Steam Deals 29th - 30th December

A new day, some new deals, here are my picks:

Mafia Collection
I played the first Mafia game a looooong time ago on the PS2, and I enjoyed it...I think. Mafia 2 is a pretty well made game though, and it's definitely worth the £4.99($7.72) that it's currently on Steam for. I will say that when I finished the game, which felt slightly short, at least in comparison to the vast storyline in GTA4, I didn't really feel like I had any reason to go back and play it again. However while I was in the middle of playing, the combat was very enjoyable and it felt like they captured the period just right with great visuals and well realised characters.

Total War Collection
I have some fantastic memories of the first Medieval: Total War and Rome:Total War, and I spent quite a bit of time with Empire but I think other game commitments meant that I didn't get quite as much time out of that as I feel it deserved. They've been making these games for a while now, and they've certainly got them right most of the time. I must say I'm tempted to buy Shogun 2 for £7.49, however I feel that again it wouldn't get my full attention...also I'm not the biggest fan of that style or time period. But that's just me, if you fancy a great quality strategy game, then you should pick up any one of the number of Total War games on sale today.

Left 4 Dead Collection
Man, these games are fun in multiplayer. Whether you're teaming up to get through the story missions or squaring off against each other in the fantastic humans vs zombies versus mode, you're going to have a good time playing these games with friends. You get 75% off today, so be quick if you want to murder many, many zombies...don't be the one to startle the witch though...

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow people.

Steam Deals - 28th - 29th December

Mostly, I've played all the games on Steam that I actually want to play, so for me, the holiday Steam Deals are more "oh God if I had waited 6 more months or so I could've got a load of money off that game" than "oh God that's a sweet deal!"

So, I've decided to put here the games in the daily deals that I'd advise you to play, and a little bit of why. New deals appear at 6pm GMT every day, so if you miss them, that's your own fault for not reading my new post THE SECOND IT GOES UP. <shameless>To stop that from happening, you should subscribe to my blog!</shameless>

Assassin's Creed Collection
You can pick up Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut for £2.49($3.85), Assassin's Creed 2 for £3.74($5.78), Brotherhood for £10.19($15.75) and Revelations for £22.49($34.77).

I'm gonna go ahead and say that you probably don't need to play the first Assassin's Creed, it was a pretty good game which set up one of the best series of recent years, but the following games improved on it to such an extent that it's now kind of irrelevent. Number 2 was a great game, but it's Brotherhood which has been the real stand out game of the series for me. Everyone expected it would just be the same as 2 in a new setting, given such a short turnaround period, but it blew all of those preconceptions out of the water. Revelations sadly did not live up to the huge expectations set out by Brotherhood, and I'd advise only playing that game if you'd rather play through the storyline rather than just look up the synopsis on Wikipedia.

Machinarium
I picked up this short, whimsical indie game last year when it was super cheap, and wasn't expecting much. But man, those three hours it took me to complete that game were some of the most enjoyable hours I had spent in front of my computer all year (with my trousers on).

It's a point and click adventure, you're a cute little robot and you have to save your girlfriend. It's simple, amazingly pretty and has some really intuitive gameplay mechanics that will make you unable to pull away from the game. And at the moment, it costs merely £1.86($2.88), you should absolutely play this game.

Dungeon Defenders
This is a little third person action rpg/ tower defense game which is pretty good fun to play with a few friends. You pick your class and set up towers to repel Goblin attackers, or if you prefer you can dump points into your combat tree and lay into the horde with one of the many different pieces of loot you acquire along the way. I'm not sure it's worth the full price of the game, but it's out today for £2.49($3.85), which I think is a more than fair price for a bit of fun.

Dead Space Collection
Dead Space is on there for £3.74($5.78), and Dead Space 2 is on there for £4.99($7.72). These are great prices for a couple of really good quality games. In fact, Dead Space 2 made it on to my Top Ten of the Year list, and a fiver for a game on that list is very reasonable indeed. For fans of horror and third person combat, these games are for you.

Matt Porter's Top Ten Games of the Year

Alright, so as promised, I'm sitting on a train writing my top ten games of the year list. It has actually been harder than I thought...about five or six games in I suddenly found that I had run out of ideas. Either the first half of the year or so was pretty slow for games, or I just don't remember what happened. Both are likely, but I fear the former is the truer.

