Initial media for Remember Me had me pretty nonplussed (and in at least one case, distinctly anti-plussed). But this look at the combat system is actually pretty impressive -- not only in its heavy customization, but in how that customization allows you to manage things like ability cooldowns and health regen through beating dudes up. I'll be keeping my eyes open for this one.

Progress: Gave Up

Yeah, it's pretty fun! A few quick hits:

• I am a ninja. With a sword.
• I have a disposable shotgun -- instead of reloading, I throw it away, and it explodes.
• The game's antagonist, Handsome Jack, has been talking to me about his solid diamond horse, who he named Butt Stallion.

Yup.

Progress: Got to Sanctuary, level 7

Wrapping up Sleeping Dogs left me wanting more open-world mayhem (I even tried Just Cause 2 again, before becoming frustrated for all the same reasons as before), and damned if The Saboteur isn't still fun. The game just plays beautifully, and Sean Devlin's suite of abilities holds up quite well, even three years later.

But, there is the ever-present threat of bugs in the PC version -- I've done pretty well so far, but there is apparently a nasty issue with the in-game map when using a resolution above 720p. Which is a shame, because the game actually looks quite beautiful at 1080p. I might just keep my resolution and try to avoid the map screen.

Progress: Recovered Santos's Champagne

I've heard that the Gods and Kings expansion fixes Civ 5's so-called "diplomacy" mechanics, but I'm not sure how much I should really expect. I wish the diplomatic AI was sophisticated enough that I could really try to play people against each other, or at least maintain healthy alliances; but all the AI players ever want is everything. They covet any land that isn't theirs, and they never forgive (or listen to) a warning against settling near your territory. If you're winning - that is, if your score is high, not if you're actually close to finishing the game - the AI will declare war on you even if you've never slighted them at all.

A game I played the other day, I was allied with both Kamehameha of Polynesia, and Catherine of Russia; then Catherine turned on Kamehameha, and asked me to go to war against Kamehamema alongside her. I accepted, and because I betrayed a player I was friends with, Catherine denounced me. I reloaded a slightly stale save and then refused Catherine's offer of war, which of course caused her to still get pissed at me. Whatever Cathy.

But enough ranting. I've already spent so much time in Civ 5 -- I really just need to move on. At least until G&K goes on Steam super-sale.

Progress: Conquered planet, and so on

The other day I described Sleeping Dogs to a buddy as excelling not at any of its individual features, but at its cohesion and density of activities. Upon some review, that's not completely accurate -- but I'll get to that in a minute.

Sleeping Dogs definitely has a greater breadth of activities than most open-world experiences. There are hidden lockboxes with money and bonus items, scattered health upgrade stations, hidden cameras to bug, low-level drug dealers to bust, people locked in car trunks to rescue, collectible clothes and cars, gambling dens, random favors, street races, plus others I'm forgetting to mention -- and all of this is aside from the core Triad missions and HKPD cases.

Sleeping Dogs has some good drama - getting much better toward the end of the game - but its characterization isn't as good as a Rockstar game. It's got a ton of activities, but nothing as zany or pure-fun as Volition's sandboxes. Its free-flowing melee combat is better than any traditional competitors, but not as tight and solid as Rocksteady's Batman games. And yet because of how all of its contents flow into each other, and how well they're integrated into the Hong Kong game world, Sleeping Dogs is much more than the sum of its parts. Clearly there's room for improvement, but United Front Games has really come out swinging, here.

As for my earlier statement not being accurate, I later recalled that there's one thing Sleeping Dogs does better than anyone else: car chases. Not only does the game have the best-yet implementation of driving and aiming (with some skillful use of slow motion tossed in), but two of the best possible key features -- shooting out tires to absolutely ruin a pursuer's day, and action-hijacking a vehicle to capture a target on the run. These don't come up too many times in the story missions, but they're always a real treat.

Better than: The Saboteur
Not as good as: Saints Row: The Third, Grand Theft Auto IV
And extra kudos to UFG: for doing an admirable and stellar delivery on the PC version. Much bigger developers could learn a thing or two from these guys.

Progress: 100% mission/etc completion

One of the things Sleeping Dogs does very right is having a shitton of side activities to do. They all require some story progress to unlock, of course, but between the collectibles and street races and hacking mini-games and girlfriends - not to mention simple statistical challenges, like jump distance and max-speed driving time - there's no shortage of things to do between Triad and Police missions. Unfortunately they're not all winners (the Drug Bust activites, for instance, are pretty bland), but Sleeping Dogs satisfies the crucial requirement of keeping the player busy with plenty of variety.

The story is, well, it's better than most GTA imitators but still not as solid as GTA 4. The plot of an undercover cop gradually infiltrating the Triads is promising, and in general the characters and storytelling sell it impressively. But it seems like whenever the story needs to make real progress, it comes with a jarring twist, sometimes feeling like a planned scene was deleted. The voice acting is generally good, and the actor for lead character Wei Shen is particularly excellent; but facial and gesture animations during story scenes seem jerky, and distinctly behind-the-times in terms of motion-capture.

Gameplay-wise, the driving is perfectly adequate, but the routes between Hong Kong's major districts are too long and sparse. Shooting is loose, but happens only very rarely. The real feather in Sleeping Dogs' gameplay-cap is the hand-to-hand combat, which is leagues ahead of most open-world games, ... but still imperfect. The basic controls are very simple, and fights generally revolve around quick hits, knock-out kicks, and counterattacks -- so it's impossible to avoid comparison with Batman: Arkham City. But where Batman is always able to divert attention to dodges and counters as necessary, Wei Shen just doesn't feel as responsive, and can get blindsided quite a bit in hectic encounters. And if he presses the counter button at the wrong time, he'll stand around like an idiot for a full second or so, just waiting to get hit.

