Rogue Legacy

Date played: October 30th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 7/10

It turns out, I kind of like Rogue Legacy. The best part is that runs are relatively short, with death looming around every corner. I did a few runs, maybe 6 or 7, and had a really lucrative one near the end. I took this money and bought all the available gear as well as a few upgrades to health and other stuff. This made me strong enough to feel confident in attacking the first boss.

Gatekeeper Khidr is a very large eyeball that shoots out a giant stream of projectiles. I gave it all I had, jumping, dashing, spell-casting and most importantly, slashing at it. I killed it and it lit up one of the icons on the main door at the entrance to the castle. I got lots of cash with it too. Now I feel like I should grind money a little bit to upgrade a few stats, then head out to one of the other areas. What's great about Rogue Legacy is that it never really feels frustrating, even if death is common. It almost always feels like I made some progress, even if it's very minor. 

La Mulana EX

Date played: October 30th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 3/10

I didn't know what to expect out of this small Vita game that I downloaded for free on PS+ a while back. It turns out, it's kind of a rogue like I think, but it's fucking brutal. The hero is a man with a whip, a laptop and a sense of adventure. After gearing up in town, he descends into a large set of ruins known as La Mulana. The game handles well enough. I killed some snakes, some large birds, some skeletons and some bats. The game seems to be about finding your way through the labyrinth of the ruins. However, when I died, I was booted back up to the title screen with the option of "New Game". Fuck that shit. I'm never playing this again.

Halo: Spartan Strike

Date played: October 29th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 7/10

Halo 5 came out this week and I haven't bought it yet, I felt the urge to get back into the Halo universe, so I played Spartan Strike, the sequel to Spartan Assault. I didn't have much time to play, but the first few missions are already better than the ones in the previous game. It starts in New Mombasa as the Covenant attacks. They are trying to capture an artifact or something, and my spartan's job is to stop them.

There are some good little changes here and there in the game. For example, there is now a little icon that helps aim at long distances. The best addition so far has been riding in a warthog! The controls for it are really smooth and it's very satisfying to shoot enemies with it. One of the things that really bugs me in these games is that the spartans can't fucking jump, while they can jump 8 feet in the air in the real Halo games...

Mario Kart 8

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

After playing a level of Yoshi's Woolly World, my brother and I booted up Mario Kart 8 for a quick 150cc grand prix in the Mushroom Cup. He picked Link with his bike and glider, while I used Donkey Kong of course. He hasn't played 8 very often, but my bro still did really well, completing the championship in 4th place while I placed 1st.

Yoshi's Woolly World

Date played: October 27th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 7/10

This level is amazing

My brother's PS4 came in, so he came over and we set it up. As it downloaded some updates and games, we played a level of Yoshi's Woolly World. The Windmill level felt like a good showcase for the game, so we played through it together. As usual, my bro is pretty good at playing games, so we breezed through the level rather easily. He loved the cute art style and the egg throwing mechanics. He also appreciated that the objects we built were the same color as the egg that created it.

Rogue Legacy

Date played: October 26th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 7/10

I've been meaning to try this game for a while now. It's a rogue-like, a genre I've never really liked much, but I still gave this one a chance. For what it's worth, it's the most fun I've had with a rogue-like in a while. Rogue Legacy is a 2D dungeon crawling adventure where the objective is to gather as much gold as possible before dying. The money is then used to buy upgrades for the hero's descendant.

Each character has a bunch of random abilities, some of which are hilarious. For example, a near-sighted warrior will have a blurry view of nearby elements, while a warrior with ADHD will move faster than others. The act of diving into the dungeon to fight monsters with the sword, gathering as much money as possible, then using that money on upgrades for the next run after death is very satisfying. I'm not sure I'll play this again very much, but I'll definitely keep it installed in case I get the urge to play it again sometime.

Gunpoint

Date played: October 26th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 5/10

I had heard high praise for Gunpoint on various gaming sites and podcasts, so when I saw it on sale for 2.50$ on Steam, I figured it would be a good buy. However, I was very disappointed with the game... The premise is pretty cool, this being a 2D puzzle stealth game where the protagonist can launch himself in the air at insane speeds and heights, crashing through windows and all.

My problem is that the game quickly becomes focused on puzzles that aren't really about stealth, but more about rewiring switches and other objects to progress. It became slow and tedious to play... I lost interest.

Transistor

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

I finished Transistor!

The final, sad scene...

I was at the very end of the game the last time I played, all that was left was the final battle against the last of the bad guys. The final enemy also had a Transistor sword and it seems there's only room for one in the world. The final battle was the first time an enemy had access to stopping time and planning moves, but I was equipped well enough that I was able to take him out rather quickly. The world was saved and we returned to the city. As the Transistor whispers "I love you Red", she takes a bold decision and impales herself with the sword... It's a bittersweet ending. I loved the systems in Transistor, I just wish the story made more sense. 

Multiplayer ADD night!

Date played: October 25th
Platform: PS4 and Xbox One
Session fun rating: 10/10

My youngest brother and his friend came over for the evening. My bro has been itching to get a next generation console for a while now. He's been playing on PS3 for a long time, but now that Fallout 4 is coming out, he just can't resist anymore. Unfortunately, he's got no money, so I invited him over to work out a deal of some kind. I ended up ordering him a PS4 bundle that includes Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Destiny: The Taken King.  He'll repay me when he can...

To celebrate, we sampled a bunch of games on both PS4 and Xbox One. We started by putting my new, Halo themed controller to good use with some Killer Instinct. I've never played this game and it's been a LONG time since I played the old KI games. The free version comes with only one character that rotates every few weeks. This time, it was Riptor, a velociraptor with some cybernetic enhancements. The game looks absolutely stunning and is smooth as hell. It's a combo heavy type of game though and it's very fast, so it took us a while to get used to it. We played a few rounds and moved on to another game.

Riptor is badass!

