Mario Tennis Open

Date played: February 28th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 6/10

Once again, I killed time in the waiting room of my daughter's dance class with a little bit of portable gaming. This time, I played Mario Tennis Open. I completed two Doubles tournaments, a Singles tournament and a Streetpass duel.

A powerful lob by Bowser

The Streetpass thing is exactly as you would expect, a simple, Mii vs Mii match, which I won easily. The Doubles were a bit frustrating though because the second character is AI controlled, which made it's mistakes really frustrating. I used Donkey Kong and naturally, I selected Diddy Kong as my partner. It was still fun to play, but I definitely preferred the Singles matches where I used Bowser. I definitely have a preference for power characters...

1 PS4, 2 Brothers, Many Great Moments

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

One of my brothers came over to visit my house last night and we ended up playing a ton of games on PS4, though we quickly found a game that really hooked us. He wanted to see some of the stuff I had that he didn't know about. We played short bits of games like Trine 2, OlliOlli and Velocity 2X.

We spent a good amount of time with The Binding of Isaac. My bro really liked the creepy, yet funny art and animation. I ended up playing two runs. In the first, I was powerful but careless. In the second, I had good speed and range, but I just couldn't do enough damage to make it through some of the tougher enemies and died.

Then we tried out a bit of LittleBigPlanet 3, though it didn't go as well as we had hoped... We played a weird level where we had to build a car to race another dude. It wasn't explained well at all and honestly, it was just really confusing. Eventually, we managed to build a car out of an ice skate. It had a front wheel that could be used to give us speed when landing from jumps and a balloon to help us get some lift.

The game that really got us going was Towerfall Ascension. This is a 2D, retro versus game where little archers shoot each other to death. It reminded me of BariBariBall in a lot of ways. Strangely, it also felt a bit like a very fast paced Bushido Blade. The big appeal here is that it only takes a single arrow to kill which makes everything really fucking intense. The movement is extremely fast too, so shit gets crazy in even the simplest matches.

My brother's corpse explodes as I contemplate the results of my carnage

There are tons of levels and variants available, so we messed with that too. Stuff like special arrows, exploding corpses, invisibility, etc. We must have played at least an hour and the entire time, we were shouting excitedly at every kill, every close call, every sweet victory and every bitter defeat. Now all I want to do is try the 4 player mode...

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

Luigi meets the large ghost guarding the water pump

Date played: February 25th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played a single level of Luigi's Mansion in the waiting room of my daughter's piano class. It's a new environment, a mansion with two towers. My objective was to reactivate the water pump at the top of the building. There were some cool new mechanics in this level like shooting objects at enemies and the environment. In another area, I used my vacuum on a balloon and used it as a makeshift flying device. It was really fun to use!

After a lot of exploration, I found the water pump and turned it on. Before I could leave, I was confronted by a very large ghost with a ton of health that spit dirty water at me... I captured it and completed the level!

Metroid: Other M

Date played: February 24th
Platform: Wii
Session fun rating: 9/10

I made my way to sector 0, where I hoped to find the metroids and destroy them. Along the way, I battled a monster that dropped the seeker missile upgrade. This allows up to 5 targets to be selected at the same time for missile launches. Later, I went through a very cool area where gravity was unstable. At times, it was completely reversed and Samus was upside down. Other times, it was heavier than normal and prevented me from using normal abilities like missiles and the speed booster.

Inside sector 0, just before reaching the objective area, I battled the awful, ghostly, bio-mechanical creature named Nightmare. It was a difficult fight in Metroid Fusion, and it was difficult here as well. Nightmare used a gravity well to pin Samus to the ground. I had to use charged beams and missiles to damage it, but avoid it's attacks. Without being able to jump, it became pretty hard. After beating it, I continued for a bit and was stunned to be face to face with a baby metroid! 

The cinematic here was visually impressive, but that's about the only good thing I can say about it. It's cheesy, badly acted and doesn't represent Samus as the strong, independent warrior that I know and love. She comes across as a too feminine, too weak character in this scene. In the end, Adam wasn't the deleter after all... He sacrificed himself to save Samus and destroy sector 0.

At the same time, MB, the Mother Brain AI, takes over the BOTTLE SHIP and puts it on a collision course with the Galactic Federation headquarters. Samus, grieving Adam's death, must now stop MB. I gained access to the Gravity Suit, which ignores the weird gravity sections and allows fast movement in water.

Nightmare, phase 2.

On my way back to the main sector, I was surprised by Nightmare a second time as I walked past it's inanimate body. Scarred, angry and weakened, it attacked me and gave me another difficult battle. This time, I had the Gravity Suit, so I was able to resist it's gravity well, but it attacked more fiercely and even had ways to change the course of my missiles in parts of the battle. Patience and quick reflexes granted me victory after a long battle.

Metroid: Other M

Date played: February 23rd
Platform: Wii
Session fun rating: 10/10

Wow, the game really picked up the pace! It turns out, I was just about to reach a boss fight when I last stopped playing. Armed with my new grapple beam, I battled with Vorash, a creepy creature with many eyes that swims in lava. After a few solid hits, the beast sometimes revealed a weak spot that can be grappled. Samus fishes the monster out of the lava and has a few seconds to get some free hits.

After the battle, I explored the next areas and ended up in the first few sections of Sector 3, but with the grapple beam, many more paths opened up. I fought the mysterious purple creature again, but it fled. Soon enough, I found it's corpse, spread open once more as it happened to the fuzzy white creature earlier in the game. It seems it had evolved again.

That's when it happened. Samus fought Ridley.

Samus vs Ridley

It turns out, the mysterious creature was a clone of Ridley that had to evolve from it's fuzzy white larval stage, to the teenage creature I fought a few times to finally become the fearsome dragon we all know and hate. I was granted access to the Plasma Beam and Super Missiles to fight the beast. Unfortunately, Ridley managed to kill on of the last soldiers on the ship, the large dude with the amazing gun.

The battle with Ridley was lots of fun and pretty difficult. He actually managed to kill me three times, which is more than I've died in the entire game so far... All I really had to do was dodge quickly and charge my beam for quick hits. After some damage, his skin would sometimes become dark and he could reflect beam shots, so I had to use the new Super Missiles to damage him. I knocked the beast out on the fourth try, but he quickly woke up and fled.

I ended up back in Sector 1 where I spotted a member of the Galactic Federation as he ran away. I think all that is left from the team is Adam and the Deleter, but I'm not certain. Adam is unreachable, so Samus decides to start using her famous screw attack and space jump abilities, which lets her jump across long chasms freely. As I was following the person, I ran into a young woman who turned out to be Dr. Madeline Bergman, the doctor in charge of the entire installation.

There was a lot of story stuff here, but the gist of it is that someone grabbed some metroid cells from Samus' damaged suit after the events of Super Metroid. The stupid fucks then cloned it and bred it. To keep control of them, they also had to replicate Mother Brain in some way, so they built an AI to replace the biological creature. Dr. Bergman told me to head to Sector 0, a hidden part of the BOTTLE SHIP, to destroy the metroids.

