Eighth Annual Helltown Beer Game of the Year

Later than normal with this post this year as a new job has sapped much of my energy (mentally and physically). I'm setting in, finally, now. Time to get this post off the ground.

The Helltown Beer Game of the Year is how I mark time here on this site.

We'll start with the job change. In-between jobs I took a sabbatical. Not a miniature month long fake one. I real, saved up my pennies, 4.5 month-long event. Darn near mid-career retirement. It'll take me a while to completely digest this time but I did end up writing a bit about it towards the beginning by way of a video game called "Lifeless Planet." Go check it out. I might not be giving it my "game of the year" award, but it does get my perfect game, perfect time award (were I to have one).

2015 can only go to one game: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. CD Projekt Red got it all right with this game all the way down to the physical copy containing a thank you card, poster, giant map and game manual.



The game is so far out in front of any other form of entertainment, it's almost too overwhelming to take it all in. Difficult to do, but I was floored by the visuals when I fired it up. From there you get wrapped up one of the early storylines called "The Bloody Baron" that mentally wisps you off to another land, place and time.

Nothing in this game is filler and checks off all my boxes. Engaging and coherent story has become one of the top check boxes for me. Maybe it's number 2, though. Right behind the "Does this game have a soul, does it have a feel, can I live in it."

Some games can be great fun but lack a soul. FIFA and the 2K NBA series come to mind, but sports games are an easy target. Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a perfect example. While last year I couldn't even finish "Unity," I did finish Syndicate. It wasn't without questioning what the heck I was doing.

The breezy gameplay and non-glitchy city of London helped. Everything just seemed slightly... off. It didn't feel like London or even England. And certainly not 1868.

It's interesting that I write this today as I just got finished watching the 1939 film "Goodbye, Mr. Chips." The movie is about the life and career of fictional boarding school teacher Charles Edward Chipping. It's a beautiful film that, at the start, takes place at the same time as "Syndicate," and shows me more about time and place in a single frame than the whole of this AC game. Such a missed opportunity.

Last two games worth mentioning, in regards to what I played this past year, are Fallout 4 and Until Dawn. I lost a lot of fun nights in the former until, ultimately, I permanently lost interest in the game. I'll likely go back to it, but I sort of just drifted away from it.

Until Dawn is a different beast. Glued me to my couch. It consumed me for a few short nights. I wrote a bunch about it over here. I love the game. Absolutely love it.

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Helltown Game of the Year Winners:

2015: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
2014: This War of Mine
2013: Last of Us
2012: Sleeping Dogs
2011: Skyrim
2010: Red Dead Redemption / Heavy Rain
2009: Uncharted 2
2008: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Seventh Annual Helltown Beer Game of the Year, This War of Mine

2014 marked a different kind of year for console focused game players as we saw all three of the major players - Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony - release new consoles to as little fanfare in the history of video gaming.

That's not to say it's a bad thing. It's actually good. Have we finally reached a day that gaming progress isn't marked by better graphics on bigger and badder TVs? The macro market says "no, we have not." But, while it might not show at the executive summary level, there has been a shift away from that to something more simple.

[I see PC folks nodding their head].

I've been through enough new console events to know that the first year is basically a dud. All the new hardware requires studios that have the money time, and more time, to adjust, learn and expand upon. One of the best things about the last generation was that it lasted so long. Longest in the relatively short history of gaming, actually. So what ended up happening is that developers had the tools and comfort level with the hardware. With that, we got some of the best games in a generation. It's something that this new generation had to teach me, I guess.

With that, my Game of the Year is This War of Mine. A comparatively simple game with a deeply moving and intense narrative. By intense - I mean downbeat. Solemn. Thoughtful. Terrible. Depressing.



Those words remind me of a story I once heard about an art exhibit. It was in a hallway and focused on typography. On one side was words like FAST, RUN, INTENSE, and the like. Active words. On the other side was the opposite. SLOW, WALK, and so on. What the exhibitors were looking for was if the words had any impact on the visitors. Indeed they did. People that were reading one side moved through faster than the other. The impact of simple language at work in a simple setting.

This War of Mine takes a look at war from a civilians perspective. Not a in the hero or godlike warrior form we normally see these days. Just in the for of normal people figuring out how to survive in a war torn city. The gameplay is resource driven. Go out and scavenge for supplies and risk healthy character to help sick ones? Or leave him home to stand guard through the night. This game tells you that there is no correct answer.