Before I start, I'll quickly say that these are only games that I have played myself. Some honourable mentions go to games such as Gears of War 3 and Uncharted 3, and probably also Modern Warfare 3 to some extent, I'm sure the multiplayer is just as addictive as ever. You can knock CoD for not trying enough, but you can't deny that when all is said and done, they are very well made games. Anyways, here we go:

10. Dead Island
That trailer really left us expecting something great, although what the game turned out to be was unexpected to most people. Whether that's a good or a bad thing depends on your view, but for me it turned out to be a pretty enjoyable game...and I'm definitely not the biggest fan of this new zombie craze that has been around for the last couple of years. I will say that if I had played Gears or Uncharted, then perhaps this and the next game on the list would have been replaced, but that's not to say they don't deserve their places here.

So in this game you kill zombies...lots of zombies. Alright, not as many as in Dead Rising, but still, a lot. It could be primitively described as Dead Rising with multi player and RPG elements, but it's a little more than that. The story is as follows: You are holidaying on an island, you go to sleep, wake up, and then oh no! Zombies! You choose your character based on whether you'd rather be using ranged or melee attacks and set off in search of other survivors and a way to escape.

There's a coloured loot system that you would normally associate with mmorpgs...but that's almost what this game is. There's an open world, quest givers, loot, you level up and choose talent points, and you can jump straight into a game with up to three friends (providing they're not further progressed in the story than you).

The stand out feature of the game though, is the combat system. There's never been a more visceral zombie killing experience. You're breaking bones, chopping off limbs and quite literally shredding their flesh as you fight your war through the environments, and it rarely gets old.

The game is also gorgeous, particularly the opening sunny beach resort area...your typical dark and dreary living dead game this ain't. It's not without its fair share of bugs and glitches though, and the story isn't much better than any other standard zombie story already available. I feel if the developers had spent maybe six months to a year longer on the game, it could've been brilliant, rather than just pretty good.

9. Battlefield 3
Being probably the best multi player experience of the year, it's a shame that the single player didn't live up to it... again resulting in a game that isn't quite as good as it could've been. Although contrary to many critics' opinion, I didn't think the single player was that bad, it was compelling enough for me to finish it anyway.

I was playing on the PC, which mean I could take full advantage of the 32v32 player servers in all their glory. Some people aren't a fan of such games, and prefer the smaller, more strategic maps...but I just love the chaos and carnage that results from sixty-four human beings let loose in a playground of big guns, and a variety of vehicles which range from small Jeeps to fully blown fighter jets. Great fun.


8. FIFA 12
I had my doubts about putting a sports game on this list, given the general prejudice against them from both industry professionals and "hardcore" gamers. So I've limited the amount on the list to one. Happy?

If you've played a Fifa game before, you'll know pretty much what's going on. This year the main change is defence. It's a little harder and a little more nuanced than previous games, and takes quite a bit of getting used to at first. At the attacking end, the pace has also been slowed down a bit, with more emphasis on working the ball around than you're used to. There's a new impact engine, which makes the animations look a bit smoother, especially in the tackles...although it isn't perfect yet. About once a game or so, there'll be a "wait...what?" moment, as the physics on a player spiral out of control, quite literally. 

For fans of the series, and of football in general, it remains the best version of the Beautiful Game you can play without lacing up your boots and heading down the local club on cold Sunday mornings.

As a side note, NBA2K12 is probably a superior game, I just haven't played enough of it yet for it to definitely make an appearance on this list.


7. Dead Space 2
#&*!, what was that?!... #&*! where did it go?... #&*! why won't you die!?!

These are all things you'll frequently hear if you're sitting in a room with someone playing this game. Although they are making the mistake of not playing it alone in a dark room, late at night with some good headphones on (it's a scary game, not what you're thinking from that).

Equal parts jumpy, not-quite-sure-what-that-was-but-it-didn't-look-friendly, and flat out in your face monster horror, Dead Space 2 is a well paced action game, with some fantastically satisfying third person combat. Main character Isaac Clarke returns from the first game, but this time with a face (maybe only to set up this horrifying minigame later on in the game)! As you'd expect from a game like this, you don't need to know much about the story other than: Monster-alien-zombie things, kill them and run.