After Samus left, an unknown Galactic Federation soldier showed up and approached Dr. Bergman. It's either Adam or the Deleter I think... unless Adam is the Deleter...

Mario Tennis Open

Date played: February 23rd
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 7/10

I bought this game used from a friend and finally got a chance to try it. Since my girlfriend loves tennis, we decided to play a few matches against each other using the always awesome "download play" feature on 3DS.

Mario Tennis Open is a simple, but deep game, kind of like real tennis. It handles very well and looks great. I picked DK and my opponent picked Peach. The game has a large variety of shot types such as spins, slices, straights, lobs, drops, etc. Often, special spots on the court appear where a certain type of shot will trigger a "special" that is usually very powerful and hard to return. For example, by performing a slice shot on a corresponding spot, the ball will have a HUGE curve to it, making it very difficult to hit. We also played a match as our Mii's. I won both matches, though my girlfriend did better on the slower clay court.

Costume Quest 2

Date played: February 22nd
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I finished Costume Quest 2!

I was really close to the end when I last stopped playing. I went back in time and recruited the young Dr Orel to help me enter the evil dentist's lair. As I was leaving to go back to the future (!), I planted some rainbow candy in the ground, which grew a small sprout. In the future, I convinced a monster to give me some of it's fertilizer by putting on costumes that reminded him of a movie he saw once... I took the fertilizer, went back to the past and poured it on the sprout. When I went back to the future (!), the sprout grew to a gigantic beanstalk. After a ridiculously long climb through it's trunk, I reached the outer atmosphere and found a powerful new costume, the solar system.

Armed with the solar system, superhero and hot dog, I went inside Dr Orel's lair. Alarmingly, he built an entire fake town run by robots for the sole purpose of trick or treating, reliving his childhood fantasies. After a brief romp through the area, I found a robot costume that let me go into his room unnoticed.

Orel White DDS in his mechanical dentist armor suit

The final battle was a great fight against Orel as he rode his giant mechanical dentist suit. Yep. The fight itself was very easy compared to the last battle of the first game and it's expansion. I used a couple of powerful cards and fucked him without issue. We grabbed the talisman and fixed Halloween! The credits sequence has me finally attending the neighborhood street party, talking to all the folks that helped me during the story.

Costume Quest 2 had better battles, better costumes and much cooler environments, though it was a bit too easy compared to the previous game. I'm still glad I played it, but it would be nice if they changed the formula a bit more if Double Fine ever makes a sequel. 

Skylanders Swap Force

Date played: February 22nd
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 6/10

I played 1 level in Skylanders Swap Force with my daughter this afternoon. She loves to take the toys and lay them out in a little line on the floor, then picking out the combatants for me to use throughout the levels. Today, she picked a bit of Ninja Stealth Elf and the swap combination of Wash Kraken. The level itself was rather simple. I had to save a town of hilarious land shark cowboys by destroying 3 enemy air ships. I managed an upgrade to Ninja Stealth Elf's movement and Wash's piranha bubble gun.

Land sharks. Cowboy land sharks.

Halo 4

Date played: February 21st
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played the first half of Halo 4's 10 missions, the only game in the series that I've never played. It starts in the hull of the wrecked Forward Unto Dawn starship as Cortana wakes Master Chief from cryogenic sleep. She detected intruders on the ship which is weird considering they are stranded in deep space after the events of Halo 3.

Chief wakes up and investigates the threat right away. There are major changes that are noticeable right away in this game. For one, Cortana looks completely different, though I kind of like her new look. Also, the game looks very good graphically. It doesn't look old like Halo 3 did, it looks like it fits rather well on Xbox One... The lighting effects are beautiful. There is also a sprint button now, which was in Halo Reach, but not in any game starring Master Chief.

I really love Halo...

I quickly discovered that the invaders were the Covenant, though they seem to be from a different faction or something. There are no Brutes, but there are Elites, meaning these guys never got the message that humans and Elites are allies now... I fought a bunch of them, some of them during a great sequence outside the hull of the ship. There's a new weapon that I like quite a bit, the Storm Rifle. This thing is a Covenant assault rifle. It's fast, accurate and powerful, making it one of my favorite weapons to use.

On the horizon, an odd looking planet stares down at us and quickly starts pulling all the Covenant ships and the Forward Unto Dawn towards it. This is the first time a Halo game has cinematic first person sequences, similar to what is often seen in Call of Duty and honestly, they pull it off pretty well. For example, Master Chief gets pulled through debris as he crash lands on the planet below in first person view.

On the ground, Master Chief stumbles around the wreckage for a bit until Cortana locates a ship that we could use to escape. Cortana is going rampant due to her age. AI start losing it at 7 years old, but Cortana is 8 years old. This means that she is somewhat inaccurate, slow and sometimes downright scary. Not only does Master Chief want to escape the planet, he wants to save Cortana by getting her to her creator on Earth. Anyway, I fought more Covenant on the surface, trying to find the intact ship.

Eventually, we discovered that the signal from the intact ship was the USNC Infinity. A rescue ship! Unfortunately, we can't communicate with it just yet, though we found a weird portal while attempting to regain communications. We had a glimpse of some robotic entities that seem to be able to teleport at will before rushing out through the portal.

Using a Ghost vehicle, Master Chief escapes a dangerous area and reaches a relatively safe spot. From there, we saw the Infinity lose control of it's systems and crash land in the distance. I fought the new enemy type, Forerunners. These metallic enemies have new forms and behaviors, which is very welcome. Even more interestingly, they carry new weapon types. While there is the usual pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, burst rifle and sniper rifle, all of them feel different and look very very cool. They assemble themselves from pieces with a very awesome animation.

At first, the Covenant the the Forerunner units fought each other, which was nice for me. After a bit more exploration though, a powerful creature named the Didact was awakened. He clearly has malicious intentions, though I didn't quite catch what his objective was. Anyway, he flew to the location of the Infinity's wreck, so I followed it.

I met up with the humans who survived the crash and started helping out by clearing a landing zone. I fought alongside humans for the first time in a dense forest filled with Forerunners. It soon became evident that the Didact had convinced the Covenant to fight on his side against the humans. I got to ride a Scorpion tank to blow Covenant and Forerunner to bits.

Finally, I had to turn one large cannons to scare off the Didact's vehicle, guarding the Infinity. To do so, I rode an amazing piece of machinery, the Mantis. This bipedal mech is equipped with a powerful machine gun and some high damage rockets. This thing fucking tears through everything in a flash, including Covenant drop ships. In the next mission, the UNSC targets the gravity well that is keeping all ships grounded.

I really like what I've played of Halo 4 so far. One of the big reasons is that it looks just stunning. I mean, it's a last generation game technically, but boy, does it look great. The beautiful art style doesn't hurt either. It also plays like a more modern game with good level design and good set piece moments. 

