Mario Kart 8

Date played: June 29th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played a few online matches with my girlfriend in split screen. My first couple of races were rough. I think I lost my focus a bit. In my opinion, Mario Kart has always been about racing well more than using items. While judicious use of items can make or break a race, there isn't a race to break unless you drive fucking fast, especially with 11 other humans on the track.

My girlfriend and I on Thwomp Ruins

I focused on my driving line and getting to top speed with coins and immediately went back to top three positions. I kept up the pace, and while I couldn't manage a win, I performed pretty well overall. My girlfriend was hit or miss, doing decently on some tracks and pretty bad on others, but she seemed to enjoy her time. We unlocked a set of wheels that really fits my style. I'm still using DK, but have switched to the Mach 8 kart, one of the faster karts. I put my new button wheels on it to counter balance the negatives and am really liking this new setup.

Bravely Default

Wow...

Date played: June 29th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through a little cave area, fighting goblins with my little sword and shield. When I reached the end, I met Agnès, which turns out was the girl calling for help in the intro. She says she is a vestal of wind, which is sort of a guardian for one of the four elemental stones in the world. She wants to gather all the wishes of people from the wind stone to restore the giant chasm. So basically, the game will probably be about finding the four vestals and reaching the four stones.

Agnès was attacked by the Sky Knights during the conversation. These guys are dumb, but seem to have powerful weaponry. I'm not quite sure why they are attacking, but of course, Tiz chose to fight with Agnès. The Sky Knights use a cool airship, piloted by a brawny dumb dude and led by a sexy woman in a white dress. They send a couple of thugs to fight us as we fled the cave, but we dispatched them quickly. Agnès has the same job as Tiz right now, so they fight exactly the same way except she lacks a shield and gets hit for more damage. When they Brave together, they can be devastating though. Bravely Default has a real charm to it. The beautiful visuals, funny voice acting and wonderful music combine to make something special. 

Watch Dogs

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

I can't believe it! I finally ran out of side missions, for now. I've managed to complete all the gang hideouts and the 40 fixer missions required for the trophies. I still have one criminal convoy left, but it doesn't show on the map yet, so I'm not sure what's up with that. All three of these mission types have become a lot harder towards the end. It wasn't uncommon for me to have to knock down three targets as opposed to one. The dudes are also heavily armoured and have some pretty strong weaponry. It was really fun to go through these well made scenarios.

I went back to the campaign of course, as I ran out of other stuff to do. I completed the first act by infiltrating the prison to scare a witness. Aiden walked in with his gun out...which of course led to his arrest and incarceration. He got his business partner Jordi to smuggle his phone in. The prison is run by ctOS so it wasn't long before Aiden made his way through the place and found his target. He was being roughed up by a dozen guards for unknown reasons, so I barged in with a new shotgun I picked up in the armoury and shot every guard. I met my target, scared the shit out of him and escaped. I had a rough time with the cops outside. I used a couple of grenades, an assault rifle and some IED's to clear out the exit. One of the cooler hacks is the ability to disable helicopters for a few seconds which I was forced to use here to escape.

Hi, can you babysit this kid who is being chased by dangerous gangsters? Great, thanks.

Act 2 starts with a bang as Damien Brenks, Aiden's old partner turned enemy, kidnaps Nicole and threatens to kill her if Aiden doesn't help him get some data. After a tense conversation in Nicole's house, Aiden complies, but is now worried about Jackson, his nephew, who is now missing. It turns out he was running away in a train, but was being chased by some of Damien's guys... I think. I shot his pursuers in the face and rescued him. Aiden got in touch with a good friend who agreed to keep Jackson until the dust settles. 

Mutant Mudds Deluxe

Date played: June 29th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 5/10

Mutant Mudds looks cool, that's for sure

Mutant Mudds Deluxe is a minuscule download at around 35MB on Vita. It was free with PS+, so I gave it a quick download to try it out. While it looks really cool with it's great looking, 2D retro pixel look, it also plays like a number of 90's platformers trying to emulate Mario and Sonic's success. The hero wields a water gun and must destroy alien enemies with it while navigating platforms. The twist is that the guy can swap between a far, medium and close plane at set points. It doesn't really change much aside from the look though. I played through the first level, gathered all the collectibles and found the secret exit. I'm probably going to try this again, but so far, it doesn't really impress.

Mario Kart 8

Date played: June 28th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

Online races are really fucking close most of the time

I played a dozen online races in split screen with my girlfriend. I wasn't that hot tonight... I didn't manage a win, even though I placed in the top three about 5 times. I placed in the lower tiers more than I expected though. I think one of the reasons was that we got matched with highly ranked players, and it shows. My girlfriend is getting better and better. She's starting to learn the tracks a bit more, which makes it easier for her. We unlocked a few more items for our karts, including a cool looking horse carriage thing that has stats that fit my style. 