The action is close to relentless, and when you do get a moment's respite, you're left wondering exactly when the next thing is going to jump out of a wall at you. Nearly always, it's exactly when you expect it's going to...but then it scares the hell out of you anyway. The standout moment of the game for me was the train sequence, which I won't spoil for you by posting a link if you want to actually play it...otherwise I'm sure you'll be able to find it on YouTube. By the way, if you are going to play it, I'd advise you to fail as often as possible, the mini death sequences are superb...look up those too if you're still not going to play it.

6. Portal 2
It seems as though game developers are beginning to understand the idea that their audience actually wants a decent story with good writing, and that this isn't just limited to films and books. Portal 2 is an example of great writing and storytelling, made even more impressive by the fact that there are only a handful of characters. The worry was that the creators couldn't come up with a character as good as Glados from the first game...not only does she return, but she brings with her two new characters that are just as good. I feel a particular connection to the 'friendly' robot you meet at the start of the game as he is voiced by Stephen Merchant, a graduate from my university. That's a lie, I don't feel that connection, but it is a nice little claim to fame.

So we're back to 'Thinking with Portals', and now with quite a bit more. New mechanincs include anti-gravity tubes, light bridges, and different types of gel with make you run super fast or which you can bounce off. Some of the puzzles are just as fiendish as the first game, and still leave you with that real smug sense of achievement when you complete a particularly hard one. I'd also advise finding someone to play the co op with, as it is just as good as the single player, except now you get to troll your friends.

5. LA Noire
I just love that the incredible face capture technology they used in this game means you can actually recognise the actor playing the part.

 John Noble's pretty impressed too.

LA Noire captures everything you know about that film-noir post-war Los Angeles style, throws in an excellent story, great detective work, and some decent shooting and driving sequences, and spits out a fantastic game at you that's very hard to put down. Unlike most detective games, there is no black and white, good or evil outcome to each case, you decide who you think the culprit is, and put them behind bars. Even if your boss would rather you put away the alcoholic homeless man, rather than the upstanding, well known businessman.

The main complaint would be the lack of things to do, given the open world setting. Beyond a few "random" quick side missions, there's not a real point to driving around the city, other than just to explore and experience it the first time round. The open world isn't really needed, just stick to the main story line and you'll be rewarded with thrills, spills, and plenty of kills.

4. Bastion
I'm sure you've already heard me wax poetic enough about this incredible indie game, so I'll just let you read my review if you haven't already, and request that you please, play this game.

 

3. Batman: Arkham City
Once again, I've written enough about this game in my review. It's good, by the way.

 

2. Saints Row: The Third
Apparently I review games I really like. I really like this game.

aaaaaaand finally... 

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 
I also really like this game, but I haven't got round to reviewing it, and perhaps never will because...where do you begin with Skyrim?

 I'll give it a go...I'll start with that bit where I...wait that reminds me about when...but then also that bit with the... This isn't working...

The Bethesda open world rpgs have been around for quite a while now, and they've always been pretty good, although I think many people look back on Oblivion with rose-tinted glasses...It was a fine game, but was certainly aided by the fact that the 360 launched with barely any good games, and Oblivion was the first one to come along with something new and interesting. Anyway, Skyrim is by far the best attempt at this style of game that anyone has ever created. It's still not without it's fair share of bugs, magic resistance and backwards dragons aside, but that's almost accepted as a quirk of the genre at this point. 

Skyrim is a phenomenal achievement, which gives you the greatest amount of freedom ever seen in a video game. Think of something you'd like to do within the bounds of this style of world. Okay, you can't do that, think of something less weird... How about rolling two and a half thousand cheese wheels down a mountain? Why? Why not?! 

The amount you can do is staggering, even after spending just a few hours in the game, your map will be littered with dungeons, towns, keeps, bandit camps and towers, and you'll feel compelled to visit all of them, because chances are there's a fantastically involved short quest involved with the area. You could spend literally hundreds of hours in the game without even touching upon the main story quest, and there are vast areas of the map you will never explore if you stick to the main missions, which is amazing in a modern video game, especially one which takes so much effort to make. Skyrim probably has the best main story questline out of any previous effort from Bethesda, Fallout games included. Do you like dragons? Do you like killing? Mmhmm...

I do hope Skyrim is an example of what is to come from more video games, especially with a new console generation looming, I for one can't wait.

Turns out 2011 was a pretty good year for games after all, here's to 2012 being even better.

Happy Holidays everybody, thanks for reading. 