This game impacted me in another way, in that I had a employee on my one of my teams from an area, let's say, close to Bosnia. He didn't talk much about the war, nor what it was like. But I do know that he had to leave the US to go back to try and prove that, in fact, he did exist. Reason being, generations of records had been destroyed by a recent war in the region. There was nothing. He felt he was nothing and had to go back to prove he was a person that existed. The day he left I told him I should come out and visit... "visit what," he replied.

This War of Mine is unrelenting and. for anyone that tries it, has you questioning what exactly makes a game. To me, it taps into the incredible storytelling power of games that can hit you like a load of bricks. Not the made of foam type that movies have. The real kind. And each minute of this game has to working that out.

The game is about decisions and not skill / reaction time or big cut screens. This past year has seen games, game writers, artists and developers realizing that you don't need those things.

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MORE GAMES I ENJOYED



First up is one I'm still enjoying. It's NBA 2K15. Visual Concepts, Take 2 and 2K have outdone themselves with this series. EA's FIFA might be the glamour title in the world of sports right now but this game... this game. I don't know how many hundreds of hours I have on FIFA over the years but nothing is as jaw dropping as 2K15. It's an amazing technical achievement. I've put a good bit in to the "My Player" function of the game recently and while the story drifts after a bit the gameplay picks it up. It's the summit of sports role playing. And it's beautiful. The vine you see here is of my first NBA start. It took me a couple 10 day deals to make it work but I made it happen. Well worth pulling out the phone to record the vine.

Something else worth mentioning is The Wolf Among Us. It's an episodic game, storytelling based with quicktime elements. Technically, it started back in 2013 but most of the episodes showed up in 2014.Telltale games is the publisher and with "Wolf" has become the sort of go to place for episodic games (currently working with the Game of Thrones property, which is about the top of the top). I picked up "Wolf" because the time (1980s) period and the familiar stories (fairy tales). Expanding upon stories is nothing new (Into the Woods type stuff, the 80s Broadway type) but it's a game with choose your own adventure type elements. It works. Really well. A downbeat game that captures a 200 Cigarettes New York about as good as any piece of modern entertainment has. I'm back and forth on the art/animation but an early scene with a chain smoking member of the three little pigs in a shitty apartment will have you hooked.

THE DUD, THE ALMOST NOT A DUD

Assassin's Creed is a series that I like and had irrational high hopes for with Unity. It is a labored mess but I won't let it tarnish a series that consider to be entertaining (on the major platforms). Unity is the quintessential year one release on a new console. A beautiful mess. I found myself taking loads of screenshots and videos but as you progresses through the game it became a godawful mess. So much pretty and so little meaningfulness.

Right behind that I have Far Cry 4. A game coming on the heels of a game I fell in love with in 3. This year's version fine tuned the story while trying to meet the demands of a media that dumped on the "mighty whitey" narrative of the third game.

Four has it's moments. Well, moment. I guess. The famous Rochan "Advanced Chemistry" brick factory comes to mind. Far Cry has a special place with me but it's one that I keep at arms length. So much filler (that I enjoy immensely) with little else as far as story. As I was playing it, I was constantly thinking of what to write about it. Ubisoft fine tuned the story and offered up a playgound of fun. Maybe that should be a testament to the game. Part of me believes that. But the other part of me thinks that the story was just an expansion upon what was just a bit part in the Uncharted series (albeit a beautiful part).

Far Cry 4, for me, is the game that bridges a lot of gaming gaps in a new console year. It's pretty. Stable. And fun as hell. Just not a lot to sink my teeth into on the story side. The idea and foundation is there, just not the execution. Difficult to explain after spending most of my holiday with this game. It's great, but more needed (?).

Did I mention pretty? Also, it's Far Cry. Ultimately, the previous two editions of this game are superior in many regards but Four has enough to satisfy the old school adventure gamer in all of us.

With that, a good place to stop. Lots of good games out there these days and I play them all year only to dump it all here in a game of the year post. It's unfair really.

Anywho. So much to cover, but I'll leave it. I found a great list over at Kill Screen that I like for year end things. Happy gaming.

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Previous Helltown Game of the Year Winners:

2014: This War of Mine
2013: Last of Us
2012: Sleeping Dogs
2011: Skyrim
2010: Red Dead Redemption / Heavy Rain
2009: Uncharted 2
2008: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

The 6th Helltown Beer Game of the Year

Every year I pick my favorite video game of the past twelve months or so and 'tis time for it once again. This feature has become sort of how I mark time here at Helltown.

