I think I’m getting old, because it took me awhile to figure out what even came out this year. Still, I’ve managed to put together a list of my favorite games of the year. 2011 was a bit weird, I didn’t really feel like there were any new IPs that got me excited – instead it was a year filled with sequels. Well done sequels, but sequels nonetheless. Nevertheless, there were a lot of games worth playing, even if I didn’t get around to them all.

LA Noire
There were a lot of problems with this game, but it still deserves respect for introducing an amazing motion capture technology to the world of gaming. The storyline and characters varied from hokey to awesome, but overall I really enjoyed the game and found it well worth playing. Originally I was excited to see what the team could do in the future, but alas, Team Bondi is no more. Hopefully other developers can piggyback off of what they have done and continue to have characters who emote in such amazing ways.

To the Moon
Like I said in the review, you don’t play To the Moon for the gameplay. If the game DID have gameplay to speak of, I probably would have made it my game of the year. The story was just that compelling to me. It’s a short and sweet downloadable title for the PC that I’m sure few of you will end up checking out, to your own detriment!

FIFA 12
I don’t play a lot of sports games, but if you are looking for bang for your buck, you can sink hours and hours into FIFA 12 without even scratching the surface of all there is to offer. The new tactical defending really changes the way you defend and makes the game more true to the actual sport. The only down side of FIFA 12 is the lack of Champions League (whose rights are owned by PES), but with so much else to do, you (almost) don’t miss it.

Portal 2
The first Portal was so shocking in its ingenuity that it was going to be hard to top. Portal 2 didn’t quite manage that feat, but it came pretty close. The expansion of the Portal world along with some hilarious moments helped solidify this first person puzzler as one of the best in class. Valve really knows how to make their video games and Portal 2 is no exception.

cmfl3x’s 2011 Game of the Year – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
I really tried not to make Modern Warfare 3 the game of the year, but the simple fact of the matter is I sank almost as much time in MW3 over the past two months as I did into all my other games for the previous ten. I had actually hit a bit of a gaming lull before Modern Warfare 3 came out, but after release I was back to my gaming ways.

The single player wasn’t as strong as the previous two games, but the multiplayer just keeps me coming back for more. For some reason, the formula isn’t stale yet – in fact, I find it more addicting than before. I’m not sure if that’s a product of game design or changes in me personally, but either way, Modern Warfare 3 has been my go-to game since November, and thus it’s my game of the year for 2011.

Regular readers of this site know I’m a sucker for strong narrative in my games. When I think about narrative driven games, Uncharted, Bioshock, and a select few others come to mind. Now, I can add To the Moon to that list, albeit in a totally different kind of way. To the Moon is a small indie game released on PC, and is an excellent piece of storytelling in digital form. I played through the entire game in four hours last night – and enjoyed almost every minute of it.

To the Moon is at its heart a science fiction story. The main characters are two doctors, Dr. Roselund and Dr. Watts, working for Sigmund, a company that dives into the memories of people on their deathbeds to give them one final, wonderfully memorable experience before they go. To do this, the story blends elements from Inception, Memento, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It’s a testament to the game that it doesn’t feel like plagiarism at all – it’s created it’s own world and set of science rules that make sense in context.

The doctors have a patient named Johnny, who wants to go to…you guessed it. To get him there (in his memory), the doctors get inside his head via technology, and take small steps backwards through his memories. They travel backwards in time by identifying different mementos that are important to Johnny. The game does a great job of telling the story from end to finish – with a few twists along the way.

What resonated with me the most about To the Moon was the ease with which I could identify with the characters despite never having experienced what they go through. To the Moon is an emotionally rich story, touching upon themes of life, death, love, and a whole slew of others in the middle. It also asks questions about how one values their memories, good or bad, joyful or painful. The game does all these things in a subtle way – it rarely spells anything out, instead allowing the player to make connections between his or her own emotional experience to better understand what’s going on in the game. I loved every minute of the story, and its greatest feat was I immediately wanted to spend quality time with Mrs. cmfl3x after. When does that usually happen when playing games?

