The original BioShock was a revolutionary shooter that engrossed gamers in its environment unlike any game before it and few after it. The impression left by the first BioShock set the bar high for Irrational's next entry in the BioShock series. In trying to reach a broader audience, Irrational took BioShock Infinite away from the revolution it could have been and made it more of an evolution. The setting of Columbia and the excellently programmed AI companion Elizabeth are Infinite's clear strengths, but the game is held back by a considerable amount of key flaws such as the last three hours of the game being a relentless slog of dispatching waves upon waves of enemies, the unnecessary additions of the Boys of Silence and Sirens, the shoe-horned stealth sections and the pretentiously convoluted ending. The most aggravating flaw is how Irrational forgot the tenets of exploration and freedom that makes Infinite stand out from the all the other first-person shooters in the most crucial hours of the game. Those last hours can make or break one's enjoyment with a game. In BioShock Infinite's case, it severely derailed my enjoyment of the game.
First things first, The Last of Us and I have never been on the same page. While people were crying to the heavens that it was the best game showed at the Video Game Awards, E3 or whatever other video game show, it never impressed me. I surely wanted to see what all the fuss was about, but it looked too derivative of Naughty Dog's Uncharted series. When I saw all the excellent reviews The Last of Us got upon its release, I was caught up in the hype and wanted to see if Naughty Dog proved me wrong. Well they did not. Do not get me wrong, The Last of Us is a good game. It is not the greatest game of this past generation that everybody has been labeling it. The game has some good ideas and an incredibly emotional story, but those two strengths alone do not allow a game with considerable technical and pacing problems to get a pass. As much as Naughty Dog tried to engross me in the post-apocalyptic world of The Last of Us, I was taken out from my AI companions running head-first into the strongest enemies in the game, known as clickers, with no reaction from said enemies or hunting for the extremely small triangle button prompt to tell me which objects I can interact with. While there were some great moments like the entire opening two hours and the Winter section of the game, I never felt much emotional attachment to the characters or my actions in the game. The Last of Us is more on par with Naughty Dog's efforts on the first Uncharted. There is some good stuff in The Last of Us, but there needs to be more refinement before The Last of Us can truly grasp its full potential.
One of the largest crossovers in video game history, Project X Zone was high on this writer's radar especially considering many never thought the game would release outside of Japan. Mixing the biggest franchises from Capcom, Namco and Sega into one strategy game was mind-boggling. Project X Zone's combat was incredibly unique. While you moved units on a grid-like battlefield like any other strategy game, the combat was more in line with a fighting game where you choose different combos and juggle enemies to cause the most damage. The combat along with the craziness of the plot gave me hours of enjoyment. Sadly those hours of enjoyment did not last for the entirety of the game. Around the 25 to 30 hour mark, the mechanics and story grow rather tiresome and repetitive. The developers at Banpresto and Monolith Soft could have easily cut down the game by at least 5 hours or more because there are plenty of chapters that feel like padding. Much like BioShock Infinite, Project X Zone's last few hours became a boring slog through an ever increasing amount of difficult enemies. Thanks Project X Zone for disappointing me and killing the left trigger on my 3DS.
Ever since the release of Sonic Colors, Sonic the Hedgehog has been on a roll. The Blue Blur has been slowly but surely gaining back the gamers lost from the onslaught of horrible Sonic games released during the mid to late 2000s. With the announcement of Sonic becoming a Nintendo exclusive, Sonic Lost World looked to be in a prime position to continue Sonic's upward trend. All Sonic needed was the solid mechanics introduced in Colors and refined in Generations to be brought into this new Mario Galaxy and Sonic Xtreme inspired world of Sonic Lost Worlds, but Sonic Team decided against it. What we got was a mixed bag. Some levels exude creativity and bring the functionality to match it. Other levels are exactly the opposite as they are poorly designed and can induce high amounts of frustration and possibly rage. Sonic Lost World is not the total disaster the media paints the game to be. Honestly, Sonic Lost World is an all-around decent game, but fails at improving the standing of Sega's mascot and it is hard to forgive the game for that major failure. Lost World was Sonic Team's opportunity to show that the aging Blue Blur can still hang with the platforming giants of the modern era. Sadly, Sonic Team missed their mark and Sonic fans are left with a decent Sonic game instead of a great Sonic game.
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