Spec Ops The Line

Date played: October 29th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I finished Spec Ops The Line.

War is hell man... holy shit this game is a real downer. Everything that could go wrong, goes wrong. While the gameplay remained very generic throughout, the story is surprising, interesting and depressing. I fought my way through hordes of enemies (?) doing standard, third person shooter things. There were many turret sequences, some on rails stuff on trucks and helicopters and lots of headshots. The game gets a lot harder in the last few chapters, but it feels artificial. Everyone now wears helmets, there are heavily armored guys, etc. They just throw more men at you that have more health and bigger weapons.

Walker feels the guilt and shame that other video game protagonists should

While I don't want to spoil too much of the story, I was surprised to see that there are quite a few moral choices to make towards the end of the game.  They affect the ending, though it seems like any decision is a bad one, similar to The Walking Dead. I enjoyed Spec Ops for it's story, characters and brave take on the soldier stereotype... You don't get glory and honor, you get shame and guilt. It doesn't help that women and children are a part of this game either. 

Pokemon Y

Flabébé is a cute, but weak fairy.

Date played: October 28th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 7/10

I made it through Route 14 and reached the next town, host of the 6th gym. It was a pretty cool gym layout, sort of a doll house thing with multiple rooms and teleportation pads. Unfortunately, I'm quite over levelled at this point. I'm thinking I should build a B team of some sort to kind of balance things out, but wrecking everything works too. There were some cool looking fairies in the gym, but most were ones I had seen before, including a Kirlia, my Gardevoir's previous evolution stage. We are now headed to the Pokeball factory, north of the town.

Spec Ops The Line

Date played: October 28th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I've heard so many good things on the internet about this game and I know it's short, so I figured it would be a good game to play until I get my PS4. I ended up playing through the first 6 chapters. The game is a third person military shooter where three US soldiers are tasked with rescuing another. It's set in a sandstorm ridden Dubai.

While the graphics aren't as sharp as other great third person shooters like Gears of War, it has a very interesting look, considering it's Dubai and it's full of sand. The lighting effects are also pretty impressive. However, the characters, textures and geometry isn't all that great. Thankfully, the game plays surprisingly well. After GTA V, aiming in a third person game took me a few minutes to get back into, but ultimately feels a lot more rewarding. Ammo is pretty scarce too, though not enough to be a real problem. It does mean that I can't just spray and pray, encouraging careful aiming and squad tactics.

Dubai makes for a great video game setting

The weapons are standard fare, with assault rifles, shotguns, machine guns and submachine guns and a variety of grenades. One of the cooler features is that there are a few instances where I could shoot glass and have sand fall down on enemy soldiers.

However, the best part of the game so far is the intriguing story. There's CIA, a rogue US Army battalion and our three heroes. It's all really nasty, but essentially, I'm killing friendlies here. I'm interested to see more!

Grand Theft Auto V

Date played: October 27th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I finished GTA V's single player mode.

After finishing the main story, I completed Lester's remaining assassination missions, playing the stock market accordingly with my huge amounts of money from the last heist. The missions themselves weren't anything special, it was always about killing a guy or two, but the money was real nice. All of my characters ended up with over 1.5 billion dollars, enough to buy all the properties in the game, which I did. The best one is by far Los Santos Customs for Franklin as he can get all the car upgrades for free.

Los Santos Customs is a fun property to own!

I also played a mission as Trevor, where his mother shows up unexpectedly, asking him to prove his worth as a child by stealing a van of drugs for her... It was simple, but quite funny.

GTA V is an amazing game that deserves every little bit of praise it got from gamers around the world. The only thing that could have been better is the performance of the game itself and the resolution. I imagine the inevitable PC release will be the best way to play that game.

Grand Theft Auto V

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

I wouldn't say I've completed the game since I've got a few missions left to play, but I got the credits to roll in GTA V.

It all started with a crazy Mexican standoff between our heroes, the FIB blackmailers, the FIB internal investigations team and Maryweather. This led to a giant battle to escape for Micheal and Trevor, they had to shoot dozens of soldiers from all sides and a couple of helicopters (I love the RPG in this game).

Then, Franklin was asked to helped Lamar who got himself into trouble. He called Michael and Trevor who agreed to put aside their differences once again to help their friend. The mission itself was pretty interesting because I was given the opportunity to set up the three guys in different positions as we assaulted a sawmill, where Lamar was held by other gangbangers. Trevor used a bulldozer to infiltrate the place while Michael sniped from afar and Franklin ran in guns blazing. We saved Lamar, though he didn't seem very grateful.

Michael also had his share of troubles. His movie is finally being released so he went to attend the premiere. He bought a 10 000$ tuxedo, rented a limo and walked the red carpet with his son Jimmy. Devin showed up and implied that his family was in danger, so father and son raced back home and were greeted by Maryweather thugs who held Amanda and Tracey hostage. Michael shot everyone and told his scared family to hide somewhere else until it was safe.

Finally, it was time for the big one, the gold heist we had scoped out much earlier in the game. I decided to go with a subtle approach, favoring deception over brute force. This meant stealing two bank trucks, forcing one of it's drivers to help us gain access to the vault, Lester hacking into their systems to fake a gold retrieval authorization and getting away safely. I first stole a police truck that had some spike strips, which we would use to stop the trucks. Then, I had to find three specific cars that would be suitable for the gold transport during the getaway. I also had to mod the cars at Los Santos Customs to ensure they would be strong enough to carry 1 ton of gold each. We were finally ready.