Watch Dogs

Date played: June 28th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

Does this game have a campaign? I don't know, I'm still too busy with the side missions. I really don't know what else to say about this stuff at this point. I completed fixer missions, criminal convoys and gang hideouts. I'm actually pretty close to being done with those things.

Nope, this isn't going to work out

I also got the trophy for online hacking missions. The amazing hide and seek mechanics kept me interested. I've developed pretty good tactics for this stuff, hiding in unlikely places or playing with the other player's perspective to avoid detection. In one incredible session, I managed to avoid a guy by just hiding behind a tree while he aimlessly shot civilians trying to find me. 

Bravely Default

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

I was in the mood for a real RPG, so Bravely Default felt like a good choice. It had good reviews, good buzz and has been compared to the older Final Fantasy games, so I bought it. I barely played it today, but I played enough to know I'm going to like it.

Tiz Arrior

The game starts with an interesting AR based cut scene. Essentially, some beautiful girl pleads for help, seemingly talking to the player. Darkness is about to engulf the kingdom (surprise!) and an unlikely band of heroes must save it. They are quickly presented via cut scenes, but I was given control of Tiz, a young sheep herder who was the only survivor from a huge earthquake or something, it wasn't clear.

I explored the first town, bought a few pieces of armor and met the king. Tiz will try to save his kingdom, but the king can't be bothered to provide any help at all. When I left town, I was thrown into the world map where I got a few basic tutorials. The combat system is very traditional, but has a twist. Basically, I can choose to "Brave" or "Default", hence the title. Brave lets the player use turns in advance, while default lets the player bank turns. It makes for a really cool system with a huge risk/reward mechanic. That's about all I saw of the game, but I like what I've seen so far. 

Watch Dogs

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

The side missions never end in this game! I still haven't moved beyond Act 1 of 5 in the story, but I'm at around 60% completion overall... I continued the trend by completing a ton of fixer contracts, criminal convoys and gang hideouts. One of the criminal convoys was quite a bitch as it was against a crew of police officers, most of them well armored. There was an unusually high number of cars in the convoy, plus, I had to knock the guy down instead of killing him.

Aiden tearing it up in the streets of Chicago

Some of the fixer contracts were quite interesting too. The paths for some of them are more complicated than ever, including a lot of off road and boats. I'm also a bit more aggressive in combat now that I have a large focus meter and big guns.

Nano Assault Neo

CHARGE!

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

I played a quick game of Nano Assault Neo on the Gamepad while watching a TV show. The Gamepad is really cool for playing games like this while doing something else more passively. Nano Assault Neo requires a great deal of concentration though, so I ended up not really watching the show...

Either way, I made my way through the second set of cells and defeated the second boss, which opened up the third set of cells. The second set had a good variety of enemies, including some ugly bugs and some weird looking spiky balls. The only problem I have with this game is that it never seems to be as precise as something like Resogun or Geometry Wars. Also, while it looks fucking amazing, the uneven terrain can make the game more difficult than it really should be as it sometimes obscures the view a bit. 

Watch Dogs

Date played: June 24th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

Again...side missions.

I really do love the side missions in this game. There's quite a bit of variety in them so it's kept me interested while I am basically ignoring the campaign missions. I have now unlocked every ctOS tower, visited every hotspot, completed every privacy invasion, scanned every QR code and hacked every ctOS hacking box around the city. I also gathered a few burner phones and found a couple of missing persons.

Privacy invasions can be quite...disturbing

I also made a solid effort to gather the "Traced" trophy. It's based on the online, 1 on 1 tracking missions where one player must observe another for a few minutes without getting seen. It's a nice mode, but the trophy is fucked up. To get it, you must be successfully traced 5 times. The problem is that there is no way to know if you are being traced and there is no way to trigger a trace. According to online posts, odds of being invaded and traced are better if the player initiates a trace first. So I traced people in between other side missions... Eventually, I earned the trophy! In the meantime, I had a few interesting online interactions. In one hacking mission against another dude, I had to hack him while he was in a boat... of course, that turned out to be impossible as he saw me right away. He shot me with the powerful sniper rifle that can disable vehicles with one bullet. I swam away, hoping to be hidden from line of sight by my own boat. He still got me though... A few minutes later, he sent me a message with a screenshot attached. In his screen, I appeared to be hundreds of meters below sea level! 

Watch Dogs

Date played: June 23rd
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 7/10

Another day in Watch Dogs, another bunch of side missions. I continued clearing out the southern portion of the map by capturing a few ctOS towers and doing a whole bunch of investigations, QR codes and privacy invasions. I found another burner phone too. The best parts are the fixer, gang hangouts and criminal convoys. I mean, these are just basic game mechanics being used over and over, but the core game is actually lots of fun, so I like doing these. The gang hideouts started being a bit rougher, throwing snipers and heavily armored thugs at me. I have good guns though, so it's really not that bad. For criminal convoys, I've starting abusing IED's by setting them up on the path of the enemy, then blocking the road with a car. I've completed a fuck-ton of side missions, but have barely touched the main missions...

