2012, a look back...

2012, two-thousand-and-midgetfrickin'-twelve! Yeah, this year was awesome game-wise. This year let me see the end of an amazing trilogy, some of the biggest triple-A games of this generation of consoles and some of the greatest underdog indie games ever. But first things first, at the end of my 2011 look back I mentioned a lot of games released 2011 that I didn't have the time to play in 2011 and therefore would do in 2012. Here's that list:

Deus Ex: Human Revolution                                Started playing, but never got through it
Gears of War 3                                                         Started playing, found it kind of boring
L.A. Noire                                                              Played through it, loved it
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword                     Started playing, loved it and will get back to it
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception                          Started playing, loved it and will get back to it
Portal 2                                                                   Played through it, loved it
Rayman: Origins                                                   Played through it, one of the best games of 2011
Xenoblades: Chronicles                                           Started playing, will get back to it
Pokémon Black/White                                           Haven't played yet

So there, I kept most of them anyway, even though I didn't play through many of them. But what games did I play in 2012 then? Of the ones I was looking forward to most, actually many. Let's start with Catherine. This was a lot of fun, the script it like nothing I've seen in a game before, really great and backed by great voice actors. The game itself is just as great, and divided into two parts, one where you have to deal with your relationships, and one where you move blocks to get up a tower (the dream stages). Both is equally good I think, so I never find myself longing for either when I'm not there. All in all, one of 2012's greatest with one of the greatest scripts of 2012, beaten by only one, but I'll get to that.
9/10

Then we get to the game that got a real beating from the fans, Mass Effect 3. Why? Well, mostly because the ending is an unsatisfactory piece of shit. Well, kind of, I liked it fine, it was okay, but then again, 'okay' is not good enough when the rest of the game, and the other games, are amazing. So we are left with a really really great game, with a crappy ending. That is still great and emotional game, that had me welling up at least once. Another game did more, but again, I'll get to that.
9/10

This weekend I had some (seven) friends over to play Diablo III, again, a great triple-A game that took a lot of heat due to overloaded servers and errors. I played it once the heat on the servers where down and I think this is a great game, definitely a worthy successor to the second game, even though I prefer the old one. But still a great game and done with great care.
9/10

Of the other five games I mentioned looking forward to, four was not released and one I have only begun playing. But DMC: Devil May Cry will be released tomorrow, Bioshock Infinite and South Park: The Stick of Truth later this spring. I feel like I have given up hope on The Last Guardian ever being released though, but I hope, although probably not this year. As for Resident Evil 6, well, you might get a review in time. All I can say after playing roughly two hours is, well.... it's not a great game but I'm having fun enough.

So what other games of 2012 is worth mentioning. How about Lollipop Chainsaw. This is in my opinion one of the best games this year, I game that I actually played through no more than 4 times, to get all the collectables and achievements. And I was not once bored, it has a simple gameplay with enough variation to keep one occupied. And then the story, the jokes and the voice-actors, just great fun. I long thought this would be my game of the year, until... I'll get to that later.
9/10

Dust: An Elysian Tale is one of those games you play and have a lot of fun with when you play it, but as soon as you're done with the game, you don't feel like playing it again. Ever. And yeah, it got a bit monotone, towards the end, but I would still say that it's worth a look, because I still had a lot of fun with it, and it looks amazing, just like... I'll get to it later.
8/10

Fez is brilliant in the way it takes the game out of the TV. I sat with a plain sheet of paper, completely  gray with scribbles of clues and patterns that I needed to get all of the cubes. I loved that about Fez. But despite all of that, then the game is done it has close to no value in terms of replay other than to get the last cubes that you can't get until then. But it's still a really really great game.
8/10

Okay, so before I get to... what I'll get to later (I'm guessing most of you can guess it) I have to talk a little about the beginning of the next generation of consoles, namely the Wii U. Oh yeah, I've already done that!

http://gamerbloggz.blogspot.se/2012/12/wiiu-thoughts.html

Okay, I'll address the elephant in the blog The Walking Dead... what can I say, I truly believe this game changed, and will continue to change, games as we know them. I mean, Holy God-blessed shit, is there anything this game does wrong. The script can't even be compared to any other game on the market, The way it makes you care about characters that isn't even real, you really feel for every character in this game, and of course especially for little Clementine. This game makes me want to be a parent, have a little daughter, although not in a zombie apocalypse. I'll probably talk more about what makes it so ground breaking, but for now, lets just leave it at this: Game of the year, the game that makes grown men cry their eyes out.