Top 10 Games of the Year + NBA2K12

Tomorrow, I'll be on a train for four and a half hours, so I'm going to use some of that time to draw up my list of the best games of 2011 and write some stuff about them. If you've read some of my previous posts you'll probably have a good idea of at least a few of the games that will be on there, but hopefully there'll be a few surprises.

For now though, I'll talk to you about NBA2K12 because that's pretty much all I've been playing over the last couple of days. I decided to buy it because it was cheap on Steam (which is also the reason I buy a lot of games). Anyway, here we go:

This isn't a review because I haven't played enough of it yet. I've barely scratched all the different game modes. The one I've been playing the most is the one where you create your Basketball man and join a team and start playing out your career. Goodness me, it's addictive, and I'm not even very good. Well I say I'm not very good...I've won the "Rookie of the Month" award twice now, although that could just be a gameplay thing that makes you want to keep going.

In this Create a Player mode, you start out by playing a single game in front of all the bosses of the teams in the NBA. Your performance is rated and after the game you go into a little interview situation with some of the teams where they ask you questions and you can pick one of four answers, the most amusing ones being the options which might as well be labelled "I am an arrogant ass". This is a nice little touch that helps you connect more with your guy more than in similar modes in other sports games.

So you get drafted by a team, and then work your way up from bench warmer, to starting line up. As you play, you earn skill points by doing good things, like scoring, assisting, good defending and so on. However you also lose skill points by not performing as well, committing turnovers, missing your shots etc. Then you can use these skill points to increase your attributes, like shooting, defending and passing. It could just be that I'm bad, but these skill points seem to accumulate very slowly, at least in relation to my main point of reference, the create a player mode in Madden 12. In that game I had pretty much maxed out all of my main attributes about halfway through my second season.

Anyway, that mode is great, and the gameplay is very fun. All of the animations look really slick, and most importantly, your player usually does exactly what you want him to do. The most annoying thing about Fifa (other than Sweaty Goals) is when you see a great opportunity for a pass, you hit the button, and your player tries to pass to the wrong guy and it gets intercepted. The game looks GREAT as well, and they've done a really good job of making you feel like you're watching a real NBA game. There's the Halftime Report where you get taken to other games happening at the same time, little cutaways in between quarters showing you upcoming big games, and a few other neat little touches.

On top of the great gameplay, the commentary is phenomenal... by far the best I've heard in any sports game. They seem to know what exactly is going on, and how it relates to the overall game, and even the season. The commentators can also be in the middle of a thought, and then break away to some big play that just happened in the game. Then after that, they'll say something like "Anyway, back to that..." and carry on with their thought! It's just the little touches like that that make this game really impressive, and I'm not surprised that it won the sports game of the year at the VGAs.

As I said, I've barely touched on the other game modes. I look forward to playing games as a whole team, and I'm told that the mode where you play historic games is really well put together too.

Batman: Arkham City Review

Batman has certainly been the superhero of choice during the last few years. The billion dollar success of Nolan's films, and the glowing reviews of it's predecessor Arkham Asylum meant that Rocksteady Studios had their work cut out for Arkham City. I don't want to say they fully lived up to the high expectations, but they have certainly made a high quality game, which is fun and compelling to play.

The biggest change from the first game, both aesthetically and in a gameplay sense, is that there is now a fully open city to explore. From a story standpoint, this area is actually a walled off section of Gotham City, which is being used as a mega prison and is now home to your typical henchmen, political prisoners and of course, a huge selection of recognisable Batman villains that we've all grown to love... Bane, Poison Ivy, The Joker, Mr Freeze and many more make an appearance (although Egghead is still strangely omitted, which scrambles my brain in an eggstremely unpleasant manner). Now, imagine you lived in Gotham City... if someone floated the idea around that "hey guys, we're going to wall off some of the city, kick a load of people out of their homes, and then shove all of our criminals in there"... how many of you would say, "Yeah, sure, sounds a great idea!" Needless to say, the story connections are a bit loose this time round, but if you look past that, everything else is still outlandish and slightly over the top in a way we've come to expect from Batman.

The new open area would be nothing without an exciting way to get around it, and Arkham City doesn't disappoint. Batman's grappling hook, combined with opening his cape to glide make for great way of traversing the city, and it looks damned cool when you do it too. It's not perfect, you often find yourself catapulting yourself the wrong way off a building, but once you get used to it you're getting from place to place in no time.

