

ODDWORLD: STRANGER'S WRAITH (Maybe HD): Be super if remake developer JAW finally released the promised patch so I can play it on PC with an ATI card and a stable framerate. When and if it comes, I can't wait to beat this game again as I loved it on OG Xbox.

JUST CAUSE 2: A sequel to the Robert Rodriguez inspired original again find our hero with an inexhaustible supply of parachutes and grappling hooks. Hampered by atrocious voice-acting and writing the campaign story is pointless and best ignored in favor of exploring the massive game map, wreaking havoc. Just Cause 2 is a silly time killer that like any good popcorn, is forgotten as soon as you are finished with it.

OLDER CONSOLE GAMES:

I have a bunch of older 360 and PS3 games to attach as well
Bully (360)
Metal Gear 4 (PS3)
Resistance 1 & 2 (PS3)
Psychonaughts  (PC)