Up next was #IDARB. Now this is a fucked up little game. It's basically 2D handball with tons of platforms and an "attack" function. It's pretty fast, has a funny, yet exciting announcer and plays really well. After a few rounds of that, we jumped to the PS4. They wanted to see a few games they didn't know, so I ended up playing a few levels of OlliOlli 2, The Binding of Isaac, Transistor and Super Meat Boy. 

Rocket League

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

Great Scott! The Delorean scores!

My brother and his friend came over and one point in the evening, we found ourselves playing Rocket League. On impulse, I decided to buy the Back to the Future DLC! The Delorean looks absolutely incredible, especially when it boosts and leaves trails of fire in it's wake. We did pretty damn well as a team. We lost a few matches, but when we did, it was usually just because the other team was that much better. Rocket League is always awesome...

Starships

Date played: October 25th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 8/10

I finished my first game of Starships!

The overview map is pretty cool

I'm actually not really sure how I won, I think it might have been a population win. I took my crew of ships, upgraded my planets a bit, developped some new science, boosted my fighter ship capabilities and took over many enemy planets. There were a few battles that were a bit tougher, but I think I need to increase the difficulty next time I play. Honestly, I'm kind of disappointed with the game, it's a bit too simple, and would have been more interesting if I had more fleets instead of just one. It does make me feel like playing Beyond Earth though...

Transistor

Date played: October 25th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through a large portion of Transistor and I think I'm very close to the end. While the story is even less comprehensible than ever before, the game's awesome gameplay has kept me interested throughout. I beat a large boss known as the Spine, a worm-like creature that almost took me out, but I won with my last function available.

There's not much to say that I haven't said before. The game looks great, sounds even better and plays like nothing else I've ever played. I got a few new functions, including Cull(), which is a very powerful attack. I combined it with a function that adds range and increases backstab damage, it's been extremely useful throughout. I'm very near the end of the game...

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Cyrille Le Paradox

Date played: October 25th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 7/10

I finished Sly Cooper 4!

I was very close to the end... There was a final scene with all the ancestors, navigating a few challenge rooms to find their canes, but it was short and very easy. Sly jumped onto Le Paradox's dirigible and fought him as the ship moved through time. The fight itself was very disappointing since it was just a series of quick time events... I timed my button presses to the on screen prompts and it wasn't long before the stinky skunk was defeated. Le Paradox fell off the ship into the water and was captured, but Sly was caught in the time lapse and wasn't seen after...

Murray, Bentley and Carmelita were very worried and tried their best to find him, but they weren't successful. Sly is lost in time, but at least all the bad guys were captured... I liked Sly Cooper 4. It wasn't amazing, but it feels good to play an old school platformer like this, and the Vita was a good platform to play it on.

Yoshi's Woolly World

Date played: October 24th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

My daughter wanted to play Yoshi again, so we grabbed our controllers and booted up the game. I decided that it might be a good idea to start a new game with her, this time using the "mellow" mode in the game. This mode allows Yoshi to fly horizontally as long as the jump button is pressed. She actually did very well with this mode, it made it a LOT easier to reach platforms, without requiring precision with the analog stick. After 2 levels though, she got mad that I picked up a gem that she wanted to pick up... She didn't want to play anymore.

Giant mole battle!

My girlfriend picked up the controller, and we went back to our game, without mellow mode. We completed 3 levels. In one, we had to roll a giant rock through the level. The next was the first castle. This was definitely harder than what we have seen in the game so far. There were giant rolls of wool that acted as platforms, but also rolled when we jumped on them. At the end of the level, we fought a giant mole which had to be hit on the head, then ground stomped three times. I love everything about this game, but it seems to be made for a single player really... We often got in the way of each other and accidentally bumped each other off platforms pretty often.

Forza Motorsport 6

Date played: October 24th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

I completed the series I had started last time, the final race set on Spa in the rain. The rest of my time was spent in the showcase events. I started with the final event in the showdown category where I drove the BAC Mono against a KTM X-bow and a Caterham 7. Then I completed a factory spec race in a modern Formula 1 car. The F1 car is fun and fast, but it's really not cool that it has 8 gears. Downshifting 7 times after a long straight is not easy...

The Ford GT40 roars past the Dunlop loop on Circuit de la Sarthe

Next up was a race in the rain with V8 supercars. It was a big adjustment for me, since I had been driving nimble race for a while. Getting into the lumbering V8 had me smashing into walls for the first few turns. I had the pleasure of driving the incredible 1970's Ford GT40 MKII around Circuit de la Sarthe. This awesome car is hard to handle, but it's fun and of course, it's very fast.

Finally, I drove some endurance prototypes, the spaceship looking cars that are built to run for 24 hours straight. I was in a Peugeot, and to my horror, the cockpit view was almost impossible to use. I barely had 20% of the screen that showed the track. For the first time in the game, I had to get out of cockpit view and use the bumper cam. The endurance cars are very fun to drive. They aren't quite as nimble as the F1 cars, but they are almost as fast.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Hot.

Date played: October 24th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 8/10

Once again, as I watched hockey, I played some Sly Cooper. I've completed the 40 Thieves chapter and defeated Miss Decibel. We rescued the two remaining thieves and assaulted Miss Decibel's hideout. There was a lot of fun platforming, much of it requiring that I use the thief costume's ability to slow down time. For example, I had to jump on a series of floating obstacles, but without slow motion, they would flow too quickly. Murray and Sly teamed up to explore a large cavern filled with shipwrecks. Murray even got into a cannon battle where I had to shoot down cannon towers and their projectiles.

After all this, Salim and Bentley went straight into Miss Decibel's lair and planted some transmitters. Miss Decibel is a music snob, a lover of classical and opera. So when Bentley made the transmitters play some rock and roll, she went into a blind rage, allowing Salim to plant a listening device on her desk.

