Forza Horizon 2

Date played: May 30th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

The Horizon Festival continues! I made the road trip to a new area and competed in a retro hot hatch championship in a beautiful 1980 Renault 5 Turbo. This odd little car has some real rally racing roots, so naturally, most of the races in the event were completely offroad. I loved driving this car...

37 vs 037

Once completed, I had the opportunity to complete another showcase event. After racing some jets and a train, I raced against 37 hot air balloons, in an '82 Lancia 037 Stradale! Cleverly, the event is named 37 vs 037... While obviously, hot air balloons aren't as fast as a car, the objective was to overtake all of them before the end of the track, so it was pretty challenging. I also completed many bucket list challenges, including a really fun skill challenge in the perky Ariel Atom at the docks. 

Forza Horizon 2

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

Once again, I played a ton of Forza Horizon 2 and completed a few championships, lots of bucket list challenges and restored a new barn find. I picked a 2003 Ferrari Challenge Stradale to race the first championship. It was really cool to have a starting grid filled with Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Audis, some of the events even taking place off road!

The SUV championship features many big jumps!

The bucket list events are all crazier than the next, including a fast run through the city in a Caterham 7, a fun ride in the rain in a Porsche and a couple of speed traps and skill challenges in various cars. I got into another road trip and started another championship. This time, I chose the SUV class and built up a nice BMW X5 M. I gave it a pretty paint job that I downloaded from the community. I completed the 4 races, most of which were offroad. I even ran into a Cadillac Escalade with an Ontario Provincial Police paint job... It was eerily accurate too. I just love everything about Forza Horizon 2.

Forza Horizon 2

Date played: May 28th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

Once again, I had tons of fun with Forza Horizon 2. I completed a muscle car championship in my beautiful, orange Corvette. There were a lot of off-road events surprisingly, but I blazed through the 4 events rather easily. The next road trip took me to the North-East section of the map.

The bucket list is split up into three sections of 15 events each, for a total of 45. I completed the first 15 and have started the second set. I had the pleasure of driving the absolutely batshit crazy Lamborghini Veneno in one of the events. Then, I rekindled the flame with a car I've had a lot of fun with in Driveclub, the Hennessey Venom GT, which I drove at insane speeds on the highway. I drifted a Corvette in the rain and got some air in a Nissan Skyline. I also found a barn with a new car in it, a very cool, World War era Jeep...

Dennis Nedry would feel right at home in this Jeep Wrangler

Finally, I completed another championship with offroad vehicles. I had few car choices available, so I went with a sporty 2012 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. I slapped on a few upgrades and an epic paint job from the community and completed the 4 events in the championship. 

Final Fantasy VI

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

Celes and Sabin explored the continent. There were a LOT of random battles here,  so most of my time was spent dispatching enemies, but I did manage to find two towns. I first found one of the larger towns, up North. I spoke to the villagers, many of which alluded that Figaro Castle was still in one piece, but buried in a desert somewhere, stuck. I also found a group called the Crimson Thieves who own a large ship and seem to be pretty cool. I bought some equipment, but I felt like I needed to explore the Eastern end of the continent before moving forward, so I hopped onto a chocobo and rode East.

I found a very small village in ruins... I found were a few orphans living in a basement and to my complete surprise, they were being cared for by Terra! It turns out, after Kefka put the world in ruins, Terra found herself taking care of these kids. She was happy to see us, but she seemed very depressed. That's when a giant demon attacked the village. The creature, named Phunbaba, was confronted by Terra, but she has lost her will to fight and couldn't muster up any real attacks. Sabin and Celes jumped in and fought the creature until it fled. Terra refused to join our party... but I hope she rejoins us later, she is easily my favorite character in the game.

Terra is defeated by Phunbaba, the demon

Back to the Crimson Thieves ship, we met it's captain who looked suspiciously like our old friend Edgar, though he denies it quite strongly... We hopped aboard the ship and made our way to another continent to the West. 

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse

Date played: May 27th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

My girlfriend wanted to play a bit of Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, so we played coop for a bit and completed the second world and one level from the third. The second world has kind of a desert/cave theme. I often had to carve paths through dirt and sand, all while fighting enemies and avoiding deadly obstacles. There were also some cool puzzles where I had to carve a path for a heavy ball to hit a switch and lasers I had to block with my rainbow paths.

I need to stress that this game simply has to be one of the cutest video games ever created... I mean, it's so fucking fluffy and adorable, you can't help but smile at the adorable animation and decor. One of the cutest moments is when Kirby transformed into a tank. I could fire anywhere on the screen by tapping the touch screen, while my girlfriend had a more traditional aiming method with her guy. We battled multiple swarms of enemies in very cool and very hectic level.

The second boss was quite a challenge

Eventually, we reached the second world's boss, a giant, armored, spinning laser-spewing creature. We had to hit it's less heavily armored sides to damage it, but each time we destroyed a part of it, it grew larger and got more powerful lasers going... The last piece had to be torn off by ramming into the enemy while using the giant Kirby ability. It was actually a lot more difficult than you would expect, but we made it through.

We played the first level of the third world, an ocean themed area. Kirby and his buddy are once again, incredibly cute as they don their little diving goggles and paddle around in the water. Controlling Kirby underwater is kind of a bitch, since gravity is so much different. Plus, there were some pretty strong currents to swim against. Either way, we had a lot of fun playing this very unique game. 

Forza Horizon 2

Date played: May 26th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 10/10

I didn't play many events, but the ones I did were very memorable. I started with a new showcase event, a race against a motherfucking train on a dirt path. It was actually rather easy, but it was lots of fun. I then joined the next road trip that led me to a new, rural area. This place has a lake, lots of open fields and hilly terrain. I decided to join a Muscle Car championship and bought myself a car that I've always admired and loved, a late 70's Corvette Stingray.

