Geralt's story continues in the much improved and polished Witcher 2

This is another game that a good friend of mine has been encouraging me to play for some time now. And I initially bought it back in 2012 when I rebuilt my gaming PC because I heard it was a very demanding game with beautiful visuals that would push machines to their limits but this is the first time I actually played it. They were not wrong on the claim about visuals...

The Witcher 2 picks up not long after the ending of the first game with Geralt in prison being 'questioned' about his involvement in the murder of a king (hence the name). This involves some flashbacks to the events surrounding the assassination which mainly act as tutorials to get you used to the games mechanics. You are quickly exonerated and go about your merry way in finding the real assassin. Along the way you are also trying to find Geralt's lost memories as he is still missing most of his past life's memories. This involves the usual RPG like quest of visiting areas, talking to people, finding out they have problems, solving those problems for them and then eventually getting their help in solving your problems.

Most of the mechanics stay the same from the first game, but some have been changed quite significantly. Combat being the main one in that you no longer have different stances but can perform different kinds of attacks like slow, heavy, parry, block, etc. You no longer have a sword style dedicated to group combat so it makes things a lot trickier when fighting multiple enemies (which is quite often). Later in the game, you can acquire skills that will increase swing range and aid you in group combat, but for the majority of the game, rolling is your friend. Geralt must now roll around like a mother fucker to dodge blows and keep enemies strictly in front of his blade and not facing his back. I found this made the combat a lot more interesting and dynamic compared to the previous game's which did sometimes have a point and click feel to it. You can also still learn multiple offensive and defensive spells which will further aid against groups and single opponents.

Once again, I did a brief summary of the plot just for the lulz

Also, instead of the multi-layered skill tree of old, there are now 4 main upgrade paths:

• Witcher: general physical enhancements like health, speed, etc
• Magic: stronger spells to stop you dying and help others die
• Swordmanship: all kinds of sweet sword skills including group combat skills later on
• Alchemy: make better and stronger potions to enhance yourself before fights

A lot of the annoying problems of the first game have been fixed such as now being able to meditate or make potions anywhere. Sadly, this is balanced by only allowing you to consume potions when not in combat but it seems a fair trade.

And on the topic of the aforementioned visuals, well...just look at them for yourself. This game truly is a feast for the eyes with every character and vista being rendered in stunning detail making the world feel so vibrant that it could suck you right into it. One particularly interesting part for me was at one point visiting an encamped army where every soldier spoke with a Northern Irish accent. Being from Northern Ireland myself, it is not common to hear local accents in video games and has only happened one other time to my memory:

The Witcher 2 provides further adventures for Geralt in an achingly beautiful world where every problem from the first game has been tweaked and improved to make the overall experience much more smooth, polished and easy to jump into and enjoy right away. All in all, a vast improvement over an already very good game making this even better and easier to recommend. Those of you wanting to get in on the Witcher action, but not keen to play all 3 games, I'd advise that it is possible to start with this game as long as you get up to speed on the story of the first game beforehand, which this game does not do a great job of recapping sadly.

This game also does a better job of leading into the next (and final) game in the trilogy, The Wild Hunt, by small mentions here and there and hints of things to come. So by the time I was finished with this one, I was very excited and looking forward to The Wild Hunt only to find shortly after that it had been delayed until next year. Sigh. But I'm sure it's for the best in the long run and will only make this final game even more awesome than this one.

On a side-note, this is the last PC game on the backlog. Yes, there will still be plenty of PC games played in co-op and there will be future releases on PC added as and when they come out, but for now, this is the final single player PC game on the backlog. Just goes to show how close I am getting to the end of the list if there is no more PC games on it seeing as they have always been the majority platform.

The Wii U gets a Mario launch title with New Super Mario Bros U. But it wasn't quite what the fans meant...

I picked this up shortly after getting my Wii U, being a consumate fan of all games Mario and this made for quite a quick-fire succession of New Super Mario Bros. action after playing the 3DS New Super Mario Bros. 2 barely even a month beforehand. But this is hardly a problem because even despite being relatively samey, the New Super Mario Bros. series always delivers plenty of enjoyable 2D Mario action harking back to the original pre-3D Mario Bros. games and this one is no exception.

Things start as usual with the princess being kidnapped yet again by Bowser. And it is your job to save her yet again. The Koopalings again return here acting as the final bosses for most worlds before you fight Bowser in the final world. Power ups remain mostly unchanged from previous New Super Mario Bros. titles, but do introduce a few new ones. The Super Acorn being the main one here which turns you into a flying squirrel able to glide like the racoon or caped Mario can as well as cling to walls. He can not fly however, unless you pick up the P-Acorn which is similar to Super Mario Bros. 3's P-Wing allowing unlimited flight throughout the level you use it on.

Mario in his new flying squirrel get-up

Baby Yoshis also make a return appearance not having been seen in a main Mario game since Super Mario World. As before, there are a few different colours each with different abilities such as bubble attacks, lifting you into the air and acting as illumination. These new power ups help to mix things up and the majority of the older ones are still there as familiar old friends.

The multi-player from New Super Mario Bros. Wii returns allowing up to 5 people to play the game at once. 4 of these control on screen characters with WiiMotes and the 5th can act upon the world using the Wii U gamepad to either help or hinder the other players by moving platforms, disabling enemies and the like. Hilarity always ensues as players can bounce off each other and steal power ups so this can lead to some quite insane messes occurring with more people sometimes making the game harder than easier.

You progress through the game again in the usual way going through various worlds with themes like grass, ice, fire etc, but I was particularly glad to find some of the levels dedicated to my favourite world in Super Mario Bros 3., Big Island, where all the enemies are gigantic creatures towering over Mario. This game seems to contain a lot of references to Super Mario Bros. 3 in particular including others like battle tank levels, Boom Booms and airship levels. I found this to be fantastic nostalgia as this is still my favourite 2D Mario game.

Big Island, or Giant Land as it was originally called in the NES original Super Mario Bros. 3

New Super Mario Bros. U proved to be yet another fantastic Mario game in my opinion. And while the New Super Mario Bros. series can seem quite samey from title to title and never gets the same applaud as the full fat 3D titles these days, each one is always guaranteed to be extremely worthwhile for fans of Mario and both platform games in general. You know who you are. So buy it if this is you!

A deep and dark action RPG set in a morally ambiguous world where no choice is really ever the right one

I have been long persuaded (pretty much since this game came out in 2007 so for 7 years now) by a close friend of mine to play this game as he touted it as an excellent action RPG and thoroughly enjoyed it so said I should play it. 7 years later, I finally did and it was very enjoyable indeed.

The Witcher starts off with you playing as Geralt of Rivea. You are a Witcher. A highly trained and genetically modified monster hunter. The game is set in a medievil-like era and starts proper with you and your Witcher buddies having their base attack by some jerks who steal the materials used to mutate normal humans into Witchers. You are understandably quite pissed about this and give chase.

And so begins a great trek across many kingdoms where you gather clues as to where said jerks have gone to. Encountering them here and there along the way before tracking them to their HQ. But that is almost as brief a summary as I put on my Facebook page and as usual, there is a lot more to it.

