Best and Worst of the Current Generation: A Review Nine Years in the Making
Well, friends, the Xbox One and the PS4 have been out for a little while now, and that means that the current generation of gaming is coming to a close. In the somewhere around nine years that this generation of gaming has entailed, there have been some pretty major releases, some heavy ground-breakers, and some distinct failures. In honor of the console generation in which I first started my life as a gamer, I have decided to compile a few lists spanning of bests and worsts. Now, a few things to keep in mind:
-I will obviously only be including games that I have played.
-Nine years is a long time, and there is no doubt in my mind that I might have forgotten one or two games, but I did a lot of thinking and reflecting, and I believe that I have everything.
-This is in no way an unbiased, clinical, objective thing. It is entirely subjective, entirely my opinion based off of the years that I've been a gamer.
-I will attempt to keep it as spoiler free as I possibly can.
-I will also be including some PC games as well. I know this is a review of the console generation, but lets face it. Whether we like it or not, one influences the other. PC games have influenced and been influenced by its console counterparts.
-Half Life 2 was NOT a part of this generation.
-Neither was the original Fable.
-I don't play JRPGs. I call them, "flash and trash," as their style is pretty much all flash and no substance.
-I don't play Nintendo games either. Nowadays, the only time you get something different from them is when they hand off partial control to another company.
-There are a number of characters that are male or female depending on which you pick, and I will be referring to all of them as "he," because I am a man and I play as one.
Lets get started, shall we?
--------------------- --------------------- Top 5 DLC's
Love them or hate them, DLCs are a part of the gaming world now, and they have been for quite a few years. Occaisionally there will be DLCs that really bring something spectacular to their parent game, and over the course of the last nine years, there have been five that I have taken a special liking to.
5): Awakening (Dragon Age: Origins)
Dragon Age: Origins is my favorite game, so when Bioware announced there was going to be a DLC that expanded on aspects of the parent game and that took place somewhere new, I was beside myself with excitement. And I wasn't disappointed, either. Dragon Age: Awakening takes place in the Arling of Amaranthine, the land previously under the rulership of Arl Rendorn Howe, one of the main villains in the parent game. The Gray Warden has been named as the new Arl of Amaranthine in the wake of post-blight darkspawn attacks in the Arling. He or she arrives there and realizes that there are talking darkspawn among them. This adds an entirely new spin to everything we know about the accursed beings that lie beneath the surface of Thedas. Throughout the course of the DLC, you fight all sorts of brand new enemies, have access to brand new spells and talents, and can become one of several new sub-classes. This is a DLC that is full of things to do, and as a result, I had a great time with it.
4): The Pitt (Fallout 3)
In Fallout 3's DLC, "The Pitt," you take a sojourn away from the capital wasteland of West Virginia and move on to the industrialized, grim wasteland of post-apocalyptic Pittsburg. The thing that really captivated me about the Pitt was its atmosphere. The air is filled with smog at all times, and the entirety of the world you explore is an industrial orange hue. But even with the atmosphere aside, this is a DLC in which you have to make major choices. The story of the Pitt is essentially that a group of people is trying to rebuild Pittsburg, to make it a city like before the Nuclear War once again. But in order to do that, this group of people has implemented heavy, brutal slave labor. The leader of the group sincerely vows to let the slaves go and live freely in Pittsburg or wherever else once the work is done, but states that until that point, slave labor is the only way to make Pittsburg a human, living city again. You have to decide: Is heavy slave labor an acceptable means to create a city without the fear of the kinds of evil that lurk in the wasteland? Or must this slave driving be shut down, even if it means that humanity never recovers from the nuclear war? Only you can make that choice, and it is made to be a difficult one. If you want to help the slaves, you have to do truly horrible, evil things to accomplish your goal. If you want to help the slave drivers, then you have to force human beings to work against their will. The Pitt is an incredible experience filled with tension and gloom and evil at every turn.
3): Dragonborn (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
Skyrim is a vast and incredibly open world, as anybody who has so much as wandered within fifty meters of the game disc knows. But with its "Dragonborn" DLC, this already huge world is expanded even more. Dragonborn takes you to the island of Solstheim, an island within the domain of the province of Morrowind, the home of the Dunmer (who I always play as, so it was a welcome addition). There, you take on the champion of Hermaeous Mora, a being that was the first ever Dragonborn. In this DLC, you have access to new items, new species of creature, new dragons, new shouts, and massive, massive, massive, massive, massive amounts of reward.
2): Citadel (Mass Effect 3)
The Citadel DLC for Mass Effect 3 is like a big fat kiss from the folks down at Bioware. It brings back Urdnot Wrex, the much beloved Krogan party member from the original Mass Effect, but that isn't where it ends. I liked the ending of Mass Effect 3, plotholes and horrid Deus Ex Machina aside. But the major qualm I had with the ending, even after the extended cut was released, was that you really didn't get to spend very much time with your love interest, who you spend most of the trilogy building up a relationship with. Well, Mass Effect 3 "Citadel" changes all of that. It starts off with a small plot of its own that is overflowing with comedy and intrigue. After you finish the plot, there is an entire half of the DLC that is just Commander Shepard on leave on the citadel. It is a time where Shepard gets to relax and spend time with his friends and party members. During this time, you can go to the combat simulator and make high scores, go to casinos, go to the arcade, and interact with your party members in ways you haven't gotten a chance to before. It ends off with a giant party that you are the host of, and at the end, there is a massive sentimental moment that makes the already depressing ending of Mass Effect 3 even more sad. I loved every second of "Citadel," and it shows that Bioware still has it, even if EA has their hands firmly on the strings.
DLC of the Generation: The Shivering Isles (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion)
DLC's, by default, are much smaller projects than their parent games. That is why, when you get a DLC that is almost as big as its parent game, and unique to the point that it is almost its own game, and all for the price of a regular sized DLC, it is so amazing. The "Shivering Isles" DLC for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is the DLC that I speak of in this not-so-hypothetical situation. The Shivering Isles DLC takes place in...you guessed it, the Shivering Isles. The Shivering Isles is the Plane of Oblivion that belongs to Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness. It is a world with two sides: Mania and Dementia. Mania is a colorful land with bright multi-colored skies and exotic plants, whereas Dementia is a gloomy, dark land with twisted roots and a consistently blue-gray sky. And at the heart of it all is New Sheoth, the capital city and home to Sheogorath. In the Shivering Isles, there are also lots of new kinds of enemies to be found, none of which are found in Cyrodiil. There are also two new types of armor and weapons and a few new types of robes to spice things up a bit. Not only that, but the Shivering Isles brings to the table a fascinating story of its own, filled with the amount of lore and backstory that was present in the parent game. Shivering Isles is almost an entirely different game, and could be considered one were it not for the fact that it is run on the same engine as the parent game and uses the same weapons and armor that you have in the parent game along with the items it adds on. The unique story that Shivering Isles brings gives you a great deal of variety as well. There is an inquisition quest, where you go around searching for evidence of a conspiracy against the Duchess of Dementia, a woman known for her excessive paranoia. There is a quest in which you delve deep, deep into a cave. The only way to enter this cave is to take an addictive substance. The rest of the way through the cave you have to find more of this substance and use it sparingly, otherwise there will be consequences on your health and attributes. There are also quests in which you construct a monster from bare parts, are hired by a man who wants you to kill him when he least expects it, and fight a shadowy version of yourself. The Shivering Isles DLC is the best DLC released in this gaming generation for a number of reasons: It is the most fun of them to play, it has the most content, and it is by far the most unique of the bunch.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Locations
A game can not be good if it does not have a location, because that simply defies everything about reality. It goes without saying that there are good locations and bad locations, but most of the time they are at least somewhat good. In the past 9 years, there have been several great settings, but these are the best of the best.
10): Gransys (Dragon's Dogma)
Gransys is one of the few locations in fantasy games that actually seems like a real place. Most of this is due to the spectacular job that the lighting team for Dragon's Dogma did. The way that the sun bears down on you from the cloudless sky makes it so that you can practically feel that heat of the location. And when the night comes, you can barely see two feet in front of you. There are a few villages in Gransys, and several outposts scattered across the countryside. All in all, Gransys is an explorable place that feels more real than most locations do in fantasy games.
9): Dunwall (Dishonored)
Dunwall is a city teeming with plague rats and aristocrats alike. In other words, it is something resembling ye olde England. But it is more than that. Dunwall is a major whaling city, and most of what it exports and is known for is its whale oil. Truly, Dunwall is a one-of-a-kind city amidst the massive amount of locations created in this gaming generation. It is a city with large amounts of estates and offices and poverty-stricken homes to explore.
8): Rook Island (Far Cry 3)
Rook Island is a tropical island somewhere in the general vicinity of Asia. It is the home of slavers, drug cartels, and a variety of exotic animals and birds. In Far Cry 3, Rook Island is created with loving detail. Small lizards scurry across the pathways, and you might not even see them. Insects swirl in front of you in the surely blistering heat, and animals will sometimes seek the shade. It is a beautiful island complete with waterfalls, marine life, and high mountaintops from which to hang glide down. But more importantly, it is a vast, open space that requires a decent amount of time to cross.
7): New Marais (Infamous 2)
New Marais is essentially New Orleans: It is at the bottom of Louisiana, it suffered severe hurricane damage and flooding in 2004, and it has a steam-boat, mardi-gras kind of feel to it. Now, I would very much like to go to New Orleans, so New Marais was nothing short of a joyride for me. But my own personal travel desires aside, New Marais is a vast city that feels like a character in and of itself. It has four sections, each with a different type of personality. There is a section that hosts all the cabarets and clubs, a section that is still completely flooded, a giant industrial area, and so on.
6): The East Indies (Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag)
The East Indies in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag are far from the Pirates of the Caribbean fan-fiction that I was expecting, which is a good thing since Pirates of the Caribbean is unbelievably overrated. The thing that I adored the most about Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was the ability to just sail around and discover new islands with stories and people of their own. The East Indies is a place that feels alive, because with every island you discover, you feel as if you have stumbled into a living settlement. People go about their day to day business, and you are just another ship captain stopping in their port. The East Indies is a location meant to be explored, and to explore it is well worth the time it takes.
5): The Capital Wasteland (Fallout 3)
The ruined husk of Virginia is the setting for Fallout 3, and it is a grimy, gloomy kind of setting. But despite the real lack of variety in the overall scenery, it is a joy to explore it. Right before the nuclear war with China, the United States reverted back to sort of a 1950's style of life. Women wore long skirts, men wore sweatervests with collared shirts underneath, and all the technology looked like the 1950's perception of future technology. Not only that, but the only CDs that have survived are old Jazz tunes from around that 1930's-1950's. It is a world of white picket fences scoured with radiation, and there is a little something to be discovered in every nook and cranny.
4): Lordran (Dark Souls)
Lordran is a long lost nation that is filled to overflowing with unspeakable horrors beyond your wildest imaginations...and that is just in the first section of it. Lordran itself is the world's dying gasp for air. There are still people living in its cities and towns, but they are either insane or headed that way. There are maybe 2 or 3 people in the entire land that both have their heads and are friendly. Lordran is a conquered, dead land, and its emptiness resounds in the echo of your footsteps as you traverse the halls that were once walked by kings and Gods alike.
3): Rapture (Bioshock)
Bioshock is defined by Rapture (and NOT by Columbia...ever). Rapture is a city at the bottom of the ocean, and its motto is, "No Gods. No Kings. Only Man." It is a city where government is reviled as a parasite, and it is always portrayed as such. In the educational facilities of Rapture, the children are told stories about the government that paint it as a monster under their beds, waiting to have them shipped off to die for a politician's pissing match with another country. In other words, Rapture was founded on ideals that, for the most part, I can get behind. But Rapture also serves as a warning: it shows what can happen if such ideals of freedom are taken too far. When you first arrive in Rapture, the city has been basically a husk for a year. Andrew Ryan is still running things, but as a result of the discovery of genetic modification, the entire city has gone insane looking for more of the chemical that allows for this modification. The "Splicers" as they're called, operate like friends and families. They talk and go places together, but you are an outsider, and they lose their minds when they see you. Rapture, like Lordran, is a dying gasp. But it is a dying gasp that is being performed at the bottom of the ocean. Literally.
2): Skyrim (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
Skyrim is the home province of the nordic people, the land from which all of the emperors of Tamriel are descended from. Being the northernmost province, most of Skyrim is covered in snow year-round, and even the southernmost holds of Skyrim are bitingly cold. It is a land that is embroiled in a civil war. Ulfric Stormcloak, the Jarl of Windhelm, leads a rebellion against the greater empire of Tamriel, because he believes that the Nordic way of life (racism and cold-blooded murder in the name of honor) is at risk under Imperial rule. Meanwhile, General Tullius leads the Empire's side of the fighting, and if he were to succeed, Nords would continue to be imprisoned and tortured for worshipping Talos. Pick whichever hate crimes you think are more ok, and go for it. Skyrim is a war-torn land in which beauty can still be found in its mountains and dense pine forests.
Location of the Generation: Cyrodiil (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion)
Cyrodiil is the capital province of the empire of Tamriel, and it is a melting pot of cultures other than the Imperial culture that it is home to. It is a land of dense forests, high mountains, rolling orange hills, and gates to Oblivion itself. The capital of Cyrodiil and the Empire is the Imperial city: possibly the largest city in all of Tamriel. The map of Cyrodiil is so expansive, there are places and things that I discovered in my one 300 hour adventure that weren't on the map...because there were too many other things surrounding it for there to be room for an icon. It is that expansive. In addition to the major cities, there are also several, and I do mean several, small villages along the way to the cities and just out in the wilderness. Most of them have quests of their own that need solving, and absolutely all of them are thriving communities with just as much backstory and lore as any of the larger cities. All of the cities are laid out differently. For instance, my personal favorite city, Anvil, is a coastal city in which half of the businesses lie on the docks. On the other hand, the city of Skingrad is spread out across two hills, so half of the businesses and residences are on either side. Or, for example, the city of Bravil was build on a canal, so the city is connected by boardwalks and bridges over the water. Cyrodiil is a land of multiple cultural influences, and it shows in the way that the cities and villages are laid out. But there is also plenty to be discovered outside of civilization. There are the Ayleid ruins (ruins of the heartland high elves), lost forts from wars gone by, caves, and of course, gates to Oblivion (but that is a story for another time). Cyrodiil is the best location of this gaming generation because it is the most expansive, has the most to discover, and the most depth to its history and influences.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Soundtracks
Soundtrack is an important part of any game. It can be the difference between fantastic and overwhelmingly fantastic. I find that the best soundtracks are those that work with the plot and gameplay of the game. The soundtracks that accent certain aspects of the game are the ones that stick with me, and these are the top 10 soundtracks of the past nine years.
10): Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age: Origins's soundtrack is composed by Inon Zur, a composer with a very distinctive sound. It just so happens that in this game, his sound works fantastically. Zur uses a solo female voice to create a sound that is distinctly medieval, but not resembling Lord of the Rings.
9): The Last of Us
Composed by the award winning (I think) composer to the score of Brokeback Mountain, Gustavo Santaolala, the soundtrack to The Last of Us is an incredibly depressing score that fits every incredibly depressing moment like an incredibly depressing glove. In the most sad moments of the game, Santaolala uses a cello sliding back and forth between notes in a way that almost resembles crying. It is a simple soundtrack with a certain emptiness to it that much resembles the world of The Last of Us itself.
8): Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Soaring adventure themes and emotional cinematic riffs are the defining factor of the soundtrack to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. It is a soundtrack that is far from the standard adventure game sound. Exotic instrumentation is used in a way that much resembles the Asian landscapes that Nathan Drake travels across in Among Thieves.
7): Bioshock
Garry Schymann's distinctive blend of creepy and beautiful is synonymous with anything Bioshock-related. It is partially through his music that Rapture is such a beautiful place while still being chilling to the bone. The structure of most tracks in the soundtrack is this: a solo violin with an exclusively string orchestra in the background.
6): Heavy Rain
Mostly a collection of simple piano and violin exchanges, the soundtrack to Heavy Rain hits hard. Undergoing the trials of a deranged psychopath in order to save the one son you have left is made even more crippling a task with the rain-like motion of the notes in the soundtrack. It seems to accent the gloomy, gray skies of Philadelphia.
5): The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Jeremy Soule is a genius when it comes to composition. It is as if he could see the world of Skyrim the entire time he was writing his score. The beautiful choral notes soaring across the entire spectrum of sound make looking up at an aurora in the mountain sky all the more beautiful. In contrast, it is impossible to start the game without first sitting in the main menu and waiting for the theme song to finish.
4): Halo 4
I didn't think it would be possible for new Halo composer Neil Davidge to write a score better than Martin O'Donnell, but he did it. The premise of Halo 4 is this: an ancient evil has awakened, and Davidge's score seems to speak the words, "we are screwed." Davidge creates roughly the same effect that Schymann does in the Bioshock soundtrack: He combines beauty with creepiness.
3): To the Moon
To the Moon made me, the manliest of the manly men, cry three times. Most of that is due to the powerful story and delivery. But the soundtrack, while ultimately simple, is so unbelievably powerful that I can't help but feel that some of my tears were there strictly because of it. To the Moon's soundtrack works so well because it really accents points in the story. For instance, in the point of the story where the selection I have here plays, Johnny (the old man around whom the story revolves) is standing at the grave of his wife, who we know nothing about at this point. He is standing there talking to himself and asking why, because, "she didn't have to do it." The implication of that statement combined with the voice effect on the keyboard that plays in the background is what is responsible for my first breaking point in this game. To the Moon's soundtrack is well implemented and powerful by itself.