This beautiful beast is all muscle and no grace, but I love it so much. I chose a nice, bright orange color for it and modified it a bit to increase it's maneuverability and improve it's shitty brakes. I used it to explore the new area, finding billboards, and discovering a new barn with an old VW hippie van inside for me to claim.

This forest is treacherous, terrifying and incredibly fun

The real fun was when I played a bucket list event. In fact, the name of the event should inspire fear and excitement in itself. It is simply called "Rally a Lancia Delta S4 Through the Forest at Night". By far, this was the most difficult thing I've done in this game yet. I mean, I literally had to ride through a forest of deadly trees at high speeds in the dark AND reach the destination under the target time. It was so fucking satisfying when I finally succeeded, after 7 or 8 tries, that I simply had to record a video that you can watch below.

Forza Horizon 2

Date played: May 25th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

Rally racing is fucking awesome! I completed 4 races in the eternally classic Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Rampaging through the countryside, racing alongside dozens of other iconic rally cars like the Mitsubishi Lancer was just great. All four events featured racing on a variety of terrain, including dirt, grass, gravel, tarmac and there were even some wooden bridges and jumps. For the first time in the game, I placed 2nd in a race, but still managed to win the championship. The main reason is that my Subaru didn't quite have the top speed I needed in a specific event.

The Subaru shreds through the countryside

I also completed some bucket list challenges, including a thrilling ride in LaFerrari, a stunning beauty with a hybrid engine. Then I furiously rode through town in a Pagani Zonda where I had to accumulate some near-misses. Another had me rack up some skill points in a Ford RS. Finally, I had an incredible experience with a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO. I drove it on the coast of France while listening to Vivaldi... It was fucking surreal and so satisfying.

Mario Kart 7

I was DK, my friend was Yoshi. This is what happened.

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

I played a championship with a friend at work during break and won without a sweat. To be fair, the tracks were quite difficult since we played the Star Cup at 100cc. Piranha Plant Slide has twisty, watery tunnels and a bit of gliding at the end. My friend always has lots of trouble with the gliding... I really think some time trial practice on tracks with gliding would help my opponent be more competitive...

Wario Shipyard is one of the less interesting tracks in the game, so I don't remember much about that race. Neo Bowser City was a lot of fun though. This track is very challenging, even at 100cc. It has very sharp turns and lots of bottomless pits to fall into, plus, it looks really cool. I like this track a lot. Finally, we took on the amazing Maka Wuhu track, a point to point race with lots of big jumps and an epic gliding portion at the end. I won every race while my friend placed 5th.

Forza Horizon 2

Date played: May 24th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played a bit more Forza Horizon 2 and completed my second championship. I drove the Fiat 500 Abarth through 3 races in downtown Nice. The small car handles like a dream, though of course, it lacks quite a bit of power. I really enjoyed looking at the dashboard while driving my soon-to-be, real life car.

This Fiat 500 looks really similar to the car I'm buying this week...

A few events were crossed off from the bucket list as I completed the events near Nice. This included a fun ride in an old Dodge Dart at the docks, where I had do as many huge jumps as possible. I also had a great little time trial in a McLaren P1. I reached the next road trip and made my way North to the next area. I decided that my next championship would be in a 90's rally car. I bought myself a nice little Subaru Impreza WRX STi. I even used a paint design from the community to make it look as close as possible to the iconic rally car I know and love.

Forza Horizon 2

Date played: May 23rd
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

I am loving Forza Horizon 2... I knew I was going to like it, I mean, it's a game about pretty cars, so of course I would, but the structure and the handling physics are keeping me hooked. Just like the Fast & Furious version, there is a slew of bucket list challenges to complete. I raced a Ferrari F40 on the gorgeous coastal roads of France, rode a Bowler EXR S in a treacherous offroad track and a few other similar challenges. I turned off the rewind feature too... I realized I wasn't really using it and that it could give me a good amount of bonus credits. I tried out manual transmission and while it was fun, it was annoying that it removed the ability to reach the map screen in one button press.

My beautiful 1969 Camaro SS helped me win the champtionship. I completed the 3 races required and won them all, then headed to the showcase race. This was an incredible race, as I took saddled myself one the infamous rearing horse mechanical beasts a beautiful Ferrari. Obviously, the jets are much, much faster than the car, but they have to go through the same checkpoints. This means, they have to make huge turns to hit the checkpoints. Typically, this means that I passed the checkpoints around the same time as the jets. It was fucking exhilarating in every way, the jet roaring furiously as I pushed the Ferrari to it's limits!

I have no words to describe how fucking awesome this race was

Completing this event opened up a road trip event to Nice. The game is starting to open up a bit, with online modes now available and the car shop opening for business... On a personal note, I finalized some paperwork for buying myself a new car yesterday, a Fiat 500 Sport. I'm really excited about it, so I was happy to see that there was a 500 Abarth in Forza Horizon 2. I bought it in the game and painted it the same color as the one I bought for my daily commute. I rode it into a hot hatch event and raced my future car. The interior looks really close to the real car, though of course, being an Abarth version, it has a few differences. 

Special Edition: Luchadors riding motorcycles in the Oddworld

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

One of my brothers came over to chill, play video games and drink alcohol. Armed with our Gin Tonics, we started our evening with a bit of the Ride demo. My bro loves motorcycles quite a bit. In fact, he rode to my house on his Harley-Davidson Sportster... Naturally, he enjoyed Ride quite a bit. We played a couple of races each, then moved on to try some new games.

