Video Games

As a gaming reviewer, I get to play a lot of different types of games. Sports, Puzzle, Adventure, you name it.  This year was viewed as a fairly weak one amongst a lot of my peers, but I didn’t see it that way.  Despite the fact that, yes, there was a lot of disappointment, there were still a few diamonds in the rough, and some absolute gems too.  Here’s my personal top 10 for the year 2014, starting with Bravely Default (Pictured) and going from there.

A game bonanza in the desert, the Sony PlayStation Experience celebrated 20 years of the consoles history, by talking about what they have coming out next year.  Tacky?  Maybe, but it’s their party, and they can self promote if they want to.  Frankly, for PlayStation owners, there is a lot to be excited about.  Dialed into the community in a way I havent seen on this scale in gaming, the PlayStation Experience was a big success, and packed to the gills with gaming.

Yes, you read that right.  Developers Ivory Tower and Ubisoft have crafted themselves a map that includes all of Continental America.  A driving game that wants you to tag along with friends, fancy a road trip across country?  Pack your bags (get your snacks really, no actual packing required) and grab some friends.  It’s time for a rip down the road with The Crew.

With every passing Nintendo gaming generation, it’s not unusual to see original NES titles up for sale in the respective console’s eShop. Usually, however, all you get is the old game itself with no bells and whistles.  The recently released NES Remix disc version (the WiiU games were originally available in the eShop) change things up a bit. You get bits and pieces of these NES games put into objective/challenge form, and a few new twists and turns too. 

A pairing of two already massive media producers with extensive catalogues of characters and stories, Square Enix and Disney Interactive got it in their heads to do a collaboration, Kingdom Hearts was born, and a legion of rabid fans created. An action-adventure RPG, Kingdom Hearts titles have been spread across a lot of different hardware.  Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMix packages and remasters 2 fan favorite Kingdom Hearts games , with an included cinematic experience of a third.

It’s a neat concept – Using your Xbox One controller on your PS4, or maybe using your 360 controllers on your Xbox One. As one of the few people out there that still prefer the feel of the Xbox 360 controller to the Xbox One, I was a big fan of this idea as one of the few that prefer the feel of the 360 controller.  The CronusMax is just the device that lets you do that. Come take a look at this powerful little device that’s no bigger than a flash drive.

You might never have heard the term “Toys to Life” but it’s the sub-category of the games your kids are asking you for: The Skylanders, the amiibo and the Disney Infinitys of the world. These games have taken flight over the last 3 years and have turned into a multi-billion dollar industry. In fact, the Skylanders franchise has moved so many games and figures over that period that it’s now one of the most profitable video gaming franchises in history.  What’s behind the appeal of these for not just kids, but adults too? Let’s take a look at some of the possibilities.

I’m a puzzle game nerd from a young age. I used to rent all the puzzle games I could get my hands on as a kid, and would spend hours in the summer borrowing my neighbour’s Game Boy puzzle carts. In the last decade or so, there haven’t been a lot of games out there that have interested in me, but Braid gave me hope that there was still good left in the puzzle-adventure genre. Nintendo’s Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is another title hoping to do that too.  Let’s take a look.

LEGO Batman 2 was an interesting game to me.  It wasn’t the most polished title, but featured some of my favorite things in the series yet.  The first LEGO Batman was the first of the line of games I 100%’d, and I definitely remember the summer I spent (having recently been laid off from my job) disposing of baddies in between my job search.  The third game is here now, and I was hoping for a lot of the same.  Does it deliver?  Let’s take a look.

Thanks to Ubisoft, Desmond Miles, and the Animus we’ve gotten to stab a lot of Templars over the years. Putting down evil schemes, righting wrongs, chatting with historical figures. It’s been pretty good.  Climbing as high as it was able on the last generation of hardware, the Assassin’s are ‘making the leap’ to the big boys, and brining more of everything with them. So grab some friends and lets go change the world (with Co-op), with Assassin’s Creed: Unity