Assassin's Creed Rogue

Post-Launch Review
Assassin's Creed: Rogue (PC)
Developer: Ubisoft Sofia
Released: November 2014 (X360/PS3) / March 2015 (PC)
Played: 100% sync in 34h

About

Shay Patrick Cormac is a young Assassin rising in the ranks in the North Atlantic around the St Lawrence River when he's sent on a mission that leaves him horrified with the direction and outlook of the Assassins. Left for dead and seething over his feelings of betrayal and abandonment, Shay is taken in by people he used to believe were enemies and sets out to stop his former friends from fulfilling their plans... at any cost.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Post-Launch Review
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (PC)
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Released: October 2013
Played: 100% sync in 60h; 100% both DLC in 10h

About

Play as Edward Kenway, the grandfather of Assassin's Creed III hero. Edward travels to the Caribbean to seek glory and fortune as a pirate, building up his ship, his crew, and his legend. He stumbles into the struggle between the Assassins and Templars, in a race for the mysterious, powerful artifact called the Lighthouse - which Edward is sure he can sell for more wealth than he could ever want.

Shadow of Mordor DLC

This is a follow-up to my review of Shadow of Mordor's base game, reviewing the DLC mission packs Lord of the Hunt and The Bright Lord.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Post-Launch Review

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC)

Developer: Monolith Productions

Released: September 2014 (North America)

Played: ~98% complete in 20h

Note: DLC will be covered in one or more later posts, likely coming in the next week or two. Or maybe three. Whenever.

About

Talion, a ranger of Gondor guarding Mordor's Black Gate, is killed along with his family during an orc attack. But Talion finds he hasn't truly died - instead, he is bound to an elf wraith with little memory. Barred from death, Talion and the wraith set out for revenge on the man who cursed them, the Black Hand of Sauron, fighting their way through the armies of Mordor.

Saints Row IV

Post-Launch Review
Saints Row IV (PC)

Developer: Volition
Released: August 2013

Played: story complete with 96% world progress in 21h

About

Following the successes in Steelport, the leader of the Saints has been elected president of the United States... just in time for an alien invasion. The Saints are abducted and trapped within simulations, at the mercy of the galactic warlord Zinyak. Hacker Kinzie Kensington and vice president Keith David are the first out. They rescue the Boss, who immediately launches a campaign of destruction and revenge to save his/her crew and all of humanity.

FarSky

Post-Launch Review

FarSky

Developer: Farsky Interactive

Released: April 2014

Played: Adventure mode complete in < 2hours; some survival mode

About

With his submarine destroyed and his pressure suit too heavy to swim up, Nathan is trapped at the bottom of the ocean. He'll need to gather resources and upgrade his equipment to explore the seabed and find the broken pieces of his submarine, all while being hunted by dangerous ocean predators.

Far Cry 3

Post-Launch Review
Far Cry 3 (PC)
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Released: November 2012
Played: story complete with most extras in 19h

About

Jason Brody, his brothers, his girlfriend, and some friends are skydiving while on vacation and land on the wrong island. They're captured by a group of violent pirate slavers led by a charismatic but crazy man named Vaas. Jason manages to escape and is initiated into the native Rakyat tribe. Given a mystical tattoo and guidance to develop his skills as warrior, Jason sets out to save his friends and defeat Vaas.

Batman: Arkham Origins

Post-Launch Review

Batman: Arkham Origins (PC)

Developer: Warner Bros. Games Montréal
Released: October 2013

Played: story and almost all side quests complete in 21h

About

Two years after he began his mission to save Gotham and five years before Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman is tracking crime lord Black Mask after a Christmas Eve prison break. Black Mask hires eight assassins with a $50 million bounty on the Bat. While fending off the assassins, Batman learns that Black Mask is setting bombs all over the city. And as if that weren't enough to deal with, there's a mysterious new criminal in town calling himself the Joker...

Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD

Post-Launch Review

Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD (PC)

Developer:Ubisoft Sofia / Ubisoft Milan

Released: October 2012 (PSVita) / January 2014 (HD)

Played: complete with extras in 13h:36min

About

It's 1765 in Louisiana, and assassin Aveline de Grandpré begins to uncover a plot to kidnap slaves for some nefarious purpose. The scheme has ties to the French and Spanish governors, and eventually leads to the Templar order. Aveline must balance her assassin, slave, and lady personas to gain allies in the bayou and uncover the truth behind the Templar plot.

Red Dead Redemption

Post-Launch Review

Red Dead Redemption (X360)

Released: May 2010

(This review took way too long to get done for a few reasons, but hopefully my schedule will get back on track soon.)

About

It's the early 1900s in the American West. Former outlaw John Marston is strongarmed by a government agency into hunting down his old gang across the West and into Mexico and bringing them to justice.

Assassin's Creed III

Post-Launch Review

Assassin's Creed III (PC)

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Released: October - November 2012

Played: 100% complete in 54 hours

About

Desmond Miles and his team race to find the key to protecting the world from an apocalyptic solar flare by searching the memories of his ancestor Ratonhnhaké:ton. Nicknamed Connor, this half-Native American Assassin fights the Templars during the American revolution, making allies of necessity among the bluecoats while he pursues his course of revenge.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Post-Launch Review

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Developer: GSC Game World

Released: October 2009 (CIS) / February 2010 (worldwide)

Played: complete in 13h:24min

About

Shortly after Strelok disabled the Brain Scorcher during the events of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, there's a rush to explore and exploit the centre of the mysterious and anomalous Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Military helicopters have gone missing during a scouting mission, and Major Alexander Degtyarev is sent in undercover as an independent stalker to identify the reason for the choppers' disappearance.

