12 Weeks, 12 Games, Year 2, Week 5

   To continue on from my last comment last week, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse came out in America on Friday, It's not out until the second half of the year here. What is going on, seriously?

   Back to Apotheon and where I left off 2 Gods in. There was 7 it turns out (including Zeus (the final boss)) and there was some nice variety in here too. Considering the game only really had 1 genre it mixed stuff up well, with areas involving platforming, Puzzles, Horse riding, racing, classic underwater levels, sea navigating (unrelated) and classic hack 'n slash. This also made for a nice variety of enemies too based on your situation, from normal Greek soldiers to Angels, Mermen, Centaurs and many other mythological enemies. Although basically there's 2 main ways they attack you though, throw things/ shoot arrows or hand to hand (including weapons) combats. Still, the art style makes it seem different when it's an angel shooting an arrow at you rather than a devil person (did I mention I like the art style? (albeit there is too much male nudity)).
   I was frequently running in to a Major problem.  My shield. I kept forgetting I had the bugger. I'm sure the game would've been easier if I actually blocked some arrows from time to time rather than going through health potions like nobody's business. I'd remember when an enemy had a shield, but they were always sworded enemies, yet the shield was super effective against arrows and other projectiles, but I'd always forget it when they showed up.

   Another problem is crashing. The game probably crashed half a dozen times on me. I got it free and it saved every 5 or so minutes so it wasn't a Major issue but it was an annoyance. The story was simple but fun and for once I wasn't able to predict the ending (no backstabbing). There are other issues like loose controls at times and as I mentioned last week the item swapping isn't great but there's plenty of good stuff too. Giant levels riddled with secrets to explore if you want to, if you don't, no sweat off your balls, you'll just find a few pick ups you come across wont do anything. The ability to throw any weapon was good too, and considering the simple level of the weapons they did well to make them feel as different as they did. Overall I was very impressed. If you've got a PS4 you've still got 4 days to pick it up for free, I suggest you do.

   And then I travelled back in time in every sense (except the literal). I dusted off my 360, and launched a game that originally came out in 2001 that I had bought a few years ago after it's re-release and forgotten all about. I'm talking of course about Sonic Adventure 2. Now, if you know me, you'll know I was a Sega kid and had a childhood obsession with Sonic and to this day I remain a Sonic apologist, unwilling to accept that, with the exception of Sonic Generations (a game I'll defend to my grave) there hasn't been a good core Sonic game arguably since the Megadrive (I liked Sonic Heroes though). I know many many people liked Adventure 1 and 2 when they first came out on Dreamcast, but I never had one, I'd been burned by the Saturn and had moved on to Playstation by that point in time. I played the first Sonic Adventure probably 2 or 3 years ago after Generations had given me the motivation I needed (and coincided with a games sale on 360) but that game was not great. It had not aged well, just like every early 3D mascot platformer. (there were so many at the time and people defend them like crazy if they loved them as a kid, but trust me, as someone who didn't play Mario 64 until it was on DS, it's not true (this is still despite the fact I hold Crash Bandicoot  3: \warped in the highest esteem))). So why did I think SA2 would be any better? I didn't really, I just felt it's a gap in my Sonic knowledge that my early gaming life was built around that needed filling in. What's the deal with Shadow after all, who's idea was that?