What's disappointing is the lack of main story stuff that happens in the open world. Most of the missions take place inside, at which point it's back to the basics laid down in Arkham Asylum. Swinging around from conveniently placed ledges, waiting for guards to become isolated, and then taking them out silently. If you're discovered however, and the guards start converging on your position, all is not lost. Arkham Asylum had probably the best combat system in the business outside of straight up fighting games. Arkham City took that system, and improved it. So simple, and yet hard to master, combat is still a mixture of timing, quickly using one of Batman's many gadgets, and simply flailing your fists at guys. This time around, they've added in a critical strike system, where if you time your strikes perfectly, you'll deal more damage. You've still got your array of gadgets from the first game, with many more added here. New additions range from a freeze grenade, which will immobilise guards caught in the blast for a few seconds, to a disruptor, which can disable enemy weapons silently and from afar. This makes for extremely satisfying situations where you walk up to a guard, they try and shoot you, they look helplessly at their gun, and you proceed to beat them senseless. The animation is also still top notch, with Batman going between jumping, dodging, attacking and blocking seamlessly. The graphics are still extremely nice looking, the darkness partly mirroring the tone of the game, and the frame rate was solid for the entirety. I said it earlier, but it remains true, it just looks damned cool.

The other main feature is the ability to play as Catwoman. She has her own story missions which break up the main ones nicely, but she is just not as enjoyable to play with as the Bat himself. She only has her whip to move about the city with, making getting around much slower, and combat just feels like an inferior version of Batman. It could've been a really nice feature, but it ended up feeling a little tacked on.

The challenge rooms make a return, where you're confined to a small space, tasked with beating up waves of increasingly challenging enemies, or beating up guys with your own abilities impaired. This remains the least compelling part of the game for me, but it's there if you want it. This is the only place in the game you get to play as Robin or Nightwing though, so there's that.

Outside of the main missions, you are once again tasked with finding all of The Riddler's secrets, scattered around the world. These involve finding his trophies, solving his riddles and taking a photograph of a specific location, or entering Batman's detective mode and finding huge question marks hidden in the scenery invisible to the naked eye. There are over 400 trophies to find alone, which is a crazy amount, and it would take a lot more time than I care to give to find them all. However once you have completed everything he has set out for you, you are promised the pleasure of facing Mr. Edward Nigma himself... and I'm sure by that time, you'll be more than willing to knock the stuffing out of him.

So really, it's nothing revolutionary. Although I suppose more Batman Arkham Asylum is what we wanted, so that's what we got. I just hope that for the next game, something is changed a bit more drastically, to avoid it becoming one of those jaded, yearly releases that everyone plays, even though nothing has really changed. I'm sure Rocksteady will stop that from happening, because Batman isn't the game the industry needs...it's the game it deserves.(sorry)

Thanks for reading.

Saints Row: The Third Review

I'll just get the Grand Theft Auto comparisons out the way straight off the bat. You press Triangle to enter vehicles. That's about it. If people are still comparing this series to GTA at this point they need to broaden their view of games a bit. Remember how ridiculous San Andreas and Vice City were? If you multiply that ridiculousness together, and then add in a baseball bat sized floppy pink dildo (called The Penetrator), then you come close to the feel of Volition's latest product. GTA4 was super serious to the point where I found myself driving somewhat safely around town...no such worries in Saints Row, especially considering you're actively encouraged to drift, get air, and run over every pedestrian in sight. The first time an achievement progress bar came up saying "10/500 Pedestrians Ran Over", I knew that this was a game to be taken with large quantities of salt.

The story is close to inconsequential given the sheer amount of fun you can have in the game without it, but they've actually done a pretty good job of it. You are the nameless 'Boss' of the internationally recognised street gang 'The Saints', hounded on all sides by law enforcement, the government and rival gangs. The main villains (if anyone can really be called a 'villain' in Steelport) of the game are the Syndicate, headed up by the Mexican-wrestler-mask-wearing Killbane, along with twin sisters as his sidekicks (one of whom is voiced by actress Sasha Grey...I won't link you to anything she's done in the past, you can look that up yourself, preferably alone). The Syndicate want money and power, because they always do, right? So, it's up to you, Johnny Gat, Shaundi, Zimos (a pimp who speaks entirely using auto-tune), and the rest to stop them. The comedy is extremely well written, and often crude, yet in a good way, unlike a certain other game released this year which took 14 years to make. I'm not a fan of the way the game was marketed, the tagline "Strap it on" doesn't really do the game justice in my opinion, you're better than that, Saints Row.