My brief plot summary

Being monster hunters, Witchers do tend to get involved in the affairs of others quite often but their policy is one of strict neutrality. They are not supposed to get involved in conflicts or pick sides. And Geralt in particular (much like myself) has an extreme distain for politics. Despite this policy, you as the player are given the choice to take sides many times in many different situations and it is these decisions that shape how the game will play out for you.

There is an ongoing war between the humans (championed by the knights of The Order of the Flaming Rose) and a race of elves called the Scoi'a'Tel. Many times you are given choices that will align you with one or the other although it is not always apparent when you are making the choice who you are siding with. There is also usually a 3rd course of action and that is one of neutrality or non involvement. The number of times you side with one force or the other will determine how events unfold and in particular your involvement in the final climactic battle between the 2 sides. Because, like I mentioned, it is not always obvious who's side, if any, you are picking, the choices themselves are often quite hard to make as it seems there is no real "right" answer or route a lot of the time and you just have to try to find the least bad or path of least resistance. But quite often, choices you make can come back to aid you making you grateful you picked that path or bite huge chunks out of your ass making you rather regret it.

The core of the game play is traditional western action RPG where you travel through areas asking questions, are given tasks, get into trouble and usually have to kill things to get out of said trouble. You gain experience as is the norm and level up to increase your stats. You can also pour skills into various areas such as magic, swordplay and agility. You are also given 2 swords. A steel one for humans and a silver one for monsters. Each is most effective against it's intended target and both can be used in 3 different combat styles:

• Single target: large slow and powerful swings for big bad enemies
• Fast target: small quick and weaker swings for smaller enemies who will dodge a lot
• Group targets: huge arcing and circular but weaker swings designed to hit everything round you when cornered by a group

These different sword styles as well as the ability to use magic make for some very interesting combat scenarios and except for a few isolated difficulty wall situations, the combat was all in all very enjoyable.

The Witcher proved to be a very enjoyable action RPG all in all. It is quite lengthly taking me over 25 hours to beat even going at a brisk pace and not doing many side quests. Do do more of these would raise the time a lot but there is a lot to this world the more you dig. I could easily recommend this to any fans of RPGs and am looking forward to the even more widely acclaimed sequel.

A curious move from Eidos in the form of a mobile Deus Ex game

Long term reader of this blog will know that I am a big fan of the Deus Ex series. All of it from the first entry to the misguided sequel and especially my 2011 game of the year, Human Revolution.

Adam Jensen hard at work solving the homeless problem in Deus Ex: Human Revolution

So it was with great excitement that I had heard there was another game in the series planned, Deus Ex: The Fall. And it was then with great disappointment that I discovered it would be a mobile only game. And an iOS exclusive nonetheless. Long term readers will also know my distain for all things Apple so this was a double punch in the gut. Shortly after the iOS release, Eidos promised an Android port but this never seemed to appear.

So by the time I had finished reading the book that the game follows, "The Icarus Effect", and there was still no sign of the Android port, I felt too compelled to play the game to wait any longer and had to play the iOS version.

And what a mistake that was.

I played it on my other half's iPad 2. Which is the minimum specification iPad that the game will run on. But it seems they were pushing it even to get it to run on that because it was extremely slow and laggy and very prone to crashing. Like every 7 minutes. These technical problems sadly did decrement my experience quite significantly but I still felt that I got to experience enough of the game to form a decent opinion about it.

Overall, The Fall plays almost identically to it's bigger brother, Human Revolution only you are playing a former mercenary Ben Saxon rather than security agent Adam Jensen. Ben is on the trail of his former employers, the Tyrants, and trying to bring down their schemes of world domination. It plays in the same style of first person shooter view most of the time moving to third person when clinging to cover. You move through areas hunting down objectives through the same mix of murder, stealth, hacking and so on that we all know and love from Deus Ex. You can upgrade your augmentations just like before only you can do them on the fly anywhere, anytime now rather than having to go to a LIMB clinic to have it done. You can also buy and upgrade the usual slew of weapons both lethal and non lethal. Naturally, I opted for the former as I preferred to shoot my way through most areas. And when there was too much for just myself to shoot through, I would take control of bigger guns or large robots to do the killing for me via proxy.

The gameplay is very satisfying just like Human Revolution was, when the hardware co-operates and if you can get into the flow of smoothly shooting and taking down without stalls or crashes, it's feel just as great as it did in the fantastic game that came before it. But again sadly, the hardware let me down with stalls and crashes being very very frequent. There were other minor problems as well like the game being quite short (less than 4 hours for me), but it is planned to be an episodic series with this just being the first one. The voice acting is also very phoned in, Ben's voice in particular sounding nothing at all like I imagined it to be while reading the book and it actually sounds quite weasely unfortunately.

Deus Ex: The Fall is a great game in theory being almost as good as the excellent Human Revolution, but the awful hardware let it down sadly in this case.

Even more annoyingly, the Android port came out literally days after I had finished this on iPad. I got to try this version and it is silky smooth and crash free.

And even more annoying than that, a few weeks later, a PC version was announced with full controller and keyboard support which would jsut solve every problem this initially mobile exclusive game had and make it truly great. Le sigh....

The Wii U finally gets a fully fledged 3D Mario game in what is now the best reason to own the machine

Many other reviews I saw for this game before getting to play it were hailing it as the best Mario game for a long time and the best Wii U game and the reson to own a Wii U. And being a long time fan of the core Nintendo games, especially Mario ones, I was quite understandably quite excited to get playing this one for myself on my shiny new Wii U console. So when I got this game as a gift, I was very excited to get into it.

And I was not disappointed. From start to finish, this game was pure enjoyment and made me feel like I was a kid again experienceing the pure joy of Mario platformers. It's pure old-school action just like Mario Galaxy, Mario 64 or Mario 3D Land. But where 3D Land was very vertical to make good use of the 3D, 3D World is much more horizontal to give huge spread out levels that can take full advantages of the Wii U's power now that we can finally see Mario and friends in proper 3D.

Many old power ups turn up like the fire flower, ice flower, giant Mario and boomerang Mario. But as always, there are some new ones to mix in. The main new ones are multiple Marios. Collecting cherries will make clones of Mario and you can end up having several of them all running around the screen at once. They all respond to your controls in the same way so getting them all to line up and behave at once. The other main new power is the widely publicised Cat Mario where you don a cat suit. This give you the ability to do scratch attacks, lung attacks, float in the air and most importantly, run up vertical surfaces using your claws. This greatly expands the areas that you can reach and really adds a lot to each level giving you lots of new ways to attack challenges and power through levels. I found this cat power up to be far and away my favourite power up in the whole game, but it does tend to make most things a lot easier and sadly, the power up was very scarce in the later portions of the game probably for that exact reason. Cat Mario can also ascend the flagpole at the end of each level always netting you a 1-UP which is a good bonus if you can hang on to it.

