Tom Kosiec- Freelance Content Writer

2014 was another incredible year for video games and just like last year there wasn’t enough time to play everything. Below you’ll find my favorite games of the year and some honorable mentions. To narrow down my list, I made sure only to include games I finished so I could judge them more accurately. So, that’s why Shadow of Mordor, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Shovel Knight and other incredible games from last year aren’t on this list.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call

What an awesome way to revisit all the main Final Fantasy games and their spin-offs! Theatrhyhm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call rekindles my nostalgia of the classic RPG series and with more than 200 songs theirs something for everyone. Also, not having to use the stylus anymore kept me playing on the bus and made my commute time disappear in a flash.

Watchdogs

Watchdogs at first glance looks like a GTA clone but brings some welcome innovations to the open world sandbox formula pioneered by Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series. The hacking feature brings new life into cover shooting, stealth missions, and car chases by using your enemies weapons and the environment against them. I got a kick out of setting traps Home Alone style, hacking cameras for advantageous stealth opportunities and demolishing cars with a perfectly timed button press. Here’s hoping Watchdogs 2 sees the same refinement Assassin’s Creed made over its predecessor.

Destiny

Talk about repetitive! Destiny is no Halo, but it’s fun in short bursts and a beautiful showcase of Xbox One and PS4’s capabilities. I’m disappointed with the nonexistent story, the boring mission objectives and having to traverse the same areas over and over again, but Destiny improves with your investment. Just like Halo, Bungie’s nailed the shooting, controls and multiplayer. I don’t get into multiplayer games very often yet I still I enjoyed participating in raids with other people to tackle challenging bosses and overwhelming enemy groups. While I stopped playing Destiny back in September, I’m excited to see how the franchise evolves over the years.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is an excellent addition to the Wii U’s growing library of exclusive kick ass games. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze features lush visual, strong gameplay and with the exception of a few frustrating multi-stage boss battles the game consistently challenges you to play smarter. Which I found refreshing compared to other platformers that take a long time to ramp up in difficulty over time. Play it if you missed it last year, and you won’t regret it.

TOP 10 GAMES OF 2014

Mario Kart 8

Like Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8 pops with beautiful, vibrant graphics and makes you happy you own a Wii U. The level design is top notch, and the generous selection of classic tracks from past games make this one of the best Mario Karts ever. I had a blast playing this game, but after beating the Grand Prix mode a few times and playing online, I felt I experienced everything. I was also disappointed by the battle mode, which felt very unsatisfying to me compared to the Nintendo 64 version.  For this reason, MK8 makes the bottom of my list, but the upcoming downloadable content looks like a great excuse to revisit this game again.

Titanfall

I spent double maybe even triple the amount of time completing Destiny, and it’s two betas, but I found my brief time with Titanfall superior. For one, I suck at online first person shooters, but in Titanfall, I always have fun even if I’m the worst person on the team thanks to its user-friendly design. The pace of the game makes other shooters feel slow in comparison, and the introduction of titans adds a lot to the gameplay. I still wish it had a single player mode, and it no doubt would rank higher for me if it did. However, I respect the team at Respawn for focusing on making the best multiplayer experience they could. Bring on Titanfall 2!

The Wolf Among Us

I’ve yet to play The Walking Dead Season 2, but so far the Wolf Among us is my favorite Telltale series. Just hearing the opening title music gives me chills, and I love the art design, the world and characters. While the gameplay is still pretty limited, some of the fight sequences rocked and like Heavy Rain do a good job of making me feel a adrenaline rush.

Sunset Overdrive

Finally, a game that brings me back to the creative, energetic Dreamcast era. It’s so refreshing to play a shooter with bright, colorful environment and traversing the open world by grinding all over the place is some of the most fun I had all year. As was taking down impressive larger than life bosses while using a repertoire of crazy guns like fireworks, ice guns and others not found in most shooters. Let’s hope this game becomes a new franchise.

