2013, a look back, or, about time!

Yes I know, 2013 is long gone, and almost half of 2014 have already passed, but still, I like doing these flashbacks of the year gone by game-wise, so I will continue doing them.

Of the games released in 2012, that I in my 2012 flashback said I wanted to try in 2013, there are some I've played, some I've not, here's my two cents.


Dishonored                                                   Never played, might get back to it though
Journey                                                          Never played, might get back to it also
Hotline Miami                                              Played, loved, but never got through might pick up
Gravity Rush (If I get a Vita)                        Played a little, liked, might get back to it
Halo 4                                                            Played, disappointed, but will finish, someday
Assassins Creed III                                        Went like all Ass-Creed games for me
Botanicula                                                     Never played, small chance of picking up
Far Cry 3                                                        Played through, loved it
Thomas Was Alone                                      Never played, small chance of picking up
Dear Esther                                                    Never played, small chance of picking up

So yeah, 2013 started with equal amount awesomeness as disappointment, but then again, both those things are part of the theme of 2013. DMC: Devil may cry was the first game I played, it was good, really good, but I've already said that. After that I tried another favourite of mine, or really, of me and my friend, Army of Two: Devil's Cartel. This was worse, a lot worse. The core mechanics have been dumbed down, no way to dodge, like in the other games, no in-game brotherly love-things to do, no fist bumping button, although we did it a lot ourselves. But the story is pretty much the most insulting thing you could do to this series, simply horrible. You who have played it knows what I'm talking about. The big twist, incredibly stupid, I saw it coming very early, and it's just insulting to the fans of the other games. Customization was awesome though, I spend a lot of time there. It fells kinda like, if you put the story of the first game, with the gameplay of the second, and the customization of this one, into one, that would be the ultimate game. But yeah, this was a bit worse in almost all aspects of the game, than it's predecessors, another theme you'll see later.

Another game that pretty much wowed me was of course Bioshock Infinite, a game that I had a lot of anticipation for, and that delivered on almost all accounts. The story might be the best of 2013 and the characters, the acting and the setting is up to par with it. Gameplay is great, mostly, it just felt a little more hard to control that the other games, which was a shame, but I still recommend it for all it's worth.

One of the most positive things I have to say about this year in gaming, is the often named "worst uncharted game ever" Tomb Raider. I really liked this game, I found it fun to play and I actually spent a lot of time collecting all the stuff and got 100% completion for it, and it felt worth it. One might argue that the characters themselves might be a bit underdeveloped and uninterested, Lara included, but it's still so well acted that you might not even notice. I'm definitly looking forward to the sequel in 2015.

I also played a bit of Metro: Last Light and found it to be really entertaining, something I didn't think I would when I first started playing it. It has a nice balance between stealth and combat, and the AI-problems with the last games are (mostly) fixed. Definitely something worth checking out if you feel like playing a good FPS and have run out of other games to play.

Remember Me was a really bad film, that in no way inspired the game with the same name. The game on the other hand, was a quite good action-game with a story I actually really liked, and got really in to, with twist and turns that I found really engaging. The combat was well done, if only suffering from a bit of the repetitive side of style. The segments in where you rewrites someone's memories to fit your own agenda is both really disturbing and a really great and original segment of the gameplay.

I had huge hopes for The Last of Us, as a huge fan of the Uncharted-series. And the story and acting and characters and all that stuff is amazing. I get drawn into the world immediately and just love it. I played it for three hours straight when I got it, on release. But since then I never played it again. I'm not sure why, but I thing that despite all the great stuff about the game, I was disappointed. It was mostly because of one thing, that seems to be starting a trend lately. And that is story over gameplay. I'm not saying the gameplay of The Last of Us is bad, no it's quite good, nothing special, but good enough. But I really feel like I'm just playing the game to get trough the story. I need to be able to love the gameplay as much as the story, I need the gameplay to engage me and actually feel like a part of the story. Tomb Raider had kinda the same vibe, but fortunately for them, the story wasn't anything special. Maybe I'll pick up The Last of Us again, maybe not, but I will never see it as the masterpiece that many critics and fans hail it as.

