Mario Kart 8

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

It's finally here! I am a HUGE Mario Kart fan. I still play the older ones occasionally, like Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64 even. I was very disappointed in Mario Kart Wii but loved 7, so I was hoping the first HD game in the series would be closer to the latter.

I am thoroughly impressed so far. The graphics are the first thing that I noticed as they are super sharp, colorful and really add a lot of details to the game. It really looks amazing. People underestimate the Wii U all the time and this is one of those games that prove them wrong, once again. The framerate is also butter smooth, which is essential in any self-respecting racing game.

I played the first cup at 100cc on my own, just to get a feel for the game. I used Peach at my daughter's request and won the cup without many issues. The game controls very well and is simply fun to play. I was drifting around corners, boosting and jumping my way to victory like I had been playing this game for months. The anti-gravity stuff took me by surprise though and required a bit of adjustment. Many of the tracks have sections where the racers get turned upside down or on the sides of the tracks as the vehicle's wheels turn into hovering devices. It looks amazing, but also introduces a few new mechanics. For example, bumping into other players grants both a little speed boost, which is nice.

Daisy on Mario Kart Stadium

Then I connected my pro controller and invited my girlfriend to join me. We had a blast playing through most of the cups together. While she isn't the best driver, she seemed to have a good time, even managing to beat me once on Moo Moo Meadows, a remake from the Wii. The tracks steal the show in Mario Kart 8 as they are truly beautiful, extremely varied and have tons of interactive elements. Thwomps, planes, musical keys, wind and even a giant snake litter the various courses and make them all unique. In addition to the crazy anti-gravity sections, there are also underwater and gliding sections, adding more fun to the mix. There are new items too like a piranha plant pot and a boomerang that spice things up.

I played online a bit too and was not disappointed. Races were completely lag free and the connection was flawless. I picked DK, my favorite character in the last few iterations of the series, and a standard kart to tear it up with others. I played about five races and I was pretty damn successful, placing in the top three in all but one race, where I placed 8th. I even won one race! As usual, people tend to focus on items and battling more than their racing line, so when I hug the corners and focus on speed, I tend to do well. There was one person that was clearly using the same tactics as me so we ended up fighting for the top spots every time. I cannot wait to play more Mario Kart 8!

Child of Light

Date played: May 29th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I found my friends! Aurora and Oengus fought their way through the prison area and found all of our friends in jail cells at the bottom of the tower. We liberated everyone, solved a mini puzzle and went on our way. Soon after, he asked that I help him rescue his friends in a labyrinth, but I haven't started that yet.

Oengus is awesome

The fighting is getting more complicated every minute and I find myself swapping out characters a lot more than in the beginning of the game. Everyone has something useful to bring to battle. Maybe it's because I'm playing on hard, but it seems like I have to use every character to be really effective. Aurora plays a top role with her light magic and strong physical attacks, plus I dumped all the level up items on her. I love this game and can't wait to play more...when my daughter is around. She insists on seeing this game through and I find that adorable.

Need for Speed Rivals

Date played: May 28th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I remembered that there is an app for Rivals that unlocks overwatch challenges. Before getting into the proper PS4 game, I played a bit of the app during dinner. When I got to the real game, I had two new challenges to complete, one as a cop and one as a racer. I completed both, which netted me a new car and a bunch of other stuff like decals and such.

Weeeeee!

I was running pretty low on funds on my racer career, probably because I bought every car as it became available, so I decided to try farming, which turned out to be pretty profitable, and kind of fun. I picked a Mustang because it's pretty solid and speed isn't needed for the method I used. Basically, I found an interceptor event close to a repair shop, and not too far from a hideout. I equipped my car with the shockwave and electromagnetic field abilities and hit the cop as often as possible, repairing when I needed it. Then I repeated until I had too many cops on me and ran to the hideout. I made solid money with that trick so I think I'll use it again when I get a car that I want to upgrade and stick with.

I then played a quick head-to-head before attempting to win a medium difficulty race. I've been using the McLaren Spider for a bit and it's fast and fun to drive. I equipped it with a turbo and an EMP, but I've struggled with one of the race events on the west side of the map, Gullwing Drive I think it's called. It hugs the sea then swerves into the heart of the desert at very high speeds. I've managed second place a few times but I just can't win this one...yet. 

Need for Speed Rivals

Date played: May 27th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played a bit more of the racer campaign. I made it to rank 15, but to get there, I had to gold a few interceptor events. It turns out that those events are best played without driving much. I picked the Ferrari I have unlocked, gave it some EMP's and mines and played chicken with the cop car I had to destroy. It ended up being pretty easy this way. At one point, I even had some helicopters blocking my view with their powerful spotlights, which made it pretty exciting.

Helicopters!

The rank 15 racer challenges are pretty rough. I have to gold two race events, two head to heads and wreck a racer, all of which are pretty tough. I think I might farm some points a little bit by fighting cops near a repair shop...