When we were teenagers, we had a modded Playstation and access to many, many pirated games. One of those was Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus and we played the shit out of it. As part of PS+, I downloaded the remake of the first game, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty. We played the first few screens together in coop. There's only one Abe, so the way it works is that every time one of us died, it passed control to the other player. The game looks absolutely stunning. The cinematics are beautiful, but the in-game engine looks great too, including some really cool lighting effects. The puzzles are still as fun as ever and the Mudokons are still hilarious!

Guacamelee is funny as fuck!

We ended the evening with a pretty long stint of Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition. This is a melee focused Metroidvania game with an great sense of humor. Juan, the hero, puts on a magic luchador mask and must beat the shit out of the invading skeleton army. It's all completely ridiculous and well written, making for some genuinely funny moments. The animation is fantastic, the melee combat has some intriguing grappling elements and there's a slew of upgrades and abilities to learn. The cherry on top is that it can be played in coop. We had a blast playing this, I'm surprised at how good, and funny, this game is! 

Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious

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

I finished the small Fast & Furious game!

The amazing finale!

While it was very short, it was pretty cool to play. I completed more races, style challenges and time trials. Along the way, I won the Dodge Challenger R/T 2015, the incredibly fast Bugatti Veyron and the Maserati Ghibli. The final event was a crazy race to the airport, the participants being the 10 cars I won throughout the game. The twist is that we had to race against each other, but also against a huge cargo plane! It was a great event to end the game on a high note. The fact that this game was free makes it even sweeter.

Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious

Date played: May 19th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

This is such a weird game... I got it for free a while back, and basically, it's a short game based on Forza Horizon 2 that features the cars from Fast & Furious. It also features Ludacris as the narrator...so there's that. I completed a variety of events such as races, style point challenges and time trials. In an incredibly cool event, I even raced a Jeep Wrangler against an attack helicopter. In the middle of the night. In the rain. It was cool as fuck.

The Jeep Wrangler in it's natural habitat

I got the pleasure of driving a 1970 and Dodge Charger R/T, then won a Plymouth Road Runner, a Toyota Supra, a Plymouth Cuda, a 2015 Dodge Charger R/T, a Nissan GT-R, the incredible McLaren P1 and the aforementioned Jeep Wrangler. I also completed 6 special, bucket list events where I got to drive other cool cars like a Ford RS and a Lamborghini Huracan.

Finally, I connected online to a free roam server and played a round of Zombies. Yeah, Zombies in a car game. One player begins the game as the zombie and must touch the other cars to turn them into zombies. I managed to stay uninfected the longest and won the match. I really like everything about this game so far and still have some cars to win to complete collection of Fast & Furious vehicles.

Axiom Verge

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

I finished Axiom Verge, and it was one of the best games I've ever played. No fucking joke. This game is absolute genius.

Using my new teleport-to-drone ability, I made my way to a new area. There wasn't much to do there except traverse the environment, killing smaller enemies, until I reached the end and drilled through some rock to find the godly Red Coat. This thing lets Trace teleport through up to three squares away, but also deals high damage at the same time, it can even break bricks!

Armed to the teeth, I set out for the final area of the game. I took on some of the nastiest enemies yet, speedy drones with high damage. After a lot of teleporting and tricky navigation, I reached a boss called Sentinel. The robot hangs from the ceiling and shoots out tons of projectiles. I just spammed my strongest weapons on him until he died. It wasn't pretty, but it worked.

I met up with Elsenova, now equipped with her freaky, weapon-filled body. She is incredibly impressive to look at, and very scary. She showed me the way to the area where Athetos is hiding. I made my way through the very vertical section of the map. It wasn't too long before I faced off directly against Athetos. While he explained bits of the story, most of it was kind of hard to understand, so I just got on with the shooting.

Elsenova pulverizes Athetos

The final battle was really cool. Athetos sends out an infinite number of large drones that spew out projectiles. I had to hit the "breach", a small vulnerable area at the top of the screen, whenever I could. I died once, but on my second attempt, I used the green electricity shotgun to destroy the drones quickly, then used the first weapon of the game to hit the breach. It worked like a charm. Elsenova used her incredible firepower to deal heavy damage when I created an opening for her. Together, we destroyed the breach, and Elsenova killed Athetos with a giant laser beam. Trace woke up, uninjured, as if he had never reached the creepy world of Axiom Verge. He quit his job and started working on ways to get back to the world of Elsenova...

Axiom Verge really is an incredible game in every way. I can't believe it was done by a single man, Thomas Happ. Thank you Mr. Happ for making one of the most refreshing, fun and beautiful games ever made. 

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Date played: May 18th
Platform: Wii
Session fun rating: 8/10

The pirate ship has been explored and conquered! I played through the dungeon set aboard an old pirate ship. Most of the puzzles revolved around using a timeshift crystal on top of the vessel's mast. This would allow me to move between two completely different versions of the ship at will. First, I had to save the crew, as promised to the robotic captain who led me there. To do this, I had to solve a variety of puzzles, but also a battle against a pirate captain!

This pirate battle was pretty weird, as it took place entirely on a linear plane. Link had to push him off the edge, while the pirate tried to push Link back towards some deadly spikes. I blocked the dude's attacks, then retaliated to push him off, slowly but surely. I saved the crew, but more importantly, I scored the motherfucking bow! It feels incredible that over 30 hours into a Zelda game, I just now got the bow, but I understand why it was held back until the end. The bow is incredibly powerful and has huge range, making it my new favorite item.

Tentalus was a really cool battle

I pushed on and made it to the boss room of the dungeon. The battle was against Tentalus, a giant tentacled cyclops that rules the sea. His tentacles attacked from below deck, destroying the ship as the battle went on. I took out it's tentacles with my new bow, shot the beast's single eye, then moved in close when it was stunned to deal heavy damage with my sword. It was a really cool fight, even if the monster looks a little weird. I got the second sacred flame and am ready to learn another song and find the last flame.

