Recently completed video games

[SuperBiasedMan]

Finished Minerva's Den. Pretty enjoyable story, reminded me how much I am not engaged by the shooter mechanics but since it was short I could ignore that. I also liked that I could really follow it with only a couple hours of experience from Bioshock 1 and none of 2. I kinda got where it was going at the end, right before I arrived at the computer. The walk while listening to the final audio recording was really nice, and just reminded me how I should play some more 'walking simulator'/'exploratory narrative' games.

[Tanukitsune]

I beat Sweet Fuse, the "otome" visual novel game you play as Shinji Mikami's niece, the story is interesting enough, you're invited to the opening of your uncle's new theme park, which is taken over by what looks like an evil version of the theme park's mascot. He mentions a game will be played with the lives of the hostages he's taken and since his uncle is one of them, you agree to play the game.

 

The game a bit bomb themed, your character's hair makes it look like a cartoon bomb, you have explosive temper outbursts, but I've yet to see a situation where choosing anger made things worse. You also have "explosive insight", a mini game of sorts where you must find the a clue hidden in your thoughts, you get to pick up to three making it a bit easier than it should.

 

The game seems to branch off a lot in the end, since who ever you decide to befriend is going to be the person you spend the ending sequence with. The story is good enough, although you might have to play the game a few times to understand what's really happening, and the characters are interesting enough too, I never found any of them annoying or anything!

[eot]

I went through Brigmore Witches for Dishonored. Just like in the previous DLC I think Daud's set of abilities and gadgets improve the game quite a bit and make it feel more complete, mechanically. It also speeds up the stealth as you're less dependent on waiting for guards to walk into specific positions and traversal is even more enjoyable with the freeze-time blink. The only downside is that you're too empowered at times, I didn't even have to use the new non-lethal tripmines for example. I like the level design here too, the outside of the manor was a nice chance of pace (as well as being very pretty!) and actually the prison was too, with the disguise thing going on. I definitely prefer it over Knife of Dunwall just in terms of level design.

 

I wish they would've tried to fix some of the few small issues that were present in the base game though, like the choke move at times being frustratingly inconsistent, leading to you flailing around with your knife trying to block blows that aren't coming, or the journal being utterly useless, giving you no support if you play with objective markers off. I had an annoying bug where I dropped a body on the ground and it counted as dropping it into water, but on the whole it's super polished. Narratively I think they get more things right than the base game (having Doud talk helps), but it's still not particularly memorable. Also, fix the proportions on your characters god dammit. The outsider's hands are as big as his head, it looks so bad.

[undermind9]

Finished Fez to 64 cubes, i'vent anything new to add to the discussion really.  It is a super game, I have no idea why I didn't play it sooner, and the first time rotating a room is a really great feelings

 

Going through it was really rather astonishing the amount of polish and forethought that went into some of the puzzle work.  I can now throw out all these scraps of notebook paper, ambitiously I wasnt going to look anything up

 

but I caved after writing out the whole alphabet knowing about the fox & dog room hint.  I figured that was enough cryptography for me and checked my work of the numerals.  the tetris pieces=input controls would have been all consuming too.

 

but despite some look ups on the extra hard puzzles (clock room was particularly annoying, who makes a solution that shows up once every few days), i feel well satisfied with the mostly going through myself.

 

One thing i was thinking about a lot going through this - Are kids talking about this game (or ones like it) at recess?  This game seems like it would be perfect for schoolyard discussions.  "Know the telescope room - Guess what!" 

 

Or, more likely, are they just jumping into "Let's Plays" or a game's wiki to get past difficult or annoying sequences?  

 

When i was in elementary school it was common to talk about weird tricks or secrets (like which bushes had 100 rupees in zelda) or who had finally beat XYZ game.  As kids got older it was harder to find those people to talk about (puberty does that), but i remember writing out a build order for a reaver rush w/dropships in SC and trading with someone else for their seemingly killer zerg strategy as late as grade 8.

[eot]

Just played Perseus Mandate, anyone know which levels scoops worked on?

[Stego]

In the spirit of 2spooky October I have been playing "scary" games.

 

Finished LIMBO.