The game looks like a classic 16-bit SNES RPG. The characters emote via pixels, yet they convey quite a bit of feeling all things considered. The game looks great and has a lot of artistic style, but Skyrim this is not. It’s more like Final Fantasy VI. I didn’t mind it at all, but I’m sure there are some people who would like to see a more technical product. The music more than makes up for the graphics, it’s a beautiful piano driven soundtrack that fits what is going on screen perfectly.

You’ll notice I haven’t said much about the gameplay. To be honest, I’ve been avoiding it because there’s not much of it, and hopefully by this point you’ll want to play the game enough to overlook that fact. The game is mostly pointing and clicking to make the narrative progress, with some light puzzle elements and a badly timed shooter portion. If you’re looking for a game to test your gamez skillz, To the Moon will not fit the bill. I’m not even sure it had to be a video game, but I respect the developer’s desire to use the digital medium. Also, on balance, it’s way more enjoyable than other narrative game/non-games (I’m looking at you Heavy Rain and L.A. Noire!) I’d rather have a game where there is little or no gameplay than a game where the gameplay gets in the way of the story. For the record, To the Moon has a better story than both the aforementioned.

In the end, your interest in To the Moon will probably boil down to your interest in heartfelt stories via video games. For me, the experience was near perfect – it was tragic, uplifting, funny, and meaningful along the way. Right now it’s only available via Freebird games ($12) but supposedly it’s going to Steam too. I totally thought it was worth the money – it felt like a narrative experience, almost like going to a movie or something. If you’re low on cash, you can always wait for a Steam sale! Either way, I loved To the Moon, and I hope you will too.

Final Score: A

Unfortunately, I haven’t played enough new content for a new post, but I’ve been playing enough games to do a thoughts post. The simple fact of the matter is, I’m addicted to Modern Warfare 3 (50 hours and counting). The real question is, can anything change that?

Modern Warfare 3 – Still Fun
I’m about halfway through my first prestige, and I’m tempted to prestige twice for the first time ever in a COD game. In fact, I’d only prestiged in one game before this (MW2). For some reason, progress feels faster in Modern Warfare 3. Like espion4ge, I’ve gotten a really good feel for the maps (except Downturn which I’ve literally only played 6 times). I’ve also been experimenting with different perks. Recon pro definitely is good, although I still prefer not to be blown up by predator missiles (Blind Eye).

I haven’t really gotten into Special Ops at all, and single player was interesting but not as good as the first two. I just felt like the game tried to do too much, going into too many countries. I could have lived without that. Overall, I’ve definitely gotten my $60 worth out of this game – I’ve completely given up on Uncharted 3 and have to force myself to play Peace Walker. I’m even ignoring my favorite TV shows. Will the madness stop?

Battlefield 3 – A Contender?
I really enjoy the Battlefield series, especially the squad system. I remember when everyone was playing the original Modern Warfare, I liked to take breaks and play BFBC with espion4ge and another friend and I couldn’t convince ANYBODY else to buy it. Well, Battlefield 3 went on sale a few days ago and I picked it up to play with loyal reader Largelobster.

I played a game or two, but I haven’t played enough to really comment on the gameplay. It looks and sounds amazing, and at least at first glance it feels a bit more realistic. What have I been able to conclude with my brief time with the game? ORIGIN SUCKS. It is like a incredibly poor version of Steam, and I hate, hate, HATE that I need to use the web portal to boot up BF3. Worse, there are just some stupid design decisions like you have to be alive to change the settings in the game. Why!? WHY!? It’s a good thing the game looks and sounds so awesome, otherwise I’d probably just swear it off altogether. Largelobster and I are going to try to alternate between BF and MW – we’ll see if it sticks.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker – A Change of Pace
I’ve been playing MGS for a change of pace from time to time. It’s a really fun game, and I can see why it reviewed so well. My only problem with the game is the length of the cutscenes. I don’t mind the length on their own – I mind that I can’t pause it! I got chewed out by Mrs. cmfl3x because we left for something late because of an overdone cut scene. Let me pause, game! It’s simple! That’s what the start button was created for!