THE 2013 HELLTOWN GAME OF THE YEAR IS LAST OF US

Naughty Dog is a one of the handful of studios that seem to be doing it right and are on top of their game. Directors Bruce Straley, Neil Druckmann... Designer Jacob Minkoff... Artists Erick Pangilinan and Nate Wells... I want to list them all because of the impact this game had on me.

I've never finished a game and sat in amazement as all credits rolled, save for this one. A lot of times in games finishing it is more of a relief. An "alright, let's wrap this up already" type thing.

One of the great things about video games is that the good ones have a distinct feel that you can play around in. When done right, a game has a sort of fourth dimension over other mediums; gameplay. That, along with design, artwork, colors in Last of Us feel distinct and fresh even though the story of post apocalyptic earth his getting an extreme workout right now.

The main game dynamic is that of protecting something you perceive as not being able to protect itself. This isn't necessarily new but one that has never been mastered. In the case of Last of Us it is a little girl. You do, at different points in the experience play them both but you mainly control Joel.

Joel is a middle aged man who lost his daughter during the beginnings of the apocalypse (which, in this game is a fungus that overtakes the minds of humans making them crazy). Years and years after that, Joel ends up helping / taking cross country a girl named Ellie who is about his daughters age when she died.

The story choice to make the protagonist a 50-ish person is different and refreshing in that Joel is somewhat grumpy and showing that age. His history is hidden from Ellie. Joel hides it but it is an ever present plot point.



The video above has some of the hallmarks of a Naughty Dog game. Writing, story, artwork, animation... Oftentimes a story / cut scene spills over to the gameplay seamlessly in Last of Us and it never feels forced or out of place. You also are always aware of what is going on (in large AAA games the main story line can get lost, happens quite a bit).

Another game mechanic that worked extremely well was how dangerous the world around you felt. It is a rare game where you do not play a super man / godlike character. In Last of Us have to approach things with a plan or you will die. This tightened the survival, protection role you play to levels that sometimes had me turning off the game because of the intensity.

The ever present danger never really goes away but as you progress you can craft better tools to increase your chances in a fight or, at least, know when not to fight. Firing a weapon or getting tangled in a fist fight feels meaty, raw. Not mindless.

In this next video you'll get a really good feel for how the game plays. Much of it is like this. Again, the story is clear, objectives (get to the bridge) are simple and the environment is breathtaking.

Fair warning; this is a brutal scene in the game. It serves to show the impact of real actions not cartoonish ones that so often plague games.



The world in this game is alive and just about every character (friend or foe) is unique. None of what is happening above is mindless or out of place. Instead of 50 bad guys to worry about there are only a handful and they are just trying to survive as you are.

You'll again notice the banter between the two characters, this is not unusual as this is how the story is told and how you become invested in what is happening.

It's hard to classify Last of Us a landmark game or some sort of crowning achievement in gaming. There are great games coming out almost monthly now but this one stands above the rest last year.

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THE ALMOST 2013 GotY IS ASSASSIN'S CREED BLACK FLAG

"In a world without gold, we might have been heroes!" - Edward 'Blackbeard' Thatch

Assassin's Creed IV is a fantastic game that had to grow on me a little bit but just like any good work of entertainment and art, it did. There is so much worthwhile to do in this game it's nuts. It's also beautiful and gives you plenty of reasons pause. Like, physically pause and watch the sunset drifting in the middle of the Caribbean.

Producer Martin Schelling and Mission Director Ashraf Ismail started this project back in 2011, which explains a lot by way of the incomplete nature of ACIII, which I about consider to be the greatest game that almost was. What melted my heart about ACIII was the time period, story and artwork. It's an amazing, amazing game but it was not a finished product.

Something else that hurt the previous installment in this series was the jumping between past and near future. Nothing horribly wrong with jumping back and forth but the jumps were too harsh and disconnected.

I can see why now knowing that the next installment was getting a ton of attention because there was a lot of the story that was going nowhere. Another reason for the attention is because the game was also released on the Xbox One, the version that I played (am still playing).

There are parts of the AC series that still exist that maybe shouldn't. The jumping back in for in time still there but the story in the present has lightened up. Another thing I despised was the game asking me to rate each mission when completed. I realize that crowd feedback can make games more fun but I don't elements that take away from the immersion. Immersion is one of the greatest qualities in games.

Maybe part of me wanted to give ACIII game of the year last year but I just couldn't and am now wanting to give the award to a finished work in the same series. That could be part of it I suppose but shouldn't take away from how fun this whole series is.

