When the game told me I could re-do the final mission and take the "other" choice (in an obvious binary decision) for an alternate ending, I didn't anticipate how different it would actually be. Rather than saving my friends and going on to do a parody mission on a TV-set Mars, I snapped a gang leader's neck, and proceeded to fight back against a citywide invasion of sci-fi SWAT. While the Mars ending was more in line with SR3's outlandish zaniness, the Daedalus ending is a more natural conclusion to the "story," and still manages to be awesomely over the top. Plus, I unlocked some cool new equipment out of it (black VTOL!).

I've spent more than a few hours recently filling in the rest of my progress in Steelport -- finding hidden items, doing assassination missions, stealing wanted vehicles. The latter still posed some challenge despite the fact that I've upgraded myself into invincibility, since I had to actually get the vehicles to buyers without them blowing up. At this point I've done everything the game has to offer aside from some of the achievement-like "Challenges" (such as accumulated wheelie distance, or taking N hostages), and while I'm pretty satisfied with what Saints Row has given me, I thirst for more.

I really hope that this time, Volition delivers some worthwhile DLC, although based on past experience I don't have a whole lot of confidence.

Progress: 100%

Like everyone else, I've been looking forward to Fez since its first showing, however many centuries ago that was. And although the independent game scene has grown quite a bit around it in the intervening time, it still looks pretty interesting. But, as it currently stands, I won't plan to buy Fez when it comes out -- because I can no longer trust Xbox Live Arcade. Permit me to editorialize.

A few months ago reports started to come out about a rash of Xbox Live account thefts, strangely linked by the accounts being used to buy FIFA and its DLC. A buddy of mine actually got caught by this; fortunately his credit card company noticed something was amiss, and he didn't lose any money from the ordeal, but he did lose access to his Xbox Live (Gold) account for about a month while Microsoft "investigated" the theft. Since he actually played multiplayer games quite frequently, this was no trivial thing for him.

What was most unusual about his experience is that, after the account theft occurred, he had to recover his gamertag to sign in again. And when he did this, the gamertag he recovered was someone else's. There was no information in this new account, that is, it looked like it may have been set-up explicitly as a dummy account. But his own gamertag - which still existed, as we could check its current activity online - had effectively been swapped out with this one.

Fast forward a few months, and I decide to pop in GTA4 on an Xbox at work, to while away some time. And I have to recover my gamertag. It worked, eventually, but when I checked my account status online all of my Microsoft Points were gone -- spent on FIFA DLC. (Fortunately, and since I never bothered with a Gold account, I didn't keep any credit card information on my account; so my losses were limited to Points.) What I found odd about my incident, was that none of my account information was changed: my password was the same, my email address was the same, my security settings were the same. Someone had just logged in to my account, spent its Points balance on multiple copies of the same FIFA DLC packs, and then left, without attempting to get anything more or even cover their tracks.

I changed my password as a precaution, and as it is, I can still use the account just fine. The net effect is that I lost around $25 worth of points that were sitting around, waiting for something like Fez.

What's bothersome about this whole series of events is:

• They are not isolated. Tons of people have been hit by account thieves with this same MO: just buying a bunch of FIFA stuff. It is technically possible for them to gift these purchases to other accounts, but based on the sheer volume, it seems more like they're just doing it because they can.
• My buddy's account was not a simple hack. They changed account information that, as far as I know, can't be changed manually on the Xbox Live website. They needed to either enlist a customer support rep (which shouldn't have worked, since they couldn't prove ownership of the account), or have some more direct access to Microsoft's internal information.
• My account was less than a simple hack. Generally, if you're going to steal someone's account, you need to work around the password; meaning that you need to change it to actually log-in. But my password was unchanged, which either means that they already knew it (and chose not to change it, which is pretty indicative of sloppy script-kiddy methods), or that they were able to access my account without my password.

The nail in the coffin, though, is Microsoft's laissez-faire attitude about the whole situation. Even discounting my personal experiences, just from reading the news around the Internet it should be obvious that this is an Xbox Live problem: if not an actual technical issue on their part, then at least someone specifically targeting them. Yet Microsoft has refused to acknowledge it.

