Portal

Title: Portal
Platform Played On: Xbox 360, PC
Release Date: October 10, 2007
Date Played: October 2007, Fall 2011
Time Played: 10 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5



Opinion:
Portal is a Valve acquired student project released as part of the Orange Box. It meant to add value to the Half Life 2 package, but shortly after Orange Box was release Portal transformed from a cool filler to a global phenomenon.

Portal is a puzzle game. The idea is to get to the exit via the use of two portals. You place an entrance in one spot, and an exit in another. This creates a fun dynamic mechanic never before seen in a video game, at least not quite like this. You are given freedom of putting the portal on virtually any surface, even allowing you to put one directly above and one below you, and fall infinitely through them.

The campaign takes you through a couple of dozen of puzzle rooms, also known as "Test Chambers". As you progress through them you are addressed by Glados, an autonomous computer system. Glados is brilliantly written and brings a ton of quotes to the pop culture scene, such as "Cake is a lie". And just when you start to feel like you are getting to the end of the game, Portal takes an unprecedented turn and unveils a pretty cool plot twist.

Portal is one of the most innovative, and fun puzzle games to come out in a long time. It is fun all around and should be experienced by every gamer young and old.

Tropico 3

Title: Tropico 3
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: October 20, 2009
Date Played: Spring-Summer 2012
Time Played: 54 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5



Opinion:

I have never played Tropico 1 or 2, I never even knew that such a series existed until Tropico 3 made a splash with several podcasts that I listen to. The main appeal of the series is the fact that instead of trying to be a good mayor as is encouraged in other games (Sim City for example), in Tropico 3 you play the role of a dictator. Basically a 180 degree turn from the typical.

Tropico 3 consists of a sandbox mode which offers exactly what you would expect. An endless supply of random scenarios and missions. However even without that Tropico 3 features a lengthy campaign consisting of 15 missions, which took me 54 hours to complete.

Each mission is its own island with its own objectives, bonuses, restrictions and caveats. The mission objectives vary from staying in power for a certain amount of time to making your island nation financially viable. You will find yourself dealing with disgruntled citizens either by appeasing them or by murdering them and their families in cold blood. You will find yourself dealing with the capitalists and communists, nationalists and the church. Tropico is flexible enough to let you run your country in whatever way you choose to. From praising yourself in the elections to outright banning election. From bribing influential people to allying with the Soviets or the US. Needless to say, Tropico 3 is a fun strategy sim game.

Every level starts out about the same. It is the 50's and you find yourself for one reason or another as El Presidente of a small island nation. You build roads, housing, farms and other infrastructure, while at the same time try and set up an export economy by exporting tobacco or oil or gold or iron or whatever your island can produce in order to make money, and if you got nothing then perhaps it is a good tourist destenation? Tropico 3 does a good job at giving you choices (although some scenarios funnel you towards using one resource or another to go with the story line). Once you establish your nation's infrastructure you need to start worrying about crime, pollution and other needs of the citizens. Ignorance can lead to revolts, coupes or revolutions. And what dictator would want any of those? You need to keep an army ready to defend you and your Castro hat from any threat.

I had a great deal of fun with Tropico 3. I felt that it is an excellent twist on the Sim City series that makes the genre more interesting and also makes you feel like you have a lot more choices in how to play and what to do. If you like Sim City style of game I would definitely recommend checking out Tropico 3 (or 4), they are some of the best games in their genre. I plan to jump into the expansion "Absolute Power" fairly soon.

BioShock

Title: BioShock
Platform Played On: Xbox 360/PC
Release Date: August 21, 2007
Date Played: August-September 2007
Time Played: 20 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5




Opinion:
BioShock came out a couple of days after I purchased my first Xbox 360. It was one of the two games to push me over the edge with the purchase (other being Mass Effect). I could not wait to put the disc in to my "Blade Dashboard" Xbox, and press play.

BioShock starts with a question and ends with a choice. Is it a choice? That is the question. Would you kindly discover it for yourself?

