No Daud I ... I give up on puns.

No it didn't take me this long to beat this DLC, I've just been bogged down with homework and I haven't been able to write anything yet. Now, on to the review.

Knife of Dunwall is short, only 3 missions. If you explore all of the maps and look for all of the secret things you'll spend about 6 - 8 on each run, which considering that's about the run time of Dishonored if you just run through the game, that's not too bad. I actually enjoyed this over the game it was made for. Oh right review.

In Knife of Dunwall, you play as Daud the assassin that killed the empress and it was all blamed as Corvo. The story of this game is Daud realizing what he's done and how he needs to find his path to redemption. Story of this DLC is a bit weak unfortunately. The Outsider gives you a hint towards your path and it's a name "Delilah". In the end not much happens besides you finding who ... or what, it is.

The game play is very similar to Dishonored, I however felt that they fixed several problems and put them in Knife of Dunwall. However, going back to playing Corvo leaves you feeling a bit disappointed in Corvo.

In the end, is this DLC worth what you payed for it? Definitely. You have at least 2 playthroughs, good and evil with about 6 - 8 hours each. That estimate is only if you play stealthily. I went through massacring everyone and I beat the DLC in about 1 hour. Although they claim this is for every play style you don't get much out of unless you are going to play stealth.

If you enjoyed Dishonored, I did I got the Platinum Trophy, then you will enjoy this DLC. It add some depth to Daud and sets up for the next DLC finishing Daud's story.

You have Dishonored your family by not playing this game.

Dishonored is published by Bethesda and was made by Arkane studio. Not everyone knows that Bethesda didn't make this game, which explains the art style and why the game isn't open world. Keep in mind that none of these things  point to this game being bad by any measure.

Now in Dishonored you play Corvo the Royal Protector of the Empress and her daughter, Emily. You start off coming back from a mission trying to find a way to end the plague that came from an unexplained source. Soon after you come back to the country someone decides to murder the Empress and blame you for it ... Dishonoring you.

I mentioned the art style earlier. It's looks like the style of Borderlands in a way but at first glance everything looks kind of ... dirty and smudged. Upon closer inspection you will notice that the game is actually done in a very interesting style that I haven't seen before. Everything was done with watercolors and water paints. Some miss this and think that graphics are bad, which is a shame because when you realize this, the game is beautiful. Unless you don't like watercolors ... well then never mind.

The developers really play to the games title, Dishonored. It seems like everyone, who is given the chance, Dishonors themselves in one way or another. There is plenty of irony in the game too. Corvo seems to be the only one who has the option whether or not to Dishonor himself or not. When you go the path of purity you Dishonor your targets, when you go the path of evil you Dishonor yourself. Upon doing this you realize you've either tried to prove your innocence or became the monster they wanted to portray you as. Further looking into that, some of the "pure" ways to handle the situation are pretty monstrous.

The story line is pretty basic, you get Dishonored, you get revenge and there's betrayal everywhere. With out trying to spoil anything, the story line is pretty linear and it has a twist or two. The in between of the targets is where the meat of the game is however. Each mission has small sub-stories that may or may not have to do with the actual mission or the next. These sub-stories give the area a bit more immersion and give the game more life. What I'm trying to say is that the people in the levels have a nice breath of life to them but the story itself was a bit weak.

Many people have dismissed this game because they say that it is a bad mix up of Bioshock and Thief. Which is a bad way of looking at this game. Sure it's a first person exploration game where you can have a power in one hand and your melee weapon in the other. It's reminiscent of of Bioshock but they change it and make it their own to have it work and not be blatantly the same. I'm not 100% why it's compared to thief ... because of the stealth mechanics? meh. Not trying to throw my bias into this, but trying to say that this is a blatant rip off is a bit ignorant.

I would say this game is at least worth one play through and if you like the game, play it another way. The game has three possible endings, two of which require you to be murderous. The amount of slaughter you cause actually does a good job at changing how the game plays. The guards act different or might be more of them, there are more diseased civilians and more rats that may try to kill you. When I can actually get my hands on Knife of Dunwall I will right a mini review for it.

Assassins Creed III

Once again you are following the story of Desmond and one of his ancestors. This time it's Ratonhnhaké:ton and he takes a step back and reads out of Altiar's book and isn't as ... let's say ... charismatic as Ezio, however he can swim.

