The best parts of Sonic Adventure were the parts that weren't like other Sonic games -- well, not that the treasure hunting was any good, but: the open-world exploration, and mixed-up mechanics like E-102 Gamma's shooting galleries, gave Sonic all new flavors that really enhanced the experience.

Which is why it's such a tragic comedy that only now, 15 years later, Sonic Lost World is finally lessening the focus on Sonic's speediness, in favor of thoughtful level design. Whether they can do it well is yet to be determined, but the attempt, at least, is encouraging.

Sure, I have some complaints about GTA V. The new police-chase system can be pretty aggravating, when the cops seem to have omniscient knowledge of where you are. The radio soundtrack is somewhat weak compared to previous entries (what I wouldn't give for a Saints Row-style custom playlist). Helicopters handle like total ass, even with maxed out flying skills. The d-pad gets a bit overloaded with contextual controls. Franklin's character development is a bit lacking. And, simply put, there aren't as many heist missions as I'd like.

But these complaints don't stop the game from being a triumph, both as a Grand Theft Auto game, and as a piece of interactive entertainment in general. The story it tells certainly isn't as inspiring or redeeming as Niko's or Luis's, but it's chock-full of action, drama, variety, and conflict that will have you alternately despising and sympathizing with each of its protagonists. And if you're ever tired of that business, you can always take in a race, or a strip club, or just drive (or fly) around the map.

Really, I'm only comfortable putting the game down now - with missions complete, but plenty of activities left - because I know I'll be revisiting it. If not for the impending launch of Grand Theft Auto Online, then for the inevitable PC version, whenever that comes around.

Better than: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony (the previous-best GTA iteration)
Not as good as: Saints Row IV (in terms of pure crazy-pants fun)
Oh yeah, and: I may also have to come back once someone figures out the crazy end-game easter eggs.

Progress: Finished the story, 76.8% complete.

Trevor might be my new favorite video game character.

Chris Kohler's GTA V article makes an interesting point -- each of the game's three protagonists fits a different niche in the Grand Theft Auto mythos. Franklin, the small-time crook and part-time gang-banger, fits the mold set by CJ in San Andreas: capable, and ambitious, but dragged down by his reckless and idiotic friends. Michael, the middle-aged ex-burglar with a Rockford Hills mansion, is a fascinating glimpse into the future of a GTA character: though he earned his way out of a life of crime, he's deeply unsatisfied with the boredom of retirement, and the trivialities of his family.

But it's Trevor, the psychopath kingpin, who really takes the characterization cake. Perhaps it's because he flips the spotlight back at the player: Trevor revels in crazy violence and wanton destruction, but he's also goal-oriented and highly intelligent. He runs a successful criminal enterprise, with employees, clients, and competitors; it just so happens that his employees are meth-heads, and his competitors have a habit of exploding. And as much as he enjoys stealing and killing, he still believes in friendship, family, and loyalty. To Trevor, life is one big game of Grand Theft Auto, and he's playing it like an RPG.

Underneath it all, GTA V as a game is not far from what you'd expect -- the technical mastery of Grand Theft Auto IV, in a huge and varied San Andreas-style map, plus some wilderness flair ala Red Dead Redemption. Missions are varied and exciting, and the sandbox is as fun to play around in as it's ever been. The city and its surroundings are chock full of content, from side-missions to minigames, from gun stores to purchasable properties. Perhaps the highlight is the evolution of GTA IV's "random" stranger missions, which are now more active and spontaneous -- while navigating the city, you'll just happen to stumble upon a purse snatching, or a thug in need of a getaway, or a vulnerable armored car.

Anecdote: as Trevor, I encountered a drunk couple who needed a ride home. Ordinarily I might help them, or ignore them, or steal their car -- but Trevor knows of a cult, up in the mountains, who pays good money for warm, unspoiled bodies. (They might be cannibals.)

If there's anything really disappointing about GTA V as a game, it's that I don't have superpowers. In fact, it's a bit of a shock to return to an open-world crime game where I can be killed in short order: outside of cover, enemies won't hesitate to unload their magazines, and some even know how to aim for my head. Luckily the cover mechanics work pretty well this time around.

