Assassin's Creed 3

Date played: December 28th and 29th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through a few story missions but mostly I went through a ton side missions. Assassination missions are kind of lame. I just need to get to my target and kill him. Usually, it's just a normal looking citizen with nothing special about the whole thing.

Stéphane Chapheau is a violent man

One of the story missions had me meet Stéphane Chapheau, a gutsy French-Canadian who refused to pay taxes. I helped him out and he pledged allegiance to my cause, becoming my first real recruit. Recruits can be called in at any time during combat to help fight and such. Chapheau is a melee fighter. Later on, he decided to go after the enemy directly by shouting in the streets like a madman and picking fights with Loyalists. This opened up a new set of side missions where I have to liberate parts of Boston by fighting enemies, freeing slaves and prisoners as well as a few other mini quests. Once a section of the city is freed, I can get a new recruit. I only managed one so far, a marksman that essentially snipes targets with a rifle. I also spent some time looting chests that I hadn't found before with the help of a chest map. 

Borderlands 2

Date played: December 28th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10

Shotguns work well with the Siren

I played a bit of Borderlands 2 with my friend who plays Commando. I'm up to level 12 with my Siren now and he is at level 16. I picked up some much better guns as we went through a few missions. My favorite is a three barrelled shotgun with very high damage. I also have an electric assault rifle to take down shields and a fire pistol for longer range combat. The pistol is really cool since it applies damage over time. I usually start a fight with the pistol, start the damage over time then stasis the enemy and finish it off with the shotgun. Since I specced for healing, I then get a lot of health back if I killed the enemy while it was still in stasis.

New Super Mario Bros U

Date played: December 27th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played the first few levels of the game with my brother who was visiting. This was the first time I played with a real, competent Mario player and it made a huge difference. We were zipping through levels and had sort of an understanding about when and how we would make jumps. We didn't have to say a word though, it just clicked. If only this game had online multiplayer, I might have convinced him to buy one...

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

Date played: December 27th and 28th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 6/10

I played some split screen online multiplayer with one of my brothers. It's really cool to be able to play that with a couch player as well as online players at the same time and not enough games support these types of features. He actually plays a lot like me, using large LMG's and using covering fire a lot. The only big difference between us is that he prefers pistols and I prefer anti-air.

I also played a few random matches throughout the two days and performed pretty damn well considering it's the holidays and I was plenty distracted with all sorts of Christmas related things. My good performance could also be explained by thousands of Christmas noobs. I love those guys.

Mark of the Ninja

Date played: December 25th and 26th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 8/10

I finished Mark of the Ninja. The game was totally satisfying, fun and original. It felt fresh throughout and even though it was kind of lengthy for the price, new mechanics kept things interesting. The whole time, I was unlocking new kill moves, distractions items and other ninja tools.

Mark of the Ninja looks and plays great

Later on, there was a large section where the hero is left without his tools and weapons. That means I had to avoid all enemies without being detected and without killing or incapacitating them. It was definitely a fun challenge. There was also a teleport ability that really changed the way I play. That meant I could now teleport to a ledge that was previously unreachable, I could make a noise to attract a guard then teleport behind him for a silent kill and all sorts of other tricks. One of the tactics I've come to love was to shoot enemies from a distance with a dart to attract them, then hiding behind a door, waiting for the guard to come close and to grab him silently through the door. I went through a particular sequence where I was able to take out four guards with a single door. Now THAT'S being a ninja! I didn't pay attention to the story and it seemed really secondary to the mechanics so even though the ending had a cool twist, I didn't give a shit.

Nintendo Land

"I SAW YOU FUCK A DONKEY!" It makes people crash every time

Date played: December 25th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 10/10

I had tons of family over for Christmas and to keep ourselves busy in the afternoon, we ended up playing some 5 player Nintendo Land. It was a total blast honestly. The ladies enjoyed the octopus dancing game and the guys like Luigi's Ghost Mansion and Chase Mii. We played two 25 minute train rides. Donkey Kong's Crash Course also let a few of us show our true colors. It's the perfect game for off screen theatrics. What me and one of my brothers did was to scream out obscenities and insults as another player was playing. It works. Fuck y'all.

Assassin's Creed 3

Date played: December 23rd and 24th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

Whew, a lot has happened to Connor! He is now an adult and officially an assassin after Achilles has given him his robes and blades. It's also summer now, which makes traversal in the frontier easier as there isn't any snow to slow Connor down. We are also working on growing the homestead by recruiting artisans, lumberjacks and other useful people. To recruit them, I had to complete many sidequests. One of the best was an epic rescue chase where Connor had to save a man drifting to his death in a river by chasing him through the trees, rocks and obstacles.

Another big part of the game has opened up with naval combat as well. We found an old captain and recruited him to help the Assassins. We fixed up his old frigate which is now Connor's flagship. I then completed a lot of side missions where I had to navigate using the frigate and fight enemy ships with cannons and guns. The whole thing controls really well and is fun to play. I shot down dozens of enemies by flanking them and lining up my shots well, we even took out an entire fort from the sea. It looks amazing and the sweeping orchestral music just makes everything better!