Costume Quest 2

Date played: February 21st
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I made some serious progress in Costume Quest 2. Our crew continued gathering candy deliveries for monsters in the hopes of reaching the dentist's headquarters and save our adult friends. Along the way, we tracked mysterious paw prints in city using the wizard's special light. There was a great side story about two monsters with competing casinos and fighting about billboard space and stuff.  Eventually, the paw prints led to a kid in a werewolf costume who gave us the costume right away! The werewolf is pretty good in combat and inflicts damage over time.

We then moved on to the last section of the game, the headquarters. I quickly found another costume here, the ghost. He looks cool but he's relatively useless so far. He has a move that hides a party member from enemies, but he doesn't hit hard enough. We found our friends and freed them, then started investigating ways to stop the evil dentist. There were a couple of boss fights too, though honestly, there was no real challenge here. I abuse the creepy treat cards and time my attacks and defenses well.

Hot dog power!

Along the way, I picked up my favorite costume in the game so far, a hot dog. Yep. A hot dog. In battle, it turns into a giant, three headed dog who attacks with regurgitated ketchup, mustard and relish! He's super strong too and hits all enemies at once. I think my team is set with the pharaoh, super hero and hot dog. I am definitely getting real close to the ending because we now have to go back to the first area to convince the dentist (as a child) to come back in time with us and open a retinal lock for us, which should lead us to the dentist. 

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D

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

I completed my first 3 day cycle. I got the password from the bomber kids to let me through to the observatory. I met an astronomer there who let me use his telescope... That's when I first saw it, the moon with giant angry face on it, rapidly progressing towards impact on Termina and the end of the world. High above the clock tower, I also saw the Skull Kid as a moon tear fell down below, close to the observatory. I picked it up and went back to town to find a way to reach the Skull Kid.

I gave the moon tear to a deku merchant in town, who gave me his piece of land in the town square in exchange. I launched Link from the flower spot and glided to a heart piece and the stairs to the clock tower's roof. It turns out, the door only opens at midnight on the third day, so I killed time by exploring Clock Town. When the time came, I met with the Skull Kid at the top of the tower. Clearly, he was angry at something and the fairies were both pretty pissed. To stop him, I will have to visit 4 areas, which are probably dungeons.

As the moon was crashing down on Termina, Link shot the Skull Kid with a bubble and recovered the Ocarina of Time. I played the song of time, which led me back to the beginning of the game and took away any items I had in my inventory. I'm not really sure how this will work, but I have to find a way to the dungeons now I guess.

The Unfinished Swan

Date played: February 19th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I finished The Unfinished Swan!

Armed with my water blobs, I gained the ability to make vines grow on walls and structures. These became handholds for climbing and add a bit of color to the world. I solved a few platforming puzzles with these wonderful bits of flora. In one very cool segment, I even used a fire hose to shoot water far away to make the vines cross a river. I then hopped onto a sort of airship that led soon crashed into a very dark forest.

The dark forest was super cool. There was finally a lot of color in the game, but most of all, there was darkness. Looming in the distance was a large figure or statue of the King. Using ink blobs to turn on light sources, I had to avoid the darkness filled with dangerous spiders. It was creepy as fuck that's for sure. After a while, I found a pink glowing ball of light that I could move around by throwing ink at it. This tension filled sequence led me to the King's unfinished house.

The King's statue looms in the background of the forest

Being half built, the house needed some repairs before I could progress. Seemingly inspired by M.C. Escher, the game made me jump into a painting, or rather, a blueprint of the house so that I could complete it. The stark minimalism of the sequence was shocking after the spooky forest. I was also given a new tool that allowed me to build walls, ceilings and blocks on certain surfaces. I rebuilt the missing parts of the house with these tools and reached the top of the King's statue.

That's where I found the King himself, lounging on a chair next to his pet hippopotamus. Seriously, this game is messed up. The King told me of his dream, which I then played. Honestly, this last portion of the game was a bit less interesting in terms of gameplay, it was more like an interactive story and credits sequence. In the end, the child was given a paintbrush by the King and he was able to complete the titular unfinished swan painting in honor of his deceased mother.

I loved playing The Unfinished Swan. It's unique, has fun mechanics, is surprisingly varied and tells a cute story. I won't be playing it again though, it's kind of a one trick pony.

Mario Kart 7

Date played: February 19th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played another local multiplayer Mario Kart 7 Grand Prix, this time on the Flower Cup. My opponent is still learning the ropes of this version of the game such as gliding, riding underwater and learning the new tracks.

Mario Circuit is one of the best tracks in the game

Wuhu Loop is a fun track, though it was a bit difficult for my friend. Mario Circuit is one of my favorite games in the entire game. It has big, wide corners that allow for fantastic drifting sections. Music Park is another challenging track when first trying it out, so my friend had trouble here too, but I absolutely love it. It's fast and well designed. Finally, we tackled Rock Rock Mountain. Another well designed track with a few very fun gliding sections. I won every race and my friend did rather well as a whole, placing 4th overall. While we have limited time to play, local Mario Kart multiplayer is always a ton of fun and I can't wait to play again!

The Unfinished Swan

Date played: February 18th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

Another PS+ freebie, Unfinished Swan is a unique little exploration game with simple puzzle elements. It has an incredible look to it that really grabbed my attention. For the first few sections of the game, everything is completely white. I mean, the game starts and there is NOTHING on the screen except white. When a button is pressed, the character shoots out balls of black ink. These ink balls then reveal the geometry of the level. It's a really cool concept.

There's a bit of a story too. It's about a woman who loved to paint, but never completed her paintings. When she died, her orphan son was allowed to keep only one painting. He chose her favorite, "The Unfinished Swan". The game seems to take place in the kid's mind as he explores the painting. It's very dreamy and crazy, but it works rather well. The excellent ambient music helps set the mood well with it's soft xylophone chords.

I played through two areas and saw the beginning of the third. First, it was a large swamp without color or shadow because the King couldn't decide which colors would be best. Along the way, the Swan's footsteps guided me. I even saw it fly away a few times. After exploring the swamp and a large house, shadows were added to the world. This made it a lot easier and faster to navigate obviously. There was a watchtower that led to a gigantic maze which I didn't have to really explore, thankfully. I reached a hot air balloon, rode it, then fell out into a lake or pool of some kind.

The Unfinished Swan is wonderful to play

In this new area, my ink blobs were replaced with water blobs. As I got out of the water, I noticed a very large, sleeping (and snoring!) giant nearby. My task is to wake him. Using my new water blobs, I was able to solve small puzzles by throwing them at mechanisms to move stuff around. I scaled a large scaffolding. I then reached a garden area and when I shot water blobs at the dead bushes, green shrubbery started growing! I quickly figured out that I could make myself some paths by shooting the blobs where I want to go. It's very cool and I'm curious to see what I will discover next.

Mario Kart 7

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

On break at work, I played a bit of Mario Kart 7 with my friends. We played a 100cc Mushroom cup to get settled in and used to the game. Then we played 3 races on random tracks. Since we only have two game cartridges, Shy Guy was the only available character for one of my friends. I used him and the exact same kart setup so that things would be 100% fair.

