Kirby's Return to Dreamland

Date Aquired: Rented through a Gamefly trial I had, 4.24.2012

Date Completed: 4.29.2012

Thoughts: Only one year after releasing Kirby's Epic Yarn, Nintendo is at it again, releasing another Kirby game to try to breathe a little life into the dying console. While Epic Yarn strayed off the beaten path, applying an unusual yarn asthetic, and a dumbed-down difficulty where a player literally cannot die, Return to Dreamland is also a return to status quo Kirby. The graphics are back to the cartoony, colorful, non-yarn look we are accustomed to, and the game, while still not difficult, except for certain boss-battles, at least does allow for the possibility that the player could die.

A Nintendo sequal coming out a year after another game in the series is basically unheard of. I can't think of a single example where we didn't have to wait at LEAST 2 years, usually much more for a second game in a franchise for the same platform. So this leads to the obvious question: Is this game a rush-job? Does it really stand out as a game worth playing?  My answers are yes to the first question and no to the second. Nothing about this game stands out. Once again the game follows the same painfully boring cookie-cutter level choices. Spoiler alert, there is a fire level, and an ice level, and a water level, and.... Ugh. I'm so sick of the same choices over and over again. Why not try different concepts? Why must I play the same ideas I've been playing since the first Super Mario Brothers in 1985?  Even when the game does try to go slightly off the rails, such as including a candy level (though I'm pretty sure they had one of those in Epic Yarn, also) it does so with such an underwhelming effort that you wonder why they didn't just make a second fire level. 

The boss battles aren't much better. A few are a little interesting, but most again fall prey to the normal video game conventions, if you've played a video game you know what you need to do. Some, towards the end do become pretty difficult, but the difficulty mainly comes in how little damage you deal the enemy, and the conflicts become tedious battles of attrition.

Probably the biggest stand-out quailty of this game is it's 4 player co-op. If you have small children and a few controllers, this is probably a good choice, but if they're a little older, like 10 or above, they'd be better served with far-superior 4 player games like New Super Mario Brothers and Rayman Origins. Donkey Kong Country Returns is also a much better game, though it's a lot harder, and only allows for 2 players. Basically I can only recommend this for young families, or as a quick rental, for someone who just wants to play through a Kirby game in a weekend like I did, but not a purchase.

Rayman Origins

Date Acquired: I can't remember any more. Whenever Toys R Us dropped the price to $19.99.

Date Completed: 3.21.2012

Thoughts: Rayman has always been a very solid, if somewhat unoriginal platformer. It came out initially in the PS1 days, amid the glut of mascot platformers and was fairly well recieved critically. It's sequal is considered a classic, with subsequent sequals fairing not as well. As the platform fad died down, Rayman did too, becoming known these days for little more than mini game compilations. Cut to 2011 and Rayman received another shot at life, thanks to the 2D platform resurgance, almost all of that owing to New Super Mario Brothers Wii. It does seem that game is the direct inspiration for Origins, as it mimics the all-2D style and adds 4 player local (but not online) co-op, complete with putting your character into a bubble when he dies, waiting for your partner to pop it. It might be a pretty shameless rip off if the game itself wasn't so damn good.

Three things stand out in particular about this game. First, the visuals of course, are just gorgeous. They work very well as stills and even more so in motion. Many times while playing, I was just in awe of the game's artwork and could just stop and stare at it. Second is that it's a collect-athon, which traditionally is nobody's favorite way of extending the length of the game. And there is a ton to collect here. 6 electroons in every level, a time attack trophy in every level, 300 little yellow things per stage (there are more, actually but you need to collect 300 per stage to get an electroon), and a tooth that can only be culled from a special level in each world that requires a certain number of electroons to open. These levels are among the hardest in the game, and almost all of them required a good amount of trial and error for me to complete them. Which brings me to the third thing that stands out: the difficulty. The game starts out easily enough, even if you're trying to collect all the electroons, but the last few stages the difficulty ramps up sharply. The level that I originally thought was the last level, was brutally difficult, and I followed that up by completing all the special stages for the teeth, which unlocked the last final battle (and the only end boss battle that you get achievements for, so I consider it the true ending). This difficulty is not for the faint of heart, while many levels required a lot of attempts; I didn't find it too frustrating. I usually would get a little bit further every time, or glean something important that I could add into my gameplan. I never quit in frustration, the game did a great job of making me feel like the challenge was surmountable, and would put in checkpoints along the way so I didn't have to completely backtrack.

