Review: Colin McRae Rally (Steam/Mobile, 2014)

You know your favorite band's greatest hits album? Sure, you've heard all the songs before and are probably tired of them but you know they needed to make a little more money before the next full release so a greatest hits collection is their next step, and maybe you still buy it anyway. Colin McRae Rally is that in a nutshell. I understand that its actually a port of the iOS game which is a remake of Colin McRae Rally 2.0, but you would think Codemasters would add a little extra to sweeten the deal for both new and returning fans of the original franchise. Instead it feels like less-than-half of what the latter games in the series became and a barbones recreation of the PS1 classic. Last year Codemasters teased that the next CMR game will be focused on rally racing, rather than hopping from one sport to the next as done in the DiRT Series. There's been no word on whether it will be the next DiRT entry or a return to the classic CMR staging but us fans can only hope that this isn't what they were talking about.

There are only 4 cars and 30 stages. The stages feel planned out rather than organic. The physics dulled down. The power sucked out. The driving stiff. The awesome feeling of awesomeness as you drift through a hairpin is completely absent. A lot of the magic has been lost in its conversion to mobile, and even more so with its port over to Steam. I'm sure the original was never this dull and there was more than likely an exciting feeling of powering through turns and speeding through forests but this time it suffers by removing a lot of the technical aspects that introduced a lot of people to not only sim racing games but the sport of rally racing as well. Players can no longer tune their cars before each race (which is fine because all four cars play exactly the same) and for that it grudgingly inserts itself into the casual racing category, but even then it fails because the driving is simply boring.

The physics problems are just the beginning. In one of the first races in Australia, a large jump is the main event that completely breaks the game (see below). As your car almost does a barrel roll in mid-air it immediately proves the point that the game engine itself is broken. Speaking of breaking, the cars actually break down as they drive through the stages, and not just falling apart from hitting things; by the end of the second stage there is a clanking sound that wasn't there before that lets you know something is seriously wrong. Repairs are still allowed after every other stage but players may find the 30 minute time limit a bit too short for all the damage that was mysteriously caused while driving.

Australia, Greece, and Corsica are the only three locales to drive through and there just isn't anything within them to make things interesting. There are no sights to see, no majestic backgrounds, nothing within the roads to make it fun and yet it stretches out to 10 stages a piece. Ford Focus, Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Lancer, and Lancia Stratos are the four cars but, like I said, since they all play the same it only comes down to which one you prefer. 

On mobile devices you can choose between tilt controls with auto-acceleration or full on-screen controls. On the PC/Mac version, you can choose to use either the keyboard, a gamepad, or wheel support. Mapping the controls are difficult as it seems to fight against what the player has chosen as presets. There is no pressure sensitivity for accelerating and braking so even the keyboard feels fine when being played with.

(via Steam community member CueZero)

The graphical update is just about the only thing done well enough. The graphics engine gets the job done until you notice the faults such as front-facing sprites for the trees, flat crowds, and the plastic-like textures on the cars. The stages fair no better with a static image for the background and distance pop-in. Understandably this is all limited due to being built for mobile but nothing was changed for the Steam release. If you own a computer from 2006 then you should still be able to play on lowest settings with few hiccups.
The co-driver directions by Nicky Grist are just pre-recorded and chopped together but are accurate enough to not leave you heading toward a tree at high speeds. One of the biggest concerns that you'll face immediately in the area of sound is the airhorn which blares EVERY TIME you pass a crowd and is so distracting that you may want to consider turning the SFX down, which in turn reduces the engine and gravel sounds so its a lose/lose situation unless you can do without either. Sliding on gravel or the pavement produces an accurate enough sound and crowds cheer as you pass but your attention should be focused mainly on the directions rather than immersion.

Engines don't sound powerful at all and gradually decline in strength the more you drive. At least they put in enough thought to make the engines separate from one another.

There is no in-game music, only the menu, which is a simple tune that is easily forgotten. 