Next up is the obligatory Suda 51 game of the year, Killer is Dead. And I got to say, after the quirky and really fun experience I had with both Shadows of the Damned and especially Lollipop Chainsaw, I was kinda underwhelmed by this. The story and the characters seems way to serious to be a Suda 51 game, and comes of like genericly Japanese, with horrible story trying to be deep, and angst men trying too hard to be serious. And the date-missions are, to put it lightly, embarrassing and awkward. With all that said, gameplay is still good and I played the game through, having a good time, so not that bad, just not up there with his other games,

Diablo III for consoles, awesome game that me and my friend had a blast with during the fall, and really not much more to say here, I love consoles more than PC (Come at me bro) and this fit me like a glove.

Rayman Legends was another game I looked forward to for a long time, and when it was finally released, I loved almost every second of it, incredible and amazing game. The music-levels might be the best thing I have ever played, a delight every time. Maybe even a bit too awesome, since it made the other levels feel like busy-work to get to the amazing reward. But still really fun busy-work, so can't complain. If you, like me, loved Rayman Origins, you'll love this one even more.

I also tried two HD-remixes, DuckTales: Remastered and Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix. Both as good games as they were when they were first released, an not much more though. fun to play again though.

Man, I've played a lot of games this year, comes with having a real full-time job I guess. Anyway, Beyond: Two Souls. what a piece of crap that was. David Cage thinks he can get away with releasing another interactive film, but I was already tired of it when Heavy Rain came out, that only got away with it because it had a fun murder mystery behind it, but this is just horrible, like watching a film that is ten hours long, and not a good film either. just a long for perverts quest to get to see Ellen Page shower (definitely not me).

Here we go, Pokémon X and Y, have you ever played a Pokémon game, before, then you know what you're up for. As far as that goes, this part of the franchise make the most to change a lot of the world, which is a good thing, I had a lot of fun with this for a great while. Check it out, if you're a fan of the series, but then again, if you are, you probably already have.

Lastly, I need to talk about the game I looked forward to, for a very long time, that I hoped to be, and that I wrote in the expect of 2013-log, that I thought would be the game of the year, of 2013. It wasn't, oh how it wasn't. Not even close. That honour I proudly give to Bioshock: Infinite, followed by DMC: Devil May Cry. Actually, I'm not even going to do this here, I'm going to review the living shit out of the crap-fest that is Batman: Arkham Origins and I will try to be merciful, and open, but I know in my heart that this can not go unpunished. I will review, long overdue.

(Catching my breath)

Lastly, here are some game from 2013 that I hope to get around to (or already have) in 2014:
Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Pikmin 3
Saints Row IV
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Killzone: Shadow Fall
The Wolf Among Us
Super Mario 3D World
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

I'm not doing a anticipated for 2014, It's a lot too late, this might actually be a bit fun to read, but I'll see you soon for at least two reviews, maybe even more. Until then, have a nice time and game on!

DmC: Devil May Cry Review

Okay, I just got done playing through DmC for the first time, and I can say, it won't be the last. But I won't get ahead of myself.

Dante is a class A douche, sleeping around, drinking too much, smoking and generally not caring about what anyone else thinks, or about anyone else for that matter. Our protagonist ladies and gentlemen! After a night of all of the above, Dante is rudely woken up by a girl who claims that he is in danger. She doesn't get to say much until Dante is draged into 'Limbo' which is a paralell world where all sorts of evil demons dwell. After a lot of demon slaying in regular Devil May Cry fashion, you beat a boss and gets draged out of limbo. The girl takes you to a masked man who claims to know of your past. And the adventure begins.

As far as the story goes, its not really anything special, it's not bad, but there's really no suprises, not a lot anyway. Not that Devil May Cry has ever been about the story, but they do an okay job, it's not worse than the older games. What makes the story come alive more than in the olds though is the script, the dialouge and the voice actors. Granted, I think Ninja Theory tried a little too much to match the dialouge of the older games, not daring to be more original and creative with the script, but it still works great. At its worst, it's a bit awkward with Dantes weird love for stupid puns, but the rest, the more serious bits are really greatly done. Same goes for the voice actors, they are mostly really really good, at times they too can seem a but awkward but as I've come to expect from Ninja Theory, they mostly deliver greatly.