Fixer missions are full of action

Child of Light

Date played: June 22nd
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

I finished Child of Light!

It was an amazing, charming, beautiful and challenging RPG. I played through the last portion of the game which flew by too quickly... After a short puzzle, I was confronted with Aurora's sister. Since the sister is a betraying, scared bitch, she locked us in a room filled with poison that drains HP. I fought a bunch of enemies, got some treasure and made my way out of the room through a gauntlet of spiked machinery.

We caught up to Nora and fought her. She transformed into a huge dragon monster with two tentacles. I killed the tentacles first, then attacked the head. This was definitely one of the hardest fights in the game. I'm playing on hard and it shows. I had to use every trick in my repertoire to survive, let alone kill the boss. I relied on buffing Aurora and putting slowing and paralyse spells on the enemy. I pull out Rubella to heal and Robert to add damage if things are going well.

Aurora is one of the bravest, most interesting video game characters ever

When she was defeated, I was finally face to face with the dark queen. She revealed that Aurora's father had now died. Aurora's crown disappeared and she was knocked out by the dark queen's spells. The heroine was then lifted into the sky and dropped onto the Sun's altar, left for dead. Then, miraculously, Aurora's mother appeared and helped her get back on her feet, gave her a new outfit and crown and encouraged her to go fight the dark queen head on.

I fought the evil lady and defeated her. It was another difficult battle, requiring more than a fair share of potions to survive. The queen took the form of an evil dark dragon and was flanked by two powerful owls. After a solid 15 minutes of fighting, she went down.

The ending was really good and touching. Aurora is so fucking brave and has such beautiful convictions, she really deserves the best. The real world was flooded and Aurora brought back everyone to the Lemurian kingdom, saving the world. She liberated the world, but refused to rule. Paired with the music, the ending was incredibly powerful.

Child of Light strung a chord with me. It's the best game I've played this year and now has a special spot in my gaming heart. Thanks Ubisoft!

Mario Kart 8

Date played: June 21st
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

I had tons of fun playing some online Mario Kart in split screen with my girlfriend! I got off to a strong start, winning many races and not falling below 3rd place...until I tried a new kart combo. I think I work best with DK, the pipe frame kart and some standard wheels. It has decent speed and good enough handling to handle the tougher tracks. When I tried a kart that was a bit faster, I had problems taking hard turns.

Me and my girlfriend fight for position!

On the other hand, my girlfriend is visibly improving. She had a rough start, but she actually beat me a few times in the later races. Our best race had me in 1st place and her in 2nd! She seems to have found her setup too, using Toadette and the adorable cat kart, though I am not sure of her wheels. 

Child of Light

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

I'm still being held hostage by my 4 year old daughter... She insists on being there when I play this great RPG, so progress is slow. Of course, her innocent outlook on the game makes the experience incredibly rewarding and honestly, really fucking cute.

I explored the Cynbel Sea quite a bit, fighting monsters and finding treasure along the way. I found a cool side quest that had me find 6 fireflies that were lost in the world. There were 2 in the forest, 2 in the plains and 2 in the sea. Thankfully, they weren't too hard to find, thanks to fast travel. These little fireflies are siblings of Igniculus. There was a really nice moment between them before they left...

The Cynbel Sea is full of dangerous bosses

I managed to get enough oculi to craft some higher end stones. It's really costly, but I eventually crafted the wonderful Princess stone, which grants a huge attack bonus. I fought a couple of side bosses, one a large boar, the other a giant flaming bird. Finally, I reached a real boss, which was a weird looking alien fish thing. I am starting to smell the end of the game here and can't wait to see the story unfold.

Zen Pinball 2

Date played: June 21st
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played a few quick rounds of the Clone Wars table and the Plants vs Zombies table. The Clone Wars table is easily my favorite in the game, at least from what I've bought. I am clearly very rusty though, my scores were pretty horrible compared to what I've scored on PS3 and Vita. I think I might be due for a couple of new tables...

The Clone Wars is an amazing table

Watch Dogs

Date played: June 20th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played a few story missions, then jumped into more side missions. It seems there was a survivor from the event in the stadium, so for some reason, that meant I had to find a dude who runs a gang or something. In this game, it's often not clear why the missions are what they are... Either way, I had to go through the man's thugs to reach him in an industrial area near a canal. After dispatching many goons, I reached the man, convinced him to give me a man's name and left. As I left, dozens of men jumped out and shot at me. There was even a fucking helicopter! I hacked the chopper to slow it down, ran like hell and hopped on a fishing boat nearby to escape the area.

