Sunset Overdrive

Date played: November 30th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 8/10

I just completed Shadow of Mordor, so I'm ready to jump back into Sunset Overdrive. I started with two challenge missions. The first one had me plant bombs in 4 spots before the timer ran out. I got gold on my second try, it was quite easy. The second was a points challenge that had me collect numbers while grinding on a construction structure. I had tried this the last time I played and couldn't manage the gold time, but this time I got it in three attempts.

I then went back to the story missions. I was asked to find a propeller from my friend at the fort, though I really didn't get why he was asking me this... I went to the propeller factory (!!) but quickly discovered that there were no propellers to be found, though I did find a young lad in dire need of rescuing from the O.D.. I basically had to escort the guy out of the general area and kill any of the monsters that got in the way.

Thankfully, I had two new weapons in my arsenal. The first is a little mascot dude that can be dropped on an area that spews toxic liquid. It acts a bit like an area of effect trap which is extremely useful when dealing with the constant onslaught of enemies in the game. The second is a cute little teddy bear gun, except the toys are stuffed with TNT. It's a very powerful weapon that can take care of large amounts of enemies at once, but ammo is somewhat limited.

After saving the dude, I helped him drive a train back to his hideout, a lounge filled with low-intelligence rich kids who got into college with their parents money. Apparently, one of them knows a lot about propellers, but he is bummed out because his favorite brand of bottled water is nowhere to be found...

I first took on a side quest that had me collect some backpacks that the kids lost. It was pretty simple, though there were some strong monsters guarding some of it. Then I went to find the kid's favorite water. I found an area filled with gunk that had to be cleared out. To do it, I had to break open some valves. Of course, I had to fight more monsters in the process, but after a while, the gunk was gone and I brought back a case of the water to the spoiled brat.

Finally, I played another side mission where a hobo required my help to drive a train all the way to the docks. Again, I had to defend the fucking thing from hundreds of monsters, though my remarkable arsenal showed it's usefulness once again. 

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

Date played: November 30th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 10/10

I finished Link's Awakening!

When I reached the giant egg, I played the song of awakening with my ocarina. It revealed a path to enter the egg. When I got in though, it was clear that I needed more advice to continue. As soon as I entered and dropped to the lower levels of the egg, I was faced with a mysterious forest type of dungeon where a very specific path is needed to progress.

After fucking around for a bit, I decided to get out of there and get some advice from the always helpful dude on the phone. He directed me to the library where I was able to read one of the mysterious books with the aid of the magnifying glass. It gave me directions that had to be followed inside the egg. When I did, I was confronted with the last boss!

The final battle was a gauntlet against 5 different forms of a dark enemy. The first one was the most challenging to me. The black blob could only be damaged with the magic powder. That stupid powder was so useless throughout the game that I never thought it would be the solution. It's only after trying every other possible solution that I resorted to trying the powder. After 3 hits, the second form appeared.

The second form was a classic Zelda battle. In fact, this may have been the first time this type of battle has appeared in the series. I had to reflect dangerous projectiles back to the bad guy using my sword. The third form was a large worm that was easily defeated by using my shield at all times and striking at it's tail when possible.

The fourth was a large demonic that shot out magical bats and threw it's giant double sided axe at me as if it was a boomerang. Using the pegasus boots and the sword, I simply had to charge at him when there was an opening. The final form was weak and easy to defeat, using the magic rod. I killed it real fast so I'm not even sure if it has any attacks at all.

Once defeated, I was able to wake the Wind Fish and as I suspected, the whole game was a big dream. At the very end, there was some awesome animation showing the beautiful Wind Fish and Link floating in the ocean on a log. I'm really glad I played this game, it was a lot better than I expected.

Flower

Date played: November 29th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I finished Flower!

Of course, I had already played through it back when it first released on PS3, but the PS4 version is very pretty and my daughter just loves watching me play it. I played the last two levels of the game. We first started with a dark and gloomy one, probably the most boring level in the game actually. There are dangerous electrified pylons scattered throughout that have to be disabled by grabbing a set of flowers. When I hit the pylons while they are still active, I received a large electric shock that burned many of my petals... bummer.

Nature dominates Man

Finally, the last level is one of the best in the game. We reached the dark city and had to do everything in our power to restore nature to it. This level is satisfying because it has the most flowers and the fastest and most powerful petal train. I destroyed rubble and restored color and plant life to the city. The final section has me bursting through a big building to finally reach the top. In a weird twist, a floating chair and window are found at the top. All the petals are absorbed into a pot and a gigantic pink tree is born of my efforts. My daughter cried a little bit at the end because she didn't want it to be over, but she was quickly reassured that games can be replayed at any time!

Kirby's Adventure

Date played: November 29th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 6/10

The Wii U virtual console has some pretty great NES games, including Kirby's Adventure. I had already played a good portion of this game last year. I was chilling in the basement with my daughter and when she saw the icon for it on the Wii U's menu, she asked me to play it. I ended up playing through the last few levels of the 5th world and 3 levels of the 6th world.

While this game is always pretty easy, there were a few challenging parts here. Some of the boss fights required precision and concentration, as did a few of the sections where I had to fly between deadly spikes. World 6 is set in an ocean, so there were many underwater sections where Kirby can't use his abilities. The highlight was a large pirate ship.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

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

I finished Shadow of Mordor!

I only had a few story missions left to complete. I first helped Lady Marwen's daughter find an elixir that is supposed to help her mother heal. I infiltrated an orc fortress and took out many enemies to clear the way for her and her troops.

Soon after that, she started raiding orc fortresses around the world, but was captured. I had to sneak in and save her from execution, ordered by the Tower himself. In a cool twist, I had to carry the lady out of the fortress, stopping to kill dozens of orcs along the way.

