Forget the crappy Netflix show, Dragon’s Dogma is actually awesome. I don’t know the history behind this game, but whoever at Capcom brainstormed this game and sold it to the purse holders should be applauded. Dragon’s Dog is a weird, wonderful game. An ARPG, DD plays like a mix of some of the best games in the genre. To me, I’d peg it between Kingdoms of Amalur and Dark Souls in terms of combat and feel. There’s a weight to the game, yet a speed and maneuverability that strikes an incredible balance.
You run around as The Arisen - you’ll be hearing this word A LOT - with A.I. companions called Pawns. These Pawns can be generated by other real players, and their experiences in their home worlds can carry over to yours in the form of advice as you play amongst other things. It’s really innovative and I’m doing a terrible job explaining it, but trust me it’s cool. Go read a real review for a more in-depth and accurate description. The open world is huge and dense, and you’ll constantly come across a hidden cave or wyvern (or pack of wolves…) that you’d never expect much in the way you would an Elder Scrolls or Witcher game. Combat styles are plentiful, and you can really craft your character the way you want them to be. Plus, you get to climb monsters, what more do you want? Coming from a Japanese person, it’s a very Japanese game but that makes it even more endearing. I give it high marks and recommendations, play the Dark Arisen version on your platform of choice for the most complete and best experience.
Shoutouts to Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition, Awesomenauts, Max Payne 3, and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Great month, my next pick would’ve been Max Payne 3.
Spec Ops is one of those games that’s less known for its quality gameplay and more for the story it told, not to mention the story surrounding it. On the surface, it’s a rather generic military third person shooter. You play the role of a U.S, soldier sent to Dubai to track down a rogue/missing U.S. soldier and bring him home. What seems like a simple mission turns into much more as it’s often the case in video games. Where Spec Ops stands apart is its approach to delivery of the story and the ideas being what you’re doing. It tackles the morality of your task and role, mental health, and where you end up at its conclusion is actually impactful.
I don’t want to spoil this at all, but it surprised me at the time because it was a game that made me think a little more about what I was doing and if I should be doing that. It shared inspiration from Heart of Darkness, clearly. The gameplay is again, generic and nothing to write home about. The City of Dubai is captured in a pretty painterly style, an ongoing sandstorm constantly hindering your progress. It’s certainly not the best game and is divisive in its storytelling in many ways, not always hitting the time and notes it’s seeking to, but I recommend it purely due to its attempt to try something different with the genre, to not be satisfied with playing it safe.
Shoutouts to Virtua Fighter V: Final Showdown, Dirt Shodown, Lollipop Chainsaw, and Lego Batman 2. It was a showdown month!
I have a love-hate relationship with Spelunky. I love it for its tight platforming, amazing replay factor, and the weird stories that every hardcore Spelunky player has about “that one run”. It’s one of the most mysterious, secret-laden, best water cooler moment games out there, period. On the flipside, I hate it for its brutal difficulty, lack of meaningful progression, and obtuse “get good” design. It’s frustratingly difficult, at times a rage inducing, controller throwing game. So basically, it’s incredibly divisive and YMMV.
It should be noted that the Xbox port is fairly late to the game with a freeware version being available on PC years earlier. I don’t know if this version is the definitive one, but I can say that anyone who’s a fan of roguelikes, 2D platformers, and not having hair should have this in their library and rotation.
Shoutouts to Zuma’s Revenge, Wreckateer, and Quantum Conhndrum. Good month for XBLA, not so much for retail.
Sleeping Dogs had a rocky, troubled development cycle but still managed to release and even more surprisingly, is a well made, fun, quality game. It can be described as a cop drama set in Asia, open world in some ways but not as large in scale as GTA or the later Saints Row games. The tone of the game is more serious than a lot of others in the genre, not relying as much on hijinx and instead focusing on telling a mature and compelling story. It’s a nice looking and well acted game, perhaps not the best playing but more than adequate at just about everything it sets out to accomplish. I really enjoyed the chase sequences in particular, and some of the combat was violently and fun. It’s obviously a game with a lot of baggage, but it’s one you want to root for and support. Now, where’s my sequel SE?
Shoutouts to Persona 4 Arena, Darksiders II, Dust: An Elysian Tale, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Rock Band Blitz. Another great month for gamers!