   First things first, it suffers from the same problem that nearly every 3rd person game did at the time, the camera controls are terrible. This plagued games for years, even good ones like GTA 3, but it hurts the most in platformers when you need that split second reaction to prevent yet another death and trudge back through the same section. To the game now, there's a 2 sided story, the 'hero' side with Sonic, Knuckles and Tails (plus tag-along always pointless character Amy) and the dark Side involving Darth Robotnick (now known in game as Eggman, but that will never be true to me), Shadow and Rouge (the bat). A bold choice perhaps to introduce 2 new characters to play as in a well known series, especially when the story is focused around Shadow and who/ what he is, whereas Rouge is just there and is not Knuckles. That brings me to the point that here are 3 types of levels (plus bosses) with  character equivalent on each team. Sonic and Shadow the traditional fare obviously (the best levels btw), Robotnick and Tails drive walking tank things (why Tails needs that I'll never know, the dude can fly) where you just go around shooting everything (these levels are really easy) and the Knuckles/ Rouge ones where you hunt for treasure.
   Now, Knuckles has always been a favourite of mine to play as, you can glide, climb walls, punch stuff, what more could you want? Frankly I don't know why the has become a treasure hunter (with the weirdest voice) and I wouldn't care but the levels are strange. Sure, people loved explorer platformers at the time (just ask Rare) but this was done oddly. You'd have an area to search, some pieces of the Master emerald or keys to find and a beeper that told you when you were getting close. There were monitors around to give you hints where the item were, but these severely lowered your score and cut your grade down at the end of the level (fortunately I didn't care bout that or I'd have been there looking for my entire life). In a somewhat genius move they also made them change positions every time you died or restarted the level so I couldn't even consult a guide to help (bastards). Now, flying around these levels and punching stuff as Knuckles (and clone character Rouge (though she's more of a kicker) was fun, but after you've been looking in every nook and cranny for 10 minutes and still no beep my controller was yet again in danger.
   I also don't know why Sonic Adventure 1 moved the setting to Earth (which continues in here in 2), buy talking furry multicoloured animals are fine (apparently). Speaking of acceptance of such things, towards the end of the 'dark' side of the game Shadow remarked on Sonic's possible death 'I guess he was just a regular hedgehog afterall'. Obviously they're all blue, super fast and talk normally. If you're going to set these games on Earth, get it to make sense, just have kids point and stare at the hreaks or something. I would be remised if I didn't mention that some of the music was hilarious, with lyrics set to what was going on in the level and musical styles popular at the time. Early Knuckles levels in particular were great (just Google 'knuckes sonic adventure 2 music' and thank me later (or not)).

   Anyway, I've got the Order: 1886 here not going to pay itself as well as having started watching Sherlock (great stuff, but talk about long episode lengths (this is for another time)) so I'm off (to proof read).

Completed

Transistor
Worms Battlegrounds
Saints Row 4: Gat out of Hell
Wolfenstein the new order
The Swapper
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
Apotheon
Sonic Adventure 2

12 Weeks, 12 Games, Year 2, Week 4

   To follow up on the question I posed at the end last week, after finishing D4 I still don't know if the game was made by a mad genius or a 5 year old. Honestly, all signs point to it being bad, but it sort of wasn't, was it? I'll try and explain; You were a cop, your wife died and now you've gone rogue (well, P.I (G)) to try to solve her murder and your ex cop partner still gives you a hand. You can travel back in time using 'mementos' (which are things specific for a time and place so that you can travel to that time and place) but you don't have one for the time when the old lady popped her clogs so you're trying to prevent it from happening another way by preventing whoever may have done it from getting to that point in the first place (not that you know who it is, except 'look for D'). Of course you don't know whether this drug smuggler on an air plane deal has anything to do with it, just that it involves the same drug as was involved in her death and there's a suspiciously large amount of people on the flight who's name begins with a 'D'.
   I don't want to ruin the story as the insanity of it and the characters is what makes the game so engrossing because you really don't know what could be going on. Needless to say the ending is nuts but also leaves you on a cliffhanger for a potential season 2 (this game is a season of episodes, like the Telltale games series' with the exception that there's only 3 episodes and you can only get them as a whole package, not in individual bits). It does have a long list of problems though, like how much stamina you lose from opening an overhead department, his annoying 'Bowston' accent (kept me thinking of 30 Rock), the fact that the guy you're playing as is so inherently unlikeable and the extremely slow talking giant surgeon guy, talk faster FFS, I don't have all day!

   As I said, I don't know where I stand on this game, is it good or bad? I really do not know. I can't strictly recommend it because I'm still not sure what I'm recommending, I'll just describe it as 'interesting' and move on.

