Top 7 Games of 2013 - Tom Parkin

7. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Firstly, Far Cry 3's expansion makes its way into my list due to its beautiful Tron-like charm which creates a fantastic homage to the 1980s. If Michael Biehn's voice acting isn't a good enough selling point, the sheer amount of cheesy sci-fi film references make this title irresistible for a film fanatic – the handshake from Predator and the Brad Fiedel-esque soundtrack being some obvious examples (I could honestly go on). The gameplay differs little from Far Cry 3 itself, despite being slightly more action packed and over the top, oh yeah, you can fight dragons capable of, well... firing laser beams from their fucking eyes! The narrative is filled with blatant cliches, addressing itself as one of Blood Dragon's strong points, and reinforces the thought that it actually made me laugh – the opening tutorial chapter proves this since it acts as a pastiche towards modern tutorials in general. Overall Blood Dragon presents itself as a ball of cheese mighty enough to clog the largest of arteries, despite clocking at 4 hours, this expansion is a no brainer for any cult collector.

6. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

I love a good hack 'n' slash, I love Metal Gear Solid, combine the two and you get this succulent slice of pie. Although an unnecessary tangent in the Metal Gear series it provides us with a new, more action based orientation as cyborg ninja Raiden (a.k.a. Lightning Bolt, a.k.a Jack The Ripper) sticks it to the man with his high-frequency blade. Metal Gear Rising deserves a spot on my list as it is solely all-around fun; it's quite obvious this entry can't be taken as seriously as previous games in the series – but Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is self aware, its slow motion blade mode mechanic, plus the J-pop soundtrack grants this title an explicit anime feel. Also the thought of slicing the hell out of a Metal Gear Ray within the first 20 minutes of gameplay redeems Raiden in my top ten coolest MGS characters; as well as which, on another positive note, Metal Gear Rising doesn't spoil too much of the franchise for newcomers.

5. Papers, Please

It isn't very often when an indie game such as Papers, Please is thrown out there, I can only describe it as... different. The premise depicts the player as an immigration officer in a fictional country within a dystopian society. This immigration officer essentially has the choice whether to let immigrants enter the country or not; but to determine a choice, the player would need to check specific details on the travel papers provided by these immigrants. This game is highly addictive, as the main task isn't just to act on harsh judgement, but to provide money for your starving family – who can actually fall ill and die, and currency is scarce – it's grim, I know - especially when your shift is cut short due to a terrorist bombing. Accompanying such a cruel tone, Papers, Please has some rather subtle dark humour; for example, a specific male individual visited the checkpoint numerous amount of times, in attempt to trick me into believing his home made travel papers were legitimate, that's right, Jorji Costava, I'm talking about you. The whole package may not appear to be much, but give it a try, Papers, Please will make you feel like an absolute arsehole – in a good way.

4. Metro: Last Light

My, this is a treat. Being the post-apocalyptic fanatic that I am, Metro: Last Light acts as the crème de la crème for such an experience. Taking after its predecessor, Metro 2033 (based on the novel by Dmitry Glukhovsky), this game sets the player into the shoes of genocidal protagonist Artyom, who must finish the dirty work that he started (see Metro 2033) by eliminating the last 'Dark One' in existance (a Dark One is basically the arguable 'next step' in the evolution of man - all caused by radiation, of course). To achieve this nonetheless, Artyom will be plunged into the darkness of the abandoned metro tunnels, encountering Nazis and communist Red Line Troops, not forgetting the hordes of mutants and deadly plagues in his path. Last Light is a ghastly, yet beautiful look into the shadows of society – premised on the idea of Russian civilians taking shelter in the metro tunnels from the fires of nuclear war; it really emulates a feeling of desperation, on top of the sparse supplies and the lack of breathable air on the surface – there is still war, the threat of biological warfare is evident, even bullets act as currency – there is no escape from a bleak world as such. On a side note this title improved greatly from its predecessor; from its tightened stealth and shooting mechanics to a more fluid narrative pace, Last Light remains faithful to its survival horror origins.