Aiden prepares to murder dozens of criminals

The next mission had me eavesdrop on the mysterious man's niece. The scenario was pretty interesting... I called the niece and said I had important information for her uncle concerning medical tests. She told me she hadn't seen him in years. When she hung up, she immediately called and warned him of the call. Of course, Aiden then traced the call back to the man. I then intercepted the man as he was driving, shot him in the face and killed all of his acolytes.

That's when two DLC missions showed up on the map, one was a code I had in the box, the other is the Playstation exclusive stuff. The first one was a clone of a fixer contract where Aiden must tail a car while downloading it's data and avoiding thug cars. The other had Aiden infiltrate a mansion, kill a bunch of powerful enemies, hack data, then chase a person. It was really cool. I was then asked to gather 10 hard drives scattered around the map. I have 9 of them and will get the last one next time I play.

I also started clearing out the southern island of Chicago. I hacked the ctOS server and one tower, then completed a few privacy invasions. I also checked in at a few hot-spots. 

Watch Dogs

Date played: June 19th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

Once again, this was a side mission filled session. Basically, I've cleared everything but the southern island, which contains two zones. I completed tons of privacy invasions, QR codes, ctOS boxes, one ctOS tower and a bunch of other stuff. Most of my time was spent doing fixer missions, criminal convoys and one gang hideout though.

I blew up a criminal convoy with IED's

The gang hideout was pretty straight forward. It was set in a spiraling parking garage that's under construction. I just took out the dudes as they came around corners and waited for the target to be the last one standing to knock him out. The fixer contracts were more of the same, even if I don't really tire of it. The criminal convoy was a breath of fresh air though, as I was allowed to destroy everyone as opposed to knocking out the leader. I took them out with a couple of well placed IED's within a few seconds.

Super Bro Special

Date played: June 17th
Platform: PS4/Wii U
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played tons of games with one of my brothers. I don't see him a lot due to distance. In fact, I didn't even know he had never laid his hands on either a PS4 or a Wii U! We started with one of my favorites, Resogun. I played the first level then he tried his hand on the second. He seemed to like it a lot.

We then played a bit of Watch Dogs. I got invaded by another player early on which really surprised my brother. I managed to spot the invader by hacking a camera, but couldn't catch up to him to nab the kill. I then invaded another player in a hacking mission. I hid well and managed to hack the other person without getting caught.

We then played through a story mission. Aiden hacked into a database to trace the caller who harassed his sister. It became clear that this was being done by another fixer who seemed to have history with Aiden. After the hack, I had a fun fire fight in an alley. I used tons of hacking to help me thin out the horde, then shot them in the face with a shotgun. I then met with the other fixer who definitely has history with Aiden, though it's not really explained how. He offers to work with Aiden, but it seems like our hero doesn't want anything to do with that.

Split screen Mario Kart is fucking great!

After a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity, we jumped into Mario Kart 8. We started with some one on one racing to get my brother familiar with the controls. He's a Mario Kart veteran, so it wasn't too long before we had really close races. We ended up picking the same weight class, kart, wheels and glider to keep things very even. It made for some cool looking highlight reels. We then jumped online and had a ton of fun competing against others. I won quite a few of the races and he did well too, placing in the top 6 most of the time. 

Mercenary Kings

Date played: June 16th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played two quick missions of Mercenary Kings, both of which asked me to rescue some hostages. I built a new weapon, but kept it real simple, both because I had few resources and because I wanted to keep my weapon simple. The Sturm Rifle is a strong automatic weapon with high damage and a big magazine. However, it's very heavy, which slows down my character quite a bit. After the missions, I was also able to upgrade my HP and knife.

Death by Sturm Rifle!

In the first mission, I had to rescue 8 hostages from throughout the level. I died once, but otherwise did well. The next mission was similar, except I only had one guy to save. I've tinkered with a few weapon combos too, but the basic Sturm Rifle works well for the most part.

Mario Kart 8

Date played: June 15th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 10/10

Ok, 4 player split-screen Mario Kart is fucking awesome.

Lakitu's joy is contagious on Mount Wario

My brother, his girlfriend and my girlfriend played together through four or five Grand Prix's as well as a couple of VS matches without AI. I much prefer playing without AI since it makes for tighter races and more item variety. However, the best part is having someone to blame for everything that happens on the track! We also had a variety of controller configurations. The ladies were sporting the Gamepad and Pro Controller, while me and my brother rocked the Wii remote and nunchuk setup. The only thing that kind of sucks with 4 player split-screen is that the framerate takes a pretty heavy hit, but it's still very playable. Oh yeah, and fuck the motherfucking horn.

Watch Dogs

Date played: June 14th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played hours of side missions while completely ignoring the story missions! I don't know why, but I just love side missions in open world games...

