Games played in 2013, part 2

Continuing from part 1...

Shogun 2 Total War (PC)
A few months ago I went Total War crazy, and played this game almost non-stop for a week. I love the Total War series as a whole (though I could never get into Empire), with Rome as my favourite. I’ve played them all, starting with Shogun Total War when it first came out! Anyway, I bought this game on a Steam sale but had ignored it up until that point. It took me a little while to get into, but I ended up loving it. My first campaign game was all about getting a good trade income (by ruling the seas!) to fund my army. At some point I also captured the Black Ship (super-powerful) which made things even easier. Like most Total War games, in the end it's just you and 1 or 2 quite powerful factions. Here it was basically east versus west. I won. Result:

I was so rich by the end of the game I could just set taxes to "low" and still have an income so high I didn't even know what to do with it.
The game I'm playing now is slightly more difficult as I'm a somewhat bad starting position, I need to destroy the Hattori clan first, and three other clans are trying to invade me. Fools can't see that I'm going to be the next shogun. They will bow their heads, or it shall be separated from their body!!! Or something like that.

Street Fighter X Tekken (PS3)
I’ve only been playing this in single player so the gem system hasn’t really been bothering me that much, but I certainly could’ve done without it. Other than that I am enjoying this. Can't agree with Capcom's decision to have all the characters on disc but making you pay for an unlock key though. Especially since some of my favourite characters were "DLC" like Dudley, Elena and Blanka.

Skullgirls (PS3)
It’s a pretty good 2D fighter, I quite like the style of the game and some of the character design. The battle system feels like a mix between Guilty Gear and the vs. Capcom games. Can’t say I played it much though.

The Sims 3 (PC)
Just like with the previous two, I played this intensely for a day or two, then lost interest. Good thing I got this practically free then.

Dark Souls (X360)

I think I'm only about 1/5th through, and I really need to go back to it. I can honestly understand people saying this is their favourite game from the X360/PS3 generation, it's an extremely well-designed game with a great atmosphere.

Tales of Vesperia (X360)

Again, an RPG I abandonned before even getting halfway. I quite liked it and I still plan to go back to it when I'm in a proper RPG mood.

Dead or Alive 5 (PS3)
Apart from the second game, I’ve never been that big a fan of the DoA series (vastly prefer Virtua Fighter, SoulCalibur and even Tekken). This one is pretty good I suppose. I haven’t played it that much and most of the time I’ve been playing the story mode.

Dirt 3 (X360)
I love rally games, so the Dirt series is pretty much my only option. I liked 2, this one is alright when it sticks to actual rally stuff but anything else can DIAF. I have Dirt Showdown on steam and I’m dreading to think what that will be like. 

One good thing about the game is that you can upload your replays (or at least a short bit) on youtube. I've done that a few times, but this one is my favourite.

Zeus: Master of Olympus (PC)
From time to time I feel like playing a city building game from Impressions Games. My most played is probably Caesar III, but I’ve played most of what they released. All of their games are very similar, just set in a different part of the world or time period. This one differs from Caesar because it has quite a bit of supernatural stuff, you have to build temples to the gods to summon them. It has some improvements over Caesar gameplay-wise, but in general I still prefer Caesar III.

Metroid Prime (Wii)

I talked about this in a separate entry.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

I should've done a seperate entry about this as well, but you know. Lazy. I wanted to play this to see if it still holds up, and also because Link Between Worlds (set in the same world) was coming out later. Well, it still holds up, and it reconfirmed its status as my favourite Zelda game.

Hitman Absolution (PS3)

I... didn't like this much at first. It didn't really feel like a Hitman game to me. Maybe I should give it another chance. Maybe.

Catherine (PS3)

Another game I still need to finish. I like Vince and I like the symbolism in his dreams, but the block puzzle thing... it's not something I'm into. I do plan to get back to it though, I want to see at least one ending.

Sleeping Dogs (X360)
I finished the game when it came out, but this year I played the DLC. They’re all okay, I loved the island tournament one until that bit with the falling spike ceiling -_- 

I have to say though, Sleeping Dogs is one of my favourite open world games. Love the atmosphere and the combat. And some of the characters. Salty Crab is my kind of guy.

Puzzle Quest 2 (X360)
I can’t believe I already spent 30 hours playing this… the main game really is far too long. And to be honest, I guess I liked the first one more. 

Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS)
Eh, mixed feelings about this one. I still hate the on-foot controls muchly, I have such a hard time understanding people calling this the best 3DS game when it clearly has control issues. And I know it's not just me. Anyway, otherwise this is pretty enjoyable. There is a LOT of dialogue in this game though, sometimes it feels like Pitt and...that woman are constantly talking throughout the levels. I can see how that can annoy people. I tolerate it, but could have done without it. It does some things right (flying sections, weapon customisation) but it's far from a perfect game in my opinion.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (X360)

I've been playing this off and on since I got this in 2012, I also bought the Da Vince DLC and still need to finish that, otherwise the game is done. I'm still vaguely interested in Revelations, but I hear it's not that good anyway. Also have Ass Creed 3 waiting. I want to find out how bad that one is! 