Let's finish of this with what I feel is the games released in 2012 I want to play in 2013, that I didn't have a chance to play in 2012. They are:

Dishonored
Journey
Hotline Miami
Gravity Rush (If I get a Vita)
Halo 4
Assassins Creed III
Botanicula
Far Cry 3
Thomas Was Alone
Dear Esther

See you in 2013... wait, we're already there aren't we? Darn.....

What I really think of the Assassin's Creed franchise

One of the most popular game franchise at the moment is the historic sci-fi epic Assassin's Creed. But I have always wondered why it is so popular. I mean, sure, I can see it, but I never really got it. So I'll try and tell you how I really feel, playing Assassin's Creed.

I was actually really hyped for Assassin's Creed when I was announced. The more I saw of it, the more awesome it looked. And then I got my hands on it, and it did meet my expectation.... for a while. For what I got in Assassin's Creed was a really uneven gaming experience. The thing I often think of when thinking back at the first game is how boring it got after a while. You just kept on doing the same thing over and over and over and over again. As the completionist I am, I had to do at least most of what the game offered, and that just got too tedious after a while. But the worst thing about it was how often you failed with the sense that it wasn't your fault, because of the controller. And that only added to the bore.

But then again, I had a lot of fun with it at times. I actually really like the story for example, one of the strongest reasons I play games, and the only reason I keep playing these games. I also really like Altaïr, a real bad ass assassin with an interesting story. Not to forget that, yeah, the feeling when you manage to sneak into a target's huge palace, to assassinate him without getting noticed, that feeling very very few games can match.

All in all, Assassin's Creed was a flawed game, but the good sides turned it to a still fun experience. The three next games improved a lot but at times not at all. Let me explain.

The Ezio triology (Two, Brotherhood and Revelations) is improvement from game to game, but is still missing the big one, the controller. The second was not even remotely as monotone as the first game, therefore it was never as boring as the first game. In return we got Ezio Auditore da Firenze, and I do not like him. He is not cool, anywhere, mostly because he let's him emotions get the better of him. Nothing wrong with emotional characters, characters that cares, but as long as they can control their emotions and be cool about it. And Ezio clearly can't.

Besides that, the second game, while not as monotone as the first, didn't change much else from the first game, gameplaywise, something that Brotherhood  instead did. Here you can recruit and train assassins, and then send them on missions. A lot of other thing changed with Brotherhood, such as the diversity in the missions and optional objectives in all missions, which made for a much more fun game that lasted longer with a higher replay value. With that said, the controller still didn't do what you wanted it to, and Ezio was still a wuss.

Gladly, that was something that Revelations took care of. It featured an older and, in my opinion, much cooler Ezio. It also added new gameplay elements and made of an even more pleasant experience.

With that said... The controller still sucks. So bad. It works fine, most of the times, then you have time to think about what you want to do, but often you have to hurry because your chasing someone of are being chased yourself, and in those situations, I find the controller often doing things I don't want it to. And in a game that depends so much on platforming, the controller needs to always to what you need it to. To not make a jump in Super Mario because you suck is one thing, but to not make it because the controller didn't do what you told it to do, that can't happen.


I have not played Assassin's Creed III. Yet. I can most definitely say that I will, because even though I don't get it, something keeps me coming back, but only in small bursts. After playing the second for a while, I got bored of it and put it on the shelf, only to come back to it, play through it all, and start directly with Brotherhood. Same there, after a while I got bored and left it alone for a while, before picking it up again and playing through it. Revelation is at the moment on hold after playing through almost half the game, but I will probably play through that as well, and the third as I said, maybe by the time the next one arrives. In any case, I am curious for what is to come in this series. even though I don't get it.