With this new information, the team found Le Paradox's blimp, hidden deep below ground. To get into the lair, Carmelita donned a sexy belly dancing outfit and danced for the guards, giving the rest of the team enough time to open a nearby door. There was a rhythm based mini game to make her dance, hell, I even had to shake the Vita to shake her ass...

The battle against Miss Decibel was pretty cool. I had to use slow motion a lot to avoid her attacks. Eventually, I cornered her and was able to defeat her. She tried to escape with Le Paradox, but he turned her down. He said he couldn't afford the extra weight because of his new passenger... The fucker captured Carmelita in her half naked outfit, tied her up and went back to the present time. With his plan fully deployed, he was now the ruler of the world, headquartered in Paris. This is definitely the end of the game, but I still have to save Carmelita and take out Le Paradox.

Yoshi's Woolly World

Date played: October 22nd
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 10/10

I've been waiting for this game for a long time. The original Yoshi's Island on SNES was the first video game I bought with my own money, along with my SNES, at the tender age of 12. I had saved money for over a year to get one and I wasn't disappointed. Yoshi's Island is one of the best games on the system. Unfortunately, Yoshi never really had another great game, until now.

Yoshi's Woolly World is an adorable video game, featuring a fantastic art style. Everything in the world is made of wool and other crafting objects. Kamek turns most of the Yoshis into balls of yarn and it's up to green and red Yoshi to save their friends.

I played the first two levels with my girlfriend in co-op mode. While playing a 2D platformer with another player is never really ideal, it still worked well enough for us to have a good time. Each level has a ton of collectibles to find, including flowers, balls of yarn, gems and stamps. The cute-as-fuck levels are filled with secrets to find. The game uses the wool theme well too, where Yoshi can unravel pieces of the decor to reveal new paths and items. Players can eat each other and turn the other into an egg to throw him in spots that are hard to reach.

The best part of my evening was spent playing with my 5 year old daughter though. She still doesn't play a lot of video games, though she clearly understands them quite well. She tentatively moved Yoshi in different directions, learned to jump, hover, ground pound, eat enemies and throw eggs. She obviously has trouble with precision jumps and all, but she had a good time. Her favorite part was grabbing eggs from egg dispensers! I can't wait to play this game again...

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Date played: October 22nd
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 9/10

Another hockey game means a bit more Sly Cooper. While the Sens lost in shootouts, Sly and his gang were more successful. After investigating the area a bit, we saved Sly's ancestor, Salim Al Kupar. He's really cool. He has a flying carpet that can be used for gliding, a giant sword that does more damage than even Murray can, and a fast climbing ability. He can also slow down time, which is very powerful. I gathered all the bottles in the Arabian world which rewarded me with an item that reduces damage taken.

Le Paradox, the mastermind behind all of this time travel villainy, has a new general, an elephant named Ms. Decibel. She was an aspiring singer when she was a child, but even though her singing voice sucked, she discovered that she could mind control people with it. She used this amazing skill to become a criminal mastermind. She hypnotized Salim's thieves, so Sly and the crew must now save them.

Hilariously, Sly impersonates delivery men sporting a horrible Italian accent and a bad disguise. It works though, and Ms. Decibel gives him information on where the thieves are being kept captive. As Salim, I played through an awesome level where I had to use his fast climbing skill and slow motion to progress through a series of dangerous platforming challenges.

BOXBOY!

I wear the superhero cape!

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

At work, I've been assigned to a new project. Being a new thing and all, the tool I use crashes all the time, leaving me with nothing to do for extended periods of time during the day. To kill time, I picked up my 3DS and played through a world in BOXBOY!. World 8 was all about using cranes to carry the boy and his blocks through obstacles. It had some pretty clever puzzles throughout, I even had to use a hint in one of the levels. 

Forza Motorsport 6

Breathtaking

Date played: October 21st
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

I continued the series with the 70's F1 cars in my little Lotus. I've boosted the difficulty back up to Pro, the second to last most difficult mode since I had been winning a little too easily in the last few races. I'm still winning a lot since this car is very forgiving. I still have one race to complete before the series is over. I had fun racing on classic tracks like Monza and Lime Rock. Circuit de la Sarthe features some very long straights and some fast chicanes, so it was exciting to drive an F1 car on it.

Races are pretty lengthy now, with most events lasting between 10 and 15 minutes, so I have a lot more time to catch up to the first few cars and secure a position at the top of the grid. I love every second behind the wheel in Forza 6, I think it's the best simulation racing game available right now.

Forza Motorsport 6

Date played: October 20th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 10/10

I completed one showcase event and a 6 race series. The showcase event featured 1970's Pan-Am cars. There were almost no rules in these events, so the cars took on monstrous forms as the series progressed. Every car has extremely large tires and giraffe-like spoilers. They are also very powerful, their engines roaring like wild animals at every touch of the gas pedal.

I used the 1967 Mclaren M6A and it's a fucking monster! It's wild, it's strong and it's surprisingly easy to drive, considering. I loved driving it around Lime Rock for 12 laps, so after winning the showcase, I chose this car class for the next career series and jumped back into the Mclaren and gave it a new paint job. Most of the tracks in the series had very bumpy roads, including Rio, Burmese Alps and Prague. The M6A gets real fucking jumpy at high speeds, but it's still surprisingly easy to rein in. I had an absolute blast racing with this car! It's some of the most fun racing I've done in Forza 6.

The Mclaren M6A #4 handles like a dream. A wild, savage dream.

Having completed the series, I decided to do one race in the next series. I picked the 1970's Formula 1 racing and jumped into the cockpit of a Lotus. That thing is fast and easy to handle, so I had no trouble at all winning the race. It was my first time around the "real" Nurburgring, the epic, 7 minute per lap, world famous track. I loved racing on the graffiti filled track and can't wait to drive other cars on it.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Date played: October 19th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 8/10

I completed Episode 4, Of Mice and Mechs. After tracking the Black Knight closely, the team discovered that it was actually Penelope, hiding in a mechanical suit. She is probably a returning character from the previous games, but I've never seen her before. She is a pink animal, a mouse maybe? She definitely has history with Bentley, but they had a fallout somehow. After discovering this, Bentley went into a depression and hid in his shell for a few missions.