I went back to town, got some chests, upgraded the bow fully and bought the last adventure pouch. I also played a cool mini-game on Fun Island where I fell from the sky, aiming for rings, avoiding balls and landing on a rotating wheel of prizes. It took me a couple of tries, but I got the best result possible and scored a piece of heart for my efforts. I have a ton of little side quests waiting for me in town too...

Final Fantasy VI

Date played: May 18th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 8/10

The Vita is a great machine to play old games like Final Fantasy VI. Not only does it have a great screen and some good controls, but the sleep feature on the Vita is what makes it so great. FFVI is a slow game in general, but I was able to make some good progress even if I only had a minute or two to play every once in a while during the day.

Celes is one of my favorite characters in the game

Stranded, alone on the island, Celes found a letter from her grandfather, Cid, telling her about a secret room in the basement of the old house. She found a raft there and made her way to the nearest continent, then found a little town. The world is in ruins, life is rare and towns are a mere shadow of what they were before Kefka brought the world to it's knees. I got some info in town and made my way to another city up north, passing by a giant tower built by Kefka.

I'm not sure how it happened, but one of the houses in the town started burning with a child stuck inside it. As Celes rushed over to help, she found Sabin there, holding the house together with his bare hands! Celes, stunned, enters the house and saves the child. I had to use some gear that prevents the "petrify" status here as some of the monsters would just turn me to stone and end the game. Sabin joined Celes' party. He has no information on any of the others, but we decide to pair up and head East.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Date played: May 17th
Platform: Wii
Session fun rating: 7/10

I made some progress in the sand sea. I reached the ship construction building indicated by my robotic captain friend and had to navigate a treacherous mine cart track to reach the inside of the building. The mine cart was a really cool segment where I had to lean into the curves to gain speed and avoid obstacles by choosing the right path.

I love mine carts in video games!

At the end of the path, I searched the building by blowing away the sand inside it to find some clues... Unfortunately, all I found was a rematch versus Moldarach, the thousand year old scorpion! It was a pretty easy fight, but I found no clues about the captain's ship. I explored another area that felt like a small dungeon. I had to carry around a timeshift orb that was basically a portable crystal. This led to some pretty cool puzzles and revealed that I would have to find a pirate ship with my boat... I used the sword's dousing ability to guide my boat across the sand sea and follow the invisible ship around, shooting cannonballs in it's general direction until it stopped. I got on board, but stopped there. I think this might be an actual dungeon, but we'll see.

Axiom Verge

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

The story took a turn for the incomprehensible... I explored two new areas and found some new items and upgrades along the way. However, as I was making my way through, Trace started complaining that it was very hot. His vision started distorting and he started having hallucinations, including some scary, caped, creatures. When I reached the boss room, things got even crazier.

Somehow, I ended up controlling the boss, trying to kill Trace. I was treated to a cut scene that explained a lot of the story. Trace is Athetos, the game's villain. Somehow, the eggs that regenerate me when I die are part of the puzzle. The hallucinations were due to a pathogen infecting Trace, but I'm not sure I understand much of it. I even saw the bodies of the large robotic females in a room. After this convoluted mess of a story, I was back into the action and made some solid progress.

I got a new weapon that I fell in love with right away. The electricity gun shoots out a long beam of electricity that automatically targets enemies in range. It's strong, it's easy to use and has been a blessing against smaller enemies that are hard to hit with more conventional weapons, or too strong to efficiently kill with wider range weapons. Another huge upgrade is the trench coat. This thing lets me teleport a short distance in any direction, even through walls, ceilings and floors. R.D. got a huge upgrade too, I can now teleport Trace to the drone's location, opening up many new possibilities. Finally, I picked up some glitch bombs! These amazing things cover the screen in "glitch" and can even take out the toughest of barriers.

Ukhu is a bitch, but is no match for the Inertial Pulse gun

Another boss encounter awaited me after all this exploration, a fight against a giant hornet of sorts. This flying monster attacked me with venomous gobs of spit and spawned flying baby monsters. It's weak spot was it's open mouth when it shot out spit. I died twice before getting my strategy right and killed him in a less than a minute on my third attempt. I used the gun that shoots through enemies to damage the boss because it seemed to hit him more than once on every shot. I also used the electricity gun to quickly take out the babies. 

Super Bikes 2

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

I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road (OMG IT WAS AMAZING!) at the theater and played a couple of races of Super Bikes 2 with my brother. The machine itself is pretty cool. You steer by tilting the bike left and right and use the throttle on the handlebars. There's also a useful nitro button. I played three tracks, Africa, Space Race and Las Vegas. I won my first two races, giving me some free credits, and placed 3rd on the last race. The game is reminiscent of stuff like San Francisco Rush and isn't afraid to go crazy. Hell, I raced my motorcycle on the rings of Saturn... Super Bikes 2 is a lot fun for a few minutes.

Final Fantasy VI

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

After landing on Kefka's and Gestahl's floating continent, I found Shadow, who rejoined our party. I ended up fighting a LOT of random battles here, leveling up my team and learning new magic spells. I really like the combination of Terra, Locke and Edward together... Eventually, we reached a place where the mystical statues that hold the world together are kept, also where Kefka and Gestahl were. There was an awesome boss fight just before reaching the statues where I fought Atma Weapon, a monstrous beast with very powerful magic. I pulled out all my strongest skills and bested him without much trouble.

Atma Weapon

Shit got crazy again. In a fit of insanity, Kefka knocks out our team and starts moving the statues around to gain power, upsetting the very balance of the world. Emperor Gestahl is a bad guy, but he's a rational bad guy, so he tries to stop Kefka, but fails miserably and is killed by the power-hungry villain. Celes also showed up to try and talk sense into her old ally, but he won't listen and moves the statues. Bravely, Shadow steps in and buys our team enough time to get away, but not before the world balance is upset gravely.

