Games of the Year for 2013 (at least what I discovered in 2013)

Who is ready for a mood change of pace!? I know I am after my recent fun events. Anyway since I am a person on the internet and it is that time of year, I am here with my top games of this 2013. I will preface this by saying if some of these came out before this year, I am putting them on here because this was the year I found them so they were new to me. Anyway enough of the fake legal like stuff lets get to the list!!!

#10

Tomb Raider PS3:

A reinvention, a reboot, call it what you will. This game was fun! I bought the game with mediocre expectations I admit as I was never a fan of the original games, but this new Lara has me looking forward to the future of the franchise. The game was epic, from the fun combat, to the Tombs which the game is named for. The tombs while short were interesting puzzles that had the answer not immediately apparent and it was fun to try and figure out what to do. I should mention Lara is one tough lady, the girl got all kinds of beat up and still pressed on. Half of the male heroes could take notes from her as she was a total bad ass in her reinvention.

#9

Steamworld Dig: a Fistful of Dirt 3DS:

Dig, find ore, sell loot, upgrade, repeat, dig deeper. That is the basic formula for a game I picked up after watching a Giant Bomb quick look. It looked like fun and a good little time waster, what I didn't anticipate was playing so much after I installed it that I ran my batteries down from a full charge. I dug around finding various ores trying to get money for stronger pickaxes and bigger pockets for loot. I was fine with just that formula as I loved Minecraft and Terraria, so digging around I can get down with. Then you explore a cave, all looks normal until you look over and you see a strange looking pad. Do I step on it? Of course it's a video game and that can mean only one thing.....Power Up! Oh yeah the game has some powers to play around with, like a super jump! Helpful when you run out of ladders and you need to get out of a place. So far I have dug into two different locations both are varied in design and enemy types and I am still not done. I need to grab my pickaxe and dig some more! 

#8

The Typing of The Dead Overkill PC:

Nope you didn't read that wrong I have a typing game on here. I remember hearing about the original Typing of The Dead on Dreamcast but having never had a chance to play it I always wondered.Then one day I hop onto Steam and what do I see? The typing game of my dreams? Not exactly it is basically House of The Dead Overkill but with a keyboard. I was sold once I saw the typing part. I bought it without a moments hesitation. Booted it up and as the hordes of zombies came rushing at me with words next to them, I smiled and laughed. I was so happy that I was finally playing a game based on what I always wanted. The game is simple to learn hard to master, even if you type really fast as I can most of the time the game will really push you. With longer words and more complicated words, then becoming almost sentences. I loved everything about the game, being able to type and each letter be a bullet and put down zombies in a different way was a real treat!

#7

FTL Faster Than Light PC:

Never have I had a game both frustrate and excite me at the same time. I know have a new found respect for star ship captains. Having to make decisions that protect my ship as well as my crew is fun and rewarding if done right. The fact that I can play this game a hundred times and it will be different every time is one of the great things about rogue like games. Pick it up and save the galaxy, do it!

That was my Steam review I posted after I played and loved it I will just leave that.

#6

Bioshock Infinite PS3: 

Bring us the girl and wipe away the dept. The words echo as Booker Dewitt is being brought to the infamous Bioshock lighthouse. The game immediately feels familiar as you are going toward the lighthouse that is synonymous with Bioshock. You are not given a whole lot to go on except find the girl. A simple premise sure, but once you sit in the seat at the top of the lighthouse the sky is the limit! Sorry a pun was bound to happen might as well get it done now. So you sit in the chair and get launched into the sky with rocket boost like energy. As you reach max altitude you see it, you see Columbia, the city in the sky. Much like Rapture under the sea, Columbia has taken to the skies in hopes of creating a better world. It is not a better world, it is a world full of racism and violence. Separate bathrooms are seen in this world as the time it was built and is in existence in a bad time. As you wander around the visually stunning world in the sky, you come upon a raffle, which is the only part of the game that made me cringe. You are told not to pick #77 and of course the game picks it because you are the guy. What is your prize? A nice weapon? A bit of coin perhaps? Nope the prize is to throw the baseball with your winning number at an interracial couple who is being accosted for their love. You are given two options, one throw it at the couple, or two to throw it at the purveyor of the raffle. I obviously chose to throw it at the raffle guy without thinking. You are of course stopped and the action begins. The game has a great way it tells it's story and makes you feel the world that they have crafted. I wont spoil any more of the story I will say that when you meet Elizabeth "the girl" you are after things get interesting. Get used to hearing "Booker catch" she says that a bunch. The game was great I was in awe most of the time by the story that was unfolding I was pleasantly surprised to see this world and can't wait to see where it goes from here.