I enjoyed it overall. The eerie atmosphere was well done. The monochrome aesthetic made the world feel foreboding and did a good job of obfuscating potential dangers. Audio design was tops. Sound contrast and restrained acoustical music really helped to set the bleak tone. A few puzzles were actually timed with music/background noises, which I also enjoyed. The last third of the game was a bit disappointing as the game moved away from exploration to focus on more precise puzzling. The twitch platforming in those areas really highlighted the 'looseness' of the controls.

 

The 'spookiest' moments: encounters with the spider in the forest/cave area and the contact with other humans.

 

Eerie visuals and music, mysterious plot, but not 2spooky. Overall October rating: a silent, German expressionistic (ba)BOO!

[syntheticgerbil]

The more I think about it, the less I like Limbo. It seems so boring compared to other games of its type when I look back on it. Like it could have done more with the environment and puzzles. The spider part was pretty much the only part like that. That said, I did probably help myself dislike the game some by finishing that trophy that requires less than five deaths.

 

I suppose I am waiting to see what Playdead creates next though.

[mikemariano]

That said, I did probably help myself dislike the game some by finishing that trophy that requires less than five deaths.

 

Yeah, deaths flowed so seamlessly into trying again that to play cautiously seems like it would interrupt the flow of the game.  I guess I'll never get any sweet achievements playing so loosely, but it kept the game enjoyable for me.

[tegan]

I agree about the environment and puzzles. That Hotel area and especially the forest area both integrate the environment into both atmosphere and the design of the puzzles so well, and then most of the rest of the game is super generic rooms with switches that change gravity and stuff. Disappointing.

[Stego]

 That said, I did probably help myself dislike the game some by finishing that trophy that requires less than five deaths.

I refused to try for that achievement specifically because I felt it would ruin my experience of the game, as mikemariano pointed out, and because I found the controls occasionally frustrating.

 

 

I agree about the environment and puzzles. That Hotel area and especially the forest area both integrate the environment into both atmosphere and the design of the puzzles so well, and then most of the rest of the game is super generic rooms with switches that change gravity and stuff. Disappointing.

It definitely drops the ball by spending too much time in the factory areas. The 'gamey' turret guns and gravity-well puzzles feel at ends with the more minimalistic and organic scenes in the first half. The game feels less cohesive as result.

 

 

I suppose I am waiting to see what Playdead creates next though.

Edited link: Apparently Playdead's released a trailer for their next game, "Inside". It's got a post-industrial dystopian vibe to it. I guess they really like bleak, industrial settings? Art looks cool though.

[Bjorn]

I ultimately think Limbo may have been over-hyped for me, resulting in me having a pretty poor opinion of it.  After the tsunami of love it got, I just went in with expectations that it couldn't possibly meet.  I think I would have had a better reaction to it if I had gone in not knowing anything about it.

[syntheticgerbil]

I refused to try for that achievement specifically because I felt it would ruin my experience of the game, as mikemariano pointed out, and because I found the controls occasionally frustrating

Well I did experience it as imagined the first time. I tried for the trophy after a couple of runs after my first finish. The game is really short so it could have been more horrifying, but when I think of Limbo now I think of a bunch of crate and switch puzzles more than the grotesque 90s majesty of something like Heart of Darkness.

 

The extra PS3 level was a neat idea, making me use stereo sound, but I didn't feel like the imagination behind the game went as far as maybe I would have wanted. I will be playing Inside I think though, thanks for posting that trailer, last I saw of it was a couple of blurry screenshots.

[Yasawas]

Two tonight, both impressive in different ways after a wee run of games I was indifferent toward.

 

Rayman Legends (PS4). This is incredible. Not only is it ridiculously pretty with a soundtrack befitting a Disney film but there's a colossal amount of content here. The base game is a good length for a 2D platformer but on top of that they give you a load of challenge rooms (timed levels set up for you to run through basically) and remade Rayman Origins levels and daily/weekly online challenges and a multiplayer football game and probably loads more. The levels are well designed but like the recent Mario games the real genius only becomes apparent once you try to go for all the Teensies (this game's stars, effectively) and discover how well they've hidden some of them. The bosses are a challenge without being a grind, there are these wonderful musical themed levels as a prize after each, including one based around a mariachi version of Eye of the Tiger, and it's all pulled off with charm and sense of humour. It's not as good as Tropical Freeze but it did evoke it which is praise enough.