Continents are fractured, oceans are created, mountains crumble and our airship is destroyed. The screen cuts to a small, dilapidated house and I am in control of Celes. Cid walks in and explains that he and Celes were stranded on a small island after the rapture. 1 year has passed, Celes in a coma, and there is no indication that the rest of our team is alive. Cid is very ill too, so Celes starts taking care of the old man. After getting fish from the nearby shore a few times to feed Cid, he dies of his illness, leaving Celes alone on the island... 

Axiom Verge

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

I can't believe how much shit is hidden in Axiom Verge. There is stuff fucking everywhere! And it's not useless junk either, I backtracked all the way to the beginning of the game and made my way through all the areas I had already visited to find new secrets. I found health, weapon power, range and projectile size upgrades. I also found a bunch of new weapons!

There's a weapon that has bullets that bounce on the walls, Another has a short spread shot, sort of like in Contra. Then there is the incredible gun that shoots out a super wide arc of electricity at long range. It's inaccurate, but it's spread and range is like no other gun. I am not really using the default weapon anymore, as I've found a good replacement for rapid fire, straight shots but that also shoots through enemies. Finally, the big bad ass of all guns is the Tether Charge, a giant, leashed ball of electricity that hits real fucking hard. It has short range, but has still been extremely useful so far.

I picked up a new upgrade for my remote drone. It allows me to launch it very high in the air, granting access to new areas. There were even some large sections that had to be completed using only the drone.

These robot ladies are pretty cool

During my backtracking, I visited the robotic females that have been helping me, including a new one that says she "dreams new worlds". The drones repaired her enough for her to talk to me and give me a secret password. There's a whole password system in the game, and my first password translated one of the languages found in notes. I was pretty surprised to see a system like this in the game, and I can tell there is a lot more to discover in Axiom Verge. I am heading to a new area next, so that should be cool.

Axiom Verge

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

Axiom Verge has to be one of the coolest games of the generation. I picked up the remote drone, or R.D., a little quadruped creature equipped with a laser that can squeeze through tight spaces and can be thrown by Trace. This opens up a ton of areas to explore and discover, as well a myriad of new secrets. This thing can fight too and because of it's small size, it can be easier to avoid enemy projectiles. It has it's own health bar that is replenished when Trace calls it back to him. What's even cooler is that R.D. can access other rooms, leaving our hero behind.

Armed with my new drone, I continued to explore until I found a new gun, the Hypo-Atomizer. This thing shoots normal bullets, but they also shoot out perpendicular bullets at set intervals, allowing me to shoot enemies on higher floors or by shooting below them slightly. It's kind of hard to aim properly, but is very versatile. That's when I got to fight the next boss, a giant fucking scorpion with a shitload of guns on it's back.

I died twice trying to hit the boss, but I soon figured out I could hit the boss from below by crouching an shooting under the the dangerous arthropod's thorax. After I figured that out, all I had to do was dodge the large bullets and keep shooting at it. In the next rooms, I activated some drones that will help repair the large electronic lady-thingies.

Every boss is amazing in Axiom Verge!

I continued to explore and found a grapple! This thing allows Trace to grab onto rocky surfaces and swing from side to side, reaching new, higher areas. I spent a lot of time exploring, using my new devices. I found a large area that ends up being a sort of hub that has entrances into most areas. I found a ton of little secrets, upgraded my health and even made my way back to the first area of the game. I have a higher level glitch gun too, which can be used to access new areas. I'm kind of overwhelmed by all the amazing stuff I can do and all the new places to explore. I love Axiom Verge!

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Date played: May 11th
Platform: Wii
Session fun rating: 8/10

I made some real progress in Skyward Sword. I got a new song for the harp and went on to search for the next trial, and eventually the second sacred flame. I used my sword's dousing ability to find the secret spot in the Lanayru desert. After poking around for a while, I found the spot and completed the second trial. Again, I had to gather petals of a flower in the silent realm, avoiding the dangerous vigils that can kill in one hit. This one was easier for me than the one in the forest, though I had some trouble with a mine cart that I had to push out of the way while avoiding water rising around it.

The Clawshot

My reward was the amazing Clawshot item. This thing allows Link to grapple onto special targets scattered in the world, but also to any vines. I used my new item to reach a whole new area of the desert, the Sand Sea. This place used to be a large sea, filled with water, but has since become a huge desert. Using the time distorting crystals, I woke up a robot captain and found a small boat. He told me that I would be able to find the sacred flame with his help, but he needs to find his ship and crew first.

The crystal being on the boat itself, it creates a weird mechanic where water appears in a radius around the boat, allowing me to navigate the old sea at will. I followed the captain's directions to find his sea chart that will help us find the crew and ship. Using my new Clawshot, I climbed atop some giant spires of rock to find the sea chart in an old house.

Final Fantasy VI

Emperor Gestahl is a lying piece of shit

Date played: May 11th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 9/10

It's been almost two years since I played this game, so I was pretty fucking lost when I booted it again. I had control of Terra, Locke, Strago and Relm, in the middle of a mountain. I really should have read my last blog post about it to get up to speed, but I was soon fighting enemies and getting back into it. It turns out, I was looking for some Espers to start some peace talks with them.

We found them and convinced them to come back with us to talk to General Leo That's when shit hit the fan really hard. Kefka showed up during the discussion and killed General Leo, his own ally! He then hurt all of us and started capturing Espers left and right in a fit of madness and violent ambition. In an incredible event, Kefka and Emperor Gestahl used the power of the dead Espers to carve out a chunk of Earth and create a floating continent...