Infamous: Second Son

My favorite of all the Infamous games and it has the best powerups in the series. The smoke and neon powers are fantastic, and everything looks gorgeous in the realistic Seattle setting. Like Sunset Overdrive traveling around the world is a joy. A mid-game boss fight spoils the overall experience a bit but overall this game feels right in all the right places.

South Park: the Stick Of Truth

A great South Park game at last. The gameplay is reminiscent of the Paper Mario RPG games, and the gameplay is simple, but fun. I laughed a lot while playing this game and with doing all the side quests I averaged around 15 or so hours. I don’t find that too short for an RPG. While superficially this game is amazing, I wish the combat were a bit deeper.

Final Fantasy XIII: Lighting Returns

What Lighting Returns above South Park? Heresy you say? While Lighting Return’s story wasn’t anywhere near as funny as South Park: The Stick of Truth, the gameplay is much stronger. The combat’s a blast, and I like all the different options I have for attacks, costumes, and different strategies. I also like having multiple worlds to explore and found the side quests enjoyable. It was an excellent creative end to the Lighting trilogy that I’ve enjoyed since part one.

Far Cry 4

I only played a few hours of Far Cry 3, so I’m not tired of the formulaic gameplay yet like so many other people are. Pagen Min is a fantastic villain, and I found the world easier to get around than Far Cry 3 in comparison. I also liked how I could customize my weapons with a varied repertoire of shotguns, bows, grenade launchers, and rifles. I haven’t finished Wolfenstein: The New Order or tried Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare yet, but so far this is my favorite shooter from 2014.

Bayonetta 2

I played Bayonetta 2 twice and was tempted to play it a third time too. That’s how great it is. The sense of scale is incredible, and the combat and dodging are tuned to perfection. Also, like many reviewers, say some of the early bosses could be the last bosses in any other game. Even though this game is a leaner meaner and a stronger game than the first Bayonetta, I have to give the nod to the first one for being overall better. Why? Well, what disappointed me most about Bayonetta 2 that many critics failed to mention is that the game is too easy.

I’m happy that this game can reach a larger audience and be more accessible. However, even playing on hard I only died three times during whole eight-hour adventure compared to dying about 25 times in the original. While that might be an advantage to some, I craved the more intense challenge I got from the first Bayonetta and other Platinum games like Madworld. Bayonetta 2 is great, and that’s why it’s so high on my list, but I’d be lying if the lower difficulty didn’t disappoint me.

Super Smash Brothers

A safe bet I know. But I love Nintendo games and bringing them all together in one package is like having Christmas several times a year. I had fun taking my time unlocking all the characters just by playing quick three-minute smash matches over and over. I dabbled in Classic, All-Star, tested out all the various other modes but found the most enjoyment out of event mode. Like Super Smash Bros Melee, the event mode is the real meat of the game and kept me playing for a long time. Nintendo will have quite a challenging topping this entry if there’s a Super Smash Bros  5 for Nintendo’s next console.

ALICE: MADNESS RETURNS: Should you take the plunge down this rabbit hole?(review)

Unlike movies, the summer time for video games is pretty dry with barely any blockbuster releases hitting stores from June to August. While this may seem like a bad thing, it’s actually a blessing because the lack of new titles gives everyone a few months to catch up on any overlooked games they missed out on the first time.

Take Alice: Madness Returns for instance. I was intrigued by the dark take on the Alice and Wonderland story but never got around to playing it three years ago. While it definitely has some problems, I’m glad I finally played it. Read on to learn if it’s worth your time and money.

WHAT YOU’LL LIKE
Fantastic Presentation

Alice: Madness Returns isn’t the most impressive game powered by Epic Games Unreal Engine made famous in Gears of War, but I was constantly amazed at the stunning artwork in each of the games six chapters. The graphical level variety is very imaginative with each one offering something new such as traversing a beautiful world underwater, walking on a level made of cards and a colorful playhouse village.

Character and enemy design is great too with a realistic mature Alice, who changes outfits frequently and hideous monsters like the hilarious named Bitch Baby. Decayed looking card soldiers, creepy doll faces, and samurai wasps are notable standouts.