The natural comparison here is this game's muse: New Super Mario Brothers. So how does this game stack up? The multiplayer in Mario is better. It seems like it thought out the idea of 4 people playing at once better than Origins did. In New Super Mario Brothers you can put yourself in a bubble whenever you want, and let a more experienced player go on without you, but you don't get that option in Rayman. NSMB felt like 4 players playing together, in the way they interact and can strategize through a level. Rayman just kind of felt like 4 players playing at the same time, but not necessarily together. That's not to say the multiplayer in Origins is bad, it's not, it's fun, just following New Super Mario Brothers, it isn't AS fun as that game was.  Origins does, however, have by far the superior single player, in my opinion. The single player stages in NSMB felt fairly genaric to me, they never really stood out. Rayman's stages stand out, there is a good amount of game play variety. I loved the levels where I climbed aboard the mosquito and the game turns into a side-scrolling shooter. 

Final Thoughts: Rayman Origins is a fantastic game. Easily one of the most pure-fun games I played all year. I just bought the Vita version, so I plan to play through it again portably (earning trophies this time, of course). This is already a game I want to play again and again.

Top 10 Spiderman Covers of all Time

Comic Book Resources is doing a poll asking readers to submit their lists of the ten best Spiderman covers of all time. It's a celebration of his 50th anniversary this year. Anyway, I submitted a list and thought it'd be fun to post my whole list so I can see it at least if nothing else. If anyone else wants to submit a list here's a link: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/03/01/vote-for-the-50-greatest-spider-man-covers-of-all-time/comment-page-1/#comment-887648 They will begin revealing the winners on March 21st, you have until the 20th to submit a list. For my list I tended to shy away from the really iconic covers. I will spoil the contest right now and tell you that Amazing Fantasy 15 is going to be #1, even though the list is only supposed to be purely for cover and not for impact. People really think they're voting that way, but I just can't agree. If that was Amazing Spiderman 43, nobody would cast many votes for it, you can't convince me otherwise. So there's no Amazing Fantasy 15, or Amazing Spiderman 39 or 50. I recognize they're good covers, but they just don't make my personal top 10, though they'll be in the final list for sure.
Comic Book Resources is doing a poll asking readers to submit their lists of the ten best Spiderman covers of all time. It's a celebration of his 50th anniversary this year. Anyway, I submitted a list and thought it'd be fun to post my whole list so I can see it at least if nothing else. If anyone else wants to submit a list here's a link: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/03/01/vote-for-the-50-greatest-spider-man-covers-of-all-time/comment-page-1/#comment-887648 They will begin revealing the winners on March 21st, you have until the 20th to submit a list. For my list I tended to shy away from the really iconic covers. I will spoil the contest right now and tell you that Amazing Fantasy 15 is going to be #1, even though the list is only supposed to be purely for cover and not for impact. People really think they're voting that way, but I just can't agree. If that was Amazing Spiderman 43, nobody would cast many votes for it, you can't convince me otherwise. So there's no Amazing Fantasy 15, or Amazing Spiderman 39 or 50. I recognize they're good covers, but they just don't make my personal top 10, though they'll be in the final list for sure. Comic Book Resources is doing a poll asking readers to submit their lists of the ten best Spiderman covers of all time. It's a celebration of his 50th anniversary this year. Anyway, I submitted a list and thought it'd be fun to post my whole list so I can see it at least if nothing else. If anyone else wants to submit a list here's a link: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/03/01/vote-for-the-50-greatest-spider-man-covers-of-all-time/comment-page-1/#comment-887648 They will begin revealing the winners on March 21st, you have until the 20th to submit a list. For my list I tended to shy away from the really iconic covers. I will spoil the contest right now and tell you that Amazing Fantasy 15 is going to be #1, even though the list is only supposed to be purely for cover and not for impact. People really think they're voting that way, but I just can't agree. If that was Amazing Spiderman 43, nobody would cast many votes for it, you can't convince me otherwise. So there's no Amazing Fantasy 15, or Amazing Spiderman 39 or 50. I recognize they're good covers, but they just don't make my personal top 10, though they'll be in the final list for sure.

10) A lot of classic covers could have gone here, but I like this one for a lot of reasons. I like the way this exciting new villain the scorpian is attacking, the way Spiderman's body is contoring, and the swimming pool effect created by the cover. This cover is by Steve Ditko, the original Spiderman artist.