2): Dark Souls
Dark Souls is a groundbreaking soundtrack that is not afraid to do strange things. It uses choral themes where people are out of tune and slightly off-rhythm strictly for the dark, kind of scary feel that it brings. But even when it is not being experimental, Dark Souls's soundtrack is virtuosic and almost classical in some of its themes. The purpose of the soundtrack is to underscore the darkness and the emptiness that one feels in the game, and it accomplishes this purpose with flying colors.
Soundtrack of the Generation: Journey
Austin Wintory was the first ever video game score composer to be nominated for a Grammy award, and it is well-deserved. Journey's soundtrack is absolutely ethereal and otherworldly and wonderful. It is a score that soars and builds up like the mountain that you are trying to reach. There is really only so much I can say about Journey's soundtrack, and even what little words I have do not do it even remotely the justice it deserves. So, my advice is this: buy Journey (it is cheap on PSNetwork), plug in some headphones, and enjoy.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Atmospheres
I find that games that really draw you in, make you feel like it matters, are the games that I remember. Normally this is accomplished through thorough world-building or at the very least thorough character-building if the world is nothing new. In the past 9 years, atmosphere has been greatly emphasized in gaming, and there have been a few that have truly excelled in this regard. These are the 10 games with the best atmospheres released in the gaming generation.
10): Dead Space
I hated Dead Space with a passion, but I can't deny that it had an atmosphere that was compelling. Part of it is the fact that you are walking around in close quarters, in a confined, claustrophobic space ship. So, there is a feeling of being trapped in a room with the necromorphs. Dead Space was never once scary, but I was at the very least compelled by the atmosphere of it.
9): The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
With Oblivion, it isn't so much atmosphere as it is immersion. Everything from the dim, hollow feel of caves to the sight of the Jerall mountains in the distance as you traverse an open plain makes you feel like you are in Cyrodiil. This is a prime example of immersion by world-building. Cyrodiil, as I mentioned in the Locations section, is created with loving detail. Everything is consistent and rich with history, and it shows in the ruined forts and ruins of lost civilizations.
8): Heavy Rain
You play as four different characters in Heavy Rain, so the fact that David Cage managed to completely immerse me is truly astonishing. Normally I don't like the fractured feeling that kind of storytelling brings, but David Cage managed to pull it off quite nicely. This is a prime example of immersion by character-building. Philadelphia, even if you've never been there, is nothing new. It is an American city, so it isn't very special. But the characters give the location a whole new lens to be viewed with, and that is what makes Heavy Rain so immersive.
7): Portal 2
The level design in Portal 2 is thorough. From the clinical, sterile-seeming walls of the aperture laboratories to the ruined underground, everything is created with loving detail. So, it doesn't feel like you are a part of tests in a game level. Rather, it feels like you are a part of tests in aperture laboratories.
6): Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an incredibly flawed game, but it is the kind of open-world futuristic city game I always wanted. Everything is a shade of industrialized orange, and you truly get a sense of the dismal future that it takes place in. There are thugs and hooligans everywhere, right up to the very doorstep of the police station, so it is evident that crime is everywhere and that things are bad. Deus Ex: Human Revolution had a fantastic atmosphere because of the thoroughness with which the darkness of the world was portrayed.
5): The Last of Us
By way of its incredible storytelling and thorough level design, The Last of Us had me completely drawn in the entire time. Joel and Ellie's story wasn't the story of strangers I had never met, it was a story that I was a part of, a story of characters I felt like I'd known my entire life. This is a prime example of immersion by both world and character building. The characters, as I will go on to describe later in this article, are some of the strongest of the generation. And the world, despite just being more American cities, is handled in a way that makes these cities fresh and unique. The Last of Us was so atmospheric and immersive because of the thoroughness with which everything about it was handled.
4): Alan Wake
This one is going to raise a few eyebrows, I can tell. But Alan Wake does a fantastic job of making one wonder what is going to happen next and dread having to go through another dark forest. This is accomplished due to a number of things: the fog effect, the wind effect, and the blurriness that the darkness brings. The atmosphere of Alan Wake is not an easy thing to describe, so you'll just need to either take my word for it or buy the game and find out for yourself.
3): Dark Souls
What makes Dark Souls so atmospheric is the sense that the locations you are in have been there for centuries. As you traverse the sprawling city of Anor Londo, you get the sense that you are treading on ground that many have tread since the dawn of time. Empty spaces feel absolutely...empty. I find it hard to talk about the atmosphere of Dark Souls without talking in a circle, but let me be clear: the atmosphere of Dark Souls is heavy.
2): Amnesia: The Dark Descent
I am one of the kinds of people who spent most of Amnesia: The Dark Descent not using a lantern at all, for fear that I would give my position away to the monster. You are always in confined spaces in Amnesia, and there are usually places to hide from the monster, but sometimes you just have to hunker down in a corner as it walks by you and hope that it doesn't spot you. When you are playing a gigantic game of cat and mouse with a freaky monster, you have no choice but to be immersed, otherwise you may be caught off guard.
Atmosphere of the Generation: Bioshock
From the moment that you step foot into Rapture, you are no longer a person who is playing Bioshock, you are a captive audience. You are a person who has unwittingly stepped into the ruined city of Rapture and must now struggle to survive. This is due in part to the fact that the game is entirely first-person. You don't get to see Jack, the guy you play as. So, instead of looking through another person's eyes, it is as if you are seeing Rapture with your own eyes. Everywhere you go, greenish-blue light filters in through the windows, reminding you that you are in a confined space at the bottom of the ocean. Everywhere you go, people are trying to kill you, there is simply no rest for an outsider in Rapture. Bioshock has the best atmosphere of the generation because it is an absolutely captivating world.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Worst Aspects
There are some games out there that just make horrible design choices, and those games suffer for it. And in this generation, there have been some horrible aspects. these are the 10 worst.
10): Flying (Battlefield 3)
The flying mission in Battlefield 3 was only put there for the purpose of having a flight segment. It has no purpose in the grander (I use that word lightly) narrative. You don't even fly the plane. You just shoot the gun and contextually drop missiles and anti-missile flares. And there is no music. It is so, unbelievably, mindnumbingly boring.
9): Difficulty Leaps (Borderlands Saga)
I am the kind of person who likes to take breaks from the main story to do exploration and side quests. But I don't like having when and how I do so dictated for me. Without exaggeration, there are some quests that require you to be something like 20 levels above your current level in order to survive. And, like I said, I like to tread off the beaten path, but I like choosing when to do so, and Borderlands offers no such freedom.
8): The Sanctuary (Fable 3)
You know that a game is going to be crap when the thing that is advertised and paraded around is how it revolutionizes the pause menu. When I pause a game, I want the game to stop. I don't want to be taken to an entirely new location and have to watch my character stand there. Call it a nit picky thing, but it feels wrong to leave a character standing there. That is why the stillness of the pause menu is a necessary thing. In the Sanctuary, you walk up to your weapons and your armor sets and equip them, and you interact with the map on the table to fast travel. It is a travesty of design. When I pause the game, I don't want more gameplay, I want a PAUSE!
7): Command Posts (Brink)
The command posts don't actually do anything. They make the already horrible experience of playing Brink even worse. You have to listen to the generic russian comrade guy yell, "they are taking our command post! Stop them, brothers!" over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
6): Leveling Up and Being Left Hanging (Mass Effect 2)
Out of the Mass Effect trilogy, Mass Effect 2 is my least favorite, much to the shock of everybody reading this. It has no plot, very few likable characters, and 95% of its missions were like watching paint dry. But one of the things that really made me angry in Mass Effect 2 was the leveling up system. I mean, whose idea was it to make a level up system where you don't actually get to level up every time you level up? You will sometimes level up 3 times before you have a chance to upgrade skills. In Mass Effect 2, every time you level up you get a certain amount of skill points, and each talent has five ranks, each requiring skill points to the number of the rank...if my explanation made any sense. I understand that the purpose is to get you to think about conserving your skill points, but it is just a failure and a major hinderance to any feeling of progress. Mass Effect 2 didn't feel like an RPG, it felt like an action game, and this is one of the reasons why.
5): Everyone is Available (Dragon Age II)!
Nothing quite says "lazy development" like going into a Bioware game and finding out that all of the romance options are Bisexual. Now, before you get your panties in a wad and start throwing $5 sociological terms at me, let me finish. I have no problem with the idea of there being love interests in Bioware games that are Bisexual. I mean, they do it every game, so if I had a problem with it, then I'd be in trouble. But here's the thing: Making every single love interest available to both genders is just plain lazy, and it takes away any kind of uniqueness to playing as any particular gender. Why even give players the option to play as a different gender if the experience won't change? I mean, seriously, they don't even call you "sir" or "ma'am" in Dragon Age II, just "Serrah," in an obvious effort to avoid having to get different dialogue. It goes against everything that Bioware games stand for to make absolutely everything available to you no matter what. But this isn't the only thing about the romance system in Dragon Age II that bugs me. In one playthrough in which I played as an evil guy, I was having a romantic relationship with all four love interests at the same time, just to see if they were lazy enough to make that possible. And guess what? It is. I was carrying on romantic relationships with Isabella, Fenris, Anders, and Merrill simultaneously. All of them told me they loved me and didn't seem to notice that I was cheating on them with three other people, even given that all of them had moved in with me by that point. Come to think of it...the mother character in the game didn't notice that I was living with four people either, so maybe people in the Free Marches are just slow. The romance system in Dragon Age II is horrible because everyone is available, and because it is absolutely broken and exploitable.
4): Leveling Up...For Hair Dye (Fable 3)?
I remember first playing Fable 3 and seeing some of the options I had to chose from when leveling up: things like different packets of hair dye and the ability to buy a house...umm...what? You see, when you level up, you're supposed to progress as a character. But in Fable 3's level up system (which is ALSO a sanctuary-type thing, I might add) you have the option to earn new dye packets and the ability to buy houses and interact with children...correct me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't seem like something that grows organically out of your experiences. But the things that really gets me is the lack of emphasis on your playing style. It doesn't matter if you only use a sword, if you want, you can level up your gun skill. But no matter how much you use said sword, you can't level it up until you are given the option. In past Fable games, if you used melee weapons often, you earned more melee specific experience, which allowed you to progress in the melee skills at a faster pace. In this way, the game revolved around your playing style. But nope. In Fable 3, you have no choice but to move at Peter Molyneux's snail pace.
3): The Mako (Mass Effect)
Mass Effect is a game that I love dearly, but I hate the doggoned flip flappity Mako with a passion. Imagine scotch taping wheels on the end of strings to the underside of a blue whale on land. That is what the Mako is like. It is almost unmaneuverable because of its flimsy driving mechanic and the oversensitivity of the steering. I died more times in the course of the game because I couldn't drive the mako than in actual firefights.
2): Funding the Army (Fable 3)
Ah, yes, funding the army. This is where Peter Molyneux pretends that there are moral decisions to be made in Fable 3. There is a powerful darkness coming to Albion, and as the new king, you must fund an army to defend the realm, while at the same time not being cruel to your subjects. The darkness will be in Albion in a year's time, and you have until then to raise something like 62,000,000 gold. Citizens come to the court with propositions to make their lives easier (but it will cost money from the treasury), while your head of industry makes a counter-proposition that will earn money for the treasury, but will make some lives difficult. If you chose the industry options, you are evil...and if you chose to sacrifice the well-being of your treasury to give children an education...before they're all killed by the coming darkness...then you're good. Umm...what the living HELL? This part of Fable 3 shows that Peter Molyneux may be the least qualified person to run a country...ever. He would rather have us all shot in the back of the head than have a single person live in poverty for a year. As a Libertarian, I approve of the idea of freedom over security, but it is ONE YEAR! I think people can tough it for a year's time, just until their lives aren't absolutely GOING to be destroyed anymore, and then after that we can all hold hands and laugh and sing and write papers on neo-colonialism. And it always blew my mind why you couldn't choose to tell everybody, "Look, its going to be difficult for a year, because something horrible is coming. But after that horror is past and we are all safe, things are going to be better." It just seems to me that something like, "this is why I am doing this" might make the whole raising an army thing a little bit simpler. Wouldn't you agree?
Worst Aspect of the Generation: Everything About the Hero (Fable 3)
Peter Molyneux's first mistake in Fable 3 was having the protagonist talk, and having the protagonist talk like a small, nervous Johnny Depp. But aside from that, the Hero's appearance does not change...ever. Peter Molyneux, when advertising this game, talked about how he didn't want player appearance to have to suffer because of the choices they make.....umm....ok, Peter, its not like thats what Fable STANDS FOR or anything! In Fable 3, you play as the Prince or Princess of Albion, and you are out leading the rebellion against your brother, who is your standard "let the poor people suffer" kind of King. And there is no way to change the way that your hero looks. There are different hairstyles, but they are all basically the same thing. It is obvious that Peter Molyneux just got lazy and decided he wanted the character to look a certain way, and decided to save money by not making your decisions have a toll on his appearance and by not giving you any options on customization.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Best Aspects
On the other hand, though, there are some really good choices that have been made over the past 9 years. They serve to improve already good games or make subpar games just a tad bit more bearable.
10): End-of-Level Scoring (Left 4 Dead Saga)
I don't play multiplayer. I think it is a blight on everything good in gaming. But even without multiplayer, I can still enjoy the end-of-level scoring in the Left 4 Dead saga. It gives you something to aim for. I've played both Left 4 Dead games multiple times, and each time I look forward to seeing how I did in relation to my computer controlled counterparts. It provides something resembling a method to the madness. You are still hacking and shooting your way through zombies, but you want to do so with style and technique.
9): The Kick (Bulletstorm)
It is an incredibly satisfying experience, sliding across the field and kicking an enemy into the air. I used the kick in Bulletstorm more times than any other weapon or power...Thats really all there is to say.
8): HUD on the Back (Dead Space)
I hated Dead Space with a passion, but I can't deny that the HUD in Dead Space is absolutely brilliant. Rather than having a health bar across the screen, the health bar is on the player's back, as an organic part of his suit. This keeps the health and stasis monitors out of the way without having to use the stupid rebounding health meter mechanic that so many games sell out and use these days.
7): Leveling Up with New Toys (Fallout 3)
Every time you level up in Fallout 3, you get something new. It doesn't overpower you, but every time you level up, your playing experience is changed in some small way. That is what leveling up should be. Every time you level up, you get to put points in a certain skill, then you get to pick a perk. So, each time, you walk out with more skill in a particular area, and a new power or passive effect.
6): NOT Call of Duty (Spec Ops: The Line)!
I had heard great things about Spec Ops: The Line, so when it was on sale, I bought it and I loved it. But the thing about it, other than the spectacular storytelling that I loved, was just how different from your average Triple-A military shooter it was. Spec Ops: The Line is a game that makes huge statements about how horrible and gruesome war actually is. The characters who start out as your standard macho men turn into human beings that are on the verge of tears on a regular basis because of the things they are having to do to survive in the war zone. A reviewer that I adore said in his review of Spec Ops: The Line that the only thing he held against it was the fact that now he was going to have to buy more triple-A military shooters on the off chance that they tell a story like this one.
5): The Pawn System (Dragon's Dogma)
There are countless games out that are squad based, but none of them have what Dragon's Dogma has. In Dragon's Dogma, you create a lifelong assistant from scratch, and they enter into a pool of other such "pawns" to be hired out as temporary assistants to other players. Likewise, you can temporarily hire the pawns of other players. It adds sort of a trading card element to the follower mechanic.
4): Naval Combat (Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag)
Nothing is quite as much fun as the naval combat in Assassin's creed IV: Black Flag. Picture this: You are sailing across the open sea, and you spot a Spanish or British cargo ship. You know that it may be carrying things you could use, so you pull out your spyglass and look onboard to see what kind of loot they are carrying. Seeing as how they have the metal and wood that you need, you sail right up to them. Given how you are just another ship, the Spaniards or the British don't suspect a thing. Now that you have the element of surprise, you open fire with as many cannonballs as you can fire, dealing a devastating first blow. The battle rages on until you have thoroughly crippled the enemy ship to the point that it can no longer move and its operators are stranded. You then leap across the crow's nests with your crew and battle the enemy crew until they surrender. Then you decide whether to use their ship to repair your own ship, recruit the surviving members into your crew, or add this ship to the large armada that you are building. It is a process that you can go through an infinite number of times, and it never, ever, ever gets old. I had fun for hours upon hours on end every night that I played Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag even if I was only sailing around capturing ships the entire night.
3): Hardcore Mode (Fallout: New Vegas)
Full Disclosure: I never made it through hardcore mode. But I acknowledge that it is a brilliant concept that more games should take up as at least an option. It is a super-realistic mode of playing Fallout: New Vegas in which you have to regularly drink, eat, and sleep in order to survive. It is the kind of mode that I have always wanted to play in. Too bad New Vegas isn't as much fun to play as its predecessor.
2): Cross-Class Leveling Up (Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, despite its unfortunate title, has the best level up system I have seen in my time as a gamer. When you level up, you put skill points into might, finesse, or sorcery. But here's the thing, you aren't confined to one or the other. You can put x points in might and x in sorcery and be just fine. This allows for a truly unique style of gameplay. A certain amount of point in sorcery can give your mighty warrior a whole different style of fighting, and likewise, a certain amount of points in might can make your stealthy rogue's attacks even more devastating while undetected. Or, a certain amount of points in finesse can help your mighty warrior to handle battles both tactically and strong-headedly. It is a truly remarkable design choice because it is truly the pinnacle of choosing how to play.
Best Aspect of the Generation: Crafting for Everything (Far Cry 3)
When you are on your own, struggling for survival, there aren't always going to be merchants carrying new gear for you. That is why I love Far Cry 3's crafting system so much. If you want more holster space, better carrying capacity, etc., you can't buy it. You have to go out and hunt to get skins to create whatever you need from scratch. The map shows pictures of animals in particular places, so you know where to travel to hunt certain animals. Then, the hunt is on. Some of the most fun I had in Far Cry 3 was going out and hunting to make the things I wanted. It gives this tropical island a truly isolated sense, and it makes the struggle for survival seem real. It is something that I wish games like Fallout 3 had done, because it is the best kind of crafting system I've seen to date.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Worst Missions
Missions and Quests are what progress games forward, or extend them. As a result, missions and quests need to be compelling, otherwise the game, for all of its prowess or lack thereof in its story or gameplay is for naught.
