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!