Talion confronts the Tower

I then attacked the Tower directly. I gathered my branded Warchiefs, got on a boat and found his castle. I faced off against my rival, a captain with strong ranged attacks. He was teamed up with a large army, so slaughtered every single one of them. When I found the tower, it turns out I had to stealth brand him a few times by running around the castle. It was a bit disappointing, I wish I could have fought him head on. Eventually, I got to kill him, but discovered that my ghost friend wasn't such a good guy after all. He had taken the ring of power for himself before being killed by the Black Hand.

Finally, I confronted the Black Hand directly. It was just a big quick time event, but it was satisfying to see him finally die. I really loved this game. The combination of the Assassin's Creed format combined with the Batman combat was already great, but the dynamics of Sauron's army was the best part of the game. 

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Date played: November 29th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I was pleasantly surprised with The Binding of Isaac, which I got for free with PS+. It's a rogue like, meaning that once you die, it's over for good. After some nasty religious visions, a mother tries to murder her young son, Isaac. He escapes to his basement through a trap door.

The bosses are awesome

The game is a sort of dual stick shooter, but Isaac can only shoot in 4 directions. He shoots out tears as his weapon against all sorts of bloody, demonic creatures. The 2D levels are completely randomized, so every run is entirely different. Isaac must gather keys, bombs, coins and various items to progress. Every level has an end boss, which are also randomized.

I was really surprised at how much I loved playing it. It's pretty rare that I enjoy rogue likes, in fact, I almost never do. But the quality of the combat and the fun, random upgrades make this game worth playing. A lot of the items are very cryptic, but typically have very powerful effects. I ended up playing at least 4 or 5 runs and managed to reach the final level once. I will definitely try this game again.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

Date played: November 27th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through the 8th and final dungeon, though I'm not quite done with this game yet. Turtle Rock was easily one of the best dungeons in the game, maybe even the best. With it's ominous red color scheme, it's flying demons and tons of lava pits, it was a scary place.

Some of my favorite elements in the dungeon include the return of many mini-bosses, an odd platform that can create paths on lava using the d-pad and the magic rod. The mini-bosses were spread throughout the dungeon, guarding doors. All of them were much easier than ever before due to Link's improved weaponry, my trusty boomerang in particular. There was a new mini-boss too, a boxing dude. This guy had a big windup punch that threw me back to the dungeon's entrance...twice. I dispatched him by using some charged sword attacks.

Link awakens the turtle guarding the entrance to Turtle Rock

The platform that can be used to makes paths on lava had some interesting puzzles too since it disappears once it hits a wall. Some puzzles required me to fill all lava tiles with a path, which actually required some thinking on my part.

Finally, the magic rod is the new item that spits out fire as a projectile. While it's not that great in combat, it was useful for lighting torches that are out of reach. There was also a couple of cool 2D puzzles where I had to figure out the best ice blocks to melt to make a path. I then confronted the dungeon's boss, a large fire creature that jumped in and out of lava while Link was stuck on a small ledge. I used my new fire rod to take him out from a distance. He hits pretty hard, but if I got the angle just right, I was able to spam him with fire attacks.

I got my heart piece, my instrument and am ready to go to the egg for the final portion of the game!

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

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

This is it, the last stretch before the end.

I completed all side missions, including the last slave rescue mission. It was actually a bit different than the other ones. I went into a sort of pit where 10 slaves were tied up, then as I freed them, orcs swarmed in and started fighting me. I'm really taking advantage of the combat drain ability to turn orcs to my side and help me take out other orcs. The final sword mission was cool too, it ended up being a bigger mission than intended because I was ambushed by two captains along the way.

I played one story mission. The queen, Lady Marwen, showed me that I could take control of an enemy captain, then command him to take over a Warchief's position. I found a captain, fought him, then when he was weak, I put him under my control. I then commanded him to attack a Warchief. This created a recruitment event, so I gave my struggling little captain some help. I fought off his opponents and helped him become powerful enough to take on the target Warchief. All I had to do was tip the balance in favor of my captain by helping in the battle. We succeeded, so I now had my first Warchief ally since Ratbag.

This guy is now a Warchief under Talion's control

When I came back to Lady Marwen, she was clearly losing her fucking shit. She got up, muttered some spell, then started pulling my ghost friend out of my body! Her daughter saved Talion by smashing the Queen's staff. Surprisingly, as soon as the staff was destroyed, the Queen was rejuvenated and seemed to become 40 years younger! My next task was to control all 5 Warchiefs so that I could take the last of the Black Hand's guard.

I then went on a mad orc hunt. I used a variety of techniques to gain control of the Warchiefs and had a ton of fun doing it. The system they built for the hierarchy of Sauron's Army is really cool and allows lots of flexibility for the player. After about an hour of fucking around, I had control of all 5 Warchiefs and am ready to move on to the next portion of the story.

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare

Date played: November 25th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played a few online matches of Advanced Warfare Team Deathmatch last night and did all right. I wasn't awesome, but I was respectable. I scored positively in every game, my best score being 17-9. I'm definitely settling into a class, using the Pytaek, a foregrip, a red dot sight and a thing that speeds up aiming.

Getting that last kill is always cool

I found that I can't compete with close range, fast moving guys, but I can definitely hold positions very well with the powerful LMG. As long as I keep at medium-long range, I can do very well. I'm still learning the maps too, but I'm slowly getting a bit more comfortable.

Bayonetta 2 demo

Date played: November 25th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

Bayonetta 2 is fucking insane!

Seriously, the demo opens with the heroine riding a flying jet while fighting demons and crushing them with giant high heels, all while her hair costume becomes thinner and thinner until she is almost naked. Yup, that's Bayonetta 2.

