I didn't really understand the "pre-order and get early beta access!" concept until it happened for a game I actually want to play. I was going to buy Trine 2 regardless -- my co-op experience with its predecessor was well worth the price. So pre-ordering it was a no-brainer, and as a bonus, I got the opportunity to play through what is effectively a beta-quality demo.

Which is pretty great, by the way. The snake boss at the end was a confusing encounter, and the overall experience is still a little unfinished (chiefly, the thief's controls feel a little floaty ... although maybe they're supposed to). But it's already as good as the first Trine, and I really can't wait to get my hands on the rest of the game.

Progress: Finished the beta levels

I picked this up the other week on super Steam sale, although I haven't had many chances to play it recently. Now that the dust around its release has settled, I've gotten over the fact that it isn't a Guerrilla-style open-world -- although the story isn't very remarkable, it's solid enough, and the campaign pacing is sophisticated enough, that the moment-to-moment gameplay is actually pretty compelling. (Being able to blow everything up helps, too.)

While Guerrilla included an extra mode for just blowing up buildings with a time limit, Armageddon has the brilliance to include a "Free Play" version of this as well: so you can pick a loadout, with infinite ammo, and just blow the hell out of bridges, cooling towers, and multistory complexes. It's a small touch, but despite the absence of a proper open world, this Ruin Mode is a great way to jump in for a few minutes at a time and disintegrate some load-bearing walls.

So it's pretty fun so far, although it lacks the sheer intensity of a Gears of War, and its high-powered weapons and destructible objects don't feel like a perfect fit for the extremely linear campaign.

But the most important thing I've taken away so far is, when it isn't just farming the port out to a foreign contractor, Volition is very capable of making a good PC game. It's stable, it runs great, and it controls great. This is what gave me the confidence to pre-order Saints Row 3.

Progress: Looking for water

Yes, yes, yes. Come on guys. Give me the trailer. And then the game. And then DLC, and, and, oh man now I just want to drive cars into things.

I don't care that it's nothing like the original Syndicate (not that I'd played it, anyway). This looks pretty awesome.

Me and my buddy actually co-oped our way through Gears 3's campaign in the first couple days after it came out, and it was a real blast. The Gears of War campaigns have always been great at scripted set-pieces and judicious use of super-powerful weapons, and the third is no exception -- I wouldn't say that this installment's more-fleshed-out story makes it a narrative masterpiece, but it does provide the impetus for a ton of really good, story-driven encounters.

Every combat scenario feels unique due to some excellent level design, and the difficulty pacing - which progressively ramps up both the amount and toughness of enemies - is nearly pitch-perfect. There are only two encounters which I would say stretched the limits of reasonable design (a mid-boss about halfway through the game, and the final boss, who both just had too much trouble dying). And the length of GoW 3's campaign is such that, without dragging on, I felt like it really sufficiently explored its gameplay potential.

I've read some people claim that the voice acting is lackluster, but that's simply not true. (Except for Ice-T, in that he sounds a lot like Ice-T.) Marcus puts the mission first, but his inner turmoil is clearly visible just below the surface; Dom's recovered from his emotional instability in the second game, but it's changed how he looks at the war; Anya, in the field and suited up, still lives to support the COGs with everything she's got. It may fall firmly into space-marine sci-fi stereotypes, with to-the-point lines and gruff deliveries, but almost everything in Gears 3 is presented exactly as you would expect if its world and characters were real.

Gears 3 doesn't push the genre, in the same way that the first Gears of War made snap-to-cover the Next Big Thing; but it refines the series' staples and mechanics to absolute perfection. As unlikely as it is that Microsoft would let such a popular franchise lay, this is going to be a tough act to follow.

Better than: Vanquish, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
Not as good as: BioShock, Resident Evil 4
I'm not really into the multiplayer, myself: but it looks very impressive. I watched my buddy play a "Horde 2.0" round where you can purchase weapon upgrades and defenses with kill-points! Pretty neat.

Progress: Finished the campaign in Normal (co-op)

I played the E3 demo of this very briefly, and I wasn't too impressed, because I only got up to two Kirbys at once -- while you're building up your Kirby army, it's really just a platformer with no particularly unique features. But it looks like once you're running full-tilt, it could be a real blast.

Also, some of the minigames look really awesome.

Oh, yeah, I lost my save file in an unfortunate data mishap. But I was having a hard time getting back into Valkyrie Profile, anyway.

The mechanics are pretty cool: in addition to the battle stuff I've already mentioned, the platform-inspired dungeon layouts (with an ice crystal move that allows you to do some cool jumping tricks, and solve some other puzzles) are inspired, and not quite like anything else -- even to this day.

But having seen all this already, I'm having trouble motivating myself to push any farther into the game (or, at this point, going through the first few hours again). Assuming I've seen all - or nearly all - of the neat mechanics Valkyrie Profile has to offer, even though the later game is sure to ramp up the challenge and make me learn how to master them, I'm not really sure what else I can look forward to. Aside from wandering around the countryside, watching sepia-tinted cutscenes.