10): Blighttown (Dark Souls)
Anyone who has played Dark Souls is now asking: "Wait...Blighttown is only #10? What horrible missions have you been through, you poor, poor man?" But for now, we are discussing Blighttown. Now, Blighttown is not the hardest part of Dark Souls, but it is the most poorly designed. The killer thing about Blighttown is the fact that the frame rate goes completely bonkers the moment you enter the area. And in a game that is all about timing your attacks carefully and facing severe consequences if you fail to do so, an unstable frame rate is the last thing that is needed. It is an ugly, ugly area that is dominated by poisonous enemies and long drops. It just isn't any fun at all to go through, and it alone has discouraged me from doing subsequent play throughs of Dark Souls.
9): Navajo (Beyond: Two Souls)
Navajo is a frail attempt to try to make an already stretched game even longer and to make us care about characters that simply aren't well-developed enough to even remotely care about. At this point in the story, Jodie Holmes is running away from something that happened (and given the horrible choice that David Cage made, which was to tell the story out of chronological order, we don't know why we should care) in her life, which for some reason takes her from the snowy northern cities...to the desert...Well, anyway, while she is there, she is hired as a worker by some Navajo people living out in the middle of the desert, and they are hiding something. I don't feel bad about spoiling stuff from this part, because theres really nothing to spoil. The family is cursed by an entity that tries to steal their souls every night, and it is up to Jodie to solve the mystery. But the solution was right there the entire time, the Grandmother of the Navajo family knows everything, but I guess David Cage needed to make this longer, so we don't know that the grandmother knows until the end of the segment. This is also the mission in which we are introduced to the second of the two love interests: Jay, the winner of the lamest character award for 2013. But...he is just there to be a love interest, and I'm not really sure why. In fact, nothing in this section has any impact on the rest of the game, so I can't help but wonder what it is doing here.
8): Recruitment Quests (Mass Effect 2)
Every single recruitment mission (in other words, half the game) in Mass Effect 2 is exactly the same: somebody yelling about Shepard over a loudspeaker, and the exact same three mercenary groups coming to kill him. Most of the recruitment quest locations are bland as all get out and stretched out far too long. There really isn't a lot that can be said, it is something you have to experience.
7): Loyalty Quests over 10 Years (Dragon Age II)
Dragon Age II is a prime example of what happens when EA has too much influence on good game developers. With Mass Effect 2's success, EA wanted Bioware to make a game that sold equally well. So, what EA did was they told Bioware to make Dragon Age II as much like Mass Effect 2 as possible. One of the results of that is loyalty quests. But the loyalty quests in Dragon Age II have multiple parts and take place over a period of ten years. And all of them royally suck. The first phase is always short, the second phase can be considered the high point, and the third phase is the darn thing overstaying its welcome. Perhaps none of these are a more perfect example than Varric (the dwarf party member)'s quest. In it, you go to one house three times over the course of the years and fight demons. I could watch paint dry while listening to a documentary about white crayons, and it would still be more interesting than these loyalty quests.
I wanted to shoot my legs off in the Ship Graveyard section of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. Uncharted 3 is an incredibly flawed game, and this section is one of its biggest flaws. In this section, Nathan Drake has just escaped being held as a prisoner inside of a ship, and he is now sneaking out through the graveyard of ships surrounding the prison. But it is never clear where he needs to go or what he needs to climb. And for some reason, enemies are patrolling the ships...I guess it makes sen...no it doesn't.
5): The Kid Kidnapper (Fallout 3)
During the school year, I volunteer at my local Children's Shelter. Every week I go out and I play with/read to/just interact with children who are victims of abuse or neglect. With that in mind, it is obvious why I have qualms with "The Kid Kidnapper," a quest in which you sell a little girl into slavery in Fallout 3. The other worst missions I have listed here are here because they were boring or broken. This one is here because I found it disgusting. Fallout 3 is a game in which you have the option to commit acts of unspeakable evil such as blowing up an entire town of innocent people with a nuke, or selling other human beings into slavery. But there are no options for evil quite as revolting as this one. Let me tell you how it goes: Eulogy Jones, the leader of the slavers, sends you into Little Lamplight, the all-children settlement that you eventually gain the trust of. You then are tasked with seeking out a child there that wouldn't know not to go with a stranger. When you find that child, you are tasked with convincing them to leave the settlement and go with another slaver. In my evil playthrough, I thought, "certainly, they're not serious?" I mean, one can't kill a child in Fallout 3, nor can one purchase them as slaves, so certainly they wouldn't actually let you sell one into slavery? That was my mindset going into this quest. And if I was wrong, then surely I could just...pay for their freedom like I did with two of the kids who were already slaves at the start of the game? So, going into this quest during my total evil playthrough, I had several escape routes planned in case I was wrong. I entered into Little Lamplight and started talking to its residents. Then, all of a sudden, a little girl in pajamas and a bow walked out of a building and introduced herself as "bubble," one of the younger ones. I went, "D'aaaaaaw" and then gasped when I realized...holy crap...this is who they mean! Sure enough, there was a dialogue option to tell her she should leave the settlement to prove she isn't a little kid anymore. If I were a better gamer, I would have been able to select that option, but I just couldn't do it. So what did I do instead? I went to the slaver camp and gunned down every last slaver. Then I went into Eulogy Jones' home, took out the smallest knife I had in my inventory, crippled all of his limbs individually, and killed him. Then I posthumously severed all of his limbs. I guess, in a way, I still got to be totally evil, given how much pain I probably caused Eulogy Jones. But no amount of completion is worth selling a child into slavery. I am utterly disgusted that this was even an option in Fallout 3. I'm not one of those morons who wants to ban Shakespeare because he was a little bit sexist sometimes, but it really seems to me that a great game like Fallout 3 could have left this little part behind. Am I right?
4): Finkton (Bioshock: Infinite)
Bioshock: Infinite royally sucks. In every conceivable way. But Finkton? Finkton is the worst part of it all. This section is a series of fetch quests and purposeless arena sections. The thing about this section is that you go through several alternate universes to get the results you need, and people thought that was cool. But to me, it just left me with a sense of things not being finished. If I get started talking about Finkton, I 'm going to lose my temper, so let me summarize: Finkton is a horrible mission, and with that in mind, my advice to you is this: don't buy Bioshock Infinite.
3): The Entire First Half (Borderlands)
I guess I liked Borderlands ok. But the entire first half of the game was a series of fetch quests and poorly handled "kill the bandit leader" quests. I nearly quit Borderlands and demanded my money back at least three times for every mission in the first half. It is repetitive and kills brain cells. The thing that killed me was the utter lack of focus. You'd be helping some guy find his dinner one minute, then you'd be reactivating wind turbines the next, then you'd be going to hunt down the bandit king the next. You do this a few times before moving onto another location that looks exactly the same as the first one and doing even more repetitive fetch quests. I like Borderlands ok after that, but I remember hating its guts for the entire first half.
2): Asteroids (Dead Space)
Take the already horrid gameplay in Dead Space and throw in an inconvenient, not proportionally difficult, boring as all hell section where you are in a fixed turret shooting down meteors, and what do you have? You have a perfect metaphor for Dead Space itself: A clunky, hard to maneuver gun trying to shoot for things obviously out of its reach, but failing. I went through this section at least 15 times, and I decided to quit the game for good at least twice in this time period. And then in a section after this one I finally did quit for good, which is a positive considering that I no longer have the desire to smash the game disk.
Worst Mission of the Generation: Mothership Zeta (Fallout 3)
Ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmyyyyygoooooooosssssssshhhh! I wanted to throw Fallout 3, one of the best games I've ever played, out the window because of the doggoned Mothership Zeta mission. I thought, "A mission where you are abducted by aliens? COOL!" But oh, was I wrong. Was I ever wrong. You walk through the exact same alien-tech hallways over and over again, fixing engineering problems (See a pattern here *cough*Dead Space*cough*?) and fighting the exact same aliens over and over again. And there is simply no escaping the ship until you complete the entire two hour mission. It is an absolute travesty that was painful to play. Supplies were absolutely drained by the end of it because the difficulty is unfairly spiked, and ammo is nearly depleted by the end as well because the aliens can all take infinite amounts of damage. It is a horrible mission. Don't play it.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Best Missions
Like I said before, missions need to be good to make the game good. Over the past 9 years, there have been some heavy hitters.
10): Elementary School (F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin)
When you are playing a horror game, the last thing you ever want to hear is, "Come find me, I'm at the old Elementary School." F.E.A.R. 2 doesn't care that you don't want to hear it, it's going to make you go to the elementary school in a horror game whose major scarer is a little girl in a red hood. When you get to the school, it delivers on its promises. Your flashlight breaks and flickers for most of it, and there is a section in which you are jump-scared every time you turn around. It is wonderful, if you're into that kind of thing.
9): Vice Cases (L.A. Noire)
There is a large variety of cases to be taken in L.a. Noire, but the cases that take place during the portion of the game where you are a vice detective are by far the most enjoyable, in my opinion. There are so many layers of complexity to each and every case. The answers seem far less certain in the vice cases than in the homicide or traffic cases.
8): Memory Linking (To the Moon)
This is basically every mission in To the Moon, as it isn't a gameplay heavy game. But this doesn't stop it from being fun. Each quest you get has you walking around, seeing how the world changes through Johnny's memories as you go back in time. As you interact with stuff, you get memory links, and when you have enough memory links you can activate a memento somewhere in the level. It is a simple mission, but it is one that requires exploration and interaction with the story.
7): Lost Izalith (Dark Souls)
I find it hard to explain why, but Lost Izalith was just a great deal of fun, and I had the most fun in this point of Dark Souls. It is far from your standard lava-filled video game section, and you meet some of the more interesting enemies in there.
6): Claptrap's Birthday Party (Borderlands 2)
Claptrap's Birthday Party in Borderlands 2 is quite possibly the most awkward quest I've had to embark on. In this quest, Claptrap hands you an invitation to his birthday party and asks you to invite the rest of the people on his guest list. All of them say no, so you are stuck as the only person who attends the party. There is a lot of throat clearing and small-talk involved, and this what makes this quest so memorable. It drags on for far too long, making the already awkward situation even worse. I was laughing the entire time.
5): A Paragon of Her Kind (Dragon Age: Origins)
My favorite part of the first major open section of Dragon Age: Origins is the part where the Gray Warden is seeking aid from the Dwarves of Orzammar. To do this, he must help one of the two people vying for the throne become king. Regardless of who he chooses to support, the Gray Warden is sent deep into the heart of the darkspawn army to recover a long lost artifact. This is one of the most memorable sections in the game, as it has the most phases and it takes place in the most interesting location in the first part of the game.
4): Readying Clementine (The Walking Dead)
After a member of the group dies of a walker bite, another group member tells Lee (the man you play as) that he needs to cut Clementine's (the little girl Lee is looking after) hair and teach her how to shoot a gun. The result is one hell of a powerful, smile-inducing section of bonding. In the haircut section, you talk to Clementine about your past as you cut her hair. She asks if you know what you're doing, and you obviously don't, so she sadly states, "I'm gonna look like a boy." In the gun section, Clementine is scared at first, but you help her to not view the gun as a scary thing anymore, and you help her to work on her aim. It was, for me, the most memorable part of the game other than the ending.
3): Trial of the Lizard (Heavy Rain)
The Trial of the Lizard is, by far, the most shocking, most horrifying trial given to Ethan by the psychopathic Origami Killer. The quest starts off in total silence, just, stillness in a cramped apartment complex hallway. Ethan makes his way to the door marked with a lizard and enters. The silence continues, and Ethan finds himself in a disheveled room littered with sharp objects. The room has a table in the very center, and there is an iphone or something like that on the table. He goes up and touches the screen, wondering what horrible trial he is going to have to undergo to continue proving that he loves his son enough to do anything to save him. A voice comes from the phone: "Are you prepared to suffer to save your son? You have 5 minutes to cut off the last section of one of your fingers in front of the camera." From there, if you decide that you have to do it, you have to look around the room and study the various...tools for the job. There is a set of pliers, a hand saw, a hatchet, and other things that make me cringe. You also can find antiseptic and something to bite down on. The obvious thing to think about is what is going to get the job done quicker. My first playthrough, I chose the hand saw because I was thinking about sharpness...but not about function. Here's the thing, when you make the cut, you do so by raising the controller and slamming it in a downwards motion, and it responds to the force that you apply. So if you don't slam the controller hard enough, you cut less intensely. So, in my first play through, I chose the saw because I wasn't thinking about the right factors, and my heart was beating and my breath was short because I was so scared. So, I didn't use a lot of force. So, what I was left with was Ethan writhing on the floor, screaming and bleeding with a partly severed finger still attached to him. Then, it made me pick up the saw again, screaming all the while, and do the exact same thing. It took me two more tries to cut the finger off. The Trial of the Lizard is an unbelievably well-executed section that is terror-inducing and thought-provoking in a way that is different from the other quests.
2): Samara's Loyalty Quests (Mass Effect 2)
Most of the missions in Mass Effect 2 are total crap, but the quest for Samara's loyalty is a flying exception to the rule. Here is the premise: you must track down Samara's daughter and kill her. This daughter is an Ardat-Yakshi, a genetic defective with unbelievable sex appeal who kills through the act of sex. It is a large game of verbal cat and mouse in which you are always in danger, and yet you have no choice but to be if you want to catch her. You look at her most recent victim to see what excites her, and you take this on as your personality. You play a part that is enticing and play into everything that she wants when she approaches you in a nightclub. When you finally meet the killer, she is a frightening individual, and everything she says is a red flag by virtue of its completely psychopathic nature. You excite her enough to encourage her to invite you over to her apartment. So, there you are, in the apartment of someone with the power the make you want to be brutalized and murdered, depending on the skill and timing of Samara to prevent you from being flayed alive or worse. It is a quest that is fraught with peril and intrigue, and it is my favorite mission in Mass Effect 2.
Best Mission of the Generation: The Ultimate Heist (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion)
I always play as a thief in Elder Scrolls games, and in Oblivion, being a thief is more fun than in any other game, due in part largely to the ultimate heist, the final mission in the Thieves guild plot line. Essentially, the missions leading up to the heist consist of you going out and getting some mystical item for the leader of the thieves guild. Then, the leader reveals his plan to you. It is a multi-stage thievery mission in which all of the items must be used. The mission: Steal an Elder Scroll. You activate some item in the imperial palace that opens up an ancient pathway the leads under the palace. It is a long, hard passage that doesn't ever seem to end. But once you reach the end, you shoot the arrow that you stole in another quest into a keyhole on the other side of the room, and that activates a stairway to where you need to go. Once you have the prize, you jump down a shaft extending the entire height of the palace, and you survive due to an enchanted pair of boots that you stole in another quest. It is exactly the kind of thievery quest I love: one overflowing with danger and sweaty palms with rich rewards.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Moments
Sometimes, a game will have a moment that is its high point, the climax of the entire experience. And in the past nine years, with the rise of cinematic gaming, there has been a rise in powerful moments.
10): Absorbing a Dragon Soul (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
Need I say more? I mean, just think about it: You finish slaying a dragon, and you stand there for a moment, proudly flaunting your weapon and your armor. And then, the dragon's soul rushes towards you, entering into your very being.
9): Requiescat in Pace, Altair (Assassin's Creed: Revelations)
At this point, Ezio Auditore da Firenze and Altair In La-Ahad come face to face, though Altair is dead and has been for many years. This is a pivotal moment in which Ezio ultimately comes to terms with his role in the narrative of the world, and it is a powerful moment.
8): Entry to Shambhala (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves)
Nathan Drake and company have spent the entirety of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves in a race with villains Lazarovic and Harry Flynn to Shangri-La. Like so many explorers before them, Shangri-La has seemed out of reach for the entire journey, but at last they have arrived. They walk through dark, gloomy caverns under the ground for such a long time, and then they open the door, and there it is: Shangri-La, a golden city whose beauty is unparalleled, especially given the contrast.
7): To Slay an Archdemon (Dragon Age: Origins)
At the end of Dragon Age: Origins, the Gray Warden has to make a choice. I won't spoil that choice, but it is important and requires genuine thought. Either way, the Archdemon will be defeated and the blight will be ended. But the important thing to consider is the cost. What is good and evil in the context of the end of all things? Only you can decide that.
6): Giraffes (The Last of Us)
This is by far the most beautiful moment in The Last of Us, and it is perfect because right after this moment is over, everything begins to fall apart for Joel and Ellie. At this point in the story, it has been a few months since Ellie was very nearly raped and brutalized by David. Since then, Ellie has been quieter, more reflective. The spring chapter opens up with Ellie seeming more distant from Joel...and then this moment happens. It is the apex of the beauty of The Last of Us, it is one last moment of happiness before absolutely everything happy disappears.
5): Omega 4 Relay (Mass Effect 2)
No ship has ever survived a trip through the unmapped Omega 4 Mass Relay. Unfortunately for Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy, that is exactly where they must go to save the human race from annihilation by the Collectors. They don't know what lies beyond the relay, they just know that the Collectors live beyond it. The moment they go through the relay, they find themselves in the galactic core amidst the ruins of ships that are thousands of years old and destroyed as a result of not being prepared to go through the relay. In the distance, they can see the Collector home world...and a giant pulsating star that looks like its about to explode.
4): Winning a Boss Fight (Dark Souls)
Dark Souls is a cripplingly hard game, and its boss fights aren't any easier. There are some bosses that you will go up against over twenty times without making any progress. It is frustrating, but there is no greater moment in the game than when you finally kill that demon or golem, or finally, finally, finally rid the world of Lightning Buddha (you'll know it when you see it).