It will take you about 5 hours to complete and there is very little after-game. Playing a few stages here and there is all it will amount to but there are other racing games on the app stores and Steam that are worthy of attention. This game should have stayed on the mobile platforms and even then the small amount of content should be asking for no more than $5. To even call itself a remake is a disappointment since it doesn't really feel like a Colin McRae Rally game, more like a fan project. The original CMR games were about the driver's skill and knowledge of the car and physics, that's all been thrown away in favor of tilt controls and making it more mobile friendly. The thrills of driving and overcoming opponents have been cut out in favor of ease-of-access just to make a quick buck.  Its an insult to the series and the fans, and that's what hurts the most.

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Screen Masher: Dots

A New Blog Type Has Arrived!

In Screen Masher, I'm going to do quick reviews of mobile games that you can get either for free or for pay, most of the time from whichever app store you choose. These will be short reads with some details in certain areas. I'll try to crank these out faster than I do my normal reviews.

A lot can be said for simplicity in gaming, especially for mobile devices. Make things too simple and people may reject it. Add a lot of details and nuances and it becomes a hit. If Tetris is the latter and Flappy Bird is the former then Dots sits somewhere comfortably in the middle.
Dots is a minimalistic game where you connect dots of the same color. Simple. Easy. Tricky.
Timed, Moves, Endless, and Challenges are the four game modes you can spend your time in. Timed gives you one minute to gather as many dots as you can. Moves gives you a small amount of moves to gather as many. Endless, which costs $1.99, is exactly that: an infinite amount of time and power-ups to play with. This mode doesn't bank you any dots. Challenges sends a challenge request to one of your friends on either Facebook or Twitter. A friendly competition mode to see who can bank the most dots.
You can't connect diagonally and if you react too quickly you may miss your chance at a better move and there is no undo function. Connecting dots to make a square will cause all the dots of the same color to disappear. Your final score results in how many dots you bank. By banking and using those dots, you can purchase power-ups such as Time Stops, which stops the clock five seconds; Shrinkers, double-tapping a single dot will make it disappear; and Expanders, double tapping a single dot will make all dots of the same color disappear. Time Stops and Expanders can only be used once per game, so you'll have to consider whether or not its worth using one to get a few extra dots.

The game has 35 trophies and these can be shared on the two previously mentioned social networks. These can be earned by playing 40 rounds, scoring a certain amount, or using so many power-ups. Most of them are easy to earn so there's no pressure when you set your sights on unlocking one. It will take some practice to reach a score of just 300 but once you do then you pretty much have the game fully understood.

If the bright white of the game is too much to handle, included are three other themes. A dark theme reverses colors, and Winter Day and Winter Night (leftovers from their last holiday update) feature snow falling on all screens as well a winter scene during play. Its peaceful and almost relaxing. You can also change the dot's color intensities, this is for people who may have a hard time telling them apart. These colors also change based on theme.

I've had Dots on my last three Android phones. Its perfect for killing a minute or two when I have some free time or when I want to bank more dots. At some times its my go-to game when I don't want to wait for something to load. Playdots, Inc. has a follow-up game simply called Two Dots, it follows the same basic gameplay but with a few twists. But that's for another time.

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Review: Real Racing 3 (Update 1.5)

Uniquity is a hard thing to pin on a game such as... wait I've said that before...

But for the sake of arguing, that holds true for Real Racing 3. Most hardcore gamers have shunned mobile gaming as being just casual distractions for the day-to-day commuter, but there are still plenty of gamers (myself included) who don't mind having something to play when a console is either out of reach or is just becoming a tired media device.

It was Christmas of last year that I received a Kindle Fire HD and the first thing I did was connect it to the Amazon Appstore to get games, among them was Real Racing 3 since it was free (I also paid for the Minecraft beta, which was a mistake).