All this crazy non-sense would be for naught if the game didn't play well though. I was VERY impressed at how this game handles itself. The fighting mechanics are spot on and tons of fun to play with. The combos are satisfying, the dodge is powerful and the strong Umbra Climax attacks are very cool.

I fought a bunch of demos, then a ... a.... well fuck, I don't know what it was but it was huge and had tentacles and fought me as I rode a moving train. I then somehow summoned a huge dragon of death that killed that beast, but then betrayed me! I took out the dragon in an epic fight and the demo ended. It was a short demo, but it was very cool and I loved what I played. The game looks good, though clearly the Wii U isn't as strong as a PS4 or Xbox One. The music is super Japanese and the story looks like a real mind-fuck. I definitely want to play this...

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

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

I can smell the end of this game.

I've completed all the stealth challenges and only have 1 sword challenge and a couple of slave rescues. I spent most of my time hunting some beasts to complete the hunting challenges. It started with a Ghul Matron. I had a really hard time finding one. The large Ghul leaders only come out at night and only when their minions summon them. I scoured the two map areas riding a Caragor, checking out every cave I could. Eventually, I found some of the smaller ones, but couldn't get the matrons to spawn. I tried again in a different spot and killed dozens of the smaller ones. To my surprise, 3 Ghul Matrons came out at the same time!!!

Talion brutalizes an orc guard

I ended up using my special bow ability to shoot a bunch of fire arrows at them and took them down without issue. The last hunting challenge was to defeat a horned graug. Those things are very dangerous and hard to defeat normally. I found one roaming around, killing orcs. Thankfully, I have the shadow mount ability which lets me instantly mount graugs, which makes it really easy to kill them.

As I was completing some of the side quests, I took on about 4 captains, though one of them escaped. Killing a captain is very satisfying!

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

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

I played a little bit of Mordor. I found a few more slaves, which opened up a couple of slave liberation missions. I completed those, then played one of the main story missions. I'm definitely feeling like I'm reaching the end of the game. I now have all upgrades that are bought with currency, though I'm still missing a few abilities.

This captain gave me a good fight

The main mission had me go retrieve an item from some orcs. This is where I learned how to brand enemies. When branded, they can be ordered to fight for me! I snuck around the fortress, branded half a dozen archers, then activated them. It rained arrows on my enemies until all was left were bodies. I also bought an ability that lets me kill all branded enemies at once, so it can be really powerful. I killed a few captains along the way too.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

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

I played through all the available side missions once again. There was a lot, many of which required me to be stealthy or to take out dozens and dozens of orcs. I also managed to complete all the survivalist challenges, where I had to find specific types of plants in the world.

I was surprised to see that a new skin was made available in the latest patch. It allowed me to play as Lady Marwen's daughter. It's a bit weird as the orcs still refer to her as "him", but it was pretty cool either way.

Torvin, the dwarf hunter, had some missions for me. We first started by hunting some caragors. I learned a new move that allows me to dodge them, then tame them, making it a lot easier to manage these guys in battle. The next mission had me hunting my first graug, the giant troll-like creatures that sometimes roam Mordor. It turns out, these creatures are weak at the heels. I made one bleed, which attracted caragors. I then rode a caragor to lure the graug towards Torvin's trap. The dwarf attached some chains to the beast, but it wasn't enough, so Talion was brave enough to mount the damn thing and tame it! I killed a bunch of orcs with it, then slayed my mount.

Ride that Graug!

The final portion of that quest had me hunt a legendary graug that killed Torvin's brother. This was an epic battle in a dark cavern, also infested by small ghuls. The graug would replenish it's health by eating them... I had to stay at a nice distance from the monster to get it to charge me, then I shot it in the head with arrows to stun him, which led to an opening for some stabbing. It was all pretty awesome!

Urban Trial Freestyle

Date played: November 22nd
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 7/10

I was killing time as I was waiting for my daughter's dance class to finish, so I booted up Urban Trial Freestyle for a few motorcycle stunt runs. The game is like a poor man's Trials, but that's not such a bad thing. I played through a few levels, completing the first tier.

Stunts in the rain

The only thing that's a bit unfortunate about this game is that the framerate isn't very stable. There's tons of cool stuff going on though, including some giant boulders rolling down hills to crush me, stunts on a moving train, as well as lots of tricky jumps. 

Luftrausers

Date played: November 21st
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 7/10

Well this is an interesting little game. Luftrausers is a weird, 2D shmup featuring nazis, planes, jets, boats and battleships. There's a button to accelerate, a button to fire and the arrows change direction. That's it.

I love how this game looks

The game is a short, arcade style score attack, that includes leveling up between runs to upgrade the plane. The physics are where the game really shines, as it has a nice weight to it in general. I shot up lots of enemy planes, missiles, jets and boats, but usually didn't last longer than 3 or 4 minutes in a run. There's some weird upgrades available that change how the craft fights and handles. It has a nice art style and is very responsive. I like it a lot, it seems like a perfect game to kill 10 minutes every once in a while.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

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

I completed level 7, the Eagle's Tower. It was definitely one of the better dungeons in the game, but it was quite difficult too. After some fucking around to get a feel for the dungeon, I found the basics like the map and compass. I eventually found a new item, a mirror shield. It reflects some projectiles, but honestly, it seems fairly useless.

The whole dungeon is a 4 story tower. There are many areas that have stairs and holes in the floor to move between levels. after exploring a lot, I couldn't quite figure out what to do. The owl was as cryptic as usual and nothing seemed obvious to me... thankfully, I got some help from a friend who recommended I go back to a room where a big black ball was sitting on the floor. It turns out I was able to pick it up, but I didn't even try that the first time.