I spent most of it clearing out downtown Chicago, completing mostly fixer contracts. These are all done with vehicles, most of them being chases, car deliveries and tailing. I cleared out the rural area too, though there wasn't much outside of hot spots to check-in to. Then I started working on the north end of the map, clearing out a few ctOS towers, home invasions, investigations and weapon caches. I also completed a few criminal convoys which have become a lot easier now that I have decent weapons and better slow-motion shooting.

Boats are a great way to evade the police

Finally, I played quite a bit of the online modes. I LOVE the online races because the hacking, weather and shortcuts all affect the outcome a lot. The tailing missions are really cool too. I had one where the other player was right in the middle of a police chase and had to look for me while killing cops and avoiding tons of car crashes and explosions. I had a bit of time to do some online hacking, which is really just hide and seek. I haven't tried free roam or online decryption yet, but I'll get to those soon I'm sure.

Watch Dogs

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

Watch Dogs is HUGE! The game finally opened up completely after I completed a few story missions. In these big open world games, I really like to do most of the side missions. I often spend more time with this stuff than the story. Recently, this happened with GTA V and AC IV. Watch Dogs will not be any different...

I learned how to play online and I have to say, it's actually been pretty cool so far. The fixer missions have me either being hacked by another player or have me hacking others. There's a search radius on the mini-map that shrinks over time. The objective is to profile the other player or avoid being profiled. It turns into a funny game of hide and seek. It turns out I'm pretty good at this mode. I also played some online races which are tons of fun too. The addition of hacking during a race spices things up and make it fun, but of course, good driving always wins. Again, I did pretty well here.

I did a mission where I had to find a dude hiding in his car, then drive him away from the intense police search going on in the area. I had to use back alleys, parking garages and intelligent use of the "hide in car" feature to make it out alive. I delivered the man to the location, only to find out I was working for one of the biggest mobsters in Chicago, which of course killed the dude in cold blood as punishment for him getting chased like that.

Badboy17

I then played the mission that finally unlocked the entire skill tree. I met with Badboy17, a hacker I had been working with to gain access to ctOS. It turns out, her name is Clara and she is pretty cool. She gave me a new phone that lets me access more of the network, but I had to connect it first by going into a ctOS office building. I'm starting to be really comfortable with the combat and using hacks to make it easier. I made it through the place, then escaped the cops and went on my merry way.

I then completed dozens of investigations, QR codes, home invasions, fixer contracts, hotspots, weapon's caches and even a gang hideout and a criminal convoy. The criminal convoys and gang hideouts are well fleshed out and really fun. The convoy I played had me take down one man driving an armored truck. Of course, he was escorted by a bunch of dudes with guns and body armor. I set up a car in their way then took out the first car with an IED. I took out the others with an assault rifle and focus, then knocked the target down. I'm making good progress downtown Chicago that's for sure.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

Date played: June 13th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 7/10

Link braved the forest and rescued Tetra, the stranded pirate lady, from the first enemies in the game. There was a bit of simple platforming, then a few simple battles against some goblin-like creatures. After saving Tetra, the giant bird thing kidnapped Link's sister Aryll. Link convinced Tetra and her pirates to give him a ride to the Forbidden Fortress where they think she is being held. I grabbed my shield and hopped in the vessel. I was tasked with navigating the galley by swinging across gaps with ropes.

The adventure begins!

When we reached the fortress, the only way we could figure out to reach it was to launch Link with a catapult. While it worked and was fucking hilarious, Link lost his sword along the way. I had to navigate the fortress in the dark while avoiding most guards and find my sword. I remember this part being a lot harder than it was... I quickly took out the spotlights, avoided pig-like enemies and recovered my sword. When I reached my sister's cage, the bird swooped in, grabbed Link and threw him in the ocean.

That's when I met the iconic King of the Red Lions, Link's boat. The talking piece of floating wood has no sail though, so I must explore nearby Windfall Island to find one. I visited Windfall a bit, talking to villagers and gathering rupees. I also played and won a mini-game that plays like a simplified Battleship and got my first piece of heart!

Watch Dogs

Date played: June 11th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I'm in downtown Chicago now and a ton of new mission types have opened up. I started with a story mission where Aiden had to infiltrate a construction site and gather some intel. It actually felt more like a stealth game than an action game. I was using cameras to look around and tag enemies, then killing them with hacking. For example, I dropped a crate on two dudes, made some grenades explode in the enemy's pockets and blew pipes and other shit. When most were dead, I swooped in with the silenced pistol to finish off the rest. It felt really nice and played well.

Seriously...

Then I played tons of side stuff again, this time a bit more combat focused. Gang hideouts are pretty cool. I had to kill all enemies except the leader, which I had to knock out non-lethally. I completed two of those, one set in a parking garage, the other on a rooftop. I had to be careful because Aiden can't really take a lot of damage. I also had to use focus, a slow motion ability, when shit got too crazy.