Well... I should say that my other, real disappointment, is technological. Not to diminish the accomplishment of this massive, stunning game world, but the mandatory 8GB install, the intense character-switch load times, and the significant pop-in, just make me yearn for a PC version all the more. Even the pause/map screen has a brief loading time. Blech.

At any rate, organizing heists, exploring the backstories of the game's protagonists, and causing general mayhem throughout Los Santos, are just as much of a blast as one could hope for. And if vehicular manslaughter isn't really your thing, there's always the stock market.

Progress: lifted some jewels, blew up a meth lab, stole a submarine, broke into a government agency building.

As stoked as I am for the return of Assassin's Creed III's polished mechanics, and what amounts to a realistic, Caribbean spin on Wind Waker, this new technology trailer has me even more pumped for Black Flag -- and for games beyond it. Between the real-time lighting techniques and the engine's capabiilty to assemble moving parts into a navigable, AI-traversable level, AnvilNext is setting some very exciting stages for Ubisoft games in the coming hardware generation.

Guys, look -- just. Come on. Guys. When people were talking about bloom effects and washed-out colors being "what makes a game next-gen," they were joking. That was a joke, guys. You weren't supposed to take it seriously.

Making the transition from "Normal" to "Free," at least, offers a respite from penalties on accidentally clicking the wrong square; without a zoom feature, this still happens far too often. But even in the game's later pages of puzzles, difficulty is the exception, not the rule. It's unfortunate that, in the rare few instances (two or three) that I had to guess what my next move would be, Picross e also lacks the "Try it Out" feature from Picross DS.

What I haven't mentioned before is Picross e's suite of "hint" features, which, while well-implemented, I avoided entirely. I want the game to help me tell it what to do -- not the other way around. (To be fair, this could be a boon to a Picross novice, which may be a better fit for this game altogether.)

Ultimately, Picross e isn't a bad Picross iteration, but it's remarkable for falling so short of the mark that Jupiter themselves set six years ago. While the sheer puzzle number is commendable, everything else - from late-game puzzle complexity, to mini-games to break the Picross monotony, to crucial game mechanics, per above - is severely lacking. Picross e is good for passing the time, but in terms of stimulating your brain, it just doesn't live up to its pedigree.

Better than: eh... it's more usable than Picross 3D, but the latter has more puzzles and a better "cool" factor as well
Not as good as: Picross DS
Who would have thought: that Picross DS would turn out to have such relatively-high production values?

Progress: Finished all 150 puzzles.

Paradoxically, Saints Row IV is both the same as, and more than, its predecessor. If The Third's brand of rampant silliness wasn't your cup of tea, this romp through the White House, outer space, and The Matrix won't change your mind. If you weren't a fan of the last game's overpowering sense of empowerment, this iteration's literal superpower abilities are unlikely to ease your mood. And if you didn't appreciate The Penetrator last time, well, you should probably avoid the "Romance" button when you interact with your crew.

But while Saints Row IV doesn't exactly venture out of its comfort zone, it takes the boundaries pushed by The Third and pushes them even farther. Think the Airstrike and Apoca-Fist were cool? Wait until you get a load of the Disintegrator, the Abduction Gun, and of course the dance-party-inducing Dubstep Gun. Have fun flying a laser-spewing VTOL jet around Steelport? Try running up the side of a building, then plummeting to the ground in a massive shockwave. Where there were once flamboyant gang members and suicidal cops, now there are hordes of aliens and their robot warriors. The Insurance Fraud activity goes up to 11 when you can run into cars at super-speed, and there are three different variants of the Mayhem activity, including one where you drive a weaponized mech suit. Campaign missions include a tongue-barely-in-cheek parody of contemporary military shooters, an outright send-up of Metal Gear Solid, and a technologically-inspiring custom rendition of Streets of Rage -- not to mention plenty of choice musical interludes from the likes of Aerosmith and Thin Lizzy.