As for their treatment of specific cases, taking my buddy's account offline for a month is not acceptable for a paid, real-time service. And when I emailed Xbox Support about my incident, the reply was that they're "unable to discuss [account theft] over email for security and confidentiality purposes" -- so, they did nothing. And based on my friend's experience, I know that if I were to call Microsoft about this, I would have to supply them with a bunch of Xbox serial numbers (for all the machines I've used the account with), verify my personal information with them (which I don't even want to have listed on my account in the first place), and then wait a month for them to do nothing.

I'm pretty sure this is a whole bunch of bullshit, and Microsoft is just writing off the losses so far as less costly than doing a real investigation. But I digress. Ultimately I just decided to accept the Points loss, rather than go through a bunch of a rigmarole on the phone and lose access to my account for a month. And I certainly don't feel like trusting Xbox Live with any more money.

Hopefully this will come out on Steam, sooner or later. (Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't get me started.)

Progress: Gave Up

Skyward Sword is a bit of a trip and a stumble down memory lane -- simultaneously a nostalgic reminder of how long it's been since you've played a Zelda game with a controller, and a somewhat harsher notice of how far the rest of the industry has come in the meantime. Twilight Princess was criticized by some for not playing enough with the series' long-running tropes, and while Skyward Sword does mix it up in some interesting ways, they feel like drops in the bucket of a mostly-unchanged sea.

Since Ocarina of Time, what we've come to know as a 3D Zelda has evolved aesthetically and narratively, if not so much mechanically; but Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and now Skyward Sword could be (rightly) accused of getting slow and ponderous when Link is in-between dungeons. Traversing the world map to talk to key NPCs, and scouring an outdoor area for hidden items, are all well and good when the mood strikes -- but having to bother with these tasks, just to make the next dungeon open up, can feel unwelcome when you really just want to solve puzzles and fight a boss.

In an era where other games offer high-pitched, nonstop action, or the freedom to tackle objectives in whatever order, this style of slavish linearity just seems antiquated. And so as the required time investment increases and the number of sidequests decreases, I fear that it won't be too many more years before this game structure follows the JRPG and the point-and-click adventure into the realm of "forgotten niche."

Now, all that having been said, Zelda is still a master class in its genre, and given the series' expectations I have yet to be disappointed by it. The intro was a little long, but easily established the naive innocence of its protagonists, and the charming magic of Skyloft. Fi, the computer-like magic spirit that lives in Link's sword - like Navi, but with legs - acts as a welcome straight-man to Link's emotional expressiveness and to the sometimes cartoonish world he's placed in. The villain is still a mystery in large part, but I'm anxious to learn more.

Items and general play mechanics are a straightforward iteration from Twilight Princess, with a few welcome changes: you can invest in wallet-size upgrades from the beginning, radial menus allow you to access Link's entire inventory without pausing, and there's a pretty cool "crafting" system which allows you to turn cash and randomly-dropped or -found materials into equipment upgrades. I haven't gotten anything other than stronger shields so far, but if I had the goods, I would be able to make my slingshot fire scatter-shot, and I can only wonder what further upgrades to more interesting items might do. The stamina meter is another nice touch, and gives new depth to block-pushing and wall-climbing (not to mention sprinting).

My one gripe with the motion controls is that the game sometimes expects you to hold the remote perfectly horizontal, and that this is stupid when you're sitting down. Otherwise, the motion controls work very admirably: using the gyroscope to steer birds and beetles, snapping the remote to throw bombs, and actual 1:1 sword control is in general a real treat. Although there are plenty of gimmicks early on that require distinction between vertical and horizontal strikes, the first boss battle really shows some sophistication in arbitrary sword movement, wherein Link must lead the enemy's attack and effectively parry himself.

The between-dungeon slowness is still sullying my opinion of Skyward Sword a bit, and so I'm not having as easy a time sitting down and turning the game on as I would like. But I think my attitude will change once I get more involved in the game's plot, and/or once more of the sky opens up to explore.