3): Whew (To the Moon)
The image I have here is not from the moment I am talking about. Any screenshot from the moment I am talking about would totally spoil it. But anyway. To the Moon made me cry three times, and more times in another play through. Most of these instances were moments of sadness, times where even the manliest of men would cry. But this moment that I've listed, "whew," was a moment for which I will gladly surrender my man card for crying. It is a moment of unexpected beauty that is a welcome development in its context.
2): Don't Forget About Me (Heavy Rain)
David Cage has been teasing the player for a good half hour at this point, making us think we're about to find out who the deranged Origami Killer is. And this point is the point in which we are subtly told who it is. I'm not going to spoil who it is, because that would be absolutely inhumane, but make no mistake. You will leap out of your chair. The thing about this moment that makes it stand out is the fact that, as I have stated, it is subtle. It isn't, "and the killer is...THIS PERSON!" Rather, it is, "don't forget about me, [name]."
Moment of the Generation: Would you Kindly (Bioshock)?
I'll never forget the first time I played Bioshock. When I reached this particular moment, my jaw separated from my face and fell onto the floor. I needed elmer's glue and scotch tape to put it back on and to this day I have to be careful never to play any video games with particularly good plot twists. I can't say any more without spoiling things, so let me just assure you that you will not see it coming. Too bad there hasn't been a good Bioshock game since this one.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Non-Human Races
Humans, especially in a fantasy setting, can be pretty boring. That is why fantasy writers make elves or dwarves and what not. These are the top 10 non-human races of the past generation.
10): Elites (Halo Saga)
The Elites are part of the covenant not as a result of blindly following the prophets, but because they truly believe that igniting the halo rings will bring them to the afterlife. And when they realize how the prophets have been manipulating and lying to them all along, they join humanity in an attempt to save the universe that they had previously been working to destroy.
9): Ghouls (Fallout Saga)
Ghouls are humans who have been utterly bombarded by radiation, and for some reason, this didn't kill them. Rather, they lived as something resembling walking corpses. Some of them are feral and attack anything they see, and some of them are just people who look like corpses. They face discrimination on a day to day basis, and some of them have turned to violence to stop the hatred. It is a constant battle reminiscent of many battles fought today.
8): The Quarians (Mass Effect Saga)
The Quarians used to live on Rannock, an extremely clean planet without much in the way of bacterium or disease. On Rannock, the Quarians invented an artificial intelligence unit capable of untold technological prowess, the Geth. The Geth and Quarians eventually fought each other, and the Quarians were driven from Rannock. Upon leaving, they found that living on such a clean planet had a negative effect on the capability of their immune systems, and they realized that they needed to live in suits to protect them from foreign contaminants. The Quarians are the greatest engineers in the galaxy, and they lost everything.
7): Nightkin (Fallout Saga)
The Nightkin are a kind of super mutant that suffers from horrific schizophrenia, causing them to worship cow skulls as their leaders and believe that passersby are their grandchildren. Need I say more?
6): Witchers (The Witcher Saga)
Witchers are mutants that are essentially made to be professional monster slayers. They can use "signs," scandanavian-ish magic spells that are more tactical than offensive, and they are equipped with a steel sword for killing human enemies and a silver sword for killing monsters. Witchers also have thorough knowledge of alchemy. In other words, Witchers are made to be awesome.
5): Dragons (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
The Dragons in Skyrim are far from mindless beasts. Rather, they are something resembling a viking society. They have verbal debates (which, to us, appears as fighting each other with fire or ice), a hierarchy system, and free will to follow or not follow Alduin. Plus...I mean...they're Dragons. I mean, come on.
4): The Hooded Figures (Journey)
The hooded figures once held an advanced understanding of technology. They rose up to reach great technological heights, but civil war and indiscriminate killing of their brothers and sisters broke them down into nothing save for a few pilgrims. The story of the hooded figures is one of pride and a fall, and a redemption in a way.
3): The Qunari (Dragon Age Saga)
The Qunari are a fascinating species. These horned giants follow a strict religion that makes infinite amounts of sense whether you agree with it or not. Qunari are born into a particular role, and that is who they are. Qunari don't try to change their role, because why would someone want to change who they are? Why would a farmer want to be a warrior? He is a farmer, not a warrior, and that should be enough for him. But the Qunari are not just horned giants. Humans, elves, dwarves, anyone who wants to live by the Qun, anyone who wants to live a life of clearly defined purpose, is a Qunari. The title just happens to be attributed to the horned giants.
2): The Fae (Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning)
The Fae are a brilliant concept. They are immortal, and they represent nature and reality and life. The Seelie Fae represent growth and birth and light, and the Unseelie Fae represent decay and death and darkness. They aren't inherently good or evil (until an evil one does take over), they just represent these things by existing. Life and Death, life and darkness, growth and decay, both sides of each coin are necessary for everything we know to exist. They are hard to describe, but hopefully you can see what I mean when I say that they are truly a fascinating idea.
Best Non-Human Race of the Generation: The Dwemer (The Elder Scrolls Saga)
Todd Howard, the man responsible for The Elder Scrolls, has a very different idea of dwarves than any other fantasy writer. In the Elder Scrolls universe, the Dwarves were actually an ancient variety of elf from which all the known elves are descended. They were also the most technologically advanced, intelligent race of all time. They are also extinct. But despite the fact that the Dwemer are extinct, their technology lives on independent of them. The automata that they invented still operate and go about their day to day operations, entirely unaware that their creators are all dead. The Dwemer are #1 on this list because their lore is fascinating, their contribution to the world of The Elder Scrolls is fascinating, and the Dwemer in general are, you guessed it, also fascinating.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Voice Actors
In the modern gaming world, we no longer have to rely on text boxes to get dialogue across. Characters come with a voice actor or actress, and over the years, there have been some amazing talents in video games. These are the top 10 voice actors/actresses for the current generation.
10): Emily Rose as Elena Fisher (Uncharted saga)
Emily Rose really makes Elena Fisher stand out. She hasn't really been in much, but the performance that Rose delivers really serves to humanize Elena Fisher. There are a lot of women characters in video games, and a lot of them, unfortunately, are performed exactly the same way...in a way trying to emulate Jennifer Hale. Emily Rose doesn't bow to this. She plays Elena Fisher as a human being, not as a character.
9): Steve Blum as Oghren (Dragon Age: Origins), Grunt (Mass Effect 2 and 3), and Grayson Hunt (Bulletstorm)
Steve Blum pretty much plays guys with gravelly voices all the time. But he adds a layer of nuance to the ones that have nuance to be added. Unlike a lot of gravelly voice actors, he doesn't just play his characters as tough guys who occasionally have soft moments. Instead, he plays them as people who have tough and soft moments...and just happen to have gravelly voices.
8): Melissa Hutchinson as Clementine (The Walking Dead)
The thing about Clementine's character is that she develops and matures over the course of the game. Hutchinson captures this flawlessly in her voice acting. That is really the most stunning thing about Hutchinson's performance: it evolves over time, much like Clementine herself.
7): Claudia Black as Morrigan (Dragon Age: Origins), Chloe (Uncharted 2 and 3), and Sam (Gears of War 3).
Claudia Black is perhaps the big name in Dragon Age: Origins, as most people remember Morrigan more than the other characters. Like Steve Blum, Claudia Black is cast as pretty much one kind of character: sensuous and confident. Unlike Blum's type, there is nothing inherently cheesy about the kinds of characters Claudia Black is typically cast as. Black takes each character that she is cast as, and she makes them her own.
6): Nolan North as Nathan Drake (Uncharted Saga), David (The Last of Us), and Desmond Miles (Assassin's Creed saga).
Nolan North is a voice actor for whom you have to look on IMDB to know that he is in something. This is because he plays each character so uniquely that there really isn't a way to tell it is him. That...is really all there is to say. You'll just have to see what I mean for yourself.
5): Michael Mando as Vaas Montenegro (Far Cry 3)
Now, I was a theatre kid in high school. And one of the things I remember was the idea that crazy is hard to play. It is something that just begs to be overdone, and thus few people can capture insanity well. Michael Mando is one such person.
4): Roger Craig Smith as Ezio Auditore da Firenze (Assassin's Creed saga)
Roger Craig Smith is not an Italian, and yet he plays the Italian protagonist of the Assassin's Creed saga flawlessly. Not only that, but he is also Sonic the Hedgehog and Thomas on the Regular Show (one of the more compelling shows on Cartoon Network nowadays. Don't ask). It is incredibly easy to overdo accents, and Roger Craig Smith manages to avoid falling into that particular trap.
3): Steve Valentine as Alistair (Dragon Age: Origins), and Harry Flynn (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves).
Steve Valentine can play diverse rolls such as a bumbling idiot who thinks he is funny and a true snake in the grass, and he plays them uniquely and well. His voice is a really cheery, sort of bouncy, fun, kind of voice, and that makes any character he plays an extension of the voice. For instance, Alistair is a bumbling idiot, and so that happy voice informs that role. On the other hand, Harry Flynn is a slithering snake of a villain, and so the happy voice lends sort of a psychopathic, insulting vibe to the character.
2): Jennifer Hale as Cortana (Halo saga), Female Commander Shepard (Mass Effect trilogy), and Rosalind Lutece (Bioshock: Infinite).
Everything that Jennifer Hale touches turns to acting gold. I really have no way to describe it, so you're just going to have to take my word for it...although, if you've played a video game before, you've probably heard Jennifer Hale's acting, so you already know what I mean.
Voice Actor of the Generation: Troy Baker as Joel (The Last of Us), Booker DeWitt (Bioshock: Infinite), and Kai Leng (Mass Effect 3).
The joke about Troy Baker is that he is in too many games, but I don't think that is a bad thing. After all, Troy Baker is a man of many, many, many, many, many talents. I mean, people aren't wrong, he is in a LOT of games. But he plays each part well. There was a moment in The Last of Us, near the beginning, where I really stopped to think about it. Sarah, Joel's daughter, had just died in his arms, and I stopped to think about how Troy Baker didn't have the soundtrack in the background, he didn't have a dead little girl in his arms, he didn't have anything that Joel had right there, but he still delivered a heartbreaking performance, as if he and Joel were in the same shoes. Voice actors don't get nearly enough credit. The thing is, regular on-stage or on-screen actors have more to draw from. Voice actors don't see what the characters look like, they rarely get to act out the actions, but they can still occaisionally deliver a stunning performance. And, while Troy Baker most likely got to act out the scene with motion capture tech attached to him, and possibly while holding Sarah's voice actress, he still had a lot less to work with than if he weren't a voice actor. He is truly an inspiration to the world of acting, and I can't wait to see what thousands of roles he plays in this upcoming generation.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Lamest Characters
Characters are an important part of any story, and unless you are a darn good storyteller, you can't tell a good story if your characters are lame.
10): Anders (Dragon Age II)
Anders is a character carried over from Dragon Age: Awakening, the DLC I mentioned earlier. In the DLC, he was a witty mage who was known for constantly escaping the circle of magi and just wanting to be left alone. In Dragon Age II, they take the whole hating the circle of magi thing and expand on it in the worst possible way. Anders is like a mosquito that follows you around as you hold the door open for someone and says "You monster! That person didn't need you to hold the door for them!" And then when you don't open the door for someone, he turns around and says, "why didn't you hold the door for them? Inconsiderate." Anders is the type of person that we have a lot of at the college that I go to: A person who absolutely has to be the target of some kind of oppressive gesture at all times. He simply cannot LIVE without being oppressed, and all he ever does is whine and lament. Anders made me want to support the templars, to support locking up all the mages and having them executed at the first sign of demon consorting. That is the exact wrong way to go about making someone sympathetic to your cause.
9): Alyn Shir (Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning)
I have already forgotten Morrigan...I mean, Alyn Shir's name. She is KoA:R's version of Morrigan from Dragon Age: Origins, and she fails miserably as a character. In KoA:R, you have lost your memory, but evidently you knew Alyn Shir before you died and came back to life. Alyn Shir tells you this multiple times, but doesn't tell you any details...because...I don't know...you weren't ready? Or something? What it boils down to is this: the creators needed you to not know any details until the end...so they made Alyn Shir...not tell you stuff.
8): Subject Delta (Bioshock 2)
Subject Delta is a big daddy, you know, one of those giant monsters that you had difficult boss fights with all throughout the original Bioshock? Well...Subject Delta is a prototype. Which essentially means he is faster and stronger than...other big daddyswaitaminute...that doesn't seem right. Why would a prototype be faster and stronger than the final model? And more importantly...why would a model that is faster and stronger be so easily killed? Questions, questions, and more questions.
7): Elizabeth (Bioshock: Infinite)
I have never come across a character quite as inconsistent and forcefully pried into some semblance of development as Elizabeth: the supporting character from Bioshock that everybody loved because they got to see her cleava...I mean, because she was "like a second Alyx Vance." In the artistic wonder that is "Zoolander," the main character is a male model who has all these different looks and poses, but it is the same one each time and nobody realizes it. At the end, the main villain points out, "Its the same thing every time! Am I the only one who is noticing this?" And I feel the same way with Bioshock: Infinite. People go about worshipping the ground it walks on, telling it, "no, Bioshock: Infinite, don't take a shower yet, I haven't gotten to kiss your feet enough," and they love to go on and on about Elizabeth and how wonderful she is. And when they do this, I feel like the villain in Zoolander, and I wonder how nobody else can see the BLINDING inconsistencies! But I'm getting off topic, we're talking about Elizabeth specifically. Allow me to point out the ways in which Elizabeth is inconsistent as a character. 1) "Booker, you killed that guy, nooooo, I hate it when you kill people." "Oh, Booker, look! Ammo for the gun that you kill people with! Catch!" 2) "Oh no, I killed somebody! I'm going to put on a Victorian dress that shows my cleavage and cut off my ponytail now!" 3) E: Why did you rescue me? B: I owe some people money, and they'll wipe away my debt in exchange for you. E: Hmmm. [Literally 5 minutes later] E: Wait a minute, where are we going? B: I owed some people money, and they'll wipe away my debt in exchange for you. E: waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa you betrayed me! 4) Dialogue type 1: "Yeah, well I want a puppy, but we don't always get what we want!" Dialogue type 2: "Comstock, Father, whomever you are. I am leaving, and there is naught you may do to stop me." 5) "I've been locked in this tower my whole life without human contact, but I can talk!" 6) I've been locked in this tower my whole life without human contact, but I have flawless manners and can interact in social situations perfectly!" 7) I've been locked in this tower my whole life with only the type of books a crazily conservative brainwasher would want me to have, but it's ok, I disagree with racism!" 8) I am a woman in 1912 in an ultra radical conservative city, locked in a tower with only the books that the worst of these people would want me to have, and those books include physics, lock picking, geography, sociology, some degree of engineering, lots of scholarly things that one of these people would be totally ok with a woman studying!" 9) "*sounds of exertion* Gaah, I can't control my powers, noooooo!" [on the battlefield] "Bam! Bam! Bam! Oh, you need that tear opened stat? Bam! Oh, changed your mind? BAM!" 10) "I've just unlocked my full potential. Other me's shall appear and we shall speak like a greek chorus!" 11) "Oh, you think I'm inconsistent? Let me just pull out the Bioshock: Infinite fans' favorite copout: Multiple Universes!" And with that fraction of a fraction list of inconsistencies in Elizabeth's character alone, I believe I have made my point.
6): Aveline (Dragon Age II)
The entire time I was playing Dragon Age II, whenever I saw Aveline, I couldn't help but wonder...why on earth is she here? She has the least amount of personality out of all of the sloppy sludges of non-personality that are your party options in Dragon Age II, and she serves literally no role in the game. I mean, Anders is annoying as all hell, but at least he has a character.
5): Agarth (Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning)
Forgot his name too. *Sigh* Agarth's dialogue consists of lines talking about how he needs a drink and isn't used to doing this or that sober. He is essentially KoA:R's attempt at a character like Ogren: a powerful warrior who loves to get drunk and fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighht and crack jooooooooooookes! And he, like Alyn Shir, fails spectacularly.
4): Literally Every Character (Rage)
That is not an exaggeration. There is not a single compelling, not even 2-dimensional character in Rage. And I feel like that is a perfect metaphor for the game itself, as the game itself is a 2-dimensional (not in a literal animation sense, but you get what I mean) slop.
3): Page (Fable 3)
When you have rebel leader character, they either excel or they flop, and Page is a prime example of a flop. Everything she says is of the most dire importance: "We're running out of food. How much longer do our people have to starve?" "My stomach hurts. Only the rich can survive down here!" "It is sunny outside. The people need a true leader!" Page, like Daisy Fitzroy and countless other rebel leader characters, is not so much a character as a thing that talks to you sometimes and likes to breathe down your neck looking for the slightest indication that you might make more money than she does.
2): Olfina Gray-Mane (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
Olfina Gray-Mane's sole purpose in Skyrim is to call you a misogynist and spout lines about women and men being equal...don't get me wrong, that is all well and good, but that is literally the only thing she is there for. I have long said that the only way that Todd Howard (the man responsible for the Elder Scrolls series) knows how to write strong women is to make them all cocky and arrogant, and Olfina Gray-Mane proves me partially wrong. Howard also can write strong women by making their strength all they talk about. Her lines include: "Whats the matter? You can't stand the sight of a strong Nord woman?" "The daughters of Skyrim are just as capable as the sons." "There's nothing that a man can't do that I can't do better, whether its serving drinks or slaying trolls." And she follows you around Whiterun spouting this at you...literally. She follows you around (or...at least she did with me, every play through) spouting hot air at you. After being questioned as to my ability to stand the sight of a strong Nord woman the fiftieth time, I decided the answer was no, and I placed an arrow right between her eyes. Hmm. Not very strong if it only took one arrow to kill her. I guess its for the best, as the bow that I enchanted using her soul was put to use doing the troll slaying that she cared about so much.
