The Nerd's Top Games of 2012

Hello again! My week is still obscured with finished up my grad work and ramping up for the end of the semester as well, but I figured I could bang out a quick post about my top 5 games from this year.

In case you're wondering, these ARE all my opinion, and I really would like to hear from readers who have titles they've enjoyed more -- I certainly haven't had a chance to play every title that's come out this year.

For this post, I'm even going to put them in descending order by preference; frequent readers (if such a thing exists) would know that only my 5th slot is considered the "favorite," the rest are in a rather... arbitrary order.

If you're looking for gift ideas this holiday season, I think these would be great. I'll list what system I played them on, but all besides one title can be found on any current gen console.

Well, here goes:

Mass Effect 3 (X-Box 360) While I join the masses in being dissapointed with the ending of ME3 (note: I've yet to play through the DLC ending), I really enjoyed the game as a whole and thought it was a fitting evolution for the series. There were some components of ME1 I enjoyed more, but ME3 fully improved upon the second one and remained exciting the entire time. If you haven't played a Mass Effect title, I strongly suggest you play through the entire series. It's great Sci-Fi fun and has a really interesting universe built around it. The game play takes a fairly dramatic shift from 1 - 2, but it's mostly for the sake of streamlining. This game is great if: you enjoy games with deep stories and sci-fi action.
Batman: Arkham City (X-Box 360) A direct sequel to one of my favorite games in general, AC improves on almost everything featured in Arkham Asylum. The atmosphere is the one dramatic change, and I believe it's a matter of preference -- AA was a fairly linear game with mostly enclosed areas and tensions riding on that. AC is a more open world option, my personal preference, which opened it up to a lot of interesting scenery and side quests. The story for AC is a bit out there, but it's fitting for a comic book character. The gameplay is improved upon, meaning the already amazing combat has gotten that much better. And, as sequels should be, it's prettier than ever. This game is great if: you like Batman and kicking ass in action games.
Sleeping Dogs (PC) Click here to read my first impression of Sleeping Dogs. Since my first impression, I've almost finished the game. I did get distracted by other titles, but Sleeping Dogs has easily been one of my favorite games this year. It's similar to a GTA/Saints Row style game, but the story is done much better than anything I've seen from this genre. Also, the action is much, much better. The combat itself is on par with the Batman titles, driving feels awesome, and it is a very nice looking game (on my gaming PC). This game is great if: you enjoy sandbox games, action titles, or Chinese action flicks.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PC) This title was my most anticipated title this year, and it did not disappoint. I reviewed it right after it was released, so I won't harp on it too much more. If you're a fan of the original game, this is much, much different. It is a streamlined strategy title that stands on its own merits while pulling thematically from the original. If you've never played an XCOM title, they are strategy games that have a very important resource management portion. This game is great if: you enjoy strategy titles, grid/turn based combat, shooting up some aliens.
Persona 4: Golden (Vita) Yes, I reviewed this last week. Yes, I'm still obsessed with this game. It IS a port of a PS2 title, but it has been improved enough to feel different and much, much more accessible. I'm coming up on the close of my first play through and am anticipating a run through New Game+. Not only is this my favorite game of 2012, I'm confidant in saying it has become my favorite game of all time. I fully understand people disagreeing with this, but I'm an RPG fan at heart and this hits me on the RPG game level and, additionally, gets to the reader in me who likes mystery and interesting, humorous characters. Check out my review for a bit more info! This game is great if: you want a decently lengthy RPG, you love games with interesting stories, or you like your RPGs with some level of replayability.

There were several runner ups, but I'll save them for later down the line in the off chance I do a best game by genre feature for 2012.

Let me know what you think about my list and post your own below!

First Impressions: Sleeping Dogs and Baldur's Gate

Welcome to this Wednesday's Hunting Game(s) post! I'm going to create banners for my weeklies soon so I can stop including them in the title (which I'm trying to do now...), so look forward to that!

Obviously I still have power and wasn't swept to Oz by Sandy, so that's a plus. And that means I get to right my double feature of first impressions!

First: Sleeping Dogs! I had wanted to pick this game up at release but chose to save my money. Fortunately, GreenManGaming.com had a sale and I had credit (due to buying XCOM from them), meaning I got Sleeping Dogs for $5.00 (I think. If not, it was close!).

I honestly expected it to be a Grand Theft Auto knockoff set in Hong Kong. While I got the setting correct, I was otherwise wrong. This IS a free roam game, but it is set up much differently than GTA. First, I've been playing for a couple of hours and have YET to see/use a gun. Instead, the fights I'm being thrown into are Batman: Arkham Asylum style fights where I have one attack button, one block/counter button, and a ton of enemies that glow when they're about to attack.

Seeing as how I loved combat in Batman, I'm loving it here. It helps that the fighting feels more fluid than any combat I've ever seen, moving seamlessly from a roundhouse kick to catching the attacker behind me's foot and dropping him to the ground, hard. It's not particularly difficult, but it is enjoyable. And, so far, I've met three kinds of enemies - basic thugs, brawlers that can't have their attacks interrupted, and grapplers whom you want to avoid... well, grappling.

Grappling is a key element in the fighting, as it allows you to get through blocking opponents and use the environment against them (my favorite so far has been throwing people into phone booths and then kicking them in the chest, hard.

Combat looks and feels awesome.

There are weapons here and there, but your character is more lethal without them, at least in the beginning.