Progress: Just entered the Earth Temple

What's most surprising about Arkham City is how it doesn't fall short of the bar set by Arkham Asylum. There are certainly some imperfections in the sequel, and the new features are arguably hit-or-miss -- but despite trading in its linearity for an open-world structure, Arkham City doesn't sacrifice the strengths of its predecessor. This is still a superbly-executed action game with a gripping narrative and spectacular production values. And - while it isn't perfect - the fact that it adds to Arkham Asylum's formula makes it an undeniably superior game.

I can enumerate its issues in pretty short order:

• Arkham City assumes that you've played Asylum, and recently. You'll start with many of the gadgets that Batman acquired throughout the first game, and much of the tutorial for these is simply left out. It can take a while to re-learn.
• Especially at first, there are too many enemies in combat encounters. This becomes more bearable with upgrades, but so long as you have a limited move set, it can be a little repetitive.
• The story is not paced as well as it could have been. There is a huge stretch in the middle of the campaign with little involvement from the Joker; no involvement whatsoever from intriguing new villain, Hugo Strange; and no Catwoman sequences, either. Then in the story's final hours, you're locked into the story completely, and the game won't permit you to take a few minutes off for side-questing.
• Relatedly, the Catwoman content is totally forgettable. She doesn't have as many or as powerful abilities as Batman, she barely comes up throughout Batman's campaign, and her personal story just isn't interesting. If you buy a used copy of Arkham City for console, don't worry about missing this stuff.
• On the other hand, the amount of items and clues you need to scavenge to complete the Riddler sidequest is absurd: ultimately, you need 400 things, between trophies and riddles and other minor challenges. This number is so great, in fact, that if you find all of the trophies and riddles that Batman can solve, it still isn't enough; you need to add some combination of combat/stealth challenges (which are largely trite and stupid), and/or Catwoman trophies. So, if it wasn't for Catwoman, I might not have finished the Riddler sidequest.

So those are my gripes. And I can detail them at some length, because they stand out from an otherwise fantastic game. When the pacing isn't off, the story is just as strong as in Arkham Asylum, even though you can (usually) take arbitrary breaks to search for hidden items and track down sidequest clues. Arkham City isn't as dense with activity as a Saints Row, or as fun to traverse as a Grand Theft Auto, but the individual pieces of content throughout the city are strong and meaningful.

And the combat is an improvement over Asylum's, although I still wouldn't enjoy it enough on its own merits to bother with the standalone combat challenges. There are new gadgets and new combos, but arguably the best new feature is (after upgrades) an enhanced focus in ongoing free-flow combos -- slowing down time around the Batman, while increasing his ability to jump between thugs, which is indispensible in encounters with large groups.

There are a few clear missteps, but Arkham City is still a step forward from Arkham Asylum, which was already a masterpiece. It's unfortunate that the extra content (Catwoman, and the thus-far released DLC) is so insubstantial, because this game is going to be a tough act to follow.

Better than: Batman: Arkham Asylum
Not as good as: Saints Row: The Third (in open-world terms, obviously)
The Riddler sidequest conclusion was a bit disappointing: given the ludicrous amount of time I sunk into it. But I guess I would have wanted to collect all the trophies anyway.

Progress: Finished the story and all sidequests on Normal

I've absolutely lost interest in this.

Progress: Gave Up -- Still level 80

Saints Row: The Third has a stupid, nonsensical story. There is no central villain (except the player character) -- the evil Belgian crimelord from the intro dies after a few missions; his replacement is shortly overshadowed by an overzealous military police force; and even they are discarded relatively quickly. There's no overarching goal or conflict, there's no moral, or lesson. Really, the story exists as an excuse: to introduce ludicrous amounts of gang violence, to have mission objectives that span from fighting in a TRON-inspired cyberspace to professional wrestling, to give you laser-powered military hardware, to blow up zombies, and to be doing it as a favor to Mayor Burt Reynolds.