So what's better than "free?" While Real Racing 3 has microtransactions they're not needed to progress in the game all the way through. I myself have only spent roughly $7 to get more R$ ("Real Dollars," RR3's form of currency) and gold coins but that's because I wanted to. I wanted to get a newer car and have enough coins for upgrades later on. Its possible to play through the entire game without paying anything by winning races for cash and leveling up or completing quarter-percentages of a racing series for more gold. In that sense, the term "freemium" isn't even an issue here. You can't pay to win since its all about the driver's skill level that matters once the racing starts. Here the microtransactions are only meant to get things done quicker and there's never an importance placed on either R$ or gold.

After the mention of free pricing you probably think RR3 to be light on content if you expect only fools to pay for microtransactions, and you'd be dead wrong. Featuring 77 cars from 18 different manufacturers, 23 different courses from real world locations, and 10 different event types, the game's file size of ~1.2Gs is filled to the brim with things to do. New cars are unlocked for purchase after a certain amount of trophies are won and are first offered at a discount price. (I highly recommend having enough for the initial purchase price so the discount will leave you with enough for upgrades.) You have the options to hire an agent to increase R$, a PR manager to increase fame (which increases levels), and an engineer to maintain your cars condition, all depending on whether or not you win the race. The game also features achievements for a variety of things such as number of cars owned, winning so many races in a row, leveling up, even buying a certain amount of upgrades. However these can't be shared, aren't attached to any game service, and are generally useless in the grand scheme of things.

RR3 features several different ways to customize your play style with the default being the tilt controls with auto-acceleration. There's also the options of on-screen buttons and auto-braking for the players who want to take it less seriously.

As far as physics go, the dedication to reality can be unforgiving. Grass or dirt slows you down heavily, walls can cause an undesired stopping effect if hit at a certain angle and while other cars can PIT you, they remain untouchable. After each race your car will require maintenance and, depending on how badly roughly you were driving it, the condition will deteriorate over time. A hired mechanic will fix things for a price and, on some cars, a very lengthy wait time.

It seems that "HD" graphics on a mobile device are akin to late-PS2 era graphics... OR other racing games such as Asphalt 8 Airborne are doing something right while Real Racing 3 is left in the dust. Textures are lacking in definition and upon closer inspection seem to resemble a game that's either still in beta or needs an HD texture pack as DLC. 

If all you care is the quality of graphics, then the first screenshot above has already caused you to lose all interest. While the graphics are hindered, its the gameplay that's meant to be the star. This trade-off is completely acceptable since the cars and tracks have been recreated with enough care that seeing a bland road surface should be the least of your worries.

There is a nice sense of scale upon seeing a far away wall materialize into being. Its not as bad as, let's say the original Driver on Playstation 1, but its noticeable if you look for it. Car's lights can be knocked out with ease, bumpers can be wrecked, and doors can be dented but paint remains clean regardless of how bad you wreck.

Most racing games seem to recycle or pitch-alter engine sounds to save on space. RR3 has gone the opposite (and more respectable) route by featuring a wide variety of engine sounds that match the cars being driven. The whine of the turbo, the backfire of the exhaust, the tires screeching, the tires thumping on the corner markers, and even the crashes all draw you in nicely... half a second after these things happen. There is some noticeable audio lag and while its not serious enough to break the game, it is distracting enough to break your concentration.

The music is good for the most part, until a dubstep track comes on. When will developers learn that dubstep is not good music and does not fit well within a video game? I've turned the music off and I don't mind hearing just the engines. Anything is better than dubstep.

Time-Shifted Multiplayer uses the times of other players from around the world for you to compete against in every race. Rather than directly battling other players, you're up against their total time. Instead of another racer's ghost or recorded driving habits, you're up against AI that is set to a speed that will complete a lap at a certain time. This leaves the AI completely dull and often not a threat or challenge since they brake and accelerate as though driving on wires. You can either outrun, outclass, or try and crash them to break their monotony but its pointless to try and do so when speeding past them is just fine.

