NHL 13

Date played: March 23rd
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played a few games of NHL 13 on the same team as my buddy. The first was an AHL game where the other dude picked the Hamilton Bulldogs and we went with the Binghamton Senators. We lost but it was a really close game. The second game was a bit more of a heartbreaker since we played so well, yet couldn't even manage to score a goal. We played as the Blackhawks against the Red Wings.

Max Payne 3

Date played: March 20th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 10/10

I finished Max Payne 3.

To quote Max, "I've killed more cops than cholesterol". This was definitely one of my favorite third person shooters in recent memory, mostly due to the awesome story and strong characters. Chapter 13 was set in the police station where Max basically shot every living soul he saw, good, bad and everything in between. There was a nice fight at the end of the chapter that had me shoot out the ceiling so that it fell on the bad guy and stunned him so I could get him out of cover.

Chapter 14 was one of the most violent sequences I've ever played. I probably shot down 100 guys in that level alone. It turns out that the last of the brothers was the one behind the whole scheme. Of course, with Max after him, he makes a run for the airport to leave the country but he's so powerful, that he shut down the entire place and filled it with an army of armored men. After numerous fire fights, I took on the leader of the army. I had to shoot dozens of guys without dying in an area with almost no cover. I only succeeded by using all my slow motion juice and shoot dodging all over the place.

Get some rest Max, you deserve it.

The very last sequence was an epic chase with a grenade launcher. I shot down cars, helicopters and an armored truck on the runway. To finish it off, I blew up the last brother's jet plane. He lived, only to be imprisoned and killed by inmates.

Max sets off into the sunset, having once again lost all his loved ones. Lonely, depressed, deceived and wounded, Max is still one bad ass motherfucker, that's for sure.

Lego City Undercover

Just one more thing...

Date played: March 19th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

Finally, a new game on Wii U! I bought Lego City Undercover because my family loves playing with Legos and our favorite toy series is the City sets. Firemen, policemen, trucks, cars and little houses are tons of fun to build.

Lego City Undercover is a sort of GTA for kids in a lot of ways. You play as Chase, a cop who returns to the city after some sort of hiatus and gets back to work. A crime spree has taken over the city, led by Rex Fury. It's all really well written, well acted and surprisingly funny. In fact, while my three year old enjoys the funny animations and colorful characters, my girlfriend and I enjoy all the little references sprinkled throughout. Our favorite so far is easily a short cameo by Lieutenant Columbo!

I played through the first chapter which introduces the mechanics and world. It starts with a clown bank  heist, similar to the first scene in The Dark Knight. The game is really a lot like GTA; car chases, on foot chases and lots of cool stuff to find in the world. So far, it's been quite simple, but a few things stand out. The first is the cool use of the Gamepad. It acts as a sort of phone in the game as well as a detective vision visor. I had to stand up a few times to find things around me, it works well and is a nice distraction. 

Max Payne 3

Date played: March 17th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played through chapters 10, 11 and 12. The story is unfolding quickly now and I can feel the ending approaching. Chapter 10 was all about Max and Giovanna escaping from the tons of enemies surrounding them. It was set in a bus depot so of course, after dozens of dudes shot, a couple of buses dropped on bad guys and even a cool chain hanging sequence, it ended with an epic on rails chase scene with Giovanna driving a bus, Sandra Bullock style, and Max shooting the enemies.

Speed!

After the escape, Max met the cop again planted the seed of doubt concerning Raul's and Max's relationship. Cue flashback to a Panama canal series of events that turned into, you guessed it, another blood bath. Chapter 11 has Max and Raul are protecting Marcello on a huge luxury yacht, full of sexy ladies, alcohol and blow. Payne passes out drunk in his cabin and wakes up to gunshots, pirates and blood. I shot my way out of the boat and after a cool zip line segment, Max managed to escape.

Max then headed to a dilapidated hotel where the prisoners were being taken for Chapter 12. This is where the story went crazy. It turns out that they were killing people, taking their organs (eyes, hearts, livers, etc). I shot up the place, placed C4 in key locations and blew the shit out of it. It was awesome. Raul saved my ass at the end and rode off in the sunset with Giovanna. Max decides to go after the bad guys by turning himself in

Fire Emblem Awakening

Cynthia is a dumb bitch

Date played: March 17th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I started with two random battles with Risen to get some exp and built some supports, in particular, I wanted to get Lon'Qu and Cherche married. I then played a paralogue that was pretty fucking hard... I was being attacked on all sides by a group who's leader claimed to be Chrom. Obviously, Chrom would have none of that so we took them down. I had to restart once since I was badly positioned and lost a few units. The second time around, I was a lot more defensive and managed to survive. The big surprise is that one of the fake Chrom's subordinates turned out to be Cynthia. She is Chrom's and Sumia's second child. She has a habit of falling on her face like Sumia too...

Then I played a story mission, Chapter 14 I think. My team is pretty strong at this point so this fight wasn't very hard but it was really entertaining. We basically boarded three enemy ships while defending our own. There were lots of armored foes as well as quite a few flyers which made the fight a bit tricky but strong defense and good healing made it easy.

Trine 2

Date played: March 17th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10

I bought this game during the Christmas sale on Steam because I really liked the first game. I also played the demo on PS3 about a year ago and liked it. Anyway, I played the first four levels of the game. Honestly, this is just like the first game but prettier and more polished.