Another strong point is Alice’s voice actress, Susie Brann, who speaks with a British accent and reminded me of Lara Croft. The other supporting cast like the Cheshire Cat, who talks in riddles, is fantastic too. As is the games music which during the games combat encounters and more quiet moments helped elevate the experience for me.

The plot picks up right after the original game, American Mcgee’s Alice and does a good job recapping the first title through storyboard cutscenes. So, don’t fret if you haven’t played the original. Without spoiling anything Alice: Madness Returns is about Alice recovering her memories after being mentally disturbed by the death of her parents and being sent to an orphanage. She returns to Wonderland hoping to learn the truth and find answers. It’s a pretty grim tale and kept me motivated to reach the conclusion.

Great combat with easy to learn controls

Alice: Madness Returns combat is an improvement over its protege where combat felt like a  PC third-person shooter. Alice has only four weapons a Vorpal blade, pepper grinder, teapot cannon, and hobby horse. All have their specific advantages against certain enemies and switching between targets is a breeze. The camera can be a real pain sometimes, but a great dodge move where Alice briefly turns into blue butterflies helps ease the frustration. Combat is fair and rarely felt cheap during my playtime.

When Alice health gets low, a hyper mode similar to Devil May Cry appears, and the screen turns white allowing you to do greater damage for a brief time before things go back to normal. Upgrading weapons are easy and at the end of chapter five I had maxed out everything by collecting the game’s currency, white teeth. You can also increase your health when you get red paint obtained from completing the hidden challenge rooms and solving the Cheshire Cat’s riddles.

Plentiful Mini-Games
None of these are spectacular, but they helped add some variety to the core gameplay. Highlights include becoming a giant Alice, a 2D platform section in a painting, solving chess puzzles, a Resident Evil 3: Nemesis style chase sequence and more.

WHAT YOU WON’T LIKE
Extremely Repetitive Level Design

Alice: Madness Returns has a lot going for it. However, it repeats the same gameplay ideas way too frequently. Platforming feels fresh at first, but you’re constantly doing the same things over and over again. Like jumping through steam vents, setting bombs on platforms so you can run over to a cliff and shoot a target, going through small keyholes as a tiny Alice, sliding down slides, etc. It’s fun for the first few hours, but it’s incredibly frustrating that each chapter plays out the same way instead of offering something unique.

Even some of the mini games, which luckily change with each level, sometimes repeat themselves too often and quickly lose their charm. Combat never really bored me, but all encounters play out nearly identical, and only one boss encounter awaits you at the end. I’d like to have seen more Legend of Zelda style enemy encounters and puzzles to liven up the gameplay.

Bloated Game Length
Alice: Madness Returns would be much better as a shorter five-eight hour game instead of 15 hour one. The gameplay is fun in short sessions and seeing each new chapter’s graphical variety is exciting, but they overstay their welcome, and you just wanted it to end after awhile. The story, combat, and stunning art direction kept me motivated to finish, but it was tough to push through all the repetition. If each chapter’s length was cut in half and there were more variations on the core combat/platforming, then the longer game length would be justified.

Pointless collectibles and unsatisfying audio logs

If you’re a completist, Alice: Madness Returns has you covered. Such as shooting all the hidden pig snouts with pepper, completing all the combat challenge rooms, solving riddles, collecting bottles, and finding Alice’s memories. Unfortunately, all the extras don’t really add anything to the experience other than unlocking artwork and costumes. I was also disappointed that all the memories you find scattered in levels don’t go into great detail like Bioshock audio diaries do and feel very unsatisfying.

One bright bonus is that the full original game American Mcgee’s Alice is included for free with the only requirement being that you own Alice: Madness Returns. I found the original game to be less repetitive, and if you can look past the rough graphics, it’s definitely worth playing.

CONCLUSION

Alice: Madness Returns is a refreshing dark take on the Alice and Wonderland storyline with gorgeous art design, an interesting plot, great music, and fun combat. However, it’s hampered by repetitive game design, and the journey lasts too long. While flawed, it’s worth playing if you’re a fan of the Alice and Wonderland universe, but for everyone else a rental will be enough to satisfy your curiosity.

