Finished (non-D.C.) Deus Ex: Human Revolution today on 'Give Me Deus Ex'-difficulty.

Finally I'm done with that game. It started really great, but became somewhat of a nuisance the second half of the game. I don't like backtracking too much and so was not eagerly satisfied when travelling back to Detroit and Hengsha for a 2nd time. I also think that there were no true RPG decisions that influenced the course of the game, even while the game hinted at these in the beginning. Never saw that guy from the first level again after I let him go and he said he'd remember that. Level design was mediocre eventually . Endless staircases without walkways and doors between floors don't strike me as realistic. Worst of it all however were the boss fights - playing on hardest difficulty made me play the game with stealth. The boss fights then were pure shooting around as much as possible. Somehow I managed to survive through all of them, but especially the fight against Jaron Namir with all that tech-pollution was a pain in the ass and I was this close to toning the difficulty down. But I prevailed. One of the worst game design decisions was to make melee dependend of those energy bricks.

Sounds quite bad, doesn't it? But there were also aspects where the game shines - the story included deep ideas about morals and technology, the art design and voice acting are top notch. The game had great ambitions, but fell a little short to these. Still worth playing. I, however, hope that the sequel will deliver on the promise.

Reflecting Darksiders 2 on Zelda and Skyrim

Currently playing Darksiders 2 on 360 and enjoying it, despite its flaws which are both technical and game design-wise. Darksiders 2, much like its predecessor, draws heavily from Zelda games, but probably achieves it much more than the first. This is due to the larger overworld and the dungeons that can be freely traversed. Still it remains an empty overworld. It's too small to be big and too big to be small, but worst of all filled with nothing than some random enemies and a few treasure chests. The dungeons are fun so far, including some puzzles that sometimes even take a few minutes to solve. The last Zelda game I played was Twilight Princess, which I must've played 2006-7. Liked this Zelda a lot and I am happy that Darksiders can so well emulate the Zelda dungeon crawl feeling. However, the first half of this year I played Skyrim and this game puts action-adventure-rpgs on a whole different level. Darksiders and Zelda (even Skyward Sword which I played briefly) are nice and fun games for "inbetween" a patientgamer can look forward to. But compared with Skyrim, which is so massive it can be played hundreds of hours and still delivers a fresh experience, they are rather small, limited, linear and lack depth. Do you think the next Zelda game (and I hope there will be two more Darksiders games for the remaining riders) will adapt in the Skyrim direction? Would you even welcome that?

 http://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/2gwgab/reflecting_darksiders_2_on_zelda_and_skyrim/

Life after Dead Space 3

EDIT: Thanks for your feedback, r/patientgamers. I analyzed your recommendations below and worked them into the list. I now started to play Darksiders II and tried Alan Wake: AN and FC3: BloodDragon as some of you advised I'd be easier to first play something short. Your recommendations were profound and I will consider them when playing through the back log! Yet I wonder how games like NiNoKuni could get such little love and MGS4 not even one. Didn't they stood the test of time? I'll put my feedback into the subreddit once I'm finished with them. ;)

Finished Dead Space 3 today (found it to be good overall, just not as great as 1 and 2) and wondering which game of my backlog to play next. Help me out, your suggestions are very welcome! Keep in mind that I'm mostly a single player. Thanks in advance. The backlog:

Resident Evil Revelations (360)

Gears of War Judgment (360 - already played a few chapters, seems okay, weird narration, not a must play like previous GOWs) (1 recommendation)

Dirt 2 (360 - loved the first one back in the day, Dirt 2 seems to be decent) (1 recommendation)

Fallout: New Vegas (360 - in 20 hours, gave up then as it just didn't click for me like Fallout 3 did) (2 recommendations)

Dishonored (360 - played the first half hour, very promising) (4 recommendations)

Ridge Racer Unbounded (360 - seems pretty bad)

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (360 - first one was cool, this one a little outdated nowadays maybe?)

