Grid 2

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

I finally have my hands on Grid 2! I've been waiting for a good racing game for a long time, I haven't really played a good racing game since the last Need for Speed game. I played through a few events for the two racing teams that I have unlocked. I also played a vehicle challenge event that let me unlock a new car.

First, the game looks stunning. I don't have the best PC around but it's good enough to play the game on high at 1080p with about 45 fps. I couldn't turn on the advanced lighting effects, as in the last Dirt game but it still looks pretty damn good. I played with a controller of course and the cars handle very well. A lot of people don't like the mix of simulation and arcade of this series but I think it works really well. I had no problems finishing on the podium for all events, though the wins were a bit more difficult on some of the events.

I drove an old Ford Mustang Mach 1 for a couple of races. I also drove an old Nissan Fairlady Z and a couple of other cars. They all feel pretty different and are fun to drive. The drifting mechanic works well and allows for some crazy speeds around the right corner. Most of my racing was done in Chicago so there were a lot of 90 degree corners. I spent a large amount of time customizing my paint jobs, mainly on the Fairlady and the Mustang.

I also played one quick multiplayer race. While I was 10th out of 12, I didn't realize that I could use the Flashback feature in multiplayer. Of course, it doesn't slow down time for all players, instead it sets you back on the track in the thick of the battle. Multiplayer felt good and people weren't acting like dicks so I hope it becomes popular.

Civilization V

Ceasar fucked up

Date played: May 27th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 8/10

All roads lead to...Berlin? I started a random map with a random leader on the third difficulty level. It seems I underestimated the AI because I got run over by the Germans in no time. I played as Ceasar and the Romans. I set up shop on a large continent that was only populated by city-states and had passages to other large continents that housed the Chinese, German and a few others I didn't quite get to interact with. Montezuma and his Aztecs established their capital near Rome though. He seemed relatively weak in the early game so I went after him with Ballista's and Spearmen but their defenses were too good and I had to agree to peace (in exchange for a shit ton of gold of course).

Shortly after, I started building up my three city empire. All was well until Bismark, the German leader, decided to declare war. He brought in about 10 units which was enough to burn Rome to the ground. Maybe I'll stick to the easier difficulty next time.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

Moshpit!

Date played: May 26th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played a few matches with my friend on the Uprising mode, but this time, we went with Moshpit to mix it up a bit. It was really refreshing to play some different modes, maybe I should do it more often. Kill confirmed is a really fun mode because every kill has a risk/reward mechanic going on. I use the tokens to bait enemy players quite often, people fall for it every time. We had a couple of games of Hard point which I really enjoy, but unfortunately no one seems to play it too well. People farm for kills instead of getting the target sometimes... Search and Destroy is always the odd man out in these games. Having only one life per round really makes a huge difference in how people play. I do pretty well at the mode usually since I play pretty aggressively, at least for a guy with an LMG.

Grid

Date played: May 26th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 8/10

In anticipation for Grid 2 (OMG OMG OMG), and having pre-ordered it on Steam, I scored a free copy of the original game. I played this all and completed it back in 2008 or something but it's still a really good game. I only managed to complete about five races before I had to stop. I still enjoyed my time though as the game handles exceptionally well. It's just so much fun to drive these cars...

60 FPS, 1080p greatness

Wipeout 2048

Date played: May 26th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played a fun time trial with the always pleasant AG-Systems Speed. It took me a couple of tries but I made the basic pass time quickly. Then I played a Zone event on Sol, the amazing track in the sky. I then had an exciting but oddly paced battle event. I was stuck in a speed ship, so again, I rode the AG-S machine, and had to score a good amount of points with only missiles. The others all had fighter ships too... I ended up winning the event by going very fast and shooting missiles as soon as they were locked in.

The last event put me in the Pir-hana prototype's seat. That thing is a fucking bitch to drive. I attempted the race five times but I got beat by a few seconds at the end every race. I think there is a section towards the end where I have to be faster. Next time I guess...

Fire Emblem Awakening

Validar

Date played: May 25th and 26th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through Chapters 23 and 24. Chapter 23 had Chrom and my dude stuck behind a barrier at the top of the map, facing Validar, the evil fuck from the first scene. The rest of the crew were below the barrier with a few dozen units to dispatch of their own. My team is very strong though so I had no problems at all getting it all over with. I'll spare this text the drama, but there were a lot of surprises in the story at this point. Needless to say, it all turned out in our favor.