Trine 2 is fucking gorgeous

The graphics are truly stunning and very colorful which makes everything a little bit more enjoyable. This game is really just about it's puzzles and occasional combat. I pulled levers, built boxes, used teeter-totters, froze goblins with arrows, burned enemies with a fiery sword, fed a giant slug and frog, swam though caverns, swung from trees and even battled a giant snake and ogre. I levelled up my three characters a bit too. 

Max Payne 3

Date played: March 15th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through chapters 7. 8 and 9. This game is really keeping my interest with it's gritty crime story. Also, Max Payne is actually a really good character compared to anything else in gaming. I think one of the reasons it works so well is the narration. Like any good noire story, Max narrates throughout, including during gameplay. It really adds a lot to his character.

Chapter 7 was all about Max investigating the slums to find the three kidnapped people, Fabiana, Giovanna and Marcello. It all started with a conversation with a cop in a seedy strip club/brothel. Soon enough, local gangsters showed up and I fought my way through the entire neighborhood, eventually reaching the gang's territory. After a dozen fire fights, I managed to find the three targets... but Fabiana was shot in the head right in front of Max.

Chapter 8 picks up from there as another New York flashback. It tells the story of when Max and Passos made a visit to Max's family's grave before heading to South America. Of course, the guys that were after us before found us and we shot our way out of the graveyard.

One last goodbye

Chapter 9 picks up right after Fabiana was shot and the bad guys left me with one dude. Big mistake. I obviously shot him and left. However, when I left, the city looked like a fucking war zone. Helicopters all over and paramilitaries shooting innocents left and right. After shooting armored men for a while, Max found Marcello and Giovanna...but again, he found death as well. Marcello was put inside three tires then put on fire. I managed to save Giovanna and escape though.

Max Payne 3

Date played: March 14th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through chapters 4, 5 and 6. Chapter 4 is set in the past, when Max was still in New York. Of course, he's in a shitty bar, getting hammered when he gets in trouble with some local gang bangers. Predictably, a shootout ensues where Max and Raul have to murder their way out of the bar. Back at Max's dirty house, the gang banger's father shows up with a bunch of guns for hire to kill Max. I then had to shoot my way through the building through the roof. In the end, Max shot a bunch of dudes and decided that he would got to South America with Raul to get away from all that shit.

Chapter 5 was set in a crummy South American marina of sorts where Max and his buddy have discovered that Fabiana was held. We shot our way through dozens of guys until we got to the docks where we shot more dudes. Then we shot some more. It all ended in a huge boat chase where Max was wielding some sort of heavy machine gun, blowing up boats and Fabiana getting away.

Chapter 6 was a pivotal point in the story. Max is hanging out at his bosses office when, as usual, bad guys show up and a series of slow motion shootouts follows. I was tasked with escorting an IT employee to the server room to reactivate security in the office. Eventually, we got it back online but the boss was still killed. One of the dying guards nearby told Max they were after him and not the boss.

Max Payne sober? I can't believe it.

That's where Max finally shaves his head, as seen in all the promotional images. He wants to hide, but he also seems to be trying to give up drinking! He is now heading to the slums of Sao Paulo to find Fabiana.

Max Payne 3

Date played: March 12th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

My buddy lent me his Max Payne 3 disc a while back so I decided to give it a try. I have only played a little bit of Max Payne 1 and liked it at the time, however, third person shooters have changed quite a bit since. The reviews for the game were lukewarm so I didn't really plan on buying it, but since it was free, meh.

Max is one seriously depressed man

I've played through the first three chapters of the game and while the gameplay is predictable and not terribly exciting, the story and presentation are really awesome. At it's core, this is a simple, cover based third person shooter. Of course, the hook for this series has always been the famous bullet time feature where Max dives in the air in slow motion and kills enemies as he falls to the ground. Honestly, this feels like almost any other third person shooter out there.

What kept my attention was the cool story, the gritty atmosphere, the characters and the cool presentation of the cut scenes. The game is set in Brazil and starts with Max doing some bodyguard work at a rich person party, overlooking the slums of the city. Soon enough, bad guys show up and try to kidnap some important people so I shot the shit out of them. The next chapter was similar except this time there were two girls but I managed to save only one of them. This included a fun helicopter rail shooting sequence.

The third chapter was a more hardcore with tons of guys being shot down. I had to evade snipers as well as snipe enemies to protect my partner dude. This seems like a cool game so far, even if the gameplay is a bit generic.

Dirt Showdown

Date played: March 11th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10

I finished Dirt Showdown. The tour was a simple, but fun career structure. The last few events were nothing out of the ordinary but were still a ton of fun. The only thing that told me the game was over is a bit of a different victory screen as you can see in this post. The credits rolled and I was back to the title screen. Honestly, I found this to be a fun game but I really wish it had more real racing events, or even a simple rally mode. Thankfully, Grid 2 is coming real soon, I'm just hoping that it has split screen on PC....

VICTORY!

Dirt Showdown

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

I played through a good chunk of the Legend leg of the Dirt Tour. Things are definitely getting more difficult as I am nearing the end of the game. The biggest difference is the length of the events, but the opponents are also more competitive and aggressive. This doesn't affect events with no opponents though so gymkhana events of all kinds are not really more difficult than usual.

A sea of wrecks became a common occurrence in 8 Ball

8 Ball is the event that has transformed the most from the higher number of laps. It takes the basic racing event that it is and turns it into an endurance gauntlet. Since there are so many dangerous intersections, cars get damaged hardcore over the course of 8 laps or so. I've even had an event that ended with only two cars still running at the end, everyone else was wrecked. This makes the event a lot more enjoyable and adds some risk to the whole thing. I have four or five events left before finishing the game.

