Platform: PC

Witcher 2 takes what was a sprawling and somewhat unfocused RPG and refines almost everything to create an excellent role playing experience. They have kept many of the best elements from the first game such as its action oriented combat, limited gear choices, and adult tone. On top of that they added a much refined leveling-up system, better crafting/potion creation, and loads of interface tweaks.

The real improvement here is the cohesive story and characters. The game gives you a big mission right from the get go—capture the assassin and prove your innocence—and it keeps that focus even through the multitude of side quests and distractions. The narrative is filled with distinct and interesting characters, many of which are returning from first game. Most importantly, there are points within the game in which your choices matter and shape the tone of the experience. Things do get a little deep in the political weeds near the end of the second act, but the epilogue does a good job at explaining everything and tying it all together.

Once again Geralt can have his way with the ladies and it still feels corny, but at least you aren’t collecting victory cards for each person you bed ([un]fortunately, the GOG version comes with a “Triss Playboy Session” to re-sleazify the whole affair). I am now tempted to dive into the third game, but hearing people say, “I have already put 1200 hours into this game!” doesn’t bode well for my already minuscule social life.

Watch Dogs 2 is pretty much a straight up Grand Theft Auto clone. But instead of playing an immoral mobster who kills and destroys to achieve his goals, you play a righteous hacker who kills and destroys to achieve his goals. I think the game is going for a light-hearted tone, but all the indiscriminate murdering kinda gets in the way of that. Mowing down waves of security guards doesn’t strike me as a appropriate response to an Internet company knowing your search history.

I suppose the humor is directed at Millennials, with their social medias and unending quest for likes and shares. The main characters are fashionable hipsters who trounce around pointing their phones at anything electronic in order to “hack” it (and if that doesn’t work, kill, kill, KILL!). You are literally causing all this mayhem in order to gain “followers” which will somehow strengthen your cause… I guess? I don’t know. The primary story line was goofy and not that interesting.

The main attraction here is the vast, open-world recreation of San Francisco. The detail is just astounding. The city is filled with collectible items and the usual sort of side quests that all of these open-world games have (the last three Ubisoft games I’ve played all feel like re-skinnings of the same system). This formula is getting pretty stale and without a catchy gimmick or an engaging story, these games can become a bit tedious after a while.

The main twist here is that you can use your mad haxxor skillz to make machines do your bidding. A scissor lift can take you to a rooftop, cars can crush foes on their own, junction boxes can be remotely blown up, and you can do something useless with traffic lights. The problem is, in most cases a gun did a better job at getting things done. I wanted to use stealth and tactics but it seemed like every time I used my “stealth” zapper, a guard on the other side of the map would hear me and then all bets were off. Maybe I just suck at the game, but at least I could buy Crocs™ foam shoes with my in-game earnings.

I’m a sucker for these top-down shooter games. This is the type of game I imagined playing back when the cutting edge AAA title was Berzerk for the 2600. I have yet to find one that actually rises to my expectations. Shadowgrounds is okay, but there is a clunkiness to the whole package that keeps it from being a great game.

Aside from the wooden voice acting and forgettable story, the combat needed to be amped up a little more. Enemies take several hits to kill and the battles all feel like your just running backwards and shooting. Maybe some better designed environments, with more options for exploration and interaction, would have made the difference. Or maybe just a more massive onslaught of easier to kill enemies and a more arcade feel would have been better. I don’t know.

This three episode tangent does not appear to be connected with the other Walking Dead games. Maybe some of the characters will make their way into season three, but for the most part this is about Michonne coming to grips with the loss of her daughters while helping a family survive from the usual assortment of humanity free bad guys. I enjoyed the game, but Telltale needs to push their formula a little more and add a bit more consequence to your actions.

This has been my least favorite of the Telltale Choose Your Own Adventure style adventures. I think my main problem with it was the multiple character story lines. Jumping from character to character may be in the spirit of the books, but I felt like it diminished the feeling that I was actually a part of the world. Also, as a fan of the books and show, it was a little strange to be playing out this non-canonical story. It was like playing a Transformers game as a Go-Bot.

However, like all of the recent Telltale games, it managed to grab my attention (eventually) and I stuck with it all the way to the unhappy ending(s).

The Sniper franchise is all about stealth, planning and quick moments of anatomically correct violence. The previous game in the series was good, but it didn’t quite click with me the way three has. If my memory can be trusted, I feel like the biggest difference here is that there is now a much more open level design. The sneaking around feels like you are in control rather than being guided on rails. As before, the x-ray vision kill shots are an unnecessary but effective gimmick. There is a story about some sort of super weapon but, whatever. It’s completely forgettable. The game’s mechanics are real highlight here, and I now am excited to play IV when it comes out (just no more desert levels please… this ain’t Serious Sam).

I’m still waiting for that Wonder Twins game, but in the meantime this will do. After Arkham City this does seem less grand, but it still is more-or-less the same fantastic game. The fluid fighting system is just as good as I remembered it was in the sequel. Even the mindless Riddler trinket hunting works here. There is a wandering story about The Joker and super-henchmen that doesn’t really amount to much. But who really cares. When the game mechanics work this well, I’m fine with a second rate plot.

I enjoyed the original Call of Juarez and its spin-off, Gunslinger, but this one didn’t really grab me. It tries to mix things up by letting you play each level as one of two characters, Ray or Thomas. But, in the end, it’s still just a very standard shooter with bland environments and no real weapon variety. I guess learning Ray’s backstory (this is a prequel) was interesting and there was a real attempt to craft some genuine character development. Otherwise, it was just so-so to me.

Okay, here’s another Borderlands sequel. Actually, this is more of a large expansion pack to Borderlands 2—using the same engine and most of the same mechanics. The only new additions are the low-gravity environments and oxygen management. Admittedly, the ability to jump hundreds of feet into the air is pretty fun and opens up many of the levels, but, in the end, it’s still the same old game: run towards the map marker and shoot anything that gets in your way. Your reward is more guns and a mediocre story (unlike the excellent Tales from the Borderlands). Woo hoo. But really, the point here is that you are supposed to experience this mediocrity with friends and, as I begrudgingly have to admit, this is the best co-op game play experience out there these days. In the future, I would love to see more actual team-based tasks. You know, one guy holds the door while the other takes point or whatever military squads do when the aren’t practicing the Harlem Shake.

Okay, first things first. Machinarium is a beautiful game with excellent art direction, sound and music. However, something about this point-and-click adventure just didn’t… er… click for me. It could be the fact that the game erased my save files halfway through my first attempt. I didn’t pick it up again for at least a month after that. But I think this is just a little too puzzley for my tastes. At times I really didn’t have any motivation other than there was a guy who had an object that would obviously be useful somewhere. I can tolerate that in a Professor Layton game where there are funny characters and back story to reveal, but here it felt like tedium. Still, I’ll give it higher marks than I should for trying and being pretty. Oh, and the inability to use right click to drop objects annoyed me to no end.