This is where the real meat of the dungeon started. I had to carry the ball in different parts of the dungeon to throw it onto 4 pillars that supported the highest floor. This was quite challenging because I couldn't use stairs with the ball and if I dropped it in the floor, I had to start over. Because of the ingenious design of the dungeon, it was lots of fun figuring out exactly what could work and what couldn't. Using a combination of blocks, switches, gaps, railings and spikes, the path to each pillar was more challenging than the last.

Link sure knows how to destroy pillars

The room that gave me the most trouble had me spawning a chest by defeating enemies, then throwing the ball over a railing. I then had to go around to another area and blow up some walls with bombs to make a path. Then find the opening to the path and reach the room with the chest and ball. Finally, I could hookshot over to the chest and finally destroy the last pillar, which brought down the entire 4th level to the 3rd level.

That's where I fought the boss, one of the coolest in the game. The Evil Eagle is a large eagle that swoops in an attacks Link from above. it's a 2D fight and I had to remain on top of the tower to succeed. The Eagle sometimes blew me off the tower by flapping it's powerful wings. I used the shield to protect myself from it's attacks, and the hookshot to damage it. After falling off 4 or 5 times and having to restart, I managed to stay up there and inflict enough damage to defeat him, get a heart and my 7th instrument.

LittleBigPlanet 3

Date played: November 19th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 1/10

I was really excited to play the newest LittleBigPlanet game... I loved the first two, as well as the Vita game. It's the perfect type of game to play with my daughter. She likes the cute characters, costumes, environments and music.

LBP 3 started off pretty well, with an awesome cinematic opening talking about the value of imagination and all that whimsical stuff. Then I had a brief tutorial mixed in with the credits. Sackboy controls as he always has, but everything looks a little bit better. The music was particularly great too!

The story is crazy as usual. A man with a light bulb for a head transported me to his world to prevent three demons from stealing all the imagination from their world. I must save three legendary heroes to prevent the disaster.

Grrrrr...glitches suck

I started playing through the first level and everything was great! I was gathering stickers, objects and costumes as I vaulted through the level and was having lots of fun. Then I was tasked with using the popit, the little menu that lets me use stickers and costumes.

My enjoyment for the game came to an abrupt stop right then. I started experiencing extremely long freezes anytime I would open of close the popit. We're talking 15-20 seconds here. It completely killed any excitement I had to play this. I stopped after the first level...

Evidently, the wizards over at NeoGAF have figured out the glitch and it's source. It seems that it stems from having more than 10 screenshots TOTAL on the PS4's hard drive. An easy fix is to simply copy or delete the screenshots. That's really not something I want to do, but if they don't patch this before the weekend, I just might do it...

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare

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

I was hoping to get into LittleBigPlanet 3, but it wasn't in the mail... Instead, I decided to shoot some fools in the face. I played some multiplayer in Team Deathmatch and Domination. I actually spent a lot of time experimenting with different setups, different scopes and different equipment.

I played around with the variable grenade, which has an EMP, Stun, Smoke and Threat function. I thought it would be pretty useful, but since I only have one of them per life, it becomes a bit too limited. The threat detector is cool, but it's range is a bit too small to be really useful. EMP doesn't seem that useful. Stun is hard to pull off at the right time. Finally, smoke is my favorite, because it lets me play with people's vision. I went back and forth all night between the variable grenade and the frag grenade.

The XMG-1 is fucking awesome, but pretty hard to use.

I tried out a new heavy gun, a weird, akimbo only LMG death spitter called the XMG-1. It has a special function where it can be turned into a sort of turret, but I can't move while doing it. It's actually really fucking fun to use as it spews out hundreds of bullets in a hail of fire, but it's hard to use. The loss of mobility is a problem of course, but the biggest problem is that this thing is actually pretty hard to aim. I messed around with it a bit, and maybe with some attachments it could be usable, but so far, the regular machine gun, the Pytaek.

I've been messing around with the different scopes and optics for it. The basic red dot sight is good, but I feel like it doesn't take advantage of the weapon's range. The hybrid is not bad, but I wish it was a 2X instead of a 1X and 4X combination. One that surprised me a lot is the thermal scope. Even when people have perks to avoid being seen by it, it's still easy to see people moving and shoot them down. It seems to be about 2X range, which is really what I was looking for, but it also gives the benefit of showing some enemies in red. The only thing I really don't like about it is that I lose my map when I aim down sights...

I didn't do particularly well because of all this fucking around, but I still held my own and was about 1.0 kill/death ratio as an average.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

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

I played through some important events in Shadow of Mordor. It all started with a mission where Talion and the redhead dude decided to blow up a large monument the orcs use to inspire fear in humans. We escorted a cart filled with explosives through the entire map. I had to clear out orc camps and fend off vicious beasts until we reached our destination. I then had to defend the cart from dozens of orcs, finally pushing the damn thing into the statue, blowing up an important landmark of the world.

This earned the attention of The Hammer, a direct representative of Sauron. This was the single toughest enemy I've fought yet. He came equipped with a scary mace and some strong magical attacks. I kept at it and killed him though. I really liked that battle.

That's when the game opened up a whole new map to explore! I received a request from a mysterious young lady who claimed that her mother, a Queen of some sort, could help me find the Black Hand and destroy him. I met with her and followed her to a new area, surprisingly filled with life, something unusual in Mordor. I met a Dwarf who seems keen to help me too, though I haven't seen much of him yet.

The weird old queen and her daughter

In fact, I spent a large portion of my time exploring the new map, rebuilding it's towers, collecting it's collectibles and playing side quests. It's nice to get a new boost of experience and currency from the quests, I actually upgraded a lot of stuff, including a new bow ability that lets me fire unlimited arrows with unlimited focus for a limited time. It's a good thing I'm getting more powerful though, as the enemies in this area are generally tougher. There are more shielded enemies and more berserkers than before.