I'm really good at Mario Kart in general. I drive fast, I corner well, I use items at the right time and I know the tracks fairly well. I also take advantage of coins, boosts and shortcuts. This means I win a lot when playing against other players. While Mario Kart always has an element of chance with the items, a good clean race helps win a race a lot more than people realize. On the N64 classic Kalimari Desert, one of my friends beat me by a few meters with a little hit of his Tanooki tail just before the end. On Rainbow Road, I dominated the entire field and got 1st place. Finally, on Bowser's Castle, I placed 2nd after an AI racer while my friends were in the very rear of the queue. It's a pretty tough track though...

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D

Date played: February 16th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I started Majora's Mask 3D. I've never actually played it outside of a few minutes here and there when I was a teenager, so this remake was a great opportunity to finally play it. The game has a strong opening where a young Link rides Epona in the woods. A mysterious kid in a scary mask shows up, accompanied by 2  fairies and taunts Link. He then steals his famous ocarina and precious horse. He also puts a spell on Link that transforms him into a Deku, a weird, wooden creature. One of the fairies is left behind and decides to help Link recover his belongings. She also reveals that the kid is named "Skull Kid".

As a Deku, Link cannot use his sword and shield. He has an spinning attack and can duck into holes (flower holes??) to launch himself into the air and glide a long distance with spinning flowers. After a few tutorials, I reached Clock Town, the hub of the world.

The Skull Kid and his fairies

So the big thing about Majora's Mask is that there is a 3 day cycle. I'm not sure how this really works yet, as I haven't completed a cycle yet, but I believe that the world resets after 3 days and only a few things carry over. It's quite unclear at this point. For now, I have to find my Ocarina before the 3 days are up. I explored a few areas of the town, but not many. I played a little maze mini-game and scored some deku nuts for my efforts.

I met the Great Fairy, as per my fairy's instructions, but she was tricked by the Skull Kid and lost a part of herself to him. I first had to find a missing fairy for her. I found the fairy in the town and brought it back to the Great Fairy. She regained her regular, sexy form and granted me the ability to shoot aimed bubbles. Using motion controls to fine aim the bubbles, I shot down a fancy balloon outside the shrine, which got the attention of a gang of kids.

These kids seem to run the fucking town, as they are blocking access to a path I need to find the Ocarina. They challenged me to a game of hide and seek, but I only had until dawn to find them. At that point, it was already 3 AM in the game, so I failed. I had to find them again the next morning. They were scattered around town, hiding in boxes and on ledges. When I found them all, I was given a code to access the blocked path.

On 3DS, I find that the 3D effect works very well with action games like Zelda. The second screen also plays a big role as I could see the map at all times and can select items and eventually, masks, on the fly. Finally, the New 3DS' control stick works wonders in a game like this as it allows me to control the camera quickly, accurately and easily. I'm excited to see what happens next!

inFAMOUS First Light

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

I finished First Light!

It turns out, Shane is a real asshole... I did more work for his trading business, which turned out to be drugs of course, in the hopes of finding Brent with his help. What Fetch didn't know is that Shane had already found Brent and was using him as a way to blackmail her into doing his dirty work for him.

This led to more missions helping Shane, but the tone had definitely shifted. The DUP started showing up too of course, as I was causing a lot of havoc in the city. A conduit as strong as Fetch garners attention pretty quickly when she's "active". This means a bunch of new, stronger enemies to fight. The DUP uses other conduits as soldiers, so I had a lot of air battles and a lot more challenge.

I got some new powers along the way. The most useful is a directed blast of energy that puts enemies into stasis for a short period of time, making them harmless for a few seconds and easier to shoot. It can also blast enemies off platforms and buildings. The other is a homing missile power that needs ammo, gained from draining neon sources. It's powerful, but because it has ammo, it's a bit more difficult to use well.

In between some of the story missions, I was brought back to the arena at the conduit prison. I decided to try one of the arena challenges. Basically, it's a score attack mode where I must survive as long as I can and prevent hostages from dying to thugs. I played the first, and I assume easiest of them and got a high enough score to get complete all of it's associated challenges. It was pretty cool I guess, but I had my fill and didn't want to try the other modes.

At one point, the hacker girl from earlier contacted Fetch to offer her help. That's when I was given the opportunity to take down police drones in each district by hacking into their video feed to locate them. Shane killed the hacker girl for her disobedience...

Eventually, Shane asked Fetch to help him cut a deal with the cops so that they would stay away from the drug operations. I ended up killing a bunch of cops and feeling like a dick for it. Then it happened... Shane said he would release Brent because the deal with the cops went well. When I reached the meeting point, I was trapped and poisoned. In a fit of rage, I escaped by blowing out the walls of the building and decided to take on Shane head on.

Fetch had to sabotage Shane's operations by finding 6 of his delivery trucks, killing everyone inside them, destroying the drugs and tagging the trucks with taunting, neon graffiti. This was a long, fun mission, one of the best in the game. The DUP got in the way a few times too, but I took them out as well. Shane seemed like he would finally give in and release Brent.

When Fetch met with Shane, he quickly ambushed her and poisoned her as she walked into a DUP trap. In a weird, drug-induced sequence, I shot blindly at enemies and even had some weird flashbacks about Fetch's childhood. At the end of it, I accidentally killed Brent by mistake... It's a weird way to handle it, but it works pretty well honestly. After an emotional, last breath conversation, Fetch was captured by the DUP.

Shane must pay

I thought the game would end there, but Augustine, the head of the DUP, had a little surprise for Fetch. She brought out Shane! Fetch immediately attacked him, but missed. Her attack opened up a hole in the wall where both of them escaped, though Shane managed to hijack a truck. I stumbled through the snowy mountains nearby, fighting hordes of strong DUP agents and even a helicopter before reaching Shane. It was a great scene. Fetch punishes Shane until she just cracks and kills him.

I thought First Light was pretty damn cool. Fetch is a great character, her powers are fun to use and the story was good. I hope to play another inFAMOUS game sometime soon!

Costume Quest 2

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

I continued to explore the future city, gathering candy, discovering secrets, battling monsters, using new treat cards for battle and making new costumes. Nothing super exciting happened, except that I found 2 new costumes. The first is the Wizard, a hard hitting, but easy to kill damage machine. He hits all enemies at once when fighting, but he goes down a bit too fast for my taste... He also wields a glowing light that can open up new passages for our friends.

The pharaoh is the newest addition to my team

The second is the Pharaoh (mummy?). I think it will be my permanent healer since it has a powerful, single target heal and can revive an ally. It seems like the clown is on his way out. So my current party is usually the superhero, the pharaoh and the wizard. I kind of wish I had a more solid, damage dealing costume to replace the wizard. Maybe I should bring back the Pterodactyl? As for the superhero, it must stay equipped at all times on the sister of the group. My daughter says it's "her" and loves her very much. Replacing her would be sacrilege.