   To Apotheon. Another freebie (thanks Ps Plus) and also the first game I've played that's actually come out this year (Early front runner for GOTY (based on that it's the only I've tried so far (except for Gat out of Hell but that's more of a stand alone piece of DLC (I'm still counting it on this list though (shut up)))). It's an old style action platformer done in the 'Metroid-vania' style (as people like to call it when yo can do things in whatever order you like). It's based in ancient Greek times where the gods turn against you and you have to take down Zeus and his under-Gods and stop them from ending the world just because they had a falling out. I'm only a couple of hours in so far and 2 Gods in to however many there is to kill but it's promising. Fun so far though I fear it my get repetitive, time will tell. I do know that the item switching could be done easier as it can take too long when you're surrounded and the voices are hilariously bad. I hope this was intentional because they sound neither Greek nor Godly but just average Joe-like.

   Just before I wrap this up (before I have to spend ages correcting all my grammar anyway) I want to point out that 'Dying Light' was released about a month ago in the US, and it's not out here until next week still? I only just found this out as I was gonna pick it up on my week off and catch up, but I suppose I'll be keeping with time, this just seems like an insane delay to me especially as there was essentially nothing out in January but now there's a fair few things coming out.

Completed

Transistor
Worms Battlegrounds
Saints Row 4: Gat out of Hell
Wolfenstein the new order
The Swapper
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die

Underway

Apotheon

12 Weeks, 12 Games, Year 2, Week 3

Thank God I finished Wolfenstein, and it was no easy feat in the end either. The last few missions were such a drag and made overly difficult by the same thing I was moaning about last week, wave after wave of enemies. Not to mention that the final boss was a giant pain as it seemed to take all the ammo in the world to beat him, but there was no health bar so how were you supposed to know if you were getting anywhere near defeating him, especially when the room you're fighting him in is full of fire. I honestly thought I wouldn't get past it and I'd just lie here and said that I had but fortunately (top tip coming) it turns out if you hide underneath the metal gantry on the right hand side you can shoot him but he can't shoot you (mostly (just remember to let your health regen)). At least the penultimate boss, The London Monitor, was easy, you just had to shoot him up with robotic arse.

   Still, it seems like I managed to make the game a whole lot more difficult for myself by missing the most important weapon upgrade in the game, the scope attachment for the LKW (battery powered laser gun) which basically lets you wipe out big robotic enemies in 1 shot, as opposed to all the ammo that I had as I was having to do. Seriously, find 1 New Order YouTube clip (this game, not something involving a John Barnes rap) that doesn't have the filmer using that none stop. Then, think of me wondering how on Earth to get through a section, and finding every piece of help online being done with a weapon upgrade I never got. FFS.

   Still, onwards and (thankfully) upwards as I carry on going through games I've picked up for free thanks to Games with Gold/ PS Plus and this time on to 'The Swapper'. It's a 2D puzzle platfromer with an interesting premise. Someone has inventing a cloning/ mind swapping gun meanwhile someone else has bought some sentient rocks aboard the space station you're on (the game takes place on a space station btw), the rocks kill a bunch of people by releasing rock gas or something and people switch their minds with the rocks and medical samples and stuff to stay alive (actually, the story is pretty good but it's better to find out that for yourself). Anyway, you're the rescue party and you come on board some unspecified amount of time later to save the crew. Unfortunately it turns out there's only 1 left alive (plus loads of rocks) and you have to restore the station to power to save that 1 person. This involves solving puzzles to get orbs to unlock gates and move on.
   Obviously this involves the clone/ mind swapper gun as well as old puzzle tropes like pressure switches, gravity swaps, areas where you can't use some abilities and etc. but it's done really well. This really is a terrific game and a great example of what a 2d puzzle platfromer should be like. The puzzles are hard in places, but not impossible, so there's enough of a challenge to make you think, but when you get it you feel like a genius. Of course that's so long as you don't a) break something first (I didn't (seriously)) or b)find an online guide, which I'm elated to say I didn't! This is probably the first puzzle game since Braid (released 7 years ago) where I've done it all by myself and it really bought me a sense of accomplishment. You couldn't wipe the smile off my face at 2am last night!

