Recent reviews by nullPointer

My 'Labor of Love' Nominee for 2024.

Valve’s Half-Life 2 is an undisputed landmark in gaming history. Released in 2004, it set a new standard for storytelling, gameplay mechanics, and visual fidelity. The sequel to the critically acclaimed Half-Life thrusts players back into the role of Gordon Freeman, a silent but formidable protagonist navigating a world shattered by an alien occupation.

From the moment the enigmatic G-Man ushers you into the dystopian City 17, the game immerses you in a world dripping with atmosphere and mystery. The Combine, a tyrannical alien regime, rules over humanity with an iron grip, while resistance fighters struggle to reclaim their freedom. The game’s narrative, largely told through the environment and NPC interactions, never feels intrusive, allowing players to piece together the story at their own pace.

Gameplay is where Half-Life 2 truly shines. The introduction of the Gravity Gun, a revolutionary tool that lets players manipulate objects in a physics-driven world, transforms puzzles and combat into creative playgrounds. Whether you’re launching sawblades at zombies or solving environmental challenges, the sense of agency and ingenuity is unparalleled.

The game’s pacing is masterful, alternating between intense action sequences, eerie moments of solitude, and thought-provoking puzzles. Iconic sections like Ravenholm’s horror-laden streets and the airboat chase along the canals remain etched in players’ memories. Meanwhile, the supporting cast, including the resourceful Alyx Vance and the endearing Dog, bring warmth and humanity to the bleak setting.

Powered by the Source engine, Half-Life 2 pushed the boundaries of what was technically possible in its era. Realistic physics, dynamic lighting, and expressive character animations contributed to a level of immersion that was groundbreaking at the time. Even today, the visuals and mechanics hold up surprisingly well, a testament to the game’s exceptional design.

Two decades later, Half-Life 2 continues to be celebrated as a masterpiece of interactive storytelling and gameplay innovation. Whether you’re experiencing it for the first time or revisiting it for the umpteenth, it remains a shining example of what video games can achieve.

Although it's been a few years since I played Bioshock 2, I had never completed this DLC expansion pack. But to call Minerva's Den a mere 'expansion pack' is a bit of a disservice actually. What we have here is a full-fledged single player campaign with a nicely written story taking place in previously unexplored areas of Rapture. In terms of content, I'd wager that Minerva's Den rivals some full FPS campaigns for content, and it almost certainly dwarfs what passes as a single player campaign in some of the more recent CoD outings. Naturally there are several graphical assets in Minerva's Den which are reused from Bioshock 2, but there are a handful of new weapons, plasmids, and enhancements to be found. There are also several new variations on familiar enemy types, and in point of fact you play as a previously unknown variation of Big Daddy, the Lancer. The gameplay itself remains essentially unchanged from the base game, but as far as I'm concerned this falls under the heading of, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". One of the great strengths of Bioshock has always been that the wide variety of weapons and power-ups accommodates nearly any play style, and Minerva's Den is no different in this regard. The story is a nice expansion on the lore of Rapture, even if it doesn't break new ground in terms of the types of stories that can be told in this setting. Once again we step into the shoes of a 'mysterious' protagonist whose history and motives are slowly revealed to us as the story progresses. Standing in opposition are the standard Bioshock rogues gallery of drug enhanced super freaks and megalomaniacs with delusions of grandeur. It's not going to set the world on fire, but it's well written and well voiced which all contributes to a highly satisfying end product. The bottom line here is that if you've enjoyed previous adventures in Rapture, you'll have a great time with Minerva's Den. Highly recommended.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time served to reboot the venerable Prince of Persia series following on the heels of Prince of Persia 3D which was the series' first fully 3D title … albeit a rather poor game. Thankfully The Sands of Time provided a fresh start for the series in terms of storyline and perhaps even more crucially it was now in the hands of an entirely different development house. Ubisoft Montreal was a hot developer at the time having released Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell just a year prior to Sands of Time, and it's not a huge stretch to say that it was the combination of these two games that really put Ubi Montreal on the map as a notable game developer.

It's interesting to note this lineage because Patrice Désilets, who was the creative director for this game, would go on to create the Assassin's Creed franchise within four years. So The Sands of Time will feel instantly familiar to any veteran of the Assassin's Creed series. The ancestral DNA here is palpable both in the highly dynamic parkour sections as well as the acrobatic combat. In fact the quality of gameplay in Sands of Time is rather remarkable for just how well thought out and 'fully formed' it is, especially given that this was the first game in the rebooted series and had no existing cycle of 'iterative improvement' on which to prop itself. This is the forward thinking gameplay design that would carry the series on through a trilogy of reboots and would reappear in only slightly modified form when Assassin's Creed released to an entirely new generation of games. That's not to say that the gameplay here is problem free; it's not. In fact some of the gameplay 'quirks' you'll experience here are the same ones that Assassin's Creed struggled with. Walls can occasionally feel 'sticky' insofar as whether you execute a wall run, or whether you run straight up the wall. Targeting of specific enemies during combat can likewise feel a bit janky. It's nothing game breaking but in a game that focuses on feats of acrobatic prowess, it can break the immersion when the Prince suddenly decides to run up the wall unabated.

