I’ve heard about Bastion for quite some time. People love it as a very refined indie game. This review aims to confirm all you heard elsewhere: Bastion is a lovely game and I’m both happy and sad for finishing it.

Core mechanics are the main success factor presented. The fluid gameplay makes it accessible for almost everyone. He combat is satisfying and challenging. There are enough weapons to make you believe there is a variety, but not much to make you think there are just for filling in content. Each weapon requires a different play style

The graphics are great. It was given a lot of work to give Bastion a singular look. Its cartoonish characters and hand maid painted scenarios are richly detailed. You will believe in the universe.

The enemies are also nice looking as well animated. They have different tactics and you have to fight them with a strategy, especially in the later levels and the arena.

But the most notable and unique feature of this game is the narrator. The whole story is from the point of view of an old man that follow the trajectory of the Kid to restore the Bastion to its former glory. The uniqueness is: he speaks the whole time! In the middle of the action, the narrator comes with fun comments. Sometimes it might get a bit annoying, but I personally felt as an amazing immersing technique.

You must try it. It is available on every platform, including browsers, so there is no excuse.

It has been almost 2 years since I bought, at the release date, The Witcher 2. I played it furiously for a whole week. Maybe 40 hours. But one day I went to a 4 day travel and I totally lost the momentum.

I must confess that the review I wrote by 2011 I had not yet finished the game, but very much close to the ending.

Lately, news about the third installment emerge every day. I was caught by a nostalgia and shame. I recommended the game to all people that I talked to. I love the series. I found an inner strength to re-enter it’s universe. Loading a more-than-a-year-ago saved game, I was able to finally finish the game. I originally bought from gog.com, the CD Projekt distributing company. I don’t even remember why I got it again from Valve’s Steam, but there it was.

Now I revisit my original review with new insights.

How superb are the visuals!  A totally unknown polish company manage to create a top 5 best looking game of all history, imo. The lights and color palette are amazing. The details presented in their 3D models are also incredible. Geralt of Rivia is very richly designed, with nice clothing. The same for the other characters and the scenes. Castles, dungeons, forests. Everything seems to be designed with care.

The story is for adults: strong on politics, sexual interests, loads of anti hero characters. It makes the game stand out among others, but it is not for everyone. However, the story is also very confusing. My perception it happens because the game is based in an established book universe. The authors know the geography and history, but the players do not. When they vomit geography details as part of the main plot, I felt like listening mandarin.

Once thing I disliked quite much in the game’s design: auto saving just before cut scenes. Generally, after important cut scenes, there is a battle. But if you lose, guess what: you have to see again the cut scene! Holly cow! How many times, especially at the end, I died but I had to see the whole dialogue all over again. Also worth noticing that, but the ending of the game, the among of dialogues sky rocketed. Based on your choices on the dialogues, you will face one of the 16 endings. Almost all of them decided by the very last hour or two.

Re reading this, I feel like I hated the game, judging by the amount of complaining. Do not think this. It is like complaining about your son or girlfriend: it is because you liked them very much that you point the weak points. This Polish company gained my heart. I loved their work. I liked the first one very much. But this one shows how much effort were put into the game. 2 years later, it still seems as fresh as a new release. I feel sorry that I wont play it again for a second ending, but the third game is coming… I cannot wait!

Zeno Clash is the debut game from the Chilean developer Ace Team. It is an impressive piece of work that really explores the graphical capabilities of the Unreal engine. The game, while very strange looking, is very beautiful. The team used a very broad range of colors and textures and lights to give a unique feeling for each stage and characters. Don’t expect a very detailed environment, but it will catch your eyeballs nonetheless.

The game is just like a first-person shooter, but without the shooter part. That s because the game is all about brawling. While there are weapons, most combats you will only punch and kick. It’s very fun to focus on close range combat. You do not need to worry about stealth and very precise aim, but timing is required. Get close, avoid being hit and give everything you get. It is hard but much more pleasant that firing with guns: a bit relaxing I dare to say.