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9) Ah, a Mike Zeck cover. Mike Zeck is an 80's artist that I particularily liked, but he never really seemed to hit as big as some of his contemporaries. He's been away from comics for years, I best remember him from Marvel's Secret Wars, and he had a nice Captain America run as well. This cover is great because of the image of Spiderman coming out of the grave yard, it really highlights how awesome the black costume is, if he was in his original costume, it just wouldn't look as cool. The rain coming down, the lightening in the background, the ominous 'here lies Spider-Man' engraved on the tombstone. Wonderfull cover.

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8) Now this cover is an absolute classic, it is widely regarded as an all-time great Spidey cover, which actually hurts it by my estimation. I do like the cover, but I've seen it so many times, I tend to focus more on it's flaws than what it does well. The sparse background, Peter's face and hair, the Goblin's head. Still, I can't deny it's a great cover, despite these flaws. It's a John Romita Sr cover, he's the second Spiderman artist, he took over for Steve Ditko. This is actually his first cover and first issue of Spiderman, because Steve Ditko left the book over an argument with Stan Lee as to what the identity of the Green Goblin should be. Ditko wanted it to be a new character, and Stan wanted it to be Normon Osborne, a character tied to Peter's personal life. Stan of course won, and this issue ushered in the John Romita Sr era (though back then we just called him John Romita)

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7) The only non-Spiderman cover to make my list, of course it's a painted cover by the great Alex Ross. This image immediately became a modern classic. Alex did such a great job of capturing an emotinaly charged moment in Spidey's history: The moment when the Green Goblin, Spidey's greatest enemy, has captured Gwen Stacey, the love of Peter's life. The Goblin's hands around her unconsious throat hint at the fate that soon befalls her.

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6) John Byrne is an 80's legend, he was the artist on the X-Men when they made their move from niche cult following to the best selling comic in the industry. Byrne has been all over the place, having landmark runs on the Fantastic Four , Superman, the Avengers and many others, but Spiderman he spent only a brief time here and there on. This cover is one of his rare efforts. Clearly he enjoyed playing with the blacks and whites of Spiderman and New York City after dark. Only the garrish yellow logo disrupts this masterpiece. The issue itself is absolutely nothing special, but a great cover.

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5) When I first started collecting comics, Todd McFarlane's Spiderman was the hottest thing going. Admittedly it took me a while to warm up to Todd's style, but I eventually came around. A ton of McFarlane covers were considered, but it was ultimately this image of Venom, with his bleeding hand standing over Spiderman. I remember this issue very well from when I first bought it, reading it in Florida in a car trip to a camp site with my dad and my boy scout troup. I remember htis cover actually made me scared for Spiderman, which is really the most you can ask for from a cover.

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4) Eric Larson followed Todd McFarlane on every book he ever did for Marvel. Larson was a good artist but never considered McFarlane's equal, though his art did improve drastically from his intial attempts on the title. It's a little surprising that a Larson cover gets a higher place on my list than any McFarlane cover, and it was close, but Venom really came into his own under Larson. In the above image you can see he has a much cleaner look; essentially Spiderman with teeth. Larson added the tongue and the drool that we've come to associate with Venom. It's a little ironic that Venom achieved the height of his popularity thanks to Larson, but Larson famously hated the character.

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3) Another painted cover, this one by Ron Frenz. The building is coming down in flames, and at the center of it all stands the Hobgoblin, his face properly demon-like, Spiderman laying crumpled at his feet, defeated.

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2) Two Venom covers are followed up with two hobgoblin covers. It's fitting, really, Spiderman has always been defined by his great rogues gallery. It's no coincidence that they are featured prominently in some of his best covers. This issue has the first appearance of the Hobgoblin. He came out of nowhere, readers had no idea who this was, they had only this incredible image of this new villain ripping Spidey's uniform in half. This is a very early cover by John Romita Jr. JRJR is still very active in the comics business, he never really left Marvel and is currently drawing an Avengers serie, and his style now looks completely different from this.

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1) Another issue that doen't have a lot of significance story-wise, but is still a great cover. This is another cover by John Romita Sr, by this time he has had many years drawing Spiderman under his belt. He perfectly captures Spidey's sense of anguish, the corpse on the floor is very striking, the reflection of Spidey's back in the mirror seems to add to the sense of loss. I could stare at this cover for hours.