One of my side missions turned into a 30 minute assault on a stronghold. As a side benefit, I killed three captains in the damn place... It was all pretty damn challenging, the place was swarming with orcs. I used every trick in my book to survive. I played a ton of other side missions with slave rescues, bow challenges and stealth challenges, but I still have tons to go. Oh! And there is now a brand new set of orc captains and warchiefs to kill!

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Date played: November 15th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I took on the remaining warchiefs and killed them all.

These guys all have different triggers that get them out of the hiding place. For example, I had to kill two training berserkers to drag one of these bad boys out. Another had me fight and kill 35 orcs in a row, etc. It's a cool concept and it works well. Once they are out, I'm not out of the woods yet, I still have to kill the bastards.

Ratbag is the best character in the game

Finally, I helped Ratbag kill the last warchief. He was happy to take his place and gain power. I now have a warchief ally, though we shall see how long this flaky alliance will last... I do love Ratbag, he's funny, clever and tougher than he looks.

Mario Kart 8

Date played: November 15th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 9/10

The first DLC pack is out and it's a beauty!

It features 3 characters, a few vehicles and parts and most importantly, 8 new tracks. The characters are better than I expected. Link, from the Zelda series, is the star of course. He fits in really well, has cool animations and a fitting voice. His little tunic waggles in the wind happily! Cat Peach has cool animation, but she's a bit annoying. Finally, Tanooki Mario is the most welcome surprise. Some of his trick animations are pure gold and he has the coolest horn sound in the game.

The tracks are mostly very good. There's 3 remakes from previous games and 5 new courses. The remakes are the Yoshi track from Double Dash, the Wario mine from the Wii and my personal favorite, Rainbow Road from SNES.

Link, an F-Zero kart and SNES Rainbow Road?!? Yes!

The new tracks are awesome too. One is based on Excitebike, another on Zelda, one on F-Zero and two completely original tracks. There's one where we race on and around a dragon circuit. It's a bit on the short side, but it's well designed and fun to drive around. The other has a sort of dual track design, but it's been fairly boring so far.

Zelda, Excitebike and F-Zero make for some really amazing tracks. Mute City, from F-Zero is fucking FAST. There's boost pads everywhere, lots of fast turns and even a pit lane that recharges coins. Excitebike is filled with huge jumps and mud splatter. Hyrule Castle is also very cool. The coins are replaced by rupees, there's  a bunch of references to Zelda everywhere, hell, even the sound effects are completely changed to match Zelda's sounds.

I'm really happy with this DLC, it was cheap too. Good job Nintendo for doing DLC the right way. 

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

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

I completed all of the available side quests. Some of them had been too hard the first time I tried, but with my upgraded skills and weapons, it became rather easy this time around. Along the way, I fought many orc captains. Hell, I even fought 2 at once at one point!

Another one bites the dust!

I played two main missions too. In one of them, I had to lure a graug away from it's cave. The lumbering beast came back, but I used a new ability to evade it. I have a new skill that lets me teleport to enemy targets by spending arrows. Another mission had me save Ratbag again, the dirty little orc that always seems to be willing to work with me. From him, I learned that there are 4 warchiefs that lead the captains. Of course, this means killing them. I tracked one down and managed to kill him. These dudes are tougher and have bodyguards, but it was nothing I couldn't handle with a bit of stealth.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

Date played: November 11th and 12th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 8/10

Halo 2 is one of my favorite online multiplayer games of all time. It ushered in a new era of online gaming for consoles because of it's matchmaking systems, voice chat integration and cool game modes.

10 years later, the Master Chief Collection is the Halo fan's dream package. All 4 mainline Halo games in HD along with all the multiplayer maps are included in the game. Halo 1 and 2 both have had the anniversary treatment, which means completely redone graphics, remixed music and an amazing feature that lets you swap between the old version of the game and the new one on the fly.

I played the first mission of the first game and the graphical differences are incredible. The game feels like 2001 though. I don't know what it is, but it feels old, even if it looks new. It's still a good game and I definitely want to play through it again. In fact, I hope to play through all 4 games before Halo 5 comes out, which should give me plenty of time. I've played the first 3 games, but I never got around to playing Halo 4. I'm really excited to see it!

I messed around quickly in the multiplayer and right away, I was brought back to my early twenties. I was the victim of flashbacks of Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson at the Superbowl...

Anyway, Halo 2 multiplayer feels as good as it ever did, but looks much much better. I had a few problems with the controls since Halo has always had a different control scheme than Call of Duty, but I quickly got used to it and got a few kills. The battle rifle is still great to use, as is the plasma pistol. I can't wait to dig deeper into this beautiful collection.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

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

I'm back in the saddle baby!

Every year, Call of Duty becomes an important part of my gaming habits. Like clockwork, it's amazing multiplayer pulls me in and keeps my attention for months. Ghosts was good, but it did almost nothing that was unique or new. Advanced Warfare changes a lot of things, mostly changing how players move around the maps.

I started with a few missions in the campaign. The game is set in the future where military hardware is much more advanced than today. The game is littered with high tech stuff, like threat detectors, smart grenades, amazing HUD's, walking tanks, drone swarms and much much more.

The first mission follows a pair of best friends in the marines. They are assigned to a mission in South Korea. Standard Call of Duty gameplay follows, mixed with the amazing new future equipment. It all turns to shit. Mitchell, my character, sees his best friend die in an explosion, then loses an arm to shrapnel before being evacuated by his squad.