Lamest Character of the Generation: Frea (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
Frea makes me want to tear my hair out. She accompanies you on your first quest in the Dragonborn DLC, and every moment was literally painful for me. She not only has no personality, it is as if she is a vacuum for personality. All enjoyment was drained from me with every sentence she spoke. Its not something I can describe, you just have to experience Frea to know what I mean.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Love Interests
I say this at the start of every top love interest list I do: This is NOT a "hottest girl" list. It is not. No. Never has been. Never will be. Are we clear? Good. Now, if you accuse me of making a "hottest girl" list, I'm going to assume you can't read. In this section, I look at love interests and how they do in their role in the story as a love interest and as a character in general.
10): Abigail Marston (Red Dead Redemption)
Mrs. Marston was one of John Marston's gang members from back in the day. That is, until they settled down and married. I can't quite describe what I find so compelling about Abigail Marston, but rest assured, Rockstar games doesn't make weak characters.
9): Your Spouse (Fable 2)
This picture is not from Fable 2, because I couldn't find any from Fable 2. Rather, this image is from the first Fable game...whatever. In Fable 2, there is a point in which you are gone for TEN YEARS. And your spouse waits for you in that time. That isn't to say that your spouse is a dainty wallflower, though. If you cheat on her or don't pay your upkeep, she will leave you to find greener pastures. And unless you do happen to marry a housewife, she works and makes money for you and whatever children you might have.
8): Tess (The Last of Us)
Tess and Joel together are the two most feared smugglers in all of Boston. It is almost a Bonny and Clyde-esque partnership. There isn't much directly expressed love between the two, but it is heavily implied, and their actions speak for themselves.
7): Shani (The Witcher)
Shani is sort of the unsung love interest of the original Witcher game. A kind soul with a very clearly defined opinion of right and wrong, Shani often is overlooked in favor of Triss Marigold, the "main" love interest of the game. Between that and the fact that she is not present in the second witcher game, Shani seems to fade into oblivion. But for the short time in which Shani is there, she is a worthwhile character to get to know better.
6): Alice Wake (Alan Wake)
Alice Wake is a photographer for a living, and she lives with her husband, the protagonist of the game, Alan Wake, who is a writer. But Alan Wake, at the start of his game, has had massive writer's block for a year. So, what does Alice do? She schedules an entire vacation, the focus of which is to help Alan write again. That is what love can do. It can help pick people up again when they are down...if only that is what came of Alice's attempts. Sadly, her attempts to help her husband get back on his feet are met with anger and ungratefulness.
5): Leliana (Dragon Age: Origins)
Leliana is an oddball of a character: a former assassin turned student of the religion of Thedas who has a vision that leads her to work with the Grey Warden. You are aware that Leliana has a shady past, and yet she still manages to give off this sort of bubbly feel. She is a capable rogue who is talented and confident in her skills as a bard, and she comes in handy, as she is the most suitable archer in the party.
4): Elena Fisher (Uncharted Saga)
I have heard Elena Fisher described as a crush, and I have to agree with that. She can hold her own in the kinds of gunfights that Nathan gets himself into, but her dialogue is still the girl-next-door brand of special. She has a strong sense of what is right, and she is not afraid to voice this to Nathan. If ever there was a love interest that benefitted the protagonist, it is Elena Fisher. She is constantly turning Nathan away from the temptations and wrong paths that he often finds himself stumbling upon.
3): Tali'Zorah vas Normandy (Mass Effect Saga)
Tali is my love interest of choice in the Mass Effect Saga. She is a bubbly, joyful individual, but here's the thing...she's also the best engineer of her time. Smart, adorable, and capable in a fight? What more could Commander Shepard want? Tali is a Quarian, a race of people who lived on an incredibly clean planet. As a result, when they were driven from their home, their immune systems weren't prepared, and so they must all wear suits that keep outside contamination out. A single puncture to the outside of the suit could kill Tali, but she still steps up to fight any time she is allowed to.
2): Sophia Sartor (Assassin's Creed: Revelations)
Sophia is an Italian in Constantinople when Ezio arrives there in Assassin's Creed: Revelations. She is a bookstore owner with a passion for what she does. A cultured lady and an intellectual far beyond her time (in terms of general education for her gender). Sophia is by far the most charming of the love interests on this list. She always seems to have something clever to say whenever Ezio drops by. What's more, she does not judge Ezio when she figures out his profession. Instead, like a good intellectual, she tries to learn the fundamental aspects of his creed and how they might be implemented into life.
Love Interest of the Generation: River Wyles (To the Moon)
River is a red-head with Aspergers, the wife and childhood sweetheart of Johnny (the man around whom the events of the plot revolve). A pivotal moment in the plot is a moment in which Johnny is confessing to his friends that it really doesn't seem like River cares, and that it is taking a toll on him. But another friend of his with Aspergers assures him that just because River has a hard time articulating her love or her caring, it doesn't mean that she doesn't care. And, as we learn later in the story, River was, in fact, articulating her love for Johnny and the reasons for it throughout their entire marriage, but Johnny just didn't realize it. River, despite having a syndrome that makes her unable to interact in accordance with social norms, is smitten with a love that operates on different terms than it would for you or I, and it is such an incredibly sweet thing that I can't help but put River as the best love interest developed in this gaming generation.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Supporting Characters
Sometimes, a protagonist can't save the world on their own. Sometimes they need a bit of help, and the best supporting characters are there to help them even when times are their toughest.
10): Amata (Fallout 3)
Ok. Lets just face the facts. Lets all come clean and get it off our chests. All of us, male or female, fell in love with Amata. She defies her father and risks horrible punishments to help you escape from the vault when her father's soldiers are looking for you. Not to mention, she has been your only friend since the two of you were small.
9): Claptrap (Borderlands Saga)
Possibly the least helpful sidekick ever, Claptrap has a charm to him that makes him a joy to have around, even when he accidentally summons more enemies to fight you.
8): Hadvar (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
An imperial soldier in the process of having you executed, who soon becomes your best friend in crushing the stormcloak rebellion. It is a classic friendship tale. Hadvar is just this super friendly guy who has a passion for his cause without droning on about it.
7): Solaire of Astora (Dark Souls)
I, for whatever reason, couldn't ever get online in Dark Souls, so Solaire was the sole person I could count on to help me with boss fights. In a world where any boss can crush you dead within minutes, regardless of whether or not you have people with you, any people you can take with you are appreciated. And given how I could never get online, Solaire was my sole source of assistance. With that in mind, I appreciate him greatly, and I don't know what I'd do without him.
6): Lily (Fallout: New Vegas)
A Nightkin Super Mutant who is schizophrenic, swings a massive helicopter blade, and believes that you are her grandson...what is there not to like?
5): Sten of the Beresaad (Dragon Age: Origins)
When you find Sten, he is in a cage outside of the village of Lothering, charged with slaughtering a family of farmers. Sten is a Qunari, a follower of the Qun, a strict religion. You do a lot of things that Sten doesn't agree with, and he gives (in a way) sensible reasons for being displeased (or pleased) with your actions. The thing about Qunari loyalty is that it is incredibly worthwhile. You are worth a Qunari's time, or you are not. There is no in-between. As a result, when you gain Sten's full loyalty, he is the most worthwhile traveling companion you can get.
4): Nicholas (To the Moon)
Nicholas is Johnny's best friend. He is there to tell him that his reasons for pursuing River are cold, and he is still there to help him move a piano when they are old men. Nicholas is essentially the best kind of best friend: the kind who can see flaws in their friend, but who still accepts their friend nonetheless. He is the kind of supporter who supports his friend until the very end.
3): Garrus Vakarian (Mass Effect Trilogy)
Continuing on our current theme of best friend characters being great supporters, Garrus Vakarian is essentially the best friend character in the Mass Effect Saga. He is a squad member throughout the entire Mass Effect Trilogy, and each game he gets just a little bit cooler. In the first Mass Effect, Garrus is a Citadel Security officer working to gather evidence of the main villain's treason. In Mass Effect 2, he is a vigilante taking down entire mercenary companies. In Mass Effect 3, he is his government's major strategist. And in all three games, he is a constant companion to Commander Shepard. In Mass Effect 3, Commander Shepard utters the words, "We're a team, Garrus. There's no Shepard without Vakarian," and I feel inclined to agree with the Commander here.
2): Clementine (The Walking Dead)
Ooooh this was a hard decision, but in the end, I decided to give Clementine second place instead of first, and you'll see why in the next bullet point. Clementine is a constant reminder of why I want a daughter someday in the future, as she is by far the most adorable character in video game history. But she is more than just cute, she also has many layers of nuance to her as the series goes on. There are also several points in The Walking Dead where Lee and the group would not have survived without Clementine's help. But more than that, Clementine as a character redefines what the zombie apocalypse is. In other zombie games, the point is to kill zombies and survive. But in The Walking Dead, the purpose is to keep Clementine from being transformed by the screwed up world we live in. Clementine is the kind of character who changes everything: in the game, in the genre, and in Lee Everett.
Supporting Character of the Generation: Ellie (The Last of Us)
This was a tough decision to make, but in the end, I decided that this is a supporting characters list, and Ellie is a better supporter than Clementine. Clementine may be cute, but cute can only support the protagonist so far. Ellie is in some ways the opposite of Clementine. She is far from innocent, as she spouts off curse words every two minutes and makes jokes about the pages of a porn magazine being stuck together. She also has no problem shooting a gun and killing in order to stay alive. The reason that Ellie wins the Supporting Character of the Generation award is the fact that she truly is a character that Joel would be nowhere without, both in terms of his physical health and his psychological health. Ellie nurses Joel back to health when he suffers an injury, and she gives him a reason to live.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Antagonists
What good is a hero if there isn't a world to save or a bad guy to stop? Most of the time it isn't quite as simple as that, but the bottom line is that every hero needs something to fight for, or someone to fight against.
10): Alduin (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
An evil dragon that vows to destroy the world, and who is also the firstborn son of the God of Time...are you convinced yet? Alduin is not so much a nuanced villain as just a cool one. But still.
9): Grigori (Dragon's Dogma)
Going with the current theme of evil talking Dragons being great villains, the #9 spot on this list goes to the main villain of Dragon's Dogma: Grigori, the Dragon who eats your heart at the very beginning of the game. Once you know the truth behind all of the game world, Grigori's story actually becomes quite sad, but I'm not going to spoil it. Essentially, Grigori spouts existential theory at you every time you encounter him, and it makes for a thought-provoking experience.
8): Harry Flynn (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves)
A lot of the best villains are brainiacs or violent idealists, but very rarely are they incapable and immature. Harry Flynn is one such villain. More of a bumbling idiot than a criminal mastermind, Harry Flynn uses this fact to his advantage, making Nathan Drake believe that he is violently uninformed about the job they perform at the beginning. But even after betraying Nathan and showing that he actually knew what he was doing the entire time, Harry Flynn is still very underqualified for the role he plays in the main villain's plan. Somehow, this makes Flynn even more infuriating. He makes snide remarks and cracks lame jokes and pretend to push Nathan off of a cliff as he holds Nathan at gunpoint. Harry Flynn brings a whole new meaning to the term, "snake in the grass."
7): Handsome Jack (Borderlands 2)
Handsome Jack starts off as a comedic character, but as the story progresses, he gains true reason to hate the world and you. He starts off as just your typical "I'm going to cleanse the world of evil by doing these evil things," kind of villain. But then, you do something at about three quarters of the way through the game, and it absolutely destroys Handsome Jack's life in a way that nobody really deserves. From that point on, Handsome Jack has true motivation, and his comedy goes right out the window. He hates you with all of his being, and he will see his plan completed so that, if nothing else, Pandora will be rid of you.
6): GLaDos (Portal Saga)
GLaDos is a psychopathic artificial intelligence who runs the testing operations in Aperture Laboratories. She is absolutely insane, and she takes a certain kind of delight in watching you squirm. GLaDos isn't a villain that is easy to describe, so just pick up a copy of Portal or Portal 2 and see what I mean.
5): The Origami Killer (Heavy Rain)
There isn't a lot I can say about the Origami Killer without spoiling important parts of the story. So, you're just going to have to take my word for it here.
4): Vaas Montenegro (Far Cry 3)
Vaas is an unpredictable, frightening individual. He uses what I like to call the "Ramsay Snow" method (for those of you who have either read "A Song of Fire and Ice," or watch "Game of Thrones."). What this means is that he loves to make you think that you're ahead, and then he turns the tables on you at the last minute to show you just how in the palm of his hand you really are. He will allow you to leave his slaver camp and then send out soldiers to hunt you down. Vaas is also a character that one can sympathize with at some points, and there are times where he seems like he has lost too much hunting you down to feel fulfilled in catching you.
3): The Illusive Man (Mass Effect Saga)
The Illusive Man is dedicated to one goal: the protection and evolution of humanity. At all costs. The leader of the pro-human terrorist group, Cerberus, The Illusive Man is a feared presence in the Mass Effect universe. He isn't some arms dealer with heavy armor and weapons, he is a brainy idealist with a drive like no other. And that is what makes him so dangerous. There is no length he would not go to, no step he would not take to keep humanity safe and dominant in the galaxy. This includes some pretty heinous measures.
2): Loghain Mac Tir (Dragon Age: Origins)
Loghain is a war hero in the world of Dragon Age. He is the army general responsible for ending the Orlesian occupation of Fereldan, freeing his countrymen from their century of enslavement. But his hatred of the Orlesians brings him to do shocking things. His hatred and fear of Orlais leads him to betray his king and brand all Gray Wardens as traitors to the crown. It leads him to the start of civil war between his forces and other noble forces. He sacrifices so much, including what could have been Fereldan's last chance at beating the blight, in the name of his hatred for Orlais. But it isn't an unfounded fear. After all, Orlesians raped and killed his mother and killed his father when they still occupied Fereldan. But the hatred made him a villain in the end.
Antagonist of the Generation: Andrew Ryan (Bioshock)
Andrew Ryan is truly larger than life as a character and as a villain. A more driven idealist than the Illusive Man, Andrew Ryan decided to build a city at the bottom of the ocean in order for people to live entirely free of any government or religion. And yet, Andrew Ryan is still the leader of Rapture despite his anti-leader stance. He speaks to the city through gigantic televisions that show his face and his name in bold print. Andrew Ryan is Ayn Rand given power, and the entire city is doomed to murder and violence in the name of freedom because of it. He is a man who is entirely controlled by his ideals and the need to remain his own property. His very last action as a character is to look death in the face and assert his dominance.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Protagonists
The main character. Stories don't necessarily need them (I mean, look at a Song of Fire and Ice), but their presence gives a story focus. It gives us a lens through which to view the world and the conflict. These are the top 10 protagonists of the current console generation.
10): Alan Wake (Alan Wake)
Alan Wake was once a famous writer, but he has had serious writer's block for about a year. In an attempt to clear his head, Alan goes on vacation with his wife. But unbeknownst to him, his wife, who set up the vacation, had an ulterior motive. When they arrive at their vacation cabin, Alan finds a typewriter and realizes that his wife has been talking with a therapist who specializes in treating artists. Outraged at this, Alan has a long yelling session with his wife. And after that, she is kidnapped and Alan loses his memory. When he wakes up, Alan goes out on a dark, twisting quest to rescue his wife and recover his memory. So, what is it that makes Alan Wake the #10 best protagonist of this generation? Well, Alan is far from a perfect man. In fact, he is incredibly flawed. But when the going gets tough and he has a job to do, no flaws of his can stand in the way of his goal.
9): The Gray Warden (Dragon Age: Origins)
The tale of the Gray Warden is a rags to riches kind of story. In some way, the Gray Warden loses everything, and yet he must team up with the only other living Gray Warden in Fereldan to save the world from the coming blight. He is labeled a traitor, but he doesn't let this stop him from fighting the threat that nobody else can fight.
8): Commander Shepard (Mass Effect Trilogy)
Commander Shepard is the pinnacle of messiah figures in video gaming. After receiving a vision from a beacon left by the Protheans (the precursor race that mysteriously vanished 50,000 years ago), Commander Shepard realizes that a threat is coming. The Reapers, a sentient machine race that kills all life every 50,000 years, are coming soon. The problem is, nobody save for the crew of his ship believe that the threat is real. Shepard faces conflict from all sides because of his assertions. And yet, he still breaks galactic law and risks court marshaling and even is willing to sacrifice the lives of billions of innocent souls to keep all life from being wiped out.
7): Dr. Neil Watts (To the Moon)
Out of the two protagonists of To the Moon, Dr. Neil Watts is the more interesting one, and he is the one who undergoes some serious character development as he passes through Johnny's memories. At the start of the game, Dr. Watts is the joke-cracking, informal kind of character. And he remains that way. He is constantly rolling his eyes at all the romance involved in Johnny's memories. But when a serious threat to Johnny's happiness arises, he is willing to risk lawsuits and all sorts of legal trouble to stand for what he believes to be right.
6): The Chosen Undead (Dark Souls)
The Chosen Undead is somebody who made it through Dark Souls. That is all I have to say.
5): Ezio Auditore da Firenze (Assassin's Creed 2, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed: Revelations)
Ezio Auditore da Firenze was just an aristocratic Italian youth, until the Templars robbed him of his family. At that point, he donned the robes of his father and became the most infamous assassin of his time. Throughout his life, Ezio overcomes all sorts of obstacles in the name of justice, and his opinion of what exactly justice is evolves as his character grows.
4): Lee Everett (The Walking Dead)
A convicted murderer turned caring father figure, that is the kind of character we are dealing with when our attention turns to Lee Everett. It is ultimately up to you what kind of person Lee is. Is he a jerk, or is he kind? Either way, jerk or not, when Lee needs to step up to the plate to protect Clementine, he does it. Whether or not he does it kindly or meanly, Lee does what he believes is necessary to protect the little girl he has to look out for.