Playstation All Stars Battle Royale

Bottom option please Bob

Date played: March 9th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 3/10

I was at a small party with some friends and one of them had brought Playstation All Stars, the type of game that should be ideal for that kind of setting. We had four rotating players. I only played two matches and honestly, I didn't really like the game much.

The game plays a lot like Smash Brothers but it's a bit harder to clearly see what is happening and there are no "smashes". As far as I could tell, the goal of the game is hit other players as much as possible to build up a super meter and unleash a powerful move that may kill. This seems to be the only way to get kills.

I started with Nariko, the sexy heroine from Heavenly Sword. She had a lot of sword attacks and a few projectile attacks. I managed to get a special off but I couldn't quite see what was going on so I sort of missed it. I then played with Sackboy from Little Big Planet but I found him a lot more difficult to use. In the end, this was a huge mess of drunken button smashing that was sort of fun but none of us really understood what really happened.

Dirt Showdown

Dirt Showdown is always pretty

Date played: March 9th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played through the entire third quarter of the Dirt Tour. I'm really in the mood for some good racing but I can't think of anything I haven't played yet so I settle for Dirt Showdown, which is only about 30% racing. Events such as Knockout, Gymkhana and even the color-coded obstacle courses contain zero racing.

I really love the main Codemasters racing games and have been playing them since the early days of Colin McRae Racing so I am really hyped for Grid 2, coming in May. I've been thinking of getting Need for Speed Shift 2 in the meantime but for now, driving cars in weird events is the best I can do. After 13 events in the third quarter of the game, I also played the first two events of the last section.

Tropico 4

Date played: March 8th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10

Shitty SimCity servers turn into hours of fun in Tropico 4! Nuff' said.

Tourism doesn't require an internet connection in Tropico 4

Soul Calibur

Date played: March 7th
Platform: Dreamcast
Session fun rating: 10/10

Playing Soul Calibur (on a Dreamcast no less) with my almost three year old daughter is the most fun I've had all week. She picks characters based on luck and lack of dexterity, she gets combos by accidentally dropping the controller and she blocks all the time due to holding the controller on her lap and pressing the left trigger 100% of the time. Fatherhood rocks.

Simcity

Date played: March 6th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 7/10

Ok, I'm getting a better handle on things, though I suspect some of my problems have been caused by the incredible server issues. I still haven't done the tutorial, but it's because I was unable to do anything when I launched it. No buttons were clickable, no advisors were talking to me, hell, I didn't even see any residents moving. Total fucking ghost town.

I abandoned my first city as I soon realized I was better off with a fresh start. My second city is boring as fuck but it ran pretty smoothly. I assigned the west side of the land to residences, the center area for shopping and the east side to my dump, sewage and industries. And I put dirt roads just to piss off the workers.

I had a few small fires that were contained by my overcompensating crew of 4 fire trucks. City hall is big and I have a mayor's house now but outside of that, I just have a few parks. No real industries, no real interesting things. But it's functional.

Simcity

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

Ok, I admit, I started playing this game the wrong way. I really should have completed the tutorial before just going right in there. I was trying to join my friends but I couldn't figure out how and ended up creating a game that I didn't understand.

I played only for a short period and followed the advisor advice. I ended up with a small town with many residences, a water supply, sewage problems, wind electricity, a small fire department and a large oil rig. I picked a mountainous area in the hopes of creating an industrial city, full of oil, metals and pollution. So far so good but a tutorial would have helped me prevent the numerous fires I've had to deal with. Maybe it would also explain how to join my friends. Either way, I had a bad experience but I think I need to play this a bit differently. Next time should be better.

King of Fighters XIII

Mai

Date played: March 5th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 7/10

This is another game I received for free from PSN Plus. I have never played a game in this 2D fighting series but my brother was at my house so I figured it would be a good time to try it. We only played four or five rounds but it was pretty cool. We obviously didn't really take the time to learn how to play but we still had some close fights using just regular punches and kicks.

The first thing that stands out about this game is how fucking awesome it looks. The hand drawn 2D art is phenomenal and is animated better than you'd expect. I picked the sexy Mai simply because of her amazing boob animation on the character select screen. We tried a few different characters and figured out a few simple moves. Since we didn't know what the hell was going on, it was all quite fun. I'm not sure I need to learn a new fighting game system but I still enjoyed the fast combat of KOF 13.

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

Date played: March 5th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played a few matches of SSFIV with my youngest brother who was visiting. He is one of the few people I can play fighting games with and have a decent fight on my hands. I won easily with Dhalsim though he did get more hits in than I expected. He seemed to perform pretty well with Seth since he has good variety in his moves and hits hard enough. I played a bit with Ken, E. Honda and Sakura while my brother mostly used Seth and tried a couple of others. I managed to pull off Sakura's Hadoken ultra twice at the end of the round, it looked amazing.

Dirt Showdown

Date played: March 4th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 7/10

I am craving a good racing game right now it's crazy. Last year, I was playing Dirt 3 around this time and I am really fucking missing it. Dirt Showdown is fun in it's own right but it's not about the things I like most in racing games, it's about stunts and funky events. I've completed the latest NFS, I hate Gran Turismo, I don't have my Xbox for Forza so the next best thing was Dirt Showdown.

DOMINATION

I played three events, completing the second quarter of Dirt Tour events. I completed one 8 ball race, one demolition event and one domination event. I'm usually sticking to the same three or four cars depending on the event and it seems to work out so far. Next time I play, I will be starting the second half of the tour.

