Rounding off 2012

I'd like to take this brief moment to apologize for the delays that have happened, With Christmas, my girl friends birthday, and my birthday all being in the following months, followed by a series of computer problems. Not to mention the new video recording software i got and editing tools I've been trying to get used to. I had no ideal time would get away from me as it has. Needless to say with everything out of the way, I'm back and ready to bring you all the content i promised last week and this week.

Lets finish off 2012 shall we.

MOST SURPRISING GAME OF 2012

Sleeping Dogs

My most surprising game of 2012 would have to go to Sleeping Dogs. The story, the game play, the characters were all unexpected. When i heard that Sleeping Dogs was created from the ashes of a True Crimes game, I fought with myself deciding rather i should buy it. Square has been touch and go with there games as of late, and i didn't want to risk spending 60 dollars on another crappy game. Lucky for me i happen to watch Totalbiscuits WTF is Sleeping Dogs as it gave me a general view of what to expect from this game. As with all videos i watch on YouTube, I took TB's advice on Sleeping Dogs with a pinch of salt. TB enjoyed his time playing the game, so much so that his WTF is of it was over a hour long. Which is rare for a WTF is video. 

When the game released, I quickly found out why, as i put all other games on hold to play this. Though at time the story line was predictable, the characters were dull, and the game play could have used improvements. The over all quality of the game was assured by it's difference in style. Sleeping Dogs wasn't just about shooting random thugs in the face. The story was about as much as you could expect from a scripted game based off a Hollywood movie of a under cover cop who eventually goes rogue yet never forgets he is a cop. What makes this different is that guns don't play a major role, as a matter of fact they are hard as shit to come by if your not doing a mission. There are no gun stores that i saw, which means you wouldn't want to waste ammo in street fights. On top of that, guns are loud, they attract attention, unless you wanted to be in a shoot out with the local authority, I'd suggest keeping your partner holstered till your in doors, or in a mission.

The games finest point is in the hand to hand combat, clearly the high light of this game. Where as in the true crime series focused more on bad gun play, and horrible driving. GTA focus's on good gun play, sub standard driving, and some hand to hand. Sleeping Dogs focus's on extremely good hand to hand combat, at the cost of it's gun play, and yes substandard driving. (What about Saints Row? BURN IN HELL, I'M THROUGH WITH SAINT'S ROW, SAINTS ROW THE THIRD WAS HORRIBLE.) Sorry about that were was I? Oh yeah. Sleeping Dogs puts so much on melee that you find yourself frustrated in shoot outs, due to the fact that you could put them down in a more satisfying way. A flurry of punches and kicks, A series of different martial arts moves, and a block and counter technique make fighting all the more fun. Not to mention the more you get hit, the more blood shows up on your body and clothing. I constantly found myself trying to avoid getting hit in fights so i could walk away looking like a bad ass.

This game certainly wins it for most surprising game of the year for me. Only thing stopping it from being on my top 10 best games of 2012 is that i could have been so much better. The story was to scripted it, i would have loved to actually be given the choice to go rogue and join the triad leaving behind my job as a cop, or vice versa. It would have added some different twist to the game, some that weren't so predictable. It also would have made the game longer, and made it re-playable. There are some major character development holes, the story was too predictable, it felt like somethings, like the girl friends in the game just weren't finished, the driving was horrible (on PC without a controller), and the bullet time was a nice feature but i could rarely use it. The face meter was a nice addition, sadly it shouldn't have been tied to me purchasing clothing, as it just didn't level up fast enough for me to get the clothing i wanted. While it had interesting side missions, some of them were repetitive, and there weren't enough of them to matter. Lastly for a game that focus's on hand to hand combat, i would have loved to see more fight clubs, and a larger map with a better taxi system. I had some minor hang ups with the game, but they fall short in comparison to those i just mentioned.

Most Disappointing game of 2012

Mass Effect 3

While Mass Effect 3 DID make my top 10 best games of 2012, it is easily the most disappointing game i played in 2012. I expected so much from this game, and i just didn't feel like i was given all that i was promised. I'm not just talking about the ending here folks, we all know that i hated it the ending. What i hated was Bioware's cash grab schemes. Cutting out relevant game content forcing me to pay for it (which I didn't, and I won't.) I also didn't like that i was forced to play multi player. What is it with games forcing me to play with other people. If i wanted to play a multi player game I WOULD HAVE. Yet Bioware, for what ever reason, decided that it would be a great ideal to tie your success rate in the final battle, to how prepared the galaxy is. That would be great, if you didn't have to play multi player to get each sector to 100 percent. 