Wii Sports Club

Nerdy. Awesome.

Date played: February 15th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 7/10

A while ago, Wii Sports Club was automatically downloaded to my Wii U. I never touched it, having played my fair share of the original Wii Sports. My daughter was asking to play something with me, so I thought we could try Wii Sports. This is basically a Wii U remake of Wii Sports that includes online play and a weird pricing scheme. It includes a 24 hour free trial, so I played some Golf, Tennis, Bowling and Baseball.

There is some cool stuff added for the Gamepad, like a nice throwing and catching mechanic for Baseball and an awesome "ball view" for Golf. It looks nerdy, yet awesome. It's weird to put the Gamepad down at my feet as if it were a real tee. My daughter liked swinging the bat a few times during baseball, but found it a bit too difficult. The other games are more difficult, so she preferred to watch as I played. Bowling is still the best game too. Tennis sucks.

New Nintendo 3DS demo marathon

Date played: February 14th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 9/10

No one can justify upgrading from the regular 3DS XL to the New 3DS XL. No one. It's a luxury at best. Yet, I still bought one. I mean, it has some cool new features, but nothing that would justify the price. Honestly, I wasn't that interested in it when it was first announced, though the improved 3D, faster CPU and second analog control were appealing, they weren't enough. Then I saw it. The Majora's Mask Edition.

I think it's very beautiful. The color scheme and the great art work on the cover mesh together well and I just HAD to get one. It was a frustrating experience though. I had dozens of tabs open after the announcement, trying to find a place that would take pre-orders for it, but I just couldn't find one. I decided to take a chance on my lunch break and go to the best EB Games in town, where I managed to score a pre-order. As of this writing, it goes for a bit more than 500$ on Ebay, from a retail price of 230$...

I got Majora's Mask 3D with it, but after doing the whole system transfer thing, I decided to just download a bunch of demos. I played Code Name S.T.E.A.M., Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Theatrhythm Curtain Call, Sonic Boom, Ace Attorney Dual Destinies, European Conqueror 3D, Fishdom H2O, Asterix The Mansion of the Gods, Glory of Generals, Color Zen, AiRace Xeno and WRC FIA World Rally Championship.

The improved 3D is very noticeable and works extremely well. It basically tracks my face to make 3D much more stable. The faster CPU also makes everything load faster, which was very much needed...

Fishdom H2O is a hidden object game that I thought my daughter could play, but it's so badly made that it couldn't even entertain a 4 year old. Asterix The Mansion of the Gods is another piece of shit game... The demo had one mini-game where Obelix must throw rocks at animals and Romans with the touch screen. Boring as fuck. Glory of Generals looked like a relatively competent turn based strategy game set in World War 2, but it's systems were too obscure and hard to understand for me...

AiRace Xeno is a weird obstacle race course where a spaceship must speed through tunnels and such. It's pretty good honestly. It's fast, controls well and looks good. WRC is a rally game that I was really excited to try, but the horrible handling ruined it for me. It runs well enough and looks decent, but the car just doesn't handle "right". Too bad...

European Conqueror 3D is another turn based strategy game set in World War 2...but this one was fun and held my attention for a long time. Using Britain, I conquered the entirety of Europe with infantry, tanks, artillery and air strikes. It played very well and the systems work well together.

Sonic Boom was a very average 2D platformer... I mean, it's not that bad and kept my attention until the end of the level, but it didn't do anything great either. Color Zen is an awesome little puzzle game that is impossible to describe here, but also would be best on a phone or tablet instead of 3DS.

It was my first time trying a game in the famous Ace Attorney series and I kind of liked it. It's a bit like an interactive novel where gameplay is largely text based. I had to point out inconsistencies in people's testimony during a court hearing. It was funny, extremely well animated and quite satisfying to play.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is a big deal for a lot of people, but I've never been able to enjoy Monster Hunter. Every time I tried, I find the combat clunky and weird. Maybe that's the big appeal and I'm just not seeing it... I killed a large dinosaur thing with a giant hammer. It looks great at least. It was also the first game where I could try the new analog nub and it worked very well to control the camera.

Theatrhythm was the biggest surprise of the demos I played today. It's a rhythm game featuring music from Final Fantasy. It's possible to play with the stylus or the buttons so I tried both and found myself liking the buttons a lot more. Using a combination of button presses and analog stick movements, I played through a song from Final Fantasy VI and one from the Advent Children movie. I loved every second of it... Maybe I should buy this game sometime...

Finally, the game I was most excited about is Code Name S.T.E.A.M.! It's from Intelligent Systems, a studio that always seems to make games I love, like Super Metroid, Paper Mario and Fire Emblem and so far, I'm loving this game too! Honestly, it's pretty much just XCOM but with a comic book art style, a steampunk theme and some wacky shit. The demo is quite long and eventually, I was able to play with 4 characters at once. I will definitely be buying this game when it comes out next month, turn based tactical games fucking rock and this one is promising. 

inFAMOUS First Light

Date played: February 12th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I continued the story, starting with an escort mission... Shane, Fetch's best hope of finding Brent, needed an escort to protect his van from the Russian gang as he transported important cargo. I rode on top of the van and shot dozens of enemies with my neon powers. This was a pretty exciting mission. Fetch's rapid fire neon bolts are very powerful and can take out vehicles very quickly if needed, resulting in wonderful explosions.

Fetch blows up a car full of gang members

In another mission, I was asked to save some hostages by using a sort of sniper neon shot. This unlocked two random events. There are now hostages to save around the city and gangbangers driving around in cars with submachine guns.

The next mission had me following a gang member with the assistance of a city worker that owes a few favors to Shane. We used some cameras around the city to see what happened. The dude in question was following a woman around in a creepy, stalker kind of way. Eventually she began running and met up with a man who seemed to be a friend of hers. This man was shot by the stalker without remorse, then the girl was taken by the bad guy... I will try to follow the trail to the creep's hideout next.

inFAMOUS First Light

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

I've been busy upgrading my PS4's hard drive from 500GB to 2TB in the last few days, so I wasn't able to play games. Last night, I finally put my machine to the test with some inFAMOUS First Light.

I didn't play anything that was story related but I played all the available side missions and gathered all collectibles currently available. There are collectibles all over the map that grant me upgrade points. Many of those are hard to reach and require some long jumps, smart hovers and fast running. There were also some graffiti spots similar to what was in Second Son, but Fetch uses her neon powers instead of paint.

Those little red orbs are fun to gather

Finally, I completed all the race events around the city. These are actually chases rather than races as Fetch must catch a fleeing bulb of light, similar to the feather chasing missions in Assassin's Creed 3 and the shanties in Assassin's Creed 4. Since Fetch is very fast, it's pretty exciting, though generally it was a bit too easy. With my upgrade points, I improved many of my moves to maximum and have nothing else on the map except the main mission.

inFAMOUS First Light

Date played: February 8th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 7/10

When I played inFAMOUS Second Son last year, I had a lot of fun. Fetch, the neon powered woman, was one of the best characters in that game, so when I saw that First Light, the stand alone, mini expansion, starred the pink-haired anti-hero, I was pretty excited. First Light was free for PS+ last month too, so that's nice!