3. Bioshock: Infinite

I'm a great fan of the first Bioshock game, after hearing of a sequel (besides Bioshock 2 – which was just okay) I was curious as to what direction the series would go. Infinite subverts the creepy shades of dark blue from a dystopian Rapture into a rich, heavenly gold-like tone for more of a utopia - Columbia. Following this, we are presented with a mind-blowing story centred around two characters designed far better than those from previous games. After completing this beauty I immediately fell in love; whether I mean Elizabeth or the game itself, I'll let you decide. Bioshock Infinite ditches its horrific routes of a failed underwater society in order to present us with a flourishing, floating city filled with bigoted views of white supremacy, racial segregation is immediately introduced as a problem as protagonist Booker must choose whether to perform a racist act or resist it. This brings me to my next point, the first segment of the game did a great job of sucking the player in, my entry into Columbia felt extremely divine with assistance of the beautiful soundtrack. From here on we are taken on a sky-rail-roller-coaster of a ride leaving us powerless to resist as Infinite explores the theory of the “multiverse”. Sure, my writing is a seemingly unstructured jumble, but it just so emphasises how weakened at the knees I feel after even touching this.

2. Grand Theft Auto V

I wasn't all with the hype for release of this originally, however I caved in and purchased it soon after seeing reviews as it appeared to be that impressive. Best described as an immersive experience and a satire on how we perceive our society, I could absorb myself into this entry of the series for hours without progressing through the main story. With a map appearing to be larger than any other Grand Theft Auto game (being of the sandbox genre I found there were little bugs whilst it maintained something visually spectacular), there was always plenty to do; whether to proceed with the usual 'kill prostitute and get money back' scheme, enter a triathlon or simply get high, GTA V is a significant step up from the likes of San Andreas (which was formerly the most successful game of the series). On top of this we're introduced to three loveable protagonists with intertwining story arcs - involving (at some point or other) adrenaline-pumping heists on banks, jewellery stores and even government agency headquarters which was all fun to play. There's probably a lot that I haven't mentioned, but after spending over thirty hours in this realist fantasy I've easily justified why Grand Theft Auto V earns the number two spot.

1. The Last of Us

2013 has been generous for its release of post-apocalyptic games, as three of my entries fall under this category. In my own opinion, The Last of Us defecates on pretty much anything set after a nuclear war or zombie epidemic from a great height; this is the most realistic and gritty post-apocalyptic video game I've ever played, believe me, my biased opinion isn't too far from the truth. You're thrown into the shoes of Joel, whose sole duty is to protect fourteen year old Ellie from the hazards of such a harsh reality after two decades of a viral epidemic. Ellie is believed to be a potential cure for Cordyceps. What I find interesting is that the fungal condition is actually legitimate, well, at least for ants – it acts as a 'what if?' theory, characterising a world which could be if Cordyceps can affect a human being. Anyhow the gameplay itself isn't centred around that of a typical zombie/infection game, but it also concentrates on the non-infected. I'm relieved that Naughty Dog didn't ruin the Cordyceps-ridden infected by bringing too many “special infected” classes into the equation; in other words they didn't knock off the Left 4 Dead franchise, and retained the game's realism by establishing these special infected as different stages of the evolving fungal virus. Furthermore this Playstation exclusive masterpiece grants a true sensation of struggling for survival on top of a story designed to both break and soothe the human heart. Experiencing a middle-aged former-father learning to love again after losing his daughter 20 years prior is a great excuse to leak some man-tears. After completing my first playthrough on the 'hard' difficulty I decided to proceed to the 'survival' mode - which I heavily recommend for true immersion; as the game is disabled of its “hearing mode”, rations and ammo in addition are scarce and the whole survival horror vibe is enhanced. This so forth goes to prove that The Last of Us is probably one of my favourite games of all time, if not - THE.