Graphics and sound will largely depend on the tolerances of the player. This game looked and sounded quite nice at the time of its release, but obviously it's not going to set the world on fire in 2018. To that end there are a number of quality of life improvements than can be made to the PC version of the game such as widescreen support, improved controller compatibility, and bug fixes (see here[pcgamingwiki.com] if you're interested), but none of that changes the fact that it's a 14 year old game. Having said all of that, I think the game still looks great even after all these years, at least during gameplay at any rate. As is often the case with games of this vintage, the cinematic clips are probably going to look like garbage on high res monitors and screens. There's not much you can do about that except to sort of squint your eyes so as to soften the hard edges of these pixelated nightmares.

The story of the game still holds up well and the titular Sands of Time still feel clever as a compelling bridge between the story and gameplay mechanics. At least in terms of heroes and villains, the story is pretty rudimentary (dashing young prince vs. evil old wizard), but the setting and elements of time travel help to spice things up considerably. In many ways though, the strength of the story here rests in large part on the quality of the writing and voice work. Thankfully these aspects are pretty great. The Prince provides voice-over narration through much of the game, and despite being a bit of an egotistical bastard, the narration is a nice (and often humorous) touch. It takes a bit of the sting out of dying when the Prince suddenly interjects with, "No, no, no, that's not how it happened at all".

All told, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time still stands the test of time as an incredibly well executed game, a classic 3D platformer that would inspire sequels and a host of imitators. On that basis I think it's easy to recommend Sands of Time on the strength its legacy alone. Having said that, it's a well-founded legacy and it's surprising just how well The Sands of Time still holds up. Recommended for fans of acrobatic platformers and parkour enthusiasts.

The Lost Archive has us assuming the role of Clay Kaczmarek who was the ill-fated predecessor of Desmond Miles in the Animus project. There's not a whole lot of plot to be found in this expansion, but it's here that we learn a little bit about the history of the enigmatic Clay. Obviously the main draw for Assassin's Creed lies in its treatment of historical settings and characters. The 'modern' story segments have their charm as well, but they're generally not considered to be the highlight of the series. So having an entire DLC expansion focus on a niche character in the modern AC timeline is an interesting choice at best. As a fan of the series, it actually was sort of interesting to learn about Clay's history in the Order and with the Animus project, but I can't imagine a casual player would find these story elements very interesting at all. In this regard, the Lost Archive dances right on that line of being "for hardcore fans only"

The gameplay elements are also very unorthodox from what one might consider to be a traditional AC style of play. The Lost Archive is a first person puzzle platformer. It's not a style that's completely divorced from the main Assassin's Creed games. Assassin's Creed: Revelations, the base game for which The Lost Archives is a DLC expansion, features segments utilizing the same mechanics in the Desmond's Journey missions. These first person levels were unlockable in AC: Revelations by means of collecting Data Fragments scattered throughout the game. So if you've played AC: Revelations and are familiar with the Desmond's Journey missions, The Lost Archive will feel completely familiar.

"The first person segments are my absolute favorite part of Assassin's Creed: Revelations!"
- No one ever

The trouble with this approach is that these segments lack the pizzazz and immersion found in the base game. By contrast these levels feel bland, uninspired and empty. In this regard they remind me a lot of the VR Missions in Metal Gear Solid; an interesting curiosity but certainly nothing that could reasonably stand on its own (Does anyone remember what a smash hit Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions was? Yeah me neither). These levels work in the main game precisely because they serve as interesting diversions, a break from all the third person parkour action. Jamming several of these levels back-to-back is not quite as much fun. It's not that the mechanics are bad per se; there are certainly some nice set pieces and moments of fun to be had, but ultimately The Lost Archives lacks a certain level of polish and sheen.