One thing is certain, BioShock has an incredible ability to pull you in. The moment I descended into Ruputre via the bathysphere I found myself in a new world, a world full of questions. These were genuine questions one might have when watching a very interesting movie or reading a very interesting novel for the first time. I found myself lost in dripping, frozen in time halls of Rupture, seeking answers and in turn finding more questions. The highly detailed environments pulled me in, I found myself inspecting every ornament, every crevice. And as I progressed through the story the constant addition of new weapons and elements kept me engaged.

BioShock does an excellent job at storytelling, it knows when to throw you a bone, and when to pull away. It knows when to make a reveal and when to fool you. And once you beat it, there is no doubt that you will want to talk about it.

It is easy to misinterpret BioShock as a shooter. Shooting is simply a vessel for its incredibly rich setting and it's amazing story. It is so much more than a shooter. It is a movie, a novel, a place, a setting. It is amazing.

If I could give BioShock a 5+ out of 5, I would. It is one of very few games ever made that I would argue is firstly a piece of art and secondly a piece of entertainment. I envy those that have yet to play it. I hope to experience something as powerful as BioShock again some day.

Bioshock in my opinion is a perfect game. It is one of my most favorite games of all time, and I feel that it should be experienced by everyone, gamer and non-gamer alike. Would you kindly go play it? And then re-read this post. I promise a surprise :)

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

Title: Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
Platform Played On: PlayStation 2
Release Date: December 3, 2001 
Date Played: Summer 2006
Time Played: 10 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5




Opinion:
Jak and Daxter is a PlayStation 2 exclusive from the now legendary developer Naughty Dog (the company behind the Uncharted and Crash Bandicoot series).

Jak and Daxter follows the story of a careless and silly duo, who after discovering that the sages from around the world have been kidnapped have to embark on an epic journey in attempt to rescue them and save the world.

Jak and Daxter is a platformed similar to Naughty Dog's sister studio's Insomniac's Ratchet and Clank. You will find your self double jumping, platforming and collecting items in order to gain enhancements or progress through the levels. Once in a while Jak and his little buddy Daxter encounter a boss, who needs to be defeated in order to progress the story.

Jak and Daxter are likable characters with their own quirks and one liners. While playing through the story is fun, and navigation feels as solid as in any other top notch platformer, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy does nothing revolutionary. It is simply a fun gameto play through. It's themes, colors and gameplay are definitely more geared towards younger audience; however it can be equally fun for anyone.

The series was just re-released as an HD collection for the PlayStation 3. If you want to check out this classic from Naughty Dog, that version is definitely the one to go with. It looks much better, and you get 3 games for a very good price.

Company of Heroes

Title: Company of Heroes
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: September 13, 2006
Date Played: Fall 2006
Time Played: 20 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5



Opinion:
As a fan of real time strategy I have seen plenty of them over the years; however nothing could prepare me for Company of Heroes, it redefined the genre for me.

Right around the turn of the century real time strategy games made a transition from sprite based to polygonal models. While it allowed for in engine cinematics the graphical quality and detail suffered a lot. The units became blocky and looked pretty rough compared to the hand drawn 2d counterparts. While I dreaded the shift, it was inevitable. It made it a lot easier to make games and more and polygonal everything was the future anyways, so I just had to deal with it.

Along comes 2006 and the real time strategy community is rocked by the newly released Company of Heroes from the legendary studio Relic. CoH took a new approach to the RTS genre, it focused more on individual units, and taking them through war riddled Europe as opposed to focusing on base building and spamming units. This invoked much more strategy as each and every unit needed to be micro managed. Each unit had its own real life-like role. It is not just infantry, light armor, heavy armor. Instead its a grenadier, with his specific function and role on the battlefield, a machine gunner, with his own role, I guess the depth of each unit could be compared to classes in class based games (Team Fortress, MMOs), etc..).