Chapter 24 was set on a beautiful field against summoned beasts from the evil dragon or some other bullshit. This was a more interesting battle because of constant respawns from forts. I held out strong though and covered up all the key points with my flying units. Their mobility is really useful in every map... I also played six or seven random challenge battles, all very easy but letting me grind my way up slowly. I used second seals on a few of my units to let them level higher using a different class, or even the same class.

Kirby's Adventure

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

(>^_^).>

I played through the second world of this adventure. Kirby had to blast some baddies with all sorts of spells, even musical notes! Fireballs, electricity, stone, a sword, spikes and a fucking laser. That's right. Kirby has a laser.

This game plays well except for one little detail, there's a significant amount of slow down when there are three enemies or more on screen. It gets pretty ugly. World 3 is about to start!

Sega Rally 2

Date played: May 25th
Platform: Dreamcast
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played two years of the championship mode of Sega Rally 2 on my trusty Dreamcast for about 20 minutes. This game doesn't exactly play very well, but it has a unique feel that makes it worth playing again. I slid my way through dirt, mud, gravel, water, snow and asphalt. I completed the first championship year in 3rd place, driving a Lancia Delta.

I love the Lancia Delta

I was disqualified during the fourth race of the second year. I then tried the Lancia Stratos but felt it was too heavy for my style. I settled on the Peugeot 206 and had a better run, but still didn't win the second year. This game is a classic, even though it feels a bit like a relic. 

Knytt Underground

Date played: May 23rd
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 5/10

This is a game I received for free through PS Plus. I didn't know about the game beforehand so I had no idea what to expect. This is a 2D platformer with a dark art style. There's a story in there about fairies and sprites of some sort but it was way too late into the night for me to care.

The gameplay is simple but relatively fun. I was exploring a large cave of sorts, climbing ladders, sliding down walls and jumping across large gaps. I hope there is more to this game because as it stands, it's a bit too simple for my tastes. 

NHL Arcade

Those little goalies are hilarious!

Date played: May 22nd
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 9/10

This game is always fun with inept gamers. We played three humans vs 3 AI and we sucked so much that we lost 10-1. The second game was better as we learned the controls but the point was more to just have some mindless fun. NHL Arcade always delivers on that front!

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

Date played: May 21st, 22nd and 23rd
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 9/10

Well, I finally caved and bought a map pack for Black Ops 2. I skipped the first one as they are really expensive, but I couldn't pass this one up since my friend was buying it at the same time and wanted to try it that same night. The maps I got to try were really cool. One of them had areas that were full of deadly lava. The best new map was Vertigo, a sort of futuristic sky building. There was also a concert venue that features a stage and lots of little nooks and crannies to hide in.

Firing Range has been renovated into Studio

Last but not least is the rebirth of an excellent map, Firing Range. This has to be one of my favorite COD maps ever made, no question. It's a good size, has lots of good spots for firefights of any range and is just fun overall. Plus, they changed the set up to look like an movie set or an amusement park. There are dinosaurs, UFO's and all sorts of funny things scattered around.

I then played with two friends, them in split screen in the living room and myself on a monitor nearby. One of the girls had never played a first person shooter so we set up a private room and helped her learn how to play. While there wasn't much action, it was really funny seeing her get stuck on walls and looking at her feet the whole time. We even went online with her where she wasn't able to get a kill. I also played a few rounds by myself but nothing special really happened.

Fire Emblem Awakening

Vaike is one of my strongest units

Date played: May 21st
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played Chapter 22. This was a simple battle against the Plegian's strongest fodder units. I fought 12 or 13 strong units that were spread out in three groups across the map. Gerome and Tiki took out some of the weaker units then retreated for healing. Vaike and another took out many units on the other side but Vaike got out of there with only 3 HP. It was pretty fucking close. After the first few were taken out, I moved slowly towards the boss, taking advantage an amazing new bow that has three squares of range for attack, that changes the game completely! I am definitely nearing the end of the game now, I think there may be only two or three chapters left...

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

Date played: May 20th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 6/10

After a whole month of not having proper internet access, I finally have internet again. The first thing I did with it was pre-order Grid 2 on Steam. Once that was done, I moved my stuff around so that I could play Black Ops 2 with my room mate. She plays on her TV and I play on my monitor in the same room, it's pretty fucking awesome.