I only played the introduction, the first mission and some introductory arena challenges. The game is a prequel to Second Son and shows Fetch's time in the conduit prison and how she got there. The story is setup as flashbacks as Fetch explains her situation to Brooke Augustine, the villain from Second Son.

Fetch and Brent

Fetch tells her story. She was homeless with her brother Brent. They were basically petty thieves. They made a promise together, that Fetch would not use her powers so that the DUP wouldn't find her and put her in prison. As they set off for their last, big heist, Fetch decides to use her powers to distract some cops. She then goes on to steal the money that they were after.

The game still plays like Second Son, except that Fetch doesn't have all her powers yet. For now, she can run up walls at light speed and shoot neon bolts. When she reached the apartment with the money, she was ambushed by some bad dudes, so I fought them. After the battle, Fetch discovered a time bomb, but a little too late. She was blown to the streets below and made her way back to her brother.

Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be found. As it stands, the game is now a rescue mission. It's nice to see a woman in charge of saving a man for once in a video game... Fetch also met a friend of her brother's, Shane. This man is the one who hired Brent for the theft and he guided Fetch in the right direction.

The flashback ended and Augustine asked Fetch to complete an arena challenge to help her master her neon powers. I had to save holographic hostages from holographic thugs in a rather large arena. It was kind of boring honestly and I just wanted to get back to the story bits.

Battlefield Hardline Beta

Date played: February 7th and 8th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

Well, I really found my groove in this game...

I have been doing very well on the scoreboard. While I generally have a lot more kills than deaths, I've also been quite a team player, getting lots of points for other things like capturing objectives, assisting team mates, healing, reviving and spotting. Spotting is one of my favorite mechanics in the Battlefield series, it's too bad it's not in more games. Basically, when an enemy soldier or vehicle is in my sights, I can press a button to call them out verbally, add an icon overlay on them for my team and add them to the mini-map for a reasonable length of time. It is extremely helpful to the entire team and is easy to do.

I love playing as the thieves!

In one absolutely exhilarating match, I dominated the scoreboard with a good amount of kills, but mostly with a daring, last minute push to get the money on the helicopter. The timer was about to expire on the package, the helicopter was waiting for someone to drop it but our team was mostly just sniping and taking potshots from a distance. I threw a smoke grenade near the package, jumped off the building I had spawned on, opened my parachute, sprinted for the cash and hooked it to the chopper to win the match. It was so fucking exciting and satisfying, I just want to play more of this damn game.

I also played a bit more Conquest and took a liking to the armored SUV vehicle. I'm usually a very good driver in multiplayer games. I know where to position myself, I drive fast and well and am conscious of my gunner's field of view. The armored SUV has a powerful turret on top, so with a good gunner, serious damage can be done. I ended up driving around, capturing points with the same gunner for a solid 5 minutes in one match and neither of us died in that time. He was a very good shot and understood my "language". For example, if I stopped or slowed down, he knew I wanted him to shoot at something nearby and would do it quickly and accurately. It felt real nice.

Battlefield Hardline is a LOT better than I ever expected it to be and is now one of my most anticipated games in the near future. 

Costume Quest 2

Date played: February 7th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

Keep in mind, my daughter is 4 years old, loves Halloween, candy and video games. She also can't read and only speaks and understands French. This means that she loves Costume Quest 2, but I must translate all the text for her during story bits. It turns out, her reactions are fabulous. Before we got to any juicy story parts though, we explored the entire swamp area, knocked on many doors and eventually even played in a jazz band with the clown horn...

I picked up a new costume, the pterodactyl. This thing is awesome as it has a special that weakens enemies every turn. I also started fucking around with the different cards that can be used in combat. I like the system, though it takes a lot of time to equip new cards after each battle. Along the way, I met the dentist as a child, before he was evil. He wore dental braces and his evil mother forbid him to eat candy and dress in costumes...

The clown, the superhero and the pterodactyl

In a hilarious sequence, we "fixed" a motor boat with an oar, then found the witches bog. That's where we found our friends and tried to warn them that the dentist would come steal the monster talisman. They brushed us off, but of course, the evil dental expert showed up right then with the Kronomancer, the weird dude that lets him travel in time.

This was the first boss battle, but it was pretty easy and straightforward. There were 3 phases, but nothing a few well timed attacks couldn't deal with. We then went back to the future (yeah!) where we were quickly apprehended by the dentist and his thugs. That's when my adult friends were captured and us kids were sent to "Tooth Academy".

Again, Double Fine's excellent writing team showed what they were capable of in a funny classroom scene on dental hygiene, Halloween and candy. There was a fart joke in there. When I translated it for my daughter, she burst out laughing for a solid 2 minutes.... We were sent to detention for our truthful answers in class. That's where we met our adult friend's daughter and made a run for it. We found our costumes and scored a new one, Thomas Jefferson. Using the power of words to fight, he slaps monsters around with a deadly pen. His special attack is the declaration of destruction. Yep.

We found some friends in the sewers after our escape and must now gather candy and perform deliveries in the futuristic neighborhood. 

Alien: Isolation

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

I played a little bit of Alien Isolation late at night. Amanda Ripley begins her exploration of the Sevastopol station in the hopes of finding survivors and help. So far though, all she found is an eerily deserted, decrepit space station. I found odd graffiti on the walls, mysterious audio logs and revealing emails. It seems that the station was to be closed, but I'm seeing hints that maybe people were left to rot there rather than being sent back to Earth or another station.

A miniature of Sevastopol station

I explored many, wonderfully atmospheric rooms and found a few interesting survival items such as flares and various components that can be used to craft objects. For example, I was able to craft a medkit from the salvage I recovered. I restored power to a few sections of the station, including a large terminal, similar to what you would find in a modern day airport. I saw a glimpse of my ship, the Torrens, but as I was trying to signal it from the large bay window, the shutters were activated and I lost sight of it.

One thing that truly makes this game stand out so far is the incredible lighting that sets the mood and makes things very tense. The sound is also completely terrifying and stressful. Various, mysterious sounds can be heard all around Amanda and believe me, in surround sound, this stuff is very effective... I can't wait to see more of this game.

Battlefield Hardline Beta

Date played: February 6th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I'm really loving Hardline, the cops and robbers thing works damn well. I think the Bank Heist map is very well designed, which probably helps everything be much more fun overall. It has many different routes and is well balanced. I tend to prefer playing the robbers now, because I bought the AKM, a high damage assault rifle.

I flank the opposition to help my team steal the money

In fact, in Heist mode, I haven't had a game below 1.0 K/D ratio, which is a really good sign. I got even better when I unlocked a new sight for the AKM. In my best match, I scored a very respectable 15-3. I'm starting to know the map well too, which definitely helps a ton.