Peace Walker reminds me how much Hideo Kojima cracks me up. Why, thank you for the cultural lessons about Costa Rica and banana farms! It’s completely unnecessary, but I love how Kojima deems that kind of stuff important enough to put in the game. Only Kojima can balance an over the top military story with fun facts. Thanks, dude!

Skyrim – Want
There are rumors that Skyrim is going on sale next week. I WANT. That is all. There are dragons to be killed!

Metal Gear Solid has long been one of my favorite series (although only espion4ge has the right to say it gave him a gamertag!). I still remember watching my friend play through the entire Tanker chapter of MGS2 without even having a memory card to save on. When the new Metal Gear Solid HD Collection was released, I saw and seized the opportunity to own two of my favorite games of all time and a third game (Peace Walker) that I had never played.

Tactical Espionage Action
I played some of each of the three games included in the collection: MGS2 (Sons of Liberty), MGS3 (Snake Eater), and Peace Walker. The first thing I noted is how foreign the controls feel, especially in MGS2. It’s a bit jarring to see how far third person games have come since then (thank goodness!) Despite some quirky controls, the games still control fine, even on a Xbox controller.

For those unfamiliar with the series, Metal Gear Solid is a game based around “solo sneaking missions.” Most iterations have valued stealth over direct engagement which provides a unique experience. It’s still a lot of fun to sneak around and try not to alert guards, although it’s still as frustrating as ever to run away or fight guys when you get caught. Still, the action and gameplay is only half the experience which can be a good or bad thing depending on your perspective.

Where’s the Action?
The defining characteristic of the Metal Gear Solid series isn’t the action: it’s the sheer amount of dialogue and cut scenes you need to watch. You can literally be watching the screen for like 20 minutes at a time before you need to pick up the controller. I used to enjoy watching through all the cut scenes, but with my limited gaming times these days, it can be a little maddening to spend only half the time using the controller.

The cut scenes are pretty cool the first time around though. Hideo Kojima really can spin a good yarn and although at times the plot can be completely confusing, it’s never boring (not to me at least). My least favorite parts are codec conversations (or equivalent). It’s fun watching cut scenes, but watching two faces talk to each other for 10 minutes is decidedly less fun.

HD Action
The HD quality of the “HD Collection” seemed a bit of a mixed bag for me. MGS2 doesn’t look all that great – it definitely looks better but maybe my eyes are too used to real HD to appreciate it. I can’t really remember what it looked like on PS2. Snake Eater and Peace Walker look excellent, maybe because they looked better to begin with. The controls on those two games also feel much better and more modern.

The sound and music of these games is as excellent as ever. Metal Gear Solid has one of my favorite soundtracks of all time and these three games are no exception. It’s also nice that all the VR missions and added bonuses have been included so that I can try those out for the first time as well.

Parting Thoughts
I saw on some forum that Metal Gear Solid HD Collection is “the best deal in gaming since The Orange Box.” I think that may be true, with one caveat: you probably need to be a Metal Gear Solid fan to truly appreciate it. The amount of content you get for $50 (or $35 in my case) is astounding. Of course, a lot of that content you are required to watch as opposed to play, but hey who’s counting. You can always skip the cut scenes if you don’t want to watch them again!

Let’s start by calling Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary what it is: a cheap money grab playing off the tenth anniversary of the Halo franchise. With that business out of the way, let me point out what else the Anniversary edition is: a beautiful looking re-enactment of the classic that kept the Xbox alive. Surprisingly, the game still feels relatively fresh all things considered, although things that were annoying ten years ago still are annoying now. Is it worth checking out, or for die hards only?