Need for Speed Rivals

Date played: May 26th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played a little bit of Rivals last night. I would have played more Child of Light, but my daughter was sad that I continued playing it without her, so I am playing other games in the meantime. I love the controls in Rivals, it makes the events exciting and dynamic. I still don't love the mechanics related to the game's currency though. Every time I want to keep my score, I must reach a hideout and store the points, which is annoying and boring.

The Gallardo in all it's glory

I played the racer campaign completing a few races and time trials in the beautiful Lamborghini Gallardo. It's durability is a bit on the weak side, but I just love how it handles. I equipped it with a turbo and an EMP, which makes it an amazing race car, provided I don't crash too much. I unlocked and bought a new car, but I like the Gallardo a lot.

Child of Light

Date played: May 25th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played through a good chunk today. I found another city, this one run by some trading mice. Their village is built on top of a giant that brings their village to different areas to facilitate trade. However, the giant is sick and no longer able to travel. On top of that, the mice have lost the combination to their vault lock. Before heading into the dungeon to save the giant and open the vault, I took part in a fun little trading mission. I traded an apple to a scholar for a shovel, then the shovel to a grave-digger for a lantern and finally, the lantern to a miner for some gold. Robert joined the party too, an archer mouse with a crush on a snobby lady.

Giant spiders!

The dungeon was set inside the giant, where I had to rid the place of spiders to cure the giant. I also found the vault, solved a short puzzle and opened it up for the mice. Robert proved to be pretty useful overall as he's a strong physical attacker and has a spell to slow down enemies. I've found that I end up using Aurora in all battles, and swap out others as needed. After many difficult fights with the local spiders, I found the giant one that ruled the area and beat the shit out of her. I had to use a few potions along the way, but in the end, victory was ours.

I was rewarded with a free ride to the temple of the moon, high up in the sky. Again, I explored a large area, building up EXP, finding treasure and of course, another boss. This one was a giant gryphon that punished me for interrupting it, so I had to play it smart. Aurora dealt most of the damage with her starlight spells, Rubella kept us alive and Robert slowed him down. We found Rubella's brother along the way, Tristis, who joined our party. Honestly, his spell set doesn't seem super useful, but I'll have to give him a shot in battle to see how he does. We reached the moon temple.

Then, out of the blue, BETRAYAL! I don't want to spoil the game too much, but much is revealed about Aurora's family and the reason for her mother's death, as well as father's dying sickness. Aurora ended up alone in a cage before being rescued by an honorable guard. He joined the little two person party and we must now escape the area together. He seems to act as a tank of sorts, with high defense and a taunt ability, straight out of an MMO.

Lego City Undercover

Moon buggy chase!

Date played: May 25th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 6/10

My daughter asked for me to play "The Lego game", so of course, I obliged.

It's been a while since I played it, so it took me a few minutes to remember some of the details of the different abilities, but was soon back in the groove. I started with a quick mission, which had me taking pictures of criminals stealing cars and such for the Chinese gang. Then I played a few side missions that I saw along the way, 2 car chases and a boat time trial. It was the first time I got to drive a boat, which handled well and was fun to ride.

Then I played another main mission, this time, a more lengthy one that required me to take a boat to a nearby island and steal a moon buggy from the space centre! In the process, I found the astronaut costume which opens specially marked boxes and summons building blocks via satellite. The dude also has a fucking laser gun, which made it all worthwhile. I explored the space centre by solving many little puzzles and platforming my way through, eventually reaching the moon buggy, stored inside a space shuttle. When I got it, I had to escape the area in the little vehicle. 

Child of Light

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

I made good progress in Child of Light. I completed the woods area by beating a giant guarding the exit to the next area. That's when I discovered a village seemingly populated by crows, none of which could talk of course. There was only a 13 year old, heavily bearded dwarf crying in a corner. He explained that his fellow villagers had been transformed into the crows I saw earlier. It seemed like the only way to help was to explore a nearby well and kill the monster who had put the spell on the village.

Finn, the bearded dwarf, joins our party to bring much needed elemental magic spells. While he's very weak physically, he can pack a punch with his sorcery. For the first time, it became clear that there are 5 elements at play in this game. Light, Dark, Water, Fire and Earth. Enemies are weak or resistant to certain elements and even weapons can be imbued with elemental properties. In this dungeon, I fought many fire creatures and other new enemies. The mechanic that allows different party members to participate in a battle is excellent. Basically, any time it's a character's turn, I can choose to swap them out on the fly and I don't even lose a turn. This allows for a great amount of additional tactical manoeuvring.

Snakes of death!

After lots of exploring, item gathering and puzzle solving in the well, I reached the boss of the dungeon, a giant three headed snake monster where each head represents earth, fire and water. It was a gruelling battle and demanded precise timing, good party member swapping and patience. I took the beast down and brought the crows back to their normal, dwarfish forms.