The Black Knight

Eventually, we took on Penelope head on. She took her mechanical black knight suit and nested it inside a gigantic exoskeleton, armed with missiles and other nasty attacks. As Sly, I had to jump on top of large scaffolds while avoiding attacks, then use the archer costume to shoot at the knight's weak points. I then ran up to the weak points on the ropes I just shot and peppered the knight with arrows from close range. After three rounds of this, the knight went down, but wasn't quite out yet.

The final portion of the battle saw the triumphant return of Bentley, who confronted Penelope directly, using a new exoskeleton device of his own. The mech battle was simple, but satisfying. We defeated Penelope and followed clues to the next era, Arabia. I explored the overworld a bit, grabbed a few bottles and called it a night.

Forza Motorsport 6

Date played: October 18th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played three showcase events, including a return to the dreaded Ariel Atom who gave me a terrible experience the last time I used it. This time around, I turned off simulation damage to avoid having another fuel problem... I fucking hate this shitty car. It was still rather difficult to control and I couldn't do better than 3rd place.

The Ariel Atom is a real piece of shit

My next two races went a lot better. The two factory spec races featured the Radical SR-8 and the Ultima GTR, two insane little cars that are a real pleasure to drive. I easily won both events, since these cars are so awesome to drive.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Date played: October 18th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 7/10

Episode 4 is some of the best stuff in the game so far. Sly has rescued Sir Galleth Cooper who is really a brave knight, but was held captive by the Black Knight, a weird mechanical dude. All the enemies are mechanical in the area too... After tailing the Black Knight and stealing back Sir Galleth's cane, the team made a plan to sabotage the villain's operations, though it's not quite clear what's happening.

Sir Galleth Cooper is funny and fun to play

I played a Sir Galleth Cooper to destroy some cameras attached to dirigibles. His special ability allows him to launch himself high in the air with the use of hooks scattered around. To destroy the dirigibles, I had to complete some awesome platforming segments using this new skill. Then, he infiltrated the Black Knight's factory where I had to climb through some dangerous machines to reach a giant, three-headed mechanical dragon who guards the knight's castle. Unfortunately, Sir Galleth was no match for the dragon, so Carmelita came to the rescue!

This was my favorite boss battle in the game. Carmelita had to dodge the dragon's attacks, then attack it's mouths with her pistol. Once a head was stunned, I was able to jump onto it and smash it's eyes. I repeated this process 5 times, enough to destroy all 6 of the dragon's eyes and disable the dragon. It was fucking awesome! I continued sabotaging the Black Knight's operations by disabling three of it's buildings.

Rocket League

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

Split screen action

Two of my brothers came over to watch hockey and chill last night. After the hockey game, we played a little bit of Rocket League together as a team of 3 vs 3 random online opponents. We did pretty well overall, but all of us were clearly very rusty, missing shots often and just being a bit slower than usual. When one of my bros left, we got into some 2 vs 2 online matches and fared rather well here too, though we lost our fair share of matches too. I definitely wasn't on top of my game, but I still had a great time playing with my siblings. 

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Date played: October 17th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played through all the levels in episode 3, culminating in a battle against Grizz the bear. Episode 3 was kind of weak honestly, outside of the training montage section. There was a big climbing section where I took Bob to steal some parts from a pterodactyl nest. It was actually kind of fun, but there were some sections where the rules weren't clear and I failed a few times. There was also a pretty fun Bentley section, where I did some platforming that was interesting.

The boss battle itself was all right, where Murray fought Grizz on a skating rink. It was actually a really frustrating event since it was on ice and Murray isn't exactly super nimble. I died repeatedly during a portion where Grizz had a stone shield around him and Murray had to hit some blocks to deal damage. I got through it, but it was only thanks to the checkpoints. After hitting him with enough blocks, Grizz and Murray engaged in a hilarious figure skating competition where I had to memorize some button presses, similar to a rhythm game.

Grizz

After beating the boss, the team repaired the van and somehow decided that the best thing to do was to time travel to a medieval era. I spent some time collecting bottles in the new area. It's a really well designed hub area, including some castles, moats, windmills, circus tents and large ships. Sly's ancestor in this era is Sir Galleth Cooper, a clown in the town circus. It seems that he needs rescuing.

Sly got a new costume, an archer's outfit. This means he can shoot arrows from a bow when near a bucket or arrows. These can then be tied to a rope to make tight-rope bridges. The first real mission was really cool, featuring lots of awesome platforming in the circus tent. The bow and arrow are definitely fun to use.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Date played: October 15th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 8/10

Once again, as I watched the hockey game, I played Sly Cooper on the side during breaks in the action. I spent most of my time hunting for bottles in the new, prehistoric ice age area. I read online that if I found all 30 bottles here, I would get an item that shows the bottles on the map for the other areas. I used an online map to find all the bottles, grabbed my special item and went back to Feudal Japan and The Old West to find the remaining bottles there. My rewards were a medal that increases gold dropped from enemies and crates, as well as a magnet that makes collecting coins easier.

I then completed a couple of jobs in 10 000 BC. Once again, there is a bad guy who is from the present and is doing nefarious things in the world. His name is Grizz and he's a big black bear who loves wearing lots of bling.... As Sly, I took some photos of the area and found some of the parts we need for the time machine van. Along the way, we discovered that another Cooper was being held captive. He's presumed to be the first ever Cooper, a burly prehistoric raccoon.

In the next job, Sly infiltrated the enemy base to free his very ancient relative. After stealing a key from Grizz himself, I got a new costume, a tiger skin. This one is really cool as it lets Sly pounce on enemies from very far, creating some new platforming challenges. It's incredibly fun to use and it looks cool too. Using my new abilities, I was able to save Sly's ancestor.