   There's a terrific atmosphere too added to by the music and look of the station that makes you feel so alone. There's even a choice of ending. Needless to say I picked the arsehole one.
   My only problem is that this station makes no sense. There's lifts, and transport beams, pick one ya'  know. There are sections you couldn't possibly get to without 'The Swapper' (that's the name of the gun), but that wasn't invented until after they'd already departed on their quest. there are lots of other bits too, but needless to say if I worked on this station I'd be writing a letter of complaint to the designer. Also, whoever wrote the dialogue was obviously a fan of Metroid.
   Sill, the main thing to take away is that it's great. Play it!

   Carrying on with the free games view it was on to D4: Dark dreams don't die. Now, I never played Deadly Premonition (known by many as the best bad game ever (made by this studio (hence the point)) so I had no idea what I was walking in to, and after getting about an hour in I can just say, wtf is this? This game is weird. Why is there a woman that thinks she's a cat but everyone is fine with it? Why do you push an owl of a perch? Why is there a TV credits style opening? Why does gum improve your stamina but coffee doesn't? why is not only having ghostly visions of you're wife enough but you have to have them of your cat to, and what happened to said cat, and why did it have a big bow, and why does this woman that seems to think she is a cat also have a bow, are these 2 things related or just some regular weird thing this studio does? I guess I'll have the answers to some, maybe, of these questions next week, if I carry on with it, which is hard to say, I can't tell yet if it's the work of a mad genius or that of a 5 year old.

Completed

Transistor
Worms Battlegrounds
Saints Row: Gat out of Hell
Wolfenstein: The New order
The Swapper

Underway

D4: Dark dreams don't die

12 Weeks, 12 Games, Year 2, Week 2!

   That was very hopeful. I in fact have not finished, though I'm not far off. The question is how do I feel now I'm further along than after my tirade last week? Only slightly better unfortunately, most of what I said last week still stands true although I would like to add some more to it now so it's not just a bombardment of hate and more of a share of information (Albeit biased).
   The plot is still quite good. It's an alternate history of what the 1960's resistance would be like had the Nazi's won the war (and had robot dog armies too). It very much takes place in the Half Life 2 style where you're on a constant journey to get stuff done although I'd still much rather compare it to Metro: Last Light because that's much more the level it's at. The stealth can be a massive pain, once you've been spotted for a millisecond, that's it, enemies swarm you, even if you killed the guy that spotted you after said millisecond. What kind of complicated message can he get off explaining the situation he's in during that time frame?
   There are some weird choices of pacing when you're in your base. For a few missions in the middle of the game, you get a base where all the resistance meets, and between each mission you go there and have to fetch a bunch of stuff from around the base, accidentally falling through a shaft and having to make your way back up through the sewers of whatever to complete handing someone a file or something that was in the room 2 doors down from them but still took you half an hour to get to them because clearly someone thought the game wasn't long enough and wanted to make it longer by adding these stupid sections in. The only good thing to be said is that in the safe house you can have a 'nightmare' where you play the first level from Wolfenstein 3D, but even then when you finish it you unlock nothing. No armour upgrade, no perk, no achievement, no nothing!

   Still, think positive yeah? The levelling up system is done well. Each one is some kind of challenge like 'get 20 stealth kills from thrown knives' or 'get 3 kills while sprint sliding' and other such things. These improve the power of your weapons, health, speed etc. (like all game perks) and are nicely tied in to the achievements/trophies (If you're in to that kind of thing). Another touch I like is taking armour from fallen robotic enemies, I like to think that you're just sellotaping these random chunks of fallen armour on for dear life. It's a nice touch.
   Unfortunately this is a bad news sandwich (the reverse of a good news sandwich where you say something bad in between good things to hide it (this is the opposite)). At the end of every few missions there's some kind of gigantic enemy stand off, with no checkpoints, limited ammo and enemies appearing from everywhere. It takes me 4 or 5 attempts just to figure out how I'm supposed to get through it, let alone actually be able to do so. I'm not sure if those sections are in there to make it seem like the game is harder than it is (as it's easy aside from those) or again to make it take longer, but all I know is there' been several times my controller has nearly been in pieces.