The Walking Dead (2012) Review - Tom Parkin

*SPOILER INFESTED*

The father-son or father-daughter approach seems to be the most effective way in provoking emotional attachment in post-apocalyptic fiction; Cormac McCarthy's The Road pulled it off, Naughty Dog's The Last of Us executed it perfectly, and I'm glad to say that Telltale's The Walking Dead nailed it. This game essentially falls under the 'point and click' genre (Telltale's speciality) and is delivered through five episodes – all of which I've recently managed to plough through. It's a shame for me to say that I've neglected this title for so long as I'm not exactly a massive fan of the TV Series, sure, it's okay – but that's all. On the other hand I'm a huge, HUGE obsessor for anything Post-Apocalyptic, but AMC's The Walking Dead feels more like a soap opera with the occasional zombie. I'll just go and say it – it's overrated, this is predominantly down to the fact that I can't find myself attached to any of the characters. Anyhow, Telltale's The Walking Dead doesn't seem to have any similarity with the show, and that is probably for the better.

We start our story spectating Lee Everett, a convicted murderer being escorted to prison in a police vehicle. About five minutes into this ride a zombie (or "walker", as they like to call them) conveniently causes the car to crash and Lee manages to escape with a mere leg injury. Soon after this he meets Clementine, an eight year old girl in isolated hiding from the prevailing plague; Lee and Clementine then set off out into the world with the hope of finding help and supplies.

It doesn't take long for the duo to encounter survivors along their journey, some stay with them, others abandon them or fatally meet their demise. Most of this is down to the player to decide; as a point and click game, you wouldn't expect much in the way of action, but to my surprise I was forced to make rapid life changing decisions in a matter of seconds – in my opinion this is one of the strongest points of the game.

The general gameplay is significantly varied, some segments which allow the player full control over Lee's movement combined with virtual camera angles reminded me vaguely of Silent Hill; whereas other portions incorporated with stealth gameplay seemed to share a similar kind of vibe with The Last of Us.

A specific part of the choice making mechanic I really loved was the thought of volunteering to sever Lee's recently bitten forearm in the fifth episode, it actually gave me a certain degree of hope that he'd pull through. Nevertheless it didn't change a thing as Lee was growing weaker through the progression of the episode, part of me was in denial – telling myself that it was due to blood loss, but in the end my hopes were shattered as I faced up to the fact that he didn't have long to live, and that is what the game was really good at. I have never found myself so attached to fictional characters like this, ironically I was really grief-stricken by the death of Duck, that annoying little prick who was burdened with no guilt whatsoever for the death of Hershel's son Shawn in Episode 1.

I mostly feel a great amount of attachment towards Clementine as she is probably the most important plot device; of course she represents untainted youth and innocence, but the primary reason for her existance has to be the concentration on her relationship with Lee. He immediately steps in as her father figure the instant they first meet, and all because of Clementine, Lee finally has a means to function up until his dying breath to keep her well trained for the outside world as well as love and cherish her on a personal level. Lee's old life was practically over as soon as he was arrested in the pre-apocalypse, but we all witness his re-birth as this societal disaster occurs. However morbidly suicidal the end of the series left us, it was also poetically beautiful as Lee had served his function to maintain the safety of Clementine, concurrent with which, the child grows up since she has no choice to. The post-credit cutscene deeply reminded me of (one of my favourite films) The Road – the thought of a lone child encountering strangers in the wasteland, unknowing whether to be trustful really gets my blood pumping - to some extent the two mediums possess the same design in both story and character development.

Moving on, the general visuals stood out immediately to me; I'm filled with intrigue how Telltale adopted a display which appeared to be somewhat comic book-esque with a slightly exaggerated spectrum yet retaining 3D. Due to this I'm hit with a surge of relief that Telltale didn't go for a look of realism, this makes blatant sense as the game is supposedly more inspired by its comic book counterpart as opposed to the TV show – to that I am thankful. For this reason, I overlooked the small fraction of graphical textures being a tad underdone.