I completed a criminal convoy. While it's a really cool idea, I had a hard time wrapping my head around it the first couple of times I tried and failed. Basically, two trucks and a bunch of cars follow a set route that is visible on the map. I must then ambush them and knock out two of the dudes. Everyone is using shotguns and assault rifles though, so it became quite difficult. I ended up setting an ambush in a alley. I blocked the exit with a hacked barrier, put some cars in the way and hunkered down with my assault rifle. I took out the thugs first, even using a generator blackout to help me for a bit, then ran in and knocked out the remaining dudes. It was hard not to kill the targets by mistake though... Finally, I hacked two ctOS towers and visited a few hotspots. This game is very big...

Child of Light

Date played: June 11th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through the area just above sea level, building up EXP by fighting tons of monsters. I found a shrine of sorts that had me solve a little puzzle. I had to gather three pillars by dragging them around, then use Igniculus's glow to cast a shadow that aligns with symbols on the wall. That's when the sea-people eating giant showed up and fought me.

Battle against the parent-eating giant!

I find that mainly using support abilities for one party member and damage dealing for the other works best. For example, I will start a fight like this by casting a slowing spell on the boss with Robert, then boosting up Aurora with her damage enhancing spell. I use Tristis to hasten Aurora and use Oengus to tank while our heroine does most of the killing. It works well generally, though of course every battle is different.

The 10 year old green sea person, Gen, had to know that her parents had been eaten by the giant, so I went back to see her and gave her the bad news. She was sad, but decided to fight evil with us and joined the party. She has some cool abilities, my favorite of which is a very effective, but very expensive paralyse spell. Hell, it can stop an entire enemy party from moving for a full 10 seconds, which is incredibly powerful. We will now be able to explore the underwater area since the giant isn't in the way anymore. 

Mario Kart 8

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

I think I finished Mario Kart 8, or at least, I got all the gold cups.

I really only had one to complete, the last of the retro cups in 150cc mirror mode. I used Rosalina and as expected, I like her a lot. I really seem most comfortable with the cruiser class. Donkey Kong, Waluigi, Rosalina and Roy are probably going to be my main stays in online multiplayer. The first time I played the cup, I finished 2nd by one point, but got all 1st place wins the second time around. I noticed that the menu screens had changed after completing all the gold cups, so that's cool I guess?

Rosalina drifts around N64's Rainbow Road

I also tried out Time Trials mode which feature Nintendo staff ghosts to beat. I picked Mario Kart Circuit, Donkey Kong and a fucking fast kart with bad controls, as it's a simple track. I smoked the staff ghost with ease and got a stamp for it.

Watch Dogs

Date played: June 8th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played a ton of side missions and activities in Watch Dogs, clearing out the first two areas. There's actually a lot of variety with these things. There's a weird drinking contest mini-game where I must hold one or both of the analog sticks inside a circle while it wobbles around as if I was drunk. There's a fun chess mini-game, though it doesn't play like chess at all. There's a street game where a man shuffles cups with a ball in it and I had to pick out the right cup. I ended up cheating for this one by pausing the game and looking for the outline of the ball from the pause menu. I wouldn't have bothered normally, but it gave an EXP bonus reward...

The game also has a bunch of odd AR missions where an outlandish overlay drops onto Chicago. I played two of them, one being an obstacle course with coins to collect within a time limit, the other a wave based alien shooter. It's a nice distraction and it looks really cool. I visited a dozen hot spots too. Finally, I played a LONG game of Texas Hold'em poker against three dudes in a basement. The twist is that there was a camera nearby that I could hack and sometimes see the other players cards. It wasn't as useful as it sounds, but was really fun.

Every once in a while, I would encounter a crime in progress and would stop it to raise my reputation among the common folks. Also, I completed quite a few "Fixer" missions, basically a point to point drive, either escaping from the police or trying to bring an undamaged vehicle to the spot. I even tried an event against a player on the ctOS mobile app. They must stop me from reaching my destination by hacking the environment and sending cop cars my way. I won both events. Yeah.

Cameras in poker rooms are a bad idea

Finally, I played a bit of the story. Aiden went to visit his sister Nicole and her son for the kid's birthday. It's obvious that Nicole doesn't approve of Aiden's hacking life, but was still happy to see him. After a bit of conversation, she receives a mysterious prank call threatening her and her child. Of course, Aiden hacks her phone, listens to the conversation and finds a way to track the guy down. I chased him and killed him, but didn't get much info on why he was doing that. As a nice little touch, the kid was playing a game on his tablet during the scene. If you look closely, you'll notice that he's playing Child of Light!