Resident Evil 4

Date Acquired: Game Cube Version 1.10.2005, HD Version-2.3.2012

Date Completed: Main game on 2.29.2012, Seperate Paths on 3.3.2012

Thoughts: First of all, I'm amused by the 'only for' blurb at the top of the box art. How long was that true for? Had the ink even dried on the box? It's landed on 5 different systems since then, and I'm sure it will wind up on IOS at some point...

RE4 is one of those seminal games whose praises everyone sings. A modern-day classic. I got the game when it first came out for the Gamecube and I really, really liked it, but I never beat it. I always had trouble with games like this, because I won't let myself play through the game with no health and no ammo. I have to reload my checkpoint every time I take an unnecessary hit or waste too much ammo, or what not, becuase I know how rare it is to get either of those in this game. It became a trial and error experience, rehearse the scene 10 times until I get it right, move onto the next scene. It was too much for me in 2005 and I moved on before finishing the 2nd chapter.

I did always mean to go back to it though, and this is a big year for Resident Evil, it's the 15th anniversary. (although I remember playing the first game in 1996, because I was still in Highschool, but whatever, I won't quibble with their numbering) and 3 high profile RE games are coming out this year. Because of that, 1up.com focused one of their short-lived and ill-fated lunchbreak segments on the RE series. Every day they played one of the games for about 22 minutes and talked about it as they played. I watched every episode, most of them live, and from the moment I started watching them play the first game, I knew I wanted to play RE4 again. I wanted to hold out for a sale. $20 is a little high for such an old game, but I didn't last long and soon caved. I liked the idea of playing a high-def version of the game, and of course was tempted by the achievement points.

Even after 7 years, this game holds up extremely well in all aspects. Graphically, it looks terrific. It looks like a current-gen game. And the great thing is, when I was playing through the Seperate Paths side mission, a lot of the same cut scenes from RE4 get replayed, but for some reason Capcom used the original cut scenes, not the updated HD scenes, and the difference is very noticable. Those cut scenes were blurry and out out of focus, but the HD graphics for all of RE4 are crisp and sharp. By far this is the best use of the HD conversion process for me. I haven't tried Shadow of the Colossus yet, which could give it a run for it's money, but it blows away the God of War Collection and Ico.

The gameplay holds up very well also. I really didn't have any complaints about it at all. Nothing felt archaic or underdeveloped. The over the shoulder view was sometimes a problem because of how limited your viewing area is ,but of course that's intentional so you're never sure what's behind you, it adds to the atmosphere. Even the escorting parts of the game were handeled better than some of the more modern day attempts. I only killed Ashley twice, both times with my knife. She avoided my gun succesfully, and stayed where I told her to be and hid when I told her to hide. The ability to quickly make a 90 degree camera turn was a godsend and I used this constantly.

I still found the game to be very challenging. My final log according to the game was 37 hours and I died 104 times. The 37 hours probably isn't entirely accurate, there were several times where I paused the game for a few hours and came back to it, and the timer kept counting while it was paused, so I probably beat it in more like 30. The 104 deaths is accurate, and it was probably more because I'm sure there were instances where I died and didn't save it. I played the game in much the same method as I had originally, I just had more patience for it now. By the end of the game I had 15 different ways to completely heal my character saved up in my briefcase. The briefcase by the way, is almost a mini-game in itself as you have to organize where things go and make everything fit. If things don't fit you have to leave them behind or go sell them to the merchant or use them up quickly. So having that much space devoted to healing items was a lot, and i really didn't need that much at all. If I played the game more normally and let myself take more damage, I would have probably been just fine. I wound up selling most of those healing items after I beat the game and started up a new quest.

The original gamecube version included one extra sidemission called Assignment Ada. This was a short mission with no save points, and even more limited ammo and health supplies where agent Ada has to infiltrate the Castle and retrieve 5 plaga samples. Of course she has a briefcase too, hers is smaller than the biggest case Leon has and wasn't upgradable as there were no merchants. So as you fill up on Plaga samples, you have to make a tough choice about what to keep and what to leave. The game makes it easier to choose by cutting off the supply of one ammo type (rifle) and increasing others (TMP and Shotgun) which lets the player know that towards the end of the level they may as well dump the rifle, which winds up being the correct strategy, as the rifle is useless against the final fight with Krauser, but you need the TMP and Shotgun.

