Pokemon Y

Lysandre is a pretty cool villain

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

I played through a few different areas of Pokemon Y. I cleared the giant ice cave that hosted an yeti looking creature being held hostage by Team Flare. The area was pretty interesting, including some interesting ice sliding puzzles. I captured maybe 5 new beasts, mostly ice-based of course. My team is pretty much set at this point though, so I'm just catching them for the hell of it. I then rode an ice creature through thick snow to the next town, home to the 7th gym.

After talking to all the townsfolk, I beat the shit out of the gym residents, mostly using my Gardevoir's Moonbeam. All my Pokemon are above level 60 now, so I have no issues winning any battles. After I beat the gym, I was informed that I could try to stop Team Flare by finding their secret lair hidden in a cafe in Lumiose City. I flew there and found the entrance where I had a pretty cool battle against Lysandre, the leader of Team Flare. I started exploring the lair, where I fought many of the Team Flare leaders I already faced in previous areas. We'll see where that leads.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Date played: November 24th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

Even though I've played Assassin's Creed 3 and Liberation this year, I'm back on board for the pirate themed Black Flag. Sailing ships was the best part of AC3, so the latest entry in the series has me very excited. It stars Edward Kenway, a Welsh man who became a privateer, then a pirate in search for fame and fortune. He's kind of a dick, which makes him a pretty interesting character so far, definitely more interesting than Connor ever was.

The game starts with Edward, a crew member on a pirate ship, when they get attacked by another ship. There is an assassin who kills my captain when suddenly, I was thrown overboard by the storm. The ship is a wreck and I ended up stranded on the beach with the assassin in question. I chased him around the beautiful lush jungle and when I caught him and killed him, I found a mysterious letter that promises riches if I bring the letter back to Havana. While trying to find a way off the island, I rescued a sugar merchant named Stede Bonnet who rewarded Edward's ruthless killing of his captors with a ride to Havana on his ship.

Edward Kenway

I was then pulled out of the Animus, which revealed that I am playing a tester for Abstergo Entertainment, a division of Abstergo that makes video games, movies, novels and more. The location is super cool and feels like a high tech business office. I explored it a bit, now in first person view, and heard some interesting conversations before going back in the Animus to test some more.

That's when the game really started. I was able to explore Havana as I have in countless AC games, climbing view points, getting chests, doing a few assassination contracts and getting into trouble with local guards, you know, killing them in cold blood and stuff. There are two new things to collect so far, some Animus fragments that don't seem to have a purpose and songs, that seem to indicate my crew can eventually sing them...

The game plays really well, but honestly, it doesn't look all that much better than AC3 on Wii U did. I'm already falling in love with the setting and characters. I can't wait to play more of it.

Pikmin 3

Date played: November 24th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

DIE giant plant crab thing!

My daughter begged me to play Pikmin 3 with her and of course, I just couldn't resist her pretty little smile. I only played one exploration day, but it was a big one. We finally took out the big crap-plant boss thing with a red Pikmin assault, powered by super juice. After looting a gigantic honeydew melon and dragging the dead boss back to the ship, I took the rest of the day to replenish my Pikmin by fighting some water enemies and bringing back some colored pills. I've found ALL the fruit in the area and found the little blue thief. The thief still had the juice on him, which we took back. When we got to the ship, we hogtied the little motherfucker so that he never steals again. We must now explore a new area to see if we can find Olimar there.

Need For Speed Rivals

Date played: November 23rd and 24th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I've been a long time Need For Speed player. It all started with the original on PC in 1995 when I started high school. NFS2 kept us busy a few years later. I fell in love with the series with NFS3: Hot Pursuit on Playstation though, where my friends, brothers and I had tons of fun chasing each other as cops. High Stakes was kind of boring... Then when Porsche Unleashed came out, a good friend of mine was completely obsessed with the brand, so I played a ton of that one. To this day, I still have the stupid theme song from Hot Pursuit 2 stuck in my head every once in a while, the best NFS game on PS2. I played and enjoyed Underground, the first in the series to offer an open world. I skipped Underground 2, but was back to the series with Most Wanted, one of my first games on 360. I then took a huge, multi-year break from the series, skipping Carbon, Pro Street, Undercover, Shift, Nitro and World. It took Criterion to get me back with the confusingly titled Hot Pursuit. Again, I took a break and skipped Shift 2 and The Run. Criterion got us confused again by releasing another game called Hot Pursuit, my favorite in years. This year, Need For Speed welcomes me into a new generation of consoles once again with Rivals.

