Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Los Santos

Howdy everyone, I'm really busy all the time. Just thought I should mention that. Because of this I almost never beat video games. That's why I started this blog. Also, I have this problem wherein I'll sit, play a game, but after awhile I'll slowly get a little bored with it and start playing something else. And that's why almost every game I've beaten so far has been a short one.

So I've decided to try something new, just for this game anyway. This is a game that's incredibly epic and kind of feels like they break it up into different sections anyway.

So, the first section of Rockstar's excellent game, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. This is where the main character Carl Johnson, or CJ for short comes back home to Los Santos, he had moved away years ago after his older brother died. His other older brother, Sweet, welcomes him home, and explains that since he's left, Grove Street Families, the gang you and your family is in, has lost influence and someone driving a green Sabre had driven by and killed CJ's mom.

So, it's onward to bring back the Families. Missions are fairly easy. This area encompasses the first 25 missions or so. But, after a few, you'll unlock Big Smoke's missions, which I think is funny because then you have a mission marker that says BS and, truthfully, most of his missions are pretty much BS, at least they let you level up the motorcycle skill.

Oh, that's something I should mention, this game has a great feature of character customization. You can make yourself really fat if you want, or very muscular, change all your clothes, get a haircut, tattoos. Which will also help you to evade the police, as something as simple as changing your hat will get rid of any amount of stars.

There are some problems with this section of the game though. One is that it takes over half the missions before you unlock Ammunation and can by weaponry, of course, this also unlocks gang wars, which is definitely the best part of this section of the game (which they then take away from you when your exiled from the city). Basically, you go to an uncontrolled section, kill some gang members and start a gang war. Then, if you win, you take that section of the city over and get more money for it.

Oh, and if you wanted money, this is pretty much the only way to get it. Missions in this section of the game almost always just give you Respect, which is just how much your other gang members like you. If it's greater you get to recruit more gang members to follow you around and help you create havoc. But I don't know why you would ever have more than three more guys since that's how many people you can fit in a four door car.

The last thing I'm going to mention is that some of the missions in this section of the game introduce things that are never used ever again. The most obvious example of this is Ryder's Break-In missions. Here you get a big van, break into someones house, have to play "Don't Wake Daddy," as you sneak around quietly and grab big boxes of guns and ammo to sneak out with and put in your van (Ryder, of course, doesn't help you with this at all). Anyway, at the end of this mission it explains that if you find another big ass van like this one, you can break into more houses and take their shit. But, what it doesn't mention, is that YOU NEVER SEE ONE OF THESE VANS AGAIN!

Overall: B, this is just for this section, as I beat more of it I'll put in what I think of those sections too. I do like this section a lot, but there's too many problems with it, no money, dumb missions, but the gang wars more than make for that. Also, when this section ends, it almost feels like the ending of the first season of a TV show, fade out of Los Santos, but tune in for the next season. I know I'm excited.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum was a great game when it came out. But I'm looking through a lens on a scope with "hindsight is 20/20" written down the side. Not to say I'm going to say it sucks now, and really, has a whole lot changed for video games since 2009? Probably not, but these are things I've thought about playing through this again, on hard, which I guess I didn't really notice before.

Well, the first thing I'll say is that if you're playing this game for the first time that you shouldn't play through on hard, start with normal, or, if you're not good at action games, easy.

Notice that picture up near the top, that's Batman with all the bosses in the game. The "bosses" however, suck ass. Here they are in order: Bane: actually, this one's not so bad, teaches you how to take down titans (tougher enemies you encounter later on), though that's mostly just dodging out of the way at the right time, and Bane was mostly about punching stuff anyway. Zsasz: hit him in the head with a Batarang (seriously, that's it). Harley Quinn: She stands in a box and sends guys at you while electrifying the floor at different times. Killer Croc: Avoid him by moving between fast and slow on some planks (lamest fight in the game, not  even an encounter, not fun in any way, why didn't they take this section out?) Poison Ivy: okay, this one's actually really good, she has powers to throw at you, it's really challenging (especially on hard) it almost feels like this should have been the end boss fight... Joker: Throws two titans at you, then, after a cutscene, takes titan formula himself, but when he's giant, all he does is throw more guys at you. LAME LAME ULTRA LAME! This is the final boss, and all it does is leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Other than the boss fights, I feel everything else is pretty good. The fighting is fluid and really fun (especially after you get the timing down). The sneaking around parts are good too, taking out thugs one by one as they search for you, using a whole array of gadgets to confuse and terrify. Makes it feel like the opposite of a survival horror game. Like you're the monster that everyone is trying to get away from or kill before it gets you. Also the scarecrow bits (not really a boss, more an element all his own) are really cool.

I suppose I should mention a couple of other things I had a problem with, the first thing is the extra, extra long opening cut-sequence, which is also entirely unskippable because you have to walk closely behind Joker and you can't pass him. I hate it when games do this, really takes down on the replayability, and really, I think every game should put us straight into the action, do we really need backstory before we start another game? Is that why we're playing? I don't think games really need a rich deep story to begin with, and when they do, it should be something that's incorporated into the gameplay, or side bits, like all those books you could read in The Elder Scrolls series, or everyone's quirks in State of Decay. Not really necessary to experience, but a nice touch. I mean, I'm a fan of good storytelling in videogames, but I also think that unskippable, long opening sequences is BAD storytelling.

One more thing that pissed me off, and that's the detective sequences. This would happen every once in a while where Batman needed to figure something out, like Commissioner Gordon gets kidnapped (again) and Batman needs to find him. So what do you do? You go into detective mode, find some object (in this case, Gordon's pipe), and then follow some trail that you can only see in detective mode to the next location. It's not fun or interesting, just tedious busywork.

Overall: B. It's a great game, don't get me wrong. But the shitty boss battles really bring it down. Challenge modes are cool, but the game could have more to it than that. The story is too linear, the ending is disappointing, it's too short. There's too many problems with it for me to give a higher grade.

Poker Night 2

I argued with myself about doing this one or not, but I really haven't beaten anything since Injusice. I suppose unlocking everything in a Poker game counts as beating it.

Poker Night 2 is the latest game coming from Telltale Games, the same studio that brought The Walking Dead and Sam and Max. If you like poker, I highly recommend it. You play against a table full of fictional celebrities, Claptrap from the Borderlands series, Brock Samson from The Venture Bros. TV show, Sam from Sam and Max, and Ash Williams from The Evil Dead and Army of Darkness. Oh, also GlaDOS from the Portal series is the dealer.

It's a pretty solid poker game. Everyone has there own tells, and best of all, conversations occur between characters as your playing through the hands. These conversations are hilarious and they kept me coming back for more. Even if you don't like poker that much, situations like Claptrap Breaking while trying to say the word "Boobies" or finding out a little more about the relationship between Ash and Brock make losing hands worth it.

If you do actually win hands, or at least get in third or better, you'll win Unlock Chips which can be used to either unlock different themes for your decks, chips and table felts, or buy drinks for the people at the table. When you do this, they are more likely to show tells when betting.

Overall: C+, I had a great time playing this game, but it's not really anything special, the conversations made it all worth it, but otherwise, it's just like any other poker game. If your not a big fan of poker, you can probably skip this one.