The Highs
For starters, Halo looks great in HD. There is a neat feature where you can hit the select button and switch between the original graphics and the remade ones and the difference is stunning. I guess it should be expected considering the new hardware, but it still is a sight to behold.

Halo remains an excellent game after the last ten years. There are some great moments that still hold up after all this time. Looking back, I think Bungie did a great job – splitting Master Chief and Cortana before the Flood reveal, the various twists and turns in the plot, and other moments throughout the campaign.

Another high is the combat itself. Halo’s subtitle was combat evolved, and it really did change the face of gaming in a lot of ways. First of all, it proved that first person shooters could work on a console, of course, now they are a dime a dozen. More importantly, the combat is difficult and challenging, even annoyingly so at times. I played through the entire campaign on Normal and died way more than I should die at that difficulty level. It was a different time back then, and games have definitely gotten easier. Still, playing through Halo again made me realize how fresh and unique the combat was at the time.

Overall, the presentation is great. The music has been remastered, so that sounds good, and everything looks good as well as I said. In general, if you are a Halo fan, this is probably worth having, if only to be able to play the original game again. Of course, if you’re a Halo fan, you also know some of the series’ problems.

The Lows
I’m not sure if they were working off the old engine, but my only fault with the redesigned look is that the mouths don’t always sync up to the audio. It generally isn’t a problem because of Master Chief’s helmet, but it still should be noted.

The real lows are the things that have annoyed me about the original Halo since release. A lot has been written about the amount of backtracking in the original game, and it’s mostly true. It’s annoying! By my count, at least 5 of the 10 levels take place in the same areas. Not only are you backtracking a lot, but a lot of the levels look exactly the same. Also, I remember hating the Library (which is still awful and awfully hard, for what it’s worth), but I didn’t remember how much I hated the level AFTER that. It definitely got a little tedious in some of those middle chapters.

Since everything looks the same, it’s also relatively easy to get lost. The game has compensated for this with some markers on the ground with the new graphics, and they are VERY welcome. I think it cut down my getting lost by like 75%.

What may or may not be a low for you is the sheer difficulty of the game. As I mentioned, the combat can be quite unforgiving. Check points occur at random times, they don’t always pop up and if you miss one it can really suck to lose a significant amount of progress. Also, I’m not sure if it was due to my playstyle or due to the game itself, but I found myself very low on ammo a lot of times. It kind of made the game survival horror-y, which was cool, but it also could get frustrating. Your mileage will vary depending on the type of game you like.

Final Thoughts
All in all, I enjoyed Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary more than I thought I would. It was a nice bit of nostalgia, and the game still shines all these years later. After I finished the game I found myself on Wikipedia just reading up on some of the lore and stuff like that (it can get confusing!) Is this remake a cash grab? Most definitely. But is it worth the cash? I’d say so – and I didn’t even bother to go online to get killed by 10-year olds on Hang Em High. Actually, come to think of it, they weren’t even born when this game came out. Maybe I’ll go find them and frag them after all!

Final Grade: A-

When I was a kid, I used to enjoy collecting baseball cards. I don’t know what it is about collecting, but it is fun to have a collection of things you enjoy. Even though I’ve been leveling down, I keep buying more and more games! Are video games becoming my new baseball cards? Is that a bad thing?

Let’s start with what I’ve been interested in buying lately. I bought Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3 and Modern Warfare 3. In addition to that, I’d like to buy Skyrim, Halo: CE, maybe Battlefield 3, Batman: Arkham City, and the new Zelda. There is no way given my current schedule and the realities of life that I will get to finish all of those games before Christmas. I haven’t even touched Uncharted 3 since doing my impressions, and I think that game’s awesome!