3): Ethan Mars (Heavy Rain)
Ethan Mars is a man racked with sadness and anxiety after his oldest son is run over during a family outing. Now, he and his wife are separated, and his only remaining son, Sean, seems to prefer spending time with mom. Ethan's already frail psychological state is broken down even more when Sean is kidnapped by the infamous Origami Killer. After receiving a letter from the Origami killer detailing what he has to do to win his son back, Ethan Mars sets out on a disturbing journey that tests his limits and truly begs the question, "How far are you willing to go to save somebody you love?" Ethan is willing to kill, face danger head on, and cut off one of his fingers in order to save his only remaining son, and that makes him the third best protagonist created in this gaming generation.
2): John Marston (Red Dead Redemption)
John Marston was once a notorious outlaw, but that time has passed, and the federal government has kidnapped his wife and child. Now, if he doesn't hunt down and kill all of his former gang members, he will never see his family again. You can't really nail down a single character trait for John Marston. He is just too three-dimensional to dissect. The only way to experience John Marston is to go and pick up a copy of Red Dead Redemption and see for yourself.
Protagonist of the Generation: Joel (The Last of Us)
There is simply no contest in this category. Joel is the best protagonist created in this gaming generation, in my opinion. Out of all the incredibly flawed people that have made this list, none are more flawed on a human level than Joel. The very end of the game is the way it is because of Joel's flawed nature, to say something without spoiling. After losing his daughter, Sarah, to the cordyceps, Joel is never the same. Joel becomes incredibly reserved, but at the same time violently protective of anybody that he loves. He is so protective that he views any step away from what he says as a personal affront, because how could somebody be so stupid? How could somebody be trying so hard to get themselves killed? I could talk for hours upon hours on end about how fantastic a protagonist Joel is, but once more, I'm just going to tell you to buy the game and experience Joel for yourself.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Best Gameplay
Yes, I'm aware that isn't grammatically correct. Gameplay is what started it all, really. Gameplay, while not the most important thing in my book, is what separates video games from other mediums. Even if the story is fantastic, the game has to be playable. Gameplay is the defining factor of video games, and it goes without saying that some games do it better than others. So, here are the top 10 games with the best gameplay mechanics.
10): Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age: Origins gameplay style is something like a cross between turn-based combat and real-time combat. It is not turn based, but it is not real-time either. You move your character around and get them started attacking an enemy. From there, the character will lock into fighting with the enemy, and you get to navigate the battlefield and order other characters to do thing and attack certain enemies. So, it is more a strategic middle ground.
9): Fallout 3
Fallout 3 is not a straight-up shooter. You can go in guns blazing, but you won't get very far. Instead, you are recommended to use the Vault Assisted Targeting System, or VATS, which allows you to target individual parts of an enemy's body. By strategically criplling enemy limbs, you hinder their ability to use weapons or walk, which makes taking them out easier. Of course, you can also target the head, but it is less likely that you will hit that. Ultimately, there are several ways to fight. You can use regular guns, energy weapons, melee weapons, explosives, heavy weapons, or just your fists, or you can use stealth.
8): Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
From the sword and gunplay to the naval combat, not a second goes by in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag that isn't enjoyable. On land, when Edward Kenway is fighting using swords and pistols, every moment is energized and tense. Even when he is using stealth, he can use darts coated in neurotoxin to level the playing field. But the true gem of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's gameplay is the naval combat. You use cannons and swivel guns to cripple the enemy ship. Then you pull up beside, board the ship, kill a certain amount of enemy crew, and either use the ship to repair your own ship, recruit the enemy crew, or make the ship a part of your armada.
7): The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Oblivion allows you to truly play your way. If you want to be a mage, then you set your character up with magic skills as their major skills, and you level up when you make progress in magic skills. Or if you want to be more well rounded, you can make all of the combat types into major skills and make progress by getting better with each combat type. Since I was a noob the first time I ever played Oblivion, I was a heavy armor-wearing, sword and shield-using warrior. But even that totally uncreative path is loads of fun. I clocked in over 500 hours in my first Oblivion playthrough, just using a sword and a shield. I have since played in several other kinds of ways, and I've had a blast in each one.
6): Bioshock
Bioshock is a combination of gunplay and "magic", and you won't get very far just using one or the other. You have a large variety of guns at your disposal, each with different kinds of ammunition. You also have a large variety of plasmids, the "magic" of the game. You can use these plasmids either strategically or offensively. Essentially, Rapture is a playground for experimentation with gun/plasmid combos, and I am still finding new things to do after my 6th play through.
5): The Last of Us
The Last of Us shows us what a stealth game ought to be: manageable, but difficult. It doesn't hold your hand, but it doesn't bash your head in like other (*cough cough* Deus Ex: Human Revolution *cough cough*) stealth games. You have a variety of items at your disposal to use in the interest of being undetected. You get everything from a bow and arrow to a glass bottle for distracting. The thing that I love about Naughty Dog is that they don't sacrifice gameplay for story. A lot of story-based games, while they do a good job with their story, forget that they need to make a playable game, but not Naughty Dog. Naughty Dog always delivers fantastic gameplay with their fantastic stories, and The Last of Us is no different.
4): Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Once again, a major shout out to Naughty Dog for their incredible gameplay. Far from your average paste-to-cover third person shooter, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves can only be played by being able to adapt to any situation within seconds. You will run out of ammunition really quickly in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, so you need to learn to constantly pick up new weapons on the fly and be ready to use them. You also need to be ready to do anything to avoid dying. The example I love to use is this: I was in a firefight, and I was low on health, and an enemy threw a grenade at me. With that, I leapt off of a nearby cliff and hung onto the edge to get out of the way of the explosion. From there, I leaned up and shot the rest of the enemies from my hanging spot. The name of the game in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is: Adapt or Die.
3): Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
Despite the many flaws in its characters and having a title that makes me ashamed to mention it in public, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a true milestone in terms of gameplay. Playing as any class is hours upon hours of fun. The combat is unique and it flows smoothly, and as I mentioned earlier, it is truly up to you how to play. The idea behind each class is that you have certain combos that you perform with certain button combinations. For each class it is different, but you can mix and match to make it your own. My class of choice in KoA:R is a mage, but I always take a few skills from the warrior class tree, because mixing and matching in KoA:R makes things more interesting. Even more interesting, however, is Reckoning mode. After a certain amount of kills, a meter fills up which allows you to enter a mode in which you alter the fabric of reality. You kill every enemy on the field easily and finish the last one off with a truly epic attack that earns you up to 100% more experience than you would have gotten in normal mode. KoA:R is a great time to be had in any class.
2): Halo 3
I have played Halo 3 more times than I've played any other game, and that is because I always have a good time playing it. Halo 3 places you in a variety of locations with a large array of human and alien guns. But a feature of Halo 3 that wasn't present in the previous Halo games is the consumable. Consumables range in function from a bubble shield to a deployable turret, they are small things that change the way the game works for a small time. There is less enemy variety in Halo 3 than there were in Halo 2, that is true, but the aliens come in different...ranks, I guess would be the word. You have less types of aliens, but more variety within this smaller circle of types...does that make sense? Ultimately, there isn't a lot that separates Halo 3 from other Halo games or even other shooters. But the bottom line is, I have played Halo 3 more times than any other game, and I have always loved playing it.
Gameplay of the Generation: Dark Souls
Other games can learn a lot from the gameplay featured in Dark Souls. Dark Souls takes into consideration things that other games don't even think about. There are more types of weapons in Dark Souls than the Borderlands Saga claims that they have, and each weapon has its own attack speed and weight. And these things matter. If your weapon is heavy, you will be slower by smaller increments. The thing that really blows me away about Dark Souls' gameplay is the idea of weapon timing. Weapon timing is SO important in Dark Souls. Each weapon takes a different amount of time to swing and return to resting position, and if you don't swing at exactly the right moment, you opponent can hit you before you hit them, or they can hit you before you can ready your weapon again. For about half of the game I used a reinforced club that I found at the beginning of the game. I upgraded that club to the maximum amount, and it was still much less powerful than other weapons. So, why did I keep using it? Because I KNEW how to use it, I knew its timing by heart. In Dark Souls, knowledge of the weapon and confidence in using it is infinitely more important than the amount of damage the weapon does, and I feel like this is something that other games should learn how to implement.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Best Stories
While Gameplay is what distinguishes a video game, I find that the games with the best stories are the ones that stick with me the longest.
10): Deus Ex: Human Revolution
It is a story of the morality of making people into weapons as well as corporate and governmental conspiracies. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a story with layers upon layers of complication and moral gray area. Despite the many, many flaws that the game has, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a triumph in the storytelling department.
9): Dark Souls
An undead awakens, and realizes that he is chosen for a grand purpose beyond the meager imprisoned life he lives. He realizes that he must leave the asylum where he is held and go forth into the land of the Ancient Lords to ring the two bells of awakening and fulfill his destiny. That is about all I can say without spoiling anything.
8): Journey
Journey is a wordless adventure that speaks volumes about the meaning of life. As you travel towards the mountain top, you realize what makes this life worth living, and what your overall purpose in the grand scheme is.
7): Bioshock
Bioshock is essentially a game about the nature and existence of free will, and of the dangers of radical idealism. Andrew Ryan built a city at the bottom of the ocean, and many years later, a man named Jack is involved in a plane crash directly above this city. Jack teams up with a rebel leader named Atlas (further indicating the Ayn Rand nature of Rapture) to try to take down Andrew Ryan and escape Rapture. But literally nothing is as it seems, and thus Jack embarks on a journey that brings forth all sorts of questions and twists and turns.
6): Mass Effect Trilogy
The Reapers, a race of sentient machines that harvests all life in the galaxy every 50,000 years, are returning. Only one man/woman can stop them: Commander Shepard, because he/she is the only one who knows that they are a threat. I mean, put yourself in everybody else's shoes: Somebody tells you that there are giant machines coming to kill us all, do you believe them? But Shepard overcomes the odds and does his best to be prepared for the invasion. The Mass Effect Trilogy is a story in which there seems to be no hope. You are constantly being told that chances are slim, and in the final push of the final chapter, you might even believe that you are going to lose. I know I did. My first time playing Mass Effect 3, I genuinely believed that Commander Shepard might not win in the end. I won't tell you if I was correct or not, because this is the kind of story that all people should experience.
5): Dragon Age: Origins
An Archdemon has awakened in the depths of Thedas, and it is preparing to lead a blight across the world. This has happened several times in the past, and it is the job of the Gray Wardens to stop it. But after an unexpected betrayal, only two Gray Wardens remain in the nation of Fereldan. And yet, the job of stopping the Archdemon still rests on their shoulders.
4): The Walking Dead
Lee Everett is on his way to prison at the start of the zombie apocalypse, and as a result, he ends up being freed. After being injured, Lee befriends a young girl, Clementine, and the two embark on a Journey that redefines what it is to live in a zombie apocalypse.
3): Heavy Rain
Every year, the Origami Killer kidnaps a few young boys, and a few days after their disappearance, they are found dead somewhere in the city. Ethan Mars and his wife, Grace, were the parents of two sons. But one day, their oldest son, Jason, was run over during a family outing. From there, Ethan and Grace were separated, and their other son, Sean, stayed primarily with Grace. Ethan began to show signs of schizophrenia and severe depression as he was never able to shake the feeling that Jason's death was his fault. The plot thickens when the Origami Killer kidnaps Sean right from under Ethan's nose. But this is not the end. Ethan receives a letter in the mail from the Origami Killer detailing what he needs to do to rescue his son. From there, Ethan must undergo trials of self-mutilation, murder, and fear to prove that he loves his son enough to rescue him. It is a story the likes of which we are not likely to see again, and I applaud David Cage for the fantastic way in which he tells this story.
2): The Last of Us
Joel, a smuggler in Boston during the Cordyceps crisis, is charged with smuggling a teenager out of the city and handing her off to a group of rebels. What we get as a result of this mission of Joel's is a survival story unlike any other. Joel and Ellie overcome obstacles that would destroy the very humanity of any other people. The story of The Last of Us is a story of "carrying the fire," as Cormac McCarthy would describe it. It is a story of surviving in a world that has gone to hell without succumbing to it. It is a story of doing what is necessary, no matter how ugly, but not letting it consume you. And above all else, it is a story about loss and the things that the human heart is willing to undergo in order to find happiness.
Story of the Generation: To the Moon
To the Moon is a game that shows us that the world doesn't have to be on the brink of collapse for a story to be compelling. The premise of To the Moon is this: There is a service offered to people on their deathbeds. Representatives from a company come and set up technology that lets the representatives enter the patient's head. Once inside, they can grant the patient a wish by going through their memories and altering their life so that things work out to grant that wish. One day, two of the doctors who offer this service arrive to fulfill a dying old man's wish to go to the moon. As they travel through his memories, they face the intense suffering that the man has felt in his life, and they see his mistakes play out. The pain only gets worse as the story continues, and what we are left with when we look at To the Moon is a story that is ultimately human. It is a story about suffering, sacrifice, and love that overcomes all barriers.
--------------------- --------------------- Reader's Choice Top 5 Worst
These are the worst games of the generation, according to the outside world.
5): Wii Sports
I have to agree with those who gave me this answer. I don't play anything on the Wii anymore, but Wii Sports must mean "throw your money down a well."
4): Brink
Those who gave this answer also gain a seal of approval from me. Brink is one of the worst games I've ever played, and evidently I'm not the only one who thinks that.
3): Fable 3
Well, I mean, this one kind of goes without saying. I'm glad that my readers remembered Fable 3 and gave it as an answer.
2): Resident Evil 5
I got maybe about halfway through Resident Evil 5, but I never really got into it. Part of it is because I've just never been a Resident Evil fan. But I have a few friends who are fans, and they didn't like Resident Evil 5, so here it is.
Reader's Choice Worst of the Generation: Final Fantasy XIII
Likewise, I've never played a Final Fantasy game in my life. But the only things I've ever heard about Final Fantasy XIII are negatives.
--------------------- --------------------- Reader's Choice Top 7 Best
I wasn't able to get as many results as I was aiming for in this section, but that is only because there was some consensus.
7): Heavy Rain
With all of the critical acclaim that Heavy Rain received, I'm not the least bit surprised that it ended up on this list.
6): Grand Theft Auto V
I've never played a Grand Theft Auto game in my life, but I've heard wonderful things about it. I'm glad that it ended up on this list, because that means that it has a chance to be here even though I haven't played it personally.
5): The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Because, why wouldn't it be?
4): The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Also, because why wouldn't it be?
3): Fallout 3
Fallout 3 was one of the three games that got the majority of votes, and I feel that it is a well-earned place.
2): Dark Souls
Dark Souls got the second most votes. It takes a person who is ok with being challenged to like Dark Souls, and it appears that my friend group and other readers are of those kind of people. I'm proud of y'all.
Reader's Choice Best of the Generation: The Last of Us
And with the most amount of votes and with the most quick responses....*sniff* The Last of Us. I have never been more proud of my readers. Give yourselves a pat on the back!
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Developers
Believe it or not, I actually used a unique, somewhat objective system to figure out which developer got which spot. It was quite organized, and I'm proud of myself for it.
10): Quantic Dream
Quantic Dream's big hit this generation was Heavy Rain, followed by the utter disappointment that was Beyond: Two Souls. But Heavy Rain was a big enough hit that Quantic Dream still made this list.
9): Rockstar Games
I know for a fact that Rockstar being this far down the list is going to upset people. I have never played a Grand Theft Auto game in my life, so I don't have a taste of their most famous work. I have enjoyed the games I have played by them, but I've never hastened to name any Rockstar game "Game of the Year." They are all good from what I've played, so don't get me wrong. I'm just not nearly as blown away by Rockstar Games as others are. But back to positives. Rockstar's major strengths are their characters and their "thesis" method. Most of their games have a sort of theme that goes with the setting. In Red Dead Redemption, it was the taming of a savage land. In L.A. Noire, it was life for veterans after World War II. These themes give the plots that Rockstar creates a little bit more focus.
8): Bungie
Bungie is responsible for more hours of my enjoyment than most other developers can boast. They are really only responsible for the Halo franchise (at least, until Destiny comes out), but the Halo games were some of the first games I played that weren't created by Nintendo.
7): Crytek
Crytek is perhaps best known for the graphics it creates. The Far Cry and Crysis games are some of the best looking games on the market. But it goes beyond graphics. Crytek has a unique idea of openness in gaming. In the Crysis games, players can switch between giving themselves armor or making themselves invisible at will, and their weapons have a number of attachments that have different effects, and there are different skills that they can acquire to make their playing style unique. In the Far Cry games, there is a wide arsenal of weapons to use and multiple ways to approach any problem. Crytek has a unique take on openness, and that puts them in this particular spot.
6): Telltale Games
Telltale games doesn't have a huge budget, but they make things matter. Their games are primarily episodic story-based point and click adventures. Their hits include The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, and they are responsible for doing groundbreaking work in these games. The Walking Dead was simply revolutionary, and for that, Telltale gets this particular spot in the list.
5): Valve
Half-Life 2 did not come out in this generation, otherwise Valve would be higher on this list. On the rare occasion that Valve releases a game (followed immediately by a blue moon), it is always one that I can spend hours of my time enjoying. Something I love about Valve is the fact that even games they make that are meant for co-op, such as the Left 4 Dead Saga, are boatloads of fun to play in single player. They also make all of their games available on Mac, so that people like me can play what they put out. The thing about Valve is that they have this way of knowing their audience. They put out games that don't really exclude people of a certain type.
