Tomb Raider: The best game so far this year

What I expected:  Due to pretty good marketing I was expecting a pretty solid adventure game that reboots the franchise with the desire to make Lara a person and not a sex object.

What I got:  All I expected and more.  Definitely my favorite action adventure game so far.  Solid adventuring (hey that's a word!), fantastic writing, fantastic everything really.  I found myself wanting to take screen shots of nearly every environment.  Only Bioshock Infinite makes me want to take more screenshots (B:I review tomorrow!).  

What I liked:  The entire single player campaign.

*  I was especially pleased with the writing.  Lara really does go from being a frail little girl who gets her ass kicked to a predator who is out to save her friends.  My thoughts towards her evolved as her character did.  This is some impeccable pacing and writing.  All the dialog felt like real  things people would say.  I never rolled my eyes.

*  Art Direction:  Everything has a sense of mystery to it.  The environments are all stellar.  I really don't get how they actually made half of these environments on the PS3.  There are some areas you come back to, and they manage to change them to make them interesting again.  Lara especially is incredibly beautiful.  Her texture work, animations, and voice acting is perfect.  I literally can't wait to see what the team comes up with next.

*  Puzzle design:  Similar to the Lara Croft xbla game, they do an excellent job of designing puzzles.  Finding out WHAT to do is the challenge  not HOW to do it.  They have some great visual ques, white paint basically means you can climb me.  This actually doesn't pop out of the environment and does a great job of providing information.

What I didn't like:  Multiplayer.  It's not bad per se, it is just incredibly mediocre.  It doesn't help that the mp crowd on PC was basically dead on day 1.  I was never able to join a ranked game of any kind.  Nor was I able to find a game (ranked or not) in one of the game modes.  Rescue?  I can't help but think if they wouldn't have spent any money on MP would they have broke even?

Final thoughts:   Amazing game, and if it wasn't for Bioshock Infinite, being so good, I would say Tomb Raider is easily the best game I've played this year.  I can't wait for the sequel, but I do have concerns about how they'll evolve Lara as a character.  Character development doesn't tend to happen much in non-RPGs, and it was a very enjoyable point to me.

How much did I pay:  $45

How many hours did I play:   21

Dollar per Hour:  $2.14

How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight:  $60

Why?   Simply put I have no problems paying $60 for a game that engages me for 12 hours.  I think I put about 10 hours into MP.  Heavily recommend.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

What I expected:  A generic puzzle game cashing in on Lara Croft's boobs.

What I got:  An incredibly amazing game.   A game that every level and game designer should play.

What I liked:  The game is incredibly well thought out.  They have a great interactive tutorial level (first level naturally), which does a good job of introducing the very basic tools in your tool box.  It slowly introduces advanced movies, but literally everything in the game is basically explained in the first level.  THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE TUTORIALS.

They have side objectives for each level, and when the time comes for you to achieve that objective they do a simple pop up reminding you, and informing you, that this is the area to do it.  This is beyond fantastic.  This puts a focus on solving the objectives and off of second guessing yourself (Did I just miss my opportunity?).  Every non boss level has an objective for exploration, collect 10 red skulls.

The puzzles are all very unique and fun.  The objective is almost always on the screen (when it's not it makes sense for it not to be).  They hardly repeat the same puzzle, and create some unique timing puzzles too.

The timing was perfect.  I beat the game in 7 hours (probably close to 8), and I have alternative objectives still to do (in the interest of time I am moving onto the next game).   The time felt right, the pace of the game was great.

The art direction is solid, but nothing crazy unique.  They do hit the feeling of a Mayan Temple on the head though.  The last boss fight does a great example of marrying game design and vfx.  The effect for the spike traps is perfect.  It's simple, informs you of exactly when the spikes will pop.

What I didn't like:  I honestly can't think of anything to say here.

Final thoughts:  Great little game that needs to be played by every designer.

How much did I pay:  $0.00  I got it for preordering the new Tomb Raider game.

How many hours did I play:   7

Dollar per Hour:  $0

How much would I pay for this game in perfect hindsight:  $20.

Why?  Great well thought out game that deserves a lot more money than zero.  I'm not quite sure how they could have fixed that though.  If they make another one, it will be a day one purchase for me.

Cortex Command

Quick post, because I spent so little time with this game.  I'm forgoing my usual format to just explain why I only spent 20 minutes with this game.

Why did I only spend 20 minutes?  Simply, no effort was done to introduce the player into the game.  The tutorial is incredibly simplistic, and only teaches you controls, not themes of the game.  I started the single player game, and I literally couldn't figure out how to do a single thing other than end the turn.  I clicked everything.  The tutorial doesn't cover this screen in the slightest.  I know other people like this game, but I just don't have time to put up with games that don't have time to teach its players the first screen.  Really annoying.  Moving on to a game that is exactly the opposite.

Money Wasted:  $1.00