I guess that's it, really. I like the idea of playing the game, but it's long-winded enough that it demands a certain patience of me, which I don't really have anymore.

Progress: Gave Up -- Midway through Chapter 1

If there were three words Square Enix could say to get me interested in Final Fantasy again, it would be "like Chrono Trigger." Which isn't, word for word, what they are saying, but it's close enough to catch my eye.

Progress: Gave Up

The combat is a little more sophisticated than is apparent in the demo: there are a few weapons to swap between - notably, the warhammer's slow, brute strength changes the melee mechanics somewhat - and situationally-available guns that are pretty great, like a laser cannon and a heat-shotgun. And some enemies do actually demand different tactics, ... but this is where the game can get a little messy.

As the campaign marches on, you'll encounter enemies who can do increasingly ludicrous damage from range: devastating mortar launchers, disturbingly strong machine guns, lightning laser beams, and grenade spam will annihilate you handily unless you're well covered. Granted, this isn't "supposed" to be a cover-based game, but while it's easy enough in the early chapters to charge into a horde of enemies and start mopping them up, later on this tactic is suicidal.

It doesn't help that Space Marine's execution-system, which is built to allow you to stay in the thick of melee combat, is fatally flawed in the presence of enemies who can do great damage, and/or who can attack from range. Captain Titus can refill his health by stunning and then executing enemies, but he will still take damage - and can even be killed - while the (lengthy) execution animation is playing. So while you're cutting one guy's head off and waiting for the health bonus, another nearby enemy might shatter your health bar with a single large attack, or a half-dozen dudes with guns might just whittle you down unopposed.

In the last wave of the waves-of-enemies-based final boss battle, I actually died while executing an enemy because another enemy just dropped a grenade at my feet. Since the execution takes so long, and there's no way for me to move, or cancel it, there was absolutely nothing I could do. (And since the game rarely saves checkpoints between waves, I had to start back at the first one again. Which I did about fifteen times, before giving up and restarting the chapter on Easy mode.)

When the game works, though - that is, when the number of enemies you're fighting is manageable (or when you have a jetpack and can just dive-bomb them) - it can be pretty fun. There is a little depth in terms of choosing which enemies to toss bullets at, when to charge in, and how to balance melee combos between stunning and finishing enemies. But in general it derives its simple joys from running headlong into foes and smacking them around.

Also, the campaign is pretty short, which is really to the game's benefit -- it already feels like it's stretching its premise a little thin. As long as your expectations aren't too high, you can make a fun weekend out of it.

For a studio that's only known for its real-time strategy games, this is a fairly competent first attempt at an action/shooter formula, and it's interesting to think of how they'll evolve their ideas in the inevitable sequel. But within the action and shooter genres, Space Marine is generally unremarkable. Its controls are solid, but it too frequently avoids genuinely interesting combat encounters by throwing out wave after wave of enemies. And while the guns are fun to play with, the lack of a proper cover system significantly limits your opportunities for dealing damage without dying instantly.

Better than: Conan (2007), Dark Void
Not as good as: Darksiders, Vanquish
Launching without co-op: is kind of stupid, right? Who's going to care about this game anymore in October?

Progress: Finished on Normal (except the final boss, on Easy)

I'm going to rattle through a few bullet points:

• A broad and ambitious production
• It is pretty cool how open-ended the mission structure is
• The narrative, with all its player-choice twists and foibles, is interesting but comes across as incomplete
• The melee system is begging for some added depth
• Making my initial accuracy shitty, and keeping it shitty unless I invest in it, isn't okay
• The enemy AI is a little baffling
• The mouse is beyond the comprehension of most of the game's menus
• The hacking minigames ... are pretty neat
• Boss fights ... [are] retarded

All of these things are true about Deus Ex: Human Revolution -- but I actually wrote them back in February, regarding Alpha Protocol. I found myself recalling Michael Thorton's adventure frequently throughout DXHR. In many ways, the games are extremely similar: generally speaking, because they are both broad-reaching games with great potential, which is fulfilled enough to make the game fun - under the right circumstances - but is also obvious in its deficiencies.

More precisely, both games purport to give the player complete choice over how a mission is tackled, while at the same time leaving many mechanics (specifically, gunplay and melee) unbalanced and underpolished enough that it isn't really much of a choice. Stealth works okay in Human Revolution, and upgrades throughout the game make it work better, but straight-up shooting is almost never a good idea; even with his Dermal Armor fully upgraded, Adam Jensen is no better at taking bullets than Batman is. And unlike the Dark Knight, Adam Jensen has a pretty difficult time escaping once he's been spotted.

Also unlike any other video game protagonist, Jensen is really not built for melee combat. He's got a pretty sweet takedown, to be sure, but it uses a full bar of energy each time -- energy which maxes out at five bars; and once a bar is depleted, it won't regenerate unless it's your last one. So the energy economy makes Jensen's robotic arms mostly useless.