Just picture it, a bunch of rookies who have never played multi player in their single player games, being forced to join in with the pro multi player gamers who take their shit seriously. You can already see this isn't going well, these aren't gamers who want to learn how to play, they are gamers who are being forced to try Multi player content because they want 100% game completion. What makes it worse, is Bioware's in game store, in which you can buy items that help you in multi player... Really Bioware. First you force me to play your horrible multi player, then you think I'm going to spend money on it. BITCH DRINK BLEACH. Oh but that isn't the worst part, the worst part is that rather you get 100% or not, i didn't see it make much of a DAMN DIFFERENCE AT THE END OF THE GAME. So not only are you lead to believe it matters, if you played Mass Effect 3 as many times as i have, you'll eventually find out IT DOESN'T MATTER. Way to slap fan's in the face Bioware. I am not even getting into my issues with the ending, I'm sure you can search Mass Effect 3 ending and see the controversy over the ending. Honestly part of me was mad that shepherd died, till i found it he might not be dead. The rest is over the actually Ending and shepherds indoctrination theory. It is by far the biggest reason why this game was disappointing. Swing by Angry Joe's video and check it out, hopefully you will understand why i don't want to get into it on this simple blog. I'd be typing for hours, and you probably wouldn't want to read the whole thing lol. 

As for the last one, I actually already did that, My best game of 2012 is Guild Wars 2, which i talked about in my top 10 games of 2012. I don't really see a reason to rehash that. I could but I'd be wasting your time and that's not fair to you. So I guess that's it for this post, keep a eye out for my first impression on DMC Devil May Cry, (as that file was saved on my external hard drive) as well as my final thoughts of the game. (yes i beat it.)

A minor delay

Due to certain events, i need to push everything back by a week. So the post i promised last week will be posted this week, and the post for this week will be next week. Sorry for the delay, but situations prevented me from even typing up the post let alone posting them.

What to expect in the following weeks

First off i want to thank everyone who is actually reading this blog, it actually means a lot to me that people actually care about what i have to say lol. NOW what i want to do is take a quick moment and give you a run down on what to expect this week, and the last two weekes (one and a half) of January.

First off I will be finishing up the most surprisng, and disappointing games of 2012, and my All time Favorite game to play, which is My game of the Year for 2012. That should be done by the end of this week, expect it around Friday, Saturdayish.

The week after, I will be giving my first impressions on the first game of 2013 I am playing. DMC Devil May Cry. It's been getting some pretty good reviews despite how much i hate the fact that they are changing Dante. I'm going to try and give this game a fair and open shot, and will have my first impressions of it up by the end of the month.

That's about it for now, there may be some small post covering any news that may come up, but until then I will see you next time when i post the following three blogs covering the Three topics above. Thank you for your time.

Top 10 Worst Games of 2012

Dee's top 10

WORST GAMES OF 2012

Number 10: Final Fantasy xIII-2

            Following the story line from Final Fantasy XIII, is Final Fantasy XIII-2 THE GAME NO ONE ASKED FOR. Though I questioned why this game existed I still forced myself to play through it, I'll be damned if a horrible FF game would stop me from maintaining my record of beating every FF game created. If FFXIII was EXTREMELY scripted and story driven, FFXIII-2 would have to be a small variation with more of the same, as it is still as scripted as FFXIII but is more character driven, as it focuses on the development of just two main characters, Sarah and Noel.

            Despite the lack of interesting characters I pressed on hoping the story of this game would be more in depth and involving then FFXIII... It wasn't, though not without lack of trying.  It seems Square is having problems taking the franchise to the next level, and they seem dead set on releasing more sequels to FFXIII till they get it right. (yes I'm talking about FFXIII-3 or FFXIII Lightning Returns) Needless to say, the three thing I love in games are: The Story, The Lore, and The Mythos. FF used to have that covered, sadly this game being sequel of a game I already didn't like, due to it failing in all three categories, also fails to provide any of the three for me as well, as it is based in the same world, and they just built upon FFXIII which was already bad. So what about FFXIII-2 is bad I'll tell you.