We only played a few rounds of Team Deathmatch together as time was very limited but I still managed a couple of decent games and a shitty one. My friend struggled a bit more though as she was very rusty.

Fire Emblem Awakening

Date played: May 19th and 20th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through another large portion of the story, Chapters 20 and 21. These are obviously pivotal chapters in the story as big villains are biting the dust now. Chapter 20 was an amazing battle against all of Valm castle, including a treacherous tactician, a valiant general and of course, the big red lobster himself, Walhart. The battle was fairly simple but quite lengthy and challenging. Since I've been fighting every random battle I can find and am restarting the game when I lose a unit I like, I've built up a very strong team that can take down almost anything.

I love my crew

After the encounter, we unceremoniously left with a new gemstone, the fourth of five. Right after that, we were offered the last gemstone by the Plegians, the sneaky bastards I fought a few times earlier in the game. Of course, it was a trap and we had to fight another army of bad dudes, including some very long range sages that could attack from almost anywhere in the map. Thankfully, I have pretty high resistance overall and made it through without a scratch to take down the boss. Unfortunately, there was a twist to this whole story! My player character is an amnesiac (typical Japanese games....) and it turns out that the Plegian bad guys could mind control him at will! The bad guy used his magic voodoo to force my character to give him the fire Emblem which is now complete with all five gemstones. I imagine the last few chapters of the game will be about the bad guys using it in some evil way which I will need to rectify. We shall see!

Fire Emblem Awakening

This is the biggest map yet

Date played: May 16th, 17th and 18th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 10/10

Whew, the story is getting heavier and heavier while the battles are getting lengthier! I played through Chapters 18 and 19, Paralogue 17 as well as a few random battles. Chapter 18 had me fight against one of Walhart's generals near a volcano. The map layout was interesting as well because different sections of the map would periodically turn to lava and hurt the units standing in the fire. It worked to my advantage since my units are pretty strong and managed to move forward quickly, leaving the fire to hurt only enemy units.

Chapter 19 was a fucking epic clash where we took down Walhart, or at least forced him to flee. This was a pretty normal battle except the map was gigantic and it was filled with a ton of high level units. I just stuck to my guns, paired up and played defensively while still moving forward. Eventually, I took the big red lobster down.

Paralogue 17 was one of the coolest levels yet. Tiki, aka The Voice, is performing some sort of dragon ritual. Our team has to protect her until her spell is complete. The trick is that there are a TON of reinforcements, almost all of them flying. They all go straight to Tiki so I had to build a defensive wall with my units around her so that she was completely out of range of any attacks. I didn't quite understand this the first time and got wiped pretty hard but on my second attempt, I just sat there, used rally a lot and waited for them to attack us. As a reward, Tiki has joined our team and has replaced Panne. Tiki is a Manakete, creatures that can turn into a powerful dragon.

Fire Emblem Awakening

Date played: May 15th

I think I'll fight this dude sometime

Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through Chapters 16 and 17 as well as a few random battles. Chapter 16 was really cool because it was set on enormous tree roots. The map was split into three roads so I sent three teams, each with a healer, a ranged unit and a physical fighter through each path. I sent two fliers to roam the empty space between the roads. The goal was just to make my way to the top and kill the boss but as I moved along, many reinforcements appeared from all sides. I made a dash for the boss, killed him swiftly and made it through the mission without fighting the reinforcements.

Chapter 17 was similar but this time, the enemies were a bit tougher to chew through. My strong team made quick work of the mission, though the stakes in the story are higher than ever. We are now attacking the enemy force head on, trying to find all the gemstones required to activate the titular Fire Emblem that will protect the world from evil....or something. 

Fire Emblem Awakening

Gerome is kind of a dick

Date played: May 14th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through three Paralogues back to back and recruited three new units along the way. It seems that Paralogue 10 was the toughest of them all since everything after it was a lot easier. Paralogue 11 had me trying to save some villagers from an onslaught of flying enemies. While I only managed to save two dudes, I also recruited Gerome, Cherche's and Lon'Qu's son who is also a flier. He's not just riding any old Wyvern though, he's riding Cherche's!

Paralogue 12 had me fighting on some weird cubes that made up the floor. This one was definitely one of the easier missions I've played in a while in the game. I saved Morgan who turns out is my character's and Lissa's daughter. Paralogue 13 was a lot more interesting, it gave me the option of joining one of two warring parties, a group of knights vs a group of horsemen. I first decided to help the horsemen but when I killed one of the units from the knights, I noticed that he was a Taguel, the weird rabbit morphing people. I figured, that must be Panne's and Virion's son, as she is the last known Taguel. I restarted the mission and this time fought against the horsemen. Sure enough, I was able to recruit the time travelling rat, Yarne.

