Checkpoint Reached

Coming hot at the heels of the first game, which was only released three months ago, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 has been released on Steam today. Scott Cawthon, sole developer of the series, had mentioned that he would be dropping a demo of the first three nights on November 11. However, much to fans' surprise, the feature-complete game has been unleashed. The game is markedly different than its predecessor; doors have been removed, new animatronics have been added, and hidden minigames have been discovered in early runs of the game. YouTube face cam personalities should have playthroughs coming through shortly. More will be added to this post throughout the day as information becomes available.

More game modes, characters, and stages to come...

On an unrelated side note, I'm hoping that the upcoming Warcraft movie by Duncan Jones makes box office records, just so Bizzard is encouraged to make more movies of their projects at this level of detail.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME This is one that I’m sure resonates with a lot of people. You’ve spent countless hours on an epic quest to gain ultimate power, rescue the princess, and defeat the one evil warlock who is strong enough to bring about the end of the world, if he so chooses. The hero has stormed the castle and met the villain on unholy ground, with no allies to be found. Yet somehow, with an equal mixture of luck and skill, the hero prevails. Suddenly, the sorcerer uses the last of his power to cast a spell that brings the castle crashing down around him. Link quickly escapes with Princess Zelda, and they watch the walls come down. Yet there is no time for celebration – something rumbles from deep within the ruins. Ganondorf has survived, but has used his dark magic to become a creature twisted enough to match the ugliness in his soul. He is a shadow from a nightmare, inhuman, enormous and powerful. Ganondorf is no more, only Ganon remains. The skies are blackened and lightning flashes. Ganon roars and knocks the Master Sword from Link’s hands in a furious attack. Despite all odds, everything had seemed to be going so well, right up until that very moment. In the space of a few seconds, it became very possible that evil was going to win this day… In retrospect, it’s funny to see how this ending has become much more cinematic in my mind, when compared to what actually happens in-game. It’s a fantastic conclusion to an epic adventure, one that would set the bar for all future Legend of Zelda games to come.

Retrospective: Favorite Game Endings **Illustration credit goes entirely to my friend dramastikator BANJO-KAZOOIE It's safe to say that the Nintendo 64 may have been the golden age of the platforming genre. Rare Studios (the Battletoads guys, surprisingly) would eventually be known as the leaders of the industry, but not until they had released a game that looked more like a Saturday morning cartoon than an epic adventure. Banjo-Kazooie was a collect-a-thon that took dozens of hours to complete, and required much more ambition if one were to completely clear the game. Every inch was covered with ridiculous yet relevant content, from jigsaw pieces to golden musical eighth notes, all in the quest to bring the evil witch Gruntilda to justice for kidnapping your ursine little sister. Banjo and Kazooie would learn several abilities along the way, all of which needed to be utilized effectively in very specific instances in order to progress. In line with the game's wacky design, the final stage was a quiz show, in which you had to navigate a game board and answer trivia questions about the game thus far. It was fun and quirky, facing an intellectual challenge that was actually quite difficult. Once you reached the final tile of the board, Banjo's sister was saved and the witch made a quick escape, not to be seen until the inevitable sequel. The good guys had won! ...Only not quite. It was a false ending - you really needed to chase Gruntilda to the top of her dark tower, to defeat the witch for all of her wrongdoings to the creatures in the valley below. This final battle would become a template for many games to come - it's a culmination of all skills learned throughout the adventure, and all must be used effectively in order to topple Gruntilda from her broomstick. You weren't just beating the big bad at the end of the game, you were truly beating the game itself by proving mastery over the mechanics that brought you through all of the temples and traps along the way. The battle is long, difficult, and unforgiving; failure requires you to restart the entire sequence from the beginning. This led to several rounds of sweaty hands and frustration as you transition from one phase of the fight to the next, at once firing Kazooie's eggs on the ground, the next moment dog-fighting the witch through the stormy skies. As a final boss encounter, it was surprisingly relentless and challenging. But MAN, when you land that last hit, you really know that you've earned it.

Sooner or later, I think I need to put The List on hold. Or, better yet, maybe it’s time to make another list: Games I Must Ace. Maybe I need some type of motivation to help me look at games not as empty checkboxes, but rather easily-digestible whales (you gotta take it one bite at a time). If you haven’t made the effort in a while, I’d recommend that you try it very soon. There’s a lot of gold to tap in these games, and if you’re enjoying the experience, why not try to mine the most out of it?

