And the choices are....
(Please note, this are for only games I've personally played or that I majorily completed so your lists maybe a lot different)
5.) Dust: An Elysian Tail - Combining awesome and fluid 2D sword action with "Metroidvania-style" exploration and some of the best hand-drawn art work since Odin Sphere for the PS2 this game was an absolute blast to play and a pretty lenghty game too for a downloadable indie game from XB Live Arcade at around 15 hours or so. Of course one of the biggest downsides to this one is it's extremely furry nature of all of the charactors along with it's somewhat cartoonish plot and voicework. It's only on Microsoft's system for now and really should at least be tried out but a worthy title to play for only $15.
4.) Mass Effect 3 w/ Extended Cut Ending - Dispite some ending contraversies, commander Sheppard's final space epic was a strong one with a lot of amazing story missions, battles and beautiful intergalatic backdrops. At least they got rid of the annoying space mining from the last game but instead you gain war funds to increase your chances for the final battle against the reapers although a lot of it was annoying fetch work and finding stuff. Even playing the multiplayer factored in what will result for your last battle although I will have to say is quite fun to play, even though it's just co-op horde mode. Of course this has to be played at least after completing Mass Effect 2 were all of your decisions and people you have saved or had joined you are all carried over.
3.) Journey - The prime example of that indie developers are becoming the true pioneers for game originality and new ways to play and this, hands down, is one of the most artistic games to ever come out this year, even the last 5 years. Even though one playthrough can take about 2 hours or less every moment is glorious and love how it tells the story without any words and in the most minimalistic way possible all while still portraying an highly emotional tale. I somewhat wished it was a bit longer and had a little more challange to it but if you have a Playstation 3 this game is an absolute must, forget the demos and the reviews and videos, just play it.
2.) Dishonored - I remember calling this a "sneaky sandbox of death" and that holds true thoughout most of the game's main nine missions and is definately one of the best action games I've played since the original Bioshock. Also speaking of Bioshock, the game does share the same freedom of choosing which powers you want to take advantage of as well as making moral choices on how you want to play the game as. I will say if you just want to go and be an ultimate sneaking and killing badass you will be somewhat disapointed with the game's ending due to your "high chaos" levels. Seems to get the more true ending you more need to go through your missions Batman-style and try to not kill everyone in your path, even all of your main targets can be taken down non-lethally and I believe that's where the true game's challange lies. However way you choose to play, it is still an amazing experience with some of the most artistic graphics I've seen since Half Life 2, absolutely buyworthy.
1.) Borderlands 2 - The original Borderlands was one of the most addictive games I've ever played and during the debut trailer for the sequel they stated "87 bazillion guns just got bazillionder!" they are not freaking kidding and everything in this game is increased in spades all while still fitting on one DVD disc. The story and missions are all damn fun and a lot times funny as f**k and I will guarantee you will want to do every single mission is this becuase I'm sure you will never know when that awesome amazing loot is going to pop up (like I got one badass gun way early just from a random enemy drop). I am personally not even finished with the main story yet but the amount of side stuff you can do in this is utterly staggering. Of course replayablity is one of the high points, either by tackeling true vault hunter mode after you finish or playing as one of the other 4 charactor classes (one's a bonus downloadable), and even all of the DLC packs that have been released have been getting great reviews too. Also in the future Gearbox will be releasing updates that will increase the level cap from 50, hopefully with the last planned DLC pack for it's current "season" but this game I could constantly be coming back for more. You don't have to play the original to get the most out of this game but at least read about plot basics and get to vault hunting immediately!
Now just five other honorable game mentions that just made the cut:
- FEZ - Another great example of that indie developers are becoming the true pioneers for game originality. I originally came from the 8-bit era of gaming and this game's retro look really harked back to that bygone time of games but they took it to the next level and gave you the power to flip the world in 3 dimensions in order to reach the next platform or go through the next area door. The goal is to find enough gold cubes in order to open the final world's door and some can get really tricky to find and there's even "dark cubes" you can find that are over twice as hard to get and they equal the same amount of gold ones. I did run into a couple bugs and freezes with the game with stuttering graphic choppiness in some places and even with it's small faults it defiantely one of the most original games I've played this year. It's only on XB Live Arcade now but there are possible plans be out for PSN and PC sometime later this year.
- Quantum Conundrum - From one of the originals makers of Portal comes inovative dimension switching to solve puzzles and liked switching between making stuff more fluffy or more metal as well as slowing time and reversing gravity. The professor that talks to you during your missions is somewhat annoying but you will get over him quickly. The main game will probably take you around 10 hours to finish and it's not that bad for a $15 game but the game's ending is a disapointment. While I personally didn't think it was better than last year's Portal 2 it is definately something to play after you have been completely done over your fun with your portal gun spewing and spending your romance with your companion cubes.
- Sleeping Dogs - Grand Theft Auto: Hong Kong-style. Seems a bunch of developers have been taking ques from the most recent Batman games when it comes to current-gen street brawling and this game closely fits the bill and still manages to be more fun to play, even with the enviroment knockouts. Even though the city isn't as expansive as Liberty City the excellant visuals make up for it and has plenty of secrets to find. I just wished the driving was a little better.
- Darksiders 2 - The original game was a decent and darker Zelda clone even though it was a bit flawed but the same developers upped the ante and seems there's a lot more to do and explore with Death's tale slashing through the game's various lands and dungeons. Now this game seems to take some ques from Borderlands series where there's equipable weapons with various powers and bonuses as well as armor pieces and stat boosting amulets. However the biggest highlights are the huge and fun boss battles that defiantely takes more ques from the God of War games and all of them so far have been really awesome to fight against. Be sure to download the latest patches before playing becuase the original release was riddled with game ruining bugs but a good majority have been fixed up.
- Assassin's Creed III - Desmond Miles' final historical tale now takes place in the early American colonies which of course now has a brand new protaganist, the native American "Conner". This game is a graphical powerhouse and still amazes me that current gen consoles can pull off amazing art and huge expanding vistas. However it seems that the controls get more and more complicated with every single AC game release and the game does have a steep learning curve even though a lot of the earlier missions are mainly tutorials. Even with the game's high graphic power I have ran into some visual hicups and just general goofyness during some of the missions. This is definately for the fans of the series however if you are a complete newbie, I more reccomend AC2 and Brotherhood which I thought were more fun to play, plus ancient Italy is a lot more interesting to look at than 1700's Boston and a lot of trees.
So where's Diablo III, Torchlight II, Persona 4 Arena, Halo 4, Black Ops 2, Far Cry 3, The Walking Dead? I know all of those are simply awesome games but I just hardly have any more time to go through any other additional games than the ones I'm currently working on. I would love to play all of them eventually but unsure if I ever will, that or until they get to much cheaper costs. Then I have 6 or 7 planned games to buy between now and the end of May so it's definately going to be a very busy time for us gamers.
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