The layout of the game is a familiar map world system which has been in most Mario games since Super Mario Bros. 3. However in this one, instead of just being routes that you follow, you are free to walk all over the map and explore. It doesn't add a lot because you still have to go to the levels in the end, but there are small hidden bonuses hidden around world maps that you can find if you explore. There are the usual mix of normal levels, ghost houses, castles, toad houses and moving tank/train levels a la Super Mario Bros. 3's tank levels. There is one new addition to the level type though in the form of the Captain Toad levels. In these, you take command of Captain toad and must walk around 3D isometric cube levels to find stars. As Captain Toad, you cannot jump, so you must use the layout of the terrain and viewpoints to navigate around. These are very different to the normal platforming action and are much more puzzle based, but are a lot of fun nonetheless and I think Nintendo could easily make a whole new game out of these kind of levels.

The mighty Captain Toad in action

There are also a number of other variety and themed levels including ones where you ride a giant dinosaur down a flume, a Mario Kart themed level where you run across booster pads to go at the speed of a kart, theme park levels and many many more. Up to 4 players are also supported through various multitudes of controllers. I have yet to experience this madness myself, but it looks like a lot of fun.

I could go on and on about how great this game is, but I'm sure you get the point by now. I can scarcely think of one negative thing about this game and needless to say, if you own a Wii U and haven't played it, go get it and play it. And if you don't have a Wii U, go get one and this game and play it. Now.

Pikmin 3 returns to the series' root after a long time away with some new twists and a great new control scheme

Pikmin 3 was supposed to be a launch title for the Wii U, but due to numerous problems, it was delayed but thankfully it was worth the wait. After 2 Pikmin installments on the Gamecube and none on the Wii, we are finally treated to a 3rd Pikmin game on the Wii U. And once again, it takes on the form of an RTS game that is wrapped up in cuteness and colours but underneath is actually quite a grim warfare simulator.
The reasons for this are not obvious but are there if you look closer. The Pikmin themselves are quite docile when left to their own devices, but as soon as you, the "general" get involved, they become vicious killing machines who will kill and destroy and cannibalise anything you can point them at. They will also wade into any situation you command them too, even a suicidal one, without hesitation if you command it. And when they are killed, you can replace them as quickly as they died. It's all quite disturbing once you get past the initial cute layer and you do feel genuinely bad when the Pikmin under your command are snuffed out knowing that you sent them them to their deaths to accomplish your goals.

All that being said, Pikmin 3 is still a highly enjoyable strategy game that flourishes on the Wii U for a genre that is usually aimed at PC and extremely difficult to make work on a console. The overall layout of the game takes cues from both the previous games before it and also adds in a few new things to keep the formula fresh. While Pikmin 1 had a strict 30 day time limit making it feel rushed and Pikmin 2 had no time limit but poor level design, Pikmin 3 strikes a balance between these two. There is a time limit, but this is dictated by the amount of juice you have remaining to feed your crew. But this supply can be refreshed by searching the levels and finding fruit to bring back to your ship. So the time limit only becomes strict if you neglect collecting fruit.

The story in this installment focuses on a crew of 3 visiting earth to collect edible fruit for their planet. But as usual, things do not go to plan and the 3 are split up, their ship is damaged and their fruit hunting mission is put on hold until they can be reunited and their ship repaired. As with the miniature visitors that came before them, they meet up with the Pikmin and they instantly begin to respond to their every command and help them complete their mission.

As shown on the cover of the box, there are 5 Pikmin varieties in this game:

• Red: strong warriors who are fire proof
• Blue: water proof
• Yellow: bomb carriers, can be thrown long distances and are immune to electricity
• Rock: heavy hitters used to stun enemies and smash glass
• Winged: can uproot buried items and carry things over gaps/water

You find these types throughout your quest to reunite with your crew members and fix your ship so areas that are initially inaccessible to you later become open as you get more Pikmin types and crew members. Speaking of crew members, since there are 3 crew member this time, a heavier emphasis is placed on multi tasking. You are now able to easily split up into groups with each crew member commanding their own Pikmin allowing you to divide and conquer or team up to get to new areas. Unfortunately, I probably did not do as much multi tasking as I should have, so it took me a little longer to complete the game than it should have.

The Wii U gamepad is very well used in this title acting as an always on map that can be used to point units to waypoints, find Pikmin, see how many Pikmin are unescorted and much more. It also features gamepad only play allowing you to use your TV for other things and only need the gamepad to play the game.

As with previous Pikmin games, there are many gigantic bosses (which are actually quite small) and they all need very different and varied methods to defeat. Most of them also need quite a lot of time to defeat and in some cases, I had to leave them partially defeated and return the next day to finish the job. I felt that these bosses were much more of a challenge than the bosses in the previous Pikmin games which had always seemed a little easy so this was a refreshing change.
Pikmin 3 is a great return to form from a series that has been away for too long and I can only hope that it means more installments in this neglected and unique franchise.

Plus, one of the crew characters shares the name and appearance of my other half:

An open ended Assassinate-em-up allowing you to kill (or not kill) any way you see fit in the form of Dishonored from Bethesda

Going into thisar game was one that managed to tempt me into getting it in the Steam Christmas sale of 2013. I was told by a few others who has played it that it was short and fun so I decided to give it a try. These days as time becomes a scarcer commodity, I find myself preferring the shorter, fat-free games that do not have much padding to them and are just all pure enjoyment. This may well be why 17 out of 20 of the games remaining on my current backlog are very lengthy RPGs....

Going into this game, I knew that one could take either a stealth approach or a murder approach and which one you did would affect the ending of the game. Going through carefully and not killing people unless necessary would net you a good ending but bad game finale whereas murdering everyone would give you a bad ending but better finale. Regular readers of this blog will know that I usually prefer to murder everyone I can clap my eyes on, so this was the route that I went for.

The basic plot is one of revenge wherein within you play a royal bodyguard called Corvo who within the first 4 minutes is framed for the murder of those that he is guarding and is therefore Dishonored. So naturally, you drum up some allies and go about extracting revenge on those that wronged you. But naturally, things are never that simple and murderous hilarity ensues.

Each main chapter of the game is focused around killing one main figure head in the plot against you. You must gain entry to where your target is by whatever means you see fit and then do the deed. There are any number of ways that you can move your way through areas and to your objectives from shooting and swordplay, knocking people out, hiding in the shadows, possessing enemies and animals or just setting up accidents. You can acquire a number of magic like skills to help you on your way such as the ability to slow time, teleporting, possession, adrenaline fueled instant kills and many more. Once again, preferring the killing route, I took as many powers that would allow me to kill more enemies harder, better, faster, stronger and spent the majority of the game sprinting full speed into battle with every enemy I could see blasting and cutting open every enemy I could clap my eyes on in a slow motion rage and adrenaline fueled rage whirlwind of murder, lead and steel. This of course was immense fun but actually lead to me accidentaly killing my main target on more than one occasion when they would rush in along with a pile of other normal goons due to the chaos and noise and I would shoot them in the face before knowing who they were. I thought this was a nice change of pace from the likes of games such as Assassin's Creed where your main target was always sealed away somewhere that you had to get into. It was interesting to see the "boss" come to you to be killed for once.

You can choose from a wide variety of equipment that can be both augmented and upgraded as you go through. You always have your basic sword in one hand and a gun of some kind in the other if you so desire. While the sword itself can not be upgraded your skill with it can. I thought the swordplay was one of the better aspects of the combat even if the enemies sometimes seemed to have an unfair advantage in terms of stun recover and blocking abilities compared to your character. You can also carry a variety of firearms, explosives and non lethal projectile weapons for your other hand which can be upgraded both in performance and your ability to use it.