I tried out the other 2 modes, Hotwire and Conquest. Conquest is regular ass Battlefield. Set on Dust Bowl, a large, desert map, there are many opportunities for vehicular combat, sniping and other large scale shenanigans. It's fun, but again, I really fucking miss having an LMG to tear things up... Hotwire is kind of a big mess. There are 5 vehicles that are specially marked in the map. Scoring is done by driving these vehicles at high speed. It's kind of a cool concept, but it's hard to take out a vehicle with guns, so most matches end up being just a bunch of people driving around until the match ends. One of the maps for the mode, Downtown, has some really interesting things going for it, including some skyscrapers. This means that people can use a helicopter and snipe from the top of the buildings at very high altitudes. It makes for some cool parachuting sequences too.
The star of the show here is definitely the Heist mode, though Conquest is still as fun as it ever was. 

Battlefield Hardline Beta

Date played: February 5th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

Battlefield Hardline looked boring to me. I haven't really loved a Battlefield game since Battlefield 2, though I enjoyed 2142 and 1943. Battlefield 3 was kind of boring to me and I never tried Battlefield 4. Cops and robbers is a damn good theme though, so when I saw the open beta for download, I decided to give it a shot.

I was very pleasantly surprised to see that so far, Hardline is fucking awesome. The beta has 3 modes and 3 maps, though I only played the Heist mode and it's Bank Job map. The premise has the robbers attempt to open a bank vault and steal 2 packages and bring them to 1 of 3 extraction points. The police must stop them from succeeding, usually by shooting them in the face.

Honestly, I feel like that setup works really well and is a ton of fun. To recover a package, the cops must kill it's carrier and stay near the object for some time before it is returned to the vault. The package must also stay at the extraction point for some time for the robbers to be successful. This gives enough time for both teams to recover from large mistakes in many cases and it's quite exciting.

The game looks good, plays well and is surprisingly stable, especially for a beta. I've enjoyed playing with the operator class, equipped with an assault rifle and a medpack. The only thing I don't like so far is that I would really like a large, LMG type weapon, though the assault rifle has been sufficient.

I did fairly considering it was my first time playing it, I even had a nice 10-3 game. I generally had positive scores and expect I will be better quickly. Too bad this beta only lasts a few days!

Costume Quest 2

Date played: February 5th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 7/10

I loved the first Costume Quest when I played it last October, so when I saw the second one on sale for PS4, I bought it to play with my daughter who absolutely loves Halloween.

The sequel starts where the Grubbins on Ice expansion left off, with the 4 kids in a weird, portal-filled area. They decided to go through the portal and found themselves back home, on Halloween, but something is... off. It's brushed off as a "Time dilation anomaly", whatever that means. The hero siblings then met an evil dentist that summons monsters through a portal! That's when one of their friends as an adult from the future and begs them to come through another time portal with them.

Evil Dr. White banned Halloween!

It's non-sense, but it's funny and well delivered. In the future (maybe 15-20 years?), our friend tells us that the Dentist rules the world. Candy, costumes and Halloween are now illegal! How disastrous! Of course, we must save Halloween. To do so, we picked up a superhero costume and a candy corn costume from the shed, We then jumped into another portal and were told to "find the witches".

The gameplay is very similar to the previous game, though some minor changes were made. For example, there are now items to be used in combat. The battle button prompts have changed to include a sort of timer, so there are now normal, nice and awesome hits. I found a new friend and saved his ass from a giant crocodile who then joined our party. He brought with him a funny clown costume that features a squeaky horn and some butt stomp attacks.

We started trick or treating to find the witches and reached level 2. My daughter has fun pressing the button to knock on the doors and had a blast making fart jokes with the clown's attacks...

Sunset Overdrive: Mystery of the Mooil Rig!

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

I loved Sunset Overdrive so much, I bought the season pass right after I completed it, which includes 2 expansions that have a whole new set of missions and challenges. The first one, The Mystery of the Mooil Rig, is set on a large, off-shore oil rig where Bryllcream's sister works. The troop master has an upgraded robotic suit that can fly and looks completely badass. I also decided to change my character into a woman to make things a bit different.

The oil rig is overrun by new, more powerful OD that are more flammable due to the oil in their bodies. This meant that all my fire weapons and abilities were very useful throughout the new area. The oil rig itself is a very large structure with multiple levels, but also with a lot of water. Mercifully, 2 new water traversal abilities were added to the game. The first is a dive, followed by a very stylish and useful high jump. The second is a way to chain multiple water dash moves to cover long distances over water. This was even integrated into some of the challenges, including a points challenge where there were no structures to stand on, only water! There's a new weapon too, a flamethrower. It's all right for close quarters battles against OD, but I didn't find it very useful overall.

The hero narrowly avoids the sea monster's tentacles

New missions are the main attraction here and I was pretty happy with what I played, though it was a little bit on the short side. I lit three OD infested chimneys on fire. I gathered objects for a weird dude that pretends to be his own mother. I killed some angry union workers that thought I was a scab. I destroyed some OD eggs that were growing on the structure. I even helped a parody of James Cameron gather money for his next big film project. The dialogue there was really great.

Finally, I found Bryllcream's sister. It turns out, and excuse my language here, that she is a real fucking cunt! She is there to feed the union workers some Overcharge so that they would turn into OD and she could hire cheap labor instead for Mooil, the large petroleum conglomerate. She then started being a bitch to my character, asking me to "Hand over your fucking phone NOW!". A giant kraken type monster came out and ate her in an instant. In a brilliant twist, the impact of the tentacle spelled out "Karma" on the ground!

That's when I fought the monstrous sea creature. I had to destroy it's many tentacles that were spread out all over the oil rig. When that was done, I had to find Bryllcream who launched my body into it's mouth, where I was able to melee the creature from inside it's stomach... I loved the expansion and was glad to play a bit more Sunset Overdrive.

Halo 3

Date played: February 2nd
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 8/10

I finished Halo 3!

The last 3 levels were filled with intrigue, plot twists and memorable gameplay moments. The Covenant level is one of the more traditional and most fun in the last portion of the game. Side by side with the Arbiter, we must deactivate three power sources to disable the shields around the main control room where Truth is activating the Halo rings. There were plenty of vehicle sequences, including one where I got to pilot a light aerial UNSC vehicle, the Hornet. These things have a mean set of missiles on them and can hover in place without effort, making them very powerful against the Covenant.

Halo 3 is awesome

In one battle, Master Chief had to take down 2 Scarabs at once! That was pretty damn cool and required that I be even more careful in the battlefield. I like to equip my marines with Fuel Rod cannons when they are passengers on the Warthog, or even better, on the Scorpion tank. These normal humans kick ass when they have decent weapons...

The next level, Cortana, is easily the worst in the game. Set inside Truth's, Flood infested ship, High Charity, I had to battle through hordes and hordes of Flood in monotonous combat. On top of that, the whole level feels like I am inside an intestine or other organ... I did find Cortana at end, who helped me fight my way to Truth with the Arbiter.