So the question I pose to myself: should I get these games anyway? On the one hand, I don’t really want to waste money. On the other hand, I’d really like to add them to my collection – and I will play them eventually. Also, I’ve realized another thing: the excitement of getting a new game almost tops playing the game itself. Maybe I should just start getting these game’s as collector’s items and not as games? The reality is, a lot of the game’s I’ve been buying have just become collector’s items, because I haven’t been able to finish them.

The question I’ve been asking myself is – is that really a bad thing? Video games aren’t cheap, but people have far more expensive collection hobbies than video games. Also, I do derive pleasure from owning games, and playing them every once in awhile (I misplaced my Halo Reach disc and have been jonesing to play it!)

It’s not the greatest thing to spend money on things you don’t use too much, but I generally have been waiting for games to go on sale, so I’ve not been spending full price. I think as time continues, I’m going to move more towards being a collector of video games who plays the ones he really enjoys, and I think that’s okay. I enjoy my current gaming lifestyle, and would rather dedicate as much time as possible to Modern Warfare 3 while owning some games that I’ll play later. What can I say, I’m now a video game collector. That sure beat baseball cards!

I left work during lunch, grabbed a slice of pizza, and then picked up Modern Warfare 3. Unfortunately, I had to stay late at work for an emergency, but as soon as I got home, I scarfed down dinner, quickly listened to Mrs. cmfl3x’s rundown of her day, pet my dog for 1 minute and BOOTED UP! Two hours and many deaths later, I finished my first taste of Modern Warfare 3: and it was good. Tiny spoiler warning.

An Old Friend
Modern Warfare 3 is really like seeing an old friend. Everything pretty much feels the same, but at the same time, there are enough subtle changes that it remains interesting. For starters, I really like playing on new maps. I can’t tell you right now whether I think the maps are balanced or well done, but it’s just fun to do the same things in a new environment. The maps are also hints about the single player campaign, which intrigue me! African militia? What???

Other than that, this is the Modern Warfare you know and love. The frame rate is sublime, the guns feel great, and there are a lot of different ways to play the game. It does seem like more people are running and gunning these days, but that might also be a product of all the n00bs who are out there right now.

I was worried initially that Modern Warfare 3 would feel different due to all the staff changes at Infinity Ward. Luckily, that doesn’t seem to be the case, the game definitely is delivering the same well polished multiplayer suite that the first two gave us. The chance to see a player’s prestige progress in the last four Call of Duty games is a nice touch as well.

New Touches
Even though everything is pretty much the same game, there have been some changes, which I won’t go into here since espion4ge outlined them on Tuesday. I will say that the changes seem positive to me for the most part. I like the idea of leveling up my guns, allowing me to focus on specific guns. My favorite change, however, is the different strike packages you can choose from, specifically the support package.

In the previous Call of Duty games, I’ve always felt a lot of stress when I’ve had six kills in a row sitting on seven. That stress was a lot of fun – it made things exciting, nerve wracking, and enjoyable all at the same time. Now that I’m more leveled down, I’m not sure I need that stress anymore. That’s where the support package comes in. Your kill streaks persist even after you die, which I am really enjoying – especially when you can unlock an advanced UAV (just like the SR-71) with 12 kills.

So far, all the new changes seem pretty good to me, they make the game fresh and don’t take away from the tried and true gameplay. The Elite website leaves a bit to be desired, but since I can’t check that stuff at work it doesn’t affect me too much anyway.

Parting Thoughts
The worst thing about Modern Warfare 3? I’m going out of town today and won’t be back until Monday. Everybody is going to level up without me! But yes, hopefully you’ve already purchased this game and are enjoying it as much as I am!

Longtime readers of this blog probably know by now that my plans get screwed up a lot. A LOT. I had planned to play Uncharted 3 for two days after release on Tuesday, but like a genius, I left it at work. So, unfortunately, I’ve only played through six chapters of the game – hit the jump for my impressions so far.