I picked my team of 3 to find the floating continent and do something to save the Espers and stop Kefka and Gestahl. I went with Terra, Locke and Edward and fought a bunch of enemies on the airship while we searched. Ultros, the purple octopus, showed up AGAIN! So I fought him again and defeated him once more. We have now
reached the floating continent.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

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

Today, I played some Skyward Sword, but I didn't progress in the game at all. I spent all of my time completing a few side quests, collecting gratitude crystals in town at night and hunting for materials and rupees to upgrade my gear.

I gave another stamina potion to Fledge, the guy who does push-ups in his room at night, but he keeps saying I should come back to see him later. I also cleaned up Pipit's mom's room using the gust bellows. I managed to get enough rupees to buy the heart piece in the flying shop for a whopping 1600 price tag. I hunted some birds and bees to upgrade both my shield and my flying beetle to maximum. The Goddess Shield looks really cool and is incredibly strong. The Beetle is now much faster and has HUGE range, which I bet will be useful more than once.

Peatrice, the item check girl, flirts with Link

However, the flimsy romance between Link and the item check girl, Peatrice, was definitely best thing to happen in the game today! I met her at her house during the night and confessed my love for her, all behind Zelda's back! It was actually a great little scene with many dialogue choices and plenty of good writing. I think I'm ready for some serious action now though, so next time, I will go learn another song for the harp.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

Date played: May 9th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I finished Luigi's Mansion! I fully explored the Treacherous Mansion and discovered many interesting, themed exhibits such as the navigation, space, jungle and ice age exhibits. I had to save two Toads that were trapped inside the mansion. There were some really clever puzzles where I had to carry items across different rooms using some portals. I transported water buckets and fiery logs to solve puzzles and reach the Toads.

Once they were safe, I discovered that King Boo was behind all the shenanigans throughout the game. I also discovered that Mario had been kidnapped and turned into a painting! Of course, Luigi set out to save his brother and take down King Boo. There was a mini-boss fight against a whole set of boos who combined into a giant ghost. I had to stun it, then aim it towards the front of a train. The boos would then disperse and I could capture them by shooting them towards cages on the train's wagons. It was a pretty cool fight, but aiming the boos was difficult.

The next level was a huge, final battle against regular ghosts. King Boo activated a giant, evil portal and let out a shitload of ghosts into the mansion, threatening the balance of the universe... Ridiculous, yes, but also lots of fun. This was easily the most challenging battle in the game. After I chased down the ghosts inside the mansion, I had to fight a huge series of enemies at the portal. I fought against all the different ghosts I had seen in the game until they stopped coming out. The battle culminated in a huge battle against the last of the possessor ghosts. He possessed some armored knights and I literally had to pull the rug under their feet to defeat them. In an epic scene, the ghost possessed a giant knight, but I also defeated him easily by pulling on some rugs with the vacuum.

King Boo is an asshole

The final level was a giant, lengthy battle against King Boo. I had to avoid his attacks, then point my flashlight at him at the right time to line him up with some spiked spheres that were falling from the sky. After I damaged him enough, he chased me inside some long corridors as I dodged a multitude of obstacles. After repeating this process a few times, I defeated King Boo, restored the dark moon, saved Mario and turned all the ghosts back into friendly, Casper-like spectral buddies.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon was kind of predictable, relatively easy and pretty simple overall, but I still enjoyed playing it quite a bit. It's no masterpiece, but it's a quality game. Plus, Luigi is funny as fuck!

The Crew demo

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

I played a demo for The Crew, Ubisoft's open world racing game. While the concept is really cool, I didn't enjoy the game as much as I expected. Surprisingly, there's a story in this game about a guy who starts working with the FBI to catch the two people responsible for his brother's murder. The whole game seems to be about infiltrating the gang to reach the top and capture the bad guys. It's a nice addition overall, but it makes everything a little slower. In fact, a lot of things about The Crew are a little slow. There are too many little cut-scenes everywhere and not enough action, at least in the demo version.

I played a few missions. I got to drive a pickup truck in some rural areas, which was pretty fun but kinda sluggish. Then I drove a muscle car that was a lot more fun, but there's always a little something that bugs me about the handling physics. Finally, I got to choose a car, so I went with a Nissan 370Z. I got to tune it a bit and personalize it, then took it out for a couple of races. Overall, The Crew seems competent, but it just doesn't handle right to me. It looks rather pretty and the size of the map seems absolutely insane, but I'm not feeling it. 

Ride demo

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

Ride is a motorcycle racing game by Namco-Bandai. It's definitely more of a simulation game than an arcade game, and it plays surprisingly well! I rode a Kawasaki Ninja speed bike in Nevada against a grid of 12 racers. At first, I had a really hard time taking corners because, well... bikes are hard to control at high speed, having only two wheels and such... After a couple of nasty crashes though, I was zipping through the track rather easily. I placed 4th on my first attempt. I then tried out a slower motorcycle, a street racing Triumph.

Go Ninja Go!

This is kind of a Forza game for bikes. There are a ton of options for assists and difficulty, including some insane stuff like independent rear and front brake control. The racing line was extremely useful until I knew the track pretty well. The game doesn't look incredible, but it looks good and runs smoothly. The only two things that really suck about the game was the awful music and the horrifyingly long load times. I'm pretty impressed with this game, I wasn't expecting much, but I had a good time speeding through Nevada on fancy bikes.

Mario Kart 7+8

Date played: May 7th
Platform: 3DS + Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

The day was filled with Mario Kart action, both on 3DS and on Wii U. At work, I sat with two friends and played 2 races of Mario Kart 7 with them. I won both races and led most of the time, but I was feeling the pressure coming up from the rear.

Baby Park is fucking insane when played online...