The setup here as I mentioned is that you're moving through largely featureless platforming sections as generated within the Animus. Naturally you'll encounter obstacles along the way in the form of moving blocks and laser traps of various types. To assist you through each section you can create your own platforms. Through most of the game you have two types of platforms, one is shaped like a flat rectangular plank, and the other one is shaped like a ramp. Late in the game you also gain the ability to create a spring block of sorts that launches you high into the air. The ability to create platforms at various heights allows you to ascend and descend through vast vertical areas. In some areas there are various 'currents' that will cause your platforms to move according to the whims of the current, and even float away if you let them. It's telling in some ways that Portal 2, one of the runaway hits of 2011, released about 6 months prior to AC: Revelations. The Lost Archives (as well as the similar segments in the base game) almost feel like Ubisoft was trying to do something similar to Portal, a first person puzzle platformer relying on a specific quirky mechanic. Unfortunately The Lost Archive is neither as inventive nor as interesting as Portal 2 or even Portal (1) for that matter.

I know I sound like I'm being pretty harsh on The Lost Archives, but I don't entirely mean to. I think it's just so different from the base game(s) that it barely feels like it's part of the AC series at all, let alone an expansion. And the sparsely interspersed plot is not particularly helpful in this regard either. If you really enjoyed the first person segments in Assassin's Creed: Revelations, you should definitely check out The Lost Archives. Likewise if you're strongly invested in the lore of the series; it's interesting to hear some of the history of Clay Kaczmarek, scantly dispensed though it may be. All others can probably skip this footnote to the main game. There are better first person puzzle platformers to be had out there.

Once you get deep into an episodic story, it gets a little bit hard to talk about without spoilers. I'm going to do my best to avoid that in this review, but do be aware that I'm talking about the fourth game (or fifth depending on how you count them) in a series with (more-or-less) one long continuous story line.

Perhaps it was the fact that Telltale Games suddenly and unceremoniously folded up shop this month that once again put the Walking Dead games on my radar. Or maybe (and perhaps more honestly) it's that I've played one Walking Dead Game every October for the last five years. So it was with a touch of bittersweet good byes that I embarked into the world of Walking Dead: A New Frontier, knowing that the days were numbered for all of these characters, both the living and the dead alike.

Telltale really eked out a niche for itself with this style of cinematic adventure game, making liberal use of quicktime events, and branching dialogue trees which rival some visual novels in terms of depth and complexity. It's not a style for everyone, but I quite enjoy it. It's a style of cinematic game that leans heavily into the 'cinematic' without indulging in charade or pretense of being something that it's not by means of cliched 'cinematic elements'. It knows what it wants to be and goes all in. Among other things this style allows for some excellent writing, character building, and voice work, all of which are present in Walking Dead: A New Frontier. Telltale really had some of the best writing and voice work on the industry.

The beginning of New Frontier takes us once again to the beginning of the Outbreak, with a new set of characters, the Garcias. Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina that, "Happy families are all alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." And with the Garcias we can see that family tensions are running high and in their own way. Main character Javier is a washed up ball player at odds with David, his abusive control freak older brother. It is this tension that defines their relationship in all matters, from how to handle their aging parents, to the protectiveness Javier feels towards David's wife Kate who's also impacted by David's psychological abuse. Well the zombie apocalypse makes strange bed fellows, and soon enough David is out of the picture leaving Javier, Kate and David's kids to eke out survival amidst the complete societal collapse. Throughout the game, the story makes effective use of flashback segments, and we eventually find out what happened with David, as well as details of the shared history between various characters.

A sudden turn of misfortune finds Javier alone and in a grave predicament when … poof … deus ex machine puts him face to face with an old friend. Well not so much a friend of his per se, but rather a friend of ours, as in the player. Clem comes to his rescue every bit the badass that her mentors have taught her to be. (I'd have put a spoiler around this, but I mean … c'mon … she's right there on the game banner; you had to figure she was going to show up sooner or later) This is incredibly effective, IMO, because we now see Clem from the perspective of an observer, and not in the role of her protector as in the first game, but from the perspective of someone who is rescued by Clem. Again and again over the course of the game, Clem shows herself to be a capable warrior and protector in her own right despite her young age. This world has made her hard and frankly a bit of a badass. It's so weird to say, but after assuming the role of her protector in the first game, and playing as her in Season Two, it's hard not to feel a hint pride at the badass she's become. It's an effective story decision, IMO, and one that would have been lessened had we simply assumed the role of Clem directly once more.

Each of The Walking Dead games (with the possible exception of the first) has more or less relied on the old monster movie trope that "it is in fact we who are the real monsters". So it's not like New Frontier is winning any points for originality as far as that goes, but when the writing is this good, it's hard to hold it against it to any significant degree, and to be fair the source material relies almost exclusively on this device well. The character drama is quite good though, and as I mentioned the voice work is fantastic as always. Almost all of the Walking Dead games have been incredibly effective at playing on the emotions of the player, and New Frontier is no different in this regard. I won't lie as to being torn up regarding the late-game fate of one character in particular. It's my understanding that under certain circumstances, the fate of this character is different. I might check that out at some point.

