XCOM ENEMY UNKNOWN

I got XCOM Enemy Unknown for free (thanks to the Bioshock Infinite pre-order offer) and gave it a try one night... and couldn´t stop playing.

Funny thing is, the basic gameplay seems to have been directly copied from the original XCOM from 1994. I played it for a while but I remember it was extremely punishing and couldn´t finish it. This reboot is practically the same, although with better graphics. Still I had to try 3 times to make it till the end. The golden path of the game is really narrow, and if you don´t make the proper calls early at the beginning you´ll be screwed the rest of the game.

But the playability works incredibly well. Each combat scenario takes 30-40 min to be completed, allowing to adapt your playtime to any personal circumstance. You´ve got plenty of options to customize your base and squad members, and during combat you've got a semi-random element whenever you shoot at an alien that always makes you wonder if you´ll be lucky or not. I admit I played with the saving system (whenever I failed a mission I´d reload the save) so my soldiers would achieve the highest rank as soon as possible. Otherwise the game was too punishing.

Anyway, I strongly recommend it. Although there are plenty of animation / camera bugs, and sometimes the shot success / fail calculations are inappropriate, the overall result is amazingly engaging, the story serves its purpose nicely and the gameplay works like a charm.

BIOSHOCK INFINITE

I should probably start saying I´m a fan of the previous Bioshocks. They master the concept of environmental storytelling, there is constant flow of creativity on the setup and the characters, and the mechanics are well adapted to the scenario, making it shine even more.

It was a no brainer I'd play Bioshock Infinite, and I gotta say it´s a great game. In the first 2-3 hours you´re introduced to the shiny new world of Columbia, and start experience the multiple contradictions of that society. The game systems are pretty much inherited from Bioshock, which creates a certain feeling of 'Yeah, a city in the clouds but this reminds me to Rapture too much'.

But then you meet Elizabeth, and the empathy you feel for that young girl is really powerful. The rest of the game you´re pretty much lead by her through the story. I generally have to make pauses every 2 hours to not be saturated by the game, but in this case I almost devoured it until the end.

And about the end... I don´t want to spoil it but I gotta say it´s really unique. Yeah, really unique. Send me a message if you fancy to talk about it ;)

ECOFISH PSM REVIEW

In case you don´t know, EcoFish was also released on the PSP Mini marketplace. Here you can find a review:

http://www.pspminis.com/10915/ecofish-review-qix-me-baby-one-more-time/

The level design (one of the things I made for the game) seems to be well perceived ;)

BLACK MESA / HALF LIFE

Truth is I never finished Half Life. I played it but I found it boring half way through, and abandoned it. Or maybe it was one of those puzzles which forces you to go back and forth, and internet walkthroughs weren´t that popular at that time... Can´t remember.

Thing is, I never finished the game. But I´ve played Half Life 2 like three times, so it was about time. And Black Mesa was released. It´s a mod which rebuilds HL on the latest Source engine, so it´s prettier (although I generally don´t care much about graphics) and free! I downloaded it and played along some months, until this week I finished it.

It´s a great game. It pioneered the concept of ingame cinematics, and has a superb implementation of scaling the mechanics. Some of them worked just fine (team mates, puzzles involving running around through the whole complex, a weird jump control) but others are simply great (enemies, pacing, storytelling, crescendo events, multiple systems all reasonably well implemented, scenario variations...)

So I recommend to give it a try. I think it has been nominated to a number of 'Mod of the year' awards and it´s really entertaining if you are a little pacience. I will never forget the initial interactive cutscene. And I´ll send a donation to the guys who built it, they totally deserve it.

CRYSIS 3

Crytek was kind enough to give us a free copy of Crysis 3, and last Saturday I finished it (sorry for the delay). I chose the PS3 version.

My overall feeling is quite good. It´s a solid work in most of the levels, with a higher focus on the story compared with the previous titles. Visually speaking is impressive even for PS3 (apparently in PC is superb) and the multiplayer is enjoyable, very similar to the CoD model.

Right now I´m still playing it to get some trophies (yep, I´m an achievement whore). There is a certain discontent in the company due to some low reviews (the game is ranking around 76-79 in metacritics) I can agree upon it: I don´t think the game should be below 80, or at the very least other games commonly rated over 90 should be lower.

But ok, the reviews are there and you have to live with them. In any sense is a good game, and it gets better by the end (some unique gameplay and bosses!). You may say it´s because I´m a Crytek employee, but I sincerely recommend to give it a try.

LIMBO

I bought Limbo on sale, attracted by its visual proposal and the good reviews. However I fully suspected it was one of those poetic games that I´m generally not too much attracted (i.e. Ico).

Truth is I enjoyed it. It´s mainly a puzzle game with some platforming, but the difficulty is limited for the most part of it, and I managed to go through 90% of the game without looking for solutions on the internet. The storytelling element was too subtle or obscure to me. I only found out you´re supposed to be looking for your sister reading walkthroughs after finishing it.

All in all I recommend it, particularly for those who look for inspirational elements in games and are willing to complete missing parts (in this case, intentionals). It´s short, it´s beautiful and if you like puzzles it´s fun.

ASSASSIN´S CREED BROTHERHOOD

It´s been a while, but I finished another game. This time it was Assassin´s Creed Brotherhood (actually the third AC game).

I played a couple of hours the first one and I found it interesting both for the setting and the free-running concept, but that´s all. But since the AC franchise has some points in common with my current project, and thanks to Lolo who gave it to me as a present a year ago (he used to work in Ubisoft, and got it at a reduced price) I pushed myself to play it.

I´ve enjoyed it quite a lot. Not only for again an interesting location (this time Rome in the Renaissance) but also for the multiple mechanics and an internal difficulty level which allows players to enjoy the game easily or going for internal challenges (on each mission you have an additional objective, which allows to get the 100% sync).

Aside from that I´m the explorer type, and the game has multiple treasures and secrets to find. Probably the game with more of these I´ve played.

I´m chasing the 100% now, and I´ll probably give a try to the MP and some more trophees. It´s actually the game I´ve unlocked more achievements so far!