Unit 13

Date played: June 8th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 5/10

I played two very quick missions and there's not much to say. The first mission I played had me infiltrating a desert facility to snatch two documents. The mission's victory condition was to avoid detection, so I mostly used melee as I snuck up on the few guards. I got caught the first time around, but it was easy the second time as I knew enemy placement.

The second mission was limited by a timer, where I had to shoot through tons of men and avoid landmines to make it in time. I was equipped with a large machine gun that made it easy to mow down everyone. I liked this mission...

Mario Kart 8

Date played: June 7th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

Lakitu loves flying

I played a lot of the mirror mode 150cc cups using a variety of characters and kart configurations. I'm definitely starting to feel my favorite karts and wheels. Typically, I like a good balance of stats, but will sacrifice some acceleration for some speed. I also tend to prefer karts to bikes, although there are a few bikes that I like. I also uploaded my first video to Youtube from the game, which you can see below. I only have one cup left to get gold on, the Lightning cup. I actually tried it twice, but had trouble placing well in the last two tracks. Grumble Volcano is still a track that I don't like. It was one of the worst in Mario Kart Wii and it's not much better here. The other is the N64 Rainbow Road which is a great track, but it's really fucking short in this version, which makes it really hard to catch up. I'll get it next time!

Watch Dogs

Date played: June 5th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

Well, Watch Dogs is an open world game...and it feels like almost every other open world game in recent memory. Be it Assassin's Creed, Infamous or Grand Theft Auto, it all kind of plays the same way. Watch Dogs has a cool opening though, as we meet the protagonist, Aiden Pearce. He is in the middle of beating up a dude. Bits of story are thrown around as needed, but basically, Aiden is a highly skilled hacker who pissed off someone that decided to fight back by killing his 6 year old niece. His job is to find that person.

The whole game revolves around ctOS, a city-wide electronic surveillance system implemented in the city of Chicago. It includes tons of stuff, like security cameras, door locks, bridges, vehicle systems, smartphones, PC's and much more. Aiden can hack these things at will to serve him, which makes for some cool gameplay concepts.

Aiden Pearce in his hideout

In the baseball stadium where our hero beat the living shit out of the other dude, things got a little crazy during my escape. Cops showed up and everything went badly... I used the blackout ability to, well, create a huge blackout in the stadium so help me escape.

I didn't play any other story missions as the map opened up with hundreds of interesting things to do. I stopped some crimes, stole some cars, hacked a weapons cache, infiltrated a few people's home networks (funny as fuck), collected some collectibles, escaped the cops, scanned QR codes and even hacked a tower that serves almost exactly the same purpose as the Assassin's Creed games. The game looks nice, but not as good as Infamous. It runs smoothly and handles very well. There's a skill tree in there too, with tons of abilities to upgrade. I'm liking what I played so far, but it's clear that I've played tons of games like these in the last few years. 

Child of Light

Date played: June 5th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

Underwater looting

Again, I was only able to play a short time before my daughter had to go to bed, but I managed to fully explore the swampy area I had reached last time. I pretty much just battled and crafted occuli. There was a little underwater cave I found along the way. It was devoid of enemies, but has a fun navigational challenge where I had to reach a door before a timer runs out, all while fighting strong water currents. I've discovered two new types of occuli too, from experimenting and trying different combinations. It uses up a LOT of gems, but I can now craft Onyx and Spinel gems, which can boost attack power and spell power, as well as a bunch of other useful stuff.

OG Xbox special!

The original!

Date played: June 4th
Platform: Xbox
Session fun rating: 7/10

I have an original Xbox! A friend of mine was trying to get rid of it, so I got a really good price and a ton of good games with it. I used to have one, but sold it to buy a 360 back in 2005. I remember enjoying it a lot, even if I preferred my PS2 and Gamecube. I played a little bit with it, but only tried three games. I started with SSX 3 which still plays beautifully. I had a good time with the first few events, though it's weird using the Dpad to set up rotations.

Next I tried Spider-Man 2. This is a game that was revolutionary when it came out, as it featured a huge open world and fun web swinging mechanics. Unfortunately, it feels old. It's a genre that has become so much better in the last generation that this feels prehistoric compared to modern open world games.

Finally, I popped in Soul Calibur 2, which of course, is still fucking amazing. In fact, I've loved every Soul Calibur game I've played. I think that the rhythm is what makes this series great. Astaroth served me well as I completed the arcade mode with him and unlocked a couple of things. I look forward to trying some of the other games in the pack, including cool stuff like Metal Arms and Kill Switch.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

Date played: June 3rd
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played a few minutes of Wind Waker with my daughter. She's starting to understand video games a lot better now and is asking more relevant questions, which is making things a lot more interesting for me. She remembered that it was Link's birthday, that he got a new tunic and that we were looking for his sister! I explored the first area thoroughly and found a few chests with rupees in it. I found a shop and bought a bait bag, though I don't remember what they are really for yet. I also found three pigs that I picked up and brought back to a pen nearby for a lady. My daughter really loved those pigs...