   Here's to getting this finished in the next couple of days and playing something that wont piss me off.

Completed

Transistor
Worms Battlegrounds
Saints Row: Gat out of Hell

Underway

Wolfenstein: The new order

12 weeks, 12 games, year 2

   Well, the Royal Rumble sucked. Onwards though. After the 'success' of this last year I figured I'd do it again and hell, I was off for a week last week too so I figured I could make a big dent into the number right off the back, and I did.

   So, First up the game that comes off the back of the comment I made at the end of my last post referring to a new aid to get this done. The Aid, A PS4 ('cause I had more money than I needed (amongst other things)), the game, Transistor. It had made many peoples GOTY list last year and despite it not really looking like my bag, I figured I'd give it a go and I liked it too! It's a lot like their previous game, Bastion (apparently, I never played it) where it's got an Isometric view and you have to battle an array of robots with the the help of your trusty talking sword best mate (the Transistor) and you can pause and pre plan attacks that will then be executed for you and is a lot easier than straight up fighting as this happens mega quick. There's a nice death mechanic too where you don't actually die, just lose your most powerful attack for a couple of charge stations, and then the next one and so on, so there's not a lot of annoying replaying of areas. People these days complain that games are too easy but I find nothing more annoying in gaming than having to do the same bit more than 2 or 3 times (hence why I'll never play Demon Souls, I'd break more than 1 controller on that no doubt). I'm not advocating making games really easy but this seems like a nice compromise to me and I really liked that touch.

   Now, I'm not a 100% sure what the plot was, it was pretty crazy but it had something to do with a  robotic future, where they just decided to take over a city for some reason and steal a singers voice (that's you (fun note, you can join in with the background music at any time as she will hum along to it with a spotlight shining down on her from the heavens, that was unusual)) and there's a sword that keeps the souls of people it's killed in it. Okay, maybe not souls, more the mind but no body and inside it seems to be like a genies lantern or something where there's a world inside this soul sword. Weird plot aside, it was really good and I'm glad I gave it a try.

   From there back to the Xbone and a game that came free with games with gold in Worms: Battlegrounds, I've always liked worms as a multiplayer game, who hasn't? (also, British!) The single player has always been an excuse to let you play against the AI though, but it never really mattered because it's not what the game was about. This was different though (sort of). There was a plot (albeit a weak one about breaking in to a museum to stop some guy being able to control the minds of worms worldwide) and missions more than normal face offs. They even splashed the bucks and got Katherine Parkinson (IT Crowd's Jen) to do the VO (no shouting though thankfully). The missions were a mix between badly planned stealth, traversal, puzzle solving and classic worms fights. They were okay even though it was an odd direction to take and hell, it even had a boss at the end. It's not these things I have a problem with so much though as that it took the AI a year to make a move for some reason and the checkpoints (that you had to get lest ye have to go all the way back to the start of the level because the AI, after doing nothing all game pulls off the most audacious shot that no actual person would ever be able to make and takes out your whole team in one go) were always directly facing a group of opposition worms, who would then blast that guy to pieces. There's also different classes of worms now (1 can move quicker, 1 does more damage, there's some others) which I don't know why they changed. Apparently that happened in the previous one to this and I guess they wanted to change it up a bit as not much has changed since the short lived jump to 3D. I say if it ain't broke don't fix it, just add more fun weapons and put back in a map editor. It's still fun multiplayer though.

