Guild Wars 2 Endgame (2012): **
Given that I spent roughly half the year playing, I can't not put an entry here. I'll stick to my previous comment that it's probably the best game I've played in a long, long while, but as with most MMOs, the more time you spend with it the more you notice the odd bits and shortcomings. As a PvPer I have to say that the game is pretty rough as I've already documented and there is no reasonable PvE endgame. Instead we get periodic Living Story releases which are interesting but can't hide the fact that there isn't really a lot of depth there.
Duke Nukem Forever (2011): *
Naturally I followed GW2, the best game I've played in a while, with the worst game I've played in a while. DNF was awful in all the ways that the gaming press thrashed it for. It's a game from another time in a very inapt Austin Powers-like way and despite the fancy window dressing ends up feeling dated in just about every way that counts. There are some high points but IMO it wasn't worth slogging through the low points to find them. The best thing I can say about it is that it was mercifully short. If you're a hardcore Duke fan, you probably already have this. If you're not, don't bother unless you like a good train wreck.
Serious Sam 3 (2011): ****
As has been well documented, I am a sucker for the super Serious Sam series. It's about as pure an oldskool shooter as you'll find and SS3 BFE takes it to the current generation. The design is just about the same as the previous two with steadily increasing hordes of bads to carve up in steadily increasingly overkill ways culminating in an end boss that I just plain can't beat. That barely dents my enthusiasm for the series, however. Anyone interested in player progression and encounter design should take a run through any of the Serious Sam series. Seriously.
Rogue Legacy (2013): ***
This is a pretty interesting platformer with a couple interesting hooks. First, it's rogue-like at its core which basically boils down to ridiculously difficult with random levels and a semblance of perma-death. Second, it's generational (hence the Legacy part of the name) with the player taking the role of an increasingly long lineage of career adventurers. Each new generation comes with its choice of a few of the available classes and their own set of interesting ads/disads. Examples of such include "Congenital Insensitivity to Pain" which removes the health bar, and "no foot pulse" which prevents floor traps from springing. These run the gamut from ridiculous like "Vertigo" which flips the screen upside down rendering it nearly unplayable to hilarious like "Dyslexia" which scrambles some of the dialog and rearranges some miscellaneous stuff. I want terribly to like this game more because it oozes so much style but I don't have the skill or patience for it.
Portal 2 (2011): ****
I finally got around to this one and it didn't disappoint. It, like its predecessor, has some fun puzzles and doesn't outlast its welcome. Also much like the first, its strength lies in its writing and often very dark humor. As I've ranted before, humor of all sorts, dark or otherwise, I find lacking in most games of this generation.
Divinity: Dragon Commander (2013): *****
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| Good name for a Fangbear, really. |
Luckily, the folks at Larian Studios (in Belgium no less--home of some of my favorite beers) have seen fit to try to fill the gap. D:DC is easy to overview as a Risk-like strategic game bolted to a very primitive RTS with Mass Effect-like dialogs between but that doesn't really do it justice. The dialogs involve some very memorable characters including your cabinet with representatives of each race (Undead, Elf, Dwarf, Lizard, and Imp), your wizard confidant Maxos, one of the four available princesses, and a handful of generals and other support staff each with their own unique if exaggerated view of the world and their own agendas. Your decisions affect the strategic map and the delicate balance of approval you'll need with each race to unite the realm. Units on the strategic map are your starting units in each RTS combat or you can auto-resolve with the help of your generals who grow throughout each campaign. Lots of otherwise innocent words sacrificed there, and this still does not do the game justice. The writing is some of the best I've seen in any game and even though each character starts out as a caricature of an extreme viewpoint, they all have their endearing points and all seem very human. This is complimented by a quirky sense of humor and some of the best voice acting in any game. I have no idea if the folks at Larian are native English speakers but they deserve a medal for this gem either way--it is clearly a game that is more than the sum of its parts.
Divine Divinity (2002): ****
When I find a gem of a game that I've missed from a studio I don't know, I typically want to see what else I've missed and Divine Divinity did not disappoint. It's an old-skool western RPG in the Diablo sense and despite the period-awful voice acting and not-well-aged graphics, it ends up being pretty entertaining nonetheless. It's an excellent showing as one of Larian's first games and despite its somewhat troperrific plot it's still recommendable for anyone who can handle its dated-ness.
Beyond Divinity (2004): ***
The follow up to Divine Divinity wasn't nearly as awesome as the original. It's way more complicated in not good ways and while it does have a fun twist, it's easy to lose it in the grindy-ness. I was most surprised that there wasn't really any epic loot (all the unique equipment was pedestrian) and there were way too many skills and way too few skill points to spend on them. The tedium of its puzzles and mazes was mostly forgiven by the ending which tied it in very well to its predecessor--even if the last few encounters were ridiculously difficult. Hopefully Divinity II will show improvement.
In Review...
So that was 2013 as a whirlwind--some good, some bad, and some fantastic gaming in between.
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