The story is done through the in engine cinematics, and oh my god did they look amazing in 2006! The graphics looked as good as in the best looking first person shooters of the time, with each soldier's face, uniform, and equipment being unique. It was stunning to see a scene play out and then have the camera simply zoom out to the standard RTS view. The units looked incredibly detailed, the environments were destructible, and the story was very well told. Company of Heroes set a new benchmark in the real time strategy genre, just like Command and Conquer and Star Craft did in their day.

Company of Heroes remains one of my most favorite RTS games of all time. It was this game that changed my mind about polygonal transition of the genre. It was the first time where I felt that the 3d models were equal, if not better looking than the 2d sprite based games. It was the first time when I played an RTS and felt like I was playing a movie. I felt like I was in the heart of Europe during World War 2, it was like being inside of Saving Private Ryan.

Company of Heroes is a must play for any RTS fan. It is still one of the best games in it's genre and will likely remain there for a while since we hardly ever see new RTS games. That being said, I can not wait for the recently announced sequel. It has been 7 years since CoH hit the store shelves, and we are well overdue for more.

Civilization 2

Title: Civilization 2
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: February 29, 1996
Date Played: 1999
Time Played: 20+ hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 5/5




Opinion:
Civilization is one of the earliest computer strategy games. It is known for its depth, gameplay variety, and games of epic proportions.

When I got my first computer at home (a Pentium 2 with 365Mgz CPU and 128Mb of RAM sporting an 8mb ATI card) my dad brought a couple of games from Russia in his final move to the US. Alpha Centauri, Star Craft, Test Drive 5, and Civilization 2. Civ 2 was the fist Civ game I have played.

Right away Civilization was different from any other game. There was no campaign, the entirety of the game took place on a randomly generated map. Although it was a bit disappointing that there was no narrative to follow, other aspects of the game more than made up for it. The massive skill tree and progression from stone-club wielding nomads to space age nuke dropping bureaucrats was something I have never seen before. The ability to take over the world in games taking weeks, months and potentially even years felt epic. Not to mention the FMV advisers that help you rule your nation. The advisers were amazing, they would change their clothes throughout the eras and even though some of them looked cheesy it was fun just to watch them (keep in mind that in 1996 seeing FMV on a computer was still pretty radical.) I really liked them, and was bummed that they were taken out of the subsequent iterations.

If you played any of the Civilization games then you know how Civilizaiton 2 plays. It is the game that made the series famous and is a beloved classic by most. The series has been iterated upon many times since then with Civilization 5 (2011) being a masterpiece, so unless the nostalgia bug bites you, there is no reason to go back and play Civ 2. Nevertheless it will forever remain in the video game history as an amazing game that we all enjoyed in the 90's.

GTA: Vice City

Title: GTA: Vice City
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: March 12, 2003
Date Played: Summer 2003
Time Played: 30+ hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5



Opinion:
Grand Thief Auto's move to 3d took everyone by surprise. A lot of people bought PlayStation 2's just to play it. And a  year after GTA3 defined what it meant to be an open world 3rd person shooter Rockstar (developer) used the same engine to make and release GTA: Vice City.

Set in the 80's Vice City takes everything GTA 3 pioneered, puts a fresh coat of paint on it and improves on almost every single mechanic. This was possible due to the fact that the engine was already made which allowed the developers to spend the entire development cycle on perfecting the gameplay experience instead of making things function properly under the hood (this was all done during GTA3 development). The result was amazing!

The basic premise remains the same... start as a nobody and make your way all the way up to being the lord of all criminal activity in the city by eliminating all other dons and mob honchos.

While the basic gameplay is as awesome as it was in GTA3, there are a lot more cars, bikes, and mission types in Vice City. Not to mention the addition of planes and helicopters and the absolute best soundtrack in any game ever.

There isnt much to say about Vice City. It is basically a better version of GTA3, and out of the 3 games released with that engine (GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas) this is by far my favorite one. The 80's atmosphere is welcoming and the great soundtrack is a good mood setter.

No doubt that Vice City has aged and GTA 4 has eclipsed it in all categories; however if you want to go back and play the games that brought this genre to the forefront of gaming then GTA: Vice City is the one to go for.