Local multiplayer is present and is probably a better time when friends are near. Unfortunately I can't comment on this since I haven't played it before, but my best guess is that you can only race through the event types on a track that the host player chooses. That might be appealing to those who are serious about racing games, but let's face it: this is mobile gaming and that won't be fun for most.

As far as free games go, Real Racing 3 for your iOS, Android, and other devices is something that's definitely worth having if you're a fan of sim racing or enjoy mobile games that can hold your attention for longer than 5 minutes. All others need not apply since its not the sharpest-looking or most casual-friendly game out there with its need for dedication to long racing series and its unforgiving physics. The biggest problem that Real Racing 3 faces is its lack of ingenuity: it doesn't do anything that stands out from a big console racer when it has the opportunity to do so. It could become the definitive sim racing game for mobile platforms but instead feels content as being just another racing game based around social connectivity. Despite all of the negative, what you'll find here is a solid racing game with careful attention to physics, car data, and the players.

If you do find yourself enjoying RR3, then why not support the devs just a little and buy a $1.99 pack worth R$50,000? They've been supporting the game since launch and can easily increase the amount of content with just an update. And with thousands of other players out there constantly updating the leaderboard times, it never hurts to try and better your driving skills.

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My Top 10 Games of 2012

 (Pictures taken from various sources. Also you will notice ad links on these blogs now. I NEED to make money somehow. I'm going broke! These ads are suggested by Google and are safe.)

2012 has come and gone.

No, I don't want to start off a blog like that. It's been said too many times. What I can say is that almost everyone of note has a Top 10 of the year blog or video posted. Games have affected each of us differently. Some of us have had to choose our experiences carefully.That being said my list isn't full of AAA titles like most are. I quit my job late in the year and started a new one a few months ago. I'm getting paid less and even my collecting of retro games has slowed to a near-halt. So any new releases are pretty much out of the question right now.

Keep in mind, like everyone else says, this is MY personal top 10. This hasn't been influenced by anyone. No company is paying me. This is not your list, do not tell me I'm wrong. Additionally these are games that I have played, not just watched a bunch of videos and wished I had played them.

DIABLO 3 HAS BEEN REMOVED BECAUSE BLIZZARD DOES NOT RESPECT THE PRIVACY OF THEIR CUSTOMERS. WHY CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THEM WHEN THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU?

#10: Lego Lord of the Rings - Nintendo 3DS

The Lego series is best known for its goofy, some might say childish, humor. Meanwhile The Lord of the Rings series are some of the best epics that have ever been written. I became a fan of the movies out of the blue and I'm eager to read the books (sorry Tolkien fans, read the part where I quit my job, money's tight and I got the movies out of the $5 bin). Some might think that combining the three pieces of fiction to make a Lego game was a bad idea. It would be hard to make a violent movie into a kids game. Well its hard to take that violence and fearful tone seriously when its being done with Lego men. Hands popping off, comical deaths, and soundbytes taken from the movies all work well together to make sure that the LotR name is dulled down to a goofy, mindless adventure. The humor doesn't show at every cutscene and the story path follows the movies closely. Gameplay-wise, its a typical Lego game where you can switch out characters with the press of a button, run through the storyline a second time to unlock things you had to pass up first, and a TON of unlockable characters. To 100% this game will take more than 10 hours. What's best is that you can sit and play for an hour or so at a time and not feel bored. For the 3DS version, the 3D is just a minor addition. It doesn't really add any precedence to the gameplay and would probably have the same impact as the DS version. I bought this game after playing the demo and before that I was heavily considering selling my 3DS. Basically, this game saved my handheld and that's what's worthy of a mention.