I found that as I enter harder levels, pairing up is becoming more of a necessity than a bonus. I only have a handful of units that could really handle some of these tougher enemies on their own. I also play a bit more defensively by putting only one or two strong pairings within range of enemy units. They defend the initial attacks, killing many, then I let the weaker units take out the remaining attacking units. It's a bit slower but also very safe.

Bioshock Infinite

Date played: May 13th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 9/10

I finally got around to playing Bioshock Infinite! I don't want to spoil anything so I will try to stay as vague as possible. Be aware though, this game has one of the best introduction sequences since....well, since Bioshock! I play as Booker Dewitt, the only info I really got about him is that he wants to "save the girl".

The game is set on Columbia, a city in the clouds. It seems like it used to be part of the USA but then became a nation of it's own. They have a leader who seems to be considered a prophet of some sort. Oh yeah, and these guys are totally fucking racist as hell. All non-whites have been pushed to the opposing faction known as the Vox Populi. Soon enough, Dewitt finds himself at a high class raffle where the winner gets to throw a baseball at an interracial couple... Dewitt wins of course, but I was given the choice to throw the ball at the couple or at the announcer. I chose the announcer but as I was swinging my arm, I was labelled a false prophet due to a scar on Booker's hand.

Infinite has an amazing art style

That's where the fighting started. I had a pistol, soon picked up a machine gun and was introduced to Vigors, Infinite's version of magic I guess. I have two vigors right now, a skill that lets me possess machinery and people to fight on my side and a sort of fire grenade thing. The combat is smooth and fun to play, though I'm not a big fan of the controller configuration (I'll check the options, I might be able to find something better). I also picked up a sky hook, a sort of magnetized device used to traverse the floating buildings through the air. I can't wait to see where this game goes as I've barely scratched the surface. 

Fire Emblem Awakening

Date played: May 12th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 10/10

I fucking love this game, but I also hate it. It's really hard to prevent everyone from dying in some of the later Paralogues... I played through Paralogue 10, but it took me three solid attempts to succeed. I kept losing Cordelia, my Dark Flier, because she was a bit too weak to take more than one hit. After two failed attempts, I kept her out of the main battle, paired everyone up and went again, this time, suffering no losses.

Severa is pretty cool

In the process, I saved a lady called Severa which turned out to be Cordelia's and Vaike's daughter. I haven't really used the children characters yet as I have a very solid team already but maybe I'll level them up later on and have a B team. I also fought an easy random battle after that.
I then tried to complete Paralogue 11 but after 40 minutes of tactical play, I lost Maribelle and called the night.

Lego City Undercover

Date played: May 11th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

I finally entered my code from the Lego Chase set to unlock the two vehicles and two missions that are included in the real life playset. As the title implies, the missions were about chases. The first had me take down the red car with the patrol truck and the second had me run away from the cops in the red car. While the missions themselves were kinda boring, seeing the real life toys on screen is really cool.

I then played a portion of the next story mission where I have to infiltrate the Triads. I only played a short segment that involved scanning the area with a long range microphone to gather intel on the gang. I had to aim the Gamepad towards the conversations and picked up lots of funny stuff on the side before finding the bad guys. I think I'm going to be headed to a museum of sorts soon.

Sound Shapes

Creating levels is fun!

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

I was extremely tired after a long night of partying and drinking and such. At 5am, instead of going to bed, I thought I would play a game until sunrise, just for the hell of it. I settled on creating my first chunk of a level in Sound Shapes. I only tried it briefly when I first bought the game and felt like this would be a nice thing to do when inebriated.

I spent about half an hour learning the tool and building a small level, which isn't completed yet. I haven't decorated or put many objects in just yet as I'm trying to just place notes and terrain that works. I had to resort to putting lava walls in a couple of spots to prevent bugs and weird things. The song I'm making is a bit on the crappy side but it's melodic enough to pass. The platforming is also simple, but still interesting, at least I think so. I'm about two screens away from finishing the level but I also want to add a bunch of cool objects and sounds in there.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

Date played: May 10th

You mean I need TWO of these???

Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I got my good friend to try Black Ops 2 with me in multiplayer. We started with a little local 1 vs 1 game so he could get used to the controls. I helped him learn the basics like aiming down sights, creating a class, switching weapons, melee, etc. His accuracy was awful but navigating with two sticks wasn't a huge problem, which surprised me. The guy has never played a shooter with twin sticks and his last point of reference is Perfect Dark on N64 for fuck's sake. He was confused as hell about the radar and it's use, it was quite funny to watch.

We then played online and of course, he had a hard time but he also really enjoyed the firefights. His best game was a very respectable 5 kills and 5 deaths, pretty amazing for a newbie! I hope he gets interested in the series so I could play with him online.

Fire Emblem Awakening

The Dark Knight in FE isn't quite as badass

Date played: May 9th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I haven't played my 3DS in a long time because I meant to send it in for repairs. The 3D slider is broken and now all games are stuck in 2D mode. I was supposed to send it in weeks ago but I got lazy and never did it. I will send it soon but in the meantime, I figured I could play a bit more Fire Emblem.

I played two random skirmishes where I sent some weaker units to get a good feel for them, supported by my player character and one other high level. Then I completed one of the story missions where I had to save a swordmaster lady around a village, surrounded by enemies. Thankfully, I'm a bit over leveled and enemies go down quickly without being much of a threat. I sent my flying units in to save the girl while the rest of the team killed off a shitload of red dudes. When I saved the girl, she joined our cause. I didn't really pay attention to the setup for this mission so I'm not sure who she is and why she matters but I know I have a new swordmaster on my team. My player character also evolved into a Dark Knight, a mounted mage that can also use swords. 

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance demo

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

MGR:R is surprisingly fun, yet pretty damn frustrating at the same time. The game looks gorgeous, that's for sure.The animation is typical of a Platinum game, in fact, it looks a lot like Vanquish at times. This is a third person melee action game. While it's in the same genre as God of War and DMC, it surprised me because it felt different.

It actually felt a lot like a better produced Afro Samurai as many of the same concepts apply. There are similar moves like aiming the sword attacks while time slows down. Either way, that's generally a good thing. It took a while for me to understand how to play though as the tutorial is kind of shitty and doesn't explain much. After a bit though, I was parrying well and managed to slice some guys efficiently, but it's clear that this game has a deep combat system.

Fuck you wolf robot, fuck you.

After I made my way through a few regular cyborgs and a few mechs, I took on a weird wolf robot armed with a chainsaw. I tried this fight about 7 times before I had to leave and go to work. He hits hard, attacks quickly and is difficult to parry. I got him down to 25% or so on my best attempt. I'm not sure I really like this game too much, it feels a bit stiff, but then again, the system is complex enough that I could be just an ignorant noob about it.

God of War Ascension demo

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

Well, this is another God of War game. I beat up some dudes, killed giant monsters and watch Kratos be angry a lot, as expected. While that may seem a bit boring (it is the 6th game in the series after all), it still plays really well, looks fucking amazing and is a lot of fun.

This boss was a lot of fun to fight.

It starts with Kratos in chains, fighting a weird, half naked bug lady that he seems to have a history with. The whole demo is about chasing that bitch after Kratos escapes. Combat feels the same but has changed slightly. For example, the fury meter now allows for new attacks when full, even if it's not activated yet. Also, there are new grapple moves and the quick time events are designed a bit differently. Overall though, this is still God of War. There was a cool sequence where Kratos slides down some rubble, it almost felt like a racing segment. There was also a really cool battle with a humongous boss. The creatures tore out the section of the building that Kratos was in and waved it around like a toy plane while our hero had to fight enemies in the middle of the moving thing. I will definitely play this game at some point but there are others I would rather play first.

Injustice: Gods Among Us demo

Wonder Woman is awesome

Date played: May 6th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 2/10

Well, this turned out to be quite a boring fighting game, or at least, it's really not my style. I'm more of a Street Fighter kind of guy, but this plays a lot like Mortal Kombat in a lot of ways. I played four battles as Wonder Woman, managed to pull off a few special moves and her amazing special move. I beat Batman, Lex Luthor, Wonder Woman and the boss (I forget his name).

I don't have much to add, this is cool for DC fans but personally, the game isn't for me at all. The only cool parts are the cool animations on the special moves and the button that is assigned to interacting with the environment. It allows for cool moves on the fly, depending on what is around the player.