The art design in Dishonored is quite unique and interesting and follows a semi realistic/semi cel shaded style. The architecture, character and equipment design follows a sort of pseudo industrial/steampunk (don't like to use that word, but it fit) look which makes it feel what Bioshock could have been like had it been set in Britan in the 1940s. Everything looks crude yet artistically engineered at the same time and is genuinely interesting to look around and gawk at.

As mentioned before, I went through the game just killing everything, so that meant that my run through was quite short (under 6 hours). But if you were to take the more stealthy route, it would take you a lot longer. As is standard with all new games now, there are also dozens and dozens of hidden mcguffins and collectible whachamagiggers that don't really do much over than give achievements and boost powers higher than you need them to be so I didn't really go too far out of my way to get many of these.

Dishonored provides lots of rampaging action and sneaky stealth and while it was enjoyable for what it is, nothing really seemed too exceptional about it in my opinion. It was fun while it lasted, but it seems unlikely to provide any lasting memories or desire to return to it for another play through. A little underwhelming overall considering the hype and build up for it.

Glory to the great nation of Arstotzka and all those lucky enough to enter therein

I heard about this Indie game in conversation not long before Christmas and then saw it getting quite a few rewards over the Christmas period so my curiosity begun to pique.  I was then fortunate to be gifted it by a friend through Steam (thanks Barney) so I was eager to try it out.

The simplest way of describing this game is a paperwork simulator.  I know that paperwork is one of the most tedious things in the world and after hearing that description, any sane person would think “Why would I want to play that?” but stick with me.  

Ordinarily, paperwork is slow and tedious and remains the same constantly, but in the world of Papers, Please, it is fast paced, closely timed and mixed in with many other over-arching factors that can sometimes leave the actual paperwork as one of your last concerns.  The game begins with you being called to work on the immigration border in the fine nation of Arstotzka (which resides somewhere in the Eastern block from the looks of things) and you must check the paperwork of people coming into the country from neighbouring ones.  You must examine each entrant’s papers and make sure that they are all valid and present.  If they are, you give them an admit stamp and welcome them into your fine country.  If they aren't, you given them a denied stamp and kick them out.  Each work day has quite a short time limit and you are given wages for each person you process correctly.  Processing entrants incorrectly will leave to lost wages and eventually fines.  You must use these wages to support your sizeable family by providing them with heat, food, medicine and such.

Like it says.

This all sounds quite simple and for a time, it is, but things soon start to complicate as paperwork rules and regulations and even the documents themselves change at a rapid pace.  New rules can be introduced barring people from certain regions.  New documents can be introduced that certain entrants must have.  Forgeries start to appear that you must be vigilant for.  Smugglers come into play that you must detect and detain.  Kickbacks and bribes from certain individuals are offered to do things not above board.  Terrorists attack.  Anti-government agencies try to recruit your help.  A vast multitude of events and paths start to unfold resulting in 20 different ways to end the game depending on what you decide to do.

All this means that you have to focus quite intently and try to stay focused on the details of the papers as all this is going on around you and in the end (if you survive to the end), you have to decide if you want to remain loyal to your country, aid in it’s take down or flee to another.

It creates a very immersive mix of both the mundane and surreal happening at the same time and makes you feel like you are struggling to keep your head above water.  It sounds very odd.  And it is.  But it also works surprisingly well.  You want to keep going and process as many people in a day as you can.  And every time you slip up and process someone incorrectly you are cursing yourself thinking “Damn!  Why did I not see that?”

This is definitely not a game for the impatient or those with a short attention span because you have to both stay intently focused on tiny details and aware of the big picture going on around you.  It also provides a great deal of laughs by some of the excellently written regular characters all of which go about their business with typical Soviet attitudes.  Engrossing from start to finish and well recommended to any budding TSA officers out there.

A hilarious journey into LEGO City for my very first Wii U game

First Wii U game!  Hurray!  This particular title I just got in a surprise Wii U bundle for Christmas from my very generous other half and boy was I glad to get it.  Of course, this also means a lot more new incoming games for the backlog for this new format but they’re almost all going to be awesome Nintendo games so it’s all good.

I had seen this newer LEGO game in some reviews and such but was not too aware of what separated it from the others apart from being a Wii U exclusive so I went into this one fairly blind.  Now having played it, I can say that the simplest comparison I can make for it is that it is Grand Theft LEGO.  The majority of the game is spent going around a huge open world LEGO city as the hero Chase McCain who is on the hunt for his arch nemesis Rex Fury.

You can “steal” cars and drive around as you like (although you are actually commandeering them for Police use) and tackle any huge number of side quests and missions and such.  But most of the main story missions take place in isolated separate maps referred to as “special assignments”.  These are most similar to the traditional LEGO game levels where you must move through various screens by performing various tasks such as smashing things open to find bricks, building things from bricks, finding keys to open doors and using various different character’s special skills.  But in this title, instead of separate changeable characters like a high jumper, a gunner, a small character, etc, Chase McCain has a number of disguises he can switch between which afford him different abilities such as robber, astronaut, fireman, farmer and so on.  You acquire more of these as the game progresses and can access more and more areas both in the special assignments and in the open world.

This is the first LEGO game that I have played to have an actual original plot and characters and not just be a LEGOfication of an existing franchise.  These new characters also have voice acting now so it feels much more like a fleshed out game rather than just a campy re-enactment of a different story.  But thankfully, all the same wacky LEGO humour that made all the previous games so lovable and funny is still there which was of great relief to me.  There is also a great number of pop culture and classic film references all over the place which I feel was put in for parents who play through the game with children as most of them are too old for anyone born this millennium to get.  One particular gem was a construction worker who sounded very like a certain well known Austrian actor who would work the names of said actor’s well known films into as many of his lines as he could.

The Wii U game pad does have some extra features in this game making navigating the open world easier such as a handy world map, way points and communicator.  It is also used in some mini games as a camera or listening device or search tool which help to mix things up a bit.

I found LEGO City Undercover to be a very charming and funny original adventure into the world of LEGO that expanded on the previous LEGO game framework greatly by adding an open world and original storyline.  Great fun to play and it’s also a great glimpse back into childhood as you can clearly remember many different LEGO figures, brand, vehicles and pieces and how you used them all as a child in your very own LEGO city.

Lots of fun but nothing really new in this second portable entry in the New Super Mario Bros. series

I’ve been interested in this sequel to New Super Mario Bros. for a while now, but due to my 3DS being American and it being region locked, I preferred to wait until I was back in America again to pick it up. 