When I got home, I popped in Mario Kart 8 for some online action. At first, I used Link with the F-Zero vehicle, but I placed in the middle of the pack in both races I completed. I switched to Donkey Kong and my favorite kart setup and my performance improved right away, including a glorious 2nd place on the new Cheese Land track. I also unlocked a Samus outfit for my Mii driver by scanning my Samus Amiibo... It's really cool looking, but I wish I could use it with Donkey Kong...

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

Date played: May 6th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 7/10

Another piano class, another level played in Luigi's Mansion. The Treacherous Mansion is a huge, dangerous looking place. As I was about to turn the key to the main door, the little ghost dog stole it again... I chased him down into some nearby catacombs. That's when the level pretty turned into The Lost Woods from Zelda...

The Treacherous Mansion

The catacombs were a small maze where some doors led me back to the beginning of the area, just like the Lost Woods from Zelda. I followed the dog's spectral prints until I captured him and got my key back. This time around, the dog didn't manage to escape... I can't wait to see what awaits me inside the mansion itself.

Wolfenstein: The New Order

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

I finished Wolfenstein: The New Order!

The last few levels were filled with action and many challenges. Having crash landed right into a Nazi building in London. I had to fight my way through hordes of enemies to meet up with my friends. The first battle in the level was really tough for me because I barely had any ammo. It took me a few tries before I managed to make it out of that one safely. After going down many levels in the building, I reached a crazy boss, the London Monitor.

The London Monitor is a huge robot with machine guns, rockets and a giant laser beam. It was a really cool fight since I had to hide in small tunnels then come out to attack the giant laser beam when it was made visible. This allowed me to attack the rocket launchers. After the rockets were all destroyed, I could hit the engine and take it out for good.

It turns out, the Nazis had found our headquarters and captured most of our crew. As the entire place burned, I saw many of my comrades die. There were a couple of very good story scenes during this mission, though combat was really limited and there wasn't much to actually do during the mission. Four of us managed to jump into a helicopter and reach the submarine equipped with the nuke.

The final mission was absolutely perfect in every way! William "B.J." Blazkowicz made his final assault on Deathshead's compound. There were many, many difficult battles here, but thankfully, I was fully equipped with all weapons and ammo, so I put my incredible arsenal to good use. In a traumatic scene, our hero gets captured and injected with some kind of bad chemical substance. He still manages to escape and find his friends. All that is left is to kill Deathshead.

Good boss battles are rare in this day and age, with most games favoring style over substance. Wolfenstein offers a refreshingly retro final boss fight. Deathshead rides into a large bipedal mech and attacks B.J. with electrical weapons. He pulls his energy from the air using two large dirigibles that send the electricity in the air into the mech. In the first half of the battle, I had to take out the dirigibles while avoiding the attacks. This part was cool, but relatively easy. Shit got real when the damaged mech went underground.

Fuck you Deathshead. Fuck you.

The last battle was a straight up firefight against the mech. He hit really fucking hard and has long range. The arena has some walls for cover, but it wasn't enough to stay in one spot safely. To add to the difficulty, there was some fire blowing from some pipes and stuff... I died at least 4 times before I was finally careful enough to defeat him. In an epic ending, B.J. stabs Deathshead in the gut, when the villain pulls out a grenade that detonates right away. B.J. gets badly injured, enough that he simply gives the order to his friends to launch the nuke and destroy the Nazi compound, himself included.

Wolfenstein: The New Order was a surprisingly good game and I'm really happy I played it. It's well made, the story was cool, the weapons were lots of fun, there's a streak of insanity throughout the whole game and on top of it all, it was satisfyingly violent. Good job, Wolfenstein.

Wolfenstein: The New Order

Date played: May 4th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through the Lunar Base mission as our hero hitches a ride to the moon, posing as a Nazi science officer. The Lunar Base has some really cool, retro sci-fi design. Add in some swastikas and it becomes almost scary...

The main goal of the mission was to steal the nuclear activation codes to activate our U-boat's nuclear arsenal. There was a lot of sneaking around in this mission. I killed many Nazis by stabbing them in the neck or throwing a knife in their back. Along the way, I picked up an amazing upgrade to the Marksman rifle that turned them into crazy automatic energy rifles! While their ammo depletes rather quickly, they pack a real fucking punch and can take out the toughest enemies in a 5-6 seconds. Plus, they leave a big, disgusting charred hole in the flesh of my foes...

This is creepy

I had an interesting excursion outside of the base, complete with a spacesuit and low gravity. I only got to fight a few drones though, I wish I could have fought astronaut Nazis... When I finally got the codes, deep inside the base, I had to escape to the shuttle while shooting my way through another throng of enemies. Finally, I made it to the shuttle and crash landed on Earth, smack in the middle of some heavily armed enemies. The Lunar Base mission was refreshing, fun and completely insane. I loved it. 

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

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

I had very little time to play video games this weekend, but I did manage to find some time on Sunday morning to play Zelda with my daughter. We played through the entire Ancient Cistern dungeon and found the first sacred flame. I also completed a few side quests back in Skyloft.

The dungeon was easily the best in the game so far. In the center of the dungeon lies a huge statue surrounded by water. I had to make my way through the dungeon's rooms to reach the top of the statue and fight the boss. Many of the puzzles here revolved around the use of water. I also got a new toy to play with, a whip. This cool, motion controlled whip can be used to pull on specific devices that act as "buttons" of sorts. It can also be used to attack certain enemies and flip over some floating plants.

Koloktos is a really fun boss battle

There was also a whole underground cavern section to the dungeon where I fought "zombie" goblins. After some deft maneuvering and some clever use of the whip, I reached the boss. This fight is very well designed. The large, evil automaton swings his 6 giant arms around, attacking Link with a variety of bladed weapons. When he attempts to smash Link with one of his agile limbs, I dodged and pulled at the hinges of the being with the whip. This would eventually reveal his weak spot in his chest where I could attack with the sword. The second phase of the battle was even tougher as he spawned some goblins periodically and used different attacks. I even got to pick up some of his weapons to hack his legs off and strike it's heart.