Okay, now we got that shit out of the way, how about the things that matter? The gameplay, how is the fighting, the jumping and the puzzle-solving. As far as puzzle-solving goes, theres not much at all actually, some but not much. And I don't like that there is close to no backtracking. There's new surroundings all the time, which is nice, but they never become special. These is the thing I am most disapointed about, the puzzle-bit more than the other, but then again, I had a lot of fun without it. The fights are amazingly done, you have full control; if you die, it's your fault, and nobody elses. And I love that feeling, when you die and you feel it's your fault, and when you, as a conequense, win and you know it's your win. And there's a lot to do with the system. For you who were afraid that the moves could not be stoped and changed into another move smoothly, this is as smooth as it gets, both in executing your moves and switching weapons in mid fight. It works like this, you have four main weapon types, the rebellion, witch is for normal attacks, fast and deadly, the heavy weapon, that is slow but all the more powerful, the light weapon which has a wide range but is fairly weak, and the ranged weapons. To use your sword you attack as usual, one button for regular attacks, one for ranged and one for lifts. To use heavy you hold RT (360 version) and then attack, and light you hold LT. Simple and takes only a fraction of a second. It's a joy to fight, never gets dull.

The paths in between fights are not bad either. The platforming is done fairly easy, you can jump and use the light weapon to swing and the heavy to pull objects towards you. It's simple, but is done in many variations, so you don't feel like you do the same jumps over and over again. The surroundig are the second best thing about the game (first is fighting!) and they are beautiful, to move around in and to look at. Especially the dream sequences that Dante has at times.

So what about the new style. I have to say, I don't mind. True it's not as cool as I had hoped but it's still really badass, a lot cooler than the look of the old dante which I still think is a litte out of date. I like the character, he is a douche for a reason, even though I would have liked it if they explored the change he goes through more. The other characters are good to, even though character developement is just for a chosen few. But your partners and the villain is really great. The music really builds to the atmosphere as well, and fits perfectly, some really great pieces in there as well.

Yeah, I really hope for a sequel, develope the characters more, get deeper into the story, maybe have some really clever turns. But in the end, most of what is good and bad can be argued about, if you don't like the look of the new Dante, you don't and that's fine, but I can't see how you could dislike the game for what it is, with probably the best fighting system right now. For me, this is gold, and the bad parts aren't even so bad, just not as good as the other parts. I will say though that the game itself is not more than 8 hours long, so that is a bit short, but for me who likes to play these kind of games over and over again, I will spend a lot of time with this. Is it a great game, yes, yes it really really is, might not be the best when this year is over, but still it will be up there.

9/10

Blog update, what's on the horizon.

Okay, since I haven't written in a while I thought I would, and let you know what's going on and what you will expect from me a while ahead.

First of all I will do a 2012 look back, and this fairly soon. Maybe tomorrow, who knows. After that I will also do what I look forward to the most in 2013.

I just finished The Walking Dead... There will be a review and mentioning of it in the 2012 retrospect. What did I think of it? Let me give you a hint... Wow...

I hate Final Fantasy XIII... And I can't get further than the last boss... I hate that boss, it's way to hard and unjust. So I've taken a break from it to play other games, I've played a lot of Fez, Diablo III and have started a playthrough of all the Metroid Prime games. Do they still hold up? I'll get to that too.

Tuesday... The fifteenth of january, that is the date where I pick up the game I've been longing, a little dreading, but after many positive reviews mostly longing, to play, to prove all the non-believers wrong. I am of course talking about DMC Devil May Cry. I still have a lot of faith. Review when I'm done.

And that's about it. If you wan't my oppinion on something, write it, and I'll adress it in some way. Keep on gaming sisters and brothers in games.

New DmC trailer analysis

Hey, new DmC trailer is out, check it out!