I did greatly enjoy New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros Wii, the later I played co-op with Big Phil and it was an insane mess.  But apart from the madness of bouncing off each other in co-op, and the series’ trademark Mega Mario power up which allows you to destroy everything on screen, I have never found anything terribly remarkable or memorable about the NSMB series.  They all seem quite samey and like they’re just going through the motions of a 2D Mario game.  They all also have the usual grass, fire, ice, sky etc world that Super Mario Bros. 3 was the first to pioneer.  The first half dozen or so 2D Mario games were all very distinct, different and memorable because they were changing and evolving alongside the hardware platforms that they appeared on.  Super Mario Bros. was very limited by the NES’s small technical abilities, but Super Mario Bros. 2 pushed them a bit further and looked very different (because it was originally a different game).  Super Mario Bros. 3 returned more to the old form, but introduced the world map and retainable power ups and many more conventions that are now standard.  Super Mario World introduced secret worlds, multiple exits to stages, saving etc.  Each of these games evolved and changed the Mario games with each new one adding in new features and abilities and each one being notably different.

But now it feels like all that can be done has been done and there is not much left to add other than the occasional new power up.  So the end result is that all the games in the NSMB series have a feeling of disposability and will never be as memorable or distinct as the older games.

All that being said, this was still an extremely solid and fun 2D Mario game.  It’s just more of the same, but when it’s this good to play, you don’t mind that as much.

The one new twist that this entry in the series does add is an obsession with coin hunting.  The game keeps tracks of total coins and you unlock small rewards at milestones.  There is also a new Coin Rush mode where you race through 3 stages as fast as possible to get as many coins as possible.  A kind of coin score attack if you will.  There are also various new methods to gathering coins such as the golden block which makes your head into a golden block with Mario’s face on it that will keep dishing out coins as long as you’re running until the timer runs out.  And a gold hoop which turns all enemies gold giving extra coin rewards for killing them and any kicked Koopa shells leave coins in their wakes.  I’m sure there are plenty of other new ways to farm coins, but these are just some of the ones I found.

I would definitely recommend this to any fan of the Mario games because Mario games are always a lot of fun and the coin hunting aspect does add a small new twist.  The only caveat would be the aforementioned feeling of overall sameness in these games.

First game beaten of the new year!  The end of the backlog creeps ever closer.

Another year of gaming passed. The backlog is reaching it's close!

The year in gaming

Collage in more sizes

Statistics:

A year even more amazing than last year.  A staggering 166 games stricken from the list this year.  28 more than last years number.  The goal of beating the backlog is so close I can taste it.  It would have been down to almost a dozen if it weren't for the usual end of year Christmas in-surge of games from gifts and gift cards and the Steam sale and such.  But as of today, it stands at 22.  The only problem with that seemingly small number is that the majority of them are huge time-consuming RPGs that I have been putting off because I know they will be very lengthy.

PC was once again by far and away the most used system with almost half of the year's games for obvious reasons such as power, performance, convenience, ability to mod and customise, ease of taking screenshots and more.

This will undoubtedly be the last year of the backlog and from then on, my gaming will purely consist of new releases, replaying old favourites, further completion of games I went through quickly and picking up old classics I never owned.

As mentioned before, I am now down to 22 games left on the list.  Or 2.2% making it at 97.8% completion.  So close....  Again, a fair few number of games were culled that I never knew I was going to play.  Good progress was made due to switching jobs twice this year giving me a couple of weeks off work between them to chew through the list at a rapid pace.

Quite a few systems were closed off this year including Android, Gamecube, N64, XBox 360, XBox, Vita, PSP, Wii, XBLA and more meaning that other than any new games I may get for them that take my fancy or anything that is done for co-operative gaming purposes, there will not be a lot more playing done on these systems in the future.

Game of the year

Game of the year?  Undoubtedly Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.  It's use of the excellent Far Cry 3 engine to deliver everything awesome about the 80s in one sleek neon package just made me grin from ear to ear the whole time I was playing it and laugh out loud at every cheesy one liner.

A close second would probably be The Last of Us.  It takes the excellent game play mechanics of the Uncharted series and wraps it up in an amazing and touching story with characters so real you feel you can reach out and touch them.

Resolutions:

As for the list of resolutions that I made at the start of last year, I got the following done:

• original megamans 9-10, x7-8
• metal gear series (solid 3, portable ops, peace walker, solid 4)
• remaining f-zeros (x, gx)
• spec ops the line
• rage
• tom clancys endwar
• burnout dominator
• remaining gtas (Chinatown wars, San Andreas)
• remaining light gun games (point blank 3, crisis zone)
• mario golf (toadstool tour)
• wipeouts (pure, pulse)
• fear series (1, extraction point, perseus mandate, 2, 3)
• Soul reaver series
• DJ Hero
• lost odyssey
• mario golf (n64)
• wipeouts (2048, fusion, 64, 2097)
• fallout 3 and fallout: new vegas
• elder scrolls 4 & 5
• L.A. Noire
• the last story
• contact

I did not manage the following:

• both witchers
• okamiden
• final fantasy ii

Although I am quite sure I will get these done this year.  As well as the rest of the list

Complete list of games completed this year ordered by system popularity:

PC (76)

Episode One: All That Remains  (PCDL)
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3  (Origin)
Need for Speed: Rivals  (PCDL)
Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag  (PCDL)
L.A. Noire  (Steam)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim  (PCDL)
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2  (Steam)
Rayman Legends  (PCDL)
Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion  (Steam)
Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition  (Steam)
Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition  (Steam)
Battlefield 4  (PCDL)
Alpha Protocol  (Steam)
Batman: Arkham Origins  (PCDL)
Psychonauts  (Steam)
Hitman: Blood Money  (Steam)
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin  (Steam)
Hitman: Codename 47  (Steam)
Beyond Good and Evil  (Steam)
Atom Zombie Smasher  (Steam)
Amnesia: The Dark Descent  (Steam)
Metro: Last Light  (PCDL)
Metro 2033  (Steam)
Aliens: Colonial Marines  (Steam)
Lost Planet 3  (PCDL)
Saint's Row IV  (Steam)
Splinter Cell: Blacklist  (PCDL)
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified  (PCDL)
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City  (Steam)
Saints Row: The Third  (Steam)
Saints Row 2  (Steam)
Just Cause 2  (Steam)
Organ Trail: Director's Cut  (Steam)
400 Days  (PCDL)
Legacy of Kain: Defiance  (Steam)
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2  (Steam)
Prey  (PC)
Alien vs Predator  (Steam)
Return to Castle Wolfenstein  (PC)
F.E.A.R. 3  (Steam)
Ghostbusters  (PCDL)
F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin  (Steam)
F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate  (Steam)
F.E.A.R.: Extraction Point  (Steam)
F.E.A.R  (Steam)
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Athena Sword  (Steam)
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 Gold  (Steam)
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Island Thunder  (Steam)
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Desert Siege  (Steam)
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon  (Steam)
Lone Survivor  (Steam)
Hotline Miami  (Steam)
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon  (PCDL)
Cave Story+  (Steam)
BIT.TRIP RUNNER  (Steam)
Bioshock Infinite  (PCDL)
Simcity 3000: World Edition  (PC)
Super Meat Boy  (Steam)
Crayon Physics Deluxe  (Steam)
Gratuitious Space Battles  (Steam)
VVVVVV  (Steam)
Hammerfight  (Steam)
NightSky HD  (Steam)
Osmos  (Steam)
Tomb Raider  (PCDL)
Revenge of the Titans  (Steam)
Cogs  (Steam)
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP  (Steam)
Crysis 3  (PCDL)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas  (GFly)
Machinarium  (Steam)
Section 8  (Steam)
Tom Clancy's Endwar  (Steam)
Rage  (Steam)
Spec Ops: The  (Steam)
DmC: Devil May Cry  (PCDL)
Moonbase Alpha  (Steam)