Side Note: How Good is Troy Baker? Seriously the dude is awesome as Booker.

#5

Rogue Legacy PC:

50 plus Heirs in, 2 Bosses destroyed, 56 or so upgrades purchased, 5 Classes unlocked, and still so much to do. The more I play the more I love it. Picking a new heir with every death is an interesting idea, each with their own faults and strengths. Choosing wisely is a practical move, do you go with strength and low magic? Do you take strong magic but low everything else? Do you choose the heir with dwarfism or the one with Vertigo? So many options are abound to choose from and I haven't seen half of them yet. The castle you trek through is always different (unless you lock it down) and always a nice challenge. As I played I started to act smarter and with more caution as I wanted to get as much gold as I could in order to give my next heir a better chance at survival. It's in this pay it forward aspect that I really love about this game, your archmage too weak spend some gold and upgrade strength to give them a better chance. I could keep rambling on forever but I want to keep playing. One thing I will say before I go, for better feel use a gamepad it just feels good I have yet to play with my keyboard yet. Just saying.

#4

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist PS3:

Sam Fisher how I missed you. Ever since Convictions Jason Bourne like adventure I have been hungry for more stealth action with a hint of speedy violence. This game delivered on all fronts for me. Giving me three different options for play style be it Ghost, Panther, or Assault. Throughout the rather lengthy campaign I played a mix of Ghost and Panther as those were the two fun ones to me. Panther was my favorite because you were fast and lethal, in and out leaving a trail of bodies for no one to find since I left none alive. Running through a level with a sense of speed but still maintaining stealth is an impressive feeling. Also helps when I beat Allen's times and scores! Then you have Ghost the traditional ninja like approach never seen nor heard. The harder of the play styles for me as I like to as I said run around being aggressively stealthy, but comepleting a mission where no one ever knew you were there is incredibly satisfying. 

#3

Papers Please PC:

Glory to Arstotzka!

The game is hard to explain why it's so fun. Here is the setup you are a worker at the newly opened border crossing, where it is your job decide who stays and who goes. The idea is simple but gets increasingly difficult as the days pass, as you are offered bribes, dealing with terrorism, and an ever growing list of rules and things to check for. Every day brings new changes for things to worry about from work passes, to ID's, to scanning for contraband, and so much more. As you move from day to day you have to be fast in order to get the most amount of money to pay your expenses. The more you send through the more you make, of course if you send people in that shouldn't be you will get cited for it. Too many citations and you will lose money and with the economy the way it is, you don't want to lose money. Showing it the game to people they have a hard time seeing why it's fun but if you play it you will understand the fun of this unique puzzle game.

#2

The Last Of Us PS3:

What can I say about this game that hasn't been said dozens of times across the whole of the internet. From the opening moments the game captures you. I am not going to lie I kind of teared up during the opening, it was powerful and intense and it was within the first 15 minutes. From there time passes and you meet Ellie and your journey begins. I will not go into any of the story because it is so good that i wouldn't want to ruin it for anyone. I will say this the game is engrossing, the environments are gorgeous. The characters are all so good, I dont want to say carried but Troy Baker did so well I was in awe the whole time playing as him. He gave the character such depth and feel, I grew attached to him and Ellie during their journey. The game was powerful along the way I hadn't been touched by a game the way I was by The Last Of Us in a very long time. It was gritty and beautiful at the same time and should not be missed.