Score: 70/100

With Comic-Con news all over the web, it’s easy to forget that another video game conference took place in California in July. Casual Connect USA 2014, is on a much smaller scale than Comic-Con, but all of the creative indie games on the show floor made it worthwhile. Here’s a sampling of all the titles I played.

Speed of Sound: This game reminded me of Rez and Amplitude because of its striking visual style and music driven gameplay where you swipe in the direction of an arrow as you navigate the futuristic neon stages. I had a lot of fun with this game, and I’ll definitely be playing more of the full version. I think a VR version could be really cool too.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.furthergames.soundescape

BigFoot Hunter: Sick of waiting for Pokemon Snap 2? Well, BigFoot Hunter might ease the pain of no new game announcement from Nintendo. Using your mobile device to aim and shoot you take photos of various animal critters in the hopes that BigFoot himself will make an appearance. When he does, you have to be quick, or you’ll miss your chance to score big points.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bigfoot-hunter-camera-adventure/id819526224?mt=8

Dark Deception: My second time with the Oculus Rift and I’m still blown away by the VR technology. DD plays like Pac-Man mixed with survival horror elements. The demo was very immersive, and I literally felt as if I was in a haunted mansion gathering purple gems while doing my best to remain calm that the monster didn’t sneak up on me.

http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/dark-deception/25112/

Simply Twisted: This mobile title took top honors at the Indie Prize Award Ceremony for best free to play game. In Simply Twisted, you connect the dots by twisting and turning shapes to get the best score. The gameplay is simple and offers multiple solutions to each level, so no experience is quite the same. A great fit for mobile and tablet devices.

https://itunes.apple.com/app/id823355127

Escape From Alcatraz: An adventure game set in the famous San Francisco prison. Gameplay involves using commands to pick the right solutions and gathering items to make progress through the story. It’s a meaty game too with a lot of content to explore and it reminded me of the prison sections in the Metal Gear Solid series. Minus the stealth killing of course which there is none of here.

http://www.icongames.com.br/alcatraz-en.htm

Hyper Square: A addictive game where you have to quickly slide squares into their background border. The second level I played involved stretching squares and later levels involved more elaborate gestures. One of my favorite games at the show and like Speed of Sound and Simply Twisted, it’s great for short play sessions.

https://itunes.apple.com/app/hyper-square/id739002910?mt=8

Big Action Mega Fight: Do you love old school beat em ups like Double Dragon, Streets of Rage, and Final Fight? Then this little indie game is for you. The touch controls work well in place of buttons, and I had no problems taking out enemies with uppercuts just like back in my Super Nintendo days. I only played one level, but I’m glad to see the beat em up genre move to mobile.
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id672277660

Fragments of Him: This game is still early in development, but the potential for something great is here. Fragments of Him is a short narrative driven experience similar to Gone Home. The demo I played involved walking around locations like an apartment, park, streets and clicking on objects highlighted in yellow to make them disappears while dialogue plays as you uncover something important. The last section of the demo featured the gameplay in reverse by making objects appear versus getting rid of them.

While I’m intrigued by the story of finding out how other people’s life changes when someone close to them vanishes the gameplay needs more polish and variety to avoid feeling too repetitive.
http://fragmentsofhim.com

There were a lot more games at the show that I didn’t play or have enough time to adequately judge so here’s a list of what else you should consider. Thanks for reading.

http://usa.indieprize.org

The summer movie season has only just begun and with many more blockbusters on the way like Lucy, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles there’s no shortage of great films to see. Here’re my impressions based on the six films I saw this summer.

Godzilla

Why it ruled I’m not the biggest Godzilla fan, but I couldn’t help feeling excited about a re-launch of the classic Japanese monster redesigned with all of today’s fancy special effects. The fight sequences are fun to watch, and the film reminded me a lot of Pacific Rim. I also got a kick out of seeing San Francisco destroyed since I live there, and the monster designs for Godzilla and Mothra looked really cool.