Fire Emblem: Awakening

Kjelle is Sully's and Kellam's child

Date played: March 3rd
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through a couple of paralogue chapters. In the first one I played, I met Sully's and Kellam's child who traveled through time with Lucina's crew but was lost. Kjelle is a large armored unit who seems cool but I have that spot filled already. The mission had Kjelle attempting to take out some bandit dude. She is surrounded though and reinforcements were coming in from various forts at every turn. That meant our crew had to get to her before being overwhelmed with units.

The second paralogue I played is where I met my unit's and Lissa's child, Owain. He is a Myrmidon (swordsman) who seems really dumb. His mission had us rescue some villagers from bandits. The enemy units were a bit tougher here though as I'm starting to see some advanced classes now. There were a few cases where I had to send in my top of the line units simply because any weaker unit would have been killed instantly, even when paired. I'm also working on marrying Cherche the Wyrm Rider with Lon'qu, the swordsman.

Capsized

The art and setting are the only things I liked about Capsized

Date played: March 3rd
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 4/10

Well, I think I gave this game a fair shake but I just didn't enjoy it much. This is a 2D, action platformer with some light physics puzzles. The hero is some sort of astronaut that crash lands on a hostile planet. He has a few guns that can be fired using the second analog stick. He also has a grapple beam and a sort of energy push to enhance his jumps. He can also wall jump.

The setting is nice, the art is pretty and the music is cool. The problem is that it controls like ass, at least it did with an Xbox controller. I'm not sure if this was meant to be played with a mouse and keyboard but either way, it probably wouldn't control all that well. The character is stiff, the aiming is loose and the guy gets stuck on geometry way more than he should. The enemies are also somewhat hard to see due to the art. I played through the first four levels but I'm not really interested in playing more. At least it was only 2.50$...

Fire Emblem: Awakening

Date played: March 2nd
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played a few optional battles to get a few more people to level 20 and promote them or to build some relationships. Virion the Archer, now Sniper, is married to Panne, the fucked up rabbit woman. Vaike the Fighter, now Warrior, is married to Cordelia, a Pegasus Knight who is now a Dark Flier.

Lucina

After those nice upgrades, I felt I should move the story along so I played the next story chapter. There's a lot of Game of Thrones-y talk all over the place but the point is, I found out that Marth, unveiled as a woman earlier, turned out to be Lucina, Chrom and Sumia's child. How is that possible? Fucking time travel apparently. It's all quite unclear but there were some amusing conversations at least. The battle had us surrounded by Risen and we had to take out the leader before being overwhelmed by reinforcements. Since I am a little bit over level at this point, it wasn't very difficult. Lucina (and a random mage named Henry) joined us in battle. I am now up to Chapter 13 I think. 

Fire Emblem: Awakening

Chrom and Sumia knocked boots

Date played: February 27th, 28th and March 1st
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played a shit ton of Fire Emblem. I'm definitely focused more on the game part than the story part. Lots of stuff happened but all I can seem to remember are the close battles, the leveling up and the crazy amounts of enemies I've been dispatching.

I played through chapters 9 and 10 as well as one paralogue but I also took on some random battles with Risen on the world map. I've killed the king of Plegia by assaulting his fortress and ended the war with their nation. Then, the game skips ahead 2 years, where Ylisse is attacked by another large army, the Valm.

In the meantime, I managed to have two couples formed and have two units promoted to advanced classes. Chrom and Sumia are married and have a child named Lucina. Sully and Kellam are also married and I think they are the cutest couple ever. Lissa has been promoted to a sage, a sort of healer and mage combo. Kellam is a General and Sully is a Paladin. I also picked up two new recruits, a Wyvern Rider who rides dragons and a Dancer who gives extra turns to units.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

I should play the campaign...

Date played: February 27th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I was all set to continue one of my single player games today but saw one of my friends online and asked her if she wanted to play Black Ops 2. We played some Team Deathmatch and Domination. I did pretty well but nothing crazy. I was positive in every game at least. I'm not sure why but I took the time to look at the environments of the maps a bit more than usual and I really like the look of this game, it made me want to play the single player campaign.

FTL

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

I finally played FTL and loved it so much, I made three runs in a row. This is a weird game in every sense of the word. I guess it's a spaceship simulator... Our ship is being chased through the galaxy by a rebel fleet of some sort and we must reach the last sector to take out the mothership.

The ship has many rooms, each with their own functions. For example, the shield room powers the ship's shields while the med bay heals any crew members in it. Each area has a probability that you will be forced to dogfight an enemy ship. Combat is governed by the weapons on board, cool down timers, ammo, power consumption, the weapon room and it's crew as well as shields. All that is housed in a real-time/turn-based hybrid system that works really well and is completely addicting.

My first run I was learning the systems but still managed to reach the end boss sector on Easy. Unfortunately, I was so low on money, I couldn't afford fuel anymore and my crew drifted through space until the end of time. It was quite dramatic.

Quick, put out that fire in the oxygen room!

I somehow unlocked another model of ship for my second run, this one more focused on drones instead of guns. I liked this ship better honestly. I was able to disable the enemy ship's shields with an ion cannon then damaged it slowly with my drones. I ran into damage output problems though, I should have bought some better guns earlier. I eventually lost because I wasn't able to do enough damage and got overwhelmed. My ship survived but my crew was eaten alive by mantis people.

My last run was horrible. I went back to the first ship, thinking I would have a better handle on things the second time around only to lose horribly due to funding problems. I ran out of money to buy ammo and was out of options. Eventually, my ship was destroyed before my warp drive was able to boot up.