The naval missions are fantastic

There was also another really cool side mission that had Connor explore Dead Chest island, a dangerous rock formation that was by pirates. It was one of the rare scripted sequences in the game and it felt like an 18th century Uncharted game. Too bad it was so short...

Mark of the Ninja

Date played: December 23rd and 24th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 10/10

Well, this plunder from the holiday Steam sale is better than I expected. Mark of the Ninja is a 2D stealth game featuring, yes, ninjas! This is easily the best stealth game I've played and I think it's because it's so simple.In the shadows, enemies can't see you, that's pretty much it.

The kill animations are amazing

I've played about 5 levels which must be about halfway through. The animation is one of the things that stands out right away. Everything is super smooth and well animated. The kills are particularly impressive as the screen goes black while large sprites slit each other up. The whole thing is complemented by some crazy bass lines, it's just totally badass. The ninja can't fight though, he can only kill enemies that haven't detected him. Breaking lights plays a large part too as it clears the way for stealth kills. This game is really enjoyable and fun, I can't wait to see the other levels.

Borderlands 2

Date played: December 22nd and 23rd
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10

The holiday Steam sale has taken it's first shot at my wallet with Borderlands 2 at half price. I bought it to play with my buddy who plays on Mac OS. Unfortunately, it seems that the game client is a different version on PC and Mac which meant, we couldn't play together. I convinced my friend to download and install on his Windows image. That meant he had to abandon his level 4 character and make a new one.

I love my little pistol

Once all that stupid shit was sorted out, we played through a good portion of the game together. I chose the Siren, a character that can freeze enemies in place for a short period. My friend chose the Commando which can place a turret on the ground to help gun down enemies. It seems like a pretty good mix so far but we don't have too many skills yet.

The game plays just like Borderlands 1 with better graphics, cooler backgrounds and new guns. It feels good, plays well and looks great. I am mostly using a pistol with a shotgun and an assault rifle depending on what I'm fighting. We reached Sanctuary, the haven city and collected a ton of quests, I can't wait to play them all!

Assassin's Creed 3

Taking over forts is really fun

Date played: December 22nd and 23rd
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played a lot of Assassin's Creed 3 but I didn't complete a single story mission. I spent my time collecting the remaining almanac pages in Boston, I explored the underground a little bit (it sucks), I completed all carrier missions and I picked random fights with enemies just for fun. I also cleared two forts, one in Boston proper and one at the edges of the Frontier.

The first fort was really easy and I actually managed to kill all the enemies and stay hidden. The second fort was a different story though. I pretty much had to run in and face the music head on. I fought my way through the fort, slaughtering everyone in my path. It was quite satisfying actually since the combat feels a lot better than ever before in the series. It's closer to Batman now which is good. I also found the sasquatch, a kleptomaniac hermit with a fur coat and hat, it was pretty amusing. In the end, I managed to do all the side missions that had markers on the map so next time, I will continue the story.

Nintendo Land

Date played: December 22nd
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

My brother, his wife, my girlfriend and I all played Nintendo Land together. We took a 40 minute train ride which is 8 rounds. We played some Yoshi's Fruit cart which looks cool but I haven't had a chance to try it yet. Then we had some Donkey Kong Crash Course action which is always entertaining. Luigi's Ghost Mansion is still the best game in this compilation. The Zelda game is fun and technical. The ninja star throwing game was a huge success with the ladies for some reason. The biggest hit of the night was Animal Crossing though and I think it's because it was the first time I got to play the Gamepad for it. A seasoned gamer like myself has a huge advantage here as I can easily control two characters at once using two joysticks. That part is usually a challenge for most people I've played with. This time though, I kicked their asses and it was a fair fight.

This was the most popular mini-game

In the end, my brother's girlfriend won, my own girlfriend was second, I hit third and my brother was last. If only this game had online multiplayer, I would probably be playing it a lot more often.

New Super Mario Bros U

Date played: December 22nd
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

My brother and his wife came over to visit and we ended up playing a lot of Wii U, including some NSMBU. While two players was really difficult, it was still possible to win. With three players, it seems like there's just so much chaos on screen that it is hard to get anywhere without getting bumped into an enemy or jumped on by a friend. We played about four levels in the first world and it was a lot of fun but I can see how people would start hating each other in more challenging portions of the game.

NHL 13

I sccored with Chris Neil!

Date played: December 21st
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 10/10

NHL 13 is at it's best with friends. I played two online games with my brother and a friend. We played as the Sens and lost both games. The first game, we were just kind of getting our groove, it's hard playing with two other players on your team. The second game was much better though and we could have won but lost it to a bad break in the third.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

The hybrid scope works well

Date played: December 20th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 7/10

I only played a few Domination matches last night but I tried something new, the hybrid scope. On the MK48, I usually use the stock, the grip and a full metal jacket to get those pesky snipers hidden behind walls and such. I replaced the FMJ with the hybrid scope for a few matches and I liked it a lot. It gives you both a reflex sight and an ACOG sight that can be switched on the fly. It was really useful to get more precision at range. However, I think I will stick to the FMJ since the iron sights aren't bad on the MK48 and I definitely shoot through walls a lot. I am also reaching the level cap, slowly but surely. I am level 49 while the max level is 55.