Mark of the Ninja is a Klei game, known for their Shank series prior. Klei games all have an interesting and fairly unique visual aesthetic, and Mark of the Ninja continued that trend. It’s a 2D, side-scrolling stealth game because well, you’re a ninja so…This game relies heavily on stealth, you have to plan ahead and take your time or you’ll get wrecked. Think something like Aragami or Tenchu and you’ll have a good idea of what to expect (in a 2D perspective). If that sounds like it’s not fun, well, I don’t know what to tell you because this game is a blast. The movement feels incredible, the levels are meticulously well designed, and it knows when to show you a little something new. No mechanic or idea overstays its welcome, the games length is the perfect snack, fitting nicely into a weekend or in between a bigger game. Klei is a quality dev, this is a quality game and I’d recommend you spend some quality time with it.
Shoutouts to Double Dragon Neon, Borderlands 2, Tekken Tag Tournament II, Jet Grind Radio, and Joe Danger: The Movie. Almost a little something for everyone this month.
Arkane is an incredible developer with a storied history, and you’ll be seeing them again on this list I’m certain. Dishonored happens to be one of my favorite games on Xbox 360, a masterclass in design, gameplay, and world building. What Arkane has done with this game is truly astonishing to me, it absolutely blows my mind that people have brains that can work in this way, can be this clever. The levels are huge, multi-tiered, and branching. Every time you play through one, you seem to come across another little conversation or tidbit, a new way of approaching the mission. It takes the stealth genre and puts it into a first person perspective that actually feels good to play. Movement is smooth and responsive, the powers feel powerful and most importantly, diverse and useful. Sure, you can blink your way around most things but then you’d be robbing yourself of some amazingly interesting mechanics which lead to great stories to tell you friends. The world is so well realized and believable, with your actions and choices actually having a real impact. I could keep gushing, but do yourself a favor and play this game and the sequels, then watch the No Clip documentary.
Shoutouts to Forza Horizon, Just Dance 4, X-Com: Enemy Unknown, Dance Central 3, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Assassin’s Creed III, and Zone of the Enders HD Collection. Passing over Forza Horizon and X-Com…so hard.
I like Halo 4 and it’s probably considered a “hot take” to say that I don’t think the story is bad. I’m not a Halo lord nerd, but I found the basic setup of the story fine and the lead in to the next game was acceptable. I also didn’t mind playing as Locke. Don’t get me wrong, Chief IS Halo in a lot of ways, but Locke was interesting enough and it was neat to see 343i go a different direction. ODST and Reach worked without Chief, so why not Halo 4? The marketing campaign was misleading sure, but those podcasts were darn great either way.
Ok, that stuff aside…Halo 4 is a fun game. It has a engaging campaign and a solid multiplayer suite attached to it. COD was eating its lunch at the time, but so was every other game not called GTA. I liked how it played, I can’t say I can tell you all the nuances and changes it made but in terms of playability it was Halo to me and that’s all I could ask for. The music was still epic, the graphics are still probably the best on the Xbox 360. It could be mistaken for an early Xbox One game, no joke. The guns sounds bad bite to them, the new enemies introduced were fun to fight (for a while at least). I don’t know, I can see both sides and why this is the black sheep of the series, but it’s my particular post and I’m going with it!
Shoutouts to Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Lego Lord of the Rings, Sonic Racing Transformed, and Hitman: Absolution. Lots of great games this month, I wouldn’t argue with anyone’s pick.
In my opinion, Far Cry 3 was the biggest leap the series ever made and is probably my favorite other than Blood Dragon. There’s an enormous gap in terms of scale and quality over Far Cry 2, it’s astounding. The storytelling, villain, and location are each a significant step up, the movement and gunplay feeling as solid as ever. It’s a gorgeous game with a lot to do.
Sure, the Ubisoft formula is evident here but this was before that blew up to the degree it has. The content felt like it could actually be completed and was enough fun to do so. No, I didn’t 100% the game but that’s never been my thing since I was a young buck. This is one that’s been remastered, I haven’t played that but I’d imagine that’s the best means to experience it. I still recommend it, despite its age.
Just one shoutout this month to Kinect Party. Like most Kinect software, it’s not great but was fun for brief stretches with family and friends.
Ninja Theory! I swear there’s no Xbox Game Studios bias in this pick, just an appreciation for a well-made, fun new game in a long running series. DMC is a character action game in the purest sense. Much like Bayonetta or other DMC (confused? Me too), DmC stars an antihero character on a mission to defeat an evil whatever. Along the way, you end up killing an obscene amount of baddies in the most stylistic way you can, wreaking havoc and wracking up points along the way. The combat is fast and flexible, flashy and fun. Your controller takes a beating, only breaks allowed when platforming or watching a silly cutscene. It’s incredible.
Ok, it’s important to touch on the history of the game and controversy. It’s often cited as the worst and best game in the series. It’s divisive. People hated and loved the new bad boy take on Dante. People hated and loved the combat. People hated and loved that Ninja Theory made the game and not Capcom proper. So basically, gamers being gamers. I think it’s great. Ninja Theory did an excellent job modernizing a franchise in look and feel, while still staying true to it. It plays so well and speaks to NT talent. I can’t wait to see what they do with Hellblade II.