A good chunk of the early game story missions introduce you to all of the mission types that you'll be seeing throughout the game. These range from jumping into a tank and destroying everything in sight, to driving around with a tiger in the passenger seat attempting to keep it happy, to protecting some of your buddies by hanging out of a helicopter with a rocket launcher, and everything in between. Everything just felt like pure, unadulterated mayhem...and by God was it refreshing, and most importantly, fun. In the very first mission you are robbing a bank, disguised as...yourselves, and signing autographs as you go. Oh, and rather than just open the vault and take the money, you blow a hole in the building, and lift the vault out with a helicopter. Not long after that, you're skydiving out of a plane, dodging debris and defending yourself from skydiving bad guys as you fall. Then later, you're transported into a Tron-like cyber-world, and then off you go to Mars. The action is relentless without ever being overwhelming, and the combat is a delight. You find new weapons as you go, and upgrade your existing ones with your cash that you acquire during your adventures. Ever fancied turning someone into a cloud of blood using a weapon which creates a sonic boom? No? Well you can anyway, and you'll enjoy it.

Pretty much everything you do in the game gets you some 'Respect', the Saints Row version of experience points, which you use to level up. As you go, you can unlock new abilities, such as increasing the amount of gang members you can have following around, being able to dual wield pistols, and, you know, not being able to take damage from bullets. The usuals.

An ambitious game such as this is never without it's flaws, and Saints Row: The Third has a few. I was playing on the PS3 and the frame rate took a HUGE dive when the action on screen got a bit crazy, especially during the tank mayhem missions, where if something isn't exploding at all times, you're doing something wrong. There were also a few texture issues here and there, and I fell through some scenery once or twice, but all that was forgiveable, and you almost took it as part of the game, which is so silly already.

There's multiplayer in the awfully named 'Whored Mode'...again, you're better than that, Saints Row. It's pretty much the same as the Gears of War horde mode, you're fighting off enemies, buying defences and so on. It seems fine, but is nowhere near as compelling as the single player mode.

All that being said, I'm sure not everyone would enjoy Saints Row: The Third, the humour and carnage won't be to everyone's taste. However, if you like the carnage, and huge amounts of fun, you should really check this game out.

Bastion Review

Bastion is the first game by indie developer Supergiantgames. It's an action rpg centered around your character, The Kid, who wakes up after a catastrophic event referred to as The Calamity which has broken apart the world. As you move around, the world forms around your feet, although there is an ever present danger of falling off the edge. This happened a few times as I was exploring, thinking I could step where I couldnt, or when I was dodging around during a particularly intense battle. The only penalty for falling off though is some fall damage when you return to solid ground, so it's not too frustrating, and there is a nice touch where you damage enemies if you fall on them.

The Kid sets out to find the Bastion, a place where people could go in troubled times, but when he gets there he finds almost nothing left of it, much like the rest of the world. He does find an old man, Rucks, who tells the kid they can rebuild the bastion if they find cores which have been scattered around the world. Rucks also acts as the game's narrator, who comments on nearly everything in the game, from actions the kid takes, to the weapons and buffs he chooses. There's a crazy amount of dialogue, I've played through the game twice now, and there were barely any repeated lines, other than the critical story ones. It's a testament to the hard work put in by the developers, in that half (or maybe more!) of this dialogue will never be heard by the player. This is all helped by the fact that the guy who plays Rucks, Logan Cunningham has one of the best narration voices I've heard in a game. You can hear him, and get a feel for the game in this trailer:

The action takes place in various locations around the fictional place Caelondia, which are accessed from the bastion via a skyway. Your job is to find cores which can be used to rebuild the bastion. Each core you bring back allows you to construct a new building on the Bastion, such as an arsenal to change your weapon load-out, a distillery to change which buffs you have, and so on.

At any one time you can have two weapons, a shield and one special power equipped to your character, and there are multiple weapons that you are slowly introduced to along your journey, and the game does a good job of teaching you the best way to use them as you discover them. Combat is an excellent combination of attacking, shooting, countering, blocking and dodging, and it feels very satisfying to pull off all of these fluidly to defeat a large group of enemies. You can find special items in the world, or buy them in the shop once you unlock it in the Bastion, which are used to upgrade specific weapons. Another way of obtaining them is to take part in one of the challenges tailored to each weapon, and if you do well enough in the challenge, you unlock a special skill for that weapon, such as a multiple barrage attack for the musket. Once or twice, the action on screen got a bit hectic, and I ended up spamming the dodge and attack buttons until I had killed enough enemies to figure out what was going on...but for the most part the combat is very impressive.