In a weird twist, Gravemind and his Flood actually helped us make it to Truth, as it served all of our interests. Arbiter killed Truth for the good of the galaxy, and Master Chief deactivated the Halo rings. Unfortunately, that meant the Flood were back to being our enemies right away. In a beautiful scene, we discovered that there was a new Halo being manufactured to replace the one destroyed in the first game. It was already ruled by the Flood, so the heroic duo assaulted the new Halo ring.

After some difficult battles against the Flood, we made it to the control room to fire the unfinished Halo ring and destroy the Flood for good... However, Guilty Spark 343, the robotic oracle, didn't agree. He killed Johnson and forced Master Chief to fight him. After winning the fight, Master Chief and Arbiter activate the ring and escape in a Warthog. The ride was fucking rough, as we had to avoid Flood, Sentinels and falling debris from the imminent destruction of the ring.

We made a narrow escape. The Arbiter made it back to Earth, while Master Chief was stranded in space with Cortana as their ship was cut in half when it went through a portal...

Halo 3 is a very, very good game overall. It has some fantastic sequences, great vehicles, awesome combat and an interesting story. That's in addition to the spectacular vistas and sweeping orchestral soundtrack! I cannot wait to play Halo 4!

Halo 3

Date played: February 1st
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played 2 levels of Halo 3, Floodgate and The Ark. Floodgate is all about fighting the Flood on Earth and as usual, fighting Flood is boring. There were a few new types at least, including some infected Brutes, but the shotgun and assault rifle made short work of the swarming enemies. At the end of the level, Master Chief enters the infected Covenant ship and finds a message from Cortana. She clearly has some weird stuff going on with Gravemind, the Flood overlord, but also convinced all of us that going through the portal found in Africa will take us to the Ark and a solution to the Flood, as well as a way to stop the prophet of Truth.

The Ark was an amazing level

The Ark was an amazing level, filled with fun sequences. I used the awesome, 4 seat Brute vehicle called the Prowler to mow down enemy Covenant troops as I made my way to the target installation. Along the way, I also used a Brute Chopper, a Gauss Warthog, a Scorpion tank and a Ghost! I took out another Scarab, this time using the Warthog's guns to bring it to it's knees. I sniped some Brutes in the head too. In the end, we saw some sentinels being activated for an unknown purpose, but decide to continue and chase Truth to stop him from activating the Halo rings.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

Date played: February 1st
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played a few levels of Luigi's Mansion. The first was pretty straightforward, I had to use my new crank to explore the northern rooms in the mansion. The professor had a feeling that I would find a more intelligent, leader-type ghost up there, but after a bit of exploration, I only found and large headed ghost playing the piano.

The next level was a lot more fun, as I had to gather a new device, the dark light. This allows me to reveal objects that were hidden by ghosts. I had fun exploring every room I could to find hidden objects, including many gems and lots of money. I got my first upgrade too, so I can deal more damage to ghosts if I wait longer to press the button when fighting them. At the end of the level, I discovered that the source of the disappearing objects was in fact, a Boo, the classic ghost from all the Mario games. To fight him, I had to use the dark light to first reveal his location, then stun him with the regular light and finally suck him in with the vacuum.

Luigi's next task was to clean up all the spider webs in the mansion, which were scattered throughout. I got to use fire as a tool, so that was cool. Sometimes, there were balls of spider silk that were laying around. If I picked those up with the vacuum, I could then bring them to a fire source like an oven or candle and light it up. The silk ball became both a weapon and a tool to destroy larger webs.

Luigi is scared to go into the cellar

Finally, I was tasked with investigating the mansion's spooky cellar. That's where I had my first boss fight, a battle of attrition against a giant spider. This turned out to be a rather complex level... During 3 phases, I had to figure out different ways to burn the large arachnid's web. This included lots of dragging silk balls and getting armor sets to light shit on fire for me. My daughter loved watching the long battle until I was victorious.

This ends the first "world" and a new area opened up, a large, 2 building complex with some sort of complicated water system. I'm loving this game so far and am excited to see what's in the next sector.

Metroid: Other M

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

I had a lot of fun playing Other M, more than I've ever had with this game. I made solid progress too, gathering the ice beam, the Varia suit, the speed booster, the Shinespark ability, the grapple beam and the wonderful, amazing wave beam. I also beat 3 bosses and discovered some dark secrets of the Galactic Federation!

I met up with most of Adam's squad in the exam center, where we discovered that the Federation was performing genetic experiments in order to create creatures that they could us as weapons. When I left the building, I was attacked by a large, mysterious creature and fought it with missiles as it pinned me down. The battle was entirely in first person and since I was pinned, it was a weird battle. Having no control over movement isn't the greatest way to have a good video game boss... Either way, I soon discovered the corpse of the small furry creature from before. Something had clearly "escaped" from it's insides... I think it might be the large mysterious creature, but I'm not sure.

I left and explored parts of sector 3 to chase the boss, who had escaped after our battle. sector 3 is filled with lava and even a large volcano. I ran through very hot areas, taking damage the whole time. I was very happy to score the Varia suit and the ice beam a bit later. This helped me navigate the area and freeze enemies in place, a good tactic to score some missile hits on them.

Then, I fought an amazing boss, the best in the game yet. Goyagma is a long, slimy fire creature. It used it's long arms (tentacles?) to swipe at me and threw fireballs. I had to shoot it with the ice beam until parts of it froze. I was then able to climb on top of the frozen parts to deliver some devastating beam shots to it's head. It was fucking glorious!

Fighting Goyagma was a real pleasure

Samus didn't find the mysterious creature, so I was tasked with exploring sector 2, an icy, snowy area. This was a huge sector. I fought many creatures, explored many crevices and solved many simple puzzles. Along the way, I got the speed booster and Shinespark ability. The speed booster is activated after running in a straight line for a while, so it takes a really open area to use it. While boosting, I can also activate Shinespark for either a long jump or a high jump.

The plot thickens, as Samus meets a young woman who is very scared of her and any representatives of the Galactic Federation. She might be the one responsible for the genetic experiments, but it is not clear yet. At the same time, it is revealed that there is a traitor on our team who murdered at least one of our soldiers! Samus calls him, the Deleter. I'm inclined to think it's Adam, but we'll see. As I caught up with the woman, Samus is attacked by a massive, mobile piece of machinery... It's driven by a member of our unit, though his face is obscured. I fought it with the ice beam, but couldn't see the driver after the battle.

I then scored an absolutely amazing weapon, the wave beam. This thing can shoot through clear objects and fucks shit up real fast. I love it. I met up with one of the soldiers and fought a large creature that had been chasing me for a while. To save his ass, I had to use the grapple beam which should open up many new areas. I'm thinking, once I get the super missiles and power bombs, I will run through most of the game's areas again to get items I missed before. I can't wait to continue playing, Other M is getting better and better.