   Then, on to the Stand Alone DLC (so yes, I'm counting it) for Saints Row 4; Gat out of hell (haha, pun). I don't know why Saints Row 4 got so much hate. I loved it's complete change from the previous formula. GTA V was coming out not long after it and I think making it a superhero game was a great move to mix things up while still including the same old Goofy Saints Row humour that made it feel like the early GTA's were back in the first place. Gat out of hell was an interesting Idea for a plot where Johnn Gat and Kinzie have to go in to hell to rescue your protagonist from the main game after he's kidnapped playing with a Ouija board to marry Satan's daughter. The game is set in hell then (though it looks like some random city only with corpses walking the streets, a bizarre array of cars which, just like in the main game, you don't need and demons for police) and you get wings and can fly around and stuff. You get to meet up with some old deceased friends/ enemies from previous games and even Ultor plays a part. We also get Satan with a South Park style evil goatee and a Disney esque song in the middle (too early though as I new it was coming and I was looking forward to it and felt it should've come nearer to the end). Unfortunately though the game is nearly all side missions as you're just looking to build Satans Eyre towards you so he will face you off in battle, obviously winding him up by doing things like the insurance fraud mini game and flying speed runs.

  There is plenty to do though, you don't have to do anywhere near all the side missions to finish the game (though I did anyway) and there's the '7 deadly sin' weapons to collect (I got 1) and there's the classic collectibles to hunt for everywhere which, to be fair, do help you improve your special powers. Still, I didn't even get half of them and after about half way through I was already too overpowered for any enemy so it's not like you really need them unless your a completionist (I'm not). Also, for a game that has been released on next gen systems, it doesn't look very good, which is a shame because it had a cool style.

   Then I hit a roadblock. After sitting in my drawer fir 6 months or so I figured it was time to give Wolfenstein: The new order a go. Obviously this is a franchise with a big history in videogames but I'd never played one before. I'd heard good things (can't have been that good though or it wouldn't have been sitting there for so long) so it seemed only right to give it a go. Frankly it reminds me a lot of Metro: Last light which I played for this same 12 weeks 12 games last year in that it has a good plot and continual story, but the the gameplay is passable. There's not a big problem with it but it's one of those where once I've put it down I wont think about it again, and, just Like Metro it's too long. How long to beat says it takes about 12 hours but based on how long I was playing it for and apparently am not through a third of the missions it seems like it'll take longer (I do keep dying a lot mind). Now I'm getting older and time is more precious I really struggle to play mediocre games, it's okay if they're short because I'll just get on with it, but when it's long it seems like such a daunting task of having to sit there for hours being at best mildly entertained. There's plenty of TV shows I could be watching of other games to play, but I know what I'm like, I've started so I'll finish. Before I end here for today I'd be re missed if I didn't make reference to the fact that even in a game set in the 60's it has Polish people leaving their country for another. I'll speak more what the game is like next week when I've (hopefully) finished it, but I know I can't be bothered tonight.

Completed

Transistor
Worms Battlegrounds
Saints Row: Gat out of hell

Underway

Wolfenstein: The new order.


   BTW, if there's even more spelling mistakes than usual my new Laptops keyboard seems to be trash.

Game of the Year 2014

   Last year I had GTA V, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider and the eventual winner, The Last of Us on the list. 2014, as I previously mentioned, Wasn't anywhere near as good and there is no way any of these upcoming games would've won last year, let alone even be on the list. Nevertheless, there's got to be a winner (well, there hasn't, but there's gonna be), so here we go...

FORZA HORIZON 2

   It's been many years since I have enjoyed a racing game so much, you're probably talking GT2, released a mere 15 years previously (a time when I was in to cars (despite being 12), little did I know I'd be epileptic and thus unable to drive), which says a lot about how much I care really. Anyway, this was a gorgeous open world racer with a good mix of race types and cars, a nice environment and some fun side quests (are they quests in racing games?). 'Driveatars' meant that the opposition was more human and, unlike in GT2, the cars didn't just follow a pre set path, many of them took their own routes and went at the race differently. Of course, the unfortunate truth of it is that it's just a racing game, that may seem harsh but it's always going to be hard for it to stand alongside the greats. Still, give the game it's due, as far as I'm concerned it's the pinnacle of racing games.