As for non-metaphorical guns, weapons like pistols, shotguns, and rocket launchers are upgraded not with character/experience points, but with upgrade kits which you'll find and purchase throughout the game. Without a laser sight, most weapons are atrociously inaccurate; this especially hurts in the game's introductory mission, before Adam has any augmentations, where you must take on a strike team using only an assault rifle that is basically incapable of hitting anything from range. As the game goes on, you can upgrade and get better weapons (a fully-upgraded pistol, with armor piercing and a silencer, is almost game-breaking); but early on, it's depressing how ineffective your armaments are.

So the stealth is alright, but doesn't become really impressive until it's upgraded; gunplay is terrible at first, but warms up later on; and melee isn't an option at all. There are a great deal of alternate paths in each mission area, between multiple entrances and exits, secret tunnels and vents, and safe rooms that skirt patrolled hallways -- so there are a lot of ways to accomplish a task, even if there aren't a lot of different mechanics to exploit in that process. I would say that, in terms of how you play the game, the choice of route is more meaningful than the choice of augmentation or load-out.

On that note, while some of the augments are pretty cool, too many of them function only as keys. That is, if you want to hack high-level consoles, you need to invest points in your hacking "capture" level, or it won't let you. If you want to finish a side-mission that blocks your progress with a gas-filled chamber, you need the lung augment that makes you immune to the gas, or you'll simply die trying. If you want to reach a high ledge and there are no crates around, you need the leg augment to increase your jump height. This is sort of like a choice of playstyle, but too often it's not a choice of how you tackle an objective, but a choice of whether you tackle it or don't.

Of course, if you go to the effort to do side-quests, and uncover secrets which yield experience rewards (e.g. by hacking), you'll end up getting almost all of the game's upgrades before you're done. And many of them, maybe a third or as many as half, are so situational that they're borderline useless. Increased sprinting speed and duration are convenient, but don't help the gameplay at all; the social-skill aug to peer into an NPC's personality is not really any more helpful than just reading and listening; there is an augment to use a takedown on two adjacent enemies at once, but this only happens a handful of times throughout the entire campaign. I only got these augments because I ran out of better things to spend points on.

What I would like would be for the starting augments to be more powerful, so you can see more of the game's mechanical diversity in the beginning; and for experience-based upgrades to go deeper into these mechanics, so that a player could become a master ninja, or a master soldier, or a master brawler, depending on how Praxis Points are allocated. But high-power augments that would support the idea of "mastery" don't really exist in the game.

One thing that Deus Ex really knocks out of the park (especially as compared to Alpha Protocol) is the overworld, in the sense that it kind-of has one. Although the serpentine pacing of the game's story makes their "hub" nature somewhat debatable, Human Revolution's two big cities of Detroit and Hengsha (near Shanghai) are big, complicated, and dense -- filled with interesting environments, hidden items, shops, and side-quests. There is so much to do in Detroit, especially; I suspect that I spent more time exploring the city than I did in the story missions set alongside it.

I do wish that there were one or two more cities, and although it may sound a little ungrateful given how rich the existing ones are, I think some of the level design resources allocated to the game's later missions could easily have been taken for it. Mission maps late in the game are, frankly, excessive -- if your goal is to explore every nook and cranny - since most of the game's nooks and crannies have hidden items to collect - these missions can take hours. Setting aside alternate paths, most of this geography just seems wasteful.

As for the story: it starts slow, builds up some intrigue, takes a retarded twist halfway through, and ends somewhat ineffectually, regardless of which of the game's four endings you select. The stupid twist isn't really the game's fault, except in that it had to build itself into the existing Deus Ex mythos; but the ending, while not exactly bad, doesn't feel impactful at all. It doesn't give further insight into the game's world, and it doesn't make any profound point. At the same time, it isn't offensively preachy or a brazen sequel setup, so at least there's that.

There are a few other nitpicks I want to mention: character animations are awkward, and clearly came from a time before ubiquitous motion capture; voice acting is pretty good for primary characters, but variably dismal for the supporting cast; the game's handling of variable dialog selections is admirable, but still imperfect; handling inventory space is pretty ridiculous, with some big items (like the rocket launcher) taking up entirely too many slots, and some unstackable items (grenades) being too difficult to keep around to really be useful; the automatic saving frequency is far, far too low for how often you'll really want to reload a checkpoint.

Ultimately, though, what I want to say about Deus Ex is this:

• It's initially disappointing that you don't really have that much freedom in the game;
• It's fun -- once you learn how the game wants to be played;
• It's lengthy -- most reviews quote about 20 hours, but having done all the side-quests I could find, I came closer to 40;
• The premise shows a lot of room for improvement, which I can only hope is used in future iterations;
• If you really want to go nuts and start pulverizing civilians, you can absolutely do that.

Better than: Alpha Protocol
Not as good as: Batman: Arkham Asylum
If you enjoyed this: I really think you should try Alpha Protocol, because it does some things much better than Human Revolution does

Progress: Finished on "Give Me a Challenge" (normal)