If the gameplay is a bit weird the story and theme are really crazy. The world of Zenozoik is populated by strange and ugly creatures. The whole theme is messed on purpose giving the player a  constant itchy feeling of surprise. The dialogs are very cryptic and never reveals the whole story. Several elements of the game, from the characters, places and dialogs all seem to be some sort of reference, like Matrix movies.I personally never found out any  direct reference, but I would bet that there are some link with the Biblic texts. I don’t know.

The game is short, with some repeating stages and mechanics. But I found myself enjoying most of the ride. I know that a sequel is getting cooked and I’m anxious to see the much more experienced team diving again in this universe.

It’s a classic of weirdness and I recommend to take a look. But be aware that is a love or hate product. My tip is: play a demo first. 😉

Gamespot: +Innovative, +Unique , -Shallow , -Weak Story

The traditional Elder Scrolls game is now back with Skyrim. This takes place in northern lands. Snows in a lot of places. But the fire of the dragons might warm the players.

tES 5 is the Bethesda masterpiece. Every single aspect was updated and enhanced. Combat is more fun. The story infinitely much better than Oblivion, while still feels very cliché. It’s an improvement. However, it is still very, very awkward and worse, totally dull sometimes. It is for me the biggest weakness in the Bethesda Softworks team.

The game so big that you can spend days, weeks and even months without exploring the whole map. It adds a lot of value to the final offer. However, I bet that less than 25% of all players will see the end of this game. It’s so huge than at some point you will be tempted to restart and make different choices. Graphically, it is amazing. With all settings at the max, you will definitively be impressed. I was more shocked when Oblivion was released; it was more ground breaking. But Skyrim is beautiful and you will face some situations in which you will catch yourself with your jaw opened.

The same can be said about he bugs. The programming could not foresee he amount of situations that players put the character into. The result is an YouTube full of funny videos. But it is another Elder Scrools tradition: crazy and sometimes irritating buggy situations. It’s almost a positive feature.

Most of the mini-games are now fun. But I still feel that the most of the decisions that we make in the game, in terms of the storytelling aspect, are quite inconsequential. In the gameplay, however, is creates amazing branches based on what gamestyle you prefer.

It is a masterpiece. A bit of the same, if you already played tES game before, but is still amazing. And it have dragons!

Gamespot:

• Better Than the Sum of Its Parts
• Get More Than Your Money’s Worth
• Great Sequel, Great Story
• Outstanding Visual Design
• Sucks You In+ Variety

Jezz, what a great game. I must confess, flat, that it impressed me much less than the first installment. Several features, scenes and the general feeling was already known. Is takes a lot of the buzz and the fun, but what is left is so good that it is still one of the top games I ever played. What impressed me upfront is the level of detail. Batman Arkham City is a product of a gigantic effort and thought. The city is full of small surprises.

The story now is less impressive than the first game. Too many characters, villains in fact, are presented and compound the main story. But to patch all then into a single thread, the rationalization is left aside. The human villains are very plausible, like joker and penguin. But the more bizarre and monster like guys forces the story into a more a too much incredible way. Suddenly Batman stops chasing a psycho mass murderer and stats dealing with an assassin from centuries back, living by a coincidence in the city undergrounds.

Graphically the game is top notch. I would question a bit the excessive amount of colors that populate the city, regardless the argument that a place like that would normally be full of neon colors. The rest is gorgeous. I loved the humor -sometimes a bit dark- of the dialogs. Alfred almost always mocks Batman for being so good so smart so invincible. Joker, probably my favorite bad guy ever, is also a star.

The voice performances are amazing and convincing. In the artistic point of view, there is not much more to say than WOW.

The gameplay is very, very good. Easy enough to not let the flow stops but hard enough to keep you engaged. The plethora of gadgets is a bit confusing, but they make sense in the general situations. Puzzles are rational, challenges are well places and well executed. I tend to buy and play great games due to the fact I do some research before the acquisition. This game is a candidate to be one of the best games I ever played.

PS: Time to time I give my computer a clean installation of everything, formatting the hard drive. Guess what? I lost the saved game coz I forgot to backup this one! jezz, I’m soooo pissed. I was really near ending.

Gamespot:

• Just Right
• Oh Snap!
• Outstanding Gameplay
• Outstanding Visual Design
• Sucks You In
• Superior Animation
• Terrific Voice Acting