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Portal 2: Completed!

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A stunning game, overall.  It was a little too long, in that a few of the test chambers seemed a little too repetitive and the between-chapter sections were a bit sparse.  The story was a bit extended, and the dialogue over the last few chapters was bitty, but finding out where GLaDOS came from and how Aperture Science developed was well presented.  When I got back to meet Wheatley, his dialogue - while not on the same level as GLaDOS's congratulations for piling on the pounds - was very amusing, and I couldn't help but kill myself in each of the ways he suggested just to see what he said.

Wheatley's corruption of the centre was well handled as well.  From the physical decay to the blue screen error messages (something else that made me laugh), it felt very solid.


The last few chambers were very cleverly designed, combining all of the tools and environmental furniture.  It took me a while to work out how to get past the section below, for example, where a number of turrets were  sat behind the screen on the right.  To get rid of them, I had to drop a load of the blue gel onto the platform they were standing on; this involved catching the gel in light tunnels and manipulating it back and forth until it was overhead.



The final fight took me a few minutes to work out what to do.  Wheatley's surprise about me not being dead made me smile.  I'm not sure how my character was breathing when I went through the last portal, but the last lift journey was a fitting end.

I just need to find a cooperative partner now ...

Lego City Undercover (Wii U): COMPLETED!

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The story is done! The day has been saved! There’s still many, many hours of game left as I’m only about 35% finished!

I won’t say much about the ending, because, well, spoilers. What I must say, however, is that it was actually genuinely properly epic. Like nothing before from any other Lego game. For a short time, there’s some of the usual funny silly stuff, then a fight between you in a giant robot suit and Rex Fury riding a robot dinosaur, but after that there’s a bit of dramatic from-space skyfalling which is absolutely fantastic. The music, the Earth below you, and the countdown timer all combine to bring something to a Lego game that no other Lego game has even approached.

It outdoes Halo and Gears of War and Dead Space. No, really.

And that was it! Now to begin the post-game mop-up.

Picross e2 (3DS): COMPLETED!

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picrosse2And finally, all the puzzles are solved. Phew!

According to the stats, I played it for over 21 hours, which is about 5 hours longer than its predecessor. Which is pretty much what I expected.

And, erm, that’s it. It’s great Picross game, just like the first one only bigger. In terms of value for money, £7 for over 20 hours play is pretty good going. It’s a shame there are no bigger puzzles as 15×15 is a bit small, but still – minor complaint.

Code of Princess (3DS): COMPLETED!

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Do you like Guardian Heroes? Of course you do. Everyone with any sort of soul does.

As a direct consequence of liking Guardian Heroes, you also (even if you haven’t played it) like Code of Princess. It’s a sequel that never was, with no link to the original. Save for playing out very similarly and being awesome. I won’t describe how to play Code of Princess because you already know (and if you don’t, go away and read about Guardian Heroes).

Six hours in, and I’ve fought wave after wave of various monsters, soldiers, boss characters, dragons, trees and robots. Over and over. Yet, somehow, the repetition wasn’t repetitious. I know! It sounds impossible, but still – fighting everything, repeatedly, remains fun! Even when you replay the same level multiple times to gain XP!

But six hours, and I’ve completed it. Pretty short, yes?

Not when you consider that I’ve only completed the main story. With one character (the titular Princess, in all her nudeness, with her massive sword). I’ve only just started to play through as a second character (there are four). And then there’s the quest mode, with piles more levels and loads more characters to play as (that you unlock during the main game). And then there’s the Free Play mode where you can play levels as any character – including all the minions and monsters and useless peasants and overpowered superbosses. YES.

AND!

Then there’s online co-op! And online vs modes!

Six hours was a lie. That’s how long it took to get to the credits. I’m actually 13 hours in, and I’ve barely touched the content. Fantastic!

Assassin’s Creed III (Wii U): COMPLETED!

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Well, I’m glad I didn’t spoil the ending for myself before getting to it at least. Not nearly as bad as people had made out though. There may be spoilers to follow…

I didn’t like the final two “boss” fights. Haytham’s was complete rubbish and different to any other fight in the game, and Charles Lee’s was basically a chase followed by a cutscene. You don’t actually get to properly assassinate either of them – it’s done for you by the game.

There’s no way I’m going back to the game to do everything it suggests I can do. I’m not going hunting, collecting things for the homestead, doing naval battles, collecting feathers or doing any liberation missions or assassination contracts. Unlike similar things in previous games, all these things seem completely superfluous to the narrative. Sure, they weren’t essential before, but they’re an unnecessary chore here – not a fun character and/or money building task.

Speaking of money, there is literally no point to it in Assassin’s Creed III. You gain enough from simply following the story to unlock all of the extra weapons like rope darts and poison, and you never need to restock any as people you kill replenish them easily enough. As a result, I ended the game having only spent about £2000 on such unlockables, with a good £70,000 still in my pocket. At least in other AC games you could buy better swords and things, but here you don’t even need a sword and I never used one, intentionally at least (there’s a bug where you sometimes automatically get equipped with one for no reason), at any point in the game.

What I did do, however, following the end of the game, was find all the pivot points to get the “animus hacks”. Which was fun for a bit, although Fast Travel stopped working again so I had to go everywhere à pied. Sadly, these hacks were not as fantastic as they sounded (invincible, unlimited ammo, fast reload) as when applied you can’t save your game. Tch.

Overall thoughts on Assassin’s Creed III? Yeah, it’s aight.