One point of interest in nearly all Telltale games is to compare your key choices against those of other players. For the most part my choices aligned with other players, save for one chapter where I seem to have diverged significantly (I tend to play these games with a philosophy of 'violence as a last resort or in defense of self/party'). What I found incredibly interesting though, was that almost every decision involving Clem was incredibly one sided, with a high majority of players siding with Clem in all matters. And for my part, I was not terribly different in this regard. Looks like I'm not the only one with an illogical sense of parental protectiveness and pride in the character she's become. Clementine will remember that.

Trying to decide which version of Half-Life to play for the first time in 2018, was not without some careful consideration. Usually in situations like this I favor remastered versions of classic titles due to the upgrades and modern conveniences they provide, but even in this case you have at least a couple of options with Half-Life. The Black Mesa remake looks absolutely gorgeous, but still lacks the final Xen levels. So with this logic in mind I opted for the Source version of the game. Before we talk about my experience specifically regarding the Half-Life: Source port, I'd like to discuss some of my impressions of Half-Life in general.

It's easy to see the ways in which this game is considered to be a landmark title. Half-Life is a masterwork of "show-me-don't-tell-me" narrative structure in gaming. There are no cut-scenes in Half-Life, no immersion breaking quicktime segments, no lengthy hand holding moments of character exposition in which the plot is explained to you. Any and all plot advancement takes place within the game engine itself. And yet you never feel lost in terms of the events unfolding. The trick of course is that Half-Life makes great use of scripted events for the purpose of plot exposition. At any given moment in the game there are often several events unfolding around you. Scientists and security guards fight a losing battle against the alien invasion. Marines engage the enemy in their own firefights. And as the player you have the option to become an active participant in these events or simply remain a passive observer. The cumulative effect of this narrative technique is that Half-Life feels immersive and cinematic, even though it never relies on a generic toolbox of 'cinematic elements' like we so often see in modern games of this type. Half-Life pulls off the rare feat of feeling both cinematic and immersive.

The gameplay and control aspects are both excellent for the most part. Everything feels quick, highly responsive and tight. I'm not sure Half-Life really broke new ground in this regard, but it's still among the best 'feeling' FPS games of its time. The shooting mechanics are fun, solid feeling, and the wide variety of assorted weaponry gives the player several options of play style. If you prefer to charge in head first, guns blazing there are weapons to support that. If you'd rather proceed with caution using traps and environmental elements to your advantage, there are weapons to support that too. And while there's not a massive number of enemy types, there are certainly enough to necessitate a variety of strategies. If there's one gameplay aspect where the game falters just a bit it's in the first person platforming segments. While it's certainly possible that I just need to 'git gud' at the platforming segments, Half-Life doesn't feel as good or precise as … Portal to draw one example from the Valve stable. This is the only aspect of Half-Life in which you can occasionally feel like you're fighting against the controls rather than being fully immersed in the game.

So let's talk just a little bit about the Source port of Half-Life. It doesn't have … the best reputation. And unfortunately that reputation is at least partly warranted. It's just that some aspects of the game lack the amount of polish one might expect especially when we consider that this is a Valve developed game. Most weapons are soundless during the reload animations. Graphical glitches run the gamut from minor to almost game breaking in certain areas. I almost couldn't finish the 'Residue Processing' level due to the fact that the world kept on dissolving into a psychedelic rainbow nightmare. Coupled with the fact that this level requires more platforming than any other level, it was a significant issue. At least one other level exhibited similar major graphical glitches though not for as long or egregiously. These are moments of severe incongruity in an otherwise fantastic game. It just seems unfortunate that Valve has never bothered to address the issues with this port.

In hindsight I might have gone with the original release of Half-Life and just applied a high-res graphics mod, but I rather doubt that it would look as nice as Half Life: Source. Because that's the thing; Half Life: Source looks really nice 95% percent of the time. It's just that the experience is brought down by infrequent but significant glitches. If you can look past the occasional glitch, you'll find a lot to love in Half Life: Source. Half-Life is still a stunning achievement in gaming even all these years later. But if glitches like these are going to ruin the experience for you, then your best bet will likely be waiting for the final (eventual) release of Black Mesa, or alternately simply loading up the original release.

To the Moon is one of those critical darlings of the indie scene from a few years back that I always seem to finally play well after the hubbub has died down. While its RPG Maker roots are still pretty apparent in terms of graphical assets, I feel that it successfully elevates itself from many of the cookie cutter RPG Maker clones out there, primarily by way of inventive world building, some solid plotting, and good dialogue. The story borrows a few plot devices from the likes of Inception and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (I got some pretty strong vibes regarding this latter), but it all unfolds in such a way that it doesn't seem particularly derivative, IMO.