I found this game to be very addictive and fun, yet complex. It's also really fucking hard, even on easy. I'm not sure I will play it again though, I feel like I've seen the gist of what the game has to offer, though I would like to see other ships.

GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

Date played: February 23rd
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10

I finished The Ballad of Gay Tony. I think it's the best of the three GTA IV stories. I played through many missions, some for Bulgarin, a Russian mobster who got me to shoot cops until he revealed that the diamonds belonged to him in the first place.

There was a last, completely epic and crazy mission for Yussuf, the arabic bling obsessed gansgter. He had me steal a fucking train... I rode the train on it's roof until I reached the front. The catch is that I was being attacked by half a dozen helicopters! I shot them down in three to five shots with the overpowered explosive shotgun until Yusuf air lifted the damn thing with a specialized helicopter... This was one of the best missions in the game.

Luis chases a jet....in style!

I did a few missions for Tony too but that was regular GTA fare, shooting dudes and such. There was another mission that had me chase a jet as it was lifting off to jump in and shoot everyone inside... then jumping off the damn plane and parachuting down to safety. In the end, we lost the diamonds to a pick pocket hobo and left town.  Ballad of Gay Tony was pretty awesome and now I'm ready for GTA V!

Fire Emblem: Awakening

Date played: February 23rd
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through Chapter 9 and Paralogue 4 (I think). I think I've found my tactical groove, I've come to use certain combinations more than others. For example, I tend to pair Vaike, a fighter, with Cordelia, a pegasus knight. Cordelia can help him travel far and can fight against sword users while Vaike does the tanking duties and attacks with his axes. I've been using the two shapeshifters together a lot, the melee rat with the ranged dragon. Stuff like that.

Emmeryn has it rough in Chapter 9

Chapter 9 was pretty huge in terms of story but I won't bother with the details of it here. The fight itself was interesting. It was a desert battle involving a lot of units. I picked up two new team members along the way. One is a very feminine man who heals and fights at the same time, the other is a dark mage. I don't think I'll end up using either of them. Our team was stuck in a pincer between four wyverns and tons of regular units as well as one heavily armored boss. As usual, I took my time and felled the enemy relatively easily.

The side mission was more like just a big fucking battle in the middle of a field. I had 12 units on the field though so it required some patience and planning. I picked up a new team member, another chest opening person. 

Couch potato edition

Date played: February 22nd
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 9/10

My buddy came over to visit and hang out. We spent most of our time playing some 2 players games on the couch. We started with three matches of NBA Jam. While I did end up winning all the games, they were all really close. I also saw the "On Fire" animations for the first time. King James was on fire more than once which allowed him to make some gigantic dunks and boost forever. It may sound dumb, but it feels really good!

We then played some Super Street Fighter IV. My friend isn't a Street Fighter veteran or anything so he had a hard time at first but by the time we were done, he was launching shoryukens, hadokens and even a couple of Ultra combos with Abel and Seth.

We ended the night with an online NHL 13 match playing as the Habs against the Lightning. We lost 1-0 but I feel like we were completely robbed by their goalie. Me and my buddy have pretty good chemistry on the virtual ice. 

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

Date played: February 22nd
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 6/10

I didn't really know what to play. I didn't want to go into something too big, I just wanted to play quickly so Black Ops 2 seemed like a good choice. I was rusty for sure but after one match, I was back in business. I played pretty well in a few Domination matches but struggled in Team Deathmatch. I also reached the maximum level in multiplayer and am making my way to prestige. 

Gran Turismo 5

Date played: February 20th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 4/10

Fuck, I really need a good racing game. While GT5 is really good once on the track, all the awful menu navigation is fucking killing me. I decided to play one of the early events that requires a French car to complete. I bought a nice little Peugeot 207 GTI and pimped it out.

Now here's the problem with this, all this took a solid 20 minutes due to the awful mess of a UI and menu system. Then I raced on Circuit de la Sarthe and won easily. The actual racing is the only really good part of this absurd game. I raced for 5 minutes and I had fun. However, in order to take the picture in this post, it took me another 15 minutes since every time I want to see my picture, it's a 3 minute load period. I completed the second event, won a shitty car and took out the disc.

I think I'm really desperate for some good racing action and have no where to go. I played through the newest Need for Speed. Dirt Showdown is less about racing and more about other modes and I really don't want to turn on my Xbox for Forza Horizon which I don't even own. That makes me very pumped to play Grid 2...

F-Zero

Date played: February 20th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

The original game still holds up and is definitely worth the 30 cents that Nintendo is asking for it. In fact, playing it on the Gamepad was one of the better experiences I've had with the console. It's colorful, it works well with the dpad and the screen is just about the right size for a game like this. I only played three races and used the green ship. I love the crazy graphics and fast driving, even if it's ultimately a very simple game.

Mega Man Maverick Hunter X

Date played: February 20th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 8/10

Playstation Plus delivers a good game again. This time, it's the PSP remake of Mega Man X. I have played the original when it was new on SNES and absolutely loved it, though my memory of it is sort of faded. I didn't really remember any details such as bosses, levels and weapons.

RIP Chill Penguin

I played through the short intro and met Zero. I also managed to play through the (recommended) first level, Chill Penguin's stage. The graphics and voice acting are the first obvious changes. I like the polygonal look, though honestly, I don't know if I prefer it. There's that special something about 16 bit pixel art that just doesn't translate to 3D. The voice acting is fucking awful though and the cut scenes, while cool, are completely useless for a game like this.