Run, jump, punch, shoot
The Uncharted Series has featured three main types of gameplay: climbing/running, punching, and shooting. Six chapters in, I’ve gotten to do all of these things. The core of Uncharted gameplay is here, and it’s more or less the same as it’s always been. Basically, it boils down to any trilogy – if you enjoy the previous two…

There are some nice tweaks to the standard fare, but one thing I found frustrating was a chase sequence early on the game. It was thrilling, but whenever I took a wrong turn, it would abruptly end or I would die. It’s one of those things that would feel awesome if it worked the first time, but it didn’t. It’s jarring to fall out of an adrenaline rush filled sequence like that. Luckily, the game reloads its numerous checkpoints very quickly, but trial and error still isn’t as fun. I don’t really play Uncharted 3 for the gameplay though, but for the story and feel of the game – does it deliver?

Indiana Drake and the Last Crusade
A lot of comparisons have been made between Uncharted and Indiana Jones and they’re very fair. Playing as Nathan Drake and hanging out with his companions feels like you are a real treasure hunter and it’s awesome. I’ve really enjoyed the setup for this game so far. Uncharted really has some well done story elements: I’m not totally sure where things are going, but I’m really curious to find out. It doesn’t open as well as Uncharted 2 (untoppable in my opinion), but it still starts strong.

I haven’t gotten to any major set pieces, but I know they are coming and I can’t wait. Really, I’m only playing this game for the story, I’m hoping for another enjoyable adventure with plenty of twists and turns. I don’t even think I’ve even met all the main players yet!

The final thing I’ll note is the presentation is excellent once again. Things look great, I was hanging off some window and took some time to marvel at the beauty of the night skyline in the background. The voice acting and character expressions are excellent – the motion capture has really paid off.

Honestly, you probably have already decided whether you are purchasing Uncharted 3 or not. So far, it hasn’t disappointed me. I’m sure at some point I’ll get annoyed at something, but right now, I just want to finish this post and get to playing it. Hopefully I’ll have a more detailed review in a week or two!

Unfortunately I don’t have time for a full post, but I wanted to share some quick impressions about FIFA 12, the latest in EA’s sports franchise. I bought the game to relieve some stress from my crazy life: unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out that way.

FIFA 12 is a lot of fun, and I’m having a great time playing it. HOWEVER, the game does not reduce stress as I had hoped. I was thinking, well, I just want to play an easy game where I don’t really need to think so I can just enjoy myself. Unfortunately, my body is not wired in a way where I can just play the game to enjoy myself. When I start a new game, I want to WIN.

The problem is, I don’t want to win if the computer is on the easiest setting. So instead I have set the difficulty to the medium level, a level in which I win some and lose some. The problem? Whenever I lose, it makes me pretty upset, and I get all worked up and end up playing another three or four matches. My goal to play FIFA 12 as a low stress game has completely backfired – every pass, tackle, and dribble makes me more tense, like watching real sports. Mrs. cmfl3x hated the game within about 15 minutes, because she said it makes me even more cranky and ornery. Woops.

In terms of actual gameplay, FIFA 12 is great. The AI is pretty serviceable for a sports game, it looks beautiful, and scoring goals is difficult enough to make you feel awesome when you do it, but easy enough that it doesn’t feel impossible. I don’t know much about soccer games, but the new tactical defending system that EA has implemented is supposed to be a real game changer. Whatever that means! I just am like, “kick ball into net, say yay, rinse and repeat.” It works pretty well.

One thing that bugs me about the game is it doesn’t seem as refined as I would hope. I was bummed out I couldn’t play in the Champions League (I guess that’s a PES thing), but what’s worse is there are long loading times between menus. What do you have to think about, video game? Just snap from screen to screen for crying out loud! Once you get in the game, there are tons of real life rosters to choose from though, so I’m not complaining too much.