The ancestor can't really speak, as he mostly just mumbles. He's big, hairy and very very stupid. Without much communication going on, Sly decides to name him Bob. Bob Cooper. We brought him back to base and realized that he was so out of shape, he needed to train to get back to form. The next job was a very funny bit where Murray trained Bob using a collection of 6 mini games. I played a home run derby where penguins were the ball, I threw penguins at pterodactyls using a slingshot device, I played whack-a-penguin, I balanced an egg on a tree branch using motion controls as penguins tried to make Bob lose his balance, I sumo wrestled a giant penguin and another mini game that I forget.

After practicing with Murray, the game cuts to a Rocky-like training montage where I had to play the mini games in a random order with increasing difficulty. It wasn't super easy, but I got it on the first try and got Bob back into shape. I thought this was a pretty clever mission.

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes demo

Date played: October 15th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 9/10

Tri Force Heroes is such a weird game. It seems to be pretty much a direct sequel to Four Swords since it's a cooperative Zelda game, but with 3 players instead of 4. Nintendo put out a demo via codes sent by email, but it's got some really weird conditions. Basically, it's only playable with 3 local players except for a few blocks of 5 hours during the next 3 days where online will be active. This meant that the only way I could try this game was to find 2 friends who wanted to play with me.

Two of my friends at work are really into Zelda. One of them is playing Oracle of Ages right now and the other has a triforce tattoo on his arm.... so I had found the right people. We managed to schedule a break together and played through the first little dungeon of the game together.

The game's concept is really cool. Basically, it's Zelda, but with 3 Links that can stack onto each other to create a tower to reach higher platforms and to attack higher enemies and hit higher objects. There's a set of emotes on the touch screen that communicate basic information like "Over here", "No" and other useful messages. The dungeon features a bunch of little green blobs, a common enemy in Zelda games. We found some bows and navigated the dungeon together.

Hearts and rupees are shared across all players, so that's pretty cool. It was pretty difficult to coordinate properly sometimes, even if we were in the same room together. There was even an instance where my friend threw me into a bottomless pit by accident! We beat a giant blob boss at the end where each phase required us to be stacked at different heights. It was all lots of fun and is a very interesting concept, now it's just a matter of seeing how easy it is to play with friends once the online portion hits.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Date played: October 14th

Sheriff Toothpick

Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 8/10

Now that the hockey season is upon us again, my Vita is getting more action. I'm sure my 3DS will too. The thing is, as I watch hockey, I like to play little bits of games when the whistle blows, when there are commercials or during the intermissions.

I ended up completing one mission where the whole team assaults a train captained by none other than Sheriff Toothpick himself! The mission was pretty cool. I started as Murray, who had to beat up some dudes and throw TNT at a device. Then he jumped into the time travel van and drove beside the train. Then, as Carmelita, I shot some dudes and brought Bentley to a terminal. I played the side scrolling hacking game, which opened some doors on the train. It was Kid Cooper's turn as he stole some gold from the train, shooting his way through a trap ridden train car. Finally, Sly battled against Toothpick on the final train car.

The battle was pretty cool, but I preferred the first boss fight. I had to use the chain and ball to avoid lasers, then I triggered the train's whistle by ramming the ball against three switches. This angered the sheriff who took his giant form and attacked Sly directly with jump attacks and mini tornadoes. I was then able to knock him into some fire pits and hit him with my cane. After doing this three times, he was knocked out. Unfortunately, the train was headed towards a broken bridge, so the team jumped into the van to escape.

However, Murray wasn't able to stop the van, it's brakes were broken or something. As the van plunged towards certain death, Bentley threw a random object into the time machine as a last ditch effort to survive. It worked, but the van is now broken and the team is stranded in a prehistoric ice age area, complete with dinosaurs and cavemen! I can't wait to explore the new era.

Forza Motorsport 6

Date played: October 13th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 8/10

I completed a few showcase events last night. I started with two passing challenges. The first was in a Bugatti Veyron, the very heavy, but extremely powerful beast, on one of the more dangerous configurations of the Daytona track. It was very fun to ride the banked walls of the legendary track in such a fast car. The next passing challenge had me driving a Hennessey Venom GT, a car I've had the pleasure of driving to the edge in Driveclub. It felt significantly different in Forza, but it still felt like I was taming a wild animal. That car is fun, fast and exciting.

The beautiful Hennessey Venom GT

I then completed the last of the Stig challenges, this time on the Top Gear Test Track in a Koenigsegg Agera. While I had no trouble winning the event by ramming the Stig into a tire wall at full speed, I definitely didn't like driving that car. It has very heavy understeer and is just not fun to drive, even though it's clearly very fast.

I got real frustrated in the next race though... I tried out the Ariel Atom factory spec race. In Grid 2, I actually like that car quite a bit. But in Driveclub, I fucking hated it. In Forza 6, I still hate it. That thing is fast and has awesome acceleration, but it often feels like a skateboard or rollerskates. It's completely unstable and is too light for it's own good, with weight distribution being all wrong. I still fought hard to win and was in 2nd place in the last lap after a grueling 16 minute race.

That's when the impossible happened. As I approached the last chicane, I felt that the acceleration wasn't quite what it was supposed to be. It felt like I was losing power every once in a while for very short periods, less than a second. I wondered for a microsecond "Are my batteries for my controller dying? Did I damage my car without noticing it?". Alas, I was wrong. As I exited the chicane, I accelerated as much as possible when suddenly, I lost all acceleration and my engine turned off. I slowly rolled to the starting line as I heard 6 cars fly past me at full speed, putting me in 8th place. I crossed the line limply. My gas tank was empty.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love having to pit and having simulation damage, but for fuck's sake, no one else had to pit in this race! Frustrated, I turned off my Xbox. I'll come back to this event, but I'll turn off the fuel gauge setting next time. 

