World Class Villains

It’s been a little while since I’ve updated what I’ve played and what sits on my shelf, staring balefully at me.

Dispatched

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (X360): If anyone says, “You can’t put almost 130 hours into a game that you don’t enjoy!” point them this way, because despite spending that amount of time in Skyrim I walked away with an incredibly “meh” reaction to the game. It was a game full of detail but little depth and outside of the amusement of having a lesbian lizardwoman, very bland. That the whole game world waited for you made things less immersive for me, plus I’ve been everyone’s murderous Fedex agent in too many games for Skyrim to feel interesting.
• Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (plus The Di Vinci Disappearance DLC) (X360):  This has been my favourite Assassin’s Creed game to date. I won’t be sad to move on past the story of Enzio, but he’s been a great character to follow. The DLC was pretty short, but a reasonable mix of missions that provide a McGuffin for the next game. I’ll have to get Revelations next, but reviews for that weren’t that kind.
• 

  If you hadn’t released the game, Duke, we would never have known how bad it sucked.

  Duke Nukem Forever (X360): Sometimes you need to play something you know will be bad just to experience it for yourself. Stripped of the hype, DNF is a thoroughly mediocre game that creaks and groans throughout the time you spend with it, showing its age at every turn. The odd joke raised a brief smile (and the super-sweary hyper-macho Dylan amused me) but that was few and far between. Gameplay tended more towards being frustrating than fun. I’m glad that DNF was released though – doing so saved years of, “DNF would have been awesome if it came out!” being used on game forums around the internet.

Unwrapped

• LA Noire (Xbox 360): Next up, but haven’t started it yet.
• Dead Space 2 (Xbox 360): Picked it up second hand.
• Game Dev Story (iOS): I’m running a game studio that’s developed its own console and has games that sell 20m+ units per release! Now I know everything there is to know about running a game studio! Fun and oddly compelling for a game where you basically watch progress bars go up.
• Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (iOS): I’m two chapters in. So far, in a word: twee. Good audio though.

Unplayed

• Dark Souls
• The Witcher 2
• Deus Ex 3
• Gears of War 3 (for the sake of completeness, really)
• Catherine
• From Dust
• Shadows of the Damned
• Portal 2
• Psychonauts (because I’ve never played it but am intrigued)
• Alice: Madness Returns
• To The Moon
• The Binding of Isaac
• Hydrophobia