Shoutouts to Skulls of the Shogun, Retro City Rampage, and Anarchy Reigns. An ok start to the final year of the generation.
Revengeance, yup, that’s a silly name. Should’ve stopped with Rising and called it a day. It’s also a vastly different game from what was originally announced, taking away the Kojima slicing mechanic and replacing it with…more slicing! Dumb name aside, this is a great character action game. That’s two in a row! This is a Platinum Games joint, and honestly, one of the better titles in their catalog.
Obviously, it takes place in the MGS universe (despite dropping the “Solid” moniker) and stars series “favorite boy” Raiden. Raiden is actually cool in this game, unlike the fledgling soldier he was in MGS2. The story is stupid in the way every MGS game is, I think you might fight the President of the U.S.? You don’t play a Platinum game for the story, you play it for the tight controls, fast, fluid, stylish gameplay. This is all present here, with a MGS aesthetic bolted on top. It looks great in motion, making you feel like a beast when you’re executing combos on hundreds of nameless soldiers mechs, and otherwise. It’s a lot of fun, although 360 probably isn’t the best platform for it when compared to PC. It’s still a great game either way, so you know what to do…
Shoutouts to Dead Space 3, Crysis 3, and Bit Trip Runner 2. I think these are all great games in their own way, lots of variety.
Bioshock is a stellar series, showing through each entry that new gameplay mechanics could be implemented well and storytelling in AAA shooters didn’t need to be an afterthought. Each game has its share of strengths and weaknesses, and Infinite is definitely the most divisive of the lot. I don’t remember a lot of what happened in the story - something about Columbia and the clouds and a girl with a giant bird - but my fuzzy memory does recall it being impactful and interesting. It was a drastic departure from the prior two games, taking place completely in the sky as opposed to under the sea (the exception being the DLC). The new location not only kept the series from feeling stale, but also enhanced the developers at Irrational to do some neat things with the combat. Sure, it gets a bit “kill room” at times, but zipping around a rail while injecting plasmids and firing off a shotgun…yeah that’s the stuff. I loved the other main characters Elizabeth, and despite not playing as her, she added so much depth to the story and gameplay. The game is also a beauty, the painterly graphical effect still looks nice to this day. Play the remaster if you can, it’s always cheap and worth a weekend or two of your time. Also, check out Schreier’s book for a good read into the history of the game and studio, if reading is your thing.
Shoutouts to Gears of War Judgment, Terraria, and Darkstalkers Resurrection.
I wanted to follow up here: we’re nearing the end of the 360 / start of the Xbox One. Is anyone still reading this? I don’t want to waste my time or clog up the forum if nobody is. Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback, glad you enjoy. It’s not great writing - generally done in the early morning before anyone should be awake - but hey that’s insomnia posting for you!
I really am enjoying it. The nostalgia of remembering a specific time frame when a certain game released brings back good memories. And I’m going to sleep now, (I’m from Brazil) so it was a cool before bed reading hahahaha
Thanks for the feedback. Guess I’ll keep it going! I might stop once we hit the Series aka current gen releases, but if there’s a desire to have more and change format slightly I can probably do that.
I haven’t written about a cover in a while but…come on, yuck on this one. I think this is one thing that makes DC less appealing than Marvel for me, this constant push to be so serious, grim, and dark. I hope you listened to your parents when they told you not to judge a book by its cover! Injustice is a great fighter and celebration of the DC Universe.
Developed by Netherealm, makes of Mortal Kombat, Injustice is a 3D fighter starring DC heroes and villains. You can feel the MK DNA immediately, from the grimy, dirty, yet beautiful graphics to the heavy, combo-laden, violent combat. In a lot of ways, Injustice is the child of Smash Bros. and MK, combining a large, varied cast of known characters in a quest to bash each other into submission. I’m a big fan of Batman, so naturally playing as the Caped Crusader and kicking the crap out of Superman (or Joker or whoever else) felt awesome. And that’s the thing, if you like any of these characters and remotely appreciate fighting games, you can probably have fun with Injustice. There’s a decent single player complete with an actual story (gasp!) for scrubs like me who can’t compete against humans, and there a robust online/versus environment for those who humans with skills that kills. It’s fun and Netherealm has been on a roll since.
Shoutouts to Battleblock Theater, Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen (would have been my pick if I hadn’t just written about DD), and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge. Interesting to see two “enhanced” versions of games released this month that actually improved the base game quite a bit.