Coinciding with the gameplay – the physical control scheme lacks any form of complication. The A, B, X and Y buttons serve as on screen prompts for picking a line of dialogue during spoken discourse as well as quick time events devised for the more action oriented sequences – thus giving this game the feel of an interactive TV show.

I can gladly confirm this masterpiece of narrative innovation as an emotional ride inside out. Filling the boots of Lee Everett helped me comprehend the many traumas involved in maintaining the sanity of the surviving group as well as his own. Continually strained with my decisions, I was well and definitely filled with regret along with fear for both past and future events. This title is a type of horror fiction in its own right, not for the hordes of flesh-hungered walkers, but for the more psychological fear of people. The sheer unpredictability and impulsive nature of the featuring characters compelled me to become extremely cautious with my trust, the journey forced me to adapt to such bitter social conditions that it had indeed shaped me to the point where I actually questioned the definition of 'mercy'. I heavily advise to any fanatics of post-apocalyptic fiction or comic books in general to give this slice of craftsmanship a try; as aforementioned, post-apocalyptic fiction is guaranteed to work successfully so as long the protagonist has something to lose besides his long gone possessions in the shell of a world that once was, like a son or daughter figure. The Walking Dead has a great amount of replay value, I'm quite keen on the idea of starting the story afresh whilst experimenting with alternative decisions before the release of the sequel. In conclusion, this astounding artwork has an undying talent for the involuntarily exposure of our inner schoolgirl, tears will be shed.

9.5/10 - Smashing!

Far Cry 2 (2008) Review - Tom Parkin

I'm aware of how dated this title is for a video game, but I simply couldn't resist giving it a review. I'm fairly new to the Far Cry series after only recently playing Far Cry 3 along with its standalone expansion Blood Dragon, however each entry to the series has nothing to do with one another in terms of narrative or setting – so I'm trying my best not to make this review a full on comparison between each game. Firstly the title in discussion is an open world first person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal (for those who aren't aware, this is the same company which brought us Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia); it throws the player into the setting of a civil war in which two factions, the UFLL (United Front for Liberation and Labour) and the APR (Alliance for Popular Resistance) are pitted together under a collapsed government of a fictional African state. On top of this the game objects the player to track down and eliminate the notorious arms dealer known as “The Jackal”, no other hints are given. As the game world itself it insanely huge at 50km squared, the player is provided with a map and GPS system which works in realtime as the avatar physically holds the two items without the game pausing (giving the option to find scattered diamonds using the GPS to be used as in-game currency in order to purchase weapons and upgrades), this already starts the game off with a tone of realism.

On the topic of visuals, I perceive this title as graphically astonishing for its time; the gritty colour pallet of at least fifty shades of brown makes one feel well and truly immersed into a decrepit and desperate world filled with conflict. It would also be worth noting the quality of the fire mechanic, which was considered revolutionary for its time (and as quoted on the box “the most realistic fire ever seen in a game”); after playing video games at least five years more visually advanced, I must admit it isn't bad - witnessing an infernal bush fire in an arid savannah is a stunning sight to witness. The mechanic also allows these flames to spread to trees or other wooden structures, providing a sincerely convincing simulation of a serious natural hazard.

The main gameplay is presented through two core mechanics, which are driving and shooting; in fact there isn't a significant amount of variation – drive, shoot, obliterate, that's right – the player will need to travel from point A to point B to either terminate a specific person or blow up a certain object.

Already we can see the limitations of the gameplay design in spite of the vast openness of its map. That said, it's never as easy as a casual drive to point B, the player will often be forced to abandon their vehicle in order fend off an oncoming attack from the enemy – and it is safe to say that it will leave some battle scars. The thrill itself is in surviving such a hostile world given with the fact that there is danger around each corner, this is what I love most about the game, it punishes you in the sense that it virtually spits acid in your face as it teaches you to kill or be killed.