Next, I reached the plains to the West, filled with rocky cliffs and waterfalls, as well as a bunch of new monsters, including some fucking deadly boulder dudes... Amazingly and inexplicably, Aurora found her sister Norah along the way, which of course, joined our party. She seems to have a focus on buffing and debuffing spells, but still packs a punch with her sword. I can't wait to see what lies around the next corner.

inFAMOUS Second Son

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

I finished Second Son!

I fucking loved this game, as I loved the first two games in the series. I played quite a bit, starting with a mission where I had to chase down helicopters carrying cargo, stand on their cargo and detach it. Then I found out that Hank, the smoke conduit I stole my first power from, was still alive. I managed to catch up to him and talk him into helping me break into Augustine's D.U.P island and save my two conduit friends who had been kidnapped by the bitch.

I finished off all the district captures and found that I had a lot more blast shards than I needed to fully upgrade all my current skills... Was there a fourth power waiting for me?

Delsin and his brother met with Hank to finalize the plan. Hank figured out a way to get inside Augustine's island using the large air vents on the outside. We swooped in and started wrecking havoc on the place. That's when the two-faced motherfucker betrayed me and gave me away to Augustine. Reggie, Delsin's brother, was very suspicious of Hank before the raid and took precautions. He showed up with a rocket launcher and helped me escape Augustine's restraints. However, she managed to stuff him in concrete and he fell to his death...

Delsin became very angry right then and attacked the murderer head on using his smoke powers. Augustine is powerful, but Delsin was stronger. I held back her concrete rock throwing attacks and other dangerous moves by shooting her with smoke missiles, then video swords. Eventually, I had built up enough power to unleash the smoke power's screen clearing karmic attack and destroyed the building...but Augustine got away.

There was an interlude before the end where Delsin chases Hank around the city, only to discover that he was fooled by Augustine's promises and was fleeing in a boat with his daughter. Poor bastard.

It was time to finish the D.U.P once and for all. I gathered my friends, Fetch and Eugene, and attacked the D.U.P stronghold head on. It was a rough climb up the well defended skyscraper, but the combined powers of smoke, neon and video were enough to take all the guards out and reach the top, where I confronted Augustine for the last time. She revealed her intentions and while she seemed to have a genuine interest in the well being of the conduits, she was using awful methods to achieve her goals. Delsin had enough and provoked her into battle. The first phase was similar to the fight I had with her on the island and when I won, Delsin managed to finally touch her and learn concrete power. Unfortunately, there were no core relays nearby, so he was helpless and vulnerable without any real abilities to use the power with. Augustine took the golden opportunity to attack once more.

Augustine's badass concrete monster form

This phase was one of the coolest final boss battles in recent memory! Augustine used her powers to become a sort of gigantic concrete monster, morphing into different shapes to attack Delsin. Eugene used his video power to find core relays around the city and bring them back to Delsin so he could learn abilities on the fly. This takes time however, so most of this battle was about avoiding attacks until Eugene brought back enough relays...

The concrete powers are really cool. There's a run ability that turns the user into a Juggernaut-style, armored beast. There's an amazing hover that can sustain it's power indefinitely. There's a machine-gun sort of attack that hits pretty damn hard and finally, an incredible barrage attack that hits real hard. I fought the concrete monster with these new abilities until the motherfucker was down, and exposed her awful practices to the world.

The D.U.P doesn't really exist anymore, conduits are celebrated instead of feared and Delsin went back home to save his friends, but losing his dear brother along the way. It was a great story and I really enjoyed all the characters and their fantastic acting and animation.

While the game was finished, I still played more, as there was some free DLC added to the game. It turns out it was the rest of the ARG game I had started earlier. Most of it is played in a browser and has little to do inside the game outside of a few minor battles and investigations. It was really cool though and I had fun with the challenging, cerebral puzzles, many of which required extensive use of Notepad and MsPaint... The side story included was cool too and I scored a nice extra outfit for Delsin at the end.

Second Son was an amazing experience, an excellent graphical showcase for the Playstation 4 and a mechanically sound game. I'm very happy to have played it.

Mario and Luigi: Dream Team

Scary mountain battle!

Date played: May 22nd
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played just a little bit of Dream Team, but enough to beat a giant boss. I reached the end of the dream area and had another of the amazing giant boss battles where the 3DS must be turned to it's side to battle using the touch screen. The boss was none other than the mountain itself... I learned a new move for this fight where Luigi tosses Mario into the air, then I make rapid circles on the touch pad to spin Mario and send him crashing into the boss. These battles are typically pretty long, but in the end I managed to take him out and get out of the dream.

As we woke, we discovered that Bowser used his dream stone to summon a giant castle to help his complete his world domination. It's clear that Peach will be a prime target, so the plumbers will travel to the southern beach to find her and keep her safe. There are now warp pipes around the world to help alleviate the length of travel.

inFAMOUS Second Son

Date played: May 21st
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I got a new power! The power of video...