Ratonhnhaké:ton, pronounce that however you will, is raised by his mother after your white father knocks her up and sends her on her merry way. Soon your fathers men attack your village, burn it and kill your mother. What's let of your village moves and you become one of the best hunters.

With the rumors that your fathers men are trying to get your village to move in their attempt to kill the rebellion (The American Revolution), you go on your way to become an assassin, by learning from a sassy black man. Soon your very complicated name becomes Conner and you blend in with all the white folk and live happily ever after stabbing everyone wearing red ... wait ... that doesn't sound right.

So if you played Revelations and Brotherhood, if you haven't go to Youtube and watch the cinematics  (Don't worry, you didn't miss much), you will notice that that they got rid of the clutter of items and weapons. You've been brought back down to silent ranged, loud ranged, a few melee weapons and a few tricks (like the smoke bomb). To accompany this much smaller myriad of things they add hunting, which is brought up and turned into a side thing. Even though hunting is a side thing, you use these animal parts for additional money so you can make better weapons.

The fighting system hasn't changed much, you block, counter, and kill. There are occasionally bad guys that need you to counter throw or dodge attack but they are not as frequent as the regulars. For the most part the enemies scream that they are attack on screen, with red arrows that dictate that they are about to attack and you need to block. Sometimes they attack with a yellow arrow and you need dodge and you cannot retaliate.

Desmond actually does something in this game. That's right Desmond has a purpose! Sort of ... kind of ... briefly. For the most part you play as Conner and Desmond has a small amount of missions that are short. I think only one of Desmond's missions actually has a fight sequence. Desmond's story bring some sort of closure to his story arc but raises more questions than were answered.

All in all the game is worth playing, these are much better than Revelations and Brotherhood but I'm not sure if this game is better than II. Conner's story is definitely worth the play, Desmond's story might not be. If you aren't really sure about the series, because they churn out games every year, then at least rent the game. The closure to Desmond's arc is worth it and Conner has an interesting take on the American Revolution and bring you to the perspective of an American Indian, albeit a tree hopping, red coat killing, semi-unrelatable American Indian.

Important

Update this game before you play it. The game seemed to be released well before the game was actually projected to get released so the fresh copies have many, many bugs. You can play the game without the updates, but you will find some hilarious bugs.

Mass Effect (The Finale) ... Or is it?

So once again we play as Shepard the Commander of the ... oh wait ... (s)he's grounded. I guess the Alliance didn't like that (s)he was working with/for Cerberus and sent him to his/her room with no Normandy. However as soon as the game starts INVASION! Remember those nasty Reapers that you tried to warn everyone about in the first game and became a realistic threat in the last one and they still ignored you? Well they actually found a way in the known galaxy and are fucking shit up on earth.

Now not to ruin things, and it's not to say that I didn't enjoy this game. However, this game seemed to have more plot holes than I could fathom and the ending ... Jesus Christ the ending. Certain things from the last few games have been ignored or worked around with some backwards thinking. Like how the Reapers originally were explained to only to go through the Citadel Relay and now they can somehow use a relay in dark space to go into our galaxy.

Now besides the few glaring plot holes that can easily be looked over if you don't think to hard about it ... and the ending ... this game is great. I don't quite think it's as good as ME2, however this game did a very good job at keep my attention and me wanting to play more.

As I believe I mentioned in the ME2 review the game changes the mood again and changes how certain things are done. The game revolves around the war so your group has shrunken down, the RPG elements have changed to fit around it and you are in charge of getting the galaxy together to take down the reapers.

Now putting this all together this game is completely different from the other games, which Bioware seems to keep consistent among the series. Again, I'm not saying this is bad thing it keep the games different and interesting. 

However different this game may be from the others, I have a hard time saying anything about his game without repeating myself about the others. There are RPG elements that have been expanded upon  from ME2, it is still a cover based shooter, the shiny clothing has gotten a bit more in depth than in ME2 but it still can't touch ME1, their are still more side quests than I can count and you are still Shepard teaming up with Garrus.

One thing I can say about this game is don't get too connected with some characters or you will be devastated. I would definitely recommend this game series, it kept my attention, it left me wanting to play more, the characters were very well developed and the game is very well rounded. The ending is disappointing however very ... very disappointing.