PS3 (14)

Gran Turismo 6 (PS3)
Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)
Grand Theft Auto V  (PS3)
Killer is Dead  (PS3)
The Last of Us  (PS3)
Star Trek  (PS3)
Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel  (PS3)
God of War: Ascension  (PS3)
Battlefield: Bad Company  (PS3)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengence  (PS3)
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West  (PS3)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots  (PS3)
House of the Dead III  (PSN)
House of the Dead 4  (PSN)

PS2 (11)

Wipeout Fusion  (PS2)
Extermination  (PS2)
Colin McRae Rally 04  (PS2)
Colin McRae Rally 3  (PS2)
Time Crisis: Crisis Zone  (PS2)
Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith  (PS2)
Mega Man The Power Battles  (PS2)
Mega Man 2 The Power Fighters  (PS2)
Burnout Dominator  (PS2)
Mega Man X7  (PS2)
Mega Man X8  (PS2)

Xbox 360 (9)

Race Driver: GRID  (360)
Project Gotham Racing 4  (360)
Lost Odyssey  (360)
Just Cause  (360)
DJ Hero  (360)
Call of Duty 2  (360)
Gears of War Judgement  (360)
Battlefield: Bad Company 2  (360)
Dead Space 3  (360)

Gamecube (6)

Phantasy Star OnEp III C.A.R.D Revolution  (GCN)
Eternal Darkness  (GCN)
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles  (GCN)
F-Zero GX  (GCN)
Mario Golf Toadstool Tour  (GCN)
Viewtiful Joe  (GCN)

Android (6)

The Dark Knight Rises  (Droid)
Shadowgun  (Droid)
Asphalt 7: Heat  (Droid)
N.O.V.A. 3  (Droid)
Angry Birds Space Premium  (Droid)
World of Goo  (Droid)

Vita (5)

Wipeout 2048  (PSVita)
Assassins Creed III: Liberation  (PSVita)
Killzone Mercenary  (PSVita)
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker  (PSVita)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater  (PSVita)

Wii (5)

The Last Story  (Wii)
Kirby's Epic Yarn  (Wii)
A Boy and His Blob  (Wii)
Wario Land: The Shake Dimension  (Wii)
Wii Play Motion  (Wii)

PSP (5)

inviZimals  (PSP)
Wipeout Pulse  (PSP)
Wipeout Pure  (PSP)
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars  (PSP)
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops  (PSP)

XBLA (5)

Battleblock Theater  (XBLA)
Outpost Kaloki X  (XBLA)
Wik: Fable of Souls  (XBLA)
Connect 4  (XBLA)
'Splosion Man  (XBLA)

XBox (3)

Ninja Gaiden Black  (Xbox)
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay  (Xbox)
Colin McRae Rally 2005  (Xbox)

3DS (3)

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds  (3DSDL)
Resident Evil Revelations  (3DS)
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!  (3DSDL)

Atari St (3)

Space Crusade  (AtrST)
Thunder Burner  (AtrST)
Chicago 90  (AtrST)

Playstation (3)

Wipeout 2097  (PS)
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver  (PS)
Point Blank 3  (PS)

DS (2)

Contact  (NDS)
Picross DS  (NDS)

Game Boy (2)

Dirty Racing  (GB)
4 Wheel Drive  (GB)

WiiWare (2)

Mega Man 10  (WW)
Mega Man 9  (WW)

iPad (1)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted  (iPad)

N64 (1)

Mario Golf  (N64)

GBA (1)

Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga  (GBA)

Virtual Console (1)

F-Zero X  (VC)

22 years later, we finally get a direct sequel A Link to the past

Many hardcore Zelda enthusiasts will maintain that the 2D top down Zeldas, specifically the original A Link to the Past, are the best Zelda games. Personally, I'd have to say that A Link to the Past is my 2nd favourite but is just narrowly edged out by Ocarina of Time which is damn near as close to a perfect game that I think I've ever played.

So imagine my excitement when I heard that Nintendo were planning on making a direct sequel to my 2nd favourite Zelda game and still probably one of the best games ever made! I did initially think it was a little odd to put it on the 3DS limiting it to both a small screen and only people owning that handheld. But I knew that the 3D capability is excellent when put to good use so I still had high hopes for this game.

And I'm quite happy to say that those hopes were well placed because this is a fantastic Zelda game harking back to the days of old when you were just left to your own devices and to find your own way through things rather than constant tutorials and interruptions from "helpful" assistants. Being a Zelda veteran almost since day 1 (first one I got was Link's Adventure not long after it came out) I do not need tutorials and prefer to be left to my own devices and to seek out help if and when I need it. Thankfully, this game caters to that very well in 2 different ways.

First of all, just like the original Zelda games, you do not get your hand held the whole way and the tutorial is a dungeon that you can get to in probably under a minute. Second of all, the items work a lot different than before. Apart from a couple of key items you get from dungeons, you rent or buy the vast majority of the items for the game. So with a bit of money farming at the start, you can have a good 90% of the items from the get go. This also changes up the dungeon sequence obviously, so instead of being pointed to one dungeon and then the next, you are just told "Here are a bunch of places bad shit is happening. Do with them what you will.". Which I thought was a very nice change of pace. The one drawback of the rental system is that if you fall in battle you lose the items and must rent them again. This can be fixed later in the game when you are given them option to outright buy them instead (for quite large amounts) and then you are also given the ability to upgrade them. I was not searching especially hard for money, but I was still able to rent out all the items right away and then buy them all quite early on.

The other well touted change is Link's new ability to merge with the wall and move along it. I thought it would take me a while to get used to using this mechanic but it didn't. You very quickly get used to thinking with this mechanic in mind and it is well used all the way right up to the end of the game for both normal puzzles, battles and finding secrets.

The game plays almost exactly like A Link to the Past we all know and love, except now looks much much prettier and is rendered in very effective 3D giving areas and and enemies and multi level locations great depth and feel.

I would only have two negative things to say about this game. And one of them is not really even entirely a bad thing.

1: Being a direct sequel to A Link to the Past it is set in the same version of Hyrule as that one. And because it takes places not a huge amount of time afterwards, the world is practically identical. Both the light world and the dark world (now referred to as Lorule for some reason) are 95% identical for what I could see. And while this provides a lot of great nostalgia, it means that you will not be seeing a huge amount of new material or locations. The only things that are majorly different are the interiors of the dungeons. But even these have a lot of the same exterior locations, names and sometimes bosses. The same goes for the music and I can scarcely remember hearing a new tune throughout the entirety of the game but I'm sure there must be a few. Overall it feels like there was an awful lot of copy-paste done to put this game together.