Rivals is fast, fun and pretty

Rivals is pretty much Hot Pursuit with a new name. The big difference is that now, the game map is automatically populated with 5 other players that run their own events. There is a cop and racer campaign and I chose to go as a racer. The game generates playlists where you have to accomplish specific tasks to level up, for example, win a race, beat a time trial and side slam an opponent. Once complete, you level up and gain new cars, customization options and tuning.

There are weapons too, like EMP, jammers and other weird attacks that can used against cops and racers. I haven't played a lot, but I'm liking what I've played so far. Also, while the game looks pretty damn good, I'm disappointed that it doesn't run at 60 FPS and does not include any sort of split screen racing...

Resogun

Date played: November 23rd
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through the first level and a bit of the second with my brother when he came over to check out Resogun. While I didn't do anything new from the last time I played, I was able to better appreciate the amazing graphics when I wasn't playing. There are voxels flying all over the fucking place in this game, it's insane! I feel like this is what Audiosurf should LOOK like, even if it doesn't play like Resogun at all. If only I could get this stuff to blow up to the beat of my own music, I would be in high tech heaven.

Call of Duty Ghosts

Octane is always exciting!

Date played: November 22nd and 23rd
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

I AM A MONSTER!

I'm starting to get my groove here and had some very strong matches, including an amazing 19-3 in Team Deathmatch and a 43-20 in Domination. Stalker has definitely helped my game since I can move a lot quicker than before and still have my sights up. I'm also starting to be a lot more comfortable with the maps. Octane stands out as one of the better maps and I've been enjoying Freight, Whiteout and Siege. I reached Level 16 or so, but I'm pretty much settled into my class now. I've added Dead Silence to my setup as I realize I am using enemy sounds to locate targets all the fucking time, so I figure a good portion of my opponents do the same. 

Call of Duty Ghosts

Date played: November 17th, 18th and 19th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I finally got to dig my teeth into Ghosts properly. I've played maybe two dozen online matches, reaching level 10 or so. I think I've found a groove for my class setup. I'm rocking the Ameli, a mid range, high damage, low fire rate LMG. I've added a red dot sight, a fore grip and a muzzle brake. The muzzle brake increases damage at long range, making the weapon fit my style very well. To do so, I've had to set one of my perks to allow three attachments.

To finish it off, I've picked up sleight of hand for faster reloads, though I'm not sure I'm going to keep it yet. The last and most important addition to my setup is predator. This allows for faster movement while aiming down sights, a critical perk for a my style. It allows me to cover corners well and maintain mobility that LMG's don't normally allow. As soon as I bought it, I saw a definite improvement in my performance. I've managed to top the leaderboards more than once.

This is one of my favorite maps so far

My best match so far has been on a beautiful outdoor map, set in and around a castle of sorts. I scored a solid 19-8. The highlight of the match for me was when I managed to get a guard dog and set up a sentry gun in a small building. I mowed down 4 or 5 guys with the turret and covered my back with my trusty weapon. The guard dog picked up any strays. I'm liking this game a lot so far, though I still have a lot to learn.

Resogun

Date played: November 17th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

Resogun is gaming at it's fucking purest. Like Geometry Wars, Super Stardust and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, it just feels right and pushes the player to it's limits. It wasn't long until I managed to make it through the first level without losing a life, though I still haven't managed to save all the humans, missing at least 2 on each run.

This is Resogun

The second level is definitely a step up in difficulty, though I'm sure I'll make it through with a bit of practice. It starts off pretty intense and doesn't let up. The boss is similar to the first one, but since it was my first attempt, I couldn't quite pull it off and will have to learn it's patterns a bit better.

