Haven't played any new games, only new to me and some retreads. I finished the Ezio Collection of Assanssin's Creed for Xbox One and just finished Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag for a second time. I'm debating whether or not to do the same with Rogue. After playing AC 1 through Rogue I have to say AC 4 is my favorite. For one, it's not really an AC game, it's a pirate game in an AC skin. The historical fiction is one of the most entertaining and well crafted of the series and the gameplay is on the easy side of the spectrum, but not without its challenges. I lost interest in AC in general after 3. What a disappointing pile of crap that game was overall. I spent more time doing challenges and hunting than bothering to progress the story which was half-assed and reaked of untapped potential. And the ending, good lord. Why build up Desmond for 5 games only to kill him? I guess they had no idea how to bring the game to the present and they just wanted to keep exploring fantastical pasts. I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I guess that's where the two new games differ, Origins and Odyssey. You are ACTUALLY in the past. Like I said, stopped playing after Rogue and by most accounts I'm not missing out on much. I'm going to get the DLC for AC 4 just to continue pirating haha.
Downloaded Tembo the Badass Elephant while it was free for Gold. What an incredibly entertaining game. pretty simple and straightfoward gameplay and mechanics and it goes from piece of cake to OMG what did I just get myself into, really quick. OK, not impossibly hard, but it does spike up. I'm on the last level and just can't break through , glad I got it, I give that last level the ocassional try so, one day.
Progressed a little further in Borderlands the Pre-Sequel. Had gotten stuck on Tycho's Ribs, but finally made it to the elevator to the vault. Problem is I have no money and I still feel my weapons and gear are way underpowered to take on the challenge ahead. Might go grind out some money and gear before moving on.
A friend of mine gave me some of his old 360 games long ago saying they were "must plays." Some may have been upon release like Condemned: Criminal Origins. This game blows. I'll probably finish it only because I already started it and played through the first two missions. He also gave me Fallout 3. I knew this game was a big deal, because during my gaming hybernation of 10 years and when I picked up my 360 I heard a lot about it a long with Half-Life, Metal Gear Solid and other titles thrown around by gamers and the industry alike, but I didn't know EXACTLY what it was about or why all the hype. Recently a friend of mine simply told me to play it and said it was very well worth it. I guess he also played New Vegas, not sure.
At any rate three days ago I started playing it. Oh man, The graphics are crap, even for the time, they all look like lifeless maniquins with dead eyes. The buildings' exterior looks like it was drawn onto the walls, like Wile E. Coyete's tunnels. The interiors are recycled to the nth degree and the "open world" generates like the Matrix as traverse it with trees, rocks and horizons just appearing suddently. The dialogue! Good grief! It's never ending!
That being said... I haven't slept in three days. It's so engrossing! I love the precarious balance between leveling up, but never being invincible. Now, I'm only level 8, but I have to manage my ammo carefully, repair my gear often if I want to keep repair costs low, stow away random crap in case I need it for a mission or to build costum weapons, sell the rest. So I like that I'm powerful enough to hold my own, but I'm always on edge since I have to manage my resources well. This is Red Dead Redemption, before Red Dead. Being free to choose between goody two-shoes and a fucking asshole is fun. I'm a goody two-shoes, makes the game easier and seeing as it is hard as it is, don't see why I would make it harder on myself. It's one and done decision is cool and it is WAY more forgiving than say Skyrim, but your still stuck with whatever you chose for better or worse. For example, what I've chosen as my main hub, the town of Megaton, has a live bomb in the middle of town. The sheriff will give me 100 disarm it, but some shady dude at the bar will give me 500 to blow it up. So what do I do? I rat him out to the sheriff who says, "Come with me, I'll show you some real justice." Or some shit like that. I go along, because I'm not missing this. The sheriff arrests him, but as soon as he turns around this dude pulls out a gun! I take mine out too to stop him, but I'm too late. He killed the sheriff, before I killed him. Now there is NO ONE to give me a reward for either action and the mission is still active HAHAHA.
Once I got tired of the dialog I decided it was faster to just read the text boxes, so I put Iron Maiden on the system music player and it made the game even MORE epic. I swear I had a religious experience as Bruce sang:
Then the spell starts to break
The albatross falls from his neck
Sinks down like lead into the sea
Then down in falls comes the rain!
Just as this ghoul, who looks like Eddie, charges me and I punch him in the face with a mechanized glove HAHAHAHA. Fucking awesome. Technically I've only done 2 main story missions, but I've callected enough side quests to keep me busy. Not to mention exploring is actually a lot of fun. I'm walking towards a marker on my map and just off to the side on the horizon I see something that catches my eye. A factory, a silo, a house or church and I'm like, "Hmm, what's that? let's go check it out," and then die because some band of raiders, mutants or robots did me in LOL.
So that's where I'm at, Tembo, Borderlands and Fallout. For Christmas to me from myself I'm getting the AC 4 DLC, the Rise of the Tomb Raider DLC and The Bioshock trilogy for the 360. All that is slightly less than a new release. I've never played the DLCs and I can finally afford them, as for Bioshock, it's one of my favorite franchises and just when i say, well already played it I'm done, then I play it again, then give it away as a gift and now I want to play it again... it's just a fun series.