As a reward for winning the battle, I got my first sacred flame, which made the sword twice as strong and made it longer. I must now find the second song and the second flame. I went back to town and completed a few sidequests, including a (difficult) duet where Link plays the harp and the pumpkin chick sings, the bamboo cutting challenge and finding a wheel of "fun" for a clown on an island... I also upgraded my bug net and seed pouch, got a bigger wallet from the monster under the town and flirted with the item check girl.

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse

Date played: May 2nd
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

I traded a few games while shopping yesterday and my eye fell on the budget priced Kirby game for Wii U, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse to play with my girlfriend. We had a great time when we played Kirby's Epic Yarn back in 2011, so I have high hopes for this one. We ended up playing through the first 3 levels and the first boss together last night.

The game plays like no other console game out there, thanks to clever use of the Wii U gamepad. Basically, I don't have direct control over Kirby. I must draw lines of color on the tablet to make a path for Kirby. He sticks to the path, which means loops and other tricky maneuvers are possible, even required. I can tap on Kirby to make him perform a dash attack, or hold the stylus on him to make him use his super power that makes his extra big and strong for a short time. It's a weird fucking concept, but it works rather well so far.

Yay!

The second player controls one of Kirby's friends with a traditional controller. This means that they can attack enemies easily compared to Kirby, but it's also a lot more difficult to navigate because they can't draw their own rainbow paths. There is some really clever level design here too. I sometimes had to draw a line to stop waterfalls. Other times, I had to build ramps to launch Kirby in the air from the momentum. Or loops to get stars. Or twisty paths to avoid or fight enemies. Etc, etc, etc. It was all really cool and fun.

On top of that, the graphics are absolutely stunning, using a beautiful clay look that makes the whole game feel like a giant diorama. It just kind of sucks that I can never really appreciate it in it's full glory as I always have to keep my eye on the smaller Gamepad screen instead of the TV. The music is also very good.

The boss was the infamous tree that has showed up in many Kirby games. Had it not been for my girlfriend's trusty spear attacks, I would have had a lot more trouble. We died the first time we tried it, but our second run was almost flawless. I'm liking this game a lot, but sometimes it's really difficult to get Kirby to go exactly where I want him to go...

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

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

I completed the snowy mine area. There were fewer levels than in the other mansions... I explored the depths of the mine by using some portals that could be activated with the flashlight. This led me down a huge tunnel that Luigi used as a slide! Eventually, I discovered that the Boos had been capturing regular ghosts and putting them inside large crystals. This somehow transformed them to become stronger than ever. Thankfully, I had collected enough money to get the final upgrade to the vacuum which made MUCH faster to capture ghosts. It's been really useful...

In the meantime, we tracked the dark moon piece to a workshop on the nearby mountain. To get there, I had to use a cannon inside a gondola to melt pieces of ice that blocked the way. However, nasty ghosts decided to put some chains on the door to the gondola, so I had to hunt them down through the level to defeat them and release the chains. When I got to the workshop, I fought another boss!

I beat the shit out of this boss!

This one was really weird as the battle was almost entirely in first person view. The possessor boss turned itself into some sort of ice drill and was burrowing deep under the mountain. I chased after it on a sled equipped with a bomb launcher. I had to destroy the creature's ice armor by throwing bombs at the right time. It was pretty cool, but the aiming wasn't the best. I got my dark moon piece and will discover the final mansion next!

Mario Kart 7

Miguel goes down!

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

I played against my friend at work in a quick 100cc Grand Prix, competing for the Shell cup. I picked DK as usual and my opponent used Yoshi. I cruised to a first place victory without much real opposition, except during the last race. Racing through Luigi's Mansion from Mario Kart DS, my friend managed to keep first place for almost a full lap, making good use of items, drifting and the track itself to give me a challenge...at least for a while. I still managed to win while my friend placed 2nd for the cup.

Wolfenstein: The New Order

Date played: April 30th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I am really surprised at how good Wolfenstein is... I mean, it's completely ridiculous and dumb, but it's incredible fun and is now becoming quite challenging in spots. Last time, I stopped playing just as I was about to steal a train. This segment turned out to be a lot more difficult than I expected. I took out a few enemies with my throwing knives, but I was soon confronted by some larger enemies armed with energy-based gatling guns... Not only that, but I faced two at a time! I ended up pecking at them with all my guns from a safe spot until I ran out of ammo. I ran out and grabbed some weapons to finalize the kill.

This game is weird sometimes...

So I stole the train and somehow, this led us to diving underwater and getting into some sort of old shrine... The game has some supernatural tendencies going on. Anyway, we grabbed a sort of artifact that we would use a weapon. It's all non-sense, but we grabbed the thing and got out. Next, we decided to steal a nuclear U-Boat from the Nazis... Yep. I infiltrated the U-Boat by hiding in a missile casing we stole from the train. A submarine is filled with small rooms and corridors, so I put the shotguns to good use. I managed to steal the vessel, but didn't have the launch codes for the nuclear warheads.

So of course, we decided to get some codes. Unfortunately, the only way to get them is to get to the Nazi Lunar Base (yep, lunar base). To do that, we had to find a high ranking officer and steal his identity. This led me to one of the craziest levels yet, a huge battle on top of a half demolished bridge. I got a chance to use the long range marksman rifle. The star of the show was the new rocket launcher attachment to the assault rifle. I mean, holy fuck, this thing hits hard! I shot my way through the area and found the officer I needed. We are ready for the Lunar Base!