It's an interesting setup, because while it's not uncommon for this kind of game to use its campaign as a vehicle for introducing new mechanics and items, Saints Row 3 has basically all of its bullet-point features from the beginning. After the intro mission, you can take over the entire city without doing any of the campaign. SR3 flips on its head the modern GTA idea, that the open world's activities and features should feed into or enhance the storyline. This game is all about the extra stuff. Buying property, upgrading vehicles and weapons, doing madcap side-missions (like shooting costumed thugs in a TV game show), and of course blowing up street gangs, all in the name of gaining influence over Steelport.

It's a beautiful dance of money and power, at least for the most part. You take over some districts, you get more income, you use that income to upgrade your abilities: you can upgrade everything from your sprinting duration and your allies' health, to reload speed and damage resistance. As you use cash to become more powerful and capable, you use that newfound ability to do progressively more difficult challenges, taking on increasingly ludicrous amounts and arrangements of rivals. By the end, assuming you've paid in to the system, you can have infinite ammo on all your weapons, which don't ever have to reload, and you won't take damage from anything.

The fly in the ointment is that the income formula is pretty disparate; you earn much more from buying factories and stores than you do from completing activities that involve real gameplay. If you go about the game in the wrong order, it could make for a tough time. So just make sure that you start out by doing the Business Tycoon thing. No problemo.

While the vehicle upgrade system is a little weak - the upgrades themselves don't really feel substantial, and if they did, it would be irritating how they're tied to particular car models - the rest of the upgrades really enhance how the game is played. With increased health, health regen, and resistance to bullets, you can charge into a gunfight with no worries. With a pistol upgrade for explosive rounds, you can blow oncoming foes right out of your way. With reduced reload time on an SMG, you can unleash a practically infinite stream of bullets into a crowd. And as you use these to conquer Steelport's tougher opponents, like bullet-sponge brutes with miniguns, schoolgirls with rocket-skates and energy hammers, and tanks with fucking laser cannons, you'll feel proud of yourself for using economics as a weapon to upgrade and defeat them.

The driving mechanics still don't feel right, in that the collisions aren't very elastic, and the showy drifting ignores so much momentum. And, no matter how many rockets you fire at them, the buildings will never fall apart. But while Saints Row: The Third doesn't have the same attributes that make GTA4 or Red Faction: Guerrilla so fun, it's finally found one all its own: taking over a city, and becoming a crime god. Because while many games put you in the position of gaining notoriety in their worlds, SR3 is the only one that ultimately allows you to take off an experimental hover-jet from your penthouse helipad, and rain energy missiles on luchadores while Benny Benassi's "Satisfaction" plays on your radio.

Better than: Saints Row 2
Not as good as: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
The final mission is on a fake Mars: and includes one of the cheesiest lines from Red Faction

Progress: Own the city, finished the story, 92%

Saints Row: The Third doesn't have the raw destructivity or explosivity of Red Faction: Guerrilla. It doesn't have the fishtailing car physics or the narrative gravitas of Grand Theft Auto IV. It doesn't have the Nazis of The Saboteur.

What it does have is a predilection, nay, a thirst for raw, intense chaos. Dive-tackle a rival gangster, use him as a human shield, then leap through the window of his car and speed off into the sunset. That's what Saints Row 3 brings to the table.

In its third iteration, Saints Row has optimized a lot of its gameplay mechanics, and it's really for the better. You don't need to gather Respect to do story missions; rather, Respect acts as experience points, and higher levels open up new abilities for purchase. As for the purchasing itself, that's done with cold, hard cash -- cash which you earn by doing missions, by completing activities, and periodically by virtue of owning property. While buying and profiting off of the city was sort-of a sidequest in Saints Row 2, here it's front and center: if you want to buy new abilities, safehouses, weapons and upgrades, you've got to prime the money-pump with some real estate investment.