2: This game is very easy. Like really easy. I'm not sure if this was a side-effect of the open ended structure causing the difficulty levels of the dungeons to needing some evening out so none of them are ever impossible but I blew through this game hardly ever getting stuck on a puzzle and the only thing that even came close to knocking me down was the end boss. Some may say this is not entirely a bad thing either as it allows you to focus on having fun rather than dying all the time but it was a little bit of a disappointment to me as I remember getting stuck in the Link to the Past dungeons a lot.

But those are tiny little niggles and definitely do not do very much to detract from the sheer enjoyment to be had from playing this game. It brings you back to your childhood and the amazing Zelda games of old all in glorious 3D. And right in the palm of your hand!

A little known portable 4th wall breaking game from the mind of Suda51

This one has been on the backlog for a fair amount of time. It was put on for the sole reason that it was made by the much insane Suda51 of who I am a big fan of. I knew very little about it going in apart from that it had many 4th wall breaking moments. Because of this, I was considering cutting it from the backlog. Now having played it, I think I could have done that quite safely without missing much.

Mechanically, it's a fairly normal action RPG in the vein of Secret of Mana or Vagrant Story etc where there is no separation between the overworld you move around on and the battles. You just move close to enemies and engage battle mode and your character attacks automatically when it is his turn. There are still hard numbers and levels and values so it's not as simple of a battle mode as the likes of a Zelda game and you can easily be out-classed and quickly pummeled if you try to fight an enemies too many levels ahead of you. There are also magic techniques which are referred to as Techs in this game. One unique feature to it is the addition of decals. Which are one of the aforementioned 4th wall breaking elements. You collect decals which can then be stuck onto the screen over the real world for a variety of effects such as attacking enemies or warping back to base and such.

The story is one of 3 main characters. A professor guy who seems to be an alien of some kind. His ship has been shot down and crashed on earth. The power cells are missing and it's your job to get them back. A small child who the professor ropes into doing this helping (the character you control). And you. The person controlling this small child. Yes, you are often spoken to directly by the professor as he is aware of your presence and will talk to you as if behind the main characters back. It's a little strange at times but seems to work pretty well. In the process of hunting down these power cells you come across another group who wants them for less pleasant reasons and conspiracies appear and so it all unfolds.

Overall, this was a fairly enjoyable little action RPG, but I don't think I would have missed out on a lot had I removed it from my list. It's 4th wall breaking antics added little to it and it lacked the usual signature brand of madness that Suda51 normally adds to games that give them such appeal to me. A dissapointingly average affair overall sadly.

Returning to the dark and difficult world of The Walking Dead

Long term readers of this blog may recall that I was a little unsure about The Walking Dead after playing the first episode and was unsure if I should carry on playing the rest of the series. It's a good thing I did....

After some quite common technical difficulties getting my saves from Episode 1 working again (although I don't think my 400 days decisions were recovered) I was ready to dive into season 2 but I made sure to brace myself before I did because I heard it was quite a rough start.

The game play itself follows the same kind of point and click pattern as the first season in that you go through a fairly linear path making dialogue choices along the way. You also get into encounters with "walkers" and sometimes other people. These usually play out as quick time events. But the appeal of the game lies in the great writing and dialogue in the characters and how even the smallest of choice that you make can have unforeseen consequences further down the road. You control Clementine, your young sidekick from the first season, although now she is a little older, a little wiser, a little stronger and much more capable at dealing with threats than she was before. Which is good because you will come across many of these.

It's difficult to say much in a review of this because the best part of it really is the story and the way the events unfold, but saying too much will just result in spoilers. All I can feel comfortable saying is that in the games introduction, you are still wandering with some of the characters from season one, but very quickly things go to shit and you found yourself split up from them and falling in with a new group trying to find your old one again. But needless to say, a lot happens in and around those events. And most of it is unpleasant. One over-arching theme of The Walking Dead is that most of the choices you are forced to make have no real right or wrong. They're all wrong. Just to varying degrees. So you really are trying to make the best of bad situations for the majority of the game and not trying to get anyone else killed.

This first episode is a good bit shorter than I expected taking me little over 90 minutes to finish and ended quite abruptly so I'm hoping they can keep a quick and consistent release schedule for the following episodes. I am also very excited to see how my choices come to play in the long run. Bring on Episode 2!

An action based Final Fantasy game in all but name from the original Fantasy Fantasy creators

Fans of the Final Fantasy series may have noticed the games declining in quality over the years. I have yet to play any of the newer ones beyond Final Fantasy X (what I regard to be the last true Final Fantasy) but everyone other that games reviewers, who we know cannot be trusted, have said almost nothing but bad things about the newer Final Fantasy games. Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV are simply an MMORPGs with Final Fantasy branding slapped onto them. I started Final Fantasy XII when it first came out but played it one time for 3 hours and had no desire to return to it because it was so boring. I will have to someday though.... And from what I've heard of Final Fantasy XIII, it's simply a 30 hour tutorial where you walk from A to B through linear corridors.

Most of this downfall in quality in the newer games is due to the vast majority of the teams that made the older Final Fantasy games leaving the studio and the new ones are now being made by entirely new people and just can't put out the same quality games the original team did. But thankfully, most of this old team are still making games and still together in the form of Mistwalker Games. And some of the games that they put out, mostly this one and the incredible Lost Odyssey) can genuinely be considered to be the true new Final Fantasy games in all but name because they have a lot more in common with the legacy than the new pretenders to the throne do.

All that being said, I can indeed confirm that this feels like a true Final Fantasy game through and through. The battle system is quite different to the usual fixed standing battles and instead adopts a free roaming system where you move close to an enemy to hit them. You can also command other characters to attack or use magic and distract enemies or enhance ally spells once they have been cast. Despite seeming simple at first, there is a lot to the battle system that I gradually realised as I went through it hacking things to bits.

It adopts a system similar to Final Fantasy IV in that new spells and skills are unlocked just by levelling up so you do not have to hunt down new spells or equipment to get them. There is also the usual armour and weapon systems like Final Fantasy games but in this one, like a few others, you can upgrade both weapons and armour with the use of cash and/or specialist items breathing new life into old equipment. I did a fairly straight run through the game only doing a few optional side quests, but even doing this, I was almost always flush with cash and good equipment so this aspect of it seemed fairly easy except for the difficulty ramp at the end of the game.

One minor deviation from Final Fantasies of old that this game takes is that you are not trying to save the entire world. Just your own island, Lazarus Island, from a reptilian species called the Gurak that you are war with. You play a character who is in a band of mercenaries with his friends who has ambitions to become a knight of the empire. You start off doing small times jobs, but as usual, you get embedded in larger and larger jobs with more widespread effects and end up battling for the fate of the island itself.

The characters in your gang are all very notable and different and well fleshed out through both the main story and some side missions. All but one character who just seems to be there to tick a box and is quite irrelevant in the big picture.... The NPC characters are also very well fleshed out and you do feel strongly about helping/stopping them all. Basically what I'm trying to say here is that the characters and story are very expertly done and do a great job of drawing you in to the world.

This is also one of the most visually impressive Wii games that I have ever seen and it seems Mistwalker did a great job of squeezing every last ounce of performance out of the machine's limited spec to make every character and location look as detailed and wonderful as they could. It even feels like they push it too far a couple of times because there is hints of slowdown in very busy areas and battles where it is asking just a little too much and the Wii struggles to keep up.