Is it a perfect distillation of the form? Well not quite. The main characters are fairly unlikeable throughout the proceedings, and there were a couple of moments where I felt like this was to the detriment of the story. It also bears mentioning that there's not a lot of actual gameplay to be had here. Outside of a few simple puzzle elements this game unfolds a bit like a 'walking simulator' with 16-ish bit graphics. And having played this game on PC some of the gameplay that is present seems to be implemented strangely. You're limited to mouse-click navigation or arrow keys with no utility to change key configuration, and no controller navigation whatsoever (or at least not without resorting to a 3rd party tool). Providing no means of WASD navigation in a PC game limited to KB+M controls is a real head scratcher to me.

Having said all of that, chances are you didn't show up for the gameplay (and if you did, you were grossly misinformed in terms of what to expect). You're probably here for the story and in that regard I feel that the game succeeds with aplomb. I've seen accusations that this game is 'pretentious' and 'self-important' but honestly I think that reaction is more driven by the subsequent critical praise for To the Moon than any intent of the authorial hand. For my part I found the game to be a somewhat humble experience that largely accomplished what it set out to do, which was simply to tell a story through the medium of a video game. Recommended for those that enjoy (almost purely) narrative experiences in gaming and those open to emotional investment in video game characters. Not recommended for those seeking a 'manly-man' type of game, lol.

Pros:

• Fantastic learning tool on guitar and bass for beginning players.
  
• Fantastic way to supplement an existing practice schedule for more experienced players.
  
• Accommodates nearly all levels of experience.
  
• Weekly DLC releases (as of this writing) insure that you'll never run out of songs to play.

Cons:

• Requires additional equipment to play the game (guitar or bass, Real Tone cable (preferably) or microphone, etc)
  
• Does not replace a live instructor (although to be fair no game could do this, and Rocksmith 2014 is the closest digital approximation currently available IMO)
  
• Weekly DLC releases (as of this writing) insure that you'll never run out of songs to purchase. Look up the video of Jimi Hendrix burning his guitar at the Monterey Pop Festival. Now do that to your wallet.

This is a game.
This is not a game.

'Gamification' is an idea that has gained in popularity over the last five years or so. What gamification does is to inject non-gaming activities into a gaming framework via principles of game design, in-game progress, and reward elements. Rocksmith 2014 is without a doubt the most well executed example of gamification that I have experienced. In a nutshell, Rocksmith 2014 takes the gameplay of older 'plastic instrument' games (vis-à-vis Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc.) and applies those principles to playing an actual guitar or bass. This is all executed through an intuitive note highway interface that should be easily understood for anyone familiar with these older games, anyone familiar with reading guitar tablature*, and quite honestly pretty much anyone holding a guitar. If this any of this sounds compelling to you, please be aware that you will need some additional gear in order to actually play this game. So let's talk about these prerequisites (outside of the obvious stuff like a computer capable of running the game.)

• Guitar or Bass. Hopefully this part is obvious, but yes, you'll need an actual guitar or bass in order to play this game. Ideally (IMO) your instrument should have an output jack for a standard 6.3mm instrument cable (see below). This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to use a purely electric guitar or bass with the game though, due to the fact that many, many acoustic instruments come equipped with these jacks.
  
  
• UbiSoft Real Tone Cable. What is this? Basically this is a custom Ubisoft branded MIDI instrument cable with a standard 6.3 mm jack on one side (which plugs into your guitar), and a USB plug on the other side (this part plugs into your computer, lol). Here's where some folks balk. They cry to the Heavens with their pleas of, "But I already bought the game, why do I need to shell out even more money to play it!?" To which I say, it is what it is. If that kills the deal for you, well hopefully it's not too late to get a refund from Steam.
  
  
• Your Acoustic Guitar Doesn't Have a Jack? Do you have a mic that you can attach to your computer? Rocksmith 2014 might still work for you. I've not tried this method, but RS2104 allows for input via a microphone. I've heard it works pretty well.

So who's the target audience for this game? I would honestly say that it's anyone whatsoever who's interested in playing guitar or bass (with one caveat in particular). Experienced players will likely rip right into the game like a pit bull on Mountain Dew and steroids. For those folks, it's a great way to expand your song repertoire, and a really fun element to add into your practice rotation. Beginning players are going to have a lot to chew on, and at first it's going to feel like progress is pretty slow. Don't give up! Here's where I'm going to add my caveat. As great as it is, RS2014 is not a substitute for an actual live instructor, particularly if you've never held a guitar before in your life. There are several interactive instructional videos here that are interspersed with game segments where you get to play along with the lesson being taught. The videos and game segments are really quite good, but what they can't do is provide you with personal feedback. Sure they'll grade you on whether you've accurately hit the notes/chords, but they won't tell you whether you're holding your guitar in such a way that will eventually lead to tendentious. They won't provide immediate feedback on the less tangible elements of your playing.