The Playstation 2 version of the game has another side mission included called Seperate Paths. This was basically the story of Ada's journey throughout the game while Leon was having his quest. It showed a lot of back story that we weren't aware of earlier, and there were some minor connections: In a graveyard behind a house, a special emblem is needed. Ada finds it behind the church in a pressure sensative holding area. She replaces it with a yellow catseye and enters the church. When Leon arrives at this scene he gets the catseye (although he didn't have to put anything in it's place like Ada did) and has to travel much further to find an emblem to open the church door. It's also funny that this is supposed to be the story about what Ada was doing while Leon was fighting, but all the items that were there for Leon to find by breaking crates and pots or just lying around, are also there for Ada. Somebody apparently was able to go replace all these items after Ada took them so Leon would have something with which to tear through the castle's residents. I played through Seperate Paths a little differently than the main game. I didn't worry about finding every treasure or killing every enemy. I killed who I needed to and took what I needed. This playstyle seemed to fit Ada's character and certainly helped me get through the game faster.

When I had finally finished the main game and the side stories, the fruits of my labor resulted in a gun called the chicago typewriter, which was available for purchase for a mere 1 million pesetas, which I was able to afford by selling all the treasures I found, as well as the rocket launcher Ada gave me for the boss fight at the end of the game. I wound up not needing it. I couldn't get to it and just kept shooting Sadler with my upgraded Magnum pistol. It was effective though, and I killed him quickly and easily without finding the rocket launcher until after I was trying to make my escape from the Island. The Chicago Typewriter is fun to use, it's a tommygun that is ridiculously powerfull, has infinite ammo and never has to be reloaded. I have played through the first 2 chapters of the game much quicker, and with my only deaths (4) coming entirely from botched quicktime events. There are also unlockable costumes available for finishing the game and the extra missions. I chose to play through again with the 2nd set of costumes, which turned out to be hilarious. Leon is dressed up like a 20's gangster pimp, complete with hat and striped jacket, while Ashley is decked out in a full midevil suit of armor. It's not just cosmetic either, I can't hurt Ashley even if I try to kill her, which means enemies can't either. There are other small touches I appreciate as well; when Ashley is standing at a cliff and you are under her, she gets mad at you for looking up her skirt. In the suit of Armor she doesn't do that. Also when Leon catches her in the suit of armor, he holds his back briefly, in pain from the heavy suit.

So that was RE4. I'm stoked that I finally played through it to the end, and thrilled at how great it still is today. I'm ready for this year's forthcoming games, especially RE6, which is supposed to include both Leon and Ashley. For those who haven't played it, it is highly recommended. I understand the Wii Version is supposed to be the easiest because of the motion control, but the HD version undoubtedly looks the best.

Assassin's Creed 2

Date Acqured: March 2010

Date Completed: March 4, 2012

Thoughts: I thought the first Assassin's Creed was a very good game but it didn't seem like everyone shared that opinion. A lot of gaming website and messageboard meatballs seemed lukewarm on it. I was never totally sure why, I saw the game's flaws, sure, but the things it did right far, far exceeded these. And as it turns out, it was a starting point for a franchise. With Assassin's Creed 2, the series trully reached AAA status, and those same websites and meatballs that hated the first game, loved the second.

While I didn't understand the underwhelming response the first game got, I also don't understand why everyone thinks the second is so much better. Yes, it addresses and fixes some of the problems with the original, starting with my biggest gripe, Ezio (the protagonist of this game) can swim, it was beyond frustrating that Altair couldn't. Gone too, is the identical set of optional side missions found in every town, though that didn't bother me that much. It's an understood evil of sandbox games, there are going to be repetitive missions, get used to it. And AC2 does have these, they just aren't as predictable and telegraphed as they are in the first game.

I would say the first half of AC2 especially feels more polished than the first game. For me AC2 peaks with the introduction of the flying machine. So I was baffled when it was only used for 2 memory strands and then went away. After that point, the game kind of fell off a bit for me. I got stuck for a long time on a capture the flag segment that was beyond irritating. The goal was to race a NPC to the flag and get it back to your base first, and you had to do it 3 times. If one of you gets the flag first, the other just has to touch them to take it away. This proved to be very difficult, when the NPC has the flag he travels at the same speed you are, and he knowns where he's going and doesn't mess up. I was never able to get the flag from him. To win, I had to get the flag first, but of course, the game cheats when I have the flag. I would evade the NPC and watch him sprint past me, at which point he has to stop, turn around and then run after me. If I ever did that I'd be staring at his back from 100 yards out or further until he eventually got to his base. But the game employees Mario Kart physics for him, and he is instantly teleported right behind me, he can make up the distance between us in less than 2 seconds, and then he travels at the same speed I do. The controls started to bother me more in the second half. I actually preferred the combat in the first game, I found it a lot easier to perform counters, and I loved the throwing blades, they were far more plentiful in the first game and very powerfull. They are more limited in this game and you get them later. I never really used them, which is a shame.