It all started with the investigation of his lair, which is full of monitors and electronic equipment. I was transported to...well, a video game, kind of. I had to fight with a giant winged demon that shoots lasers from it's hands, all the while surrounded by lava. Yup, video games are fun.

After the big fight, I was transported out of the game and back into the conduit's lair where I was able to absorb his power. Eugene Sims is a weird little kid who was bullied too much in school and discovered he had the ability to summon demons and use video screens as a source of power. While Delsin had absorbed Eugene's power, he had no abilities available... I had to tag along with the brother so that he could help me open a couple of core relays, which allowed me to find the other relays on my own.

Slicing up foes with the video sword!

The video abilities are pretty cool, but took me a while to get used to. The main weapon is a beam that acts as a machine gun. It's pretty powerful but kind of hard to aim from long range. There's a cool missile type attack that sends video swords flying through the air to destroy equipment and vehicles. The most fun to use is the amazing navigation ability, which grants Delsin some wings so that he can fly up buildings for a short time. It works well, is fast and is easy to use. It's definitely more useful than the fast run of the neon powers. Finally, the coolest of all the video moves turns Delsin invisible for a short time and lets him subdue enemies without being detected. It works VERY well in combat, though it doesn't work with the tougher enemies. I spent a bit more time in the game to complete side quests and capture two more districts. 

SimCity

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

I played a bit more of SimCity and expanded my region with two new cities. The first one is on flat land near the sea. It actually runs pretty damn well and has scored a department of utilities and security for the region. It doesn't have a specialty, though I suspect tourism will be my best bet, maybe electronics. I'm pretty proud of it due to it's good balance, it basically runs itself. I made one mistake though, I started investing in wind power, which turns out is VERY expensive for little benefit.

Holy fucking traffic

The second city I made is a fucking mess. It's on a mountainous area and has many natural resources, like oil, ore and coal. I decided to capitalize on those, starting with an ore mine. However, I quickly ran into incredible traffic problems due to the weird layout of the land. It also doesn't help that I put a train station. Normally, the train station would be good, but in this city, I have unemployment problems, which means that many citizens go to work in different cities...which means they clog up the traffic. I put in a streetcar, but it's just not enough. 

Hearthstone

New cards!

Date played: May 21st
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played a few matches to complete my daily quests. I played with the priest a bit and won most games easily. The priest is really powerful, but I don't find it very much fun to play compared to the pally or rogue. I also played the shaman which I just can't seem to love. He's got cool tricks, but the overload ability is really fucking awful. I don't think it works well, even if I can win with him. Thankfully, I made lots of gold from these quests and managed to buy two new packs and got a few new cards.

SimCity

Date played: May 20th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10

I guess I had the itch to build... After building a colony on Alpha Centauri, I decided to give SimCity another shot. When I first played SimCity, it was plagued with server problems and completely turned me off from playing it more. However, it's been a while and the game has been patched extensively, including the ability to play offline, which seems more fun to me.

My casino city is pretty balanced

I started a seaside city in the hopes of making it a gambling haven. I think I've done pretty well as the only real problem I seem to have is high demand for residential areas. I've got a decent balance all around. Power is plentiful, water is available, sewage is under control, garbage is being picked up, businesses are striving, industries are healthy and transit isn't as bad as it could be. Fire, police and health departments are doing well too.

The best part is my highly profitable strip of casinos. I have three casinos, two small ones and a nice highrise, larger casino. The cost is high up front, but I was soon making tons of cash from gamblers. I want to make a new city in the region now to see if I can plan ahead a bit better. I wasn't as efficient as I could have been.

Hearthstone

The Tauren Warrior

Date played: May 20th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played three friendly matches against my girlfriend, who is still rocking her mage. I don't think she's tried another class yet, but she's definitely getting a lot better with the mage. In fact, she won a match yesterday against a new warrior deck I've been trying out. I'm not very comfortable with the warrior, so by playing smart, she was able to take me out.

We had a tie-breaker, where I took out the priest and completely wiped the board with ease. She was not able to deal 1 damage to my guy in the whole match. I used the Tauren Warrior card to control the board... It's a low mana, taunt and enrage minion. I buffed up it's health as soon as I could and kept it enraged, making it very difficult for the mage to kill it, as I was healing too. She eventually got a polymorph to neutralize it, but it was too late. 

Alpha Centauri

Date played: May 20th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 8/10

Poof!

An afternoon lost to another Sid Meier game... just like that.

Since the recent announcement of Civilization Beyond Earth, I really felt like playing Alpha Centauri again, but that meant I would have to relearn it from scratch since it's been so long since I played. I thought I would give it a quick hour today, but it turned into a huge 5 hour chunk where I didn't do anything else.

This game is ridiculously complex...