PS4 Launch Special!

Date played: November 15th and 16th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

I have a PS4!

I've been waiting for this bad boy for a while and so far, I am quite impressed. First, the box itself is really nice. It's small, slick, unobtrusive and quiet. The UI is a huge improvement over the PS3's. While it still uses parts of the XMB, it is a lot easier to use. I'm kind of bummed that I can't change the background image any more, nor can I sort the games at all, though this is the kind of stuff that will probably be added later. Oh yeah, and the fucking thing doesn't play 3D Blurays, really disappointing, though they say it will be added "soon". I checked out some live streams from other players and it's pretty cool, but sometimes the quality is really shitty, it seems to depend on the person. It's a good way to sell games though, it got me interested in Need for Speed and Lego Marvel.

Sexy

The games is where it's at though. I tried Resogun, Contrast, Call of Duty Ghosts, Flower and Warframe. Contrast has an interesting concept, but it plays like shit and doesn't look all that great. You control a little girl's imaginary friend (I think?). The girl's mother is a cabaret singer and her father is a deadbeat scammer. The game is set in the 20's or 30's and has a bit of a noire vibe to it.  The mechanics revolve around platforming through shadows, as the heroine can "shift" into the shadows. It's pretty cool, but I wish the controls would be tighter.

Flower is a straight port from the PS3 which I got for free as I already bought it for that console. The graphics are improved to 1080p and 60 FPS and I must say, it looks absolutely amazing.

Warframe is the game that surprised me the most. It's a third person, online co-op shooter, that is free to play. It's smooth, controls well and has good level design that keeps the group together. I played through the first level with three other people and feel like I've performed well. I revived some guys, shot tons of enemies and even used a sword a few times. I wasn't expecting much since few free to play games have before, but this seems like it could be interesting.

Resogun is one hell of a game. There are few games that have the potential for that elusive "zen" feeling. I've felt it in Super Stardust, Geometry Wars and Everyday Shooter, as well as a few racing games like PGR 3, but it's rare. Resogun has it. This is a horizontal shooter set on the outside of a cylinder. Think Super Stardust but horizontal only. The game is intense, difficult and very impressive visually. The voxel tech they are using clusters the screen with thousands of exploding particles, all running in 1080p at 60 FPS at all times.

Call of Duty Ghosts is my only full retail game for PS4. I'm sure Battlefield and Killzone are more impressive visually, but I know I love CoD, hell, I've been playing this series every year since Call of Duty 2. I jumped right into multiplayer and while it took me a few rounds to get adjusted to the new controller, it wasn't long before I managed to take first place on the scoreboards. I unlocked an LMG that fits my style, the Ameli. It has a low rate of fire, high damage and good range. I also had to purchase the red dot sight to compensate for it's awful default sights. There are new perks, kill streaks and weapons, but I haven't dug very deeply yet.

I then tried a new mode in split screen with a friend. It's basically zombies but with aliens instead. We played three rounds but were not very successful overall. I finally jumped into the campaign and while people have been bitching that it doesn't look that great visually, I have to admit I was really impressed with the quality of the textures and lighting. The USA are under attack from a federation composed of most South American countries. My guy sets off with his brother to join an enigmatic team of fighters known as Ghosts. It's all very standard, Call of Duty style fighting. The coolest segment was a short mission in space, complete with spacesuit and space station. It looked fucking amazing and was pretty fun. I also got to control Riley, a German Shepard that fights alongside the two brothers. It can sneak up on enemies and gnaw on their jaw to death. I look forward to playing more and am definitely impressed.

Finally, I tried out remote play with the Vita. It doesn't have any lag, controls great and feels completely natural, though the framerate definitely took a hit, probably to compensate for lag. I'm super happy with my purchase and can't wait to play more!