I have to call special attention to the technical solidarity of Sleeping Dogs, which is surprisingly good. All too often, modern games are made with consoles in mind, leaving a PC version to a rushed and/or third-party port -- but Sleeping Dogs feels like it was made for the PC (provided you have a controller with analog inputs). Performance is great, the menus are responsive and functional, and the day-one DLC texture pack makes everything look fantastic. Actually, the game kind of looks like shit without it.

Sleeping Dogs is full of pretty-good mechanics and pretty-good world building. The shortfalls in combat and storytelling keep it from really rivalling Rockstar, but aren't bad enough to keep the game's impressive variety down. And hey, maybe I'll be blown away once I get to more John Woo firefights and high-speed hijackings.

Progress: Cop level 3, Triad level 2, Face level 3

For as much time as I've put into Civ 5 - coming up on my hour count with Skyrim, by now - and as much fun as I've had subjugating other cultures, it's hard to call the game a total success. There are too many UI bugs that mar the experience -- especially when the game's performance starts to suffer, and it becomes all too easy to click on what turns out to be the wrong button.

There are also some balance problems I take serious issue with. The combat outcome estimate can be distressingly wrong; I've even lost sometimes when it definitively said I would win. The AI players always behave irrationally unfairly, as they'll never accept any trade that benefits you more than themselves, but will turn right around and request free shit, then get pissy if you don't acquiesce. The "automatic" AI on units can be pretty retarded, leaving workers unused when they could be useful, or sending them off in random directions when they feel threatened (often directly into another unseen threat). And I really, really wish it was possible to destroy a city without sending a (usually weak) land unit in, or resorting to nuclear missiles.

Mods can address many of those foibles, but as I determined previously, Civ 5's mechanics are nuanced and elaborate enough that re-setting the balance on everything can be more trouble than it's worth. What would be perfect would be if the bevy of options in a mod like Vanilla Enhanced could be configured individually, or split into different mods, so I could "fix" the things that annoy me about Civ 5 without adding a whole bunch of other stuff. But, alas.

This isn't to discount how incredibly fun the game can be, despite the overwhelming time investment it requires. I've had a blast playing co-op games with a buddy (although multiplayer has some alarming performance issues), and playing a week-long game which I won on the first day (just to see how long it would take to colonize the entire map). At its core, Civ 5 is an approachable yet deep game about establishing a global empire, and who can't love that?

Better than: Brütal Legend
Not as good as: StarCraft II
I'm curious how Gods and Kings will change the formula: and hoping that it'll be dirt cheap come Winter.

Progress: Conquered planet, and so on

Like Skyrim, Civ 5 is a great game for stories. One campaign, my neighbor Napoleon made nice, asked for open borders, then declared war; I defended against him, we made up, and then he did it again (and a third time). Another campaign, I allowed Polynesia to wipe out Japan; then as I marched along on my war path, I liberated Kyoto, and Oda Nobunaga responded to his salvation by publicly denouncing me. My last campaign, I built up an impeccable seaport-based economy and raced along the tech tree toward a science victory, only to notice too late that General Washington was about to grab a surprise victory by winning every available United Nations vote.

I've also started experimenting with mods - specifically, the "Vanilla Enhanced" mod/patch - and it's fascinating that the game can be changed so broadly and dramatically, but I think I'll be sticking with the main game for the most part. Learning such a meticulous game is daunting enough, without having a mod completely shift the learning curve again.

There are some things I wish Civ 5 was better at, like starting faster and having AIs that aren't selfish assholes, but it's still a ton of fun just to tool around with.

Progress: Still haven't won a Prince campaign yet.

To more fully investigate my previous assertion that Uncharted 2 bests its sequel in terms of pure majesty - and to take advantage of a free weekend - I played through Among Thieves again, and a funny thing happened. While my trip through Uncharted 3 left me thinking back to giant Tibetan valley puzzles and train-fighting, this time through Uncharted 2, my mind wandered to burning chateaus, horseback chases, floating shanty-towns and sinking ships.

I guess that's a core strength of the narrative and design direction of the Uncharted franchise -- its high points are so strong that they can, in the long term, completely eradicate the memory of the low points. With the controller in my hand, I spend most of my effort looking for hand-holds and cover points, and yelling in futility at wave after wave of shotgun troopers; but looking back, I recall gorgeous scenery, enthralling action sequences, and hilarious banter. One might consider that what I remember is less like a video game and more like an eight-hour movie.

In retrospect, maybe my "a step forward and a step back" evaluation of Uncharted 3 wasn't totally fair and accurate. But I might have to play it again to be sure.

Incidentally, around chapter 19 I lost my patience with bullet-sponge shock troops, and dialed the difficulty all the way down. Shooting a guy in the head ten times and then exploding spontaneously just isn't fun.

Progress: Finished again (on Very Easy)

What caught me off-guard about Half-Minute Hero was just how repetitive it became. Sure, there are some side-quests and branching paths, but the game plays out identically in any case -- following NPC instructions, grinding enough to buy items and level up, then going to the boss fight. Really the only mechanic of substance is managing the 30 second time limit and purchasing time resets, which can be fairly frustrating since there's such a small margin for error.

It isn't necessarily bad, but definitely seems more suited for bite-sized play sessions, rather than sitting down and spending real time with. Which makes the original (PSP) iteration sound more sensible, but I have to wonder, where is the iOS/Android version? Or even a web/Facebook version? This game architecture seems perfect for on-the-go play, a few minutes at a time.

Progress: Gave Up -- Finished the first ten or so stages