I think I probably wasn't fair in my play method for this game. I spent too much time away from it, and wound up playing it in 3 segments that were all several months apart. I initially played the game immediately after I finish the original game. I was so curious and interested about what happens next, but I was worried about getting burnt out on it, so even though I really enjoyed it, I stopped playing and wouldn't pick it up again for 8 months. When I picked it up again, I got right back into it and was really loving it. I stopped when I ran into that capture the flag segment and wouldn't touch it again until this week when the news of AC3 came out. I am really excited for that game, and it reminded me that I have some catching up to do if I want to be ready for it. All that time off between the game caused me to forget a lot of what I needed to know. I never upgraded my weapon or armor until the last chapter (although even when I did, I didn't see a huge difference weapon-wise, the armor greatly boosted my health and probably would have been nice to have for the memory strand 11 fight when I went through a ton of potions and took a couple tries) Playing the game through all at once might have made the 2nd half of the game better, as it is, I have 2 distinct impressions of the game: Joy and bliss with the first half, and frustration and annoyance with the last few memory strands. It's not a mistake I intend to make with Brotherhood. I am determined to play that in a much more timely manner.

Sonic: Generations

Date Acquired: Rented from Redbox on 11.11.11

Date Completed: 11.14.11

Thoughts: I really don't want to spend a lot of time talking about where Sonic games are now and where they used to be. I think that's been done to death, everyone knows, and the criticisms made against 3D sonic are well known. Unfortunately, when a game like this comes out to celebrate Sonic's history and embraces both his 2D and 3D games, bringing up that tired topic is somewhat relevant to this game. The hook here is that you are playing through the game as both Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic. At any point before a level you can switch between them. It's an interesting idea, but ultimately didn't come across as much more than a gimmick. Modern and regular sonic control identically and have identical powers. There is no advantage to using one over the other, and certainly no reason to switch between them. Even if you're thinking you want to play as classic Sonic for nostalgic purposes, that doesn't come across nearly as well as it could have. For starters, I found the screen very blurry when I was moving. I know it's a speed game, but I've never thought a Sonic game was difficult to see due to screen blur. It could be old age, it could just be me, and I did adapt to it, it didn't make the game unplayable or anything, but it did keep me from noticing which Sonic I was playing as at a given time. So there is that, for almost the entire game, I had no idea which Sonic I was using, and it affected the game, not one bit.

The game itself is very short. Or at least, it can be. Each act only has 2 levels: a 2D level and a 3D level. The levels are inspired by and taken from various Sonic games throughout the years, the exact titles of which are listed in the end credits. Even the music is taken directly from the original games that inspired the levels, which in some case is great, and in some cases makes you want to tear out your ear-holes. With only 9 acts and 2 levels each, you fly through the game pretty fast, but there are a lot of optional challenges you can do as well, and I would say doing them is necessary to really experiencing the game. Some of these are things like speed runs, or fun extrapolations of small sonic ideas, like at the end of the level in Sonic 3 when you could knock the sign into the air and then keep hitting it and knocking it up until it finally touches the ground, giving you more points the longer you keep it in the air. There are whole challenge levels like that, and they're fun, because they don't tell you you failed if the sign hits the ground a few times, you just lose points. It works well, and the challenges are fun, although a few of them were almost unplayable. One specifically where you're supposed to move to the beat with the big purple cat, I couldn't do it no matter how many times I tried. It kept me from an achievement, but overall the challenges were a good addition, and you do have to complete 3 in each act to progress to the next act, but you get to choose which challenges you feel like trying, which is nice.

I would say I enjoyed the 2D levels more than the 3D levels, but the 3D levels were done well. The game does a good job of auto locking you and helping you run in a straight line in a 3D plane, there are 3 lanes basically, and to switch lanes, or sides of the screen is just a simple tap of the analog stick, but Sonic keeps running straight. Emplying this method makes it possible to keep the speed of Sonic alive, but not ruin it by making him run into stuff and off ledges or what not. Maybe it's not 'true 3D' but it's a good solution to a problem that has plagued this franchise.