Assassin's Creed 3

Date played: December 19th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

My old buddy Achilles asked me to fetch some supplies from stores in Boston. After getting what I needed, there was a lot of commotion in the streets. Eventually, I found the source of the conflict to be what would become the infamous Boston Massacre where loyalists shot and killed four or five people in the city. It turns out that the event had been instigated by Haytham and his crew of Templars. As luck would have it, Connor gets blamed for the whole thing.

The Boston Massacre

Achilles then introduced me to Samuel Adams who showed me how to lose the heat. Ripping off posters, bribing newspaper boys and paying off a printing press are the three methods available. Before lowering my heat level, I tried to explore a bit to get some collectibles but I was met with infinite resistance from enemies. They came in waves but it never stopped. I must have killed 50 guys or more when I ran low on health and ran away. Honestly, it was really fun to just fight these guys for a while, kind of like playing a puzzle game when you're in the zone.

I then spent the rest of my time exploring the city. There are fast travel points to discover through underground tunnels, there are treasures and almanac pages to collect and a few varied missions. For example, I found the source of a UFO sighting to be a very shiny umbrella. It was mindless yet fun.

New Super Mario Bros U

Date played: December 18th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

We finished New Super Mario Bros U! Well, we saved Peach at least. The last world is full of lava pits, fireballs and spiky dudes. It also included an awesome bone roller coaster ride. Again, things were tough but not so bad that we couldn't make it through. The last boss was really cool. We finally got to see Bowser for real and at first, he was the simple, run under him while he jumps dude that we know and love. However, shortly after beating him once, he came back as a giant and had Bowser Jr. with him. The little guy was riding the clown rocket car thing from Super Mario World and we had to time our attacks on him to steal the clown car and ground pound the giant Bowser from above. It was difficult and my girlfriend got to sit in the back seat when she lost all her lives but we beat him.

Bowser is down once again

After the credits, the game makes it clear that it's not over though. We still have the whole Star world to go through. To get the levels in it to open up, we have to gather all the star coins from a world, including those from secret levels. That meant going to Youtube to watch how to reach the secret exit in the first world. We did that, then beat a nice underwater level and eventually beat the first star world level. 

Wipeout 2048

Date played: December 16th,17th and 18th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 9/10

The Feisar prototype in the game's amazing photo mode

I think I stopped playing this game because I was trying to get elite passes on every level. Now that the difficulty is ramping up a bit, it seems like the normal pass conditions are hard enough. I played through a few regular events, including a difficult, one lap sprint to the finish. The most grueling was easily the Feisar prototype, 10 lap race. This was an epic, high concentration event that I passed with the help of clumsy nitro use at the very end of the race. As a reward though, I got the ship for use in every event and I think it's a total beauty.

New Super Mario Bros U

These water platforms are awesome

Date played: December 16th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

Damn... My girlfriend and I got our first legit Game Over screen during a castle level. We lost four levels worth of progress which deflated our enthusiasm quickly. The levels were actually a lot of fun in themselves though. One of them had us dangerously bouncing on clouds to reach the end. The other had us climb to the top with the help of cool water bubbles floating in the air. This creates swimming sections within the sky level! The ghost house was as tricky to navigate as ever. The last level had us walking on a block snake that hid parts of itself in clouds to block our view.

What really got us is the run through Ludwig's castle. The place is filled with dangerous platforms that squish Mario and his friends in the blink of an eye. Had we more lives, we would have been ok but alas, we were beat.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

Date played: December 16th and 18th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played online with two friends. I did well enough. Here's a comic.

Sine Mora demo

Bullet-hell heaven

Date played: December 16th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 7/10

This is a high quality side scrolling shmup. It has a cool steam-punk vibe, amazing looking enemies and an interesting time-centric mechanic. There is always a timer on screen and that represents your health. It is replenished from kills and power ups and is depleted by getting hit. There is also a time slow down ability that is critical against the tougher enemies. This is clearly a bullet-hell type schump where the screen is filled with enemy projectiles so this slow-motion ability is more than welcome. I had fun with this, but it's still just a shmup. 

Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed demo

Date played: December 15th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

This game has a nice look to it

The Wii U has demos! I was browsing the eShop and noticed a few demos, including Sonic Racing 2 which seems really interesting. I always love kart racing games when they are well made and this seems like a really good one. The demo has Sonic unlocked as well as one track that is set in the world of Panzer Dragoon. It looks great. The tracks are full of life and animation and the karts animate really well. The racing itself works well, implementing drifts, boosts, wacky items and three types of vehicles. The cars are simple but fun, the boats are harder to race and feel like Hydro Thunder in a lot of ways and the planes feel straight out of Diddy Kong racing. I couldn't try multiplayer but I imagine that's where the real fun starts. 