Tomb Raider Collection (360) (1 recommendation)

Resident Evil 6 (360 - played a little, how can RE have become this bad??)

Darksiders II (360 - absolutely loved the first one and looking forward to this since a long time) (1 recommendation)

LA Noire (360 - played a little, slow pace, not like GTA) (3 recommendations)

Dark Souls ( 360 - played a little, very hard, ugly characters, unique atmosphere, not insta-addicting) (5 recommendations)

GTA IV: Ballad of Gay Tony (360 - in the middle, didn't like it as much as The Lost and The Damned) (1 recommendation)

Borderlands 2 (360 - still need to go through some of the Add Ons)

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier (360 - played a few hours campaign with a friend, fun Tom Clancy game)

X-Com Enemy Unknown (360 - stuck in the first alien base, great game)

Assassin's Creed III + Add Ons (360 - loved the ACs with Ezio) (2 recommendations)

Skyrim Legendary (360 - love this game, finished the main story line and still need to go for the add ons)

Diablo 3 (360 - played a little, not as great as Diablo II back in the day) (1 recommendation)

Alan Wake: American Nightmare (360 - liked the original game a lot)

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (360) (4 recommendations)

Need for Speed Most Wanted 2 (360 - the first from 2006 is still my favorite racing game, curious if this one can catch up)

Injustice Gods Among Us (PS3)

Killzone 2 (PS3 - was hyped back in the day, curious) (1 recommendation)

The Last of Us (PS3 - legendary reputation) (2 recommendations)

NiNoKuni (PS3 - played the first three hours, only good JRPG last gen, very nice game) (1 recommendation)

Uncharted 3 (PS3 - played 1 and 2, very entertaining, Drake is cool) (1 recommendation)

God of War Ascension (PS3 - watched a few minutes when my sister played, the focus seems to be on gore, not gameplay)

Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3 - loved MGS1 and 3)

Favorite Games of PS360 Gen List (by Elder-Geek)

I should do a list like that myself but I need to finish the gen first and that will take some more time.

What's going in the first half of August 2014?

I'm feeling bad about this blog as I am too busy to update it as much as I would love to. Just very briefly:

Read:

I'm reading Dune 3 "Kinder des Wüstenplaneten". I really began to enjoy Frank Herbert's Dune series. It introduces a deep, aristocratic sci-fi universe with the story focussed on what is happening on Dune, the desert planet Arrakis. Paul "Usul Muad'dib" Atreides got the throne as emperor of the known galaxy, leading the Fremen into a jihad, a holy war to conquer the universe. He's not particularly happy about his role as messiah and the billions of dead that result from the conquest, but he has incredibly powers to foresee the future. At the end of book two he's done. Blindly he walks into the desert and vanishes. Book three sees the introduction of his daughter and son: Leto III and Ghanima. Alia and Lady Jessica are also back and there's a conspiracy going on as usal. I highly recommend the Dune series. A sci-fi classic (from the 1960s and 1970s) one should have read.

I bought also some new books at the flea market, among them my first Terry Pratchet novel. Will upload some pics ASAP.

Watch:

I watched several movies in recent times. Among them:

Wacken 3D

- This was nostalgic for me as I was a constant visitor to the world's largest heavy metal festival from 2004 to 2009. Gladly I'll be able to return to the W:O:A next year. Running Wild has already been confirmed.

X-Men: Days of the future Past

- As much as I love Marvel, I'm not too much into X-Men and couldn't recognize every sidekick character. Nonetheless an enjoyable movie with a brilliant Michael Fassbender as Magneto.

Looking forward to see The Expendables 3 and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy in the cinema later this month!