What’s not to like The movie has some pacing problems and stumbles in the middle. I thought the beginning was strong with Bryan Cranston’s reliably great performance, but later on, the movie switches to his son and other secondary characters that weren’t very interesting to me. I often felt bored watching the movie, and it’s a long wait until Godzilla appears. However, the awesome Mortal Kombat style fight sequences near the end make up for the tedious parts of the film.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Why it ruled I really liked the first Amazing Spider-Man and am glad that I enjoyed the sequel despite its problems. Andrew Garfield is a great Spiderman and his relationships between Emma Stone, Dane DeHann, and Sally Field are the best parts of the film. The action sequences were impressive and looked visually stunning. Especially Electro’s superpowers which remind me of Cole MacGrath from Infamous. Although flawed, this Spider-Man film is somewhat amazing, and I don’t regret seeing it.

What’s not to like It’s a shame that director Marc Webb nails the human relationships of Peter Parker and his friends and family so well, but the villains feel half-baked in comparison. For example, Electro’s character development and motivation for acting revenge on Spiderman are pretty unremarkable. Green Goblin fairs a bit better, and the redesign is cooler than the Halloween costume design of Sam Rami’s 2001 Spider-Man, yet he feels disposable. The way he convinced Electro to team up with him felt shoehorned in too. Lastly, Rhino seemed like just a tease for the next films, and I’m not a fan of the robot design.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Why it ruled A nice change of pace from most superhero movies where the storyline and action sequences are realistic and gritty. The plot feels like an old-fashioned spy story along with memorable performances from Chris Evans, Samuel L Jackson, and Robert Redford. Exciting all around with great action and lots of surprises make Winter Soldier one of the best Marvel movies out there.

What’s not to like The Winter Soldier isn’t the most interesting character, but he serves his purpose in the film and helps links the storyline of the first Captain America movie full circle with this one.

Edge of Tomorrow

Why it ruled Ever heard of this movie? I sure didn’t and was going to pass on it because it looked like another big dumb generic action movie. However, when I got an invite from a friend for a free screening, I decided to give it a shot. Good thing I did because it turned out to be really enjoyable, and it surprised me with its humor, Groundhogs Day approach, strong performances from Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, and stellar action sequences. I also loved that it reminded me of video games like Gears of War and Vanquish. One other great recommendation to see this kick-ass film is that Doug Liman best known for the Bourne Identity directed it.

What’s not to like Not much actually, but I would have liked to see more location variety with the action sequences and a little bit more character development for Blunt.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Why it ruled I’ll be honest, I was worried about this one. I loved X-Men: First Class and although I enjoyed Bryan Singer’s first two X-Men movies I didn’t know if he could capture the same magic of Mathews Vaughn’s fantastic reboot. I’m happy to say he did X-Men fans proud and did a great job of juggling the past and future X-Men storylines. Seriously, this movie could have been a train train-wreck with all the different characters and conflicting storylines. The fight sequences are fantastic with Quicksilver, Blink, and Mystique being standouts. Can’t wait to see the next batch of X-Men films if they can sustain this level of quality.

What’s not to like The only real flaw I have with this film is that it’s tough to watch if you haven’t seen the other films. While it’s possible to watch it with no prior X-Men experience, you’ll appreciate the characters more if you’ve seen what’s come before it first.

The Raid 2

Why it ruled Where to start is a better question. The action sequences are phenomenal! I love how this film uses uncommon locations you think would be unsuitable for fighting like a crowded prison bathroom stall or inside a small car during an intense car chase scene. The plot isn’t bad either with a good revenge story that’s more fleshed out than the first Raid film and seeing the previous one isn’t required to enjoy it. If you consider yourself an action fan you have to see this. It really does put all of IP Man’s films to shame and makes going back to watch any other action film feel weak in comparison.

What’s not to like The beginning of the film can be a bit of a drag, and the extremely graphic violence means it’s not suitable for everyone. However, if you look past these issues, you’ll be in for an incredible summer action movie that once gets going never lets up and stays in your mind for days afterward.