This is where the game really starts. The next mission starts at my friend's funeral where I was prompted to "Press square to pay respects"... It was kind of weird. Anyway, that's where I met my friend's dad, Mr. Irons. He is the CEO of Atlas Corporation, a large private military corporation with the best technology in the world. He recruits Mitchell who has been discharged from the army because of his amputated arm.

"Press square to pay respects"

Irons is played by Kevin Spacey. Advanced Warfare looks much better than any of it's predecessors graphically. There are tons of cool effects all over the place and the environment is prettier than ever. The biggest improvement is in the character models though. In game, they are extremely detailed and well animated, it's very cool. In the CG cut-scenes between missions, the level of fidelity is absolutely incredible. In fact, when Kevin Spacey does his thing, it sometimes looks like real life... I'm very much impressed.

I played a few more missions, including a long training mission that had lots of exposure to story elements. It was nice to have a mission without bombastic action for once. Another mission had me jump on top of moving cars using magnetic clamps. It was absolutely amazing and fun to play!

I played a little bit of multiplayer to get a feel for it and so far, I really like it. The double jump and other exosuit abilities really change the way the game plays. I made it to level 12 and already, I'm feeling really comfortable already and feel like I will be able to dominate once I find my setup. So far, I've got a nice, traditional LMG that I like a lot, we'll see how it goes.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

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

More orc murder!

I completed many side missions in Shadow of Mordor. These are focused on either stealth, archery or combat. They each have very specific objectives, offering lots of variety. I've upgraded my weapons quite a bit as most of them now have 5 rune slots for additional skills. I've won many new runes from combat with captains. This includes some stuff that heals me during combat if I meet it's criteria, which has been very useful. I've got a few new skills too. My favorite of the bunch is a sort of dodge-stun. I now stun enemies by jumping over them, then use frenzies to slice them up.

Gollum and Talion hide from orcs

I played a story mission where I had to follow Gollum around. He led me to a dark area where I found a little crown. This used to belong to my elf-ghost buddy. It triggered some memories for him and unlocked a new move, a sort of ground pound stun. There was a new enemy type to battle in this mission too. Ghuls are weird, zombie like creatures that swarm me in large numbers. Thankfully, they are relatively weak. They are vulnerable to the new ground pound move too. Honestly, I always fucking hate enemies like this in video games. I'd rather fight really tough single enemies than swarms of weak ones...

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

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

I finally got a chance to play this game for a good amount of time and made lots of progress. Most of my time was spent playing some of the side missions. I liberated a ton of slaves, shot dozens of orcs in the head with the bow, stealth killed unsuspecting orcs and stabbed hundreds of them to death. One of these missions threw me in a pit filled with orcs where I had to kill 50 of them. I even managed a huge 150+ combo along the way!

I also fought many orc captains, including some that were in the middle of power struggles. These are events where two captains are fighting each other to climb the ranks of Sauron's army. I basically let them fight each other for a bit then attack and kill the strongest one. One of the captains I fought was vulnerable only to explosions and stealth attacks, limiting my options for killing him. I waited until he was close to a bonfire and made that explode. I finished him off with an arrow in the head from the shadows.

DIE!

Then, I played a story mission where I helped another man rescue his wife from a large orc stronghold. To do this, I first had to collect some herbs to brew a poison. I then sneaked around the stronghold and put a bit of poison in their grog barrels. This led to a few orcs dying from it. Orcs being orcs, they started fighting each other suspecting mutiny. I eventually found his wife and got the hell out of there.

My character is getting a lot stronger too. I can now throw daggers in combat, can pin orcs to the ground with arrows and am deal more damage for skillful combat. I also have a bunch of weapon runes that change how combat works. For example, I have a chance of being healed a bit with high combos. It's a really cool system...

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX

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

I made solid progress in Link's Awakening today. I completed the item exchange quest by finding a mermaid statue and putting the last scale in it. In exchange, I received a magnifying glass, which reveals some secrets that were not visible before. I explored a little bit again, hoping to see something new with my item. I was happy to stumble upon a dude in a cave near the beach. He offered to give me a boomerang in exchange for one of my items. I'm not quite sure which items were eligible, but I gladly gave him my shovel. That thing wasn't very useful...

The boomerang is a fucking beast of an item! It is very high damage, has good range and of course, it comes back to Link. I then made my way to the sixth dungeon by exploring a shrine. This shrine had me use the bow a lot to get through it's enemies. There was a nice mini-boss, a large warrior, but I simply had to stuff him full of arrows. I discovered a painting that seemed to imply that the whole island was a dream and that if the Wind Fish woke up, the whole island would disappear forever... Scary!

Link discovers an ominous painting

The dungeon itself was pretty cool. I had to use a large combination of items along the way, but the bow and bombs were used most often. After lots of exploration and a mini boss, I scored a new item, a level 2 power bracelet. It lets me lift heavier objects, which I ended up doing a lot to reach the last boss. This boss was disappointing... He was a simply a face on the floor that threw floor tiles at me. Shield up, I defended against the tiles, then just dropped bombs on the boss until he died. Very boring...

After getting my heart piece and musical instrument, I made my way to the 7th dungeon. To get there, I had to find the corpse of a flying chicken below a statue in the village. To resurrect him, I played one of the magical songs on my ocarina. He followed me around for a while. When I picked him up, it allowed me to fly at low altitude. This made it possible for me to reach the next dungeon in the mountains. The tower dungeon awaits!

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Date played: November 7th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through a few side missions and collected some stuff around the map. The two side missions were pretty cool. In the first, I had to find a caragor, tame it, ride it and hunt down three orcs before the timer runs out. These creatures are fast, agile and very strong. They can climb almost anything that Talion can. I can still use my sword while riding it and when an enemy is lying on the ground, I can have the caragor bite it to death.

