With few exceptions, you don’t often see good stealth games these days. By that, I mean games that focus almost exclusively on the act of being as sneaky as possible; not games with shoehorned stealth levels or a mix of stealth and action as a focus. The Hitman franchise has always remained consistent in its approach to the genre, and after a six-year absence, Agent 47 is back again. Hitman: Absolution is a game that simultaneously attempts to update the gameplay style, while also returning to certain mechanics from older titles in the series.
While certain changes are more welcome than others, this feels like a true return of one of gaming’s premiere stealth franchises. READ MORE
Pid is like dating a beautiful person. It’s pleasing to the eyes, and on the surface it has a lot of things that would interest a person. However, after the honeymoon phase was over, I started to see past this beautiful person and really started to see its flaws. I learned how difficult it could be to have a relationship with them, and that maybe dating them wasn’t as rewarding and all it was cracked up to be. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to be friends, but I just don’t think we work as a couple. READ MORE
Mass Effect DLC is a little strange. Story-heavy games are sometimes hard to go back to, and that is absolutely epitomized by Mass Effect 3. The story ended. I finished it months ago. In order to play the DLC packs, I’ve had to load up a save from before the final act of the game, and it’s a bit strange. I know what’s going to happen, and I know that since the DLC packs can’t and won’t radically alter the ending, that unless a pack really dives into the lore (like Leviathan did), my efforts won’t have a real and lasting effect on the universe. READ MORE
Borderlands 2 is the probably my most played game of 2012. Why? The shooting is good, the setting is fun, the characters and their special abilities are all distinct and fun while being useful in their own right (Maya is the exception here as I feel she suffers when running solo), and the side characters are just juvenile enough to make me laugh out loud while playing cooperatively both with my wife in the same room and my best friend in California. READ MORE
There’s a lot of closure in The Walking Dead‘s final chapter, and I haven’t cringed so much while playing a game in a long time. It’s hard to reconcile my feelings that everybody should play this game with my innate want to keep people from being sad. The whole thing is brilliant (especially the final act), but when the credits rolled I had tears welling up in my eyes and I’m not sure that I have it in me to replay the game for a while. On the other hand, I’m absolutely ready for season two to release next year, so that I can buy it as soon as I can. I need to know what happens to this universe and the people who inhabit it. READ MORE