PREVIOUS HELLTOWN WINNERS

2013: Last of Us
2012: Sleeping Dogs
2011: Skyrim
2010: Red Dead Redemption / Heavy Rain
2009: Uncharted 2
2008: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

OTHER NOTABLES FROM 2013

Football Manager 14 is probably my runner up, if I did such a thing. Along with it being insanely fun (and near on mandatory for anyone who writes about soccer) above all, it is a gamer's game. In fact, it was good enough that I did a full review of it over at Massive Report.

Next up would have to be Splinter Cell Blacklist. This is personal pick for me because I have a great, fun history playing this game with friends. Blacklist was a true return to Chaos Theory. There were many points in the game where I just had a huge smile on my face. Any game that does that is a winner.

Tomb Raider had a semi-reboot this year and did very well. The game is very fun and very similar to the Uncharted series of games. If there was one game to recommend as a surprise game, it's Tomb Raider.

Last game to mention this year is the big one: Grand Theft Auto V. It's a blast to play and well done. This one just seemed a little too modern for me. Too cynical. Difficult to put my finger on it but after Rockstar games like Red Dead Redemption and even LA Noire, this one seemed spiteful, and too many times not fun.

As a technical achievement, the GTA V world is nearly second to none. It's got everything, you can do everything. LA looks spectacular. Separating out three playable characters into what is basically each one of GTA's demographics was ambitious, but they pulled it off pretty well.

Could be that somewhere in there is part of the problem though. Suffers a bit from a disjointed story. The game just wants to be everything. All at once. The other problem with the game is that I can't think of anyone that I would recommend it too.

Hoping that Rockstar leans towards something a little more interesting in the next few years.

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All I got for now. Looking forward to a great gaming year in 2014. The great and mighty Mark McCracken sent me over a Ouya recently so looking forward to digging into that this year as well!

5th Annual Helltown Game of the Year

Time seems to be getting marked here at Helltown by this award I give out. 5 years on, it lives.

THE 2012 HELLTOWN GAME OF THE YEAR IS SLEEPING DOGS.

United Front Games and Square Enix London Studios developed this one. Poster by Tyler Stout.

I've found that with games often times it's when you play the game, where you are in life or maybe the time of year. Same with music and movies. Sleeping Dogs hit me right.

The two standout elements are environment and music. There is also some part of it that hearkens back to Shenmue save for the violence. It is lovingly meant to be akin to what the Hong Kong film industry churns out; Tom-Yum-Goong, Infernal Affairs (all of them), PTU and Full-Time Killer are the only movies I'm remotely familiar with but it doesn't take watching them to get it.

There is a lot going on in this game. I'm still taking in the soundtrack. It's absolutely immense.

NOTABLES

Another couple very good triple A games this past year are Far Cry 3, Max Payne 3 (still playing) and NBA 2k13 (FIFA players, fire that up and start asking questions of EA. NOW). Far Cry, in particular, deserves a call out. I wish the story continued down the path of insanity. There was a moment in this game, perhaps when having ritualistic sex in the sacred temple with the leader of the of the local island peoples, I thought... my word. The game really goes for it. It is to be admired.

Frustrating game of the year goes to Assassins Creed 3. Grr. There was so much this game gave me personally but just plowed through it all. The opening of this game is epic. You start as an Haytham Kenway, a memorable character, learn to love his aristocratic arrogance. All the pieces are here and it is, by far, the best representation of the east coast I've yet seen. I could live in the sandbox for sometime (I did). Damnit! I want to give this game of the year. It just get's 'jumpy'. Not just in story but in gameplay.

"Journey" for PS3 is a beautiful example of game making. It's 2-3 hours of walking towards a mountain. Play it. Love it. Say "EEPP" to strangers that will help you on your way.

My gem of the year is a 2003 game Xbox game called 'Freedom Fighters'. I was looking for a Red Dawn type thing and came across that. Save the USofA from Russians? Squad based action? Good stuff.

2012: Sleeping Dogs
2011: Skyrim
2010: Red Dead Redemption / Heavy Rain
2009: Uncharted 2
2008: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

MORE ON GAMES IN 2013

I'm not a TV person. I haven't been for quite sometime now. I keep thinking that will change. Games replaced it however many years ago. Outside of soccer/Cavs/Browns, if my TV is on it's because I'm playing a game. More creative and interesting things going on with games then what I see on TV, I reckon.