Game:

I'm playing a lot of Magic: The Gathering these days, be it as trading card game in real life or on my 360 as Magic 2013 (has been free game of the month some short while ago). Also I began playing Dead Space 3 as I purchased it for cheap 16 Euro new at the loca GameStop). I consider Dead Space 1 and 2 as the best survival horror games of this past gen and as far superior as Resident Evil (every game RE5 onwards has been rather mediocre unless probably the 3DS one with Jill on the ship which I still have here unplayed). With Dead Space 3 I was less optimistic as the demo couldn't convince me too much. But having it played now I can see it's quality, a great beginning, then the necromorph outbreak at the lunar station and now Isaac's back in business in space as I yesterday reached Chapter 4. I'll be excited to continue!

Damn, I guess I'm a lot into sci-fi at the moment.

Portal Turrets sing Game of Thrones Theme

Title says it all.

A Nice Surprise

The German paperbacks of Misery and It.

 What a nice surprise. A few day agos my better half brought home these Stephen King books she picked up at a school's library for free. Nobody wanted them, it seems. Nobody knew the treasures they left behind is my view on it. I already read 'IT', of course, considering it one of King's best books. 'Misery', however, is new to me. So I'm looking forward to read through it.

But it will have to wait for quite some time as I finally began reading Frank Herbert's 'Dune' series. I'm now around 200 pages deep in the first volume 'Der Wüstenplanet' or whatever it is called in English. I am impressed by all the conspiracy between the different 'houses' (like in Game of Thrones or is that chronologically speaking inspired by Dune?), the length of the chapters, and the nice artworks scattered across the book. I feel that this book takes its time to introduce the characters until catastrophe appears as there's hints to an assassination of the Atreides family. But the first sand worm already appeared and it's super big, eating up a 'melange/spice' harvesting machine, which itself is described as hundred meters long. Also I really like it's 1960s Sci-Fi-approach to technology with these awesome desert suits that make you loose no water in the desert as even your excrements get recycled (damn...). So yes, finishing all six books might take until end of the year earliest.

Somehow I even managed to make the better half watch Game of Thrones. Surprisingly she really likes it. We're now close to finishing the first season and for me it's also a great re-watch as I now know the extended background story to each character and all the hidden alliances, being able to answer all her questions. We will then watch the fourth season together as I haven't seen it myself yet.

Gaming: Still wandering through the realms of Skyrim. But more oftenly I now find myself playing some matches of 'Magic: The Gathering' with a friend, such a great and fast game with unrivaled tactical depth. Looking forward to head to my first local Friday Night Magic event soon.

E3 2014: Zelda Trailer

I'm not much of  a Nintendo fan, but as a gamer for sure played a lot of their consoles and games in the years leading up to now. I always liked The Legend of Zelda, with Twilight Princess being my favorite from recent memory. So, good to know a new Zelda game is on its way. For whatever reasons it abandoned the 'realistic' look of the E3 2011 tech demo and presents itself now again in a cell shaded style. I guess this especially relates to the younger fans and even for long time players like myself it is acceptable as it is admittedly pretty. More importantly, the game is announced to have an open world and non-linear campaign now. That's a welcome change as the series nowadays has to compete with RPGs like Skyrim which offer ridiculously large worlds and hundreds of hours of gameplay. I don't need Zelda to become like this but I sure hope they introduce a lot of innovations that make me want to pick up a Zelda game again (and probably give me a reason to buy a WiiU).

Enjoy:

My E3 2014 Highlights

As a lifelong gamer of course I've been very excited for this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. Not that in Germany we wouldn't have our own giant game show called GamesCom but all the relevant stuff and the biggest news are announced at E3, so that's the one show to watch as a gamer. So, given the time gap I watched the Microsoft and Electronic Arts press conferences live and catched up on Sony and Ubisoft today. This post is just to highlight the games that excited me most.

