Firstly, I had to get a giant to lift me up to a floating island, but, Aurora (the protagonist) can fly, so why do I need lifting up, when I could have just flown up there? Also, I'm noticing that it's quite difficult to tell what genders characters are. For half of the game I thought that Rubella (the clown companion) was a boy, but it turns out it was a girl all along (at least, I think she is, I'm probably wrong again now).
And I don't want to hear that she looks like a girl, she's an old timey clown, which means it would be a man dressed as a woman anyway! There are also lots of bonus hidden dungeons with extra challenges, which are great and all, but the occulli (stones that you can combine to create enchantments for items) that you collect just aren't that useful, so makes it seem like a waste of time even doing it as they don't really have much effect (I suppose I could just enjoy it for the fun, but what's the point of fun if there's no reward to it!?).
Despite the grief I'm giving Child of Light here though, I am enjoying it, and will hopefully have it done before watchdogs come out, it's just that it draws a lot of comparisons to South Park the stick of truth in so much as it's a JRPG light and about the same length (so I've been told), and with it not being as good as South Park (not much is), it's making it seem like more of a drag. If this game had come out a few months down the line, in the July/August gaming lull we're headed for, I'd probably have been more in to it (and yes, I could've waited till then to play it, but I didn't appreciate the similarities at the time).
So then, let's rank these 12.
12. Mafia 2.
No surprises there then really, I've spoken enough about how this game bored me. It was like I'd gone back to the early naughties and was playing a GTA 3 clone, like true crime or something. The story was passable, but the gameplay was poor, checkpoints too far apart and much like LA Noire, nothing much to do outside the main game.
11. Crimson Dragon
I bought this one in hopes that it would live up to it's spiritual predecessor series of Panzer Dragoon back on the mighty Saturn, which I loved at the time, but it turned out to be more of the same and little to no improvement in the gameplay front. It forced you in to replaying levels to get upgrades, and although it did have a handy light RPG element outside of the playing of the game, it wasn't enough to make it entertaining.
10. Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes
Obviously Metal Gear Solid is a legendary game series, but this semi-demo just didn't do it for me, it seemed like the guards were just too good, spotting you in the pitch black from hundreds of yards away, don't get me wrong, I don't want it to be easy, but it seems as though the main game should return to the more corridor based stylings we've seen in the past lest I spend many more hours running round in circles, making piles of bodies and hiding in a tiny gap for 15 minutes before I do anything.
9. Toy Soldiers: Cold war
So, we're more on to games that I actually enjoyed now, but obviously still up this high on the list, they have problems. The problem here is that it's a tower defence game, so it's never going to be a world beater, but on the plus side, it let you on the battlefield from time to time in different ways, like tanks, choppers, jets, Rambo (so it seemed) and others, which was a nice variation from the normal.
8. World of Goo
It was a decent puzzler, but not the best. It had a fun little story and got a bit meta at times which all made it better, plus it looked great. It wasn't exactly Portal or Braid or something like that, but it was challenging at times (though sometimes frustrating) and fun for the most part.
7. Mark of the Ninja
This may have been higher if it ran better on my PC and hadn't thusly got me spotted lots of times due to slowdown coming at seemingly random times. But it was a great little game as a stealth 2D platformer that again looked great (though maybe if it looked a little worse it would've run better (or I could've got it on Xbox I suppose, but I was never going to buy it twice, it already cost me a massive 70 pence or so as part of a humble bundle)). There was some nice collectibles to get and the cut scenes were awesome, but the way it ran for me unfairly has lessened the game for me.
6. Titanfall
So, the game that every Xbone owner hung their hat of hope on, and it was good. The problem for me was, desepite the sci fi concepts added, it still fell like a COD game to me. I've seen many say that it's so different and they can't go back to COD now, but I haven't played a COD in about 3 years because I was bored of it, and although this is great fun, it's probably mostly because I'd had a break since I played COD, and I haven't played Titanfall in a couple of months now, so take that as you will. (COD is an acronym for Call Of Duty). However, the parkour is a lot of fun in it.
5. Metro: Last Light
Apart from the occasional swarming of enemies that nearly resulted in broken controllers I really enjoyed this game. It had a great setting and a good story (even if it was a bit forced in places to keep you travelling around) with a fair few twists. It played well and had a nice mix of straight up action and survival horror. It was sort of like a poor man's the Last of Us (except it's an FPS, is a sequel, was out first and is based based on a book).
4. Brothers: A tale of two sons
A smart little game here with a nice story about trying to save your father and with an ending you're not likely to forget, and all of this without any words as well. Plus, there's plenty to see off the beaten path, like saving a man from committing suicide (how cheery), and an inventive control screen to get to grips with. There's just so much variety here and it's just a few hours long and they've packed so much in, it's excellent.
3. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze
Heading into Nintendo territory now (as you should be able to figure out what order the top 3 are coming in by now), and the Wii U had a great game out a few short months ago. For me, I enjoy the Wii U, Mario Kart is just around the country and there's already been some good games on it too. This one is up there with the best of them, it was a great old school 2D platformer, I'd never fully played a DK game before, this was the first I've played from start to finish, and it was thoroughly enjoyable, and naturally, a little frustrating at times (but which good 2D platformer isn't?). The only problem with this game is that it didn't really do anything we haven;t seen before.
2. Super Mario Galaxy 2
It lived up to the first in a way I felt it didn't when I first gave it a go last year. It's just as good as it's predecessor (perhaps the best 3D platformer of all time), but is held back somewhat by it being a sequel, and although it does do it's own new things, the first Galaxy stands more for being entirely new and ingenious, whereas this just builds on what the first did, which is what a great sequel should do really. So, though I'd put the first above this, Galaxy 2 is a terrific game, full of invention and challenge and was better than the WiiU's Super Mario 3D world (despite there being no cat power in Galaxy 2), which is in essence Galaxy 2's sequel.
1. South Park: The stick of truth
This shouldn't shock anyone, easily my favourite game of the year so far, and probably the funniest game I've ever played and one of the best RPG's I've ever played I can't say enough about this game. It's packed with references to itself (so if you're a big South Park fan like me, that's fantastic), a fittingly ludicrous plot and enough basic humour that you could play this without ever having seen South Park and still get a kick. There's room for jokes in everything, plenty to collect, from costumes to stickers and through to Chinpokomon. Not forgetting you get to go to Canada (which is better than that makes it sound). Play this game!
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