holabendez blog

Played a lot of sequels (more often than not second sequels), and generally with video games sequels turn out better than their predecessors. That was certainly the case for many of the first sequels to games that had their second sequels released in 2011, however for the most part those second sequels were unable to top their predecessors. Gears of War 3 was the notable exception where the game just got even better.

A great conclusion to the story, loads of great action set pieces, and hands down the best multiplayer experience I’ve ever had. Before I’m done with this game I suspect I will have played more of it than any other game on my consoles, it’s just that good.

Top 5 Games I played in 2011:
1. Gears of War 3
2. Saints Row: The Third
3. Uncharted 3
4. Killzone 3
5. Dead Space 2

Favourite game of 2010: Mass Effect 2

As an ardent GTA fan I’ve never really been able to accept any of the imitators to the genre and particularly the Saints Row franchise which always seemed like the poor cousin. However in Saints Row: The Third, Volition have absolutely stepped up to the plate and delivered the perfect batshit crazy game of complete insane mayhem that GTA: San Andreas should have been.

Where Rockstar took GTA IV in the direction of realism and stronger character and storytelling, Saints Row: The Third goes down the path of all out mayhem, and does so with such amazingly fun results. One of my favourite games of the past year, without question.

Respect to Treyarch for creating a different narrative technique for their Call of Duty game but after Modern Warfare 3 I was kind of sick of military shooters. I think I need some time out from that kind of game. Also, Sam Worthington can’t do an American accent to save his life.

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with Modern Warfare 3, it is clearly a well made game with excellent production values. The problem is it is ultimately more of the same, a sequel to more of the same before it. Bringing nothing new to the table. At least it had a satisfying conclusion to its story.

An interesting gameplay mechanic involving shining a torch on your enemies before shooting them – a solid survival horror game with a solid story.

I was blown away by Uncharted 2, it was my clear game of the year for 2009, so I came into the third game in the series with high expectations. Overall, Naughty Dog delivers on a polished, absolutely beautiful looking game with incredibly high production values – but in the end, I still felt like I liked the second one better.

The bar was high, so to say that a game is not as good as Uncharted 2 by no means makes it a bad game, and Uncharted 3 is not a bad game, it is a very very good game. Unfortunately though, it feels like it is part of a franchise that has already peaked, and it had nowhere else to go. Whereas Uncharted 2 made me marvel at what could be accomplished in this generation of console games, Uncharted 3 had me feeling like we’d reached a limit and that something new and something innovated would be required in the next generation of games to truly take things to the next level.

All that said, if you own a PS3, you really should play this game. But not before you play Uncharted 2…

Always been a fan of the Gears of War series, and the third game ties up the trilogy brilliant. A polished, well refined game, with excellent graphics and tight gameplay. It also has immense replayability through all its online features. This is the first game where I’ve truly gotten into the online multiplayer side of things. I’m still playing the game to this day and I suspect I’ll be playing plenty more of it for weeks to come. A must have for any Xbox gamer, along with its predecessors.