The game is incredibly complex... I mean, it's fucking hardcore. I was playing on the easiest setting, which is probably why no one declared war, and I still struggled with drone riots, bad exapansion plans, alien barbarians and city management problems. I built a scientific colony, but still had a commanding lead in economy and population. If my neighbours to the south had decided to attack though, I would have been caught short-handed and would have struggled to survive. I really like this game, but it's really hard to learn. I can't wait for Beyond Earth as it will bring to Alpha Centauri the ease of access found in Civ V...at least I hope so.

inFAMOUS Second Son

Date played: May 19th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

I made it to the second large portion of the city. First, Delsin and Fetch took out a large group of drug dealers near the docks. The drug gang uses a dolphin logo on their stuff, so I had to find houseboats that have drugs on them so that Fetch could blow them up. I also rescued a few hookers that were being detained by the gang.

Before moving on with the story, I discovered an extra mission that is tied to the Paper Trail ARG, a website based side game. It's actually really cool, gives lots of additional info on the game's world and has fun little puzzles. The mission in the real game had me chasing a new conduit that uses paper as her power. There's a nice sub-plot about her where Delsin has to investigate murders, then I would have to flip to the website to inspect the clues.

The story opened up a bit more, with Delsin and Fetch making their way across to the second island, which was blocked off by Augustine's concrete. She forced Delsin to reveal that he had learned a new power by pitting him against a very strong concrete conduit that was vulnerable to neon. The fight was actually pretty rough, the dude was fast and hit really hard. I died a few times before succeeding...

The boss fight on the bridge

With that threat out of the way, I started exploring the second portion of the city, definitely a Chinatown kind of place so far. Lots of high buildings, neon signs and cool looking architecture. I cleared out the first neighbourhood by doing all the side quests and district showdown. A new conduit is wrecking havoc in the city... I discovered that the conduit is spawning weird flying angels from video screens and has them kidnap potential conduits. I fought some angels and gave chase, but wasn't able to catch up. Delsin's brother came up with a nice plan to get captured by the angels and have Delsin follow him to destination.

Child of Light

Date played: May 18th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

All it took was one trailer, and I HAD to get Child of Light. It's a turn based RPG made in Montreal that features a little princess who dies. She wakes up in a strange world and wants to find a way out to find her daddy. The game is played on a 2D plane, where Aurora must explore the world, fight monsters, meet interesting folk and find her way. She meets a firefly early on that tags along and can be controlled by the second stick or a second player.

I ended up playing this with my girlfriend, who played the firefly. It can gather items, stun enemies, heal Aurora, slow down enemies in combat and is generally helpful. I fought tons of monsters in turn based combat, using a sword and magic to level up. There's a cool skill tree available too, which grants Aurora new powers and stat upgrades.

Aurora explores the first area of the game

The combat system is really interesting because of the way time affects it. There's a meter, sort of like the ATB system from some Final Fantasy games, that directs the flow of combat. Spells and attacks can be interrupted or blocked if timed correctly, which makes for some really fun scenarios.

After the first boss battle (which was amazing!), I learned how to fly and found a new party member, a jester. She has strong attacks and can heal, which makes things a lot easier. I am playing on hard as people on the internet seem to indicate that normal was way too easy.

The amazing art work and music really set the mood and are compelling me to move forward and see what lies around the next corner. I really like this game...

Hearthstone

My first legendary card!

Date played: May 18th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played a ton with Valeera today, the rogue. Right now, I seem to be most comfortable with the rogue and pally decks. I've enjoyed all the classes, but I can win more than half my matches with these two. In fact, I am now level 19 in the ranked mode and for some reason, I was given 300 coins as a reward...though I missed the text that explained why. Either way, I spent some time in the arena with that cash and had lots of fun.

In the end, I managed to win a few matches and get some new card packs. I scored my first legendary card too today, King Mukla. He's a nice, low cost, high stat minion, but he gives the opponent two buffing "Bananas" cards... I'll try him out and see what happens. I got a lot of new cards from the packs, so I will probably rebuild most of my decks next time I play.

I also played a few friendly matches against my girlfriend using a variety of decks while she tried out her first custom deck. She managed to beat me for the first time when I was using my old druid deck. I'm proud!

inFAMOUS Second Son

Date played: May 17th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I made good progress by liberating two more sections of the city by completing all the little side quests and collecting the blast shards. I then played a couple of story missions which ended up granting me a new power, neon. It starts with Delsin's brother saying that there was a conduit incident and that cops are investigating. I found the crime scene and discovered a drug dealer that had been mutilated and left to rot on a wall, pinned by amazing looking neon streaks. Shortly after, a second victim was discovered in a different area. This time I had to fight a bunch of goons to get there, then I was able to examine the crime scene, another dealer pinned by neon.

To investigate, the game asked me to take photos of the different crimes in a weird mini-game. That's when we discovered the culprit hiding in a neon sign nearby, sniping at Delsin. I gave chase but the person ran very fast across the city, leaving neon streaks in their wake. I couldn't keep up and went back to investigate their hiding spot in the neon sign. I soon discovered that the neon sniper was a woman with an obsession with a man named Brent. After following a few clues, I managed to find her and touch her, which granted Delsin neon powers.