First of, let's look at the bad parts, because there are a few. Firstly, I'm not too fond of the settings, still it's a question of taste, but it takes away the Gothic style that I think Devil may Cry needs. Still, I have seen settings in the game that are more towards the epic and Gothic, and the other settings I'll probably grow to like them.

Second, even though the gameplay looks as good and smooth as ever, I can't help but think that it's the same thing as the other games. I hope that Ninja Theory does some new things to improve it.

Yeah, I'm a lover, not a hater, so that's it for me when it comes to bad things. I still love the look of the new Dante and feel of the game. The voice acting is at it's best, and the dialogue is, as usual with Ninja Theory, really great. In all, I'm looking forward to this game more than anything left in 2012, this is going to be awesome.

2012 I long the most for....

Okay, another year is upon us, and it seems to be a great year indeed. These are my thoughts (a bit late, I know) about the dreading year of 2012!

First of all, yes, my most anticipated game of 2012 is still Catherine (which did not get a release in Europe in 2011). As I'm writing this, the game have actually been released and I plan to buy it as soon as I get the money to, and will probably follow it up with a review. It still looks insanely good with it's adult story and quickly paced puzzles. I look forward to play it soon.

In the genre "games that I thought would be released in 2011 but didn't" we find four games that I hope to sink my teeth in at some point of 2012. The first will be released in mars, the insanely anticipated Mass Effect 3. After having played the second game no more than three time in the cause of 2010 and 2011, I can't stress how hyped I am for this game. Honestly, scratch the "my most anticipated game of 2012 is still Catherine" statement from before, this is going to be the most amazing experience this year. I realize that I want to play the first two games again before this is released, I kind of need to hurry up... For all the right reasons (you who've played the games know what I mean) this is going to be AMAZAAAAHH!

Second it's DMC, the game everyone loves to hate on, but still looks as amazing as I though it did when they showed it at TGS in 2010. We have even gotten some gameplay footage and it seems to be an even better game from that point of view. As I have already said in my DMC discussion from February 2011, the new Dante looks ridiculously nicely designed and I can't wait to see what Ninja Theory can do story and script-wise with the Devil May Cry universe. All we can do is to wait and see. I hope for the world that I get to be the one to say I told you so, not you haters!

Third is another third. I hope it gets a release in 2012 but it should... I am of course talking about Diablo III, another huge sequel to a game more than a decade old. But I still find myself playing the second game from time to time, it's a great game, and I have no doubt that the third will be as well. I do find it dissturbing that the senior game designer (Steve Parker) left the company and that Blizzard later announced that they will be stripping the game down a lot. The only problem I see other than that is that I need to upgrade my PC... Nag dangit!

The last actually belongs to the category "Games I probably won't see in 2012" and is the spiritual sequel to The Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian. Now Ueda has quit and works on the project only as a freelancer, and the series is not exactly known for having huge selling records, but despite that and that we know nothing of the game and my hype it only based on the previous games, I still think this will be a great game, if it is ever released...

Now on to some newcomers, I will tell of the three games I look forward to the most this year that I haven't mentioned! First up, The South Park Game, seriously, you can play a jew... as a class... !! Hopefully, with Stone and Parker in charge and Obsidian doing the game itself, it will be a awesome and funny game!
Then we have Resident Evil 6, the game that I hope will be everything the fifth game wasn't. Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun with RE5, me and a friend, and solo. But still, I did not get the atmosphere from the other games. With this I hope that it will be a perfect mix of action and survival horror.
Last but not least, we have Bioshock: Infinite. The first game blew me away. The second was not as good but still told a compelling story. Now we are mature enough to move on from Rapture to the airborne city of Columbia. What I feel is compelling about Infinite is the characters, I'm really interested in Elizabeth and your now talking main character. And the probably awesome story. Nice!

Then again, I look forward a lot to the Wii U, despite the ugly name. But I hope it will be a hit, and not come out too late in the year. Still, there are a lot of games I long for and hope to hear more from like The Last of Us, I am Alive, Prototype 2, Tekken Tag 2, Tomb Raider, Lollipop Chainsaw, The Last Story, Dishonored, Syndicate, Ni No Kuni, X-com, Gravity Rush, Dragon's Dogma, Max Payne 3, Journey, GTA V and Halo 4 that I hope to talk a little more about soon.