#1

the Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 3DS:

That's right ladies and Gents my number one game of this year is Zelda. From when it was first announced I was incredibly excited. The game is set in the world of my favorite game of all time A Link To The Past. Revisiting Hyrule again was a feeling of glorious nostalgia, but yet felt new again. While the map was the same layout as it was when I was a kid, things were different. I was able to find secret areas of my youth but yielded different results on my return trip. The game was gorgeous, walking around the fields seeing the game in vivid colorful detail was intense. The game felt good in my hands, it controlled so well that it was a joy to pick up my sword in defense of Hyrule. It also introduces an interesting mechanic for items, no longer will you go through a dungeon and get the item and then use said item to beat the dungeon. Now you can rent any item as long as you have enough rupees, catch is if you fall all the items you rented will be whisked and returned where you need to re rent them again. If you die a lot it can become very costly to have to keep renting items. Thankfully you get the option to buy the items at an increased price later on. I know people were iffy on this mechanic when it was talked about and I was kind of the same. Actually using it I found it refreshing and it made death carry more weight, which was a nice change as death was never of consequence in the past. I can talk about this game for days, it was everything I wanted from a Zelda game. It was fun, it was gorgeous, it had characters from my youth coming back to bring a smile to my face. There is nothing about this game I didn't like. It was the entire reason I bought a 3DS this year and man am I glad I did it was like being a kid all over again and that is a feeling I was lacking and finding has me hopeful for the future. I cannot wait to see what they do with Zelda next. I want that Tri Force, I want that Master sword, I want to play it again!

So there you have it my games I enjoyed in 2013 some were released earlier than 2013 but like I said it's the games I found and played this year so it counts in my eyes. Here is to another great year in games next year!!!! 

Belated Side note Regarding Last Post

I would like to apologize for the vulgarity of my last post, clearly if you read my stuff it's out of character for me. Usually I use my vocabulary to attack but in my angry haste I lost sight of my words. Sorry if I offend, and sorry to you vocabulary and thesaurus for I let you down a small amount on this day. Just figured i'd say something since I have somewhat cooled down. Still very upset but I have regained my faculties.

I Really Wish There Were No Words (NSFW At least Not Mine)

Am I going insane?

My blood is boiling inside of my veins

An evil feeling attacks

My body's shaking...

