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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies: Turnabout Reclaimed (3DS): COMPLETED!

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phoenixwrightorcaThis DLC, self-contained case was released for Phoenix Wright 5 (yes, I know that’s not the title, but look at this post’s title – huuuuge!!) last week, and, having just finished the main game I was eager for more and immediately downloaded it. £3.99 seemed like peanuts for more Phoenix. And it was.

I’ve just finished it, and it’s certainly one of the more… out there Phoenix trials. I mean, you just have to look at that picture there to realise that. I’m cross-examining a whale.

The case was pretty long too. After a few hours it seemed like I was on the final straight, but then a spoiler happened and I realised I was actually only halfway through. In total this case took about 7 hours, so no complaints on length. No complaints at all, in fact. It was glorious.

And new character Marlon Rimes is the best character ever. I mean, he’s a rapping pirate animal feeder. What’s not to love?

Red Dead Redemption: Completed!

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While looking for beaver furs in the Northern regions, I noticed a new stranger mission open in Blackwater.  I met a government man who told me that Edgar Ross was living in a shack overlooking a lake.  Suddenly the lack of a previous ending made sense.  Don't read if you've not played ...
On reflection, I think the original 'ending' of Red dead Redemption is one of the best I've seen in a game.  The game makes you care about the character, giving you hope for him in the future, before having it all taken away.  It's brutal, made more so by the last few missions in the game giving you the opportunity to remove yourself from killing.

What's more brutal though is the way in which you feel once you're given control of Jack.  Despite his keenness for Jack to accompany him on hunts and protecting the farm, you get the feeling that John wants Jack to grow up sheltered from the world he once knew.  Jack's keen on reading, learning about the world.  However, once you've been given control of Jack three years on, standing over the graves of his father and mother, what you really want is to go and find the government to have revenge.  John's assassination turns Jack into what John was trying to avoid.

So I rode to the shack and saw his wife.  I rode to Mexico and met his brother.  I rode up the river and found Edgar, who killed me in the first duel because I was trying to shoot his weapon and arm, like I had in most other duels.  When I restarted I shot him four times in the head, because that's what Jack had become.  Then the credits rolled, and the game was properly over.


Well, apart from collecting a few herbs and helping someone kill himself by jumping over a cliff with a flimsy glider.

Great game.

Dishonored – Chaos

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Chaos is the system Dishonored uses to determine the decisions the characters make for you in the game. Kill more people you have a high chaos level resulting in more negative effects & vice versa. I've only realised this after completing the High Overseer mission. I don't really want to start the game again so will continue playing the remaining missions trying to get a low chaos level to balance out the earlier missions.

If I had the time I would carry on playing the way I am & then play the game again assuming it has a new game plus option to go for the low chaos ending.

Red Dead Redemption: completed?

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I'm up to around 70% of the game completed, and it feels like I've reached the end of the main storyline.  A pretty major character's death is a big sign of that.  If you don't know what I mean, and plan on playing the game at some point, don't read on ...

The major character is, of course, John.  The end of the game sees John being executed by the government, evidently to cover up his deeds.  I'm in two minds about this - it's a valid story mechanic of course, and the death of the hero is common in books and film.  It helps to draw things to a close and makes you realise just how emotionally involved with your character you've become.  My John was a good guy to the extent possible, helping people who were being attacked by wolves, capturing fleeing prisoners rather than killing them, not shooting deer or wild horses or rabbits.  The game needs to fit a story in, and to that extent John has killed many people, small animals, and stolen treasure and even a train.  Despite that, he's done everything that the government asked of him, and he was looking forward to settling down with his wife and son.  He didn't deserve that ending.

The game's endings have all been a little anti-climatic.  I wasn't given the choice of capturing Bill Williamson, but I didn't shoot him when I had the chance to - Reyes did.  I was expecting during that carriage chase that he'd have escaped somehow, but I quickly stopped the carriage and he was still there.  I'd realised that there was part of the map which I'd not been to, so I thought that my quest to kill Bill would continue there.  Instead, the government sent me after Dutch instead, with lots of little bitty missions that made me feel used and insignificant.  After Dutch died, again not at my hand, I went home, and the music that played while I rode to the farm at Beecher's Hope (that I'm sure I'd been around a number of times previously) was superb - it felt like a fitting end to the game.

I really appreciated the missions after this, for people around the farm, almost returning to the first few missions of the game where Bonnie wanted help with running her farm.  Going back to see Bonnie, and Abigail's jealousy, made it feel that John was settling back to a life he aspired to.  There were still some elements of the rough gang member, ready to kill those who stole horses or cattle rustlers, but he was ready to settle.  And then came the last mission; an assault by the army and the government.  Really affecting.

And now I'm back in the game, playing as Jack, given the opportunity to go and finish off all the bits and pieces I didn't achieve before.  I can go and try to win some more money at poker, gather the beaver furs and red sage needed for the flying machine (the last stranger mission I found but didn't complete), level up the challenges.  I don't think that I'll be doing everything in the game, but I'll certainly go and help the man with the flying machine because I want to see if he actually manages to fly.