Passive 3D multiplayer

Date played: December 15th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I visited my friend who owns a glorious 55" LED passive 3D television. I brought my PS3 over and we tried a few games in 3D as well as killed some time with some 3 on 3 NHL Arcade action. We started with some Wipeout HD. Unfortunately, split screen isn't an option in 3D so we played a race each and swapped controllers. Wipeout HD is easily the best looking game I have played in 3D. The ships pop out, the explosions look amazing and it just plays well. The best part is that the framerate stays stable. As we soon saw with GT5, that makes a big difference. GT5 has pretty bad 3D if you ask me. While it looks good enough, the framerate and Vsync are really distracting. Super Stardust was better but we couldn't manage to get past Phase 2 of the first planet...

This game is a ton of dumb fun

Last but not least, we played 3 on 3 NHL Arcade, a simple, power up filled arcade hockey game. We played three or four games together and a ton of fun shooting at mini goalies, using crazy trick shots and hitting each other like dumb asses. 

Assassin's Creed 3

Date played: December 15th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

I explored the Frontier and completed all the view points, collected feathers, four carrier missions and I took over an entire fort! I didn't know about forts at all, I just stumbled onto it. I had to basically just kill everyone in there (FUN!) and it is now an American fort. I also ran into racoons, beavers and a couple of wolves. Along the way, I even assaulted a travelling caravan to steal it's shit.

Saving the old assassin

That took up most of my time but I also played a bit of the story. I found the man I was looking for, an old guy who lives in a large, decrepit mansion. At first, he didn't want to help but Connor slept in his stables, patiently waiting for the man to help him discover the meaning of the symbol shown in his vision. During one of the nights, the man was attacked by some bad guys and I saved his ass, so now he seems more interested in helping Connor out. They had a long conversation where Connor learned all about the Assassins and the Templars, learning that Haytham is their current Grandmaster. Now, we're back in Boston, I imagine I will have a ton of stuff to do here.

NHL 13

Shark Blues

Date played: December 14th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played two online games, teaming up with a visiting friend to take on the Skarks and the Blues. We fought hard but didn't manage a win. The first game was a tight 2-2 tie until shootouts where the other team fooled our goalie one too many times. The other game was a lot tougher, we lost 5-3 though at least I played well this time.

New Super Mario Bros U

Date played: December 14th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through the end of the mountain world with and a small portion of the next one, a sort of cloud world. There were some great levels here, they are really pushing level design now and have some interesting ideas. One of the levels felt like Donkey Kong Country Returns and that's always a good sign in my book. It had moving platforms that would create "running space" then close. This was quite difficult with two players but it was very well done. Conveyor belts, lava and a battle with Roy and his  Bullet  Bill shooting rocket launcher concluded the world.

The world map is amazing!

The two levels we played in the cloud world were also interesting. One had us riding a large cloud platform through the entire level. While that isn't too crazy in itself, it moves really quickly and that made it fun and challenging. The next level had us navigating teeter-totter mushrooms with a bit of help from Yoshi. We got to ride a Lakitu cloud in this one! It's totally cute.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

Split screen makes it harder to do well...

Date played: December 13th and 14th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 6/10

I had my worst fucking games in my time with Black Ops 2. I couldn't get a lot of kills, I was sprinting too much and was aiming like a flacid penis on a rollercoaster. To help myself, I went back to a slower weapon for the night, the MK48. It did help and I realize that it's much stronger at range than the QBB so I might just start using it again now that I have more experience.

I also tried split screen online play for the first time which was pretty cool, but as usual, I was messed up by the sound and the small screen. My friend was visiting and seemed to enjoy himself. He had some  really good scores considering it's his first time playing the game!

Final Fantasy VI

Date played: December 10th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 6/10

I played a bit in the southern continent but I didn't actually make much progress. I explored a town and set out to infiltrate a Magitek factory. I am still using Locke, Celes, Sabin and Cyan. Sabin and Celes are by far the most useful of the four. Sabin's Aura Beam and Fire Dance inflict huge damage while Celes's spells are very powerful.

I have four Espers and while I don't use their summon ability much, I am teaching all my dudes a bunch of spells that can help in a pinch. The Magitek factory is a standard type dungeon. Lots of enemies and treasures but nothing else of note. 

New Super Mario Bros U

Date played: December 10th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 7/10

FUCKING SHIT THIS GAME GETS HARD! I played through about four levels of the Mountain world with my girlfriend and wow, this is getting tough man. While with one player, I think it would be more manageable, some of the tighter jumps are a lot more difficult when there is another bozo in the way. We have started using the bubble technique on some of the harder sections where if one of us fucks up, we just bubble and hope that the other player makes it through. When we fought the Sumos in one of the levels, we had to use it to progress as those guys are a pain with two players.

Sumos are back

There was a level that was all dark where it was hard to see enemies, platforms, coins and hidden pipes. We also found a hidden exit in one of the levels which added a new path on the world map. I have also used my first continue and my girlfriend is up to four or five... The game is still fun and the levels are still really creative but wow, it gets frustrating sometimes.

Assassin's Creed 3

Date played: December 9th and 10th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

Hey, stuff happened in this game. I must have missed some crucial line of dialogue somewhere but I am not playing as Haytham Kenway anymore, I am playing his son, Connor, first as a child, now as a teen. It seems like our friend Haytham had more than a kiss with the Mohawk lady! I also figured out that he was a Templar, not an Assassin, though at this point it makes no real difference I guess.

As a child, Connor played a game of hide and seek with his friends that was a pretty cool mission. It turned sour pretty quickly though when Haytham's old crew showed up and burned the village to the ground, leaving Connor's mother dead in the debris. Years later, he is now a teenager who hunts and gathers for his tribe. The hunting is actually pretty cool. I could set traps and lay out bait for different animals like deer, hare and fox. I even got attacked by a bear though he seems to have run away before I could kill him. Soon after, Connor had a meeting with an elder who gave him a precursor artifact (it looked like the Apple from AC2).

Connor in his teens

One of the weirdest missions so far played out after that where Connor is turned into an eagle and must follow a mysterious lady in an ethereal world. Either way, he now knows that he must find the league of Assassin's and give them their help for him to save his tribe.

I am in the Frontier, a large, mostly undeveloped area. There are view points, side missions, hidden collectibles and even famous explorer Daniel Boone. I spent some time exploring and got attacked by some cougars, bobcats and even elk. I soon turned the hunter into the hunted though. It seems like the game has just started really, even though I've been playing for hours. I can't wait to see how the game progresses, it's a lot of fun so far.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

I love sentry guns

Date played: December 9th and 10th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I'm getting real comfortable with this new gun now... I almost never go below 1.0 kill/death ratio anymore and if I do, it's usually my first match (gotta warm up) or my last match (I'm too tired for this shit). Otherwise, I've been getting consistent high scoring and positive K/D. I mostly play Domination now since it reduces the amount of people spawning behind our team and it's more rewarding to play the objective since you get a ton of points. Even if I only have a few kills in a match, I am usually one of the top scorers because of flag captures and shooting down enemy aircraft. This allows for more sentry gun score streaks which works great in Domination. Bouncing Betties are a bitch there too.

I also prestiged my weapon, a new feature. It brings your weapon back to level 1 and you lose access to all attachments but you get a nice tag to put on the weapon and new challenges to complete. I still haven't unlocked the stock for my gun yet but it's coming up in only two weapon levels so I should be back to full force soon. I am also using Dead Silence instead of Dexterity as one of my perks now. I think this perk is under valued as I use sound to locate enemies all the time and I assume others do the same.

Nintendo Land

Mario Chase is always fun

Date played: December 8th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

My friend came over and we played a few rounds of Nintendo Land. We started with an FZero duel which I won, but only by a hair. Then we played two matches of Luigi's Ghost Mansion with my girlfriend and this one, again, was a total hit. It seems people really like to play games where one player has more information than a team of other players. Lastly, we played a quick round of Mario Chase which was also a lot of fun. It was too bad we didn't have more time though as he was starting to show some skills just as he had to leave. There's always next time right?

New Super Mario Bros U

Date played: December 8th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through the end of the forest world and the first half of the mountain world with my girlfriend today. Again, the difficulty is way up there for a modern Mario game. It might be because there are two of us but man, some of those levels are real tricky. The forest world had some really good looking levels, using a sort of Van Gogh art style. Even the pipes and blocks were stylized.

We played some beautiful levels

The boss level wasn't as hard as Wendy but it was still challenging. The mountain world had some very tricky stuff too, this time revolving around rotating platforms, moving blocks and a old favorite enemy, the fuzzy's. Those little black bastards move on tracks and always seem to be in the worst possible spot. Thankfully, we made it through, sometimes with Yoshi's help as he can safely jump on them.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

Date played: December 7th and 8th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 10/10

YEAH BABY! I had a good time playing Black Ops in Domination and Team Deathmatch. I am starting to like Domination a lot more in this game since it really values the players that try to win the match by giving a ton of points for captures, defends and other support methods like UAV's. I was pretty damn good too, scoring an amazing 15-1 during one of my matches.

A lot of it has to do with my new weapon, the QBB LSW light machine gun. At first, I didn't like it at all but as soon as I got a few attachments, it started to show it's strength. While it doesn't work as well at very long range as my last weapon, it has a really good fire rate and high damage. It fucking spits yo. I do very well with it now, taking down even close range SMG and pistol users with ease, something that was almost impossible with other LMG's. Since most of the maps are not very long range, this seems to fit my style a bit better. The only real problem with it is that I have to put a red dot sight on it since the iron sights are a bit large and clutter my view of the battle more than I like.

Assassin's Creed 3

Date played: December 7th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 7/10

Urgh... I realized that this game's pop up tutorials are really bad. I had no idea I could take down a guy without killing him using only my fists. This ruined the first mission I played that asked me not to kill anyone. I had to infiltrate a redcoat camp to steal an important map and gain information on General Braddock. I got caught about five times before I paused the game and looked at the on-disc manual (a cool feature of both the Wii U and the Vita). It turns out, I can knock out guys with my fists in stealth...

Braddock on his last mission

This made the mission very easy... With the information in hand, Kenway and his new Mohawk lady friend intercepted the expedition. We dressed up as redcoats and managed to surprise Braddock, but didn't kill him right away. There was a really cool horse chase next full of exploding barrels (VIDEO GAMES!) after which I caught up to the Bulldog and killed him. Braddock's Defeat indeed.

Unfortunately, we found a precursor site but it was just writing, nothing special. Kenway and the lady did kiss though. I imagine that Connor will be their son but I am still not 100% sure. 

Final Fantasy VI

Celes as Maria

Date played: December 7th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 6/10

I only played a few minutes of FFVI, but it included one of the most memorable scenes in the entire series, the opera scene. Celes masquerades as Maria, the famous opera singer, during an opera in order to get in contact with Setzer, the owner of the only civilian airship in the world. This scene, in all it's 16 bit glory, still works.

Of course, the whole thing gets crazy with the intervention of the purple octopus dude we met earlier. Locke and friends end up fighting him right there on the stage! We met Setzer and with a bit of trickery, we managed to convince him to get us to the Imperial lands with his ship. We made a short trip towards the spot lights of the Imperial lands and are ready to explore it!

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch demo

Date played: December 6th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 10/10

WOW! I am a huge Myazaki fan, Spirited Away and Ponyo are easily in my top 5 movies of all time and I've been salivating over screenshots of this game forever. Finally, I get to see it for myself and it did not disappoint. Ni No Kuni is an old school RPG by Level 5 that uses Myazaki's art style and plays like a mix of Eternal Sonata and maybe Pokemon. It feels like the JRPG that people have been asking for since the start of the generation, it's what Final Fantasy XIII should have been, it's what Blue Dragon could have been, it's what PS1 and PS2 RPG fans enjoyed.

The demo has two levels, a forest and a volcano. I started with the forest and it sticks you in a boss fight right away. The first thing that struck me is simply how amazingly beautiful this game is. It really took my breath away... Unfortunately, I got killed quickly in the first fight because I didn't know I could move the character. When the battle starts, I got to choose between fighting as Oliver, the hero, or a cute little orange beast with a sword. I went with Oliver, casting spells, using skills and blocking. The game uses a weird turn-based/real time hybrid system in conjunction with cooldown and mana limits. It's hard to explain but it works really well. I could easily dodge enemy attacks, reposition myself and choose spells without feeling too much pressure.

Yes, the game looks that good.

After the boss fight, there was an adorable voiced cut scene that led me to the world map. Yes, this game has a world map and it looks amazing. I should also note the fantastic orchestral music that plays throughout. I eventually reached a lovely town. I couldn't enter though as one or two guards felt really depressed. So I used some spells to borrow enthusiasm from one guard and share it with the other who was then willing to open the gate. Yep, you read that right, I borrowed enthusiasm.

The volcano level was a timed affair complete with dangerous paths to navigate and an evil fire boss. This time though, I had another party member and more creatures to play with. I had three little beasts to control (one at a time) as did the little girl in my party. Combat started to feel more strategic as I brought out different monsters to fight different enemies. Honestly, this is the most fun I've had with an RPG in a VERY long time and am now totally hyped for this game.

Assassin's Creed 3

Date played: December 5th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

Silas got shot in the face yo

I played the best mission so far yesterday. Haytham Kenway and his ragtag band of like-minded dudes went on their first real covert mission. We set out to infiltrate Southgate, a large redcoat camp, to free some Mohawk slaves and gain their favor. We disguised ourselves and took out enough guards to free the slaves there. Unfortunately, we were found after freeing the slaves and had to fight our way out, killing dozens of guys by stabbing, slicing and shooting with extreme violence. Feels good man.

We managed to kill Silas, their leader and are now waiting for Mohawks to contact us. It's now winter in Boston and snow surrounds us. The guys are getting antsy though and I have a feeling they will stop waiting if Kenway doesn't do something about it shortly. The mission was great because it was the first where I got to be stealthy and kill a ton of dudes, hiding in haystacks and bushes. It plays great.

New Super Mario Bros U

Date played: December 5th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through four or five levels of the Forest world with my girlfriend yesterday. I have to say, this game is way harder with two players than it would be alone... For example, in the mid-world fortress level, there was a scrolling block-snake of sorts and with two players riding that thing, it becomes REAL tight. We died more often than we should have but we still had a ton of fun. The coolest level was a nice callback to SMB3 where all the enemies and blocks are giant! The art is really good on those and it's fun to see that stuff in HD.

This level was awesome

There was a level with a purple lava floor where the squirrel suit was handy and a tricky ghost house where we managed only one star coin. I wonder if there's a reward like a new world or level if we get all the star coins?

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

The Hellstorm missile is effective and it looks cool!

Date played: December 3rd
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played a lot of multiplayer Black Ops 2 yesterday, mostly in Team Deathmatch though I dabbled in Domination and Mosh Pit as well. I did pretty well for the most part with the exception of one awful match where I got sniped a lot. I'm still relying a lot on smoke grenades for difficult to approach situations and it works well but sometimes it's hard to obstruct high vantage points.

I had a few amazing games, notably on Carrier and Express, maps that really allow me to use the power of my mid range LMG. Bigger maps like Turbine are a bit tougher for me since it seems to favor close and long range. When playing Domination, I got a ton more kill streaks due to the capture points I was getting. I'm using the care package and got a stealth chopper and a hellstorm missile. Both of those are pretty damn powerful and I got a lot of kills with them. I'm also starting to know the maps a lot better as I play and of course, this helps my performance. This is my favorite Call of Duty multiplayer game in the series.

New Super Mario Bros U

Date played: December 2nd
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played through the Water and Ice worlds with my girlfriend today. What strikes about this game is that is feels a lot more difficult than NSMB 2 and NSMB Wii. We have to be more careful, my girlfriend had to use two continues already and we sometimes struggle to just get through a level, let alone get all the hidden coins.

Wendy, the bitch on skates

The Water world had some cool moments but it's boss fight was pretty simple. The Ice world had a some weird stuff though. The ghost house had us running around trying to find hidden doors until time ran out, the fortress was hard to survive and Wendy, the little wench turtle, had a difficult fight due to the slippery floors, her fucking projectiles, her movement pattern and her damn ice skates. We then had a nice level aboard Bowser Jr.'s ship with a ton of callbacks to SMB3 such as giant screws and bullet bills all over the place.We are now heading to a forest looking world where I hope to see some Wiggler action. It's weird though, we haven't actually seen Bowser yet. Only a mechanical arm and Bowser Jr... I wonder if there's something to that or if I just missed something.

Nintendo Land

Luigi's Ghost Mansion

Date played: December 2nd
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

My brother and his girlfriend were visiting so we took a 40 minute ride on the Nintendo Land train, playing about 8 games. This was my first time playing with four players and I have to say, it was even better than with three players. We played some Chase Mii, some FZero, Donkey Kong, the Octopus game, Balloon Fight, Animal Crossing and even some Zelda but the biggest hit was Luigi's Mansion by far.

Luigi's Mansion is a really cool game that takes strategy, communication and good control. It's really fun to be the ghost but it's even more fun to catch the fucker. The only thing that is pissing me off about this game is that I haven't been able to try the Metroid game since it requires nunchuks and I have none of those. 

Assassin's Creed 3

Miiverse is really cool 

Date played: December 2nd
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

My assassin dude is building a posse it seems. I've now recruited two more dudes to help find the precursor site. The first I saved from torture by sneaking around some docks and killing his captors stealthily. The other guy I saved from some red coat thugs but I had to tail them for a while. I found that using the rooftops was the easiest way.

Most of my time with the game today was actually spent exploring Boston to find all the synch points, usually on top of very high buildings. It was fun to find all the little notes on each historically significant place I ran into, like the Tree of Liberty or all the important churches. I also took advantage of Miiverse features I hadn't tried yet. For example, when I press the home button on the Gamepad, it takes a screenshot that can be posted on that game's section of Miiverse. So far, it's a really cool community, it feels like a mix of a gaming message board and Facebook. I like it a lot...

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

Date played: December 1st
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 7/10

I just played a few matches of Team Deathmatch and had a mixed performance. I had two or three good matches and two or three bad matches, nothing in between really. I seem to do much better on maps that have longer line of sights than the smaller maps. On smaller maps, my huge LMG is overcome by SMG's easily. I tend to use smoke grenades to confuse people a lot, it doesn't seem like many players use them. I usually throw it in a spot where enemies would expect then I flank them, ignoring the smoke screen completely. I think I should try a different mode too, it would probably help with some of the cheap spawns.

Paper Mario Sticker Star

Date played: December 1st
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I finished Paper Mario Sticker Star today. The last world was really just one level and two boss fights. It turns out Mario's flying friend was Wiggler who has evolved into a butterfly. He gave me a ride to Bowser's fortress in the sky but we got intercepted by Bowser Jr.'s air ship. This turned out to be a really cool level, full of bullet bills and a few new enemies. The puzzles were fun too. The boss fight against Bowser Jr. was cool and fairly easy although I was lucky to have some tail whip stickers in my album.

After taking him down, I headed to the last level, Bowser's fortress. Again, I needed a FAQ. Even then, I almost ran out of stickers since it's such a long fucking fight. He has five phases and he regains his health after each... Either way, after a long, FAQ-assisted battle, I took down. There was a cool twist during the fight that I won't spoil that put a nice spin on the system. Then of course, I took out Bowser, rescued Peach and revived the sticker festival. Last but not least, I watched the expected character parade during the credits.

Mario VS Bowser, Part CXVII....or something.

I have to say, this was a good game and I'm glad I played it. It was funny, pretty and had some really good ideas as well as amazing music, it's just too bad that I had to use FAQ's so often to avoid the tedium of trial and error.

Paper Mario Sticker Star

Date played: November 30th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I completed the fifth world and I am ready to head out to the final world. The fifth world's boss was Petey Piranha. This was a more interesting, natural boss fight compared to the others. I had to simply damage him until he went off balance then use a stunning item like a POW block. I then used all my strongest stickers and he went down pretty easily. The stickers are really powerful now with almost everything worth using being either a giant sticker or a flashy sticker.

They look like they're having fun aren't they?

Petey's level was cool too as I had to free some Chomp-Chomp's that would hit an elevator-type platform to help me navigate the level. My sticker museum is now pretty full but I have no intention of filling it as it seems mostly useless. I now have to find a flying friend (???) to gain access to the last world. I have no idea who I need so I guess I'll check out Decalburg and talk to my sticker friend. If that doesn't help, I'll end up reading a FAQ again.

New Super Mario Bros U

These puffy dudes are cute but deadly

Date played: November 30th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played a few more levels of NSMBU with my girlfriend and daughter. We are working through the water based world which has tons of underwater levels. One of the levels that really stood out is an underwater chase where Mario and company must escape from a large dragon-like creature. It was pretty tricky since we had to keep moving and because there are two of us, we sometimes got stuck on geometry and died.

My daughter also seems to enjoy using the Gamepad. While she is only 2 1/2 years old and usually can't play normal games, she can tap on the touch screen and put blocks near us to help us out. She's actually really useful sometimes and has saved our sorry asses more than once. I'm really happy to play with her!

Paper Mario Sticker Star

Date played: November 26th, 27th and 28th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

Being in Montreal for four days again, I went back to my 3DS and Paper Mario to keep myself busy after work. I played shit ton of this game and I'm probably in the last quarter of the game and about 20 hours in. I played through the entire fourth world, set in a snow world. The enemies are getting stronger and I'm having to use some much stronger stickers, shiny's being the minimum and flashy's being best.

There were some cool levels (no pun intended) including the game's best level so far, a ghost house that seemed loosely based on Luigi's Mansion. This was one of the longest levels and felt more like a real dungeon as opposed to a side scrolling level. Mario had to gather all the Boo's in the house and seal them in a special sticker book. The Boo's were hidden all over the place and unfortunately, I had to resort to a FAQ for two of them that I missed. It was still a ton of fun, I was taking out entire walls and sticking them in other areas to progress. To finish the level, I took on a giant Boo that I beat by blowing out candles with a vacuum and jumping on his head for a while.

The fourth world's boss was pretty fun too, I simply had to use all my fire based attacks and he went down quickly. I also had another encounter with Bowser Jr that was pretty easy to beat. I then headed to the fifth world, a jungle and volcanic world. It's full of Shy Guys with spears, carnivorous plants and Hammer Bros. One of the levels had me chasing three Shy Guys to build a bridge while another had a leisurely ride on a little  raft in a river, avoiding obstacles and collecting coins.

Fuck this raft.

Unfortunately, this also had one of the worst levels in a game; a horrible raft ride while being chased by a giant fish. I had to avoid his attacks by sliding to the right and left of the river. The problem is that if I get hit directly, it's an automatic game over and the attacks are random... So I tried four or five times until I got lucky and got through.

Nintendo Land

Date played: November 25th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played a bit more Nintendo Land, this time with my girlfriend and my very non-gamer mom. A cool thing about this game is the train that roams the park. Get on, pick a time slot of 15, 30 or 45 minutes and the game sets up some events to fit your needs. We picked a short 15 minute event, basically three events, where each player gets a turn at the Gamepad to pick the next game and be the Gamepad player in that game if it's simultaneous.

We ended up playing one round of Luigi's Mansion, two rounds of Animal Crossing's mini-game and an extra round of Chase Mii for good measure after the train ride. Luigi's Mansion didn't work out too well. It's a bit too complicated for a first time player and I had the Gamepad so I caught them both in less than a minute. Animal Crossing is quite another beast though. The player with the Gamepad actually controls TWO characters at once, one for each analog stick, and must catch the other players who are collecting candies. If the others are caught, they lose their candy. The game is won when either the remote players carry enough candy on them or time runs out. This was a ton of fun...  Of course, Chase Mii is pretty damn brilliant as it's basically Pac-Man VS, this was easy for everyone and was just good old fashioned fun.

Assassin's Creed 3

I haven't seen this guy yet

Date played: November 25th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

Well, I'm in Boston now. There wasn't a mutiny on the ship but we did get attacked by another ship. We ran away and hid in a storm... As you can imagine, things didn't work out too well and I was tasked with fixing some ropes and stuff. It was epic really, the storm roaring in the background, the huge waves crashing against the ship and the amazing character animations made it really believable and exciting. Soon after, we reached Boston.

I made a friend quickly and settled in, meeting Benjamin Franklin along the way. The poor bastard lost his precious almanac pages in the city... First side quest! Anyway, after meeting up with my comrades, we assaulted a small red coat camp to recover a treasure that would help find the hidden precursor location. There was a lot of fighting, a lot of killing and a bit of escorting going on but the most interesting thing was the gun combat. As we all know, muskets are shit. Well guess what? They're shit in this game too. It takes forever to reload but they are still kind of fun to use. That's where I stopped playing but this is a lot better than I expected so far.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

Date played: November 25th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 10/10

I was on fire on Sunday. I was just in the zone and had some great Team Deathmatch and Hardpoint matches, including a glorious 18-6 match, the first real dominating game I've had in this game so far. I played with some friends too with which I played a ton of the first Black Ops. It felt goooooooooood baby.