Delsin learns how to use neon powers in a struggle with Fetch

I then had to fight her with my new abilities. The girl, Fetch, fights by shooting bolts of neon and running around a small area. I absorbed the nearby neon signs to weaken her, then fought her with the same neon bolts. It turns out, she is an ex-junkie who killed her boyfriend during an argument over drugs. She wants to kill all drug dealers so that no one else suffers as she did. Delsin convinces her to use her powers for good, so they will work together, at least for now.

The neon powers are cool. Besides looking incredible, the neon bolts hit hard and have long range. There's also a sprint up walls ability which is really handy for navigating the city quickly. I'm about to start unlocking more abilities for this new power. The only thing that is kind of annoying is that Delsin can only have one power active at a time, which means if I want to use smoke powers again, I need to find a smoke source, and vice versa. 

Hearthstone

Date played: May 16th and 17th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10

My daily quest had me win 7 matches in any mode, so I thought I would fine tune my skills with the rogue deck, one of my favorites in the game. It's focused on minions that have a summon as their battlecry and a few cards that play with that concept by putting cards back in my hand. I've had some really nasty combos to deal out with this strategy and I really like how it plays. I won 5 matches in a row before a nasty warlock had it's way with me.

Valeera rocks

I also played a few matches against my girlfriend, though she is still using the initial basic decks and only knows how to play the mage. I beat her of course, but after a couple of matches, I decided to use the exact same deck as her. I still won a lot because she didn't seem to do as much math as me during a game, but she saw a few of the simple strategies I used and learned from it. By the end of our three match session, she was getting closer and closer to winning. I also played a bit with Thrall, the shaman, to unlock more of his cards and complete the other daily quest I had. I'm not sure I like the shaman... he seems a bit on the weak side, though I've managed to win a few matches using his windfury abilities and totems.

inFAMOUS Second Son

Date played: May 15th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played a story mission where Delsin had to climb the famous Space Needle and take out some of the D.U.P's equipment to reduce their influence. I picked up a few new powers along the way, including a very useful smoke grenade that puts enemies in a vulnerable state so that I can subdue them. There is also a powerful missile power, which I've used to take out transport vehicles and even a couple of helicopters. Finally, the coolest power yet is the orbital drop, which is kind of a big finisher move where Delsin jumps way up in the air then slams down on the ground with amazing force. It requires use of a meter that is filled up by subduing enemies.

Combat is really fun in Second Son

After clearing out the Space Needle and killing a mini-boss, I spent most of my time completing little side missions that helped me take control of three territories. For example, in hidden camera missions, I am shown a video feed and must find the camera based on what I saw. There are also secret agent missions, where I had to find a D.U.P agent hidden amongst the crowd using a picture as reference. There are audio logs from a D.U.P insider that can be found using a sort of hot/cold meter. To make things a bit cornier, there is also a spray painting mini-game. Before you ask, yes, I have to shake the controller before spraying. Finally, once all these things are done, the area's showdown becomes available which is essentially a big battle. I enjoyed doing all the side quests, again, reminding me of the fun I had with the last Assassin's Creed game.

Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse

Date played: May 15th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 7/10

My daughter suggested we play this game as she saw me download it and of course, being a 4 year old, she loves Mickey Mouse. This game is pretty good though. I have to say, the level design and animation is really good. The game is also fairly challenging at times, so that was cool. It's actually setup a lot like Super Mario 64, except that it's mostly played in 2D. There's the infamous castle of illusion, which has locked doors, which require collectibles to open. Sound familiar?

I played through the first two worlds, that means 4 platforming levels and 2 bosses. The first two levels were set in an enchanted forest. There were some really cool sections, including a great climb through the clouds, some ghost hopping business and a fun little maze of thorns. The boss was, believe or not, a log. It's a pretty typical boss, kind of lame version of a Donkey Kong Country Returns boss.

The second world was set in a toy land of sorts where I fought against toy soldiers, planes, jack-in-the-box and tons of other little toys. There was a devious section inside a magic hat where I had to navigate quickly vanishing playing cards to reach the end. The boss was a really fun fight against a giant jack-in-the-box where I had to fight in both 2D and 3D depending on the different phases.

Hearthstone

Sneaky fucker

Date played: May 15th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10

Another day, another Hearthstone quest.

I had a quest to win 5 matches as a paladin or warrior, so of course, I went with the class I've enjoyed the most out of the two, the pally. I made minor changes to the deck, including a very cool card that works well with my current deck. Ravenholdt Assassin is a 7/5 stealth card, which turns out to be a really cool card to use with a bunch of buffs. Basically, I make sure I have a decent front line, throw out the assassin and distract the enemy with my other minions. Since it's stealth, they will usually let it live one turn. Then on the next turn I buff the shit out of it and hit hard when they least expect it. I've managed to hit for over 20 damage in one attack with this guy. I'm starting to see more of the synergy between cards in this game, and it's making me deadlier and deadlier.