Asura's Wrath

Title: Asura's Wrath
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: February 21, 2012
Date Played: July 2012
Time Played: 6 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5




Opinion:
If I had to describe Asura's Wrath in one word, that word would have to be "insanity!"

Asura's Wrath is like no other game ever made. It is anime at its finest in a video game form. While there have been numerous anime series adapted into video game form, they all tend to do just that, adapt the motion picture to a video game. In other words you basically get a typical fighting, or flying or adventure game with the characters from that particular anime. Asura's Wrath takes a completely opposite approach, it molds the video game into the motion picture.

Asura's Wrath takes about four to six hours to experience once. There are numerous mechanics that would make you want to play it several times, but I didnt feel the urge to do so and only played it once on normal. Ninety percent of the time you will spend watching a mind blowing anime movie rendered entirely in engine. The reason I say anime movie is because only anime gets as insane as Asura's Wrath (the art style also reinforces the anime motif). It has everything, from a planet being pierced all the way through by a sword to a human sized guy destroying someone larger than the planet. While watching the story unfold you perform context sensitive quick time events. What is unique about them is the fact that even if you fail the quick time event the story just keeps going. In essence you can not really lose (at least not during the quick time events). In between the story beats you will find yourself fighting some creatures in a God of War style beat em up. However these portions are very small.

As you make your way through the game you will basically watch a season of an anime show, it is broken up into 19 episodes (plus DLC) and even features commercial breaks half way through the episodes (not to worry though there aren't actual ads).

Asura's Wrath utilizes the Unreal Engine 3, and it looks phenomenal. The characters are very detailed and unique looking. The presentation as a whole is very well executed with context sensitive quick time events actually making sense and the button placement on the screen actually reinforcing the action being performed. Presentation in Asura's wrath is great, both visual and sound. It is equally enjoyable to watch as it is to play.

I am not a huge fan of anime; however I really enjoyed Asura's Wrath. It does have a few things that rubbed me the wrong way. For instance the fact that you have to beat the final level 2 times, and the excuse for doing so is extremely lame. And the fact that in order to get the true full ending you have to buy the DLC in addition to buying the game. Nevertheless Asura's Wrath is worth a least a rental. It's episodic nature makes it easy to pick up for 10-15 minutes and its anime craziness keeps you and whoever is watching engaged. The story is fairly decent (although nonsensical).

Bottom line is that there has never been a game such as this one, and everyone should at least give it a rental. If you like anime, I think you will love Asura's Wrath, but even if you dont give a damn about anime you should check it out for its uniqueness.

Splinter Cell

Title: Splinter Cell
Platform Played On: PC/PS3
Release Date: February 19, 2003
Date Played: Fall 2003, Summer 2012
Time Played: 15 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5


Opinion:
I became a fan of the Tom Clancy games after playing Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, it featured  tactics I have never seen in a video game before and it was also my first ever online multiplayer experience. After seeing the trailers for this new game called Splinter Cell I could not wait to get my hands on it.

It was the fall of 2003, I have just moved into the dorms at UCI with my AMD Athlon XP 2.4Ghz, 1GB of RAM and a GeForce 6800 computer running Splinter Cell. I remember Splinter Cell looking incredible at that time. The infra red vision looked just as real is in the movies, the shadows and light were like nothing Ive ever seen before. The same thing could be said about my computer, it refused to run the game at more than 30FPS. Splinter Cell was a lot for a PC to handle.

You are Sam Fisher, a member of an elite special forces unit tasked with uncovering the truth behind Georgian (country) president's attempt to start World War 3. You are equipped with a silenced pistol and a rifle, night vision/infra red goggles, explosives and other gadgets. Your number one weapon though is stealth.

I played Splinter Cell throughout the first quarter of college. Eventually though I got to a very frustrating part with landmines that can only be seen with infra red vision, and the spot lights that could not be seen with infra red on. After attempting that section a few times I ended up giving up on it. If only I knew how close to the end I was. I was literally an hour or so from finishing the game. And it took 9 years and re-release of the Splinter Cell on the PS3 for me to sit down and play it all the way through, this time actually finishing it.