Ridge Racer Unbounded (X360)
It’s Split/Second, just rebranded as a Ridge Racer for no real reason. I can’t say I enjoyed it that much to be honest (but then I don’t consider Split/Second a good game either - I'm a Blur kind of guy). Maybe I’m playing it wrong, but the fairly high difficulty was one of the things that bothered me. Anyway, didn’t have the patience to get really good at the game, I moved on to more satisfying experiences.

The Darkness (X360)
I’ve been interested in this series for a while (also bought the sequel, but haven’t played it yet). It’s a good game, I enjoyed it, especially the superpowers, and using a WWI battlefield as a representation of hell. Couldn’t care less about the mafia storyline though. Last mission was cool.

Darkstalkers Resurrection (X360)
I’ve never owned a Darkstalkers game, but I did play the third one in an arcade at some point. I liked the character design and atmosphere of the game, so I didn’t hesitate to pick up this collection. The first game hasn’t aged that well, but I still like the third one. If you need an incentive to get this, it’s basically Street Fighter with mummies, zombies, vampires and Bigfoot.

Samurai Shodown Sen (X360)
It’s a bad, bad game, but I love everything Samurai Shodown, so from time to time I go back to this. It’s still cool to cut off your opponent’s hand :D

Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (X360)
This is actually a really, really great sports sim. The gameplay at least - when it comes to content this is pretty bare bones. If you haven't played it and have even a vague interest in table tennis, you should pick this up. 

Pandora's Tower (Wii)

Played this at the start of the year, but quickly abandoned it for other games :( Really need to go back to it, it quite liked some of the mechanics (some of it has a very Castlevania-like feel) and it's really not a bad game.

Fable III (PC)
This game seems to get a lot of hate, but I had some fun with it. It's inferior to 1 and 2, it hardly has any difficulty, and it's pretty linear experience. But c'mon, it has Stephen Fry and John Cleese!!! ...Not enough? Fine. Well I for one didn't think it was as bad as the reputation it got.

Galaga Legions DX (PS3)
This is a pretty fun game, I played the DS version but I prefer this one. It's not like classic Galaga at all, but I like it.

Sonic The Fighters (X360)
Lol.

Fighting Vipers (X360)
See this was a game I loved in the arcades, though mostly because you could smash people's face in with a guitar, and I loved doing that final hard attack that sends them through the stage enclosure. So I'm happy they released it again. Gameplay is basic of course, and the AI is pretty hard, but I still had some fun with it. 

That's about it I think. Later this week: GOTY 2013!

Games played in 2013: part one

I've played around 50 games in 2013, and I wanted to write a word about every one of them. Well, I ended up writing more than just a word, so I'll have to do this in two parts to prevent endless scrolling. I'll also do a separate entry for games released in 2013 (a sort of GOTY post) in a week or so. For now, these are the games I've been playing in the past year...

Okami HD (PS3)

I wanted to do this one first because it might just be my favourite game I played in 2013. I played it on the PS2 when it came out, but I gave up towards the end (this happens a lot to me when playing long adventures or RPGs). Firstly, the bad stuff: the game is overly long, in the sense that people name it the “Okami Trilogy”. The game is basically cut up in three parts and definitely offers value for money if that’s what you’re after. However, a fair bit of your time will be spent on unskippable walls of text.

For me though, the good outweighs the bad by far. It has to be said, the game looked great on PS2 and absolutely stunning in HD. It brings out the world, art and characters even more (though admittedly it does show its PS2 origins in some places). It's just so damned charming, how they use Japanese mythology in the game, the interactions between Issun and Amaterasu, the flowers that bloom when Amaterasu is running... it's a lot of little things that make me really love this game.

I really like the battle system as well, combat never felt like a chore to me. Gotta love fighting with rosaries.

Anyway, I fell in love with game and just had to see and do everything there is to see and do in this game. In the end, the only thing I still had to do was catch some fish to get my Platinum trophy, so I did that. And it only took me about 50 hours to get absolutely everything in the game.
Also, this game is a perfect fit for the WiiU gamepad. Why hasn't this happened yet :(

Borderlands 2 (PS3)

Been playing this for a couple of hours and I’m up to chapter 6. I quite liked the first Borderlands, but played it so much that by the time Borderlands 2 came out, I had no interest in it. But now that it’s on PS+, I had to give it a go. I still like the gameplay and especially the game world, but some parts already feel like a drag. I’m playing as Zer0, and so far it’s a pretty boring class. I should’ve gone with the Siren-like girl for single player...

Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing Transformed (360)

This is -such- a good kart racer, really. The online is pretty smooth, and there’s plenty of single player content. It offers a good challenge as well, especially if you want to unlock everything.

Faerie Solitaire (PC)

I’ve played this for over 14 hours now and I still haven’t decided if it’s a good game. It is addicting though...

Top Spin 4 (360)

I’ve been playing this off and on since it came out, and it really is the best tennis sim ever. I’ve had so many good and even epic matches, and it’s still a joy to play. Nowadays I just play “real” matches (best of 5 sets, 6 games), on hard (medium is piss easy). Last three matches I played were Djokovic-Nadal at Roland Garros (won 6-1, 6-0, 6-4!!), Murray-Djokovic at Aus Open (lost in 4 sets) and Nadal-Djokovic at Aus open (close first set, 2 other sets were easily won). I guess I should try very hard next but from what I remember it’s almost impossible to win. It’s a good thing that even on hard, the AI makes (fairly) realistic mistakes, like double faulting, or overcharging a shot so it goes out. There even seems to be such a thing as momentum swings in the game.

My new favourite thing in this game is luring baseliners like Nadal to the net with a well-placed drop shot, then do a nice lob that makes them run backwards but can't return. It’s hard to pull off but It’s beautiful (...and somewhat humiliating, hah) when it happens. For this reason I hope you can record matches, or at least replays of certain shots in the next gen version. Though I doubt there will be one :(

Forza Horizon (360)

Got this in a sale, I was somewhat interested when it came out, but having not played any Forza games I was hesitant to jump in. I’m happy I did, it’s easily one of the best racers in recent years. Beautiful game as well. Finished the game in single player and had fun. Tried some multiplayer, with mixed results, as I really don’t have the patience to get good at it.

I bought the Rally expansion recently, which was really pretty good (do I sound too surprised? heh), but a bit short.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (360)

Recently bought on sale, I already have MvC3 on PS3 so I was waiting for a price drop on Ultimate. I haven’t been playing with the new characters that much, so far Ghost Rider seems to be pretty good. I also love the Galactus mode, for me that is actually the best addition! I also got Jill and Shuma-Gorath, Jill’s pretty good but I’m loving Shuma-Gorath…but then I’ve always loved the character in the vs. games. Oh and let’s not forget Amaterasu is in this as well :)

Mortal Kombat (PS3)

I bought the game on Xbox 360 when it came out, but now I have it on PS3 through PS+. I went through the story mode again recently and loved it. It gets pretty crazy/stupid at the end, but otherwise I really liked it. I’d say that overall this game is the best fighter on Xbox360/PS3 when it comes to single player content. Story mode, Mission mode, tag team mode… only thing it doesn’t have is a kart racer, amirite?

Euro Truck Simulator 2 (PC)

I’ve been interested in this ever since I saw it appearing on Steam. It’s quite a weird game, in that it can be hyper-realistic (parking your truck in reverse is a bitch) but also has stuff that puts you out of the illusion of being real (that’s not how motorways look in France and Belgium!). I haven’t played it that much, I still need to start up my own company, right now I’m just doing random assignments to get some cash. I’ll definitely get back to this at some point.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PS3)

Again one of those games I already own on X360, but thanks to PS+ I got this on PS3 as well. I recently played it for a couple of hours, I still quite like it, but not enough to go through the entire game. I’ll probably go back to it at some point… in a way it definitely scratches an itch I didn’t know I had!

Poker Night 2 (PS3)

I’m happy I’m not the only one complaining how janky this game is. I seem to have a slow hard drive or something, the game saves after each round, and sometimes the game freezes for about 5 - 10 seconds. It’s rather awful. Otherwise I have no complaints on the game (other than the fact that it’s pretty hard for a poker noob like me).

Age of Empires II HD (PC)

I pre-ordered this on Steam, but like many I was pretty disappointed with it overall. It was very buggy at first, it’s better now but overall I’m really not impressed. At least it’s steamworks so some of the things they removed (mostly small graphics thingies, but still) can be brought back through mods.

Orcs Must Die 2 (PC)

One of many games in my steam backlog, I gave it a go a couple of months ago. I like these “trap” games but they can never really hold my attention for long.

Hotline Miami (PS3)

A re-play since I own it on steam and it was one of my favourite games of 2013. The love has kind of cooled down though - the best thing about the game isn’t the gameplay but the soundtrack.

2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa (PS3)

My country was doing great in the qualifications for the 2014 World Cup, so I felt like playing a football game. And this is the only one I own… If the new World Cup game is a separate release, I’ll probably buy it again.

...Part 2 soon!