The game flows well with a standard controller, and I imagine that using a fighting stick would be a better match for someone aiming to be more competitive with the game. Mortal Kombat has always seemed to have a “dial-a-combo” system in place, so busting out a chain doesn’t involve so much skill or timing, but rather ramming out a sequence as fast as possible and then watching the hits happen. Also, the block button plagued me – I would eat a ton of hits because I’m used to tapping backward and blocking, so I personally have just turned my offense into a defense by keeping constant pressure on my foes from all angles. The Krypt, introduced way back in the Deadly Alliance days, is present once again, with a few hundred items to unlock using in-game currency earned from simply fighting matches. Typically, most of what is to be unearthed is gimmicky concept art and stage music, but every once in a while you can find a new secondary fatality for the characters hidden away. I think this feature could be trimmed down in future iterations of Mortal Kombat – it’s very bloated as it stands. There isn’t much to be found as far as extras are concerned, besides a model viewer and general backstories for each toon, but not much else is needed or missed, really. From what I’ve heard from others, the net code of the game is buggy and unreliable, but that shouldn’t stop you from having a few friendly matches with buddies on the couch. Even if you don’t have an interest in playing against others, I would still recommend giving the game a play through, if only to experience the single-player functions. This is a great return for Mortal Kombat, providing plenty of new features mixed into nostalgia, and I’m very excited to see what else Netherealm Studios can offer with future releases.

Every now and then I’ll encounter a game that completely flies under my radar due to the amount of triple-A titles that demand my attention. I was introduced to Stick it to the Man after a friend showed me his copy on PS4, and after watching a few minutes of gameplay I knew right away that this was an adventure that I needed to track down. In most aspects, Stick it to the Man is heavily influenced by Double Fine studios, and the art, humor, and platforming style invokes Psychonauts heavily throughout. There are actually a few easter eggs sprinkled in the game that reference Double Fine (such as a stuffed doll of Double Fine’s double-headed logo), but it doesn’t feel as if this title is stealing too much from the larger company. I very much enjoyed the concept of the game, living in a sort-of shadow box world with cardboard cutouts and interactive stickers, and the level design is varied and unique. Game difficulty isn’t an issue, although I did encounter odd bugs once or twice which prevented me from making forward progress (namely, sticker mounting points would not immediately appear next to important characters or locations). Also, when several interaction points are clustered near each other, your controls can get squirrelly as the game attempts to snap to context-sensitive areas (and this happens quite frequently). The story is nonsensical and lighthearted, which I found to be a refreshing change of pace with so many games recently sticking to dark and brooding or sardonic main characters. Ray, the protagonist, is very sweet and helpful to everyone he interacts with, including Ted, the goofy and forgetful alien taking residence in his brain. This isn’t an award-winning story, but it’s wholly entertaining for about five or six hours, though a second playthrough isn’t really needed, save for achievement cleanup. Stick it to the Man is short and sweet, and I’m very happy that I picked up this platformer when I had the chance. Recommended for most – it’s often listed at a cheap price digitally and is worth a single playthrough.

Serving as the latest entry in TellTale Games’ story-driven adventure series, The Wolf Among Us (based upon the Fables graphic novels) is an excellent addition to the genre. Although it may lack the dramatic punches and character development that The Walking Dead provides, it’s a great tale that deserves a look. Visually, The Wolf Among Us uses the same cel-shaded style that is prevalent in all recent TellTale Games, though the usage of neon lighting in contrast to darker shades of color help to create the neo-noir atmosphere of a pulpy crime novel. The characters are very well represented from the graphic novels, and are immediately recognizable from their illustrated counterparts. A few new characters who have not been introduced in the book series make debuts in the game, and fit into the universe just fine. As you are playing Bigby Wolf, the sheriff of Fabletown, you are tasked with leading investigations and interrogations, and more than once you’ll be thrown into a physical confrontation with a perpetrator. The action sequences play out fine with a handful of controller swipes and single-button presses - not much interaction is required to move these scenes forward. Still, in future games, perhaps TellTale can incorporate more combat options to these sections of the game to provide a bit more flavor – perhaps there is a slightly different outcome to a fight scene depending on if you attack someone’s arm rather than their leg. In Wolf Among Us, I felt that I was always moving forward to the same outcome, even if I completely missed button prompts altogether. My biggest complaint with The Wolf Among Us actually is in relation to the story, though I know that my issue is a very case-specific gripe. I’ve read the Fables graphic novels, and since this is a prequel set years before the series has started, I know what happens to most of the characters in the game. It took away quite a lot of the mystery and peril that many characters were placed in, which is why I think I enjoyed the stories of the newer characters more. Granted, this game does tie in well with the books, and I had an “Oh, so that’s how it happened” moment near the end of the game. Furthermore, I feel the game is a bit “good guy” biased, which annoyed me. I started the game role-playing as Bigby Wolf from the graphic novels, a vicious hardass with a heart of gold. I roughed up crooks and used fear tactics to get information. However, by the second episode I could see that this was not the “optimal” way to play the game, and I would get better results by doing everything by-the-book. This was somewhat annoying, as I always play the Paladin character in other games and I had thought that this would be a refreshing chance to see the other side of the coin. I actually started to second-guess myself in the action sequences later on in the game, afraid that even defending myself would lead to negative repercussions. Despite my issues with the story, this is still a great game, and is wholly recommended for anyone who has enjoyed any other of TellTale’s offerings in the past. Now that all episodes have been released, it makes for a great weekend play, to smash through all five episodes one after the other. If the developer were to announce a sequel, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Originally released for Windows 8 devices, it really was only a matter of time before Halo: Spartan Assault saw a wider release on Xbox consoles and PC. However, as it is not one of the main Halo flagship titles, it was easy to pass over this game without notice. So, in the end, is the game worth tracking down? Well…maybe if you are a hardcore Halo fan who absolutely needs to have something to fill the void until the next game is released. Halo: Spartan Assault shares only the basic skeleton work with the other titles in the series – for one, this game is a top-down isometric twin-stick shooter. As far as the Halo universe is concerned, this actually makes for a fine fit – it plays very much like a Halo game, but viewed from a distance. The visuals are spot-on for the Halo games as well, as there are several parts in which every visible color in the light spectrum will be present on your screen at the same time. It’s a pretty game, to be sure, and I didn’t feel as if the environments were stale or boring. Granted, that may have been because the game is very short, and you don’t spend more than five minutes in every level – typically, even less than that. This is the result of being designed as a mobile game, in which you tend to only spend a few minutes on a sporadic schedule to only finish a mission or two. The early missions will fly by and the game does scale up the difficulty with reasonable progression. I did experience a few deaths on the later missions, but that was primarily because of my own fault of trying to rush through a level and not paying attention to my Spartan abilities or avoiding enemy fire. Enemy types aren’t particularly varied throughout, though that is typical for the Halo franchise. The story is barely serviceable, though hardcore Halo fans will probably want a look. I had to check online to figure out that this title takes place between Halos 3 and 4, when the newest Spartan volunteer program has been implemented and the elite super-soldier unit is growing once again. The missions alternate back and forth between Spartans Palmer and Davis, although there’s no real difference between the two other than a slight visual difference with their armor color and helmets. As it is a side-story, there is very little impact here in the grand scheme of things, and the game is mostly devoid of voice acting or cutscenes – most story information comes from in-game text before every mission, and I had to resist the urge to just skip through the handful of paragraphs that moves the story forward. Also, the game just ends without much fuss, which is disappointing. It’s a very short, average game, but serviceable for five bucks or less. Not recommended unless you are very much invested in all things Halo – it can be skipped otherwise.