 

Starfox 2 (SNES). I love the story of this. Argonaut made a full sequel to Starfox based around the new Super FX 2 chip, completed it, and Nintendo held it back to avoid potentially harming sales of the forthcoming N64. A complete sequel to one of the biggest games on the SNES! What else do they have tucked away in rooms in that place? At some point it's been leaked and is now widely available (which in itself must be quite a story, what else of this magnitude has ever made it out of Nintendo?), there are English patches if you need them and you can even buy reproduction carts to play on an original console which is what I did a while ago and now I've finally sat down and played it through tonight.

 

First off, it takes a good 10 minutes for your eyes to adjust to SNES 3D which can't be more than 15fps if it gets there at all. Even once you reach this zen state trying to convince your hands to play a 3D game with a controller ill-suited to the task is no picnic I can tell you. Unlike the first game this is not a corridor shooter - bits of it are but a lot of it takes place in open space like later Starfox games, and some of it takes place on planetary areas where you are free to mince about doing your shooting thing which is pretty cool and then you discover you can press Select at any point and turn into a fucking MECH. It can jump and shoot and run around and oh man what fun. Many of the missions now involve you infiltrating bases by figuring out how to get into them (usually triggering switches as the mech) then swooping in and destroying the core however you see fit. There are a load of levels you can tackle in any order you like randomised each playthrough, there are six playable dudes, there are boss fights with the Starwolf team as this is apparently the game where they originated and of course there's Andross, who's still a big pushover of a monkeycubefaceboss thing.

 

This is a very good game if you can accept the technical limitations of the time and worth playing if you can find an emulator that'll run it. It's fascinating to me to think how many finished games like this probably exist that we don't know about, I am grateful in this instance to the person who stole this build and illegally distributed it via the internet.

[SuperBiasedMan]

Just finished the Fall, a puzzle platformer that features some small combat. The combat's alright, no big deal. Puzzles are generally ok, had one particularly annoying bit but that's it. What I really enjoyed about it was the narrative.

 

It has a pretty simple set up, you're the AI on a robot combat suit, and your human pilot inside is unresponsive and in a critical condition. You land in this derelict looking station and you desperately need to find medical assistance for your pilot. The minute to minute writing is pretty solid, and it has some good funny moments. But the themes and subtle storytelling of it are actually really handled so well that I really enjoyed the storytelling. They even had a pretty clever achievement name that clued me in early on that they might know what they're doing and right through to the end they didn't disappoint me. I recommend it, especially because it seems like it never got all that much attention.

 

Note: If it matters, they're planning another episode for sometime early next year. I think this is a nice contained package, but it does clearly lead to another episode and doesn't finish up all the narrative threads.

[Tanukitsune]

I haven't posted in a while, so I'll just say I played the recently released on Steam Disney "Princess and Fairies" games and I really recommend Brave, it really changed from the plot of the movie and makes the evil bear an evil WIZARD bear and Merida gains many elemental powers that she can even use on the environment sometimes. You can summon tiny rock guardians with the Earth power and when it's fully upgraded it's ridiculous.

 

The one I'd definitely NOT recommend is The Princess and The Frog, it's a mini game party that's only one player and you can't really lose, the game continues no matter how bad you perform.

 

I doubt you'd want to hear about the rest, but they're mostly Wii ports and some are better ports than others.

[SecretAsianMan]

I beat Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor last week.  Even got all the achievements.  Some of them are kind of fun to get because they require a good deal of setup to pull off (like getting 5 of a warchief's bodyguards to turn on him).  I think overall its too easy, even at the beginning when you're not leveled at all.  The gameplay is solid but the nemesis system is what really makes it stand out as more than Assassin's Creed + Arkham.  I really hope they go a lot further with it in the future because I can see quite a bit of potential in the system.

 

I also finished The Room Two.  Its more of the same as the first Room game, but since I enjoyed the first game I'm ok with that.  The switching between puzzle areas thing didn't really grab me though.  It felt like a needless step most of the time.  Really there was only one room that I felt it made sense for the puzzles to be separated (the one with the reflecting laser).

[Cordeos]

I finished Journey this week. I know I am behind the times on this one, but i rarely use my PS3 for anything but Netflix these days. Journey is a really pretty game, the platforming is solid, and mostly around exploration rather than challenge. I was impressed how much I enjoyed essentially just exploring pretty environments.I didn't like the multiplayer, having some random person appear and start solving puzzles for you is rather annoying. If i play it again i will make sure to take the system offline. Overall a very good experience, it is a little sad that they built such a pretty game and there is only a few hours of content for it. 