Forza Motorsport 6

Date played: October 12th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through the last series in the 4th volume. This was a 6 race series set in the US on tracks such as Daytona, Road Atlanta, Circuit of the Americas, Long Beach and Laguna Seca. At first, I was using a Ferrari 458 heavily modified for GT racing. However, I found that car to be too difficult to handle. It had serious understeer and would easily spin out when I tried to correct the understeer. Instead of banging my head against it, I decided to try a different car.

The 2011 #59 McLaren GT 12C GT3 was my weapon of choice and it did not disappoint. That thing is fast, nimble and powerful. I sped through the tracks like a demon and won most of my races. I came in second place during a night race at Sebring, but aside from that, I was in front most of the time.

The 2011 #59 McLaren GT 12C GT3

I played a bit online too, trying out an Acura Integra Type-R in D class. While the car is pretty good and competitive, I got frustrated quickly by people playing bumper cars for no reason. Some guys literally just ran me off the road for the fun of it. So after 3 races, I went back to single player.

Star Wars Battlefront beta

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

The beta is still going strong, so I took advantage of that and played a lot of Battlefront again. I tried out the single player mode, which is basically a horde mode where waves of enemies attack. It was set on Tattoine which looked absolutely gorgeous, but it's not really the type of mode that I enjoy.

Taking out a walker is so satisfying!

Most of my time was spent in Walker Assault on Hoth. That map is really cool and is always filled with action. I got to control Luke Skywalker again and had am getting a lot better with him. He's got a really strong block move that repels all blaster fire and a fast charge attack that wrecks Stormtroopers in one fell swoop. I like playing as the Rebels the most because it's a lot more work than the Imperials. I figured out that the Orbital Strike special attack is very powerful against the AT-AT's. It's an amazing feeling to take out the walkers as the Rebels, it's very satisfying. I can't wait to see the other maps and modes when the full game comes out.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Date played: October 11th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 7/10

As I was watching the hockey game on my computer, I played Sly Cooper between plays and during intermissions. I played a good chunk of missions in the Old West and got to play as Tennessee Kid Cooper. He's actually pretty interesting since he has a revolver. This means parts of the game now feel like a third person shooter. Don't get me wrong, it feels like a BAD third person shooter, but it's still pretty interesting. He has an ability that lets him slow down time and plan up to 6 shots in advance. This is used in a lot of the puzzles too.

There was a mission where Sly infiltrates a casino and sends one of Bentley's remote controlled cars to do some spying on the bad guy, Toothpick. He's kind of an armadillo I think, but there have been hints that he can transform himself into a much larger creature.

Kid Cooper is fun to play 

Somehow, Carmelita Fox, Sly's former lover, was captured by Toothpick! Kid Cooper can ride rails, exactly like Ratchet does in his games. I used this ability to chase down the stagecoach that held Carmelita. I had to shoot out obstacles along the way too. This was one of the better missions in the game so far.

Meanwhile, Sly, Bentley and Murray were captured in their van by Toothpick. Carmelita and Kid Cooper paired up to save them in a mission where they rode on a raft and used their guns to shoot at enemies until they reached the team and rescued them.

Finally, and I don't really understand why, we took place in three challenges around the town. Murray had to fight some dudes in a boxing ring, Sly had to race on his prisoner's ball and chain around an obstacle course and Carmelita had to win a shooting gallery challenge. 

Star Wars Battlefront beta

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

Epic

Star Wars Battlefront is shaping up to be the big multiplayer game of the season. It's fun, it's fast, it's interesting, it's different and it's full of Star Wars! I'm starting to understand the systems and vehicles a lot better. I'm doing rather well with the aircraft actually. I decimated the Imperial forces in an X-Wing and wrecked lots of aircraft in a TIE fighter. I'm pretty decent with the AT-ST's too. I now use ion grenades when playing as the rebels, as they can do some good damage against vehicles.

I'm really impressed with what I played so far, I was expecting this to be a glitchy mess, but it's been very smooth so far. 

Fighting and flowing on PS3: bro's house special

Date played: October 10th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 10/10

Doomsday is badass

I spent some time chilling with my youngest brother and 2 of his friends at his house. He doesn't have a lot of games that can be played in multiplayer, but we still had lots of fun with his PS3. Most of the evening was spent playing Injustice: Gods Among Us, but we also played Soul Calibur V and flOw.

Injustice feels a lot like a weird version of Mortal Kombat. After learning the basics and trying out a few characters, I found a character that I really liked, Doomsday. He is slow and powerful, but has a lot of range control. He has a great dash attack that can be used diagonally or horizontally. He also has a fantastic heavy attack that interrupts air combos, similar to a Shoryuken or something. I won a lot against my bro and his friends with this guy.

I wasn't as good when we jumped to Soul Calibur V. I love this series and I always play as Astaroth, the large devil warrior armed with a huge axe. I won a few rounds, but my brother's friend was really good with fast characters, so she kicked my ass a lot.

Finally, we played flOw at the end of the evening, to relax. We ended up getting to the bottom of ocean twice, passing the controller to each other. flOw is always really cool to play. It's simple and easy to jump into, plus it's relaxing as hell. 

Star Wars Battlefront beta

Date played: October 10th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

Even though the game isn't out for another month, Star Wars Battlefront has it's multiplayer beta going on right now on all platforms. It has two modes, each with it's own map. The first mode pits the Rebels and the Imperials against each other in a mountainous, somewhat swampy area. The objective is to capture some supply drops from various transport pods. There is only one pod active on the map at once and it takes a couple of minutes to be captured, so there's a lot of action in a concentrated area. This is a 8 vs 8 mode, so the map isn't enormous.

Star Wars Battlefront is very pretty

The second mode is Walker Assault, which has the Imperials attacking the Rebel base on Hoth. The Rebels attempt to destroy three AT-AT walkers while the Imperials attempt to protect them. This is a 20 vs 20 mode, so the map is very large. It's really exciting to fight alongside, or against, AT-AT's, AT-ST's, TIE fighters, snow speeders and a bunch of other cool shit.