I have never personally had the opening of a song speak almost my exact feelings at this moment more than Your Betrayal by Bullet For My Valentine has, well part of it at least. I am so angry I am physically shaking, I am pacing around trying to calm my nerves but I cannot seem to wrap my head around it. I was going to use my new web cam to record my next blog entry but I have a feeling if I did it would be a very, very bad idea. Because even as I write this I am getting increasingly angry. But Josh why? what has you so upset? Good question anonymous voice from the invisible crowd in front of me. What has me so upset is a number of things that have created a pyramid or shit that is doing everything it can to entomb me in it. It started when an employee quit with no notice to be with his boyfriend. I would love to go on some horribly derogatory flame inducing rant and use words that frankly I hate when others utter so I shall refrain from that but it's so close to the surface. Anyway that happened as I had two others leaving for the week, so I was two down already, which I had covered just fine. Add in him and straight kick to my nuts ensued, does it matter that it's the week of Christmas and he knows I am short people? Of course not, it doesn't matter to anyone. I have been stressing enough already having a somewhat surprise visitor coming to see me in a few days which while excited I am also a tad terrified, which is a whole other story. Now add on that the schedule that was paper thin already is now being stretched ever further having me of course doing nights again which I wasn't supposed to do anymore as I got "promoted" but since I am the only one who can whatever I'll do it, nights are quieter anyway. Just throws a fucking wrench in my already tight schedule. So i get the schedule fixed people are helping out and we are going to pull through this with minimal injury. Or at least I thought. Then came tonight which I am already tired for since I woke up at noon and have to work all night, my body can't jump back to the night schedule all that quick. I get here and I am already super excited as you know only to hear news that I have to hear. I have hear it because it's me, and only because it's me. I guess I was supposed to be fucking flattered by the fact that the amount of "respect" she had for me meant seeing me already kicked and decided to not only kick me while I was down but stab and twist the knife so elegantly as to make the wound I was already suffering from even worse. Now keep in mind she knows everyone is gone as well, and she knows that the guy left with no notice. So what do I hear? Again good question. I hear her tell me that there is NO way she can work the next two days because of her family being upset she has to work for Christmas eve and day. Really!? Oh no it's not like anyone else has to fucking work all of those days! No wait, oh yeah I do. I am not complaining and neither was she a day ago. But now her fucking mom tells her to just walk out of her job to be with them. Fuck you mom! I swear to god, where is your sense of accountability? That's a great fucking lesson to tell your daughter, hey don't like it just leave. It doesn't matter who has to suffer so you can spend a holiday with your family which most of us are already working. I just don't get it, how can a person who has an apparent level of respect for me do this? It makes no sense, sure I'd love to be with my family but I have a fucking job to pay my bills and I am a grown ass man who has priorities other than pleasing everyone. My parents know I have to work and are cool with it. Why can't that bitch just cool off and not spit in my face? I am supposed to call her in the AM to tell her whether or not to bring her shirts in. I always love a threat of leaving from someone who knows what that kind of work ethic does to me. Which is what makes what she is doing even worse she has seen what this has done to me in the past and recent, yet can't make one fucking sacrifice to help out. Then she adds even more salt to my already super fucked up injuries and tells me the guy who quit with no real notice because he was already in Vernal way out of town and state with his bottom of a boyfriend is in fact going to be in town on Christmas but not going to be working. I am so angry that she would mention that I almost punched her. I seriously thought about writing his address down and making him bite the curb. Open that present you son of a bitch, a nice curb stomp all nice and wrapped just for you you'd love it, you get to bend down put your mouth on it and boom money shot! Of course I will never do that because thanks to a sense of moral high ground I can write and think about it all day long but never put that into action which is probably a very fortunate thing for him. I don't know what I have done to deserve to be treated so poorly by people who know how things are. The fact that people cannot show compassion for anyone else but instead be so selfish that it's them or the highway. Well fuck you all, I will buy you a fucking bus ticket straight to hell (so many of them I will need a bus you see). I wish I could just walk away like everyone else seems to be able to do so easily but I actually enjoy my job just hate all the fucking people. Never have I worked at a place with such horrible people no matter the position they all just fucking suck. Merry fucking Christmas! I wish this would have helped me calm down but I am still so furious I need to go take a walk outside, god help those people who have wronged me for they deserve something far worse than I can give, and let no joyful voice be heard. 

Happy Holidays!

Next Gen Is Here! And I Am Just Staring At Grass and Playing Free Games.

So it's finally here, the PlayStation 4 has arrived! The next generation has begun, your move Xbox.

So Does Greatness Await?????

Haha so yeah it has started let the hype and fan boys come out. I recently got a chance to try out the PS4, and because it's the internet and everyone has opinions I figure I would throw my hat into the ring with my initial impressions on the system and few games I played. Sadly I was not able to procure a console at launch like all the cool kids were, but thankfully I have friends who were able to. Thanks to a close friend I was able to play for a bout five hours today and it was good times.

System: 

So the system is nice, sleek and quiet. I got to play around with the UI a little bit not extensively or anything. It seems easy to navigate, the part I like was how fast the interface has become. Comparing it to current gen UI, the only similarity is the sort of style it has. It is incredibly smooth and fast, where the current gen is slow and clunky. It feels familiar at the start but thankfully does a ton of new things, which I can not get into since I didn't play around with it too much as it isn't my console, didn't want to mess with his settings, can't be a jerk after all.