Chill Penguin's stage is not too hard. I made my way through and only had to restart once before reaching the boss. There were a few tricky jumps and tight battles but nothing out of the ordinary. Then I reached Chill Penguin himself. The fight is pretty cool (lol...) and he killed me the first time but as soon as I learned his pattern, he was very easy to kill. I don't think I even got hit on my second attempt. I got the ice shotgun and headed to Spark Mandrill's stage but got my ass beat by the lightning balls that clutter the level. Maybe I'll try another level next time.

Civilization V

Date played: February 17th and 18th
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 10/10

As usual, 15 minutes of Civ V turns into a multi hour epic. I played a game as the Aztecs, led by Montezuma. We took control of our west coast early. I soon had three cities spread out fairly thing. I Built them up a bit then expanded again until I had a full 7 city continent ready to go.

My early set up, right after I destroyed Catherine

My continental rivals were Isabella of Spain and Catherine of Russia. Catherine was feeling that I was expanding too much so she declared war. At that point, she only had her capital of Moscow and a six unit army. It was risky, but I managed to push her off with my trusty Jaguars. I then built a small army of  pikemen and horsemen and took her over completely.

Then came a long, prosperous time for my people. Sebology was created and spread. Wonders were built in Technotitlan and it's surroundings. Workers improved every single space of land. It came to a point where I was clearly in the lead, but had no clear objective in sight. I was close to a culture win, far from a science win. A conquest victory was within reach though, if I was willing to just go all out, which I did.

What followed was the creation of my biggest army yet. I started by taking over a nearby city state, then took over Isabella swiftly. Attacking the remaining players on the other continents was a bigger task. This was probably a 75+ turn battle. 1890-1937 is the approximate length for this takeover, and ultimately, my conquest win. I used units such as Marines, Infantry, Landships, Cruisers, Battleship, Mobile Artillery, Bomber and even a couple of Anti-Tanks. This would have played a lot differently if units had to be carried on ships instead of on their own...

Either way, I won, it was epic and lots of fun as usual.

Mario Kart 7

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

I played some Mario Kart 7 with my brother using the download play feature of the 3DS. We played about 6 races or so, both using Shy Guy to keep things fair. He really gave me a good run for my money considering it was his first time playing it. I won all of them but he was really close to me, more than I expected. He really enjoyed the flying parts as well as some of the more creative track design. It's pretty cool having two 3DS's in the same house!

Wipeout 2048

Feisar has my favorite speed ship so far

Date played: February 17th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through two events today, including a Zone event, those are always fun. The other event was a battle, but I had to use a speed ship while the others were using fighter ships. I actually lost all my health twice in the same event but still managed to get enough points for a pass. That's all I had time to play.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Date played: February 17th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 7/10

I made my way to the insides of the Fairy matriarch and fought off some enemies to help the baby fairies. Soon enough, I was in an epic boss fight against a large jelly fish. I had a really hard time at first and died on my first attempt. I soon figured out that I had to defend a bit more using my new "all out defend" ability. It helped spawn some golden glibs which helped deal some heavy damage.

This was a pretty tough boss

After a while, the jelly fish spawned a ton of baby jelly fish which I killed with a well timed golden glib Dumbelemur attack. I then kept damaging, healing and blocking until he went down. I got a bunch of new spells from the mother of fairies and made my way back to the Sea Cow. It was repaired so I went to complete a side mission in Golden Grove. I killed three powerful boars then saved a fairy from a last, ultra strong fire breathing boar. 

Fire Emblem: Awakening

The Taguel are cool rat-rabbit people

Date played: February 16th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through to chapter 9 and a few side missions, as well as some Streetpass battles. One story mission had us fight to protect the Queen. Also, Marth is a woman. I played kind of a lot so I forget the details. I've been focusing more and more on the pure mechanics than the story and characters. I turned off all animations and now play entirely in grid view. It makes things go faster and still communicates all the info I need.

My team seems to be stabilizing, though I'm not sure how long that will last. I picked up new units, two of which are shape shifters. One can transform into a giant rat and the other into a ranged dragon. I also have a new Pegasus Knight who performs better than the first. I also changed my player character's class to be a sort of dark mage. The Streetpass fights are cool since the enemy leaders can be recruited if the battle is won. I'm in the thick of it now and I just love the gameplay here. 

Dead Space 3

Date played: February 14th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through Chapter 4 which was actually pretty short in itself. All I did was explore a bit of outer space around the debris of the ships to find a little shuttle that is still operational. I have to say, the space sequences are just fucking amazing. It tickles my sci-fi itch like no other game does.

*drool*

Most of my time was spent playing through my first side mission. These are new to the series and I think it's a good idea. As soon as I was in outer space, I picked up a radio signal coming from one of the nearby ships floating in the debris. Ellie suggested we investigate so I went in there. I restored power, cutting my way though tons of necromoprhs. After restoring power, shit got a little crazy as parts of the floor were destabilized and became hazards I had to avoid. I gathered some info on Tau Volantis, the nearby planet and got some good equipment out of the trek. I modified my weapons with the new parts so that my plasma cutter doesn't rotate anymore but has a submachine gun attached so that I can keep firing if I run out of ammo and don't have time to reload. It works well so far. I reached my next destination and will start Chapter 5 soon.

Fire Emblem: Awakening

Strategy porn

Date played: February 13th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 7/10

I did it again, I underestimated an enemy and failed. I played a side mission that had me rush to go save a lady warrior and a village, while taking out some bandits roaming the area. The lady started in a corner of the map and I started at the other so the challenge was getting to her before she gets chopped up by the many enemies rushing her.