I hired skilled people to help us out because I didn't want to lose a getaway car or something. The heist went surprisingly well. We stopped the bank trucks with the spike strips, replaced the tires, got a guard to help us, infiltrated the bank and basically played it cool until the gold was in the trucks for transport. As Michael and Trevor drove away, Franklin was tasked with changing traffic lights to stop incoming Maryweather soldiers. The minigame was pretty cool. Once we got the trucks to the getaway cars, we were ambushed by Maryweather. More shooting. Then we drove away as a convoy in our modified muscle cars, running from the cops. This was one of the better driving sequences, filled with scripted events and cool looking stuff. We eventually reached our destination, two cargo trucks in a tunnel, and got away safely. It was a lot smoother than I expected.

We pulled it off!

Everyone was laying low, but Franklin was put in a lose-lose situation. The FIB bitches are trying to force Franklin to kill Trevor, because he's unpredictable and a liability. On the other hand, Devin wants him to kill Michael. I had three choices, kill Trevor, kill Michael or do neither (deathwish). Of course, I wasn't about to kill Michael or Trevor, so we decided to go on the offensive and tie up all loose ends. In a cool sequence, all three boys went out against three targets. Michael took out the guy who had been causing problems with Lamar. Franklin took out the Chinese gangsters that were after Trevor, and Trevor went after the FIB asshole. This was a simple case of finding the dudes and killing them in cold blood.

Finally, there was Devin. Trevor volunteered to take him out at his house in the hills north of Los Santos. He killed all his guards, tied up Devin and drove him to a secluded cliff on the east coast. When Franklin and Michael got there, they simply pushed the car off the cliff and drove off into the sunset. Michael and Trevor seem to be friends again and they scored over 30 million dollars in the heist.

I still have stuff to do though, namely, Lester's assassination missions and a new Strangers and Freaks mission for Trevor. There's also a bunch of property to buy and maybe I'll check out GTA Online. This was easily the best game I've played this year, no question. Sure, The Last of Us was awesome, Bioshock Infinite was great, Fire Emblem was addicting and Pokemon is fun, but GTA V is in a class of it's own.

Pokemon Y

Date played: October 25th and 26th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 7/10

After activating Lumiose city's power, I explored the new areas that opened up. This includes a hotel where I could make beds, find customer's lost items and work room service for money. I scored a few nice TM's, bought some supplies, talked to a bunch of people and even encountered a scary woman that appears to be some sort of ghost.

Lumiose City

I then completed the fifth gym. This was a lightning based gym where I had to answer a fun quiz to make my up the building's floors. The quiz showed me the silhouette of a pokemon. then I was given three possible answers. If I picked the right answer, that meant fighting only one battle, then moving to the next floor. When I got the wrong answer, that meant an extra battle. The gym leader had three strong lightning pokemon, but my Krookodile's Dig move made short work of the little creatures. After the battle, I met with Professor Sycamore again, who directed me to Route 14.

Before going forward, I paid a visit to the classy battle place where they call me Earl. I fought maybe 6 or 7 battles before running out of opponents. This is a good place to make cash... I then battled a few wild creatures on Route 14, catching everything I could along the way. Route 14 is very creepy, it's a sort of swamp area with weird people, a (fake) haunted house and an unsettling atmosphere. I didn't make it all the way through, I was too busy catching the new monsters. Adventure awaits once more! 

Grand Theft Auto V

Date played: October 24th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 10/10

GTA V's quality just keeps on impressing me. It started with a very touching, if disturbing scene where Michael has a weird heartfelt conversation with his son Jimmy, who dropped in without warning. He convinced Michael to try and mend his relationship with Amanda. Along the way, they picked up Tracey who was trying to get a spot on Fame or Shame again. In an effort to help out his daughter, Michael roughed up Lazlow in a tattoo parlour. I pierced his face in three spots, tattooed a giant penis on his back and cut off his ponytail. We finally met with Amanda who was being annoyed with the dumb yogi. Michael then fucked him up to the cheers of his family. As a family, they agreed to consult Michael's shrink together. Hilarious dialogue ensued, people screamed and it seemed to actually help. The shrink had some bad news for Mike after the session, he's decided to make a TV show using stories from his patients. This of course, pissed Michael off, but I decided to let him off easy.

The De Santa family, reunited at last

After all that, Trevor had an endearing encounter with Mary-Ann, the exercise freak that the other guys met earlier in the game. He obviously a crush on her, mainly because he finds her even more fucked up than him. We raced on bikes and Trevor won.

Michael and Franklin then started setting up the next heist. The FIB still isn't leaving our boys alone, so we started working on an elaborate scheme with Lester to stop the blackmailing. We needed to steal a hard drive from the FIB building. Franklin stole some the plans to the building from an architect, which helped Lester figure out our approach. I chose to go in by stealing a janitor's ID and clothes. Michael infiltrated the place, mopped the floor to blend in, and planted two bombs without a hitch. We then hid a getaway car, stole a fire truck and detonated the bombs. Dressed as firemen, we were the first response team. We took the stairs to the top floor, stole the hard drive and started making our way out. We lost one of our hired gunmen in an explosion and Franklin was left behind as he was knocked out by falling debris. When he woke up, he had to shoot his way out to meet his partners. It was a really fun and varied mission, and I got to wear a fireman uniform!

Michael then continued his work in the movie business, now as an executive producer. He first had to chase a guy, run him off the road and kill him, as he was messing with Solomon, the movie mogul. The next mission was a bit more complicated. Devin and his crazy chick are trying to buy Solomon's real estate so the lady steals the film reel Michael was working on. The next portion was a simply epic car chase. Cops were after both Mike and the lady while she raced like a madman to the airport. When she got there, she made a mad dash to the runways, resulting in some pretty explosions and police cars being blown into the air by jet engines. In a twisted turn of fate, the lady was then sucked into a jet engine herself, which ground her into a puff of blood. Good stuff.

Pokemon Y

Tean Flare

Date played: October 22nd
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

Team Flare got in my way...but then gave me tons of exp! I fixed the device that powers the city by beating a giant crew of Team Flare trainers. It wasn't very hard, considering all my pokemon are now above level 45, but their outfits and poses were fun to watch I guess. We are now headed back to Lumiose city to explore the previously blacked out areas.

Grand Theft Auto V

Date played: October 21st
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I completed the Epsilon missions with Michael and yes, it got weirder than wearing weird robes for 10 straight days. I had gotten really bored of the nuclear waste retrieval, but I still managed to reach 19/30 collected, pretty good. This meant that Michael had a good amount of cash and had repaid the initial investment easily. I decided to really get in character, so I shaved his head, got him a goatee and pimped out his car to match the Epsilon colors. Combined with the random "Kifflom" and "Brother, brother" dialogue snippets, this really made it look like Michael was really into the Epsilon program.

I never expected to use these when playing GTA V

After the 10 days, I had a short mission where I had to simply fly a plane from one location to another. I accidentally flew over Fort Zancudo, but I somehow evaded the four star rating and landed the plane safely. I was then asked to walk 5 miles in the desert while wearing the robes. I wasn't about to do that for real, so I got a piece of pipe cleaner that my daughter had and strung it around the analog sticks so that Michael would walk in circles forever. I went for a cigarette, watched a couple of Quick Looks on Giant Bomb and after a while, I passed the mission.

To celebrate my membership, I was trusted to transport a large amount of money to a friendly helicopter. It wasn't long before I decided to steal the money and kill them all. It took me a few tries because the helicopter would fly up every time and I never found enough time to shoot it down without being killed. I changed my strategy to shooting the helicopter pilot first so that they couldn't take off and shot everyone else with the assault shotgun. I snagged 2.1 million dollars! To celebrate, I upgraded Trevor and Franklin's special cars with cool paint jobs and a bunch of performance and aesthetic upgrades. 

Pokemon Y

Krookodile is badass!

Date played: October 20th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 9/10

I made it to the fourth gym and completed it, netting me another badge. The gym was Grass based, so my powerful Blaziken completely destroyed any creature they put in my way, including the gym leader. My Krokorok evolved into a Krookodile and is a lot more useful than before. Almost all my crew is sitting between levels 42-47, so I'm closing the gap on the weaker pokemon I raised. I now have to a nearby power plant that is the reason Lumiose city isn't opened up completely.

I scored the Fly move, which allows for fast travel between pokemon centers. I thought it to one of my throwaway flying pokemon since I can just switch out every time I want to travel. I went back to the fancy manor that gave me the Viscount title and worked my way up to Earl. This is a good place to make money and exp so far, though I'm not quite sure if there's more to it than that. I also fought my girlfriend in a link battle again and for the first time, I won. Surf was the move that turned it all around for me as it took care of her strong Fire monster early on. 

Grand Theft Auto V

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

Nah, but Michael seems to like it

So...the Epsilon missions are kind of tedious. I was tasked with stealing 5 specific vehicles, four cars and a motorcycle. There was no quest marker though, I had to just find them. A couple of them were pretty common, so I picked them up from the streets. However, for the bike and two fancier cars, I had to look up a static location on the internet to find them. After that, I helped them use a weird sensor to find alien artifacts (a shoe). I was then asked to purchase some Epsilon robes (25 000$!) and wear them for 10 CONSECUTIVE IN GAME DAYS. What the fuck man?!? That means sleeping around 40 times...

I decided this was a good time to get some different quests done, all while wearing the robes. I bought the harbor on the West coast and am now able to search for submarine parts scuba diving, or search for nuclear waste barrels in a submarine. I found maybe 7 of the barrels before getting bored out of my mind and having barely made a dent in the 10 days. I guess I'll just keep going until I can't take it anymore then I'll go sleep until the mission completes. On the bright side, those barrels bring in quite a bit of money.

Grand Theft Auto V

Michael is back in town baby

Date played: October 19th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 10/10

Michael was still unaccounted for. That didn't stop Trevor and Franklin from finishing car heist storyline. Lamar somehow found the wanted car and called Franklin to come pick it up. We met with Trevor where we put the car in a cargo truck and drove away towards Blaine County. For the most part, the ride went well, with Lamar and Trevor having a very funny discussion as Franklin slept. However, the cops eventually showed up. Franklin climbed out of the truck and got into the car, then drove it off the truck to take care of the police. This was the armed stunt car from an earlier mission, equipped with machine guns and spike strips. I shot the police cars and blew their tires out until we could make a safe getaway. Once completed, we got fucked again as the lady wouldn't pay.

Franklin started wondering about Michael's whereabouts after the mission, so he called Lester, who managed to trace his cell phone signal to a building inside the city. Frankling drove there, shot everyone and saved Michael just before his execution was due. Everyone is tight lipped concerning the whole situation with Trevor.