This fear-stricken orc is about to be eaten alive by my caragor

The other mission had me kill 10 archers in their fortress without raising the alarm. It required stealth kills so I had to sneak around the walls of the fortress and avoid detection. I also had to kill 5 of them using ledge kills. In my exploration, I found a HUGE creature, I think it's a troll, guarding a collectible. I didn't take him on yet, as I have no idea how to approach this, but I look forward to killing him.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Date played: November 6th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

Once again, I only managed to play a short time. I mostly spent my time exploring the world, gathering intel on Sauron's army and gathering collectibles. I played a side mission where I had to kill 10 orcs in a fortress without entering it. I used fire barrels, caragors and my bow to get the job done. The world is smaller than it seems, but that's cool because everything can be reached rather quickly. I killed one orc captain, a large dude with shining eyes.

The environment is fun to explore

Steamworld Dig

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

Playstation Plus keeps delivering fun free games!

Steamworld Dig is a 2D game about mining... It's pretty unique in that sense, I've never played anything like that before. The little robot hero inherited a mining operation from his dead uncle. The town has 3 residents... A barmaid, a dude that sells upgrades and a lady who buys ore.

Tumbleton is a shithole

The hero digs through rock and must build tunnels to gather ore, find equipment and explore the mysteries of the mine. There are three meters, one for health, one for light and one for water. Health is used when battling insects and other nasty creatures. Light is required to see the types of rock and find ore. Water is used to do a high jump and to use a powerful drill.

I fucked up at first by digging myself into a hole that I couldn't climb out of and had to self-destruct. I dug smarter after that, building tunnels with multiple exits and that are easy to climb. As I got deeper and deeper, I had to use the teleporter to get out of the mine, sell my stuff and refill my light. Upgrades are pretty cool too, there's tons of stuff to buy to dig deeper and faster.

I like this game, but I don't really know if I want to play it again. I feel like I got the gist of it and there's no motivation to keep going really...but gathering ore is pretty fun. 

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Date played: November 4th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

Shadow of Mordor is pretty awesome...

I played a story mission and explored the world a good bit. The mission had me fraternizing with one of the orcs... I agreed to free him and lead him to lead one of the orc bases in exchange for information on one of the stronger orcs. I had to track the other dude down through a big keep. I used stealth to take out most of the enemies but couldn't find my target. It turns out, he was at a different camp a bit further out.

Another captain bites the dust

The other camp was filled with orcs, but also caged caragors, the large predators. I ended up killing tons of enemies by shooting their cages open. My target's main weakness was that he was scared of caragors... so I sent one after him, he got scared and I was easily able to take him out.

I spent a good amount of time just roaming around, completing small tasks and getting collectibles. Along the way, I met and fought 2 or 3 orc captains. It's really interesting how this system works. There's a lot of depth to it and I've barely scratched the surface.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

Date played: November 4th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

I spent some time with my daughter today and she asked that we play Wind Waker a little bit. We ended up playing through the entire first dungeon! I freed Tingle from a small jail cell and got a camera as a reward, but it seems useless. There's a new system in the Wii U version where users can leave messages in a bottle through Miiverse. I bought the sail for my boat in Windfall Village, then headed East to Dragon Roost Island.

Along the way, I found a few very small islands, but didn't find much interesting there. I didn't have the ability to change the direction of the wind yet, so I didn't explore anything yet. I met with the Dragon Roost residents and was asked to help the young prince meet with Valoo, the big red dragon dude. I got the help of a young girl and found the way to the dragon's nest. I learned how to play music too, so I will be able to control wind when I get back to my boat.

The dungeon's boss was cool, but easy

Most of the navigation outside the dungeon was based on picking up bomb flowers and blowing up rocks. After a bit, I made it to the dungeon and explored the whole thing. There was lots of lava, bats and believe it or not, lava bats. I also used water jugs to build temporary platforms in the lava. Eventually, I got my first big item, the grappling hook. It can be used to grab wooden poles and traverse large gaps as well as to fight enemies.

I jumped my way through to the boss, a weird creature that was picking on Valoo by grabbing his tail all the time... The fight was real simple, I just had to grapple onto the dragon's tail to make stone boulders fall on the boss, then fight him with my sword. I got my first heart piece!

Puppeteer

Date played: November 4th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played through one level of Puppeteer at my daughter's delight. I now have a pair of scissors, a critical part of the game's mechanics. I can use them to cut through anything made of cloth, paper and a few other materials. It's weird how those mechanics work though. I can kind of gain some air by cutting for a limited time, but must find something to cut through to traverse the environment. It's hard to describe, but it doesn't feel as good as it should.

Puppeteer has a cool world

In the level, I was confronted by a large knight and fought him a few times throughout. The boss fight itself was really cool. I had to avoid the knight's flaming sword then chop up his cape to expose his weak points. 

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Date played: November 3rd
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I had very limited time to play video games last night, but I still managed to get a few side missions done in Shadow of Mordor. The more I play it, the more it feels like Assassin's Creed. There are even hunting and gathering challenges, similar to AC3 and 4. I found a few runes that gave me exp, but I'm hitting a wall with my upgrades already.

Killing Orcs is amazing...

It seems that upgrades are limited by Talion's power level, which can only be increased by killing orc leaders and completing real missions. I found one orc leader and killed him with a single arrow to the head. The last side mission I played had me kill 10 orcs without being seen. I also had a chance to ride a Caragor, a large quadruped predator. It was awesome...

Forza Horizon 2 demo

Date played: November 2nd
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 10/10

I.... I need to buy this game...