4): Ubisoft Montreal
The studio behind Assassin's Creed gets the #4 spot on this list. Despite having put out 6 games and having a 7th one on the way, with each new Assassin's Creed game, Ubisoft Montreal manages to further revolutionize their already unique style. Each new Assassin's Creed game evolves based on the strengths and weaknesses of the previous title. For example, People loved the Naval Combat in Assassin's Creed III, but it was a scripted, contextual thing. So, in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Ubisoft Montreal made Naval Combat a crucial part of the story and gameplay.
3): Bioware
Bioware is sort of the king of storytellers in video gaming, despite Dragon Age II. Their gameplay is always compelling, whether it is the gun and biotic-play of the Mass Effect trilogy or the tactical medieval gameplay of the Dragon Age Saga. Another thing that Bioware can be counted on to deliver is strong characters (save in Dragon Age II and Mass Effect 2). Bioware has a unique take on interactive storytelling, as they pretty much revolutionized the prospect of love interests being pursuable (and had their fair share of negative media attention as a result), and for that, they are #3 on this list. They would be higher were it not for Dragon Age II and Mass Effect 2.
2): Naughty Dog
A great game is one that melds fantastic gameplay and an immersive story together, and Naughty Dog has a tendency to do that with everything it touches. Naughty Dog doesn't put out a game unless its gameplay and its story are superb. Even if the story is campy and action-movie like, such as in the Uncharted trilogy, they make sure it stands out. Even if the story is absolutely the main focus, such as in The Last of Us, they make sure that the gameplay is revolutionary and compelling.
Developer of the Generation: Bethesda Softworks
Really, in this gaming generation, could this spot go to anyone else? Bethesda has an impressive track record this generation: Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, whenever Bethesda is directly involved with a game, you know it is going to be good. The exception to the rule is when they are only partially involved...which results in games like Brink and Rage. But whenever they are directly in charge of making a game, you can kiss at the very least 200 hours of your life goodbye. Despite the fact that their games have record-breaking amounts of glitches, their games have enough to offer that the glitches just fade away as part of the experience.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 5 Indie Games
Indie Games, when they are good, are really good. I'm not one of those people who feels angry that Triple-A games are the big thing now, I'm not one of those people who won't play a game if it is not a 2d platformer. But I have a deep love on Indie games that are heavy hitting. These are the 5 best Indie games I've played.
5): The Novelist
The novelist is a fairly straightforward game: you play as a spirit in a summer house that a very troubled family has rented. You figure out what each of them wants every day and, through supernatural means, convince the father of the family to do what he, his wife, or his son wants the next day. There is really no way for everyone to get what they want. Do you convince the man to continue working on his novel instead of taking his son to a one-day amusement park thing? Do you convince him to give up some of his writing time to have a family dinner? Do you convince the man to let his son have a sleepover, take a little bit of time to write, and give up going hiking with his wife? It is a game of consequences and rewards, and you get a little bit of both in each level.
4): Papers, Please
In Papers, Please, you play as a border inspector in a fictionalized soviet-esque communist nation in 1982. You inspect people's passports against an increasingly complicated list of rules and either approve or deny them entry into your nation. Some of them will have sob stories that make you feel really guilty when you have to turn them away. Of course, you could approve their visas anyway, but it would earn you a citation. And the more citations you earn, the more money gets docked from your pay. If you aren't careful, your family could end up hungry or cold or sick. It is a game with a lot of different situations, such as a man coming up and leaving a bomb on your desk, or your superior ordering you to let one of his old friends through, despite the fact that this friend doesn't have proper documentation. Papers, Please is a game that forces you to make choices either in your family's favor or in the favor of strangers whose stories you get a brief glimpse of.
3): Rain
Rain is an indie game that is slightly more unique than your average indie game. It takes place in sometime around World War I Venice, where you play as a little boy who is dying of a fever when he sees a girl being chased by a monster. He follows them and ends up in a version of Venice that is always raining, and where things are only visible in the rainfall. This makes for some interesting stealth and puzzle sections. The story is narrated by words pasted on the surroundings, so it is an altogether dialogue-less game. But the story itself, while slightly confusing, is a powerful one, and Venice is beautiful in the rain.
2): Journey
In Journey, you play as a hooded figure on a pilgrimage to the top of the mountain in the distance. It is a game that revolutionizes co-op. There are no chat boxes or names above the figures you sometimes end up traveling with. All you can do to communicate is sing a little note. But the thing that makes Journey truly unique is the way in which it offers us a serious discussion. As we play Journey, we learn a little something about life. Wrap all of that up with some of the most beautiful visual display in indie gaming history, and you have Journey.
Best Indie Game of the Generation: To the Moon
To the Moon is one of those games that proves how unimportant graphics are in the grand scheme of game quality. It was created by pretty much one guy in his spare time in an RPG maker, and yet this game is one of my favorites. It tells a story the likes of which has not been told in the video gaming world, and its gameplay is truly one of a kind.
--------------------- --------------------- Honorable Mention
This section is not actually a ranked section. Rather it is a list with no connotations for any particular spot. In this section, I will be giving shout outs to games that didn't make the cut on the "Best" list, whether due to lack of space or just because they weren't as good but I wanted to recognize them anyway. These are going to be listed 10-1, but that doesn't mean that one is better than the other. That is not the purpose of this list. So, here we go.
10): L.A. Noire
L.A. Noire is a real groundbreaker. In this detective game, every single NPC is a person's face captured in sophisticated capture technology, and when you are questioning a suspect, you are seeing a person's face react to your questions. You must then judge whether or not they are telling you the truth by looking at their face and determining if they look like they're holding something back. All of this takes place in a beautifully and realistically rendered late 1940's Los Angeles. Because it is a Rockstar game, there is a theme underlying the game, and that theme is the life of a veteran after World War II and the various ways in which they were cheated. Like any Rockstar game, there is an unbelievable amount of depth to LA Noire's story. Sadly, most of the mechanics of LA Noire are contextual and there really isn't much freedom in any way. These things are what keeps LA Noire from making the cut.
9): Dragon's Dogma
Dragon's Dogma is a western RPG developed by Japanese developers. This keeps it away from the flash and trash method of the JRPG while still keeping it different from the barrage of RPGs that come out every year. There is an insane amount of player freedom in Dragon's Dogma: you get to choose from three classes at first and evolve into several others as the game progresses, and you get to form your very own follower from scratch and choose their class as well. You also get to pick and choose from other players' followers to build a party that matches what you want. The story of Dragon's Dogma is unique in several ways, but I won't spoil any of them. However, several confusing mechanics, repetitive (though pretty) scenery, weak characters, and a barrage of main quests that seem pointless all keep Dragon's Dogma from making it to the "Best" list.
8): Gears of War 2
Gears of War 2 is my favorite out of the trilogy. There is an intense amount of variety in the gameplay and the locations. The gameplay, as one can always count on with Gears of War, is loads of fun. But Gears of War 2 does what the original didn't do: It included an intense and sometimes touching story the likes of which we don't get in the modern shooter. There simply wasn't enough space in the "best" list to include Gears of War 2.
7): Far Cry 3
Far Cry 3 was a heavy contender for 2012 Game of the Year in my book. The exploration was varied and extensive, there were several side quests to undertake that were unique, and the crafting system was by far my favorite crafting system from this gaming generation. The villain, Vaas, was on the list of the best villains of the generation. However, a lack of replayability, a weak second villain, an ending that left a lot to be desired, and a lack of space in the "best" list all keep it from making the cut.
6): Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
I still remember purchasing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning...and turning beet red while I did so. I don't know what they were thinking when they gave it that title, but KoA:R goes above and beyond the expectations I had for it based on its name. The combat for all three classes is fantastic, and there are innumerable ways to mix and match combat skills. Beyond that, the story is filled to overflowing with incredibly compelling concepts such as the idea of fate. In Amalur, every creature is bound by fate, destined to go down a certain path, but the protagonist of KoA:R finds that he or she is free from those constraints after being brought back to life. It is a game that is astounding in its creativity and concepts. Beyond even that, I would call the world map even more full of stuff to do than Skyrim because of the sheer number of side quests. It is simply amazing just how many hundreds upon hundreds of side quests there are. You can lose hours upon hours of your time playing KoA:R because of the sheer AMOUNT of game there is! What's more, the map is the most varied map I've seen in an RPG. You go to deserts and plains and thick forests and swamps and lakeside villages and more! If I had to take one game from this Honorable Mention list and force it into the "best" list, I would force KoA:R into that list. However, a lack of space, a barrage of some of the weakest characters ever developed, and quite a bit of writing that makes me want to throw up because of how bad it is all keep KoA:R from making the cut.
5): Dishonored
I am a huge stealth game fan, but in the modern gaming industry, so few games do stealth well that they almost aren't worth buying anymore. Dishonored is the answer to this problem. Dishonored borrows mechanics from games such as Bioshock and stealth games that are lesser in nature (*cough* Deus Ex: Human Revolution *cough*) to form an experience that is unique in the stealth genre. Armed with a sword, a gun, a crossbow with different kinds of bolts, and an array of supernatural abilities designed to make stealth more manageable and unique to the player's style, Corvo Attano sets out on a quest for revenge. In the stealth genre, Dishonored is a real groundbreaker. In it, you have the ability to look through locks to see what is on the other side of a door before opening it, and you have a body count mechanic that I applaud Bethesda and Arkane Studios for. There is a plague happening in the city of Dunwall, and it is caused by rats. The more people you kill, the more rats there are. The more rats there are, the more plague there is. The more plague there is, the darker the outcome of the game will be. It is a brilliant and innovative approach to the lethal/nonlethal system. Unfortunately, there are maybe 3 well-developed characters, the final push and the level leading up to it are more annoying than fun, and the good ending is not compelling enough to justify my loading saves over and over again to avoid killing. These things cause Dishonored to not meet the cut.
4): Heavy Rain
I tell you, it was incredibly painful to not put this one on the "best" list. Heavy Rain is an absolute masterpiece of interactive storytelling. It casts you in the role of four protagonists, each involved in the story of the Origami Killer in a different way. There is Ethan Mars: the main protagonist whose son is the latest to be kidnapped by the Killer, Madison: the journalist who is covering the story, Scott Shelby: The private investigator who is looking into the case at the request of some of the victims' families, and Norman Jayden: the FBI agent who has been brought in to try to profile and catch the killer. Each of these characters can die at any time in the story if you aren't quick enough. If a character dies, the story continues without them. It causes you to be on your toes the entire time, lest the story change dramatically. However, a lack of true replay value, some weak voice acting, some minor bits of cringeworthy bad writing, an annoying fixed camera, and a lack of space in the "best" list all keep Heavy rain from making the cut.
3): Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 2
I know what you're thinking...anything Bioshock: Infinite-related on an honorable mention list? Who are you and what have you done with Reagan? Well, unfortunately, I never did get around to reviewing Burial at Sea Episode 2. But let me tell you this: It is Ken Levine's Redemption. It takes the sins of Bioshock: Infinite and wipes Ken Levine clean of them. That is how good the second episode of Burial at Sea is. It wraps up the events of all the Bioshock games in a nice little bow, and it gives Elizabeth an actual character! I was so blown away that it was good that it stuck with me for days after I finished it. I wanted to like Bioshock: Infinite so badly, and this gave me a way to like something that came of it. Burial at Sea brings the kind of storytelling experience I was hoping for when I picked up Bioshock: Infinite for the first time. However, I simply couldn't put it on the "best" list because it was too short and the stealth aspects of it felt incredibly out of place, despite the fact that they were enjoyable.
2): Resonance of Fate
Resonance of Fate is the flying exception to my "No JRPG" rule. That is because this game is not flash and trash like most JRPGs. There are some serious themes and messages at play in Resonance of Fate, and the gameplay is both one-of-a-kind and ridiculously fun to play, despite being about as flashy as JRPG combat comes. It is a bitingly hard game, and it will take you a loooong time to learn how to play it the right way, but once you do, you will be hooked. However, more than a few sections are more annoying than fun, enough sections to make replay value limited. With that in mind, it is with a heavy heart that I declare that Resonance of Fate didn't make the cut.
1): Red Dead Redemption
Rockstar Games' wild west game brings me back to my roots. I was born in Tucson, Arizona, and though I only lived there until I was a year old, it is still where I was born. In other words, I'm a wannabe Arizonian, so riding around in New Austin was sort of a "finding my heritage" experience for me. Red Dead Redemption brings a story that is powerful and filled with worthwhile messages. The map is a wide open, varied map that represents a historically accurate wild west setting. You have movie houses where films about how women should know their place and about how you shouldn't trust doctors are shown, and the railroad is the happening thing in terms of getting around. The downside is that, though I loved the setting I was never really compelled to explore it. The sidequests were particularly unfulfilling and they all felt shoehorned. And even a lot of the main quests were not compelling. I actually felt like quitting a few times my first time through because I was so bored by a lot of the quests and I just didn't feel compelled to explore. As I went through, I got more compelled, as a lot of the fat was cut off as the plot thickened. The fact that the map is huge simply isn't enough, there have to be compelling reasons to go out and explore the map. And though I love the Arizona countryside, I never wanted to go out and pick plants or prove to the 50th guy that I can shoot better than he can. These things are ultimately outweighed by the fantastic story and the powerful messages that come with it, but it still isn't enough to place it on the "best" list.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 10 Worst Games
There have been some really bad games released in the past nine years, and I have had the unpleasant experience of playing a few of them.
10): F.E.A.R. 3
For F.E.A.R. 3, the creative directors got a lot of big names in Horror together to make the scariest FEAR game yet...except that it was never once scary. Not even the atmosphere was creepy. What it boils down to is this: the creative directors sold out. Actions games were selling, so they made an action game and called it F.E.A.R. 3. This is one of those games that reeks of "co-op." This is a game obviously made to try to do co-op in. But riddle me this...since when is a horror game scary when you're playing with a FRIEND?! Gah. But it goes beyond that. The thing about the first two games was that they were actiony up until the point where you were sick of the action, then they would be scary up until you wanted action again, and then they'd rinse and repeat. They moderated things. But F.E.A.R. 3 is entirely action...and get this: You have a rebounding health meter. Like a Call of Duty game. Well, at least you don't have any sections taking place in South Ameri...oh...wait...yes you do. For some reason, the protagonist is being held in South America...I just hate it when people sell out, and with F.E.A.R. 3 we see an embarrassingly clear example of selling out to the action genre.
9): Rage
Rage is what I like to call "wannabe Borderlands," but the parts of Borderlands that it seems to be trying so hard to emulate are the parts that made me want to quit the game, and Rage does these parts worse than Borderlands. In Rage you play as the vault dweller...I mean...not the vault dweller from Fallout 3. An evil authority called..."the authority,"...has taken over in the wake of nuclear apocalypse, and the only way to stop them is to go around to settlements and fix their engineering problems (PATTERN? *cough* DEAD SPACE *cough*?), get them their water, clean their toilets, do their math homework, and fix their toy cars. This is a game with such a blindingly apparent lack of focus that it is a wonder I finished it. It is repetitive in every conceivable way, there isn't a single compelling mission or character, everywhere on the map looks exactly the same because the map is about the size of my thumb, and the gameplay is both clunky and just plain flat out average.
8): Dragon Age II
As I've said many times before, Dragon Age: Origins is my favorite game, and right from the start I said that Dragon Age II was going to suck. It didn't suck as much as I thought it was going to, but it still royally sucked. Here are the things that Bioware is known for: 1) Compelling story, 2) Strong, relatable characters, 3) Great gameplay. Here are the ways in which Dragon Age II lives up to that: 1)...umm...moving on to 2)....wait...3)....I give up. Here is how it DOESN'T live up: 1) Story: With Dragon Age II, Bioware moves on from saving the world, turning towards bigger things like...raising enough money to go on a trip...Seriously. 2) Characters: The main character, Shepa...I mean, Hawke, teams up with such amazing characters as Varric: the beardless dwarf who does nothing but wisecrack, Fenris: the final fantasy character, Aveline: the dish rag, Anders: the Jezebel reporter, Merril: the airhead, and Isabella: the "empowered/liberated" one. 3) Gameplay: With Dragon Age II, Bioware moves away from the down-to-earth strategic approach of Origins. Instead, seeking to make their game more accessible to people who cry during "The Fast and the Furious," Bioware implemented a strategy that I like to call, "throwing all strategic elements out the window and just hacking and slashing." I don't have a problem with hacking and slashing. Sometimes it is a good time to be had. But when I hear the word "accessibility" in talk of sequels, I just roll my eyes because it is a euphemism for "dumbing down." Everything about Dragon Age II is dumbed down, and I can only hope that Bioware understands what they did wrong and fixes it for Dragon Age: Inquisition.
7): Dead Space
Dead Space is a boring, clunky, flimsily held together attempt at survival horror. F.E.A.R. 3 was scarier than Dead Space was, and F.E.A.R. 3 was never scary. The best way to describe Dead Space is that a 14-year old boy who wanted to name his band, "the circus of nightmares" and is obsessed with Tim Burton movies and torture porn decided he wanted to show the world what he thought was scary. What we have as a result of that is a game where a bunch of dismembered, vomiting, anatomically re-arranged people are running at you the whole time. Don't get me wrong, the necromorphs are creepy as all get-out, but the experience itself is not. The folks over at the development studio for Dead Space have this idea that disturbing and scary are interchangeable at all times, but that is not the case. A game can be both scary and disturbing, but making a game one of these things does not automatically make it the other. Controls are clunky in some misguided attempt to make things more intense, but all it did was annoy me. Yeah, I totally wanted to step on the space directly to the left of the box I am facing, Dead Space, thank you! Dead Space is a game that tries sooooo hard but falls sooooo short, and I gave it so many chances. It just isn't scary. This one time, I was walking through a hallway and I killed three necromorphs. Then I had to walk back through that hallway, since Dead Space is just x chapters of backtracking, and I just sighed. I said, "yeah, right. I killed three guys, and there are four lying down here. Yawn." And that is all it does for the rest of the game. I don't understand the appeal. Dead Space isn't fun, it isn't scary, and it isn't even good in a technical sense.