Bastion has an interesting take on a buff system, whereby the kid carries various alcoholic beverages with him. These have standard abilities such as granting higher damage or critical strike chance, but there are also more interesting ones such as gaining health when you successfully counter-block, or when you damage enemies with your weapons.

The most impressive part of the game for me though is the soundtrack, the story, and how it is told. You are introduced to a small group of characters, who, although silent you feel you grow to know them very well as you learn their past from various items which you find in the world. Most of the story is told through Rucks' narration, there are a few cutscenes, but mostly the narration takes place as you explore the world.

I mentioned the soundtrack, and it is indeed good enough to warrant a soundtrack edition of the game where you can get all of the songs in the game, which I would highly recommend. There is a level where you find Zia, a musician, who plays an absolutely hypnotic song which you can hear throughout the entire area. This sequence was worth the entire price of the game alone for me. There are several similarly poignant moments throughout the game, which break up the action beautifully.

As an aside to the main story, there are three extra dream sequences (four with the free DLC that was released today) in which the kid must fight off waves of enemies. These serve as a good way to make money, test various combinations of weapons, and on top of this the narrator provides extra back story for each of the main characters in between waves. There are online leaderboards for these sequences, which adds a competitive element to the game. The boards are ordered by the amount of shrines that the player has active at any one time. These shrines are similar to the Halo skulls which improve the enemies or decrease the abilities of the character. They can also be activated for the main story levels, with the bonus of gaining extra money or experience for each one active.

I've been playing the PC version of the game, and it runs like a dream, I've noticed next to zero performance issues. I have also been playing with a 360 gamepad, which makes controlling the character a lot easier than with the keyboard.

All in all, Bastion is a game with a beautifully presented world, solid combat and an excellently told story.

If those are things which appeal to you, then I advise you pick it up as soon as possible.

First Post + VGAs

So, the Spike Video Games Awards just happened. Figured I'd start my blogging career with something topical so I'll run through the list of winners and give you my thoughts:


Game of the Year: Skyrim
Didn't see that one coming. Steam tells me I've played 66 hours of Skyrim so far, which is probably an over-estimate considering the time in menus/ leaving it on pause etc, but that's still a hell of a lot of time only a month or so after release (plus I haven't played it in about a week). It remained thoroughly enjoyable throughout the time, and I will definitely be going back to it at some point. I played stealth/ magic by the way.


Of the other nominees, I've only played Batman: Arkham City and Portal 2. I don't own a Wii for Zelda (nor do I particularly want to) and I haven't got round to Uncharted 3 yet. The two games I have played had the unfortunate trait that they were sequels to two phenomenal games. The thing is they were both also amazing games that I spent a huge amount of time with as well...but they just didn't have...it... Batman just didn't change enough from the original formula, sure you could fly (glide) around the city, but the actual 'game' part of the game took place inside, where it was just Arkham Asylum again. Portal 2 improved the gameplay and added quite a few new and interesting mechanics to the game, but it didn't have the same 'magic' as the first one. I'm also reliably informed that Uncharted 3 falls into the same problem of being hampered by the success of the previous game...shame really.

I'll skip a few categories here (ones I don't particularly care about) and go onto the console specific (kind of...you'll see what I mean) categories.


Best Xbox 360 Game: Batman: Arkham City
Hey guess what, my Xbox is broken. I played the game on PS3 though and really enjoyed it, in fact I was going to continue playing it and keep collecting all the Riddler stuff, but then Skyrim came out, sorry Bats. 

So here's my beef with these console awards... Batman was out on all of them, so was Portal 2 (which makes an appearance in the PC category). But the PS3 nominees were all actual console exclusives. It's not like these exclusives were any better than the winners of the other console awards... for example Killzone 3 was nominated. Now I played that game, it was fine...I guess, but why did it make the list above, say, Batman?
Anyway:
Best PS3 Game: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Ain't played it yet, seems like a worthy winner given the other nominees though.