I figured this was a good time for Michael to be misguided in search of redemption, so I enrolled him in the Epsilon cult. I completed an online survey, paid a small donation fee and quickly received an email with instructions. I went out to the location, recited an Epsilon provided prayer and got the shit knocked out of me by two followers. Then I woke up naked in the city... We'll see where that goes I guess!

Pokemon Y

Date played: October 18th and 19th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through the second and third gyms. The rock based second gym was pretty difficult as many of the creatures had very high defense and my team still had three pokemon that were relatively low level. I beat it, but I had to go back to the pokemon center to heal often. This was made a bit easier with my shiny new yellow bike! That thing is fast!

I fought a lot of creatures in the caves leading to the third gym. That's where I got a few of my pokemon to evolve. Ivysaur is now a powerful Venusaur. Helioptile is now Heliolisk. Kirlia is now Gardevoir. Frogadier is now Greninja. Combusken is now Blaziken. Finally, Sandile is now Krokorok. Everyone is stronger than ever, most of them being around level 35 or higher. I've also picked up some TM's and an HM, Surf. Surf lets me ride one of my pokemon on water, pretty useful. I also have a rock smash and a rock push ability.

Gardevoir, fairy/psychic type

The third gym was interesting, but a lot easier. It's a fighting type gym, so my Gardervoir was the best pokemon to use throughout the entire place. I had to run back to heal again, but it felt a lot easier than the last one. As a reward, in addition to the badge of course, I was given a mega ring which allows certain pokemon to mega-evolve. This is a temporary transformation used in battle that increases the pokemon's power and appearance. For now, Blaziken, Venusaur and a Lucario I was given are the only ones that can do it. It looks cool and adds a bit of spice to the mechanics.

Pokemon Y

Date played: October 17th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 9/10

I made some good progress, though I'm quickly realizing that my main Pokemon are a bit over-leveled. Two of them are now level 31 and I haven't received my second badge yet, which means that I could theoretically lose control of them during battle. I swapped out Pikachu and replaced him with a Helioptile that I received through Wonder Trade. That thing is so cool, I spent a bunch of time catching some monsters to trade them with a random person, then I trade until I get something new. Then I catch another monster to trade! It's a fun feature.

Helioptile is awesome!

I also swapped out Roselia and replaced her with Ralts, which has evolved into Kirlia. She's a psychic fairy, which rounds out my team pretty well. I've also decided to drop Pancham to replace him with Sandile, a ground, rock type that looks like a crocodile. I think I have more versatility now, but I have to level up my three new members a bit more before they are really useful. I went through a large cave, searching for a fossil. There were lots of rock pokemon in there. Then I got a fishing rod on the beach, fought half a dozen Luvdisc's and headed to the next town where I stopped playing.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

Date played: October 17th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 7/10

Ghosts can't get here soon enough. A recent trailer (featuring Eminem!), got me really excited for the multiplayer and I fell back on Black Ops 2. I'm too far in to buy new map packs but I'm still a month out from Ghosts... I settled for a few rounds of Domination, nothing really special happened.

Grand Theft Auto V

Date played: October 16th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played a very cool stealth mission to help the FIB get some valuable toxin thing from an isolated lab in Blaine County. Michael and the two FIB agents infiltrated the facility by scuba diving through some thermal vents that led out from the building into the sea. I had to cut through a grate using an underwater torch, then we swam in and stunned the scientists we encountered, avoiding detection. When we finally found the room with the stuff, Michael grabbed it and we fought our way out of the building. Outside, Trevor was waiting with a huge cargo helicopter. I had to pick up the container and fly back to the airfield, where Franklin had secured a truck to transport the item. At the same time, Michael got a text saying that he was now free to enter the city! Yay!

Scuba diving was pretty cool

Back in Los Santos, the next mission was all about the lies that Michael kept telling Trevor. Trevor, being smarter than he looks, finally figured out that their buddy Barry died in the famous heist 10 years ago. Michael keeps lying though and is forced to follow Trevor to his "grave", where Trevor wants to dig up the body to confirm his suspicions. Evidently, he was right and storms off in a rage after holding a gun to Michael's face. Then Asians showed up to shoot Trevor, but couldn't find him and attacked Michael. I shot them all and that was that. Trevor, back in Blaine County, developed a weird relationship with the lady he had kept hostage. He drove her back to her husband but it was evident that he was heartbroken. I have to say, the dialogue is still fucking great in this game, it's what makes some of the simpler missions so much fun.

Pokemon Y

Date played: October 14th and 15th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

Fight, walk, fight, catch, walk, talk, walk, fight, walk, fight, heal, walk, fight.

That's pretty much Pokemon. Now, don't get me wrong, that's quite a lot of fun on it's own, but it's pretty boring as a blog post. My team is starting to take better shape now. Frogadier, Combusken and Ivysaur are my basic water, fire and grass creatures, all of which are very strong for the area I'm in. They are around level 27-29. I also have Pancham around level 16, he is a Fighting type panda creature. I like him a lot, he looks cool and has useful moves. To round out my team, I've added Roselia, a poison/grass type. She was redundant with Ivysaur so I've replaced her with a Ralts, a fairy/psychic type. I also had Pikachu but I got a Helioptile from Wonder Trade so I decided to swap him out. Wonder Trade is pretty cool, you just put a pokemon up for trade and it finds a random partner to trade with.

As for the game itself, I've progressed a bit. I made it to another town, found a place to plant berries, explored a fancy castle and woke up/fought a Snorlax who was blocking the way to the next area. I also fought many trainers in a fancy house where I was referred to as "Baron" then, after winning a lot, "Viscount". That was fun. I am now faced with a cave which I have to travel through to reach the second gym. I've also tried playing a battle against my girlfriend, which was really close for a while, but then we got disconnected. Oh well, next time I guess.

Grand Theft Auto V

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

Stunts, banks, miniguns, racists, boats, bikes and crashing trains. Wow, what a game.

GTA V keeps impressing me every step of the way. It started with some daredevil action as Franklin stumbled upon a man stuck in a tree after a base jump. This led to a series of missions that had me base jumping off a ton of crazy places, even some of the mission markers required me to use a helicopter, the blimp or even a dirt bike. There were maybe a dozen side activities related to that, all of which were pretty fucking crazy... For example, I drove an ATV onto a cargo plane and did air stunts with it as I fell to towards the ground, then jumped off and parachuted to safety. In the end, my mission guy, Dom, killed himself by trying a dangerous move off a bridge. Franklin also met Mary Ann, the crazy athlete that raced Michael earlier in the game. We raced a triathlon against each other and she screamed out obscenities when Franklin won.

Trevor also had an interesting side story where he met a very racist man who acts as a vigilante border patrol agent. The missions were pretty simple, but the dialogue was fucking gold! In the end, Trevor, being an immigrant himself, turns on his allies and kills them in cold blood.

I then played a few real story missions. Michael and Trevor are still not allowed in the city, so to even the score, they decided to run a job in Sandy Shores at a local bank. After scoping out the place and learning the police response, we hijacked some military hardware, including a minigun, from a freight truck to help us bust through the cops after stealing the money. We did the job and it went well, even though we had to shoot down dozens of cops, soldiers, jeeps, trucks and helicopters. We actually scored some real money for once and I'm planning on buying a couple of properties with the profit.

The minigun segment was exciting!

The last mission I completed was also completely insane. Trevor keeps watch on a high value cargo train that comes through Sandy Shores every month. We decided to get on it, crash it and retrieve whatever cargo we could from the wreckage. This meant Trevor following the train in a dirt bike, jumping onto it and riding the bike to the lead car then killing the driver. He then redirected the train to a different route so that it crashed with another incoming train, resulting in epic destruction below a bridge. Michael was waiting in a boat nearby and managed to snag a fancy looking statue from the cargo as Trevor held incoming cops with a machine gun. Seems like a lot of work for a fucking statue if you ask me!

Pokemon Y

Date played: October 12th and 13th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 9/10

I convinced my girlfriend to try playing a real game again. She used to play a lot in the past, stuff like Starcraft, The Sims and Final Fantasy Tactics, but in the last few years, she sort of stopped and played a few tap and wait games on iOS and social media sites. Those games aren't usually very deep though and I figured Pokemon was something she might want to try. Nintendo is pretty devious though, they only allow one save file per cartridge, forcing me to buy two versions of the game so that we could both play. I picked Y and she picked X. I also had to get her a system to play it on so that we could play at the same time! We ended up buying a 2DS, the new version of the 3DS...without 3D.

The device is actually pretty damn cool if you ask me. While the screens feel small compared to my XL and the dpad seems too small, everything else feels great. The biggest improvement is how much more comfortable it is to hold compared to the regular 3DS. It's very ergonomic, I like the shoulder buttons a lot.

I picked the frog, my girlfriend picked the fox

Pokemon Y feels like a really impressive step forward for the series, mostly because of the new 3D graphics engine. It was about fucking time this series updated it's old look... I picked Froakie as my starter, the water frog thing. This isn't my first time playing Pokemon, but I've never really gotten into it. The game starts the same way as every other game. I quickly built a team of low level monsters and beat the first gym, a bug type gym. I scored an exclusive fire type, Torchic, for connecting the game to the internet. He came in really handy in that gym. There's a lot going on in this game, mini-games, items, battles with multiple pokemon on screen and an extensive but confusing online suite of features.

I made it to the second large city, where I was given the choice of a free pokemon from the three original beasts, Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle. My team is now pretty balanced, featuring Frogadier, the evolution of Froakie, Combusken, the evolution of Torchic, Bulbasaur, Pikachu, Combee and Spewpa, an evolution of Scatterbug. I think I have a decent team, but I definitely want to replace either Combee or Spewpa, or both. I've been catching all the Pokemon I could, even if I don't plan on using them, it's fun!

Grand Theft Auto V

Date played: October 13th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 3/10

What the fuck Rockstar?

What. The. Fuck?

I ran into a major glitch in the game. While Michael and Trevor were laying low after the last job, Franklin only had Lester's assassination mission available. There was also a green icon at Michael's house, which normally means there is a mission to complete there. However, when I drove Franklin there, there was no yellow area for me to trigger the mission start.

To resolve this, I first tried saving and reloading. When that didn't work, I tried sleeping multiple times in a row to advance time in the game, hoping for a new text message or email mission. That failed. I then looked online and this seems to be a widespread problem, though the specifics differ from user to user. One player posted on Rockar's forums, saying that when he took a cab from his house to the marker, it worked. I tried it and was finally able to start the mission. This is one of the worst glitches I've had in a game in a while. Skyrim had it's share, but it was never dangerous enough to threaten my entire save file...