The other complain would probably be the fact that true soccer fans probably will need to shell out money for DLC to get the full experience. I don’t totally know how it works because I don’t care, but there is some online team thing that you have to pay for, not to mention a code with the new game box that you need in order to play online. The nickel and diming continues, but this is EA, so I didn’t expect less. Luckily, I’m enjoying the game enough to not bother with online stuff – I’d get my butt kicked anyway.

All in all, I’m enjoying FIFA 12 a lot and it actually was taking up enough time that I decided not to buy Arkham City. I might start playing something else when Uncharted 3 comes out next week, but until then, I like kick ball in net. Download the demo if you’re interested, and you can kick ball in net too!

espion4ge and I don’t usually write about the same games, but since Gears of War 3 is the end of a pretty important trilogy, I figured I’d make the exception. It’s funny – I always anticipate the threequels more, but it seems like espion4ge always ends up enjoying them more than I do (see: Halo Reach). I don’t disagree with his review, Gears of War 3 is a fine game, but I felt the campaign lacking in points. Yes, it is probably the best Gears of War campaign to date, but I feel like overall the Gears of War series’ campaigns are weak in general. I know you don’t play Gears for plot, but I still found myself wanting more after I finished the campaign the other day.

A Fun, Enjoyable Romp
I’ll start with the enjoyable stuff first. Like espion4ge said, Gears of War 3 is a lot of fun to play. I had a lot of fun playing it on Normal, probably more fun than I had playing Gears of War 2. The nice thing about playing on Normal is you barely have to use the cover system at all. Well, I guess that’s nice depending on your perspective.

From where I was standing, it was a lot of fun. I just ran around shooting Locust/Lambent with no regard for my safety. Every once in awhile I ducked into cover, but after that I’d just jump out and run around again. Sometimes, when I got bored of that, I just ran from enemy to enemy chainsawing them. Yay!

I also agree with espion4ge: Gears of War 3 looks beautiful. It’s great to be walking around Sera, the game really does a good job of showing the effects the long war has had on the planet. From destroyed cities to underwater ruins, the game looks amazing. It’s also incredibly epic, and brings the trilogy to a satisfying conclusion. There are some aspects of the campaign that do bug me though.

Fetch!
I think the campaign was a little too long. What seems to make it long are pointless fetch quests. I spent an entire act looking for fuel. When it was over, and I finally reached my destination, I had one more thing I had to do: FIND FUEL. Not only did I feel like an entire act was wasted (though there were some powerful narrative beats in there), but it makes me feel like it’s all so pointless.

Part of me was like, well, maybe that’s what the game is trying to say: war is pointless, and you have to do pointless things in order to survive. If that’s the message they were trying to send, then I applaud them for trying to be so deep, but since the point is unclear, I don’t know. They could have done a lot better job driving the point home.

Up Close and Personal
The only thing that bothers me about the core gameplay is the number of enemies that get up in your face. In a cover based shooter, it’s weird having to deal with enemies that get right up against you. Making things worse in this game is the fact that the Lambent EXPLODE when you kill them, so if they are up in your grill, they blow up in your face even if you kill them.

Things didn’t get too bad on Normal difficulty, but I’ll be curious to see how espion4ge feels about it on Insane. In general, I hate fighting the Lambent just like I disliked fighting the Flood in Halo. I’m not sure why these games insist on bringing a third race into the mix – I was perfectly happy chainsawing Locust. Now if I want to chainsaw a Lambent I gotta worry about it literally blowing up in my face!

Still, a Great Game
For the record, I still really enjoyed the campaign, and definitely felt the storyline was a step up from the past. In Gears of War 2 they tried to make things feel a little more serious and 3 really takes the next logical step. I didn’t love it as much as espion4ge, but I’d still give it a solid B+. Also, the game deserves points for its ending – it wraps up the game, and the trilogy, in fine fashion. I don’t remember being impressed with the end of Halo 3, but Gears ends with a nice cinematic. I’m not sure if we’ll see Marcus Fenix again (probably), but if this is his last showing, he’s gone out on a high note. NICE!