My biggest gripe with the game is probably the final battle. It is just so.... obtuse. It is very hard to a) figure out what is going on at all, then b) figure out what your'e supposed to do, and c) when you do it, figure it out, do it again, because of course, it's a sonic game, so you have to do it 3 times. It is really, really poorly done and unresponsive. There was a time when I thought I just wasn't going to be able to beat it. I watched youtube videos and people could do it, but they could never say how, they just recommended a few strategies.

There was kind of an interesting moment at the end of the game, when the bad guy is defeated (bad guy, like we don't all know it's egg man) and Modern Sonic is saying good bye to old Sonic, and offers him these words of encouragement: "The future is going to be great!" All I could do was think sadly of Sonic Unleashed, Sonic and the Black Knght, Sonic Heroes, Sonic and the Secret Rings, etc. But again, I don't want to dwell on those games. I want to dwell on this game, and last year's Sonic Colors. Credit where credit is due, Sega is making good Sonic games again. We're on a 2 game streak. He's not back to the level he was in his Genesis heyday, and he may never reach that again, but his games are fun to play again, and that's all I ask.

The Gunstringer

Date Acquired: 9.13.2011

Date Completed: 10.12.2011

Thoughts: The latest offering from Twisted Pixel (creators of 'Spolsion Man and Comic Jumper) was originally supposed to be an xbox live downloadable title, but somewhere along the way the decision was made to make it a full retail relase. It was offered at what would normally be considered a bargain price of $40 (If you know, we weren't all expecting a $15-20 Download), and packaged with Fruit Ninja Kinect. Many were bothered by what they percieved as a cash-grab by Microsoft. Whether is is or not, I can't really speak to. It's possible the decision to make it a full retail release resulted in a longer and more polished campaign. Either way, I'm not really interested in what might have been. It is a $40 retail title and I will judge it based on that.

Probably the biggest question for this game is 'but how does it control?' And the answer is.... pretty well for the most part. It's not nearly as acurate as say, a controller would be, and there are many instances where the game didn't respond to my commands. But the game is designed to minimize the effects of these inaccuricies with a forgiving game design. You can take damage. It's ok if you keep falling off the cliff because your stupid horse keeps not jumping when you think it should be jumping. I can't recall having to restart any levels due to failing them. This is good and bad, you'd like there to be some challenge to the game, but you don't want the challenge to be entirely a byproduct of the control interface. I think the game handles this well. While the game never felt difficult, it wasn't about that for me, it was about the experience.

So how is the experience? Truthfully, it's a blast. I really, really enjoyed my time with this game. I was charmed by it's quirkyness, amused by it's humor, grossed out by it's beastiality (I wish I was joking, and am somewhat stunned that this game became a pack-in title with the Kinect, it is NOT family friendly), but above all, I really enjoyed the gameplay. I was 6 years old again blowing the bad guys away with my hand formed into the shape of a gun. All that was missing was Kinect voice support so I could yell 'pew pew pew'. Maybe for the sequal.I mostly played through this game at about 2 chapters at a time. I was worried about finishing it too quickly, and I wanted to savor it. I also didn't want to get burned out playing too much. Near the end though, I just poured it on and ignored my restrictions.

Conclusion: The game struggles through control issues at times, and it can get frustrating, but it more than makes up with these through it's humor, creativity, and incredibly fun gameplay.

Gears of War 3

Date Acquired: 9.15.2011

Date Completed: 10.9.2011

Thoughts: Gears of War has become one of my favorite franchises, and it's almost entirely due to the multiplayer. Particularily the co-op makes the series for me. Playing one on one with 12 year olds who have all day to sit in front of the game and perpetually spew racist remarks hold no appeal to me. Sure, occasionally I enjoy some of the multiplayer modes against strangers (with the volume turned down of course) The campaign mode is once again the silly, almost nonsensical story of overly testosteroned frat boys. I don't pay attention to the 'plot advancements' which is why John, I still don't know why the queen of the Locust is a human. And I don't care. I'm not playing this game for the story or I would have given up on it long ago.

So Gears is back with everything that made it great. Is it a major improvement over Gears 2? To me, not really. It's primarily more of the same. Which isn't a bad thing at all, I played the hell out of Gears 2.