The mission itself was pretty cool though. At the marker, the game switches to Trevor, who received a tip that a large cargo plane was transporting lots of weapons, so he jumps in a crop dusting plane and follows the large aircraft around. I had to stay below police radar for a while until I could crash my little plane into the back of the cargo plane. I then shot my way through it, avoiding Jeeps as they rolled off the edge of the plane. I took control of the behemoth, but was chased and shot down by two jet fighters... Trevor parachuted down to safety and now plans on retrieving the weapons from the crash site.

Grand Theft Auto V

Date played: October 11th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played a quick mission where Franklin had to steal another fancy car, this time from a Hollywood movie set. I sneaked in using a stunt man's costume, got in the car and drove off. Unfortunately, the passenger seat was occupied by a snotty actress who thought it would be smart to get her hands on the steering wheel as I was driving away, jerking the car around. I soon found out that this was a stunt car, loaded with spike strips. I lured the cops into an alley and dropped the spikes, knocking out three police cars in one shot. As I was running away, I pressed a big red button that dramatically ejected my annoying passenger into the sky. Oops.

Franklin is moving up the food chain!

It's really nice playing a good old fashioned car theft mission, matching the game's title. I spent the rest of my time fucking around the city. I explored many areas of the map I hadn't been to yet, though I didn't really find anything unique. I accidentally flew over fort Zancudo where I was promptly shot down by a jet. I then went on a sort of improvised rampage off the west coast of Blaine County. I boarded a large sailing ship, equipped my light machine gun and dropped police helicopters and boats until I was overwhelmed. It was really fun to do, even if it was completely pointless. I topped off my evening by making a crazy looking custom car. I stole the oldest looking car I could find, some old boat-thing in Sandy Shores, and pimped it out with a light pink paint job, a turbo, some fancy headlights and wheels with dollar signs on them. Yep, fucking gangster.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

Another November, another Call of Duty game

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

I'm starting to be really excited for the PS4 launch and Call of Duty Ghosts. I know it's cliché, but just love getting my hands on the new CoD game every year. I've played all of the console releases and it's really time for new hardware to get some better resolution and better effects in these games, they are starting to feel pretty old.

I played a few rounds of Team Deathmatch and did well, but I spent more time playing Domination. I played very well and even managed to score a couple of sentry guns, since there are more points awarded in Domination mode.

Grand Theft Auto V

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

The missions just get better and better...

We finally completed the heist we were forced to do by the FIB. In the end, it became a huge shootout with the cops. Franklin and Michael were on the ground, shooting enemies with machine guns and grenades. Trevor was perched in a tower and shot rockets at the cops when it got too hairy. He also took out a helicopter with the sniper rifle.

After all that, Franklin was given a nice house in northern LS by Lester as a reward for his help with the hotel assassination. The house has a 2 car garage and is very luxurious. Trevor also moved but for different reasons. He finally met Brenda, the owner of the apartment he was using. He didn't like her too much and snapped. It's implied that he killed the couple in a bloody mess... Oddly enough, he chose to muscle his way into staying at the strip club's office.

That's when Trevor met an odd guy who sells houses. He offers Trevor some "bouncy-bouncy" time with a lady if he helps him destroy a competitor's signs. I had to consult a real estate website to find the location of 15 properties. Trevor got to bouncy-bounce, then "knocked some sense" into the competing agent. More bouncy-bouncy. It turns out the lady was the odd guy's wife but Trevor doesn't give a shit. The last mission in the string so far was to go torch the odd man's house so he could claim the insurance money. Unfortunately, the guy tried to pin the cops on Trevor. I don't think that was a good idea, Trevor doesn't seem to appreciate treason too much.

Michael got to meet a famous movie producer who needed some muscle to complete his movie. This translated into Michael sneaking around a building, knocking out some dudes and giving a fucking wild helicopter ride to the uncooperative actor and director.

All three protagonists continued the car theft storyline. These missions are surprisingly fun, creative and interesting to play. The first one I played had Franklin lure two guys with hot cars into a freeway race. Trevor and Michael, hilariously costumed as motorcycle cops, then intercepted and chased the two guys, eventually catching them and stealing their cars. The second mission had Trevor spotting the owner through a very high tech camera from a helicopter. The camera has a very long range microphone, a powerful zoom and a scanner that identifies pedestrians. Once I found my guy, I had to keep the camera on him to help Franklin track the man down and steal the fancy car.

We then scoped out a new heist. There's a bank where a lot of gold is being held which seems to have pretty low security. We followed some of the trucks to know their route and try to find an opening. They go through a long tunnel at one point, which could be a good way for us to steal the trucks and gain access to the gold storage area.

The last mission I played was one of the most exciting missions I've played in a game on a while. Michael and Trevor had to retrieve a package from a jet plane. Unfortunately, the plane was airborne. Michael borrowed an immensely powerful sniper rifle which he used to shoot one of the plane's engines down. I even had a little wind meter and a little box to tell me where to aim to compensate for the jet's flight and the wind. After three shots, the engine caught fire and I switched to Trevor.

This mission was breath-taking!

This segment was so fucking awesome! Trevor sped off on the dirt bike after the plane. In the distance, I could see the plane slowly losing altitude, black smoke trailing it. Trevor had to keep up with it, navigating rough terrain until the plane crashed in Sandy Shores. Epic.