[Zeusthecat]

I beat a bunch of games over the last few months.

 

Watch Dogs (PS4) - I enjoyed this game when I played it the right way. I initially tried going as non-lethal as possible and found it to be a fairly frustrating experience. Once I ditched my self imposed restrictions and started using all of the systems that the game gave me, it became much more enjoyable (having the silenced pistol at my disposable made infiltrating bases so much more fun). The whole hacking system was a cool new layer to the familiar gameplay and it kept things fairly interesting throughout the game. I'm excited to see how they end up expanding on that. And I really enjoyed the profiler and all the random conversations you can listen in on. Those things went a long way towards giving some life to the random NPCs wandering about and made them feel just a little more real. So, not a great game but I still had a good amount of fun with it.

 

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition (PS4) - This game was awesome. The gameplay was very fluid and felt great and I really enjoyed all the combat and traversal. The story wasn't great but was interesting enough. The graphics, however, were amazing. This game looked so damn good. The only complaint I would level against this game is that they went a little overboard with beating the shit out of Lara and her constantly jumping from crumbling structures right as they give way beneath her. It got to a point where it was just kind of absurd. But that didn't really bother me much and I'm definitely excited to play the next one whenever it comes out.

 

The Last of Us Remastered (PS4) - I absolutely loved this game. The story was one of the best I've seen in a video game in a long time and that ending was really good. And surprisingly, even though I've heard a lot of complaints leveled against it, I really enjoyed the combat in this game and felt like it fit really well with the tone of the game. Definitely gonna run through this again on New Game + to experience it again and get some sweet cheevos. I also need to check out the multiplayer which sounds pretty fun. Oh yeah, and the photo mode was a lot of fun and I hope to use it a lot more on my next playthrough.

 

Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls (PS4) - Dude, this game is hard to stop playing. Everything is tuned to perfection from the sound design to the art style and lighting, to how effective each build plays based on what skills and runes are mapped. I just feel like I'm in a state of zen whenever I play and the steady stream of upgrades and skill levels makes me want to keep pushing on. I've been playing adventure mode for about a week now and I'm thinking about rolling another character or two to see how other classes play. I'll probably continue playing this for awhile, especially since a bunch of co-workers got it and we've been pretty successful in getting a group of us together most nights of the week. I would also love to play this with some fellow thumbs if anyone is playing this on PS4. But I think there would need to be a strict wizard-only rule (of course I'm the motherfucking wizard).

 

Super Mario World - Played through this with my daughter and beat the game along with every level. Tubular still sucks and is the most annoying level in that game but everything else is awesome. This was the first game I ever beat back in 1992 and it's one I keep coming back to every now and then.

 

Pokemon Leaf Green/Fire Red - I figured I'd start at the beginning and start the long journey of collecting all of these little bastards. So far I have everything I need from both of these versions and am doing the post elite four stuff. Eventually, when I have everything traded over I'll move on to HG/SS.

 

Super Mario Galaxy - I've owned this game since 2008 and at some point I stopped at around 50 stars. It turns out my kids love watching me play this so I went ahead and finished the game and have about 95 stars now. This game was freaking awesome and I'm glad I finally started playing it again. My only complaint is that the camera can be a real pain in the ass. I'll probably be slowly churning through those last 25 stars for awhile and I might eventually pick up Galaxy 2.

 

Escape From Monkey Island - This game was okay. Not shit but not great either. 

 

GTA V - Finally got the platinum trophy on this one. It says only 0.1% of people have this trophy so I feel special. Also, I'm a loser.

[eot]

It definitely drops the ball by spending too much time in the factory areas. The 'gamey' turret guns and gravity-well puzzles feel at ends with the more minimalistic and organic scenes in the first half. The game feels less cohesive as result.

I just finished Limbo myself and I actually liked the last few chapters the most, because they were the only ones that were mechanically interesting. The game didn't click with me though. I love the way it looks and sounds, but I got sick of the gotcha deaths and I thought the (frequent) unforgiving platforming segments work against the atmosphere the game was trying to create. Yes, the deaths are somewhat unsettling but the third time I die to the same thing that part doesn't even register any more, I'm only thinking about the mechanics at that point. Repeatedly killing me kills the mood instead of enhancing it. There were also a few puzzles that annoyed me, some of them are only challenging because you don't realise you can interact with certain parts of the environment. The game just made me sigh a lot. I appreciate how well made it is in a lot of respects, but it's not really my kind of game. Strong presentation alone is rarely enough for me.