Controller: 

Thank god the dual shock 3 is behind us! Gone are the irritating non triggers, gone is the six axis flop. The controller is hefty which when compared to DS3 which felt flimsy and way too light. It feels like the Xbox 360 controller which is my favorite controller ever. It finally has curved triggers that actually feel like triggers. While I am glad they finally have proper triggers, I found myself constantly accidentally going back to pressing the top shoulder buttons to aim and shoot which is the way most shooters are on the current gen. I found myself tossing grenades when I meant to shoot which was frustrating but will obviously not be an issue moving forward but it was a noted irritation. The new touch pad seems ok, I am interested to see how it gets implemented in the future. It was used in Killzone to change the orders of your OWL, it felt fluid to swipe in different directions. I thought it would be a pain to do so, but it actually felt natural to move and use the touch pad. Right now it's nothing more than an added bonus on some games but its features are useful which is nice. Built in speaker to play audio logs is a nice feature more games hopefully utilize this as it made it feel like you had some kind of device like you would in the game to play logs. We will see how developers use the controller to take full advantage of the new controller features.

Games: 

Ah the games, I played only played a few so let's talk about the ones I did. Football!!!!! Madden more of the same, looks pretty sure but what got me right away was the field itself. I know it's a little silly but the grass, my god the grass. It looked so good I couldn't leave it be, sure the players looked good and the crowd looked decidedly better. I was blown away by how textured the grass was it was just so pretty. I wont go into game play details because honestly it's more of the same. Let's move on to the first party beast Killzone: Shadow Fall. This is definitely the game out of the launch titles that shows off some of what the system can do. First off let me say this, gorgeous! Visually it is almost jaw dropping, we played through a few chapters in our small play session. I noticed how good the lighting was, shadows were impressive and the light moving between columns was beautiful. We went to space and it was dimly lit and not sure if intentionally spooky or not, but thanks to lighting it was a bit spooky. I compared it to how they imagined Dead Space would be. It had me excited to see with the particle and lighting effects how Dead Space will be on next gen. Anyway back to Killzone, the game was dark super dark, I kept saying how wow I would kill for a damn flashlight or something as I couldn't see much of anything is certain areas. I felt so silly when I accidentally sent out the OWL and found out it is my flashlight. It just sucks that we found this out minutes before my play session ended. But now my buddy knows he has a flashlight so I taught him something. All in all a good game, personally I am not the biggest Killzone fan, but visually it was the outright prettiest game I saw in my limited play session. So what is the system seller? Is there even one? Yeah Watchdo....Oh wait that was delayed, hmm so what then? Well glad you asked, the game I would buy the system for is not one you technically purchase. I say technically because it is free with a PS Plus membership. The game I am talking about is Resogun. A Shoot 'Em Up in the purest form, it's fun, frantic, and particles everywhere! It's simple in design fly your ship, shoot enemies, save humans. That's it, no story just shoot, and it is super fun. It starts off easy enough with a few enemies but after a while the screen is filled with things that want you to die. It's weird to think that the game I would spend $400 on is one I would get for free, but the game was so much damn fun. I wanted to keep playing it well after I died, and I died a lot haha.

So there you have it the system seems good, no real system seller games to play on it yet (except Resogun, go get it!!!!!!) I have to wait to pick my PS4 up, which is a little sad but when I get mine the system seller Infamous will be bundled with it so I am excited for that. The next gen is here and so far it's pretty, we probably wont see the system better utilized until later this year when developers have more time with it. I am dreading next holiday season because I can only imagine how many games I will have to pick from, but that is an amazing problem to have. Good on you Sony, another good console. I look forward to seeing how the next year will be.

Rorschach Art

A little while ago I found some stamp ink in a drawer that I was cleaning out and got a bit creative. I decided to make art since art is subjective I can call what I did art and guess what you can't stop me! Oh yeah a rebel I am, too bad I don't have a cause. Anyway I thought I would share a few of the over two dozen pictures I created during a slow rainy day.