SOUTH PARK: THE STICK OF TRUTH

 
   A game years in the making and eagerly anticipated by myself (and many others, but this is about me damn it) for a long time. It's very rare for a game, but it was hilarious, the combat was simple enough to not take you out of the light hearted nature of the game but had enough depth to keep it from being repetitive. It had a lot of nice references to old episodes so South Park fans like myself had some nice bonuses too. It looked just like the show too (though, you would expect that due to the power of the console and the crappy look of the show). It was written by Matt and Trey (one of the main reasons it took so long (also, THQ went under)) so you knew it would be good going in and it has a cohesive story (as cohesive s a South Park story ever can be anyway). The only thing I can say against it really is that it was too Short. I like a lot of meat in my RPG's, but this clocked in short of what I'd like, especially given how long it was in development.

MIDDLE EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR

    As I mentioned before, where did this game come from? Who brands a game after The Lord of the Rings now. I know there's the Hobbit films but there's just nowhere near the excitement around those as there was in the original trilogy. Anyway, this was a game that took the best things from Assassin's Creed and the Arkham series and melded them together fantastically. Great Combat, good stealth and of course the mind control and nemesis systems. You could get control of the enemy armies by controlling the minds of their leaders, which could turn in to great advantage on the battlefield. There was the nemesis system too where an enemy might kill you, get promoted and you'll see him again later, stronger. Alternatively they may escape, and the next time you see them they'll be damaged, and come a half dozen times he'll be horribly deformed. There were some problems though, the story was forgettable and it had Golem in it, who always annoyed me in the films. Additionally, in the first half of the game the area was all mud and looked awfully bland.

So, what's the winner. Ultimately they were all good games, but there is only one that would have made it on to the aformentioned  list, and that is... South Park, The Stick of Truth. It had to win inevitably, as I'd been looking forward to it for years, and anticipation always makes me feel like games are better, but to be fair, it definitely lived up to my hope (though that didn't work for GTA V last year).

Now, on to 12 weeks 12 weeks, 12 games year two (starting from tommorow (19/1/15)), and I've got a new aid to do it

2014: year in review (gaming)

   Let's start with the most (over)hyped game of the year; Destiny. Plenty of people love Halo to a ludicrous extent, so when Bungie announced they were handing over the reigns of Halo to go and pursue their own new ideas, people were buzzing with anticipation. Finally it's coming to PS4, it's an MMO, it's an... FPS. Shocker. All jokes aside though people were amped because we all knew Bungie were good at them, so let's give them the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately it wasn't all that exciting. It didn't really have a story and was all about doing an array of side missions to level up to get to the later added 'raids' which you could only do with 5 friends online anyway. I suppose that is the idea of an MMO really but I was hopeful that there would be more to it (for more go: http://andy8472.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/games-season-destiny.html )It could have been worse though, because as it turned out i would be one of few AAA late year releases that wasn't plagued with bugs. Driveclub embarrassingly didn't work for months, NBA2K15's create a player faces melted, EA servers crashed, Call of duty had it problems connecting, but of course the best one was