Splinter Cell immediately reminded me of the Thief series. Similarly the main focus of the game is sneaking around and accomplishing your objective without alerting anyone. While extremely satisfying when pulled of, this kind of game design can be very frustrating unless balanced just right.

Splinter Cell does suffer from a few frustrating design decisions. There are a few missions where you are not allowed to kill anyone, while yes you are a spy, even James Bond is allowed to kill people when he absolutely needs to. And the way the missions are structured it can be frustrating making it almost all the way through and then getting caught, and be unable to do anything about it.

The most annoying and dumbest design decision though is when even though you have killed every single person in the whole level, if any of one corpse is in the light, the alarm will go off once you get a certain distance away from it. In other words, you have to hide every singe body no matter the likelihood of it being discovered. Killed someone in a back alley and thew them down the well? Great... does a little beam of light shine in the well? Welp it doesn't matter alarm is going to go off! Killed someone in an abandoned warehouse bathroom? Kill everyone else within 10 mile radius? Great! Are any of their bodies in any sort of light? You lose! Its so silly that Ubisoft (developer) would implement such a mechanic. It would have been OK if you were not limited to a certain number of alarms going of. I found myself in a situation where if I triggered the alarm only one more time I would lose, and with everyone dead just because I left someone's toe in a non pitch black room the alarm would off, even though there is no one left to even press the damn alarm button.

Splinter Cell is a very rigid experience. There is one path and one way to do everything, and if you stray from that path you either fail the mission or die. A few times I ran into game breaking situations, such as needing to use a specific weapon and not having bullets for it, or having to use the spy mic and having it not work.

Overall though Splinter Cell is a good game. At the time it looked stunning, which helps it to still look good today. It is still fairly unique and is indeed fun most of the time. I am not sure how much benefit there is from going back to this particular release considering the fact that there have been numerous sequels that have tremendeously improved the formula. But if you want to see the roots of the Splinter Cell franchise, or simply cant get enough of Sam Fisher, by all means play this game. I would recommend the PC version or the HD release on the PS3.

League of Evil

Title: League of Evil
Platform Played On: iPhone
Release Date: February 3, 2011
Date Played: Spring/Summer 2012
Time Played: 5 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5

Opinion:
If you have played Super Meat Boy then you know exactly how League of Evil plays. It is a side scrolling platformer in which you must rely on speed and quick reflexes in order to be successful, not to mention that you need to be ready to die A LOT and take a lot of retries.

The game consists of over a hundred levels each taking no more than 20 seconds to complete (my average is 14 seconds per level after 1040+ deaths). However you will find yourself dying at least a dozen times before perfecting each level, which makes each level last at least a couple of minutes. Each level has a 3 star rating system which is based on the time it took you to complete it. In addition to the stars each level has a briefcase as as a secondary objective, so in essence each level should be played at least 2 times in order to get everything.

Although death is very common in League of Evil, the game does not cease to be fun. The 8bit art is a pleasure to look at and the stylized upbeat 8 bit music keeps the rhythm. The controls feel solid and very responsive and the character pace is well balanced. In addition to this every time you die a shadow of your run gets recorded, and then played back as you make new attempts. So by the time you do your 30th attempt at the level you can see 29 of your shadows running by your side, falling, missing and dying. This looks super cool, however I had to turn this feature off because it would make the game lag a little bit on the iPhone 4, and on some levels it was nearly impossible to see myself with 50+ clones running around.

The controls in League of Evil are amazing, although virtual, they are as precise as a physical joystick and feel natural to use. Controls make or break this type of game, and I am glad that they absolutely nailed them. Great job!

League of Evil is one of the best executed games on the iOS. It is addictive and fun, it allows for short 30 second play sessions as well as provides content to last for hours and hours of gameplay. It is a great game to have on the go and a cool game to show off to your friends. Since its release it had several map packs added to it, as well as a sequel. I would definitelly recommend League of Evil to every iPhone owner.