I was a little hesitant to play this before hand because I had heard mixed reviews on it from many sources. I had considered striking it from the backlog due to lack of interest but now that I have been through it, I am very glad I did not because it was a truly wonderful JRPG that continues the legacy of the classic Final Fantasy games in the best way possible. Once again, it seems more and more that reviews can not be trusted.

Even the name "The Last Story" is quite similar to "Final Fantasy" when you think about it....

Sidenote: barring any games that I add after the backlog is finished or anything done in co-op, this is the last game on the list for the Nintendo Wii. The backlog is finally coming to a close....

Shotgunning two Gran Turismos in a row = car orgasam

Almost immediately after finishing Gran Turismo 5, I dove straight into Gran Turismo 6 to keep the racing simulation momentum going. Lots of racing being done lately….
This release was oddly quiet and snuck up on a lot of people which would explain it’s poor sales compared to it’s predecessor. Many would have expected this game to go to PlayStation 4 rather than PlayStation 3 because of it’s release so close to the arrival of the next-gen consoles. But the developers of the series maintained that so far, they have done 2 main Gran Turismo games on each console and so wanted to stick to that formula. Meaning that sometime in the next 3-5 years we should get Gran Turismo 7 on PlayStation 4.
Because I played this and Gran Turismo 5 so close together, there felt like there was a great deal of overlap and similarity. And there was. But there were also some large noticeable differences. Some good and some bad.

The enormous load times from the game before it seemed to be even worse than before. While the menus had been improved and sped up greatly, the loading of the actual races seemed to suffer and sometimes it could take upwards of two minutes to load a race. Thankfully though, the stupid level system of the previous game had gone and you had more freedom in picking your way through events. But still not as much as you did in previous games because events were still divided up into license classes and you had to get to and complete the final event in each class before moving on to the next.

One other negative thing that was very noticeable was the very low number of prize cars given compared to previous games. With this game, I again decided just to hit the end credits and call it a win as I did with Gran Turismo 5. But in doing that in the previous game, inhad at least a dozen cars in my garage. Only a couple of them having been bought and most being awarded. This time I had 3 cars in my garage. 2 of which I had bought myself. As a result of this, I had to stretch the first good car I won (a Renault Clio this time) even further. Pitting it against proper performance cars and scraping wins by the skin of my teeth. And instead of winning a car capable of winning the last few events, I had to save up and buy a monstrous racing Nissan Skyline. This felt a bit disconcerting because it's Gran Turismo tradition to win most of the cars you need and usually only to have to buy cars for specific model events. After finishing it and consulting some prize car lists it seems that most of the prize cars came from getting all golds or all available points in a division. Quite a departure from the procedures of the previous games again resulting in reduced freedom to move through the career. I think more prize cars will be given out over time for free in the Gran Turismo showcase and Vision Gran Turismo events, but I was playing this too soon to avail of those sadly.

Left: The Renault Clio Sport that got way too big for it's britches taking me through the majority of the career

Right: The Nissan GT-R touring car that took me to the finale

There are a number of very interesting side missions to do while you make your way through the career like visiting the Goodwood Festival of Speed, doing driving missions where you have to knock down cones, one make races and even lunar missions where you get to drive the actual lunar rover around the same routes the Apollo 11 team took. Those missions are an interesting novelty, but not terribly exciting seeing as the rover tops out at 15 Mph and topples over if you hit a pebble the wrong way.

But these are all minor quibbles and few things can take away from the pure joy that is Gran Turismo driving. Making your way through the career and gawping at cars that you want on the way and then eventually unlocking or buying them and loving every minute of it. Like Gran Turismo 5, this is another game I will return to at a later date to play more of because I very very much enjoyed what I did to get to the finale.

I just wish they had given me some more prize cars along the way....

A long delayed but much enjoyed return to the legendary Gran Turismo series

I have been a very long running fan of the Gran Turismo series.  I can quite clearly remember getting the first one upon release on PSX back in 1998.  Which recent advertising for Gran Turismo’s 15^th anniversary has reminded me that it was released 15 years ago and made me feel quite old.  I have got and played every instalment since then including most of the weird single make demos and Prologues and such.  But for some reason, I didn’t get into this one very much when I first got it.  Most likely because I was swamped under by many other games at the time and I knew it would be a huge undertaking.

But with the impending release of Gran Turismo 6, I decided that it was finally time to get this one done.  But decided to just “Beat” it for now (i.e. get to the credits roll) rather than 100% it which I had done with all the previous entries in the series.  This would at least allow me to go into Gran Turismo 6 having experienced the majority of 5 beforehand.

The most obvious upgrade in this newest instalment in the series is the enhanced visuals thanks to the power of the PlayStation 3.  But due to there still being some technical limitations, some cars do look nicer than others.  Certain important or expensive cars are classed as “Premium” and will be rendered in exquisite detail with full lighting and shadowing and such.  Whereas all the other cars will simply be rendered normally and while these still look better than PlayStation 2 cars, there is a very noticeable divide in their visual representations.  There is now also car damage both visual and mechanical which was forbidden by Honda for a long time but they have finally allowed now.  As well as a lot of manufacturers not previously available such as Ferrari and Lamborghini. 

One new addition that I did not approve of is enormous loading times.  Everywhere.  Both in menus and getting ready to race, you seem to spend more time watching loading screens than you do playing.  Despite it installing the game to the hard disk gradually as you go to reduce loading times, they never really seemed to get any better.  One other new addition I did not like is the introduction of an RPG-like level system.  You gain experience by doing events and level up, but the levels are only really there to provide entry barriers to later events stopping you from moving through the career at a pace faster than the developers wanted you to. 

A-Spec and B-Spec are now also separate careers altogether.  Rather than having one set of races that you can complete in A-Spec mode, B-Spec mode or both, now there are 2 entirely separate careers with separate sets of races and separate drivers with separate levels meaning you have to do a lot of things twice over.  I did not particularly care for this change either and preferred the old system of being able to choose which mode I wanted.

The racing itself is the usual excellent simulation handling that we have all come to expect from Gran Turismo.  There were many tweaks put into the engine this time around to make it even more realistic and you can notice them over time and trying out a number of cars.

This is the first game in the series to have an online mode, but I did not touch that for obvious reasons.

Most of my time was spent racing through various events (when I had reached high enough levels), winning cars, doing license tests (when I had reached high enough levels).  I did the usual Gran Turismo thing of using one of the better cars that I won earlier on (A Toyota Scion FR-s) and continuously tuning it up to its limit so that it was in races against cars that far outclassed it but still won.  I did this for as long as possible, then did some single make races and was lucky enough to win a Mazda Concept Le Mans car that I could use in the World Championship.

Left: The Toyoya FR-S that took me most of the way to victory. 

Right: The Mazda Furai Concept that won me the world championship.

As mentioned before, I only went as far in this game as to hit the end credits and consider it a win, but I did have a lot of fun with it and it is another game that I want to return to after the backlog is defeated and do more of because it brought back a lot of good racing memories.  That were only slightly hampered by some annoying new features.

On to Gran Turismo 6!