In 3's, Easy to Please. Game of the Year

Hard to believe this is occurring for the 4th time. Gotta say that 2011 was a little different, though. How so? My "game time" was supplanted by good scotch and scribbles on the Columbus Crew (as opposed what it use to be; gaming and, well... scotch).

Crew stuff towards the bottom if you don't like video games.

Got a mess of games in though. Missed a couple here and there, but for the most part had a good time with what I did play.

There were 3 game franchises that I kinda like that were on their 3rd game. Gears of War, Uncharted and Modern Warfare. I liked all three (still liking Uncharted: Drakes Deception right now).

Also, there were sports games that I picked up: EA's FIFA 12 and Madden 12. SEGA's Football Manager 12 and NBA 2k12.

I'm still collecting old games, and of those - a couple were pretty good. Konami's 2001 MLS Extra Time was interesting. Also a more recent cast away XBOX 360 game called Darkest Days that came out early in the 360s life. Good stuff.

A lot of great games played this year, but a couple stood out. Rockstar's LA Noire and Bethesda Softworks' Skyrim.

LA Noire is the type of game I'd like to see more of. It pulls the player in with familiar controls and feel but then takes them to a slightly different mental place. Slightly, yet boldly.

Skyrim is a fantasy masterpiece. It reaches that magical place between astounding game mechanics / play / artwork and my own imagination. I'm a sucker for games that allow me to create my own script. I read somewhere about a Skyrim player who played the game as a pacifist and only commanded other non-playable characters to fight his battles. In another story I heard about a player never using weapons and using only his fists.

Finally, my favorite. A player claiming to strip down naked whenever he took on a dragon in-game. No weapons, no armor, no magic. In the buff and Beowulf style.

For that? Etch it into Helltown Lore. Skyrim earns it.

2011: Skyrim
2010: Red Dead Redemption / Heavy Rain
2009: Uncharted 2
2008: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

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SPORTING SOCCER Notes and Bonus Crew Stuff

2K Sports and Visual Concepts has impressed me for the 2nd time(the other time being that 2k5 NFL thingy that I spent many hours with Bleeno playing). What 2k12 has shown me is how much further EA can go. I like FIFA 12. But it stands between itself. One side of the game is the ridiculous amount of time spent getting rosters and player ratings correct / balanced and the other side is creating amazing gameplay. Both those things work really, really well. But it is far from bringing them together and forming a deep experience. Insanely fun? Yes. Ultimately satisfying? ... just missing... something. Maybe why I play it so much. Searching for that missing whatever.

For a deep sports experience pick up Football Manager 12 for the device for which you are reading this blog. My Lordy. Interesting to note: FM 12 includes 141,000 players from all over the world. Real players. Meticulously rated and graded.

Players in the Costa Rican (new Crew signing Olman Vargas-es-as former;) league do not make that massive list. I'm excited for any international signing coming to town, don't get me wrong. Just don't make assumptions based merely on the fact they are from outside the boarders of the United States. Can you dig it?

Hope so. Negligible talent washed out in a 'last picks first' system that rewards mediocrity, yet somehow expects greatness. Hm, maybe learn from the Austrailians. Sell them players, MLS. Shake that maker.

Ream, Le Toux, Rogers. I said. Can you dig it.

Time for that Game of the Year

I've been over thinking this one. There are a couple stand out games that I played in 2010 for sure.

I had the best time with FIFA 11. What a great experience I am having with this game. Its online creation system almost made it a game worthy of my pick. But no matter how you slice it... still a sports game. I think if more statistics were available I would pick it. As it is you get things like how much distance a player covers and time of possession during the game, but once out they seem to disappear. Goals, assists, yellow and red cards stick. Which is great, but still lacking. I want more!

I picked up both big 'shooters' of the year; Call of Duty: Black Ops and Medal of Honor. MoH was a superior game, by far. I wanted to write about it more but used up all my writing on 1st person shooters on the failure that was Black Ops. It's strange that MoH got destroyed in reviews and Black Ops got all the good scores. What a joke. The Medal of Honor game is recommended.

Mass Effect 2 also made an appearance for me. I've only scratched the surface of this one though. A couple other games I didn't get to play this year were Deadly Premonition and Nier. Premonition is one I will check out.

So where does that leave me? Red Dead Redemption and Heavy Rain.

...

Heck, it's my world here. I'll give it to both.

With the sight edge to Red Dead and the "you have to experience it" tag to Heavy Rain.

2010: Red Dead Redemption / Heavy Rain
2009: Uncharted 2
2008: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare