Plants vs Zombies

Date played: March 24th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 6/10

I have a weird relationship with tower defense type games. While I recognize their quality and find the concept intriguing, I'm never quite able to love them. I play a bit, level up my towers, make better strategies, etc. However, I never quite really enjoy myself. These games seem more like work than play in many cases.

Tower defense games aren't for me

Plants vs Zombies is a simplified variation on the genre and while it works, it still isn't all that fun for me. To it's credit, the game looks cool, has great animation and some very interesting plants (weapons).  For example, there is a carnivorous plant that eats zombies but takes a while to finish eating. You can place rocks on the field to slow down enemies. There are the obvious bomb and ice flowers as well.
The zombies are pretty clever too with some wearing hats for armor, some being faster and some even jumping obstacles.

The only really interesting mechanic here is ressource management as you are in charge of placing sunflowers and other plants that can generate sun which you use to build more plants. This makes the game a struggle between ressource generation and defense. There are also come cool tricks with daylight vs sunlight and even some bowling segments but in the end, it's still fucking tower defense.

NHL 13

Date played: March 23rd
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played a few games of NHL 13 on the same team as my buddy. The first was an AHL game where the other dude picked the Hamilton Bulldogs and we went with the Binghamton Senators. We lost but it was a really close game. The second game was a bit more of a heartbreaker since we played so well, yet couldn't even manage to score a goal. We played as the Blackhawks against the Red Wings.

Max Payne 3

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

I finished Max Payne 3.

To quote Max, "I've killed more cops than cholesterol". This was definitely one of my favorite third person shooters in recent memory, mostly due to the awesome story and strong characters. Chapter 13 was set in the police station where Max basically shot every living soul he saw, good, bad and everything in between. There was a nice fight at the end of the chapter that had me shoot out the ceiling so that it fell on the bad guy and stunned him so I could get him out of cover.

Chapter 14 was one of the most violent sequences I've ever played. I probably shot down 100 guys in that level alone. It turns out that the last of the brothers was the one behind the whole scheme. Of course, with Max after him, he makes a run for the airport to leave the country but he's so powerful, that he shut down the entire place and filled it with an army of armored men. After numerous fire fights, I took on the leader of the army. I had to shoot dozens of guys without dying in an area with almost no cover. I only succeeded by using all my slow motion juice and shoot dodging all over the place.

Get some rest Max, you deserve it.

The very last sequence was an epic chase with a grenade launcher. I shot down cars, helicopters and an armored truck on the runway. To finish it off, I blew up the last brother's jet plane. He lived, only to be imprisoned and killed by inmates.

Max sets off into the sunset, having once again lost all his loved ones. Lonely, depressed, deceived and wounded, Max is still one bad ass motherfucker, that's for sure.

Lego City Undercover

Just one more thing...

Date played: March 19th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

Finally, a new game on Wii U! I bought Lego City Undercover because my family loves playing with Legos and our favorite toy series is the City sets. Firemen, policemen, trucks, cars and little houses are tons of fun to build.

Lego City Undercover is a sort of GTA for kids in a lot of ways. You play as Chase, a cop who returns to the city after some sort of hiatus and gets back to work. A crime spree has taken over the city, led by Rex Fury. It's all really well written, well acted and surprisingly funny. In fact, while my three year old enjoys the funny animations and colorful characters, my girlfriend and I enjoy all the little references sprinkled throughout. Our favorite so far is easily a short cameo by Lieutenant Columbo!

I played through the first chapter which introduces the mechanics and world. It starts with a clown bank  heist, similar to the first scene in The Dark Knight. The game is really a lot like GTA; car chases, on foot chases and lots of cool stuff to find in the world. So far, it's been quite simple, but a few things stand out. The first is the cool use of the Gamepad. It acts as a sort of phone in the game as well as a detective vision visor. I had to stand up a few times to find things around me, it works well and is a nice distraction. 

Max Payne 3

Date played: March 17th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played through chapters 10, 11 and 12. The story is unfolding quickly now and I can feel the ending approaching. Chapter 10 was all about Max and Giovanna escaping from the tons of enemies surrounding them. It was set in a bus depot so of course, after dozens of dudes shot, a couple of buses dropped on bad guys and even a cool chain hanging sequence, it ended with an epic on rails chase scene with Giovanna driving a bus, Sandra Bullock style, and Max shooting the enemies.

Speed!

After the escape, Max met the cop again planted the seed of doubt concerning Raul's and Max's relationship. Cue flashback to a Panama canal series of events that turned into, you guessed it, another blood bath. Chapter 11 has Max and Raul are protecting Marcello on a huge luxury yacht, full of sexy ladies, alcohol and blow. Payne passes out drunk in his cabin and wakes up to gunshots, pirates and blood. I shot my way out of the boat and after a cool zip line segment, Max managed to escape.

Max then headed to a dilapidated hotel where the prisoners were being taken for Chapter 12. This is where the story went crazy. It turns out that they were killing people, taking their organs (eyes, hearts, livers, etc). I shot up the place, placed C4 in key locations and blew the shit out of it. It was awesome. Raul saved my ass at the end and rode off in the sunset with Giovanna. Max decides to go after the bad guys by turning himself in

Fire Emblem Awakening

Cynthia is a dumb bitch

Date played: March 17th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I started with two random battles with Risen to get some exp and built some supports, in particular, I wanted to get Lon'Qu and Cherche married. I then played a paralogue that was pretty fucking hard... I was being attacked on all sides by a group who's leader claimed to be Chrom. Obviously, Chrom would have none of that so we took them down. I had to restart once since I was badly positioned and lost a few units. The second time around, I was a lot more defensive and managed to survive. The big surprise is that one of the fake Chrom's subordinates turned out to be Cynthia. She is Chrom's and Sumia's second child. She has a habit of falling on her face like Sumia too...

Then I played a story mission, Chapter 14 I think. My team is pretty strong at this point so this fight wasn't very hard but it was really entertaining. We basically boarded three enemy ships while defending our own. There were lots of armored foes as well as quite a few flyers which made the fight a bit tricky but strong defense and good healing made it easy.

Trine 2

Date played: March 17th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10

I bought this game during the Christmas sale on Steam because I really liked the first game. I also played the demo on PS3 about a year ago and liked it. Anyway, I played the first four levels of the game. Honestly, this is just like the first game but prettier and more polished.

Trine 2 is fucking gorgeous

The graphics are truly stunning and very colorful which makes everything a little bit more enjoyable. This game is really just about it's puzzles and occasional combat. I pulled levers, built boxes, used teeter-totters, froze goblins with arrows, burned enemies with a fiery sword, fed a giant slug and frog, swam though caverns, swung from trees and even battled a giant snake and ogre. I levelled up my three characters a bit too. 

Max Payne 3

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

I played through chapters 7. 8 and 9. This game is really keeping my interest with it's gritty crime story. Also, Max Payne is actually a really good character compared to anything else in gaming. I think one of the reasons it works so well is the narration. Like any good noire story, Max narrates throughout, including during gameplay. It really adds a lot to his character.

Chapter 7 was all about Max investigating the slums to find the three kidnapped people, Fabiana, Giovanna and Marcello. It all started with a conversation with a cop in a seedy strip club/brothel. Soon enough, local gangsters showed up and I fought my way through the entire neighborhood, eventually reaching the gang's territory. After a dozen fire fights, I managed to find the three targets... but Fabiana was shot in the head right in front of Max.

Chapter 8 picks up from there as another New York flashback. It tells the story of when Max and Passos made a visit to Max's family's grave before heading to South America. Of course, the guys that were after us before found us and we shot our way out of the graveyard.

One last goodbye

Chapter 9 picks up right after Fabiana was shot and the bad guys left me with one dude. Big mistake. I obviously shot him and left. However, when I left, the city looked like a fucking war zone. Helicopters all over and paramilitaries shooting innocents left and right. After shooting armored men for a while, Max found Marcello and Giovanna...but again, he found death as well. Marcello was put inside three tires then put on fire. I managed to save Giovanna and escape though.

Max Payne 3

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

I played through chapters 4, 5 and 6. Chapter 4 is set in the past, when Max was still in New York. Of course, he's in a shitty bar, getting hammered when he gets in trouble with some local gang bangers. Predictably, a shootout ensues where Max and Raul have to murder their way out of the bar. Back at Max's dirty house, the gang banger's father shows up with a bunch of guns for hire to kill Max. I then had to shoot my way through the building through the roof. In the end, Max shot a bunch of dudes and decided that he would got to South America with Raul to get away from all that shit.

Chapter 5 was set in a crummy South American marina of sorts where Max and his buddy have discovered that Fabiana was held. We shot our way through dozens of guys until we got to the docks where we shot more dudes. Then we shot some more. It all ended in a huge boat chase where Max was wielding some sort of heavy machine gun, blowing up boats and Fabiana getting away.

Chapter 6 was a pivotal point in the story. Max is hanging out at his bosses office when, as usual, bad guys show up and a series of slow motion shootouts follows. I was tasked with escorting an IT employee to the server room to reactivate security in the office. Eventually, we got it back online but the boss was still killed. One of the dying guards nearby told Max they were after him and not the boss.

Max Payne sober? I can't believe it.

That's where Max finally shaves his head, as seen in all the promotional images. He wants to hide, but he also seems to be trying to give up drinking! He is now heading to the slums of Sao Paulo to find Fabiana.

Max Payne 3

Date played: March 12th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

My buddy lent me his Max Payne 3 disc a while back so I decided to give it a try. I have only played a little bit of Max Payne 1 and liked it at the time, however, third person shooters have changed quite a bit since. The reviews for the game were lukewarm so I didn't really plan on buying it, but since it was free, meh.

Max is one seriously depressed man

I've played through the first three chapters of the game and while the gameplay is predictable and not terribly exciting, the story and presentation are really awesome. At it's core, this is a simple, cover based third person shooter. Of course, the hook for this series has always been the famous bullet time feature where Max dives in the air in slow motion and kills enemies as he falls to the ground. Honestly, this feels like almost any other third person shooter out there.

What kept my attention was the cool story, the gritty atmosphere, the characters and the cool presentation of the cut scenes. The game is set in Brazil and starts with Max doing some bodyguard work at a rich person party, overlooking the slums of the city. Soon enough, bad guys show up and try to kidnap some important people so I shot the shit out of them. The next chapter was similar except this time there were two girls but I managed to save only one of them. This included a fun helicopter rail shooting sequence.

The third chapter was a more hardcore with tons of guys being shot down. I had to evade snipers as well as snipe enemies to protect my partner dude. This seems like a cool game so far, even if the gameplay is a bit generic.

Dirt Showdown

Date played: March 11th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10

I finished Dirt Showdown. The tour was a simple, but fun career structure. The last few events were nothing out of the ordinary but were still a ton of fun. The only thing that told me the game was over is a bit of a different victory screen as you can see in this post. The credits rolled and I was back to the title screen. Honestly, I found this to be a fun game but I really wish it had more real racing events, or even a simple rally mode. Thankfully, Grid 2 is coming real soon, I'm just hoping that it has split screen on PC....

VICTORY!

Dirt Showdown

Date played: March 10th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through a good chunk of the Legend leg of the Dirt Tour. Things are definitely getting more difficult as I am nearing the end of the game. The biggest difference is the length of the events, but the opponents are also more competitive and aggressive. This doesn't affect events with no opponents though so gymkhana events of all kinds are not really more difficult than usual.

A sea of wrecks became a common occurrence in 8 Ball

8 Ball is the event that has transformed the most from the higher number of laps. It takes the basic racing event that it is and turns it into an endurance gauntlet. Since there are so many dangerous intersections, cars get damaged hardcore over the course of 8 laps or so. I've even had an event that ended with only two cars still running at the end, everyone else was wrecked. This makes the event a lot more enjoyable and adds some risk to the whole thing. I have four or five events left before finishing the game.

Playstation All Stars Battle Royale

Bottom option please Bob

Date played: March 9th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 3/10

I was at a small party with some friends and one of them had brought Playstation All Stars, the type of game that should be ideal for that kind of setting. We had four rotating players. I only played two matches and honestly, I didn't really like the game much.

The game plays a lot like Smash Brothers but it's a bit harder to clearly see what is happening and there are no "smashes". As far as I could tell, the goal of the game is hit other players as much as possible to build up a super meter and unleash a powerful move that may kill. This seems to be the only way to get kills.

I started with Nariko, the sexy heroine from Heavenly Sword. She had a lot of sword attacks and a few projectile attacks. I managed to get a special off but I couldn't quite see what was going on so I sort of missed it. I then played with Sackboy from Little Big Planet but I found him a lot more difficult to use. In the end, this was a huge mess of drunken button smashing that was sort of fun but none of us really understood what really happened.

Dirt Showdown

Dirt Showdown is always pretty

Date played: March 9th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played through the entire third quarter of the Dirt Tour. I'm really in the mood for some good racing but I can't think of anything I haven't played yet so I settle for Dirt Showdown, which is only about 30% racing. Events such as Knockout, Gymkhana and even the color-coded obstacle courses contain zero racing.

I really love the main Codemasters racing games and have been playing them since the early days of Colin McRae Racing so I am really hyped for Grid 2, coming in May. I've been thinking of getting Need for Speed Shift 2 in the meantime but for now, driving cars in weird events is the best I can do. After 13 events in the third quarter of the game, I also played the first two events of the last section.

Tropico 4

Date played: March 8th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10

Shitty SimCity servers turn into hours of fun in Tropico 4! Nuff' said.

Tourism doesn't require an internet connection in Tropico 4

Soul Calibur

Date played: March 7th
Platform: Dreamcast
Session fun rating: 10/10

Playing Soul Calibur (on a Dreamcast no less) with my almost three year old daughter is the most fun I've had all week. She picks characters based on luck and lack of dexterity, she gets combos by accidentally dropping the controller and she blocks all the time due to holding the controller on her lap and pressing the left trigger 100% of the time. Fatherhood rocks.

Simcity

Date played: March 6th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 7/10

Ok, I'm getting a better handle on things, though I suspect some of my problems have been caused by the incredible server issues. I still haven't done the tutorial, but it's because I was unable to do anything when I launched it. No buttons were clickable, no advisors were talking to me, hell, I didn't even see any residents moving. Total fucking ghost town.

I abandoned my first city as I soon realized I was better off with a fresh start. My second city is boring as fuck but it ran pretty smoothly. I assigned the west side of the land to residences, the center area for shopping and the east side to my dump, sewage and industries. And I put dirt roads just to piss off the workers.

I had a few small fires that were contained by my overcompensating crew of 4 fire trucks. City hall is big and I have a mayor's house now but outside of that, I just have a few parks. No real industries, no real interesting things. But it's functional.

Simcity

Date played: March 5th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 5/10

Ok, I admit, I started playing this game the wrong way. I really should have completed the tutorial before just going right in there. I was trying to join my friends but I couldn't figure out how and ended up creating a game that I didn't understand.

I played only for a short period and followed the advisor advice. I ended up with a small town with many residences, a water supply, sewage problems, wind electricity, a small fire department and a large oil rig. I picked a mountainous area in the hopes of creating an industrial city, full of oil, metals and pollution. So far so good but a tutorial would have helped me prevent the numerous fires I've had to deal with. Maybe it would also explain how to join my friends. Either way, I had a bad experience but I think I need to play this a bit differently. Next time should be better.

King of Fighters XIII

Mai

Date played: March 5th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 7/10

This is another game I received for free from PSN Plus. I have never played a game in this 2D fighting series but my brother was at my house so I figured it would be a good time to try it. We only played four or five rounds but it was pretty cool. We obviously didn't really take the time to learn how to play but we still had some close fights using just regular punches and kicks.

The first thing that stands out about this game is how fucking awesome it looks. The hand drawn 2D art is phenomenal and is animated better than you'd expect. I picked the sexy Mai simply because of her amazing boob animation on the character select screen. We tried a few different characters and figured out a few simple moves. Since we didn't know what the hell was going on, it was all quite fun. I'm not sure I need to learn a new fighting game system but I still enjoyed the fast combat of KOF 13.

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

Date played: March 5th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played a few matches of SSFIV with my youngest brother who was visiting. He is one of the few people I can play fighting games with and have a decent fight on my hands. I won easily with Dhalsim though he did get more hits in than I expected. He seemed to perform pretty well with Seth since he has good variety in his moves and hits hard enough. I played a bit with Ken, E. Honda and Sakura while my brother mostly used Seth and tried a couple of others. I managed to pull off Sakura's Hadoken ultra twice at the end of the round, it looked amazing.

Dirt Showdown

Date played: March 4th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 7/10

I am craving a good racing game right now it's crazy. Last year, I was playing Dirt 3 around this time and I am really fucking missing it. Dirt Showdown is fun in it's own right but it's not about the things I like most in racing games, it's about stunts and funky events. I've completed the latest NFS, I hate Gran Turismo, I don't have my Xbox for Forza so the next best thing was Dirt Showdown.

DOMINATION

I played three events, completing the second quarter of Dirt Tour events. I completed one 8 ball race, one demolition event and one domination event. I'm usually sticking to the same three or four cars depending on the event and it seems to work out so far. Next time I play, I will be starting the second half of the tour.

Fire Emblem: Awakening

Kjelle is Sully's and Kellam's child

Date played: March 3rd
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through a couple of paralogue chapters. In the first one I played, I met Sully's and Kellam's child who traveled through time with Lucina's crew but was lost. Kjelle is a large armored unit who seems cool but I have that spot filled already. The mission had Kjelle attempting to take out some bandit dude. She is surrounded though and reinforcements were coming in from various forts at every turn. That meant our crew had to get to her before being overwhelmed with units.

The second paralogue I played is where I met my unit's and Lissa's child, Owain. He is a Myrmidon (swordsman) who seems really dumb. His mission had us rescue some villagers from bandits. The enemy units were a bit tougher here though as I'm starting to see some advanced classes now. There were a few cases where I had to send in my top of the line units simply because any weaker unit would have been killed instantly, even when paired. I'm also working on marrying Cherche the Wyrm Rider with Lon'qu, the swordsman.

Capsized

The art and setting are the only things I liked about Capsized

Date played: March 3rd
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 4/10

Well, I think I gave this game a fair shake but I just didn't enjoy it much. This is a 2D, action platformer with some light physics puzzles. The hero is some sort of astronaut that crash lands on a hostile planet. He has a few guns that can be fired using the second analog stick. He also has a grapple beam and a sort of energy push to enhance his jumps. He can also wall jump.

The setting is nice, the art is pretty and the music is cool. The problem is that it controls like ass, at least it did with an Xbox controller. I'm not sure if this was meant to be played with a mouse and keyboard but either way, it probably wouldn't control all that well. The character is stiff, the aiming is loose and the guy gets stuck on geometry way more than he should. The enemies are also somewhat hard to see due to the art. I played through the first four levels but I'm not really interested in playing more. At least it was only 2.50$...

Fire Emblem: Awakening

Date played: March 2nd
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played a few optional battles to get a few more people to level 20 and promote them or to build some relationships. Virion the Archer, now Sniper, is married to Panne, the fucked up rabbit woman. Vaike the Fighter, now Warrior, is married to Cordelia, a Pegasus Knight who is now a Dark Flier.

Lucina

After those nice upgrades, I felt I should move the story along so I played the next story chapter. There's a lot of Game of Thrones-y talk all over the place but the point is, I found out that Marth, unveiled as a woman earlier, turned out to be Lucina, Chrom and Sumia's child. How is that possible? Fucking time travel apparently. It's all quite unclear but there were some amusing conversations at least. The battle had us surrounded by Risen and we had to take out the leader before being overwhelmed by reinforcements. Since I am a little bit over level at this point, it wasn't very difficult. Lucina (and a random mage named Henry) joined us in battle. I am now up to Chapter 13 I think. 

Fire Emblem: Awakening

Chrom and Sumia knocked boots

Date played: February 27th, 28th and March 1st
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played a shit ton of Fire Emblem. I'm definitely focused more on the game part than the story part. Lots of stuff happened but all I can seem to remember are the close battles, the leveling up and the crazy amounts of enemies I've been dispatching.

I played through chapters 9 and 10 as well as one paralogue but I also took on some random battles with Risen on the world map. I've killed the king of Plegia by assaulting his fortress and ended the war with their nation. Then, the game skips ahead 2 years, where Ylisse is attacked by another large army, the Valm.

In the meantime, I managed to have two couples formed and have two units promoted to advanced classes. Chrom and Sumia are married and have a child named Lucina. Sully and Kellam are also married and I think they are the cutest couple ever. Lissa has been promoted to a sage, a sort of healer and mage combo. Kellam is a General and Sully is a Paladin. I also picked up two new recruits, a Wyvern Rider who rides dragons and a Dancer who gives extra turns to units.