What are your favorite summer movies?

Ever since I played Goldeneye back on the Nintendo 64 in 1997, I’ve been obsessed with the James Bond 007 franchise. I’ve seen all the movies, played most of the video games, collected merchandise like trading cards, but I never read any of the books by Ian Fleming that started it all. I’ve since addressed that and began my journey to tackle every book associated with Bond including the ones not written by Fleming. Care to join me on my epic quest? Here’re five reasons you should reconsider.

The books aren’t the same as the films

The main reason I put off reading the books is because I thought the films were just straight adaptions. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. While the 007 films often use the central characters and locations from the books that’s usually it. What’s so surprising and refreshing about reading Fleming’s novels is that they’re really quite different.

For instance, I didn’t expect the novel version of Goldfinger to have an intense scene where Bond goes to Auric Goldfinger’s house and discovers a hidden camera recording all his movements. Or that the fate of Vesper from Casino Royale turns out a bit differently from the film and that Bond actually dies at the end of one of Fleming’s book!

In addition to the 12 main books, the two short story collections are also quite good. Like Fleming’s other work some of them share the same title and have a similar plot like in For Your Eyes Only. Others are original stories not adapted to films such as Risco, The Hilderbrand Rarity, and 007 in New York. I also found the Quantum of Solace story superior to the film version because it featured a compelling tale of a past recollection between a romantic couple that ended in tragedy versus the heavy action oriented film version. So far I’m about halfway through Fleming’s books and can’t wait to read more.

You get a better understanding of Bond’s character

You probably already have a general idea of how Bond acts from seeing the films. He’s confident, has many female companions, ruthless with his enemies, and often gets depressed. Wait! What was that last one! Yes, even Bond isn’t super human and he goes through the same sadness/loneliness we all get from regret, rejection and more.

You’ll also learn Bond loves cold showers and breakfast is his favorite meal consisting of strong black coffee and eggs. Lastly, if you’re curious, the most faithful reproduction of Bond on-screen is actually Timothy Dalton’s portrayal in The Living Daylights and License to Kill. Most people hate on Dalton’s performance as 007, but I respect him for trying something different with the role and being true to the character Fleming created.

There are more books than movies, and it’s cool to see other author’s take on 007

Besides the novels from Fleming, there are many other authors who’ve taken up the mantle to write additional James Bond adventures. I’ve read only two with Solo, by William Boyd being the most recent one. I liked it, and it involves Bond on a mission alone out for revenge hence the name Solo.

The other book I read is High Time to Kill, by Raymond Benson, which has an exciting plot where Bond climbs one of the tallest and most treacherous mountains to grab some top secret equipment. What I haven’t read and am most intrigued by are the stories featuring a younger Bond by Charlie Higson that go into detail about his life before he became 007. Where ever you decide to start you’ll have no shortage of great reading material to keep you busy.

You can jump into any book and their short

Just like the movies almost all the Bond books are newbie friendly and can be read in any order. For some though, Bond recalls memories from past adventures such as past villains, and women he’s met, but it’s not overly critical to the plot and you shouldn’t worry about where to begin. Another plus is that you can finish a book without a huge time commitment since each one averages around 150 to 300 pages so you can easily finish them in a weekend.

It’s fun to watch Bond adjust to different time periods

Since most of Fleming’s books were published during the same era, it’s cool to see how the films adapted to a more modern era. Casino Royale is a good example because the original story took place in the 1950’s with an absence of modern technology depicted in the 2006 film version, and Vesper was a radiologist instead of an accountant. The Spy Who Loved me has an old-fashioned spy story that is written and narrated by a women’s perspective versus the cheesy 70’s Roger Moore era. It’s a testament to Bond’s character that can be a part of so many different time periods and be constantly reinvented to fit a new era.

I still have a long way to go with, but I plan to tackle every single book associated with Bond. I hope I gave you some inspiration to start the books yourself and see what you’ve been missing. Thanks for reading.