So let's look at the main game modes really quick.

• Lessons: New to guitar or bass? Start here. Heck even if you're a relatively accomplished player you might find value in some of the more advanced lessons. Basically the videos here contain some quality instructional material of the type you might find with the better instructors on YouTube (cough … Justin Sandercoe … cough), except that here the videos are interspersed with gameplay segments so you have immediate interactive feedback with the material being taught. There really is some nice material covered in these segments, and among other things they will help you to decipher some of the more obscure notations you may encounter on the note highway (the first time the game throws a harmonic at you, it may come as a bit of a head scratcher if you're not familiar with the notation).
  
  
• Learn a Song: In my opinion, this mode is the real star of the show. After lessons, this will likely be your next stop (oh who am I kidding, this will almost definitely be your first stop, but if you start here and start getting frustrated, report to Lessons and come back after putting some time in there). Learn a Song pretty much does what it says on the tin. Select a song and play along. One of the key components here is that songs are presented in terms of dynamic difficulty. Initially you'll only be playing some of the notes. As you get better, RS2014 will start increasing the difficulty (i.e. more notes/chords), until such time that you are able to play the song from start to finish. And at that point you may find the song going into 'Master Mode' in which the notes start disappearing from the note highway, and you're required to play from memory.
  
  
• Session Mode: Essentially the mode is a 'just jam' mode. It allows you to select a backing ensemble of instruments as well as a whole host of various other parameters (key, tempo, scale, etc.). And then you just play whatever you want. The really neat part about this is that the game will respond to your playing, and the 'backing musicians' will jam right along with you. It can be a lot of fun to play in this mode, so long as you stick to the basic framework of the parameters you selected initially. If you start throwing in a lot of 'unscheduled' chord changes, tempo changes, unexpected fills, etc., you fellow 'musicians' are going to get lost quickly and it will sound like crap. … To be fair I suppose those things would adversely affect live musicians as well.
  
  
• Guitarcade: This is a whole slew of 'arcade type' games in which each one is designed to help you improve a specific aspect of your playing. This is already becoming an exceedingly long review, so I'm not going to break down each individual game, but there are games focused solely on chords, scales, slides, bends, harmonics, and more. It's yet another aspect of the game that's exceedingly well designed, although in terms of 'fun' some of the games shine brighter than others. YMMV. It's yet another great way to focus on practicing individual elements of your playing.

What else is there to say? If you're interested in playing guitar or bass, I think you'll find hours upon hours of fun in Rocksmith 2014. If you're not interested in playing guitar or bass … well NieR: Automata is pretty rad too. ;-)

As the title indicates, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga is an amalgamation of two earlier games, LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game and Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. I'm calling this an amalgamation as opposed to a compilation due to the fact that the gameplay is presented as a single uninterrupted experience, rather than as two that are separate and distinct. Traveler's Tales has also added some additional content that was not present in either of the earlier stand-alone games.

LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game was the very first LEGO game developed by Traveler's Tales (henceforth referred to as TT), whereas the Original Trilogy was the second title they developed under the LEGO banner. These titles form the foundation of what are now familiar gameplay features found in nearly all subsequently developed LEGO games. The hallmark sense of humor is here (although like all of the earlier TT LEGO games, there is no spoken dialog), as are the simple LEGO building puzzle elements. We find a familiar hub based level structure with each level branching from that central hub, and of course the LEGO collect-a-thon aspects make their debut here including the requisite stud collection, mini-kits, red bricks, golden bricks, etc. So while a majority of the gameplay elements will be familiar to those who have previously dabbled in LEGO games, it's interesting nonetheless see the ways in which TT was still experimenting with their formula, solidifying what would become their trademark style. This last bit is particularly interesting in the context of The Complete Saga, because you can see Traveler's Tales incorporating lessons learned and improving their games between the separate bookends of the Prequel Levels (featured in LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game), and the original trilogy levels (as featured in The Original Trilogy). From a historical standpoint it's striking to see how quickly Traveler's Tales was able to deftly incorporate lessons learned from the first game and use them to improve the second game. From a gameplay standpoint though, this creates a bit of dissonance. Stylistically, the Original Trilogy is a much more robust game. The levels are longer and more complex, the puzzles are generally more interesting, the graphical elements are improved upon, etc. So while the levels in Complete Saga are presented seamlessly, in practice you will notice a very definitive division between the older (prequel) levels and the newer (Original Trilogy) levels. Speaking as a bit of a Star Wars nerd I'm happy that the Original Trilogy levels are the ones with better gameplay.