#9: HAWKEN - PC

This game most certainly would have made it higher if it was easier to play. Every time I log in I feel inadequate and unprepared for a fight. While most players level up quickly, this adds an imbalance. New and better weapons are unlocked at higher levels so its easy for someone to go in and obliterate noobs, myself included. I haven't played the beta since day one and my mech is pretty much stock. Despite this, I will play Hawken in the future because its unique. Mostly. Mechs can be customized with new paint, weapons, and armor. New weapons can be bought and designs saved. The levels are nicely balanced and offer plenty of cover. There's always a chance to run away from a fight. On top of that, if your mech is badly messed up, you can repair it on the battlefield. If you can find a team that works well together or get some friends that you can communicate with, then you're pretty much unstoppable in Hawken. The gritty and barren feeling of the world around you is a perfect touch and the graphics are amazing to look at. Don't get caught ogling the scenery for too long because someone will come by and pick you off for an easy kill. 

#8: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD - XBLA

Yes, I know I wrote a scathing review of this game in an earlier blog, but you KNOW its bad when a free Android game, Rage of Bahamut at #8, beats out a $15 XBLA game. Still, it made this list, but ONLY because I wasn't able to play many AAA games this year. Borderlands 2, Dishonored, Assassin's Creed, even Lollipop Chainsaw would have easily knocked this one off. I won't go into details because you can read the review I've already posted. Go do that.

#7: RAGE OF BAHAMUT - Android

Not many people are into CCGs or TCGs these days. Magic the Gathering, World of Warcraft, Pokemon, and Yu-Gay-Ho are the only ones I can name off the top of my head. While looking at some cards earlier today I noticed a pack of 2007 baseball cards still on the shelf. Reduced price. Its awfully sad how the once-mighty companies of Topps, Fleer, Upper Deck, and Donruss are now just memories for older folks. A 1970 rookie card has probably reduced in price on eBay by a lot. Cards have evolved and so have games. If you haven't guessed by now, Rage of Bahamut is a CCG game on Android and iPod where the player is given a basic starting deck and they work their way up the totem pole through quests and by fighting other players. The game starts slow but there's never a feeling of helplessness. Meters for stamina and attack power drain with each quest attack and each battle. These don't refill once a day but rather 1 unit per minute, and with power ups you can play for even more time. What's great about it is that it can be played by both the casual and the hardcore. If someone wants to log in and play through the quest until their stamina runs out, they can. For the hardcore there are event quests, orders, trading and a lot more. I've spent over an hour before playing quests, battling players, and enhancing and evolving cards. This game is much bigger than you'd expect. Cards have rarities and the more rare they are, the more powerful they can become. Cards can be enhanced at the cost of other cards and rupies, and cards of the same kind can be evolved into more powerful ones. Real world money can be spent to buy power-ups or card packs and every once a while the game GIVES you a ticket to get a Rare card. Trading can be done among players and there are so many rewards for just participating. Best of all: ITS FREE. Its not a freemium game and buying a card pack doesn't always guarantee the best cards. Rage of Bahamut will stay installed on my phone for a very long time. I rarely find myself being bored with it.

#6: The Walking Dead - XBLA

A video game has never made me cry. At least not until Episode 3 of the Walking Dead when one characters desperation reaches a point where a suicide death is the only welcomed feeling they have, it becomes very heavy. The choices made at certain moments affect how other characters react to you or options you have down the road. Playing as Lee Everett, you're tasked with taking care of an 8-year-old girl named Clementine whose parents are lost. Traveling through Georgia (w00t!, about time we get recognized for something) you make stops throughout each episode and meet new people along the way, all the while watching your back for a zombie invasion. But sometimes the zombies aren't the only things you need to be afraid of. What makes the Walking Dead comics and show so great is that they're about the people and how they cope and survive during what might be a worldwide crisis. Its not all about hacking zombies to pieces. Old habits die hard among some and survival becomes the main mission. What's best for the group may not be best for one person and they will remember that, most of the time at bad moments down the road when there's a thousand walkers coming for you.