Of course, if you're hoping for a dramatic, epic narrative, you're barking up the wrong tree. But Saints Row IV's story does manage to string the game's mechanics along, while providing ample entertainment all the while. Whether you're punching a senator or brawling with a giant can of Saints Flow, campaign missions never slack on their sense of humor, and are just genius in their irreverence. Every time you might think, wait, why doesn't the villain just stop me?- sidekicks immediately dismiss the idea as stupid. Keith David (played by Keith David) gets called out for sounding remarkably like Julius Little. Speaking of which -- although you don't need to have played the older games to get the gist of IV's story, you'll get even more out of it by knowing the contexts for throwback characters like "Fun" Shaundi and Benjamin "Motherfucking" King.

But the real lynchpin of the game is its world, which, while architecturally familiar, is more dense with activity than ever. While you traipse around town doing missions and activities, you'll run into a bevy of collectibles -- including Crackdown style "data cluster" power-ups that go toward superpower upgrades. New in-game challenges include a ton of fun meta-achievements, from destroying statues of the evil alien overlord, to punting his goons with super-kicks. The real surprise, to me, about this version of Steelport was how awesome it felt to navigate the city with super-powered sprints and jumps. Other than missions that required it, I probably only drove a car two or three times; and considering how much I love vehicular manslaughter, that counts for a lot. (It helps that you no longer need to be in a car to listen to the radio, so I could blare the game's electro-house station while I cavorted around.)

If there's one thing about Saints Row IV I'm disappointed in, it's the co-op game -- which I'd never bothered with in The Third, but I assume is basically similar. The co-op-specific activities are dull, and the missions in general don't get any benefit from having a second player. Really, two players are going to have much more fun just playing separate campaigns by themselves.

My usual glogging pattern would have had me making a post about SR4 sometime around its release the other week. But every time - literally, each individual time - I considered writing about the game, I ended up playing it instead. Even after I'd finished it! (I played through the full story twice.) Saints Row IV may not break much new ground, but it takes everything I loved about The Third and makes it outlandishly, unbelievably better.

Better than: Saints Row: The Third, and - hell - Red Faction: Guerrilla
Not as good as: if I could also ram through buildings! Come on, guys!
Grand Theft Auto may not have to move over: but it'd better get comfortable with the idea of Saints Row out-over-the-topping it, for the foreseeable future.

Progress: Finished all missions (twice), 100% completion.

To be fair, by all accounts the game actually turned out to be pretty playable for someone who's into XCOM. I'm not one of those people, though; I was more interested in a Mass Effect-style adventure than in something that required real team-positioning tactics. (I got a free copy of XCOM: Enemy Unknown with my BioShock Infinite pre-order, and frankly I don't know what I'm going to do with it.)

What is terribly surprising - or at least, disappointing - given the promotional campaign's heavy narrative focus, is that reviews seem to agree on how poorly-written and lackluster the story is. I've seen some footage. This is bush-league stuff.

What I really wanted to see out of The Bureau, and what would have made me super stoked for it, was either a sci-fi adventure or an authentically-styled 60's-era sci-fi story. The reviews suggest that what's come out instead is a real-time XCOM game. That's all well and good if you actually care about XCOM, I guess. They can keep it.

A few years ago, I wouldn't really have considered such a situation possible -- that I would be disinterested in a Blizzard game. Yet here we are, announcing an expansion to Diablo III, with the Angel of Death kicking some shit; and all I can say is "meh." The core game's abject laziness in content design and storytelling just doesn't leave me with any excitement for more.

I've got a gun that's a cat holding another gun. Two cat-guns, in fact. Miniguns, SWAT shotguns, sniper and assault rifles, a magnum bigger than my character's torso -- just, a completely silly arsenal in my stores. Mercenary Kings has applied the Skinner box concept to guns, and I don't think it could possibly have gone better.

I have to stop. I'm addicted to collecting crafting materials, to build more guns (and more bionic mods, and more knives). Which sucks because, in its Early Access state - with only 60 of its 100 planned missions - Mercenary Kings doesn't have all the materials to build these things.

When it does, I'll definitely be back in it.

Better than: Castle Crashers (because it's still fun by myself!)
Not as good as: ... Braid, I guess? In its class, this game is just the best.
Seriously: there are two guns that are cats. A shotgun and a burst-fire rifle. The cats are different colors.

Progress: Finished the Early Access missions, collected like ... a fuckton of guns.