As I mentioned before, the gameplay elements here will be very familiar to anyone who has played TT LEGO games previously. Given the ubiquitous nature of these games, you probably already know whether this game is for you. If you love the LEGO formula you'll find a lot to love here. If the 'break everything in sight collect-a-thon' turns you off, well … these aren't the droids you're looking for. <groan> As I mentioned earlier, TT was still developing their trademark style in these games, so even those who have enjoyed more recent LEGO titles might find some of the elements featured here to be a bit rudimentary. The controls are (naturally) very familiar, but at the same time feel slightly 'looser' than later LEGO titles. Switching between characters can be a bit tedious since TT had yet to develop the character wheel system seen in more recent titles. This means that you need to stand directly next to the character you wish to switch to, and since you often have several characters crowding in on you this can lead to several instances of switching to the wrong character. This can be slightly rage inducing when you're under attack. Speaking of computer controlled characters, they are basically useless while not under your direct control, and even worse you may find many circumstances in which they will actively become a hindrance. There were several circumstances in which I would need to destroy one of my computer controlled allies simply to create a clear line of fire. Get the heck out of the way Chewie! And while I'm on this topic, I won't lie, sometimes I would randomly just lay a beat down on Jar-Jar, because … Jar-Jar.

I need to make special mention of the collectible elements in this game, because that aspect has really been dialed to eleven. If you're like me and you like to unlock everything these games have to offer, well … you're going to be here a while. You'll need to play through every level no less than four times. You'll play a level once in story mode which will unlock free play mode. Then you'll need to play through free play mode to clean up any of the standard remaining goals in that level. Once you've completely finished the episode you'll unlock Challenge and Super Story modes. So you'll play each level again in Challenge mode to retrieve the blue mini-kits, and lastly you'll play through them yet again in Super Story mode which is a time-based score attack and simply adds to your completion percentage. Four times for every level. Once you couple this with the fact that this game features unskippable cut scenes, it can all start to become a bit … tedious. As I mentioned, this part really only applies to completionists, so your mileage may vary significantly in this regard. I think this is another area in which TT was still figuring out the formula, which in this case meant finding an acceptable line between "collect a bunch of unlockables" and "OMFG, will it ever end!?"

The story is … well, if you don't know it by now, you should schedule yourself for a Star Wars movie marathon, stat. Having said that, you don't need to be a Star Wars scholar to appreciate the game for what it is. In point of fact it can be a great introduction to the Star Wars universe for young padawan Star Wars fans looking to get a toehold on the series. It keeps everything fairly light and deftly negotiates some of the darker aspects of the story. It's also a great game to play co-op with young ones. The game treats its subject matter with great reverence and humor. As a Star Wars fan I enjoyed the game from beginning to end, and this game easily fits within the upper echelons of the greatest Start Wars games ever released. There are six levels devoted to each movie within the Star Wars saga, and among them you will find all the standard Star Wars set pieces you might expect in a game of this nature along with some surprising gems. The levels feature a mix of on-foot and piloted air/space craft missions. All the missions are paced very well, and keep things moving along at a nice clip. Furthermore the plethora of unlockable characters available keeps things fresh enough so that repeated playthroughs seldom feel stale.

Overall the games presented here are highly enjoyable and well done. Even in their first forays into LEGO games, TT was already onto a winning formula that would continue to be refined in later games. This game gets my recommendation for fans of simple puzzle-based action adventure games appropriate for gamers both young and old, and especially for being a great co-op game.

Every legend begins somewhere, and Grand Theft Auto III is the game that laid the foundation not only for the entire GTA series as we know it today, but in many ways for the entire open-world sandbox structure of games that continue to enjoy popularity. It's been said that this game pales in comparison to the games that would come later in the 'GTA III trilogy', namely Vice City and San Andreas. While it's true that those games further refined and expanded upon the GTA experience in important ways, the essential building blocks for those changes were created here in GTA III.

I've trumped up the historical importance of the game a bit but the question remains as to whether the gameplay in GTA III has held up, especially in relation to the later iterations in the series. Thankfully I can answer that with a resounding, "Yes!" So let's talk about some of the things that make this game tick. First and foremost, we have the story. In GTA III Rockstar was pinning down some of the aspects that would come to be regarded as the Rockstar style of storytelling. The story here is basically a love letter to latter day crimeland movies like Goodfellas, Heat, Donnie Brasco, Reservoir Dogs, and the like. In this capacity all the requisite pieces are in play, including the Italian mafia, Japanese yakuza, Chinese triads, as well a healthy assortment of street level thugs. You are a mute protagonist (who we would later know as Claude thanks to GTA: San Andreas), making a name for himself on the back of jobs from all these various criminal factions. Naturally there are betrayals, double-crosses, hits and feints between all of these organizations, and Rockstar handles its authorial pen deftly enough to keep the story moving at a good pace. The whole story has the tone and feel of a pulp crime movie you might see as part of a matinee crime movie marathon; nothing of great substance, but a whole lot of fun nevertheless.