#5: Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - PC

This is the late entry into this list and the reason this blog was delayed. I had been wanting to play it for a for a few weeks and decided I might as well go for it during the Steam Winter Sale. The gameplay is based around dual personalities, one light and one dark, residing in Giana (why its called Giana Sisters is beyond me). You can get a better understanding of the plot by reading the Wiki page about it. It wouldn't do you any good for me to try and explain things. Switching between a cute and punk personality changes the world between dark and light. You can only collect red crystals as the punk and yellow crystals as the cute. Its a really smart mechanic and done amazingly well. I haven't seen this sort of flow since Ikaruga. The artstyle is awesome and the difference between the light and dark worlds flows with an even pace. Its never the game's fault when the player dies, its all on the player: a mis-judged jump, not switching personas at the right moments, repeatedly dying so you can understand a pattern. Whenever I get past an obstacle there's never really a feeling of being rewarded. More of an expectancy of "what's next?" The enemies that roam through the levels are never the major concern. Its all about the environment and puzzles.
The game comes with two bonus levels based on Halloween and Christmas. The artwork gallery pictures are unlocked by discovering big blue crystals, these are always found on an alternate path. There are hardcore and uber-hardcore modes to unlock as well as score and time attacks. The game has a great replay value and if you can find it on sale on Steam or a GOG.com, then I highly recommend snagging it. Keep in mind, I'm still playing this game and have only made it to chapter 2, but from what I have played it most definitely deserves the fifth spot on this list.

#4: Guild Wars 2 - PC

I'm a huge fan of Guild Wars. I've sunk so many hours into the first game that its unbelievable. I pre-ordered Guild Wars 2 a few months before it came out and I dropped $150 on the collector's edition (which, honestly, doesn't seem worth it now when looking back) and reveled in how amazing it was. But a month before the game was released I was kicked out of my guild and after playing Guild Wars for a mere two weeks I found I just didn't have it in me to continue. Not only was I alone for most of the game but there was no one to have a friendship with. And then the WoW players started pouring in. I suppose after hearing all the good things about it, they checked out GW2 and liked it. Now the world is full of people who only play PvP, GvG, WvW and the ones who play PvE are the ones barking orders at people whom they can't control. GW2 may be doing well with others, but to me its just another MMO now. The magic is gone and I'm just not feeling it anymore. I will go back to it because I love the exploring aspect, I love discovering everything, but I'm hesitant because I'm constantly alone.
But I digress, what I did experience was amazing. A huge world, amazing art style, so many attack combinations and a unique unfolding story that's tailored to the choices I make should have made this my Game of the Year. What I said about players giving orders to others whom they can't control, I meant it. Freedom is the name of the game and the choice to go an do whatever you want is only limited by your character's level. The expansive world means you should never get bored easily and the quests that suddenly pop up, (such as having to fend off a town that's being attacked by minotaurs, followed by finding out where the minotaurs live, followed by attacking them) means a near-infinite variety of things to do. I should definitely get back into playing soon.

#3: Forza Horizon - Xbox 360

Forza Motorsport 4 is currently #6 on my list of All Time Favorite Games. The depth and lengths that the game goes to please every player is astounding. From the gearheads with steering wheel controllers, who turn off all assists and manually shift, to the casual players who want no damage and a lot of help controlling a fast car, Forza 4 does things right. Unfortunately I'm not talking about 4 here, just Horizon. A horrible misstep in the wrong direction for a well-established franchise, Horizon goes out of its way to draw in the crowd of people who loved the Need For Speed Underground games, and subsequently the next 5 games after that. Its a pseudo-sim-arcade street racing game and while it is easy to master, I for one only miss the depth of the previous games. While the cars have a definitive weight to them, the gearhead aspect is non-existent. Besides that, the game just CAN'T SHUT UP. The event organizer who must describe every fart she's ever made in her life, the radio DJs who give scripted monologue, and the racers who talk smack at the start AND during every race, it seems someone is talking at all times. Would it kill one of the star racers to just say "I've heard good things about you, don't disappoint me"? The game is tied together in a festival atmosphere. Music and speed gathered at one place in Colorado. If you're a fan of mostly alternative music then you'll be glad to know that the soundtrack is varied, and it might introduce you to some new music.The problem here being that ITS ALL BAD. From anti-music dubstep to indie rock bands you've probably never heard of, the soundtrack is one of the most useless I've ever heard in a game. I just play without the music on, and at one point I became so frustrated with the speaking that I just completely muted the sounds altogether.