            The fact that it offers more of the same boring unexplained storyline is a letdown, Hope may be gone, but I don't fucking like Sarah, and they don't give me a clear reason why I should give metric shit about Noel. The combat again is more of the same, which is bad, major difference is they don't give you much choice in your party, it's always Noel, Sarah, and whatever stupid monster Sarah has the ability to summon. That's never been what Final Fantasy has been about character wise. There has always been plenty of characters, an you could pick and choose who you like the most, creating your party off what worked for you, not here, not in FFXIII-2 it's actually worse than FFXIII where half the time the party member you needed wasn't in the party because he was with another person HOPE YOU SLACK JAW BITCH!!! Sorry... Sorry I don't know what came over me, back to the game. There is more Exploration in XIII-2 but not nearly as much as there is in previous Finally fantasy games. Where is the world map, the various cities, the colorful people, the airships, the boats WHERE IS THE SUBSTANCE THAT MADE FINAL FANTASY WHAT IT WAS? Not here, I suggest you grab you Wii, Iphone or Android phone, or PS3 controller and turn on one of the legends of FF from VI through X. Hell even XI and XII are better than XIII and XIII-2 AND XI IS ONLINE!!! This game may have been better then XIII but it's still bad... overall, a general waste of my time...

Number 9: Risen 2: Dark Waters

            What do you get when you have a pirate game the utterly fails at making you feel like a pirate? give up, you get this piss poor excuse for a rpg that should have never been created in the first place... I didn't really finish Risen, but no worries you don't really need to in order to get into Risen 2. This game is barely an improvement in any form or fashion from the first one, which leaves me highly disappointed, I expect more from Triple A game developers than your average gamer. An what's worse about this game is you don't even have actually have a ship, I mean it's there, but do you get to control it? FUCKING NO, it's used as a fucking cut scene between islands. That is a shame, since we all know from Assassins Creed 3, what a good ship mechanic can do for a game. It's almost an insult as the cut out the very thing that makes pirates, well pirates.

            The only good thing about this game is the fact that you can send out cute adorable pets. Get ready for this though, the combat and magic style from the original? GONE, what did they do, they replaced it, with boring one button combat. REPETITIVE ONE BUTTON COMBAT, THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE. When you make a sequel to a game it's supposed to be better, not worse. Fighting is so boring, you just stand there hitting the same buttons, watching the same animations, which is made worse when the game introduces muskets, which interrupt your slow and boring fights, considering the AI in this game even decided to, well you know FIGHT BACK. The Dialog is far from good, and the animation... This is just a terrible game, and trust me I will not be playing anything further from this title.

Number 8: Kingdoms of amalur: reckoning

Before going on I want to state this, I know a lot of people had a lot of fun with this game. That point being stated, I'm not so much as saying this game was bad, I'm sure it was pretty good. Sadly the simple fact of the matter is that this game BORED THE HELL OUT OF ME. I tried, God knows I did, I even forced myself to like it at times when I clearly wasn't enjoying the game. I mean it's got some great combat elements, questing, a story (which is boring) and shit ton of lore, but the game is just so fucking BORING. It was a MMO without the M or the O, what does that mean for those who can't break that down? It means it felt like a massive multiplayer online game, without the multiple players, or the online parts. I felt at times that there should be other people running around doing shit, so I could stand on top of a hill saying "yes work my minions, bring me greater glory." despite the fact that it wouldn't bring me anything but enjoyment. EVEN STILL THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER THEN WHAT I PLAYED.

I'm sorry guys, if you loved this game, power to you, I'm sure there is plenty here to love, if your into these kind of games. I'm sure to you, the combat was amazing, the fact that your character doesn't have a fate since he died, but came back to life, just draws you into and convinces you that there is more to the story, I'm sure that the skill system and leveling makes you feel like you are progressively getting stronger. I bet that you like the fact that there are tons of weapons and armor sets in the game, or that you can craft your own and even rename it. You probably even like the side quest, and different factions you can join, which come with their own little story, lore elements, mythos, and side quest.