Pocket Planes

Date played: October 9th and beyond!
Platform: Android
Session fun rating: 8/10

Well, this is the most fun I've had with a mobile game since Jurassic Park Builder, which I still play every day for a few minutes. Pocket Planes is another tap and wait game where the goal is to build a sprawling airline company. I started my adventure in Ottawa (creepy game) and have since expanded to include Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Boston, Cincinnati, Detroit, Thunder Bay and even Goose Bay, in northern Quebec. I have about 9 planes to my name, most of them pretty small.

The objective is to transport both cargo and passengers to the different cities. Each plane has a different carrying capacity, weight, speed, range and class. Successful transport yields currency, that is then used to open new airports, buy new aircraft and upgrade existing aircraft. It's dumb, but the timing on this stuff makes the game extremely addictive. I love it!

Grand Theft Auto V

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

Golf, tennis, a booty call, masks and an assassination. For the upcoming heist, I bought some funky masks. Trevor got a monster head, Franklin a festively colored mask and Michael a red hockey mask. GTA V has a 100% checklist that is easily accessible on Rockstar Social Club and it's strangely compelling to complete. That's when my GTA V sports adventure began!

Michael first called up Franklin to play a round of golf. The 9 hole course is surprisingly detailed and the mechanics are pretty damn impressive. It plays like almost every golf video game I've played in my life. It has different shot types, spins, all the clubs and a little meter for power and such. There's even a wind meter! I took my time, using the golf cart and everything. For the first two or three holes, we played during a large storm. Franklin sucks at golf and he shows it with colorful language throughout. I played 2 under par, pretty good for a first run. After dropping off Michael, I gave Trevor a call for some tennis. I won the set easily but it was worth playing just to see Trevor's old school tennis outfit. Franklin ended the festivities with a visit to the strip club, got Juliet to like him enough and managed to go back to her place for some dirty action.

Golf was fun!

Before moving on to the heist, I had to complete an assassination mission for Lester as Franklin. This is one of the missions with major profit potential. I admit, I looked it up first, so I invested tons of money in Betta pharmaceuticals which was primed for a better price after killing the competition's CEO. I got to a parking garage overlooking the hotel the target was staying at, grabbed my sniper rifle and shot him in the head when he came out. I then ran away from the cops and sold all my shares. Franklin now has a little over 160k while Trevor and Michael are over 300k. The heist is next.

Grand Theft Auto V

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Skylanders Giants

These zombies love to dance!

Date played: October 6th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 6/10

Heroic challenges. Tons of heroic challenges.

My daughter wanted me to play this so she could pick the toys I played with, so I went with the short form heroic challenges. I didn't quite realize this, but I think playing with new skylanders also unlocks new heroic challenges, and more stats boosts. That means I have a few more events to play. I found hidden paintings in a tomb, shot green enemies and spared purple ones (near impossible with Tree Rex...) and destroyed barrels. The barrels one was pretty cool since I had to change the color of my attack by hitting larger barrels, green, blue and yellow. It actually forced a small amount of strategy to finish the task on time. I also revisited the geckos, the dancing zombies, the ice race and the spiders.  My skylanders are getting stronger and stronger!

Mario and Luigi Dream Team

Date played: October 5th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 7/10

I climbed a bit of Mount Pajamaja. I fought some new enemies, most of which were pretty simple to beat. When I met up with the Massif brothers, I learned a new move that I knew was coming soon. The spin. This allows Mario and Luigi to cross large gaps by standing on each other's heads and spinning like idiots. It opens up tons of new areas, I'll have to re-explore previous sections to find secrets. This also carried into the dream world as the Luigi tower can now turn into a Luigi triangle that can cross gaps. I found a few dream sequences and am on my way to opening a large door to climb higher in the mountain.

Grand Theft Auto V

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

I completed the smuggling missions with Trevor, or at least I've done each of the different types at least once. My contact even installed a carpet bombing system on the plane, which I used to take out some dealers who had taken over my airfield. Trevor then met up with Nigel again. It turns out the kidnapping didn't go so well, the victim is refusing to eat. Nigel asks that it be "taken care of" by Trevor. Man in trunk, I headed for the train tracks...but the star's pleading got to me and I let him go along the way, rewarding me with 10 000$.

Michael had his share of troubles... Amanda's friendly yoga coach coaxed Michael into trying yoga with him. I then played one of the funniest mini-games yet to perform yoga. It felt like something right out of a David Cage game. When things got a little too sexual for our hero, he attacked the coach and that's when Amanda bailed out. Michael then hangs out with his son, which turned into a weed run. On the road back home, he gets high and can't handle his buzz where his son ungratefully pushes him out of the car, leaving him stoned on the pavement. Michael then hallucinated more aliens, this time, abducting him to their UFO and dropping him out of the air. He then woke up in his underwear and pathetically biked home, still half high. The cherry on the cake was the letter on the counter. Amanda and the kids moved out until Michael gets better, leaving him depressed and angry. Oh yeah and his son stole his car. Shitty day.

On the next mission, the three protagonists are finally brought together by the awful, blackmailing FIB. We were tasked with retrieving a witness from the FIB building. This meant Trevor flying a helicopter, Franklin offering sniper support and Michael rappelling down the building's side, crashing through the window and grabbing the guy. This mission was great because I could switch between characters at will. I used Franklin to clear out the building with his sniper rifle and to take out one of the chasing helicopters. It wasn't long after our successful recovery that we were forced to come back and do more of the sinister FIB agent's doing though.