   No faces on Assassin's creed Unity. Now, as someone who didn't play it, I found it hilarious but for the guys at Ubisoft who had done so much to get a beautiful looking world on the next gen systems, they must have been well miffed to say the least.
   It wasn't all bad for Ubisoft though, as they released the much anticipated (by me) South Park: The stick of truth, the JRPG style comedy game that was incredible and is on my list for game of the year (so I won't talk much about it here). They also cranked out 2 good smaller games in Valiant Hearts and Child of Light that were fun little adventures and both worth a play. Also not forgetting the second most (over)hyped game of the year in Watchdogs, which I thought was alright despite what some others may say. Not forgetting Far Cry 4 (which incidentally came out in that late 2014 period but didn't have any horrific bugs (seem like that and Destiny book ended the 'problem period')) and a few more, so I'd say it was good for them in 2014 (ACU aside).
   Who remembers Titanfall? The big online only shooter on Xbox one. That game was marketed like crazy and pushed down out throats with all it's armoured mechs and Parkour. It was fun for a while, but as I find with anything if I'm playing a team online game by myself (which I'm always forced to now) then I quickly lose interest. Seems like most of the rest of the world did too and Call of Duty came in and stripped it for parts.
  While on multiplayer games lets talk Nintendo with Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros. As I have mentioned a billion times before I was a Sega kid so none of these franchises meant anything to me before the Wii (the only Nintendo console I'd had before that was a Gameboy ('cause, Pokemon)) so when I jumped in to both on the Wii after I was told how great they would be although my inner child wouldn't let me believe a game about a bunch (shudder) Nintendo characters could come together and have a good game. Of course it tuned out they could and they were great. Fast forward 8 years. I'm not at university anymore and now there aren't a bunch of people with nothing better to do several days a week, nor does the Wii U have an Ethernet port. This led me to playing both of these games briefly very briefly and moving on because they're just not something you play alone and the time of my life for gathering people together to drink and play videogames for hours has long gone (unfortunately, still sounds like an awesome night to me)).
   Speaking of multiplayer being ruined it looks like I wasted £40 on FIFA. After my perhaps harsh review of  this years instalment ( http://andy8472.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/games-season-fifa-15.html ) I played it some more and got more used to it to where I was ready to go back in and change the score  (not that anyone would've noticed), but then I couldn't play online. I'd connect to the EA servers, but when trying to get in to a match after about 20 failed attempts and eventully joining one I'd get kicked off the EA servers. I've tried several times since but only one time did it work. It looks like I'm not the only one experiencing this problem, but it is a small minority of people so EA probably don't care (after all they don't seem to be doing anything about it) but I'd probably lower my score now as that's the only real reason I play it. Oh well, Looks like it's back to pro Evo for me this year (a Small joke there for you but you have to work for it).
   Ports, what's all that about? I know really, money, yeah. It just annoys me that so many games are getting ported over from the last consoles to the new ones, especially Tomb Raider and The Last of Us which only came out last year anyway. I've heard arguments that it lets developers get used to the new consoles, but I'm sure they could do that while making a new game. Come on guys.
   There was definitely some games that snuck up on me last year, especially Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. Here was me not caring about anything Lord of the Ringsy since 2003, and here this came. Anyway, that's in my game of the year nominees so no more on that. The same can be said for the aforementioned Child of light though, which despite scepticism from me going in turned out to be pretty damned good. It's another small JRPG style game, like South Park, but more heartwarming than funny and definitely worth a go. Super Time Force was pretty great too if you like 2D platformers (which I do), because it looked like there was too much going on to me as I went in but it turned out to be awesome. As did Lego Marvel Superheroes. I'd got sick of Lego games a long time ago, and even though the main story missions were of a similar ilk to the stuff I'd played many years ago on Lego Star wars there was just so much to do in the open world and it was bulging with collectibles/ unlockables and it made it more than it had the right be.
   Sneaking wasn't all great this year, 'cause you know who else sneaked? Snake. A very much glorified demo tat you had the privilege to pay for, that was a tiny chunk of what the main game will be, and frankly I didn't like it either. As I spoke about before.
( http://andy8472.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/week-6.html ) The AI seems ridiculously good and they could spot you from miles away, even in the pitch black. I don't think this is criticism that I found it too hard, it was just ridiculous. Plus, Kiefer Sutherland replaced David Hayter? I was Just hearing Jack Bauer the whole time and repeating the joke 'huh, what was that noise' in my own head every time he spoke. It makes me Long for PS 1 demo disc that had the first couple of levels from the original on MGS on it (and Total soccer!).

   Frankly, It's been a disappointing year after a great 2013 with devs squeezing the last they could out of the PS3/ 360 an now they're getting used to the new ones and frankly with so many standout games that year, 2014 was always going to have a hard time keeping up the pace. Still, I'll always try to look on the bright side and look forward to next year and the games coming out, like the Witcher 3, Batman Arkham Knight, Tomb Raider (2?), No Mans Sky and many more. And BTW, my other GOTY (Game of the year) nominee from me is Forza Horizion 2. More to come on that in the coming days.