6): Prince of Persia
Take a beloved franchise and replace its protagonist with an Anime gypsy boy in a Nintendo dark vs. light story with no penalty for death and what do you have? The slop that is Prince of Persia. I didn't get very far in it because I was so outraged, so I don't have much more to say than that.
5): Fable 3
Fable 3 does most everything wrong. Occasionally it has fun segments of gameplay, and Bowerstone looks fantastic in its Industrial Revolution form, but Fable 3 does everything else beyond wrong. I have covered a lot of what is wrong in earlier sections of this article, so I think the point has been made already.
4): Bioshock: Infinite
Hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on, now. Hold your horses, people. Now, everybody knows how I feel about Bioshock: Infinite, but I bet that even people who have heard me rant the most are surprised that it is this far up on the list of worst games of the generation. Why do I have it listed as worse than Prince of Persia or even Fable III of all games? Surely I'm just over-reacting, right? I mean, I didn't like Bioshock: Infinite, but surely I wouldn't call it the 4th worst game of the last NINE years, right? Well, unfortunately I would. Why? Because Bioshock: Infinite does nothing right, and it does this in the context of being a game I waited several years for. I followed the progress for years upon years looking forward to it after a brief period of being convinced it was going to be horrible (foreshadowing). Bioshock: Infinite is a game that I wanted to love so badly. I have started it around 16 times in an attempt to see if I'd like it if I played it again. I have played it twice, and the other times I quit after 10 minutes of playing. I wanted to love it so badly, but I just don't. In fact, my younger brother pointed out that it is like an abusive relationship. I keep going back to Bioshock: Infinite saying, "maybe it'll be good this time! Maybe I'm just not looking at it the right way," and my brother tells me, "No, Reagan, it isn't good for you. Are you just going to keep letting it hurt you like that?" And then I start again for ten minutes before stopping again. That is what my relationship with Bioshock: Infinite is: an abusive relationship in which I am the victim, and everybody else is on my abuser's side, telling me that maybe if I made Bioshock: Infinite's eggs the right way, it wouldn't hurt me. It is a horrible analogy to make, and I mean no disrespect to actual abuse victims, but if I don't like Bioshock: Infinite in this world, then I must be a Call of Duty fanboy. My partner here is such a beloved person that nobody can conceive of why I would try to ruin its life by claiming it isn't nice to me. But all analogies aside, Bioshock: Infinite is a game that I simply cannot like no matter how hard I try. The gameplay is horrible and broken on any difficulty, the story is a bunch of nonsense that is inconsistent even by its own multiverse standards, the characters are weak, the level design is sloppy and reeks of multiplayer focus, and I could conceivably sue Ken Levine for false advertisement if I were a meaner and more immature person, as literally everything revealed in trailers up until the very DAY of release was a lie.
3): Section 8
I remember thinking that Section 8 looked pretty cool from the trailer, and boy was I wrong. Section 8 reeks of multiplayer focus, as the entire game you are just fighting through the same red-sand areas. Controls are awkward and clunky and overcomplicated. You die every two seconds and respawn like nothing happened (*cough* multiplayer focus *cough*). There is a husk of a story the likes of which is only used to try to make multiplayer look less pointless.
2): Serena
I find it hard to talk about Serena. Whereas the worst game of the generation was an angry kind of worst game, Serena is a laugh and shake my head kind of worst game. It just amazes me that games such as this are allowed to exist. In my review of Serena, I have it listed as worse than what I have as #1 here, but looking back, at least I finished Serena. So, it is finishable, but only because it is an hour long. In Serena, you play as a man who sounds like George Lucas who lives in a cabin with his wife. Now, Serena is a point and click game, but the places where you click are smaller than the cursor itself, so you are constantly having to move the mouse slowly across the screen to find the points where you click on. If you want to know more about why Serena is a piece of crap, then check out my review: http://therighttriggerreviews.blogspot.com/p/serena-review.html.
Worst Game of the Generation: Brink
@%^& Brink. Brink is the worst game I've ever played. It is another one of those games that has the delusion that multiplayer gaming is fun. So, in the single player campaign, you choose a class, and you class-hop to fill the void that other players would have filled in multiplayer. And every single mission in Brink is this: You are told to hold a location, keep somebody alive, etc. for about 20 minutes. This game forces you to respawn and respawn and just keep on playing on the same map for 20 minutes, and that is assuming that you don't fail at the very last second after keeping your objective for the other 19 minutes and 59 seconds. Like all other modern multiplayer games, Brink has this coughing, sputtering husk of a story to try and make it look like it has a point. You live on the ark, and the authorities are bad and the rebels are good. You choose to play on the government or rebel side, and then you proceed to play the exact same levels, just on different sides. The thing that was majorly advertised when Brink was still up-and-coming was its parkour mechanic. In Brink, you were supposed to be able to climb anything smoothly and without hesitation. But in reality, there is nothing to distinguish what you can climb or the distance that you can climb, so it is just a messy slop where a cool mechanic should have been. But that is not where the technical failures end. In my entire time playing Brink (which admittedly wasn't long enough to finish), there was very little texture if any at all in the environments. Scenery was bland and it looked like it was unfinished most of the time. And then there is the character customization. You chose which one of the Easter Island head dudes you want to look like, choose which Soccer (or Football, I care so little) uniform you want, which pair of cleats you want, and which copy-and-paste headgear you want. In other words, there isn't actually character customization. You always play as an Easter Island head Jamaican dude dressed like a soccer player. This is a game with a lot of gall. It has the gall to say it has a story. It has the gall to say it has character customization. It has the gall to say that it has a cool parkour mechanic. It has the gall to take my money.
--------------------- --------------------- Top 15 Best Games
Well folks, this is it. These are the top 15 best games of the last gaming generation (Yes, you read right: Top 15). It was an incredibly hard list to compile, and it went through several revisions and rewrites to get where it is now. Sacrifices had to be made in the name of other ideas, and hard decisions had to be made in terms of placing. But here we are, nonetheless. It has been fun writing this article, and I hope you will continue reading The Right Trigger Reviews in the new generation, even if I didn't include your favorite game.
15): Halo 3
Halo 3 is the game I have played the most times out of any game I've played. It is an absolute masterpiece of game making. It took the formula from previous Halo games and introduced some brand new things in the first person shooter genre.
14): Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
The second installment in the Uncharted Saga, "Among Thieves," is a cinematic wonder that I have played numerous times in the short time that I have owned it. In Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Nathan Drake is back and in search of Shangri-La. The journey that he embarks on is one with many twists and turns all leading to a climactic, worthwhile climax. The gameplay is exciting and keeps you on your toes, and the puzzles are much, much, much larger this time around.
13): The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Is Bethesda capable of making a bad open-world game? The answer is no. The can make masterful open world games that aren't as masterful as the last masterful game they made, but they can never do anything subpar. I have a tendency to give Skyrim a lot of crap for its lack of freedom and rebounding health meter, but it is still a game that I dedicated over 200 hours to. In this installment in the Elder Scrolls saga, the Dragons have returned to Skyrim with Alduin, the dragon who vows to end the world. You play as the Dragonborn: a mortal born with the soul of a Dragon, and you are the only one who can slay Alduin and save Tamriel. Though there is very little variety in scenery and a lot of the scenery is an annoying, snowy kind of scenery, Skyrim's map is massive. You can walk from one end of the map to the other, and it would take a long time. The side quests, though not very interesting, are numerous, and they give you a lot to do. I know I am not saying a lot of nice things about Skyrim, but these are entirely things determined in hindsight. I have always had a fun time playing Skyrim, and I still have a fun time playing it every time I decide to pick it up again. But I cannot leave the flaws out, love it though I may. The fact that Skyrim is so low on this list is going to make people angry, but keep in mind: this is a "best" list. I may be pointing out flaws, but I believe that Skyrim is one of the best games made in this gaming generation.
12): Journey
Journey is a game by Thatgamecompany, a small indie game company that was ultimately below the radar before they created this game. It is a straightforward game, but it is one that I have played many, many times, and have enjoyed equally each time. It is a game that can be completed in about two hours, but that doesn't decrease its power. I had to fight to keep the tears back when I finished Journey for the first time, because that is just how powerful this wordless adventure is.
11): Spec Ops: The Line
"Wait a minute, Reagan! You have a modern military shooter on your best list! Are you feeling ok?" The thing about Spec Ops: The Line that makes it so compelling is the fact that it simply isn't your average modern military shooter. It starts off making you think it will be Call of Duty, as it puts you and your squad in Dubai, shooting foreigners to rock music. But then it takes a twist. Spec Ops: The Line is not your Call of Duty, "foreigners hate our freedom, lets shoot them!" game. It poses a serious question. It asks, "Is your country worth doing evil?" as it forces you to mercilessly gun down American soldiers who have gone rogue and enslaved the people of Dubai. In this game, the Americans are the bad guys, and you kill every last American soldier in Dubai, knowing full well that they have families back home, and that some might even live near you. But it is something you must do, as the people of Dubai are suffering under the iron boot of this rogue outfit's occupation. This is a game about the horrors of war. Throughout the game, you will gun down civilians and unknowingly do horrible, inhumane things to families living in Dubai. It is a dark, absolutely freaky, twisted tale that starts off tricking you into thinking it is going to be your average brainless shooter. The three characters start off as your typical commander, black guy with explosives, and white guy with a sniper rifle. They start off as proud patriots. But by the end they are sobbing, bloody, and vomiting profusely because they know what kind of animals they have had to become in this war. This game goes through twists that show that things aren't exactly what they seem, and the ending is absolutely incredible. A reviewer I very much admire mentioned that he does hold a grudge against Spec Ops: The Line, because now he has to buy shooters just in case they happen to be as good as it. Spec Ops: The Line is the greatest modern military shooter to date, and I sincerely hope that more games like it are made. If you are the type of person who supports our involvement in the middle east, I strongly suggest you play this game and start rethinking your position as you see the types of horrors that happen in war. The gameplay is pretty much your average third person cover shooter, but this is a game in which the themes and messages so heavily outweigh the gameplay and short runtime that one might as well not bring the gameplay into the equation.
10): Dark Souls
I spent somewhere around 55 hours on my first playthrough of Dark Souls. There is simply that much you can do, but not in a Bethesda way. Dark Souls is cripplingly hard, so part of the way you progress is what I like to call "The Pidgey Routine." If you've played a Pokemon game, you know that sometimes you have to go out into the tall grass and defeat a whole boatload of level 2 Pidgeys to be ready to fight a gym leader. Well, its the same way with Dark Souls. You need to grind enemies over and over and over again to give yourself a chance of winning. Dark Souls is a game that other game developers can learn a lot from.
9): Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
The sixth installment (despite the IV) in the Assassin's Creed series is the best one to date. It has by far the most open map, the most fun combat, and the most stuff to do. There is just something really special about having your own ship and just sailing to different islands that each have their own personalities and stuff to do. It makes the map feel less scripted, less created, if that makes sense. It makes the map feel less like places that the developers made and more like you are just sailing around and finding these places. Like Fable III, I believe I have already said everything that needs to be said throughout the article.
8): To the Moon
To the Moon is a game that proves how unimportant graphics are to a video game. Throughout the time in which I played To the Moon, I forgot that it was made with some minor RPG generator or something like that. That is the kind of thing that can happen when you have a story as potent as To the Moon's. To the Moon is truly a masterpiece of storytelling. I feel like I have already said everything that needs to be said. It is cheap on Steam, it doesn't take too long to beat, and you won't regret playing it.
7): The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead changes the meaning of the Zombie Apocalypse. Instead of killing zombies and keeping alive, it is about retaining childhood in a world that has gone to hell. It introduces Clementine, one of the most beloved side characters since Alyx Vance in Half Life 2, and makes us care about her. It is a game that frames right and wrong in an entirely different light. It is a game where choices can be a major game changer, and where you have to react quickly to get the results you want.
6): Mass Effect 3
Yeah, yeah, I know. "Blahblahblah ending blahblahblah not Mass Effect 2 blahblahblah Bioware must be paying you." But Mass Effect 3 was my favorite of the trilogy because 1) It was the most fun to play, 2) Its storytelling was more potent, and 3) every little side quest matters in some way. The gameplay, while the most action-y of the trilogy, was also more RPG-y than Mass Effect 2 was. So, we get the best of both world. We get a gameplay system that doesn't feel as outdated (as much as I hate using that word in a negative sense) as the original Mass Effect's did, but doesn't sacrifice its RPG roots. I was on edge the entire final push of Mass Effect 3...now...that may or may not be because the first time I got to the final push of Mass Effect 3 it was 5 in the morning and I'd forgotten about the time change, so it was actually 6 in the morning and I was exhausted but couldn't make myself quit until I'd finished. But still, Mass Effect 3 is constantly reminding you that you are royally screwed if you make even the slightest mistake. Other games can learn a lot from Mass Effect 3's side quest mechanic. Every side quest, while not very interesting, mattered in some way. Every side quest gave you resources to make the final push work more in your favor, and that is a truly revolutionary system that more games should take up. All in all, Mass Effect 3 is the best of the trilogy, despite what hardcore 2 fans will say.
5): Bioshock
Bioshock is a game that I wanted for many, many years, and I finally was able to get my hands on a copy in my senior year of high school. It exceeded my expectations. I went in expecting a horror game to scare my pants off, but what I got was a beautiful story about free will and idealism. It isn't everyday that you have an experience like that. Like most people, I went into Bioshock not expecting a plot twist, and then the plot twist happened and my life was changed. It is a plot twist that transcends the medium, to put it in a way that doesn't spoil anything. I have said a lot of what needs to be said throughout the article, but Bioshock is truly an experience, and it is one that you should not miss out on.
4): Fallout 3
Fallout 3 is a game in which you roam the ruined wasteland of Virginia, a place where everything has a futuristic 1950's sort of feel, and you shoot raiders and mutants to the sound of old Jazz music. Now that is a good video game for you. Fallout 3 has an expansive map (I mean, its a Bethesda game, so of course it does) that manages to not be boring despite not having much variety, and there is a lot of exploring and looting to do. That is really what makes post-apocalypse games great, the looting. And there is a lot of it. You can get schematics for makeshift weapons that use some of the random junk you find laying around, so anything you can pick up can be used to some degree. I haven't spent as much time in Fallout 3 as I have in the Elder Scrolls games, but I've still given a darn huge amount of time to it.
3): The Last of Us
Take a blend of powerful storytelling and stellar gameplay, and what you have is The Last of Us, the survival game by the creators of the Uncharted Saga. Like many other games on this list, I have already said everything that needs to be said about The Last of Us.
2): Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age: Origins is my favorite game. It takes a powerful story of two people against impossible odds and combines it was gameplay that you need a brain to survive in. It is a testament to how much a team of well-developed characters can make an already great story greater. I have played Dragon Age: Origins several times, at the very least once for every origin story. I have gotten all the possible endings and played in literally every way possible. I have done just about every combination of party members and completed nearly every single side mission. It is without a doubt Bioware's strongest product.
Best Game of the Generation: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Oblivion was the first non-nintendo game that I ever played on a console, and anyone who has played both a Nintendo game and Oblivion must know how huge a jump in freedom that is. The thing that needs to be understood about games with a lot of freedom is that there needs to be balance. There has to be order to go along with the freedom, but not too much of either. The previous game in the saga, Morrowind, is an example of too much freedom and not enough order. In games with this problem, we have hundreds upon hundreds of skills to level up (heavy armor, light armor, medium armor, sorta inbetween light and medium armor, sorta inbetween medium and heavy armor, heavy armor with engravings on the chest, etc.), and it just feels like a lack of focus. On the other hand, Skyrim had too much order and too little freedom. I felt constrained in Skyrim because there was so little I could do in terms of crafting and things like that. Oblivion represents the perfect balance between order and freedom. There is an insane amount of stuff to do: you can create your own spells, you can brew potions of insane quality, you can enchant your equipment until you are a superhuman/superelf, but there is still some method to the madness, some focus to be found in the game. Oblivion is pretty much a perfect game, despite the obligatory Bethesda glitches. The sidequests are all fascinating: from the woman gang that preys on men to the "most dangerous game" quest where you are escaping from an island on which people are hunted for sport. Combat feels fluid due to the use of a separate button for magic, so you can swing your sword and block with your shield, but you can still use magic without equipping the spell in your hand or something like that. The main quests are a great time as well, and the plains of Oblivion that they lead you to are dark and grim and just plain uncomfortable. The exploration is some of the most fun I've had exploring, as there are treasures to find in every cave, fort and Ayleid ruin. In my main play through of Oblivion, I had a collection of Welkynd stones, blue stones found in Ayleid ruins. I had hundreds of them in my collection, and I would go and scavenge every Ayleid ruin I could find and scour every inch of them looking for these stones. There also came a point where I decided I wanted to collect every kind of armor suit in the game. So, like an actual collector I went from shop to shop searching for different kinds of armor and enchanted variants of the same armors. I succeeded in my goal and had a suit of every kind of armor and a weapon of every kind in my home. That is how much fun it is to play Oblivion. It is perfection in game form. And while Dragon Age: Origins may be my favorite game, I place a distinction between favorite and best. One can concede that Bach is the best composer of all time, but their favorite can be Beethoven, and it is the same thing here. Dragon Age: Origins is my favorite, but The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is the greatest game created in this console generation.
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And thus, this generation in review comes to an end. I hope you have enjoyed reading, and I look forward to reviewing some amazing new games in this next generation of console gaming.
Picture Sources (some of these were actually not used, but there are simply too many to go and weed out those that weren't used. Also, there are some pictures that were used in previous articles. Those will not be listed, as you can go and see the sources in previous articles.)
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