The game plays very very well. I mean, it's smooth as hell. Everything feels perfect. Everyone has blasters, so it's really cool to see the lasers trail all over the place. It also makes it much easier to know where people are fighting. There's special abilities that can be picked up, like crazy grenades, shields, turrets and other fun stuff. It took me a couple of games to get used to it, but soon I was dominating the battlefield, my best game being a solid 34-12.

I am very impressed with the game's graphics and audio. It looks absolutely stunning, runs very smoothly and sounds like a real Star Wars movie. I can't wait to get my hands on the final game, but in the meantime, I'll play the beta while it's still available. 

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

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

Once again, I spent most of my evening playing my Vita in the hotel room. The Old West environment is really cool, it even has a big train running through it. I collected some bottles and treasures as Sly before moving to the first job. Sly's ancestor, Tennessee Kid Cooper, is held prisoner in a high security jail. In order to save him, Sly had to build up a criminal record to get the Sheriff's attention.

The Old West

I vandalized posters of the Sheriff around town, then took down a large banner around the train tracks. That was enough for Sly to get captured and thrown into the same cell as Kid Cooper. I got a new suit, the jailbird outfit, that lets Sly throw a large iron ball into objects and enemies. He can also ride the ball around to avoid dangerous obstacles on the ground. Using these new tools, Sly and Kid escaped the prison. Bentley helped too, as he had to spot some weak spots in the jail's walls. I don't like playing as Bentley too much, since he's not very mobile, being in a wheelchair and all.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

El Efe

Date played: October 7th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 8/10

Our team made it's final assault on the bad guys of the feudal Japan era. Sly, Murray and Bentley created a distraction by fighting enemies on the bridge that led to the castle keep where El Efe runs his operation. Meanwhile, Rioichi sneaks around the carnage and attempts to take out the tiger man. Unfortunately, El Efe grabs his cane and runs away, burning the bridge behind him.

Sly chases after him that's when I got my first boss fight of the game. It was a pretty cool concept, where it mixed platforming and fighting. I first had to avoid projectiles while jumping over obstacles and over large gaps. Then, I got to confront the tiger directly. I had to avoid fire attacks by putting on the samurai armor, then jump to avoid lightning attacks, and finally get back back into the samurai armor to deflect fireballs. When timed correctly, that gave me an opening to whack the large feline in the face with my cane. I repeated this process three times until the El Efe was defeated.

Unfortunately, a mysterious figure in an airship sent down some goons to steal the cane and traveled in time to the far west era. I haven't started the next chapter yet, but I'm excited to see a new area!

Forza Horizon

Date played: October 7th
Platform: Xbox 360
Session fun rating: 6/10

The hotel I'm staying in has an Xbox 360 in the lobby with the first Forza Horizon game. I was waiting for some colleagues to come down so we could go to dinner, so I played an event as I waited. I was driving a little Volkswagen Corrado and raced against some hot air balloons! I won the event easily.

It's kind of crazy how bad the game looks graphically compared to Horizon 2 and Motorsport 6 on Xbox One. I think also the 360 wasn't set to the right screen resolution, so that doesn't help. Thankfully, it still runs very well and handles perfectly, it just looks a lot muddier than the newer games.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Date played: October 6th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 8/10

I continued playing through the first chapter in feudal Japan. The team is tryingto get Rioichi back into his sushi restaurant, but there are a few obstacles still in the way, including El Efe, the tiger gangster. I got to play as Murray and Bentley a few times. As Murray, I had to go get some fish for Rioichi. The mission uses Murray's muscle a lot, fighting some enemies and carrying large objects. Then Bentley gathered some intel with a little RC car. I drove the car around, disguising it into a chicken when guards were near.

Then, as Rioichi, I infiltrated a Geisha house to steal a costume that Murray would use to impersonate a rhino Geisha. Yep, it's a silly as it sounds. The game is actually pretty funny overall, with good comedic timing, decent voice acting and good writing. I played a few more hacking mini-games, one was a side-scrolling shooter. The other had me use the Vita's tilt function to navigate a maze.

Murray is a sexy bitch!

Finally, once Rioichi deactivated the security systems protecting the Geisha costume, I played a hilarious rhythm based mini-game as Murray. He wore the Geisha costume and made a sexy dance for the guards. It was silly, it was flashy and it was fun! Also, this seems to be a pretty long game, so that's cool.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

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

Sitting alone in my hotel room, I had nothing better to do than to fire up my Playstation Vita. I played a few missions in Feudal Japan as Sly. The area is pretty huge, with tons of secrets all over the place. Some of them, I simply wasn't able to get to, I'm thinking that I may need to use different characters or abilities to get there. I took 5 pictures as recon, then stole some samurai armor to fool the guards.

Rioichi

There's a tiger dude with a cigar that is another time traveler, He is a military mastermind of some sort. I went inside a keep and stealthily infiltrated the place to save Sly's ancestor, Rioichi. After saving him, I got to play a mission as him, where he went inside his restaurant and dispatch all the enemy guards posted there. Rioichi plays a lot like Sly, but he has a few different attacks and a very cool move that lets him jump between different points very quickly. I like this game a lot so far!

Forza Motorsport 6

Date played: October 4th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

The 1956 Jaguar D-Type is very fast for it's age, but it's also pretty tricky to drive. I used it through a 6 race series in circuits that require very high speeds, like Indianapolis, Daytona, Spa and Le Mans. For the first time, I really had to play with gear ratios to succeed. In tracks like Daytona and Indianapolis, top speed was by far the most important thing as these tracks are basically just big ovals.

My sexy Jaguar D-Type roars around the corners of Spa, one of the best tracks in the game

On other tracks, I had to prioritize acceleration since there were enough sharp corners that it made a big difference. The D-Type is twitchy and loses traction pretty easily, but it's powerful enough that it could catch up on the straights. The most entertaining race was on Le Mans, at night. That track is downright terrifying in the dark of the night. It's insanely long straights are very fun and look great in the darkness... I'm up to the third set of races in the fourth of five volumes in the career, I can't wait to pick my next car!