As an example I'd often find my health draining rapidly as I struggle to escape one of the many inevitable gunfights I'd encounter; after using my remaining morphine syringes the game provides the option to heal oneself in several excruciating ways, from plucking a bullet straight from the wound to snapping a dislocated limb back into place, I soon learned that the battlefield was a desperate place to which survival was rewarding in itself.

Another great example would be the weapon conditioning mechanic, guns would jam on a regular basis and occasionally break in the middle of a skirmish - it truly granted a sense of realism, the kind of which most modern shooters fail to utilise. This mechanic would effectively stricken me with with panic and adrenaline, thus compelling myself to feel as vulnerably helpless as a crippled turtle lying on its back – and this eventually became a routine for me.

Additional mechanics include the protagonist contracting malaria right from the beginning; giving the player no choice but to perform delivery tasks in order to be rewarded with pills, this medicine however wears off after roughly forty five minutes in realtime forcing the player to stay on their feet. During my play-through I was in favour of this mechanic as it reinforces the idea of survival, as well as acting as a reminder that the UFLL and the APR in conjunction with The Jackal weren't the only present threat.

There isn't much to say about the controls of Far Cry 2 as they are fairly typical to that of a modern shooter. My only complaint is with the driving mechanic – which can only be described as clunky; the vehicle itself is indecisive with its sensitivity, often under-shooting I plunge head first into a ditch and over-shooting the corner, finding myself crashed into a tree with some idiot trying to ram me down as I attempt to exit the vehicle; due to this I'd excessively exclaim “fucking bullshit!” at my TV, hastily shutting down my console after being run down by an enemy vehicle (which may I add – is an instant kill) and having to revert to an earlier save file from at least thirty minutes prior. Even the smallest object on the side of the road could cause the vehicle to come to a complete halt, as opposed to simply slowing it down; for example sometimes I'd find my car sticking to the tiniest of boulders, meaning that I'd have to inconveniently continue my journey on foot – apart from this nothing stood out as a concerning issue.

I purposefully kept the narrative to one side as I found it the weakest part about this game, it wasn't bad – just not great. To begin with, the story progression felt extremely tedious; as aforementioned, the core mechanics of the game have their limitations, after playing roughly twenty five missions of repetition I felt little to no attachment to any characters, most of which were non-memorable – with the slight exception of The Jackal – he was kind of a badass, but apart from this he didn't have much of a personality. I also wasn't a particular fan of stepping into the shoes of a silent protagonist (it's a pet peeve of mine – silent protagonists are usually intended to be ambiguous, and to make the player feel more immersed – I on the other hand believe it to be a lazy method of designing a character); at the start of the game the player is told to pick from a range of avatars from diverse backgrounds; I decided to choose the Irish guy (his name is easily forgettable and is never mentioned throughout the game) thinking that it would make a difference with the way in which the story was set out – how wrong I was. I was quite disappointed about this, and due to the silent protagonist approach, there was obviously no character arc.

It wasn't all such a let down; the third act of Far Cry 2 gave off an Apocalypse Now vibe as I plunged into the lush, jungle-like area named “The Heart of Darkness” (which so happens to be the title of a book of which Apocalypse Now is based upon – I hope that was a deliberate reference); as well as this the player can have the option to choose one of two endings, but this didn't really make much of a difference as the outcome is virtually the same in either one of them and it isn't the most climatic of endings. Personally, I didn't feel much of a build up towards the fate of The Jackal or the protagonist, due to my lack of connection with the both of them.

Wrapping this up to a conclusion, I was fairly satisfied with Far Cry 2 – with the exception of its consistent flaws. On the contrary I can't be too mad at Far Cry 2; given the fact that Far Cry 3 had enhanced its mechanics and narrative in various ways I honestly perceive its predecessor as my preferred game of the series. On a scale of recommendation, this game is definitely worth a try for those who are willing to try a decent and unique shooter on the market, the only catch being - they must possess superhuman patience and the unnatural desire to perform the same task over and over. This is a decent game for having an impressive ingenuity in engaging the player in a severely bitter society – or at least what is left of it.

7/10 - Good!