I played ranked games though, which meant that at level 20, I was duelling with dudes that have a lot of really good cards, including one fucker who managed to play two legendaries in one game. I also fought a guy with a deadly card that deals 1 random damage to the enemy whenever a minion is summoned. He had two of those on the board, plus he was a pally, so he was able to summon creatures every turn even if he didn't have the cards. I lost that match horribly. 

The Walking Dead: Season 2 Episode 3

Date played: May 14th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 7/10

I'm kind of disappointed... I played and finished Episode 3 of the second season of The Walking Dead, and I feel like it was a bit of a let down with the exception of a few scenes. This episode takes place at Bill Carver's camp, the old leader of my new group. We are put to work right away as prisoners. Clementine develops a relationship with Bonnie, one of the characters from the 400 Days episode, which was the most interesting part of the early parts.

While working for Carver, we started hearing about a nearby herd of walkers that would reach the area soon, so we made a plan to escape. I had to find some radios, sneak into Carver's office, turn on a PA system and even stick a CD into the disc player.

The group faces off with Carver

Things got really nasty of course, as they always do in these games. Some of our friends died some of our enemies died. In fact, one of the most violent and gruesome scenes in the series happened near the end of the episode which of course, I won't spoil here. We added a few new members to our group too, including a tough as nails chick who reminds me a bit of Michonne from the comic books and TV show. Clementine had some tough choices in this episode, as usual, but they seemed a bit more subtle this time. I hope episode 4 is a bit better as this one wasn't as good as usual.

Hearthstone

I don't think I like playing as Anduin

Date played: May 14th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 8/10

I only did the daily quest today, which required me to win two matches with the priest or warlock. While I love the warlock, I decided to use the priest to see if I still liked him. I didn't rebuild his whole deck, but made a few minor changes to increase offense. While I can usually last a long time with the priest, I have a hard time delivering the final blow to finish off an opponent. It was still the case today. While I won 2 out of 3 matches, I didn't feel quite in control as I did with the paladin and the rogue, or even the warlock. 

inFAMOUS Second Son

Date played: May 13th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I finally got into the city and saw what the meat of the game looks like. It actually feels quite a bit like Assassin's Creed IV, minus the sailing, as the map is littered with little activities to complete and collectibles to find. It seems like the bulk of the game will be about taking control of different sections of the city by taking down enemy equipment, stations and troops.

I destroyed several security cameras, large armored vehicles and enemies and managed to find a few new powers along the way, as well as blast shards that act as currency for upgrades. I upgraded my melee, my smoke shot and general smoke power efficiency. However, the most impressive of the new abilities is the diving punch. When jumping from heights, Delsin smacks his fist on the ground and launches nearby enemies to their death, in style.

Fuck yeah baby!

I beat a concrete slinging mini-boss in the hopes that I could steal his power as I did in the opening scene, but it failed. Delsin hides this from his brother as he continues his quest to gain more power and take out the evil lady in charge of the concrete slinging crew.

Hearthstone

Rexxar is fun to play

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

I played a bit with the shaman to level him up, but I had a hard time clearing the daily quest with him, as it required me to summon 30 minions that cost 2 mana or less. The best candidate for the job seemed to be the hunter, Rexxar. I rebuilt his deck and filled it with some of the new cards I got since I last played him as well as a bunch of beasts and beast-focused cards.

It worked out pretty well and I won most of my matches in casual play, except for one match against a skilled and devilish warlock. I like the hunter more than before though, as I balanced my deck a bit better. One minion card has the ability to grant charge to all other beasts, which became a lot more powerful than I first thought. 

inFAMOUS Second Son

Date played: May 12th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

After completing Killzone, I thought it was a good time to finally buy Second Son. I didn't get a chance to play it very much, but I really like what I've seen so far. The facial animation stands out in Second Son as it really conveys emotion and subtlety. The story is awesome too... After Cole's death in the second game, the people with the ability to use special powers, the conduits, have become outlawed and labelled as bio-terrorists.

Delsin leaps into action!

The game starts with Delsin Rowe doing graffiti on a billboard before fleeing from the local authorities. Delsin is a little rebel with too much time on his hands and a bit of an attitude. His older brother is the sheriff of the town... While he was being given a speech by his law-enforcing sibling, a prison truck containing three conduits crashed nearby. When Delsin touched one of them while trying to help him from the truck's debris, he inherited his powers and discovered he was a conduit with latent powers.

After a brief navigation and battle tutorial, Delsin met with a lady that seems to head the anti-conduit force. The irony is that she is also a conduit able to use concrete as her ability. I chose the hero path for Delsin and was soon paired up with his brother in an adventure to Seattle, where they hope to convince the lady to come back and fix the shit she broke with her abilities.