Link has a weapon!

Finally, I went to see my sister on the tower and she gave me the spyglass as a birthday present. We soon spotted the game's initiating event, a giant bird holding a person in it's claws flying by. The bird dropped the person in the nearby woods when it was shot by a chasing pirate ship. Being a responsible little kid, I decided to help, so I got some sword training with the local weapons master. He was so impressed that he gave me the sword! Next time, I will go explore the woods.

Child of Light

Date played: June 2nd
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

Green people

The quest for the stars begins! Where should we search? The bottom of the sea of course. The new area has some stronger monsters, as usual, but Aurora is really strong now. I focused on her Starlight magic, which ends up being super useful against most monsters. After fighting a bit, I stumbled upon a deserted village. I met it's last two residents, weird green people that can breathe underwater. They speak of an ogre that eats their kind when he's hungry... The young green person says that her parents were taken by the ogre, so of course, we agreed to try and rescue them. 

Child of Light

Date played: June 1st
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played a little bit of Child of Light, but it wasn't devoid of big developments. Most of my play time was spent exploring the prison to save Oengus's friends. The labyrinth was simple, all I had to do was fight the enemies, open the chests and navigate the various doors. The trick was to look in the background of the room to find a symbol, then open the door with the corresponding symbol on it. When we reached the end, we freed the dudes and gathered some nice loot. They were pretty grateful, but it turns out they couldn't forgive Oengus for working with the dark witch. We left in search of the moon.

Fighting darkness!

We found it all right, but it was guarded by one of my step sisters which, it turns out, can turn into a fucking dragon of death. She had a couple of deathly cronies too. I used most of my team to destroy the boss. It wasn't very easy, but we got it done. When she died, she released the moon. When Aurora grabbed it, something INCREDIBLE happened and caught me by surprise. It was one of the most pleasant surprises I've had in a video game in a long time, but I won't spoil it here. Needless to say, our adventure will continue.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

Date played: June 1st
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 6/10

Nintendo had a stroke of genius when they came up with a promotion that grants users a free downloaded game when they bought Mario Kart 8. The choices were Wii Party U, New Super Mario Bros U, Pikmin 3 and Wind Waker HD. I already own and beat Mario and Pikmin and Wii Party U doesn't interest me, so I went with the Zelda game. I played this one back when it first released on the Gamecube and absolutely loved it. It was my favorite in the series until I played A Link Between Worlds earlier this year.

I only wanted to take a quick look at the game and only played it for a few minutes. It does look amazing though, the high resolution, beautiful lighting effects and timeless animation make it very easy on the eyes. I'm definitely going to play it sometime.

Mario Kart 8

Date played: June 1st
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

Toadette is pretty cool

I played two mirror cups and won both pretty easily. I tried out Toadette and one of the ATV's and liked it quite a bit. I definitely favor speed and handling over acceleration and traction. After winning the first cup, I unlocked the last character, Rosalina. She is a cruiser weight, my favorite weight class, so I might try her out a bit when I'm tired of Donkey Kong when playing online. I completed another mirror cup with Baby Rosalina and a kart that looks like a submarine. I wonder if it goes faster when underwater?

Mario Kart 8

Date played: May 31st
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played quite a few Grand Prix's as I'm trying to unlock all the modes and characters. I managed to win all the cups in the 150cc class, the fastest in the game. I used a wide variety of characters including Toad, Waluigi, Baby Mario and even my Mii. Honestly, the character sets the baseline for the kart's stats, but it's the kart customization that really makes the biggest difference. I tend to favor high speed karts which usually mean heavy weight as well. I typically don't have a lot of acceleration and medium traction and handling. This means I do well when I can follow a racing line, but it's harder for me to get out of an item filled middle of the pack situation.

It's-a-me, Mii!

I'm starting to discover small shortcuts and alternate routes and am starting to know the courses pretty well. As if on cue, I unlocked the mirror cups, which should add a bit of difficulty. I only have one character left to unlock (Rosalina I think?), so once I unlock her and complete the mirror cups, I will focus more on the online mode.

Unit 13

Date played: May 31st
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 7/10

I had a few minutes to kill, so I grabbed my Vita and started playing Unit 13, a game I got for free with Playstation Plus. I was impressed when I tried the demo.

It's a simple military third person shooter that's well made. It has very short missions, which is perfect for a portable device. I played the tutorial and the first mission. I picked a commando dude, went inside a military base and destroyed some jet engines while dispatching enemy soldiers. I mean, there's not much to say, it's a third person shooter, but I liked what I played. It controls very well, looks decent and hasn't been too hard or too easy.