Review: BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS The third entry of the Batman: Arkham series, and the first to be helmed by a studio other than Rocksteady, Batman: Arkham Origins had several people confused with its direction upon launch. Plagued with game-stopping bugs and poor performance issues, many fans of the series were displeased with this title, and subsequently it wound up on several gaming sites’ “Most Disappointing” lists of 2013. However, I would have to disagree with many of those opinions. In fact, I very much enjoyed my time spent with Batman: Arkham Origins. I’d imagine that a few rounds of patches have been applied since launch, because the game that I played was smooth, tight, and primarily bug-free (compared to most other AAA games that I may play throughout the year). In fact, were I to rank the Arkham series, I would probably put this title at a close second, behind Asylum. The game is very focused on getting you into the action, and does not spend time introducing new abilities, weapons, or techniques. You are The Bat from the start, with all the fun toys that goes with the title. The game assumes that you are a fan who has played the previous titles, and the tutorials for how to use Batman’s utility belt will not pop up every few seconds – the game expects you to know how the tools work. I was perfectly fine with this choice, but I wonder if anyone choosing to start with this title would be put off by the lack of hand-holding. The map now contains fast-travel points (thank God…) which can be unlocked, which is a very welcome addition. While I felt that Arkham City’s map was cluttered with icons, leading to an almost suffocating “to-do” list, Origins has the map split into easily-digestible sections with easily identifiable objectives. I had no issues later in the game finding my waypoints, or with chasing sub-quests to fill out my completion rate. In fact, it felt perfectly reasonable and cathartic to enter a section and methodically clean it out, piece by piece. This is a title in which a 100% completion rate isn’t too daunting. I’m really hoping that Rocksteady takes note of this, and attempts to de-clutter the world of Arkham Knight in the next title. At first blush, the narrative of the game may be head-scratchingly odd. Batman has a $50 million bounty on his head, and eight skilled assassins are on the prowl, ready to claim the prize. It’s Christmas Eve, and Gotham is suffering from the worst sub-zero temperatures and blizzard that it’s faced in several years. The obvious question must be asked…why not just call it a night and stay in? Thankfully, the situation is addressed immediately, and Batman has an understandable motivation throughout the adventure. In fact, while the first two games in the series felt more like an episode from the classic cartoon, this particular outing feels more like an issue from the recent comic series, as it’s a shade darker in regards to character deaths and motivations. The voice acting has completely shuffled from the previous games for some reason, even though the new actors make an effort to sound identical to the previous roles (Troy Baker in particular is channeling Mark Hamill as the Joker with as much effort as possible). Overall, I’m very glad that I’ve played Batman: Arkham Origins. It’s a wonderful addition to the overall storyline, and has me excited to see how the series will conclude in 2015. Recommended for anyone who’s played and enjoyed the previous games, or Batman fans in general.

Recommended, at any price, and to gamers of all ages.

This page will contain various game reviews, previews, links and articles on the games that my friends and I find relevant, regardless of whether or not they are the most up-to-date releases. Because, honestly, sometimes you just have to be happy with a few rounds of Civ 5 during the kid’s nap time.