Pikmin 3

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

I played two more exploration days with my daughter in tow. We managed to kill a few dangerous crabs, losing dozens of Pikmin along the way. The crabs were very deadly, but they were nothing compared to the enormous creature I faced at the end of the level. It's some sort of plant that took shelter in a weird shell. I knocked it awake with some rock Pikmin. It then rampaged around the area on it's three legs. I threw some blue Pikmin at it's legs to knock it down on it's chest. I had to use blue because the holes it made in the mud with it's feet were full of water.

Looting huge fruit before the big battle!

Once down, I was able to throw a few reds into the mix to damage it, but he decimated my army. He has a huge tongue that he uses to lick away attacking Pikmin, I think I have to avoid it a lot better to conserve my soldiers. After a full day of battling, he was only at half health, but the battle isn't over yet!

Pokemon Y

Blaziken is my strongest unit so far

Date played: November 9th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 7/10

Another day in Pokemon, another day spent fighting and capturing. Pokemon is weird in that there's kind of nothing happening, but it's still really fun to level up and explore. My team is now between levels 58 and 61 yet I'm still fighting level 45's. Route 15 and 16 were full of new stuff to capture and people to talk to. I explored a derelict underground hotel, got a new fishing rod and explored a new, icy city. In the city, I found one of the most interesting people in the game so far as she can recall Pokemon's old forgotten moves in exchange for a heart scale. I spent a good amount of time reconfiguring my 6 unit's moves. I understand the game mechanics a lot more now, so I was able to make smarter choices.

Blaziken, Greninja, Venusaur, Gardevoir, Krookodile and Heliolisk are a good team I think. I have variety, versatility and style. My next task is to explore a frozen cavern. The Pokemon that will help me traverse Route 17 is pre-occupied with something in the cavern, so I have to fix that before moving forward.

Pikmin 3

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

Motherfucking treacherous spaceman. The little blue man we picked up piloted the ship down to Earth and ran off with all our juice! Stunned, we are now looking for the little bitch. When he ran away, he blew open a new area for us to explore. Our first priority was to find some juice of course. Soon after going through the opening created by the thief, we ran into a blue onion which spawned a single blue Pikmin. These little creatures can survive, attack and carry things underwater! Armed with 10 little blue guys, we found some fruit in a puddle. I built up my army of blue Pikmin as best I could and explored the area, building a new bridge and slowly making progress in finding the scumbag.

Blue Pikmin open up tons of new opportunities

On my second exploration day, I opted to go visit another region to gather some fruit from previously blocked off areas. I found that using pink and blue Pikmin together was a really good combination. The pink Pikmin fly over the water and the blue Pikmin simply walk through it. I even had some underwater fights that were interesting to look at. 

Pokemon Y

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

I went to the Pokeball factory, which was infested with treacherous Team Flare members. I fought my way through some of their weaker members. I had to navigate the factory by using conveyor belts to move around. At one point, I had to use a little computer to switch the direction of the belt so I could progress. At the end of the dungeon, I found out that Team Flare was trying to monopolize the Pokeballs around the world. So they need a lot of electricity and all the Pokeballs? The plot thickens. I beat the boss, a stylish lady, then proceeded to Route 15.

Route 15 was littered with new Pokemon, so I spent the rest of my time catching everything I could. I caught a magical purple cat, a bubbly scorpion, a green fish, a minuscule mushroom and a few others. 

Pikmin 3

Date played: November 3rd
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played three or four exploration days in the newest area. I built a bridge my navigating the area, mainly using my new flying Pikmin. They can be thrown to platforms and bring stuff back, can follow the spacemen over water spots and can even lift large objects that hide items, fruit and enemies. The bridge led to a very large tree stump, home to a big ass bee of some sort.

Yep, a birthday party,

This was one of the tougher boss battles yet. The bee had dozens of little bee helpers helping it fight me. They corralled my units, attacked them and lifted them away. That was my window for attack, so I threw my rock and red pikmin at the main bee like crazy to knock it down and whittle it's health down slowly. Then the stolen units were brought back and I had to shoot them down with other pikmin to save them. In my first attempt, I lost a good 30 red pikmin because I wasn't prepared... I won the fight and scored lots of loot, including a juicy tomato.

It's death revealed another spaceman under it, unconscious. My guys think it's captain Olimar, though it's clearly another person. He also doesn't have any useful information on him, but we'll keep looking!

LittleBigPlanet PSVita

Date played: November 2nd
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 8/10

I finished LittleBigPlanet Vita.

This was by far the best in the series, it's too bad that not too many people got to play it. The last few levels in the haunted house were pretty standard platforming levels with a few touch sequences, but the difficulty was definitely higher than earlier levels. Also, a the most interesting mini-game was unlocked at the end. It's a tilt puzzle similar to the physical mazes where you have to tilt the game to move a marble around obstacles. Being a video game, it's a lot more intense, including some high speed sequences reminiscent of Sonic the Hedgehog.

My sackboy

The last boss was pretty difficult. The first phase had me dodging projectiles and grappling around. The catch is that it's set on a conveyor belt, adding to the difficulty. After hitting him three times by grapple, I moved on to the second phase. This time, I had to dodge laser beams and bombs, then flick a piece of the monster back unto itself using the touch screen. Finally, I was given a grabinator to grab the bombs and throw them back at support beams to make the monster fall. I completely skipped every single story cut scene in this game as they were pointless, annoying and badly written, so I'm not sure what the point was, but I can safely say it was a ton of fun!

Killzone Mercenary

Date played: November 2nd
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 9/10

When I was a young child, I gazed in amazement at my friends playing Tetris on the original Game Boy in the school yard. Playing a real video game, outside??? It was madness! As I grew, my love for gaming grew with me. I played tons of handheld games over the years, mainly on Game Boy Advance, DS and PSP. If someone had told my 8 year old self that I would someday play a game that looks as good as Killzone Mercenary on a handheld, I wouldn't have believed them.

Today, I received this game as a gift for my birthday (thanks honey!) and was floored at the quality of the game in general. It plays just like a full grown PS3 first person shooter and looks very good. I played through the first mission, as my mercenary and his buddy accept a contract to save an ISA leader who is held by Helghast. I stabbed dudes in the back using the touch screen, shot out security cameras with a silenced pistol, mowed down attackers with turrets, rescued some civilians, shot men in the face and earned cash for every little action.

I think this is the best looking handheld game I've ever played

Money is a central theme in this game, as the title implies. Guns, ammo, grenades, armor and gadgets are all available through little shopping crates littered across levels. There is also a mini map that allows for some stealth gameplay to take place, though I typically got spotted a lot and had to shoot my way through. At the end of the mission, we managed to save the lady and had to escort her out, shooting everyone that stood in our way, including a tank. I've enjoyed Killzone 2 and 3 and expect to enjoy Mercenary just as much.

Hotline Miami

Date played: November 2nd
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 7/10

Once again, PS Plus delivers a fun, high quality free game. Hotline Miami is a top down, dual stick shooter that seems very unforgiving at first glance. I've only played one chapter, but it was really fun and will probably get insanely hard, though I can't confirm that just yet.

There's something about people wearing animal masks in this game that I don't quite understand and the story seems a little crazy, but the mechanics seem very solid. So far, it's been melee only, where I punched, sliced and slugged away at different men to kill them. Enemies killed me in one hit, so I had to be careful. There's a lock on mechanic that requires that I touch an enemy with the touch screen, though I haven't needed to use it yet. After completing the first level, I was awarded an owl mask... I should also note that the music is fucking awesome.

Grid 2

Windows 8.1 + Grid 2 = no screenshot

Date played: October 31st
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 8/10

Grid 2 has some pretty cool little details. For example, it greeted me with my name and wished me a happy Halloween! I've recently installed Windows 8.1, which seems to have fucked up the Steam overlay and screenshot feature for Grid 2... Too bad, as it looks amazing.

I completed season 1 of the career, winning the WSR in my Camaro. This won me a Hyundai Genesis which I promptly customized with red white and blue stripes. I also won a new type of event, a time trial. It works a lot like a rally race, something I can really appreciate. Having other racers on the track makes things more exciting and challenging. I won another car here in the Golf GTI.