I however found the game boring, the combat was repetitive, only changing if you changed weapons. The story isn't good, it's not even explained how your character died, an how he came back isn't even explain in detail or enough for you to even explain. As a matter of fact THE WHOLE FUCKING STORY CAN BE IGNORED... An if for whatever reason you explore the story, it doesn't seem to go any deeper than your ability to change the fate of others around you simply because you don't have one. The skill system, could use a lot of work, and by work I mean balancing. There can be as tons of weapons, all with different effects and stats, but they almost all look the same, or even worse, aren't different with different effects and different stats, you just think they are, but I assure you, you can create a similar weapon or someone somewhere has. The crafting is good I can't say much about that, I mean who doesn't like crafting then naming their own sword? The side quest were sent you too far away from the guy who gave you the quest, having to trek through the boonies and back just to do what he wanted you to do, and with no mounts and a jacked up quick travel system it wasn't ideal to do so. The factions I'm not going to get into this just know my boredom while playing this game was so great at times, it actually pissed me off.

           

Number 7: Final Fantasy Dimensions

            To be honest, the reason this Iphone game falls on the list is because of its content, in order to play the game you have to spend over 15 dollars, for 4 chapters that aren't worth but about 4 5 dollars, due to the fact that they are short, and just boring. The game play is boring, the characters are boring, everything about this game is boring, even the combat as the added a auto pilot mode that makes your characters use the spell or attack you selected for them on their last turn. Still what pisses me off the most is they offer the game and what 15 mins of game play there is to be had here for free, then expect that the game is worth paying to get the chapters, PLEASE don't spend your money on this, it is a major waste and you will regret it.

Number 6: Resident Evil 6

            Ok now before I go on, I want to say Resident Evil 6 isn't the worst game of its series, we all know what that is. Resident Evil 6 makes the list because what it represents, Continued Disappointment. For a game that found its roots in horror, it's slowly been moving away from that, and trying to define itself by evolving into a better game. Well it's failing at the that last part, the evolving into a better game part, yea FAILING. You can have fun with this game, but it's the same fun to be had in Saints Row the Third. You will be laughing at how terrible this game is, and find yourself wishing they would go back to more of the older games in the RE franchise then deciding to make more of this shit. This game manages to actually take out more of the story, to provide more action and game play. If you haven't figured that out, THATS A BAD THING, I'm all for more action and game play, but not at the risk of the story. The only reason I managed to get through this game was because my girl was playing with me. laughing and cracking jokes at the games expense along the way.

            To be honest with you all, I'm tired of this franchise. From what, as I stated, started out as a horror franchise, it pretty much FULLY ON ACTION. Helicopter gun fights, explosions, and well Michael Bay style action. If you want to make a action game, fine by me, go right on ahead, I won't stop you. It would be a welcome addition to the market, but don't do it in my resident evil games. Want to make a horror game, sure go right on ahead, again fine by me, but MAKE SURE THERE IS SOMETHING HORRORIFING ABOUT THE DAMN GAME. There is one thing terrifying about this game, and that's the thought of PLAYING IT ALONE, not because it's scary, no simply because it's boring, the only fun I had was playing with Vae as we made each other laugh, and came up with, "what if instead of this, they did this." scenarios for the game. This game was a utter disappointment, and a overall waste of time and money...

Number 5: Game of Thrones

            What a surprise to find yet another television franchise game not live up to the hype surrounding it. Although the developers of Game of Thrones the game, had high hopes for the game, that it would be in depth, engaging, and that it would do some sort of honor to the television show, it is clearly seen that they did not have the experience to deliver on the title. The actual game fell short of anything impressive, IF you could even get the game to work properly, as you were met with a multitude of Glitches, and a utterly annoying and confusing UI. Which kind of sucks as I kind of like the show.

            The cut scene's are sometimes painful to sit through, and the textures are far from polished, the combat is repetitive, and the controls are at times frustrating. This is a horrible adaptation to the show, and one of the worse strategy games I've played to date. It's clearly devoid of any character story or personality besides the source material it's based on. Sadly that isn't enough for me to trudge my way through this piss poor excuse for a strategy based rpg. This game could have been so much more if they would have given it the time it deserves. I'm actually dreading anything else from the series...