Delsin's power is based on smoke and so far, allows him to move through obstacles, jump high off cars, float for a bit, knock out concrete walls and shoot little fire bolts. Combat and navigation feel really good, which bodes well for the rest of the game. Of yeah, and as a blogger and graphics whore, the photo mode included in the game makes me giddy about making my own screenshots!

Hearthstone

Date played: May 10th, 11th and 12th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 10/10

Finally getting back to Hearthstone after a long overseas trip without access to it feels like the first line of coke for a recovering cocaine junkie. That is, it feels fucking incredible. I played a bunch of matches to complete my quests, many of them requiring the use of the pally. I've rebuilt it's deck so that it has the potential for incredible finishers. My favorite setup is to wait until I have a strong creature on the board, basically anything that has 5 attack or more, then putting a +4/+4 Blessing of Kings, followed by a card that doubles it's attack power. I've managed to hold off fast decks for many turns, then dealing an unbeatable blow of 20 or more attack in one turn with a single minion.

Well played indeed sir

I also played an arena match, where I chose the paladin again and managed three wins. I like the arena but the gold cost to enter is kind of high...

Killzone Shadow Fall

Date played: May 10th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 7/10

I finished Killzone Shadow Fall!

Helghan prepares for the Vektan invasion

The last few chapters were pretty interesting story wise, but the gameplay wasn't anything special. I crash landed on Helghan (I think?) and made my way through the area with Echo. I was confronted by a few large scanning devices that must be disabled to progress. Conventional weaponry was useless though, I had to take out it's power supply. This turned these events into more of a stealth action puzzle than anything else and was pretty cool to play. There was also a really cool combat section where I had a sniper rifle where I took out enemies at long range while avoiding automatic turret fire.

There was a big defensive section in one mission, where I had to protect Echo from incoming troops. It was easier than it should have been, probably due to the large minigun I used through most of it. Then there was an actual boss fight with a dude equipped with a defensive shield drone and spider mines. This was a fun battle, even if completely ridiculous.

I then headed out to the Helghan command ship to take out the leader, which turned out to be a familiar face from previous games. There wasn't much to do in that level except fight a few well armored and well shielded Helghast. I had a nasty surprise at the end of the level, though I won't spoil it here, as it's the end of the game as well.

As a nice bonus, there was a surprise level that started as the credits started rolling. This was a mission where I played as Echo who assaults Vektan alone and stealthily to take out...someone. The mission required complete stealth, including the use of Echo's amazing stealth camo. I had to take out two camera control consoles without being seen, then grab a sniper rifle from a tower, to finally kill my target, all while staying hidden from dozens of guards and even civilians.

I enjoyed Shadow Fall, as I have every Killzone game. This series get a bad reputation for no reason...

Mario and Luigi: Dream Team

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

I played through most of the big dream portion that followed the sleeping music event. There was a new mechanic introduced where Luigi can freeze and unfreeze the dream world depending on the temperature outside. This made for some pretty cool puzzles where I pushed ice blocks that then turned into bouncing water pads (WTF?) when warm. There were also some waterfalls that could be frozen. I got a new super attack too, where Mario builds a hammer out of Luigis then smacks enemies with it. I think I'm just about to reach the boss now.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

The site of the slaughter

Date played: May 3rd
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 8/10

I completed one story mission where our band of heroes attacks the enemy near a windmill. Delita's sister has been kidnapped and is being held there. My first time trying this mission, we died, but it due to a simple mistake... I brought a monk instead of a healer. That turned out to be really stupid. The second time through, it was relatively easy. I kept my distance, using my black mage's strong magic and teleport ability to take out many enemies. My knight defended the front lines while my thief quickly dealt damage and hid. The white mage kept everyone alive and Delita died like an idiot on the first turn. We weren't able to rescue Delita's sister though, so our search continues.

Mario and Luigi: Dream Team

Date played: April 29th and 30th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 7/10

I wanted to play the Vita, but the battery was dead, so I went back to a game I stopped playing a while back, the newest RPG with the Mario bros. I didn't play for very long, but it was enough to get through the mountain area. I learned a new move along the way, a sort of horizontal drilling maneuver that let me bypass spiked areas and crush stones. I battled enemies along the way as normal and saved a few pillow folk from some dream sequences, though there was nothing exciting to really talk about there.

The boss was tons of fun though. Mammoshka is a weird rock mammoth enemy. He has a variety of attacks, including hurling giant boulders at the bros, tossing snowballs, running towards them to suck them into his trunk and summoning minions that boost it's attack power or defense. It took a while, but I whittled down it's health until lost of rock armor and died from repeated pummeling. At the top of the mountain, we then met up with Bowser and the other purple dude. They started playing some odd tunes on their big ass sound system (!) from the peak. The music put all the kingdom to sleep! We escaped in a dream, but are now stuck in it and must find a way out to then turn off the music...