Review - Bayonetta

I love Devil May Cry. Not only because it's a fun game, but because of the cool characters and crazy style, without being too over the top. No, it's not! Okay, maybe some times. Anyway, when I heard that the creator of Devil May Cry would be releasing a new game in the same style I thought it would be amazing. And according to the press, Bayonetta was a great game. At that time I didn't buy it, I waited for it to go down in price. A friend of mine told me that he thought the game was ridiculous and stupid, not at all fun. I didn't believe him.

A while ago I finally bought the game. Bayonetta is a game about a witch with the same name. She lives and can move between the real world and some parallel universe where angels live, still being able to the humans but they can't see her. Here she hunts the angels of all sorts. The goal being to hunt some boss-angels so she can sacrifice them to the underworld? I'm not quite sure about the story, and frankly, I don't care. Bayonetta is stupid and ridiculous, the characters are bland and I really don't care for them at all, same goes for the story. My friend had been right...

Except, the game is fun. The fighting system is well balanced; the best thing is the so-called witch-time, which slow down time when you do a precise dodge. It's challenging, with good enemies and varied gameplay. This makes the game a game that you can play through and not give up on.

But the game has some problems. The camera is responsible for most of them. It moves as any other camera, using the right analogue stick, but it's slow, way too slow. You can't really see the enemies at all times because of this, meaning that it's not you're fault when you die, most of the time. The times it's not the cameras fault, it's the fighting system. It's great, yeah, but on some enemies you don't have time to think at all, so you're just mashing buttons and dodging hoping that you'll survive.

Why Hideki Kamiya didn't choose to walk away more from Devil May Cry also confuses me. It could just as well be a Devil May Cry spin-off. I just expect Dante to pop up at any time.

For these reasons, I don't think Bayonetta is a great game, it's a good game though, well worth to play. But I don't play it twice. I didn't play it over and over again on all the difficulties like I did with Devil May Cry. With too many problems, this game is still good because of the fighting system. But not great.

DmC

During "Tokyo Game Show" last year, the sequel to Devil May Cry 4 where shown, and it was not the Dante we know that were shown. Have you not seen the trailer before see it here below before reading on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhoNEuH8KmA

This time British Ninja Theory, which stands for development and I can not do anything but praise the skies. Played through both Ninja Theory's Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya's Bayonetta a couple of weeks ago, and I must say it feels as if Kamiya is stuck in a rut.

Bayonetta is perfectionism when it comes to the genre and perfectionism to Kamiyas own heritage, but there is really nothing new as far as the eye can see, the script may be among the worst ever and have to say that story-wise it's terribly corny and something rather cool to 2001

Enslaved however is smart, funny and has one of the best scripts I have seen in a game. It's cool, right now, and that is the feeling I get when I watch the trailer for DmC.

Ninja Theory have made changes, the Dante we see is no longer the invulnerable demi-demon we've seen before, he has bruises and injuries that indicate vulnerability. He looks really scrawny when he hangs from the ceiling in a cell. Ninja Theory has put much emphasis on the fact that Dante isn’t actually just a demon, he is also human.

That's not to say that he’s not still really badass, no, he is still so cool, kicking ass like never before. He has taken up smoking, has a dirty look, more relevant to 2011, with black hair and dirty clothes.

Sometimes we become anxious when someone else takes care of our favourite game series. I mean, how many are there who are worried about 343s Halo? Like that, people are worried about how Ninja Theory will cherish the heritage. In 2001 it was announced that one of the world's most popular Japanese game series would get as sequel, by an American company with no good games on the merit list. Many games journalists were very worried as were fans of the game. But in March 2003 Retro Studios released Metroid Prime and it was a revival of the series, and personally one of the best games I've played. So for you sceptics out there, with the same team behind the controls, it’s easy to just do the same polished game, sequel after sequel. A new development team can be the best thing that could happen to a game series Devil May Cry. Or Halo for that matter.

I long for DmC, I hope for something grand, and I think you should to, especially if you're a fan of the series.