Number 4: Star wars kinect

As if the Star Wars license hasn't seen enough bad games in its time, Star Wars Kinect comes out to drag it to even deeper depths of crappy games, and disappointing titles that don't live up to the hype, (SWTOR anyone? No, why not? It's boring and uneventful after you hit level 50 you say? The story is the only good thing about the game you say? COMBAT SIMILAR TO WOW EVEN? Why I'd never, I think we should engage in a round of fisty cuffs. What was that? Oh you play Guild Wars 2 do you? Well lets go tear it up in some WvW eh. very well then.) Star Wars Kinect was supposed to be a game that took you in to the life of a Jedi, and made you feel as if you were actually fighting. What did we get, well most certainly not that, to be honest I'm still trying to explain it to myself as I'm sorely disappointed by this, and am waiting for a excuse as to why it's this bad. (What's that? THERE ISN'T ANY WELL FUCK THIS SHIT. *PREPARES TO FLIP OVER TABLE.* wait calm down it's not worth it...) The combat component of this game was supposed to shine, make you feel like a Jedi, as you fight Sith, emps and whatever other evil comes your way. Instead what you get is the Kinect sometimes deciding you're not in the right fucking area so it can read your movements, feeling at times that you're a fucking idiot waving your arm around like a mad man, and occasionally putting your hand out in front of you to force push a guy... why did I play this game...

            What's even more depressing, is that the best part about the game is the dance along shit that was added in. Seeing as in it was the only way I could get my girl to sit alongside through the game and listen to me rage at how they are ruining star wars, (she isn't a fan of star wars) I had to do this part of the game for her amusement, and I don't like dancing games, actually I completely hate them. Guess that's what makes this so sad, because despite my hatred for dance game, this part of the game is actually better than the actual game play. HOW DO YOU PULL THAT OFF? How do you mess up a game like this? wait that I actually know the answer to, YOU PUT IT ON THE FUCKING KINECT, THATS HOW. Don't worry though, I've all but given up on Star Wars games. I know eventually one will come out that shines above all the rest, I just hope I'm actually alive to play the damn thing.

Number 3: AMY

Oh Amy, very rarely have ever heard my girl friend scream at a game, cursing, and just genuinely pissed with a game. So much so she had to walk away from it. Which is just fine for her, SINCE SHE WASN'T EVEN THE ONE PLAYING IT. That's right, my girlfriend, the sweet hearted woman that she is, WASN'T EVEN PLAYING YOUR FUCKING GAME, AND SHE WAS STILL RAGING AT IT. meanwhile, I have to suffer through this horrible excuse for a game, wondering if it is ever going to end, or what I did to deserve to have to play this game. This game pisses you off so much that you will literally want to kill essential characters to the game. I found myself saying fuck this, a MULTITUDE of times, meanwhile my girl is RAGING over the horrible storyline, and utter fail at this games attempt to be a horror game. All the worse things about horror games are here, uninteresting characters, boring as story, lack of a scare mechanic, and lazy controls and animations, if I didn't name it, it's there I just forgot to mention it.

            What's worse about Amy is that this game goes from being horror to an annoying long escort mission. Which by the way, why are game developers still putting these in games? Everyone I know HATES escort missions. The person your escorting is always losing CHUCKS of health, and if they weren't it begs the question, "why did they need me, if they could have made it without me?" In Amy however your escorting a CHILD, who despite the fucking situation, CONSTANTLY LETS GO OF YOUR FUCKING HAND WITHOUT YOU TELLING HER TO. You will spend a great deal of time going back to grab her hand, and getting pissed off when she just stands there like, "FUCK YOU, I want to die I heard from Jesse I can get a pony if I go to heaven." prompting me to be like "Sorry little girl, God only accepts good kids, NOT FUCKING IDOITS WHO DON'T LISTEN TO INSTRUCTIONS. *hits her in the head with a crow bar* come along now." Fortunately the dialog never happens, though I did hit her and several other characters in the head with a pole.