[Sno]

I've been going through a lot of old shooters this month, finished Quake, Quake II, Unreal, Sin and all their expansions. I was surprised to find that out of all those I enjoyed the original Quake the most, by far. The strange mix of sci-fi, medieval fantasy and cthulhu horror was of course the product of a troubled development and not some creative genius, but the result is something that has a very unique feel. It's a dark and claustrophobic game. For the most part I love the level design too, compared to a lot of games of that time it's surprisingly straight forward and doesn't devolve into maze like keyhunting madness (both Doom II and Quake II are way worse in this regard). Episode 4 isn't as good as the rest though. In terms of the combat it's similar to Doom in that there aren't a lot of enemies with hitscan attacks, so it's a game where you can effectively avoid damage just using good movement. Still plays extremely well, nothing quite like picking up a Quad and going on a run (the Quad sound has to be one of the most memorable sound effects ever).

 

Having just played all those games it seemed like a good time to revisit Half-Life as well. I suppose people have already praised it enough over the years, but to me it's absolutely ridiculous how much better it is than games that came out even just six months prior. Not only was it very ambitious in a lot of its design, but it executes on most of its ideas almost flawlessly. Sin is an interesting comparison actually, because it released right before Half-Life and had similar ambitions. They went for a high fidelity believable world, with lots of interactivity (like computer terminals with some basic commands that actually render in the 3D world too), hostages you can rescue, locational damage on enemies etc. It's a neat game actually, but the level of execution is so far behind Valve's.

 

Just take something like the encounter design, in Half-Life you almost never walk into a room with a bunch of enemies just standing around waiting for you. There's always a scene playing out, whether it's zombies chewing on some scientists or a security guard shooting headcrabs. If enemies spawn in it's always through some in world means, like the HECU grunts rappelling down, blowing a hole through the wall or maybe an Alien Slave teleporting in. Every single room in the entire game (Xen excluded perhaps) feels hand crafted. Of course we take that for granted now (well, few games do it as well in my opinion), but that they did it first and did it so well just blows my mind. I could go on forever, the enemy design is fantastic and watching the AI fight itself never gets old. I know some people like to pick on the combat, but it might actually be my favourite part of the game. You have a very diverse arsenal where every weapon is useful, it encourages so much creative play. Maybe most people never bother with the more exotic weapons though, even the grenades take a bit of practice to use properly.

When i replayed the Half-Life series a while back, i thought Half-Life actually held up better than its sequels in some respects. Visually, Half-Life 2 has aged astoundingly well, but the emphasis on physics puzzles absolutely dates it, it's a game that keeps side-stepping into gimmicks. You go back to Half-Life though and find a game that was completely redefining the fundamentals of FPS design in a way that sort of creates a situation where it's a game that still feels like a modern shooter, and because it feels like people expect shooters to feel like, maybe people don't realize how amazing it is that it still feels like a modern shooter and get hung up on the small details of movement speed or whatever it may be.

What's your stance on Unreal, might i ask? I've always been incredibly fond of the game. Its level design can be very inconsistent, but taken as a whole, that game does kind of a beautiful job making you feel like you're out on a big long, lonely journey through its huge, abandoned spaces. You're piecing together the stories of your fellow shipwreck survivors and being seemingly out of your depth against enemies that alternate between impressively enormous or impressively intelligent. (Halo later invoked an exceedingly similar setup to similar success. Skaarj = Elites, pretty much.) Also, whatever logic leaps led to the initial creation of Unreal's arsenal should still be lauded, because it's still just one of the most inventive and dynamic sets of player weapons in an FPS. Unreal's a great co-op game too, precisely because of those big, tough enemies and open-ended levels. (Now tell me that you hated playing through Unreal.)

(Also, out of love for Sin, i definitely bought a copy of Sin Episode(s?) back when that came out. One of the most crushing disappointments i've ever experienced as a gamer.)

[Stego]

Sorry for clogging the discussion with LIMBO.