If there's any "point" to Saints Row: The Third, this is it -- taking over the city, not just figuratively, but financially. It's a neat objective, albeit vague, and feels more like a refinement on the previous installment than a new, marquee feature. You're not - as far as I know - at risk of your investments being taken away by your rivals, nor is it really a challenge to prioritize your acquisitions: higher cost = higher reward. So the formula, as it were, for taking over Steelport is pretty straightforward.

But you get to wreak absolute havoc along the way, and that counts for a lot.

Progress: 19%

I would've felt pretty cheated if I'd bought this at full price. The Path to War DLC includes three segments -- one reprise of a neat, but underwhelming flying-vehicle mission from the main game's campaign; one tank segment that, while explosive, isn't as good as the rest of the game's vehicle missions; and one on-foot sequence with a couple new weapons, which are, again, neat but not terribly satisfying.

Each of the missions is presented as a preface to Armageddon's terraformer prologue, so the narrative holds no surprises whatsoever, and they're not bound together in any meaningful way. It comes across as more tech demo than game content. But its "demo" is overshadowed by what was already in the main game. What's the point?

Red Faction: Armageddon taught me that Volition can make a good PC game, and can make it well -- which made me a lot less worried about Saints Row: The Third. But Path to War has taught me that they still don't understand how to make substantial DLC, which has me a little worried again.

Better than: Demons of the Badlands
Not as good as: Red Faction: Armageddon
Admittedly, the Shard Gun: is one of the industry's cooler Gravity Gun rip-offs, since it can tear buildings apart

Progress: Finished on Normal

The controls/mechanics are pretty great, the weapons are awesome, and a good portion of the levels are a real blast, no pun intended. In one of them, I piloted a spider walker with laser guns, which could also walk through buildings. Red Faction: Armageddon speaks to an increased level of polish and sophistication on its predecessor -- but, inexplicably, loses the biggest feature that made Guerrilla fun to play.

Armageddon has plenty of toys, but not much of a toybox to play with them in. It's enough to string the one-dimensional story along, especially as it's interspersed with awesome vehicle segments, but ultimately I can't help but wonder... why? The sandbox formula worked so well for Red Faction before; why replace it with this unremarkable linear campaign?

Better than: Fracture
Not as good as: Red Faction: Guerrilla
Come fucking on, THQ: canceling this franchise is a retard move. Just put explosives in an open world again. Obvious!

Progress: Finished on Normal

Uncharted 3 feels like a step forward and a step back, so to speak. The net effect is that it's in the same neighborhood as Uncharted 2 -- which is a pretty good place to be in. For my money, though, it falls slightly short of its predecessor, for not playing quite as well to the franchise's strengths.

The controls and mechanics are slightly more polished this time around, although still not enough for the later-game encounters to feel like anything other than unfair. Encounter balance remains elusive -- I don't care how much armor someone is wearing, a shotgun blast from six feet should ruin him. And when I have to work my way through three waves of enemies before the next checkpoint, when each wave consists of two snipers, two heavies, and a grenade launcher, that's just cruel. At any rate, it's, eh, slightly better than in the previous game.

The step backward, though, is that there aren't as many standout "Uncharted" moments. The sinking ocean liner sequence is pretty great, but it's not really as memorable as The Train Scene from the second game. And none of the puzzles in Drake's Deception can measure up to the elaborate mechanisms in Tibet. It's still an exhilirating, thrill-a-minute ride, but even though I just finished it this evening, my memories of Among Thieves are more vivid.

While the differences between Uncharted 2 and 3 aren't necessarily drastic, they're most illustrated in the games' endings. Uncharted 3 doesn't have a ridiculous, over-extended boss fight like its forebears did; but it also doesn't have as much narrative resolution, as the main villains and conflict just sort of fade away.

Uncharted 3 makes iterative improvements in the series' gameplay mechanics (and in graphics, naturally), and still has all the great characterization and banter that makes the franchise a joy to play through. And the gameplay improvements do bode well for Naughty Dog's next project. But if I had to choose my favorite travel destination, I gotta go with Shambhala.

Better than: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Not as good as: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
The new villains are a little disappointing: but new partner-in-crime Charlie Cutter is just a delight

Progress: Finished on Normal