The first time I played the map, I moved way too slowly and she died just as I was getting close. The second time around, I grabbed my pegasus unit, loaded her up with a strong melee warrior and flew to her almost directly. It was risky since my unit was also very vulnerable, but I made it to her and fought off the enemies. Unfortunately, I also saved the village which gave me a great item. The remainder of my crew was left to attack the bandit chief in another part of the map. I was careless and my player character was killed by him...

Third time is the charm I guess! The third time, I was well prepared and fearless, yet careful. I sent my flying/warrior unit out to save the lady, which worked fine. This time though, I lost the village as bandits managed to reach it before I could. I kept going though and slowly picked at the boss and his minions until he died. I starting to get a good feel for the mechanics now and find good pairing opportunities more than before. I found that speed was a really important stat since it allows for two attacks in one turn if the circumstances are good. This game is deep and it feels like it's just getting started. 

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Shadar is a bitch.

Date played: February 12th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 10/10

I made my way to the other continent but we were intercepted by Shadar, the evil wizard man. We actually got to fight him for a bit. My Dumbelemur got a golden glib and hit him for a nice 290 damage, dumb luck that got me through the fight easily. Before being truly defeated, Shadar retreated and made our ship crash into a small island.

It turns out that this island houses the Fairyground, Drippy's home town. Before heading to town, I tried out a new ability, all out defense and all out attack. It's used at the push of a button so it seems really useful so far. This is the first time my team mates will be able to defend. About fucking time.

Next, I found out that Drippy's mountain-sized mother has some belly problems. Her babies won't come out as normal! She asked that we go clean it up (ewwwww!). To do that, it seems we need the assistance of two comedians who are broken arted. Drippy insists that this is different than broken-heartedness. I had to gather 10 art pieces from residents of the town by casting the correct spell to help them with their little problems. It was cute but it was really just text. I imagine the dungeon is next.

Fire Emblem: Awakening

Date played: February 11th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through one mission where we had to rescue Maribelle, a cute but bitchy lady. This was a very interesting map because it was set on a cliff side where only a few areas had foot soldier access and the enemy had a few flying units. I got control of both Maribelle, a mounted healer, and a new mage who were stuck in another section of the map and under heavy fire.

Lon'Qu is strong but uncomfortable around women

I think I played this pretty smart. I sent my flying unit to support the two for the first few turns while taking out enemies in the main area with the rest of the crew. I had to occupy the forts when I could since they seem to respawn enemies. Lissa, my main healer, picked up a nice staff that allows her to rescue a unit from a distance and bring it close to her. I moved her close enough to Maribelle and the mage. Those two were paired up and counted as one unit, so I used the staff to bring them in and moved my flying unit out of there. It was quite satisfying.

I then fought my way to the top of the cliff, taking over the forts as I went along. I used wind magic and bows to take out the roaming dragons and eventually made my way to the boss. 

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Date played: February 10th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I rode my Sea Cow until she was dripping wet! I spent some time completing side quests with my newly acquired ship. I kind of moved my team around a bit. Oliver still has Purrloiner, now evolved into a Catpurrse. Little Big Horn and Seed Sprite are still 2nd and 3rd spot. Esther has a new familiar, a water based seal-like thing called Splisher. She still has her trusty Drongo and Duncecap. Swaine is set up with a Monolith, an Impaler and my favorite, Dumbelemur.

I completed three bounty missions and one fetch quest. One of the bounties was a piece of cake but two of them were really tough. One was a large stone guy with very high defense. Thankfully, he didn't hit all that hard but it took forever to take him down. The other was a big sea monster which really pushed our team hard. Swaine almost died while I struggled to find good spells and familiars to use against it.

Rayman Origins

Date played: February 10th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 9/10

I finished Rayman Origins. Man, this game got real hard towards the end... I finished off the water based world and beat the giant water dragon Murray for the second time, who is actually a cute shrimp. This second visit to the world was easier than some of the other ones actually.

Rayman Origins, best 2D platformer on PS3.

The next and last world is where shit got real baby! The last world has a mechanical theme, filled with buzz saws, steam engines and other wacky yet deadly machinery. One of the levels stuck out in particular because it was so fucking well designed, yet so ridiculously hard. I had to just jump my way through a series of platforms really, but it's the way the game pushes you forward and the just perfect placement of the platforms that makes it such genius.

The last level had me fight mechanical versions of two of the previous bosses and culminated in an amazing chase sequence through falling debris. Again, the perfection of the timing required is what it fun. There's not much else to say but that I absolutely loved this game and can't wait for Rayman Legends which was unfortunately delayed to September. 

Dead Space 3

Date played: February 9th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 10/10

"MOTHERFUCKER!"

Shouts Isaac Clarke as he stomps a necromorph chomping at his ankles.

This is Dead Space 3. I am a HUGE fan of this series and am really happy to be playing the third game. It all started with the animated comics, then Dead Space 1, Dead Space Downfall, Dead Space Extraction, Dead Space Salvage, Dead Space Ignition, Dead Space Aftermath, Dead Space 2, Dead Space Martyr and now, Dead Space 3. There's still some stuff out there that I haven't read, I think at least one book and a couple of graphic novels but let's just say that I am really into this universe.

The game starts 200 years in the past on Tau, an ice planet where I led a young soldier to his brutal death. It's all a bit unclear but basically, he retrieved a data pad that had crucial information on it about a marker. The guy has an assault rifle, a first for the series, and takes down a few necromorphs aboard a crashed ship. After getting the pad, he rappels down a nearby cliff as the ship he was in comes crashing down around him. When he reaches the ground, he is met with his commanding officer who ruthlessly shoots him in the head, deletes the data on the pad and shoots himself in the mouth.