The story is decent -- under cover cop having to balance personal issues while gaining the trust of the gangs and remaining on the good side of the police. This is visually represented by two experience bars, one for the triads and one for the police -- the more missions/actions you take that reflect each side nets you experience for one or the other (and sometimes both). This isn't a good OR evil setup, you can level both at the same time -- triad exp allows you to unlock more combat effectiveness, while the police exp gives you extra tools/abilities for the job.

That's just a quick rundown, because there is more I could talk about. Maybe I'll do a full review once I complete the game. For now, know that I'm really enjoying the game, even the driving aspects (which I normally hate). I'm really looking forward to see what else can come from these developers.

Pros: story, driving, combat, city feels alive, collectibles, mission variety, movement fluidity
Cons: I've got nothing at the moment...

I've also finally started Baldur's Gate. I'm using the Trilogy mod, which combines both the games and expansions as a seamless game (all done in BG2's interface). It is awesome, but I do have a warning for new players -- DON'T use a mega-mod/mod-pack! I used BiG World, which made the setup easier, but it also installed a ton of things that I just don't know about and it's hard to tell what's been included. I ran into an issue where a high level encounter was added in the middle of an important town, preventing me from accessing the area that I should have been able to use from the get go.

That being said, I'm really enjoying the game. I love the D&D aspects and I think the difficulty is just about right (I'm playing it on Core and it's hard. I MIGHT drop the difficulty down in the future, but for now it works). Anyone who's started a D&D character at level 1 knows it's difficult, more so when there isn't a DM (Dungeon Master) to spoon feed you the first few levels.

I made my main a Beserker (fighter specialization), and I'm really wishing I went mage. You find plently of NPCs to join your group throughout the game, but so far I have found any good-aligned or decent mages (that fit with the story -- currently I'm using a mage from a mod, and she's pretty terrible). My next character will definitely be an evil sorcerer.

The Sword Coast

I'll do a full review once I finish the game (the first time), AND I'll do an updated guide to modding it appropriately -- after this, I better damn well be an expert.

Alright, that's all for now. Just some first impressions as I promised, and both good so far. I also picked up Pokemon Black 2, but I don't intend to play it much until this weekend.

Friday's post will be featured around the big news we got yesterday in regards to Disney buying LucasArts (you know, in case you didn't hear). I'm going to do a write up on the Star Wars story/stories  I'd like to see make it into the next trilogy (looks like Monday's post was just in time).




See you then!

Hunting Game(s) - Mortal Kombat on Vita

Not much going on for me in games this week, so I'm doing a short post about the Vita version of Mortal Kombat, my first official Vita game (finally!)

First, I got it for $10 at GameStop during their GameStock sales; you really can't beat that price.

If you've played a console version, it is almost identical. The graphics are a touch worse than I expected, but they are still very good for being on a handheld. It plays much more similar to the original MK games and is better for it -- it's not terribly difficult to play, though I'd say it's very hard to master. I myself do alright against the CPU, and I'm normally rubbish when it comes to fighting games.

So, if you love fighters or MK, it gets a go from that stand point alone.

The most interesting addition, however, really makes this version shine. There are different challenge modes that are unlocked by first beating them in the "challenge tower", which is done in the same way you beat the arcade mode -- complete a match and move up to the next level. The difference here is that there are a slew of different mini-games or unusual fights you have to progress through instead of normal bouts. Some examples of the mini-games include a balance game that requires you to move the Vita to stay upright (while being pelted with body parts), a Fruit Ninja knock off, and a bunch more (I'm not sure if I've even seen them all yet). Some of the unusual fights require you to use the touch or tilt features of the Vita to control the battlefield or things appearing in the battlefield, and then there are matches that simply require you to beat your opponent in a strange way. One match I thought was interesting forced you to pickup randomly appearing power ups or go blind. That's right -- if you didn't get a power up quick enough, the screen went black and you had to pray you were punching the other guy and not getting yourself ripped in half.

If you have a Vita, I'd say this is a buy for the mini-games alone. That, coupled with the best story mode I have ever seen in a fighting game (it takes you through Mortal Kombat's twisted history -- with scenes and everything), makes this a worthy addition to your library, even if you've missed out on the sale.

8/10

Other News: Sleeping Dogs comes out on Tuesday! I do not think I will be picking it up at release, but it is certainly on my radar.

Video Game News (7/31/12)

The Good:

Consoles: Sleeping Dogs comes out in 14 days. This looks like an GTA-style open world game done right. Click here for some gameplay footage.

Handhelds: Persona 4: Golden comes out at the end of the month on the Vita. This may very well be the first Vita game I purchase! Click here for the trailer.

The Bad:

Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD Collection was announced not too long ago. First, it doesn't even collect the whole series -- it is only Budokai 1 and 3. Second, I can't imagine why anyone would be interested in playing the exact same game that came out years ago, without any changes beyond the HD graphics. There isn't even online support, which is a glaring oversight.

I would have accepted a merger of the 3 Budokai titles -- each had a certain merit, whether it be game play or story mode format. Or, at the very least, an HD version of Infinite World, the last Budokai style game on the PS2 that was much better than 3 (warning: that last one is an opinion I've seen debated. My other opinions I just assume are awesome).

The Ugly:

The 3DSXL is launching this month. If you take a look at the image below, you'll notice that the 3DS STILL doesn't have dual joysticks -- you can bet they'll lease an attachment you can pay full price for later, though!

Sure, bigger is better, but it isn't everything.