 

I ultimately think Limbo may have been over-hyped for me, resulting in me having a pretty poor opinion of it.  After the tsunami of love it got, I just went in with expectations that it couldn't possibly meet.  I think I would have had a better reaction to it if I had gone in not knowing anything about it.

I agree, I was also hoping for a bit more. However, I think playing it so much later helped to temper some expectations.

 

Well I did experience it as imagined the first time. I tried for the trophy after a couple of runs after my first finish. The game is really short so it could have been more horrifying, but when I think of Limbo now I think of a bunch of crate and switch puzzles more than the grotesque 90s majesty of something like Heart of Darkness.

 

The extra PS3 level was a neat idea, making me use stereo sound, but I didn't feel like the imagination behind the game went as far as maybe I would have wanted. I will be playing Inside I think though, thanks for posting that trailer, last I saw of it was a couple of blurry screenshots.

I didn't mean to imply that you didn't experince it as imagined. I just meant that I don't see myself going back to Limbo in order to complete that low death achievement. I watched a playthrough of the extra level on YouTube. Pretty cool. It's a shame they didn't make use of audio puzzles elsewhere in the game. Hopefully Inside turns out well.

 

I just finished Limbo myself and I actually liked the last few chapters the most, because they were the only ones that were mechanically interesting. The game didn't click with me though. I love the way it looks and sounds, but I got sick of the gotcha deaths and I thought the (frequent) unforgiving platforming segments work against the atmosphere the game was trying to create. Yes, the deaths are somewhat unsettling but the third time I die to the same thing that part doesn't even register any more, I'm only thinking about the mechanics at that point. Repeatedly killing me kills the mood instead of enhancing it. There were also a few puzzles that annoyed me, some of them are only challenging because you don't realise you can interact with certain parts of the environment. The game just made me sigh a lot. I appreciate how well made it is in a lot of respects, but it's not really my kind of game. Strong presentation alone is rarely enough for me.

I completely agree about the 'gotcha' deaths. The game shines when death is barely escaped, but too often trial and error were needed, making the deaths meaningless. Deciphering foreground/background interaction points was an unfortunate consequence of the artstyle. The point about repeated death causing a focus on mechanics is a big problem with the game. I think that's why I grew to dislike the 'loose' controls so much by the end. I agree that the mechanical variety made the latter part of the gameplay more interesting, but that's because I had started to grow weary of the game two-thirds of the way through. It still felt too long and strangely paced, even with a 2.5 hour run-time. For what it's worth, I still believe the latter parts are at ends tonally from the beginning. I guess I came into the game looking for it to focus more on atmosphere rather than mechanics (whatever that's supposed to mean), but the game never really goes anywhere after the first half. LIMBO feels like a game of two parts: one half I enjoyed and the other half just played. I guess the first half clicked with me well enough to warrant my time with it.

[Twig]

I did the low death achievement because the gameplay was the only GOOD part of the game. Everything else sucked butt. (Okay, I liked the art style well enough, I guess. It served its purpose, at least!)

 

As a result of playing through the game a few times in the process of earning said cheesemint, I learned that, oh, actually, if I'd just paid attention, I would've had a lot fewer deaths the first time around. There are a metric buttload of visual and sound cues in the game attempting to alert people to the possibility of imminent death. There's also a decent amount of timing stuff, where it's your personal skill level holding you back. It HAS been a while since I played it, but I'm almost willing to bet there is no unavoidable death on your first run, provided you are both observational and skilled enough. (Hardly anyone is, of course, which is why the frequent and generous checkpoint system exists.)

 

All THAT said, I continue to dislike the idea that unavoidable-death and trial-and-error are bad design. It's a different kind of design, for sure, and an incredibly punishing one, and I understand why the thought of it puts people off. But I like it!

 

DISCLAIMER: I'm pretty dang good at platformers, in general, AND the puzzle platformer (of which I'd classify Limbo) is basically my favorite genre. So I'm biased as all hell.

[syntheticgerbil]

I think finding out about the guns alone are part of the trial and error. They just sort of come out of nowhere and you pretty much have to die to figure out their behavior.

[Twig]

I don't remember the guns at all! There are guns? In other words, I'll take your word for it.

[coaxmetal]

I just finished Middle Earth: Shador of Mordow yesterday. Good game. I think I didn't get as much out of it as some other people did, I never really had any great back and forth with any of the captains/warchiefs. Still fun. But really what matters is Bayonetta 2, next week.