Enter Isaac Clarke. After all the shit he's been through, I'm surprised he hasn't committed suicide yet. Apparently, he is hiding on a lunar base somewhere, drinking his worries away. Soon enough, shit hits the fan. Two guys barge into Isaac's house and ask him to come help destroy some markers around the galaxy, it seems they were sent by Ellie, the girl from Dead Space 2.

It's quickly apparent that Unitology has become more than a church as they have now started military action, taking down most of Earth Gov's forces. Isaac has to shoot his way through the city and reach a shuttle to escape the Unitology army. This part felt like a cyber-punk third person shooter. I was fighting human enemies who were wielding regular ass guns. Thankfully, the game controls so well that fire fights felt natural and were fun to play. Eventually, I reached a train and used kinetic powers to prep it for departure. In a cool shootout sequence, Isaac finally gets off the lunar colony and joins the two dudes on the shuttle.

We warped to the area where Ellie was last seen but the ship got hit by debris and was mostly destroyed so we had to make our way to a nearby ship which was still sending out a distress signal after being disabled for 200 years. This was the first (of many I hope) zero gravity sequences and it felt awesome. We made our way to the derelict ship and rested a bit. Isaac went ahead and explored the ship to restore it's power.

Zero gravity gameplay is better than ever

As expected, the ship was taken over by necromorphs. I shot my way through using my trusty plasma cutter until I found a work bench. Weapon crafting seems like it will be an important part of Dead Space 3. I had a few weapons included in my pre-order which I quickly dismantled to get parts. The system seems cool. I made an upgraded plasma cutter and an assault rifle/line gun combination. I found Ellie and a few other survivors and restored power then stopped playing as I started chapter 4.

The game seems amazing so far. The graphics in particular are really stunning. If all games looked this good, I wouldn't want a new generation of hardware. It also sounds really good, as the first two games did. I'm really excited to see where this game goes and hope it keeps being as good as the first few chapters were.

Fire Emblem: Awakening

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

I played through my first side mission and one main mission. The side mission had us rescue a small village from bandits. There was a young boy there who joined the fight and eventually joined our team as well. The way this works is that the new guy had to level up at least once during the fight to join. I actually restarted twice in the beginning of the fight since I was being way too aggressive with him to get him EXP. I eventually just paired Frederick with him and his defense became high enough to survive and fight enough to level up.

Come at me bro!

The main mission was simpler and shorter. Basically, in order to gain support from the country in the north, I was asked to fight in a tournament and it turns out, the guy leading the other team was Marth himself! I played this one very defensively since it was an open map with no choke points. I just kind of huddled in a corner and picked off the enemies as they approached. It worked well and I was able to take down Marth easily by surrounding him at the end. I gained a new hero from the whole thing and the next mission set opened up.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Date played: February 8th
Platform: PS3
Session fun rating: 8/10

I found a boat, but it wasn't as easy as just asking. It turns out that to get a letter of passage, which the captain of the ship wanted, I had to ask the queen of Al Mamoon, a big cow of a woman. Cowlifa, as she is known, was broken hearted because she doesn't have enough restraint. It made her a glutton for cheese as it turns out. Once I found that out, I made her some cheese with a magic spell, using the fountains of milk in Al Mamoon and was granted an audience with her.

Cheese, your Moojesty

After a quick restraint transfer, our little team had a letter of passage and a picture of the sage we are trying to find on the other continent. I also got a new spell that lets Oliver communicate with animals. A few animal-related side quests later, we were back in Castaway Cove, ready for a trip when another problem slowed us down.

The thief from earlier pick-pocketed our letter and picture. When we found him and confronted him, he was kind of a fucking dick about it. It turns out, he was dealing with a nightmare of his own, which we fought and killed. The fight wasn't too hard but he almost killed Oliver a few times since he hit pretty hard. After the fight, the thief, named Swaine, said he was sorry and that he would join us in our fight against Shadar. Swaine has a familiar of his own and can open distant chests with a weird pistol device. 

Fire Emblem: Awakening

Date played: February 5th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 5/10

Well, chapter 3 handed me ass on a silver platter. The group reached the kingdom border and it seems like the border guards didn't believe we were official emissaries so a battle began. I have two new characters too, a large dude that is focused on defense and a little lady who rides a Pegasus. I've also learned how to "pair" units, which essentially boosts one units stats but makes the other unit unplayable.

Hard was too much for me, even Frederick, the super powerful knight, was killed. I decided that for me to enjoy the game, I had to restart on normal. The second time around, it was a lot faster since I skipped all the dialogue. It quickly became clear that this was going to be a lot easier and more manageable. There are fewer enemies and my units take less damage than before. It's still challenging but I can afford a mistake or two and it won't result in the death of a unit. After clearing chapter 3, I was given access to two new areas on the map and to shops.

Wipeout 2D

Date played: February 5th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 4/10

I was surprised to see that there was a new Wipeout game and that I wasn't aware of it! However, it turns out it's really more of a mini-game than anything and it's really not Wipeout at all. This is basically a simple top-down racing game with no weapons. All the teams are there as well as four tracks and features air brakes and speed pads. The weird thing is that there are no weapons at all, which seems weird. I played a race on three of the tracks and was kind of bored. It's too bad, this isn't a bad idea but it's sloppy execution. At least it was free...