The Saboteur

Post-Launch Review

The Saboteur (PC)

Developer: Pandemic Studios

Released: December 2009
Played: story complete in 15h

About

Irish racecar mechanic Sean Devlin is cheated out of a win at the 1940 Saarbrücken Grand Prix by Nazi colonel Kurt Dierker. After an attempt at revenge goes terribly wrong, Sean finds himself in a strip club in Nazi-occupied Paris, where he is approached by a member of the Resistance hoping to capitalize on Sean's grudge...

Guild Wars 2: The Re-Review

It's been two years since Guild Wars 2 released, and almost that long since I posted my original review. I was looking over that review the other day, and it's... really outdated. I briefly considered updating the review, but so much has changed that it would actually be easier to write a whole new review.

So here we go!

inFAMOUS 2: Festival of Blood

Post-Launch Review

inFAMOUS 2: Festival of Blood DLC

Developer: Sucker Punch

Released: October 2011

Played: complete with 85% of trophies in 2h:39min

This is going to be a quick post and not a full review, since this is a relatively short DLC pack. Full review of inFAMOUS 2 here.

Festival of Blood is a silly side story that may or may not have canonically happened. Zeke meets a lady in a bar and tells her the story of how Cole was turned into a vampire and Zeke had to save him before the curse took full effect at dawn.

Cole doesn't have much in the way of electric powers for the duration of the DLC (though he does earn a few more at certain optional milestones), and only the first island is unlocked, so I'm guessing this is supposed to be set early in inFAMOUS 2's story. You get some nifty vampire powers to play with - full flight (though limited by blood energy) and a vision mode that allows you to spot secrets and upgrades and disguised vampires. Flight is fun because it's not something you ever get to play with in this series, and it makes city traversal feel fresh again.

Flight is powered by blood, which you can gain by staking vampires or sucking on civilians. There's a very brief effort to suggest that Cole may not need to drink blood, but it's quickly glossed over, and the series' iconic morality system is completely dropped for the DLC. It's like the writers want me to feel bad for drinking blood, but they couldn't be bothered to really do much about it.

The story is rather basic - Cole is now a vampire, and needs to kill the one that turned him (called Bloody Mary) before dawn, when she'll take full control. Mary's backstory is much more interesting than the main plot - you can find some of her musings on her history as optional audio logs, and you learn the defining bits as part of the main story. Her backstory is more interesting, but still relatively shallow.

The worst bit is when you're forced to play some UGC (user-generated content) missions to progress the story. They're two official missions produced by Sucker Punch, but they're of unimpressive quality and feel like a poorly shoehorned attempt to get the player interested in UGC. Since the UGC was entirely optional in the main game, I spent a good half hour wandering around the map collecting audio logs and canopic jars in the hope that maybe I'd unlock the next story mission somehow. When I'd finished both those things I had to check a walkthrough to realize that I had to do that UGC mission to progress. Not cool.

To me the best parts were the bookends with Zeke where he's telling the story to the girl he's trying to seduce. You get to see Zeke being charming and funny and completely (and unintentionally) sidelined by Cole. Too bad these are only a few minutes at the start and end.

Recommendation: maybe.

Festival of Blood felt kind of mediocre to me overall. It's neat to see the city all dressed up for Pyre Night, there are a couple of fun new powers, and the bits with Zeke are entertaining. But all the vampire stuff is fairly generic and relatively uninteresting. At only $5 and as a standalone it's inexpensive fun, though I didn't find it particularly memorable.

Sir, You Are Being Hunted

Post-Launch Review

Sir, You Are Being Hunted

Developer: Big Robot

Released: May 2014

Played: complete in 3h:19min; messed around for 30min in second world

About

The experiment has gone terribly wrong. You are trapped on a small archipelago until you can repair the machine by finding the pieces scattered across the islands. But you're not alone - robots patrol the islands, aiming to kill you before you can escape. You are being hunted.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

Post-Launch Review
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
Developer: GSC Game World
Released: August/September 2008
Played: story complete in 20 hours

About

As a prequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky follows the mercenary Scar as he investigates the cause of the recent massive radiation emissions from the centre of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. With the help of a research group called Clear Sky, Scar determines that a stalker has disturbed the balance of the zone - Strelok, the player's character from SoC.

inFAMOUS 2

Post-Launch Review

inFAMOUS 2

Developer: Sucker Punch Productions

Released: June 2011

Played: story complete, 100% shards and dead drops 

Note: much of this review is comparison to the first game since the story depends somewhat strongly on knowledge of the first

About

The beast that Kessler warned of arrived in Empire City, and superhero Cole McGrath was not as ready as he thought. Empire City is destroyed and Cole's injuries have drained him of most of his electrical powers. Moving south to New Marais, and followed by the beast, Cole needs to amplify his powers - but to do so he'll have to combat a militia that hunts conduits like Cole as dangerous freaks.

inFAMOUS

Post-Launch Review

inFAMOUS

Developer: Sucker Punch Productions
Released: May 2009

Played: story complete, 83% secondary objectives complete

About

After being caught in a blast that killed thousands in Empire City, Cole McGrath discovers that he has electrical super powers. Trapped in a quarantined city and blamed for the explosion, Cole is forced to clear his name by stopping a secret society from recreating the blast and levelling the whole city and unleashing more powers. In the process, Cole will have to decide what's more important: protecting Empire City, or taking the power of the Ray Sphere for himself.

Far Cry 2

Post-Launch Review
Far Cry 2
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Released: October 2008
Played: 42% complete over 13 hours

About

Far Cry 2 is marketed as a sequel but is actually completely unrelated to the first game. The player takes on the role of a mercenary sent into a war-torn country in central Africa to kill an arms dealer known as the Jackal, blamed for destabilizing the region by providing cheap weapons to both sides of many wars.