The campaign hasn't changed much from Gears 2 with one exception. It still offers 4 player multiplayer, so you can play through the whole game by yourself, or with 3 other friends or complete internet strangers. There are now 2 different campaign modes: Standard and Arcade. Standard is self-explanatory, but Arcade is an interesting twist. For starters, your points are shown on the screen. After every level you are ranked with how you did against your friends, and then the scores reset and you compete for the most points again. It doesn't exactly promote team play, there is a clear adavantage to the player who runs off ahead (assuming he doesn't die) and certainly for the player who gets in the big machines that deal major damage. The nice thing, is that when the 'teammate' who goes ramboing off by himself to get a big point lead invariably gets himself killed, it doesn't cause the game to start over as it does in standard mode. Now this player is dead for 30 seconds or so, while the other players go on without him. If all players die at the same time, only then does the game restart from the last checkpoint. New as well to gears is the concept of mutators. We've seen this in other FPS's in the past, such as the skulls in Halo, but basically they let you alter an aspect of the game. It could be something that makes the game easier such as infinite ammo, or a super powerfull active reload, or something that makes it harder, like making ammo drops scarcer (I'll be honest, I've never activated one that makes it harder) and some are just cosmetic. Most of these have to be deliberately unlocked, it's difficult to get them unless you are actively trying to get them, but they can be worth it when you do. They can be applied to both campaign and horde mode, which makes finishing off the 50th level of horde mode much more doable.

Speaking ofHorde mode, it has been completely reimagined. You still band together with up to 4 other players against wave after wave of progressively more difficult enemies, but now you earn money with each kill, and that money can be spent on new weapons, fortifications, and other items that make it easier to handle the oncoming horde. And you need these items. The previous horde mode threw only regular enemies at you, and on the 10th wave you had to fight riders, which were difficult, but none of the large enemies from the series' history. That all changes here. Now you fight berserkers, Reavers, Corpsers and more. I was initially very skeptical about these changes, but I have to admit, they really work. In the past you had to worry about other players taking the limited ammo, leaving you with nothing. Now that's not the case. It's a reward system. You get money for the things you do in the game. You want to buy a mortar or build and upgrade a turret? Great, better get some kills. The new system encourages team play even more. Once a base is established, it's the only place you can build defenses, unless you pay progressively more money to establish bases in other areas. The result is all the players wind up hunkering down in the same area working together, whether they know each other or not.

The only truly new mode is Beast mode, which is sort of the inverse of Horde mode where you play the locust horde and you attempt to hunt down and wipe out the human resistance in 12 progressively more difficult waves. As you go, you unlock more and more different enemies to play as, and the last wave or too offers almost no challenge assuming you can afford the nearly industructable Berserker. It's a fun diversion, but not really meaty enough to keep players coming back for more.

The game's been out long enough that I've had the time to play the three downloadable content packs that have been released for it so far. The first offered new horde mode maps, as well as new fortifications. Now you can unlock command centers, basically a spot in the battlefield where you can call down an air strike to take out a group of enemies near you. Unfortunately you can't aim it, it just attacks whomever the game feels like attacking, and it's pretty expensive to unlock, so it doesn't really wind up being worth it, since it's a one-time use sort of thing. One very cool decision Epic made was to release the new maps made available via this DLC as a free download to everyone. If you didn't pay for the DLC you can't host your own matches with these maps, or of course get the achievements, but you can play them if they are randomly chosen. The result is the Gears userbase doesn't get fragmented. Everyone has access to the same maps. I think it was a good strategy. I don't care if some gamer in Boring Oregon (real town) paid for the maps or not, now I have more options as far as whom I can play with, and it makes the money I spent worth more to me, but at the same time doesn't force anyone to buy maps just to keep playing the game they already purchased.

The second set of DLC was a campaign download. It adds a prologue to the game. A friend of mine told me that he beat this campaign by himself in about an hour on hard mode. After playing through it myself, I quickly realized that he was wildly exagerating. It probably took me around 5 hours. Sure, it likely could have been done in less, I tend to take my time, I died a lot because the guy I was playing with is terrible (just kidding, John ;) ), but I would estimate it's a bare minimum of 3 hours of content.

The final (so far) set of DLC was a bunch of multiplayer maps and skins. I haven't played around with this too much, as multiplayer is my least used aspect of this game. I've tried a few of the maps, but honestly, by the time these maps came out, I had pretty much moved on. Maybe the next set of DLC will rope me back in.

So that's how I feel about Gears 3. I don't feel it does that much to differentiate itself from the previous game, but I don't need it to. I played a ton of Gears 2, and now have played a ton of Gears 3. I don't need companies to reinvent the wheel, go with what works, play it safe, make a few minor additions that work well and mix things up just enough, and I think that's what Cliffy B and Epic did here.