Number 2: One Piece: Pirate Warriors

What is One Piece: Pirate Warriors? I'll tell you so you don't waste time finding out for yourself. It's a really really REALLY bad Dynasty Warriors type, action rpg, where you play as Monkey D. Luffy and recount his adventures through the grand line. This game is just sad, to be honest I would be more interested in playing a DBZ style fighting game, since Luffy isn't even my favorite character from one piece, and they could have made MUCH more money off a DBZ style game anyway. I said this before I love a good story, and one piece certainly has a good one interesting one, though I honestly don't have the time to explain the entire story to you in this count down. This game however doesn't really give a accurate run through of the story, or the fights... THAT ANNOIES ME, if you're going to make a game based off the anime, at least get that much right. I mean come on, it's the most interesting part of One Piece, and if you can't get that right, the rest of the game is going to fail. That being said FAIL is just what this game does.

            There is no shortage of Annoying content in this game, from being forced to fight countless henchmen, to having to save your crew who are weak as fuck, A COMPLETE contradiction to the anime, as Luffy always runs off and does his own thing, and his crew fight their own battles an win at that. The boss battles are repetitive and use cheap tricks and gimmicks to try to keep them interesting and eventful, but it falls short of both. Sadly the combat is also boring and also repetitive, you will find yourself using the same attacks over, and over and OVER AGIAN. If that's not bad, the game has this chase kind of scenes where you have to make it through a series of "jumps" where you have to press the right button to continue to move forward till you reach the end. If you mess up you have to run back and sometimes start from the beginning. What the FUCK WHERE THEY THINKING, I doubt much, either way, taking about this game pisses me off so where moving on.

Worst game of 2012

Dragon Ball z Kinect

If you were wondering what took me so long to bring this to you, it would have to be this game, and the fact I dreaded having to relive playing it. As if we haven't played enough bad DBZ games already, Kinect takes it to a whole different level of FUCKING TERRIBLE. I can't begin to tell you how bad this game is, lucky for me this isn't a review but just a quick overlook at my experience with the title. I have really played games so bad, I return them or trade them in, hell in fact the only game I have ever traded in is Sonic Freeriders <.< fuck is this game even doing existing in the realm of sonic games... ANYWAY, DBZ kinect, is right up there, as I took it back within 2 hours and traded it in... lucky me right WRONG, as my girl talked me into trading it in for AMY... FUCK... moving on...

            I urge any and all of you, DO NOT BY THIS GAME, it pales in comparison to any of the past titles. As a matter of fact the game has been progressively getting worse since budokai 3... All this game is, is just one big ass mini game, that consist of other mini games, and of course it's on the kinect, which mean, failure is in spades. The kinect can't keep up with fast pace actions, and this game requires some at times. The AI is predictable, and has no answer for spamming Kai attacks other then getting hit by them over and over. An in later parts of the game when fighting Buu, he spams rapid punch attacks, which as I stated the DAMN KINECT CAN'T KEEP UP WITH THE MOVEMENTS NEEDED TO PREVENT DAMAGE. THIS GAME IS FUCKING TERRIBLE, ARGGHHHHHH. Despite having a good list of characters NONE OF THAT MATTERS BECAUSE THERE ISN'T ANY GOOD MODES TO PLAY THEM IN, you can redo story missions with different characters BUT WHO THE FUCK WANTS TO DO THAT. What about create a character, not in this game, why not, I don't know would have been the highlight, yet the game still would have been terrible with it, and doesn't lose anything without it.

            When are they going to stop taking my childhood and stabbing it with ice picks? hmm? When are they going to stop making this god awful, piss poor excuses for dbz games? I bet no one even remembers Saga's eh? probably tried to put that game FAR out of your memory didn't ya? know why, because like this game, IT WAS BLOODY FUCKING HORRIBLE, the worse kind of profiteering. PLEASE GIVE THE LICENSE TO SOMEONE ELSE, because this is getting out of control. Hell, DBZ games are in the same tier as Call of Duty games, that being that they are all almost the blood same, yet we pay money for them every time they come out. Stop doing this people, as gamers we actually control the gaming market, if we stand up and say, "Hey this game is bad, and you should feel bad for making it, I'm not going to accept this for a triple a game developer." you can actually make a difference in the gaming world, they will step it up, deliver on those broken promises. Instead we give them are money rage, and say, get it right next time. Why should they when they can take our money with piss poor games like this? This just game me a head ache... I'm going to lay down.... See you guys next time when I bring you my most surprising game of 2012.