Best PC Game: Portal 2
Again...why was Battlefield nominated here and nowhere else? Portal's good though, you should play it. Also, play the co-op with someone, it's just as good as the single player, and nearly as long now with the recent (free) expansion. The Witcher 2 was also a delight to play, wouldn't have even thought to pick it up if it weren't for the glowing reviews, and then was pleasantly surprised.

Best Shooter: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
I haven't bought a CoD game since Modern Warfare 2, I played A LOT of it...which is surprising because I didn't particularly enjoy it that much (hence not buying any more of them). The main reason for playing so much is the fact that you can do anything with friends and it will be enjoyable...maybe not anything, but you know...anything...what? My point being, who knows how worthy it is of winning. I bought Battlefield though this year (for the first time since 2142) and it was pretty cool...AND the campaign wasn't as bad as you've probably heard, its just that it's a modern FPS campaign, that's what they're like nowadays (apart from the quick time event to kill the rat...what?)

Best Action Adventure Game: Batman
The bat comes up again. Uncharted was a nominee for this...is it really an action adventure game rather than a shooter? I guess... Anyway, I played through the new Assassin's creed (another nominee) and it just didn't click with me. Brotherhood was really surprisingly good given the short turnaround time, and for this year's game they've just made the same game, set it in a new place and given you a new blade and bombs to worry about. I breezed through it in 9 hours, ignoring the side stuff which I had no interest in after doing it all in Brotherhood. The multiplayer is still really cool though, I'd probably spend more time with it if I had a few friends playing.


Best RPG: Skyrim
Well if it wins GotY it has to win its own category right? Dragon Age 2 is on the nominees list, another game which doesn't live up to the first one...the gameplay is better this time around but the story is definitely lacking. I'm not sure Deus Ex can be classified as an RPG..you're levelling up and putting points in stuff and all, but it's a 3rd person stealth/ shooter at the end of the day. Dark Souls seems cool, I don't think I have the patience to play it having heard stories about it though.


Best Multiplayer: Portal 2
Yeah, it's really good, but out of the nominees Battlefield 3 pips it for me.


Best Team Sports Game: NBA 2K12
That's a basketball game for the 2011/2012 season if you're wondering what all those letters and numbers mean. It's funny because the game was released at a time when it was thought there wasn't even going to be a professional basketball season this year (you can find out about that from someone who knows more about it than me). I'd quite like to play this one actually, I'm not big into basketball, but it does seem very well put together. I've played a lot of Madden 12 and Fifa 12, so one of those would be my winner, but if professional reviewers are to be believed, NBA is a worthy winner.

Best Driving Game: Forza 4
This didn't seem that compelling to me, didn't play it. I did play a lot of DiRt 3 though, and that was super fun...although a lot of time was spent playing this game type online with a friend where the players are split up into teams. Each team has one player driving a slow mini, and the rest driving fairly fast cars, and the objective is for the team to get their mini to the end of the track first. This nearly always results in hilarious carnage, you'd probably have to experience it to appreciate it. Need for Speed is on the list...really? I played the demo and was like...this is bad, and after so much promise too. And then lo and behold, the game got slated.

Best Motion Game: Zelda: Skyward Sword
Come on, this is a category? Motion games. Seriously.

Best Independent Game: Minecraft
I dunno man, a hell of a lot of people play minecraft (myself included occasionally, haven't checked out version 1 yet though) but I bet a lot of those people haven't played Bastion. Please go and play Bastion. Like, seriously. I was about to spew a bunch of hyperbole about it but what use is that? It's really, really good. That'll do.

Best Song in a Game: Setting Sail, Coming Home (End Theme) by Darren Korb, Bastion

Haunting, captivating and beautiful. The entire soundtrack for Basion is unbelievable. I'm a bit of a fan of music, I'm sure you'll find this out eventually. 


Best Original Score: Bastion
Yep, sounds good to me. (geddit?)

Best Graphics: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
I'm assuming this category was for console games, because I'm sure there are PC games which look better, I mean Uncharted does look pretty though. And did you SEE the facial animation in L.A. Noire?


Most Anticipated Game: Mass Effect 3
It's Bioshock Infinite for me, but I'm really looking forward to all the nominations (Diablo 3, Halo 4, The Last Guardian). Well, not Halo actually. Halo: CE was an amazing, genre-defining (for console shooters) piece of work...but lately, it's just been plain old Halo, man...we know exactly what to expect. I tired of it after the end of the third one, you know, when it was supposed to end?

Alright that'll do then, well done for making it to the end.