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

Date played: October 4th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 8/10

I'm going on a week long work trip to Toronto and decided to bring my Vita. I looked at my library, deleted a bunch of games I didn't really want to play anymore and installed Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, the 4th game in the classic series. It had been free on PS+ a while back, but at 3.3 GB, I never installed it due to lack of space.

Sly Cooper is old school fun

I played the intro level, where Sly, the raccoon thief, Bentley, the smart turtle in a wheelchair, and Murray, the big strong hippo, steal a sword from a museum. It's all very stupid, but basically, that sword lets them travel in time back to the Japanese Feudal era and fix the present. I got to play as each character, and I think it was the same part as the demo I played a few years ago. I liked it a lot more than I did back then though.

There's some nice simple stealth action, some wheelchair bombing in the sewers, a dual stick shooting mini-game and some good old brawlin'. We stole the sword and traveled in time to save one of Sly's ancestors. I think I'll have fun with this one in my hotel room...

Murasaki Baby

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

I started and finished Murasaki Baby!

This is a game that I got for free with PS+ a while back, but I rarely play handhelds during the summer. Now that my daughter's dance class is back though, My Vita and 3DS are sure to get more use. Plus, the new class is 1 hour instead of 45 minutes!

I knew this was a short game, but I didn't expect it to be around 2 hours. Murasaki Baby is a game about a creepy little girl with a heart shaped balloon who must reunite with her mother. Right off the bat, the game gives a great first impression, as it has a very cool, very unique art style. This is basically a 2D puzzle game that uses a lot of the Vita's features, making it something that couldn't be easily duplicated on a home console.

Baby is scared of this pyromaniac kid with a tentacle mask

The player doesn't control Baby directly, instead, she must be held by her hand and dragged around by touching the screen. If her balloon pops or floats away, it's game over. There are 4 chapters to the game, each of which has a child that Baby must save to progress. The big twist in the game is that the backgrounds can be changed by dragging on the rear touch pad, on the back of the Vita. Each background has unique properties. When a particular background is in place, touching the rear touch activates an ability.

Backgrounds can make rain, wind, snow, earthquakes, electricity, turn on televisions, make Baby small, pump air into the deflating balloon and finally, in a stroke of puzzle genius, turn gravity upside down. There were many clever puzzles that required that I combine these abilities. It's even cooler when I had to turn the Vita upside down to change gravity or place my fingers in weird positions on the screen to complete multiple actions at once.

Murasaki Baby is one weird little puzzle game. It's fun, it's short, it's pretty and it's very unique. I'm glad I played it.

Rocket League

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

Last night, I hung out at one of my brothers' house with some friends. After many rounds of Taboo, the awesome word game, the ladies went to bed and the guys grabbed the controllers. There was 4 of us playing, so we ended up doing a lot of 2 vs 2. As usual, it was an absolute blast! I got my Rocket League legs back and was a real dangerous player on the field. In one match, I scored 6 goals! Of course, I wasn't always that good, in many matches, I was held at bay when the other team had good defense and goaltending.

Towards the end of the night, we played a 4 vs 4 online match. Those matches are always weird, since there's so many people on the field, but we had a good time and we won easily. A lot of our success comes from the fact that we are in the same room, so it's a lot easier to communicate. Later, as people dropped off, I played a bit of 3 vs 3 online and finally a couple of 2 vs 2 matches. Rocket League is an amazing party game!

Forza Motorsport 6

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

Well, I am pretty proud of myself, I completed my first endurance race!

There are 9 of them in the game, so I tried out one of the shorter ones, 100 miles, or 40 laps, around Road Atlanta. I picked a very fast touring Lamborghini Gallardo, got myself a beer, went to the bathroom and sat down for one of the longest races I've completed in years. Thankfully, the track isn't too demanding, and the car was easy to handle. The big thing about Endurance races, aside from the insane length of the race, is that I have to monitor fuel consumption and refuel at the pit stop. It took me about an hour to complete and win the race, including one pit stop at lap 21. I scored a ton of money and XP too.

This is what a Gallardo looks like after 99 miles of racing

I then played a couple of races online with the Fiat 500, but I think that car just doesn't have what it takes to be competitive in the D class. I need to try a different car for this. I placed in the middle of the pack mostly. I drive well and I drive clean, but my car just didn't have enough power to reach other good drivers.

Super Mario Maker

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

I played a few levels at random through the 100-Mario mode. I completed the normal mode once again and honestly, most of the levels were junk. There were a few fun ones in there, including a weird math test thing. So the guy wrote a simple equation in the level by laying bricks in the shape of numbers. If I recall correctly, it was 8+1-4. Deeper in the level, there were three doors, each with a number above it. Of course, the right door was number 5, as that was the answer to the equation! The other two doors led to death. That was the best level in the normal mode yet.

It's too bad that so many people rely on boring gimmicks or just slap a ridiculous amount of enemies in the level to make it interesting. There are very few players that design levels with real platforming, or interesting mechanics.

This was an awful level. Absolute garbage.

I tried out the Expert mode after that, hoping to see some better courses. For the most part, it was a bit better, but there were still a lot of gimmicks and shitty levels. One of the worst levels I've played forced the player to get a mushroom, then jump on a spike. I had to use Mario's short invincibility to get through. The problem with this level is that at the end, the guy forced the player to use a star to run on a series of spikes and reach the flag pole. The motherfucker put a bunch of invisible blocks above the spikes. It took me over 10 tries to just figure out where he put the fucking blocks.

Finally, I got to play a real challenging level, but it felt like a real Mario level. It had some challenging jumps, many of which required creative use of P-blocks and precise jumping. There was even a really cool section where I had to jump into a circle of ghosts onto a single falling donut block. It was tough, but it was also very rewarding to clear the level. Turns out, I was the first of 70 players to clear that thing!