Still, despite all of this, Horizon is solid, well-built, knows what it wanted to deliver and delivers it. Speed is abundant and the community is alive. Too bad I will NOT be buying any of the DLC or a sequel if it comes to that. So just to be clear, the only reason Forza Horizon makes it this high on the list is because of its quality. My overall feeling of the game however is that Forza Horizon should die.

#2: Spec Ops: The Line - Xbox 360

Extra Credits said it best when talking about this game, "Its engaging. Not fun, but engaging." (They give a better review in two videos than I could ever give.) Spec Ops: The Line wasn't on my radar until I played the demo for it. I was blown away by the action. I was sold after the first time I tried it. I pre-ordered after barely debating it. After playing through I can definitely say that this game deserves to be this high on the list. It takes the player, Cpt. Walker, through a mission to find Colonel John Konrad somewhere in Dubai, which has been overtaken by sand. Walker and his two squadmates must fight against the army of Dubai and later against the US Army. It becomes a sticky situation and by the end it delves into some aspects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I don't mean to make a spoiler of it but the story is expertly crafted and all throughout you begin to uncover some things that make you question who the real badguy is. On top of the excellent single player, the multiplayer is just as thrilling. Using the same game mechanics, you play through the usual multiplayer affair: deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, etc. Throughout the multiplayer games, sandstorms happen that obscure the player's vision, disrupts the radar, and sometimes changes the environment.
While Spec Ops: The Line might not be a AAA game for years to come, it certainly made an impact on me simply by being different. It didn't want to follow the norms of other shooters and whenever I finish a game of single or multiplayer, I walk away satisfied.

#1: Halo 4 - Xbox 360

Please, anti-fanboys: Shut up and remember that this list IS NOT my top games of all time, just a top for 2012. That being said, Halo 4 is the most gorgeous-looking game I have ever seen on the Xbox 360. This is a step above Halo: Reach in the right direction. Adding new elements to gameplay, both single and multiplayer, while still keeping it familiar to the veterans, while even STILL making is accessible to newcomers is what makes Halo 4 so admirable. The single player campaign delves into the relationship of Master Chief and a failing AI Cortana whose own thinking is ripping her programming apart. The main mission for this new trilogy is to get Cortana to Dr. Halsey to be repaired all the while fighting your way through a sect of Covenant who are ignoring the truce in favor of discovering what's contained in a Forerunner planet. The solo campaign is vast but the usual "narrow way leading into an arena" is still present. Regardless, its just as much a star of the game as the multiplayer, which has a ton of various gameplay types in War Games and introduces Spartan Ops, an episodic side story where you play as your custom Spartan through a storyline separate from the main campaign. Multiplayer contains the usual fair of Slayer, Team Deathmatch, CTF, and the others you've come to expect in the Halo series. However I miss Firefight but its understandable since the number of differing enemies has been reduced, even with the new race introduced in the solo campaign.

It would be wrong of me not to mention the cutscenes that happen between the storylines in both campaign and Spartan Ops. 343 has outdone Bungie completely and not only is this game impressive to see, but it also backs it up by having astonishing gameplay. For those who lost faith in the first Halo Trilogy because of the extra games, Halo 4 is a great start to get back on track. I was never a huge fan of the Halo games but Halo 4 has made me a believer.

Keep Playing.

(I noticed when I started writing this that all top 4 games are ones that I pre-ordered. Go figure.)