In GTA III we also see the beginnings of Rockstar's tendency to include well-known actors performing voice work in their games. Here we have Michael Madsen, Joe Pantoliano, Michael Rappaport, Debi Mazar, Kyle MacLachlan, and gangster movie legend Frank Vincent all playing supporting roles in the game. The caliber of voice acting in this game really does some great things for the conveyance of the story. In the hands of lesser actors, certain aspects of this story might have come off as laughably cringe-worthy. As it is we are treated to voice work performed by old pros, particularly where crime drama is concerned.

Here we are also treated to the first GTA game to include an absolutely killer soundtrack complete with genre specific radio stations, distinct DJs for each radio station, and some great licensed music. It had been quite a few years since I played this game, and these tunes (as well as spoken dialog) really filled me with a sense of nostalgia. In truth it's the radio stations that give this game its comedic timing and fantastically dark sense of humor. As an added bonus, the PC port of this game allows you create a custom playlist of mp3s which can be imported into the game. I really had a great time importing my own tunes into the game. Once you do so, the 'MP3 Player' becomes selectable in any vehicle just like a normal radio station which plays your tracks on random repeat. Let me tell you that you haven't lived until you've gone on a drive-by rampage with Electric Wizard's Funeralopolis blaring from the sound system of your Patriot. >=D

The gameplay mechanics are admittedly somewhat long in the tooth at this point, but even still they are pretty darned enjoyable. The drifty, somewhat floaty driving mechanics that are a hallmark of 3D GTA games make their debut here. At first the driving might seem a slightly off, being that I don't know of any other driving game that handles quite like the GTA games. The handling is a bit loose, but once you get that part dialed in it's a real blast. Of course the looseness of vehicle handling depends a lot on what vehicle you're in at any given time. It does need to be said that there are no motorcycles in GTA III, which for me is perhaps one aspect of the later games that I missed the most here. There are also no helicopters, and only one (notoriously difficult to control) aircraft. That said, the variety of vehicles available here is suited well to the game, and I feel that the slightly limited selection of vehicles can be forgiven being that we are talking about the first GTAs first foray into full 3D.

This was my first play though of the Steam PC port of GTA III, and I will say that I found some relatively minor issues with the port. First and foremost, the aiming mechanics were … problematic for me in this version. In the 'Classic Control' scheme, the relatively responsive nature of the auto-targeting feature found in the console version of the game just doesn't carry over very well in the PC version. It fails to reliably switch between targets, and in many cases it fails to find any targets at all (despite the fact that said targets are in the process of filling you with lead). Furthermore, when you're using the Classic Control scheme the right thumb stick puts you in first person look perspective rather than adjusting the 3rd person camera as one might expect. Others may have had a slightly different experience with Classic Mode controls, but for me the combination of the above factors made this option a non-starter. The 'Standard Control' scheme makes some marked improvements to the above, but in this case you're stuck strictly with free aiming. I tend to prefer keyboard & mouse controls for games that require free aiming, and indeed given that strafing features prominently into the Standard Control scheme in GTA III, one might assume that KB+M is what the developers had in mind here … except that KB+M makes driving nearly impossible (although not entirely impossible as I do know at least one person that beat this game entirely with KB+M). Using the Standard Control scheme, I ultimately ended up ruling in favor of using a controller to better facilitate driving, although I did find a helpful mod that made this option a bit more feasible. The GInput mod allows you to fully utilize an Xinput device in GTA III which makes using a controller in the game a bit more palatable, and has the added benefit of additional customizable settings. It even swaps out correct button icons for onscreen prompts. So there's that.

On my (Nvidia-based) gaming rig there were also a couple of graphical glitches present in this port. Most noticeably I encountered the 'dark vehicles' glitch, in which all the vehicles appear to have a much darker tint than they should. For this issue I applied a second light weight user-made patch to the game which resolved the issue promptly. If you find yourself with the same problem, this fix is probably worth your time as well.

At the end of the day, the question is whether or not this game is still worth your time. Given the popularity (and occasional notoriety) enjoyed by the GTA series, you probably already know whether the source material is your cup of tea. Dark comedy, violence, and debauchery abound! If you're already a fan of the series, or if you're looking to get into the 3D era of GTA games at the ground floor, I would say that this game still holds a lot of enjoyment even today. It had been a number of years since I last played this game and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected I would especially given the historical perspective of subsequent GTA games. This old jalopy has still got some life in 'er yet!