Kick ass.

I played the now internet-famous torture scene. Trevor was asked to get information from a guy while Michael used it to find the target. This was a bit of a weird scene because I got to pick the tools used to torture the man. A water jug, pliers, a hammer and some jumper cables. It was awful... Michael found the target and shot him. Thankfully, Trevor has enough heart to save the man after the torture. Instead of killing him as instructed, he gave him a ride to the airport.

I then did a couple of side missions as Franklin. He took some pictures of a pop star being arrested for a DUI and of another famous person buying drugs for our paparazzi friend. He also helped recover some drugs from stashed cars for the guy who is trying to legalize it. Trevor also met this guy, smoked up and hallucinated some clowns, which he shot. Last but not least, I decided to roam around a bit and found a lady about to be buried alive. When I drove her back home after killing her two attackers, she rewarded me with a solid 60 000$. Oh yeah and I stole a jumbo jet from the airport for fun.

LittleBigPlanet PSVita

Date played: October 4th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through a good portion of the story in LittleBigPlanet Vita. I completed the tech world which had some pretty crazy levels that required me to be quick to combine touch controls while using the grapple. It also had a really cool tilt level. I was controlling some sort of ball by tilting the Vita, jumping and boosting my way around a Sonic 2 Chemical Zone-like tube system. I then played through the entirety of the next world, themed around cars and vehicles. One of the coolest levels had me driving an odd triangle shaped vehicle with three wheels, one at each edge. As long as at least two wheels touched the ground, it would stick completely. The speed of the vehicle combined with the challenge of  getting two wheels to touch the ground made it one of the most fun levels.

Another level surprised me because it felt like...Bioshock Infinite's rail segments. I had to use the grapple to grab onto trains on rail segments in the sky. It felt amazing. There were also a lot of levels where I had to use the grabinator gloves to transport objects, bombs and other stuff to solve puzzles and progress. At the end of the world, I escaped from a giant metal eating robot in a junkyard...

It sounds crazy, but this was a lot like Bioshock Infinite's rail sections...but more fun

I also started what I believe to be the last world, a haunted house of sorts. The first level had me turn on light switches so that the ugly lady who hosted me could go forward and open doors for me. The next one was set in a dirty, spooky kitchen where I had to navigate burning fires, ovens and other kitchen stuff, but it was nothing as interesting as the previous world's crazy vehicle antics. Of course, along the way, I unlocked a ton of side activities and a fun arcade game where I had to guide a falling ball through a maze while picking up scattered orbs. To guide the ball, I had to touch portions of the screen to have walls disappear. It's hard to describe but it was a nice little distraction. 

Grand Theft Auto V

Date played: September 1st
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 9/10

It started with a couple more smuggling missions as Trevor. In a plane, I was tasked with bombing the competition as I flew over their little camps. The first time I tried, I dropped a bomb while being very close to the ground. I didn't crash or explode, but the plane's left engine started smoking and sputtering. It made it harder to fly, but I thought I would be ok if I was careful. What I didn't expect was that after about 2 minutes of flying, the other engine failed and forced me to retry the mission. The attention to detail in this game is staggering...

I then helped Nigel and his friend by nabbing a golf club from a famous person. I had to chase the guy with a golf cart. I shot his tires and he gave it up pretty quickly. I also stole clothes from a swimming star. Oh yeah and he saved a man trapped in a construction truck by moving debris with a powerful but slow bulldozer. Nigel, happy with Trevor's work, asked him to help him chase a famous man. We chased him around in a car for a while until he decided to crash through a hospital! I chased after him, drove out the building's window and caught him, only to stuff him in the old couple's trunk. Good times.

Micheal also had a bit of side quest action by saving his daughter Stacey from a creepy dude who followed her around. I had the choice of killing him or not, but I accidentally ran him over... she was pissed. I then finally played a story mission. Micheal met up with an FIB agent, a guy who helped him set up his new life after faking death. Somehow, he knows Micheal was responsible for the jewelry store heist so he blackmails him into getting some work done for him. I was tasked with infiltrating a morgue and identifying a dead body as the FIB agent seems to think there's a cover up going on. He hit Micheal on the head and somehow got him to be taken to the morgue. When I woke up, I killed the attendant and picked up a pistol. The mission had me navigate through the morgue, killing a bunch of security guards. Eventually, I found the body, identified it was indeed a cover up and escaped through the window and ran from the cops. I then met up with Franklin and it seems he's gonna help me deal with the blackmail bullshit.

Yep, I moved containers with a crane

Back to Trevor. He wants to make some money so he convinces Wade's cousin to take him to his workplace, a large ship yard, to scout out thieving opportunities. Reluctantly, he agrees and they dress up as dock workers then head out to the ship yard. To avoid raising suspicion, Trevor has to do some honest work. I drove a hilariously large forklift and moved some containers. I then used a giant crane to do the same. While the mission itself was boring to play, the dialogue was pretty awesome, filled with jokes about unions. In the end, Trevor figured out that there was some valuables to loot from a large cargo ship and from a nearby off shore vessel of some sort.

Cue the second heist. I had the choice of either getting the loot from the cargo ship or from the off shore vessel. I chose to go with off shore, as it involves a helicopter and a submarine and that sounds fucking great. Trevor got Micheal interested, and I'm sure Franklin will be in on the job soon as well.