I call this one "Ant"

"Back"

Darko

Fire Flower

Unknown

I know what I see when I look at these but that's the fun of Rorschach art you see what you want to see. What do you see?

If You See Me Please Just Walk On By...........

Today was a first, today was the first time I have ever broken down, really broken down. I just couldn't keep it in any longer. All the stress, the anger, the emotion I had bottled up exploded. I was shocked I knew I had been holding things in as I am known to do. For some reason the more I thought about everything that was going on and the unfairness, the more I felt things start to rise within me. Maybe it was from the absolute pure exhaustion that I am currently experiencing due to working 40 hours in two days. Whatever walls I had in place to prevent emotions from being seen was broken, I just screamed. I screamed so loud and aggressively I started to cry. Not just a simple tear here and there is was a full blown cry out. I couldn't stop it, it was coming and coming and I kept screaming. I screamed so much my throat actually hurts due to the trauma and force of the screams. I was forced to pull to the side of the interstate because I couldn't stop crying. I had officially broken down into tears over all of the stress I had been bottling up. I wish I could say it was cathartic and that I felt like a load had been lifted after I finally let it out. That turns out not to be the case, once I cleaned myself up and got back onto the road I felt worse. Now that my emotions were out there I was actually angrier than I was before I broke. After working so hard for so little recognition I don't know if I can deal with it anymore. I am no longer happy, it is very evident if you talk to me. I am a complete piece of depressing shit and that is not cool, I am supposed to be the lovable goofball. If we are to be brutally honest I haven't been happy in a long time. From the employees calling off of work, to all the extra hours I have to work due to people calling off, to the fact that instead of being thanked for all the extra stuff I have to put up with I will most likely get in trouble for all of the overtime I put in. But with my boss on vacation I don't know what to do anymore, the people that are supposed to be around to help me never seem to be. I have had to pull doubles, work stupid shifts back to back, sacrifice my days off, yesterday I worked from 7 AM to 7 AM and yes kids if you can't tell that is 24 hours. Why? Why in the hell would I do that? I honestly ponder that myself. But what else am I to do when the person who is supposed to do the morning calls off at 1 AM and the person who could relieve you and work it has an appointment of some kind as unable to help? I was already set to do a double because I had to as I was already working the evening shift on Friday and it was the last night of training for my new auditor which I had to hire since my other auditor decided to bail without notice forcing me to work another 16 hour day (that was fun btw), so on a day I was supposed to do yet another 16 hours I ended up with 24 or so. I could have had my breakfast guy take on additional stuff from what he already had to do, but how is that fair to him to add extra work on him, answer it isn't and no one beside me seems to care. I couldn't call in someone to do the desk as the only other night person was sick so it was just me. Add in tonight where the girl who was to do the evening was sick so on a night where I was just to do the audit since our auditor is out of town I am again doing double digit hours. I have heard people say well its overtime so it's good right? Wrong it isn't worth the inevitable headache I am going to have when I get yelled at for of all things working too hard.

Maybe I am just not cut out for management, I was a thousand times happier as a drone just coming into work doing my thing and leaving. My outlook on how management should be seems like it is my downfall. I am a pushover and it is going to stop. Now. There is no debate, no secondary option, no alternative. I am sick of being a lap dog always doing everything I can to help everyone with everything, bending over backwards to please everyone, that is over. I don't have time to be always here, exhausted and unhappy. It isn't fair to me to have to pull all these insane hours and for what?. My parents tell me constantly to look for alternatives where I would make more money and have to put up with less, I always hear I don't value myself enough and deserve more for all that I do. I don't know, if I ask for more money to do what I am now will I even get it? is it even worth it? I was told they wanted to give me a whopping .25 cent raise when they promoted me to assistant general manager. I was insulted when that number was dropped into my knowledge. Even the .75 I finally received seems low but I was happy with it. I do so much and ask for nothing, am I always to be the one punished for working hard? If suicide wouldn't affect my parents it would almost seem like an escape now. Anything to avoid breaking down in tears again. That should tell you all you need to know about that first.