Forza Horizon 2 is absolutely wonderful. The demo welcomed me to the Horizon Festival in Europe where fast cars and EDM collide. I drove a fancy Lamborghini to the show in the open world map, then got into a Mitsubishi Lancer for a couple of events.

The big draw to Horizon is the way the map is made so that tons of shortcuts are available. In fact, you can literally drive anywhere, or at least it seems like it so far. This means a lot of racing through open fields and small woods at very dangerous speeds. There is a great cockpit cam, rain and tons of other cool little things, including a bit of story.

The cars handle very well and are a ton of fun to drive. While I only got to play two events, I fucking loved every second I played of Horizon, so I'm sure I will end up buying it soon enough. 

Sunset Overdrive

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

Wow... this game is insane!

I played a bit more of Sunset Overdrive but didn't really make much progress. I played a couple of story missions as well as a few challenges. The first story mission had me protect some vats around our hideout from the O.D., the energy drink mutants. The mobility in this game is just great and makes any encounter a really fun thing to do. I held off the waves of O.D., including a very large one, and got my first amps.

Amps are special, passive abilities that activate when I have enough style points. Style is earned by moving around different surfaces in the environment, like walls, rails, cars and dozens of other cool things. This pushes the player to mix it up and rewards movement with cool moves like a flaming melee attack or explosive bounces.

The second mission had me protect the old dude as he tried to activate a sort of helicopter, but we failed miserably and it burned up in the street. I completed a side mission where I had to find vat parts around the city to upgrade the base. I also played a bunch of challenges. There were 3 types so far, platforming, points and Fizz Co gear destruction. These were cool distractions that rewarded money, so I completed most of them. The money will be useful for new weapons... 

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Date played: November 1st
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I received Shadow of Mordor as a gift for my birthday!

Right away, it was clear that it's similar to Assassin's Creed, but with Batman combat. The story is really confusing so far, but I don't think it will be the main draw of the game. The main character, Talion, has witnessed the slaying of his family by the forces of Sauron. The bad guys then killed Talion, but he didn't quite die.

It's weird, I think he's kind of a ghost or something. He has a new ghost friend too. Both of them are confused as fuck and don't know why they still exist. This means that dying is built into the story. If I die, it doesn't reload to the last checkpoint, it just continues. After some quick tutorials, I was thrown into the world.

Just like Assassin's Creed, there are towers to reach to reveal the map, many side missions and many collectibles. Combat is great too. Just like Batman, combos, stuns and counters play a big role. Talion has a sword for close combat, a dagger for stealth kills and a bow.

Every game should have a photo mode...

The best feature of the game so far has been Sauron's Army. Basically, there are many enemies around the world that are named and have specific strengths and weaknesses as well as their own goons. They level up from combat too... If they defeat me or I run away, they gain a level... They all have specific personalities and appearance. The battles against them so far have all been epic and exciting.

I collected a few collectibles, upgraded some abilities and gear and played two story missions. The first was just about killing a bad guy, but the second had me tracking Gollum! I cornered him and got some information on some relic or something. The story isn't keeping my attention, but the combat and world have been really interesting.

Xbox One special!

Date played: October 31st and November 1st
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

I now own all three current generation consoles! I just couldn't resist Sunset Overdrive and that beautiful white Xbox One console. I spent a lot of time just messing around with the interface and downloading apps and games. Aside from the store, which is a big fucking mess, the interface is really good on Xbox One... The snapping function is awesome, letting me use and app at the same time as playing a game. Basic navigation is great too, easier than on PS4.

Welcome to my living room, Xbox One

The single best feature on this thing is the ability to instantly resume a game after turning on the console. It's very similar to the way Android and iOS manage apps and games.

I managed to play a few things, though I didn't have time to dig deep into anything yet. I played the intro to Sunset Overdrive, the free version of Killer Instinct, the free with Gold Volgarr the Viking and the demo for Zoo Tycoon.

Killer Instinct offers Spinal, the pirate skeleton warrior, as the only playable character in the free version. I played two quick rounds against AI, but didn't really get a good grasp of the game yet. I loved Killer Instinct Gold on N64, but I don't remember how this series works. I will say that it looks amazing and seems very well made.

Volgarr the Viking is a 2D retro action game. Volgarr is a brutal game. It's violent and difficult. It's also very fun to play and seems very promising.

Zoo Tycoon just blew my mind... That thing is so much cooler than I could ever expect. In fact, I liked the demo so much, I'll be keeping it in the back of my mind next time I'm looking for a new game. The objective is to build a good, profitable zoo. What surprised me is the quality of the graphics and the ways you can interact with the animals and guests. It offers a normal, tycoon type view of the park, but also allows you to control an employee in third person to feed, wash and play with the animals. It's deep too, there are tons of things to research, animals to adopt and even breeding. Shit, there's even a little elephant shaped golf cart that can be used to drive around the park. I really liked what I played.

Finally, the game that convinced me to buy yet another console, Sunset Overdrive. While I only played the introduction, I was absolutely amazed at every turn. The third person shooter is oozing with personality and style! It is VERY colorful and full of energy. The main character can be customized, so I made a very large man with a red faux hawk and some side burns.

After drinking the latest energy drink, the citizens of the city turn into monsters and our hero tumbles through the crowd of enemies. I went back to his house and barricaded myself in. Eventually, the monsters still came in. A gun toting old guy saved my ass at the last minute and started showing me the best ways to kill the creatures.

The game has a huge focus on moving around while fighting. A lot of it is done by grinding on the environment, Tony Hawk style. It's hard to describe, but everything about this game feels fucking great. It controls very well and is just so much fun to look at! It's also pretty damn funny, both with it's dialogue and it's weapons. One of my first weapons is a vinyl record launcher... I'm super excited to see what else Sunset Overdrive has to offer.