But of course some words have to spoken about the big companies' performances. Generally speaking I really liked Microsoft's approach this year a lot. Right in the beginning they said they'd focus on games and damn, they did. They showed close to forty games and even while there hasn't been that big must play title it was all in all a good press conference (a thousand times better than what Don Mattrick delivered yesteryear, I'm so happy he's gone). EA won me with their short update on the Mass Effect series and Dragon Age Inquisition also looked nice. Ubisoft had two games that I liked, Far Cry 4 and Assassin's Creed Unity. Also Valiant Hearts, a 2D sidescroller playing in World War I, is somehow unique. Sony's press conference I liked a lot. Far Cry 4 had an impressive gameplay but I was really surprised by two things: No Man's Sky, a SciFi-indie-space-exploration game, and the reveal that GTA V will come to next gen and PC later this year (nothing's sure Red Dead Redemption never made it to PC). And Batman: Arkham Knight, of course. So all in all a very nice E3 so far. No big surprises, but lots of games to look forward, too. Let's see what Nintendo has to announce later today, even though this admittedly doesn't interest me that much. Not sure who has "won" and who "lost" just yet.

In any case, here are my personal favorites of this year's E3 (in alphabetical order):


Assassin's Creed: Unity





Assassin's Creed is mostly a quality series. I still haven't made it into ACIII yet (lagging back due to real life), but this one looks far better than this pirate bullshit from last year.

Batman: Arkham Knight



I love Batman and avidly played Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. This gameplay here looks just incredible! Should become a real must play title.

Dead Island 2



I'm not really interested in this game, but the trailer is hilarious.

Dragon Age: Inquisition







This could be a cool fantasy RPG. Graphic is stunning here.

Far Cry 4





Really hot gameplay, very well done, Ubisoft!

Inside



I didn't play Limbo who knows if I will play this one, but I like it's 1984-ish feeling.

Lifeless Planet



Exploring in a space suite!

Mass Effect 4



I'm happy to know that Bioware is working on the next title in one of my favorite gaming series of all time!


No Man's Sky



This has been a real surprise as it is an indie title. I just like what this game is offering. To seamlessly travel from space into the atmosphere of any planet, just wow!

Ori and the Blind Forest



I found this 2D sidescroller a welcome change during the E3 press conference.

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt



The Witcher III: WRPG's highest hope. I'll try to get into all games (the second at least) and the books before playing this one, so it can very well take a long while.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End



The finisher of Sony's press conference. The game's title teases the death of Nathan Drake? Really?

Valiant Hearts



A story driven sidescroller about the First World War? Interesting for sure!

Great Game Trailers From The Past: Rage (Uprising Trailer)

Time for a new feature on my blog: Great Game Trailers From The Past.

I'd like to use this blog in a more personal way, to give space to the things I care about and love. So no need to post only up to date stuff. For example trailers. I love them, especially game trailers. In this new feature I'd like to present some trailers from my gaming carreer I found especially memorable. I'd like to open this with Rage.

Rage was an at the times (2011) probably overlooked new FPS game by the inventors of the FPS genre, id Software. Rage in a way was very conservative as it didn't reinvent the wheel but used proven concepts like the post apocalyptic setting everyone knew from Fallout 3 and was heavily inspired gameplay wise by Bioshock. I found that even when it didn't offer something fresh, all it did it did very well executed. The trailer here is in my humble opinion the best one for the game and a good trailer in itself. Enjoy.

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt E3 Trailer Is Mind Blowing

The first true next gen game, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. The Witcher is  a game series based on a Polish literary origin and it looks just like the revelation for video games. I am highly excited to see more from this game at this year's E3 which will start just next week. Playing the The Witcher series is part of my long time To Play List as I own the first game on Steam, but lack a decent PC and, more importantly, the time (partly due to the time consuming beast Skyrim) needed for more gaming. In any case, this simply looks fantastic and CD Project Red is also a good guy company.

Let's see what E3 will bring. Hopefully some demos for The Witcher 3.

Terminator 2: Truck Chase Done in Grand Theft Auto V

It is just wonderful how people keep playing this game and do incredible things. Now an re-enactment of the famous truck chase in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Perhaps you also remember this one, the train scene from James Bond: Skyfall.