Journey/Payday 2

OK, so I totally lost track of what day it was this week and for a brief period of time I thought yesterday was Tuesday, Tuesday was Wednesday, Wednesday never existed, and tomorrow was Friday. As a result, I completely forgot to post a review. Thankfully, with Matt and Sarah filling in for the past few weeks, I have a bit of a catalog of reviews for posting. Just need to browse the internet for a bit to grab some pictures and we'll be good to go. You will be receiving two (2) reviews today as an apology. This is also an apology in advance for my soon to be very busy schedule. My "real" job gets very hectic around this time of year so I will try to keep up with reviews as best I can, but please forgive me if I fail to do so. Without further ado, I give you...


Journey


Genre: Indie, Exploration, Awesome

Developer: Thatgamecompany

Publisher: Thatgamecompany

System: PS3 exclusive (deal with it)

I felt it wasn't right to give such an interesting game a normal boring review so instead I wrote a little poem:

Ode to My Scarf Friend

Oh we sang in the sand

We danced on the wind.

Where now have you gone

My little scarf friend?

I thought you’d be with me

Through Journey’s end,

Leaping up to the sky

My loyal scarf friend.

Before me you knelt,

Your cloak kissed the sand

And you melted away

Oh disconnected scarf friend.

And the flapping red flags

Without your singing did bend.

The whole world is empty.

I miss you, scarf friend.

But then from above

A cloaked figure descends

It sings a new tune

Much like you, scarf friend.

We dance and we sing

And we glide without end.

I will end this Journey.

Screw you old scarf friend.

Happy Thoughts: This game is beautiful.

Sad Thoughts:  My stupid scarf friend left me and another even stupider scarf friend took his/her place.

The Bottom Line: This i an interesting game. It seems to be mostly about visuals and, well, the journey to get...somewhere. I was having fun.

Payday 2

Genre: Action, RPG

Developer: OVERKILL - a Starbreeze Studio

Publisher: 505 Games

System: Windows, PS3, XBox 360

I suppose I should start at the beginning. I am told to lie low, hang out in my safe house, explore a bit. I find the shooting range real easy and take down a few targets. But before long boredom sets in so I check my laptop, which has a strange orange outline for some reason. On my laptop, I can view a 3D image of myself looking all cool and stuff. I pose for the camera. Then I login to crime.net, a somewhat efficient way to look for gigs in the crime world. The internet is the perfect place to secretly organize a bank robbery or FBI infiltration. Boy, I tell you, the guy that keeps speaking to me over the walkie talkie has really got everything figured out.

 

On crime.net I find my good pal, Sean. He's been pulling heists a little longer than I so we pair up and pick something easy to work with. A bank heist should suffice. Banks are notoriously easy. You mostly just walk in, shoot the guards, drill the vault, and walk out super awesome slow-motion to the getaway van while things blow up behind you. I prepare my guns, which consist of whatever's lying around the safe house, an M16, a Beretta with a silencer. Y'know, the kind of guns you find in anyone's house in America. We make our way to the bank. We put on our masks...

Happy Thoughts: It's fun to run around and rob banks and stuff. I mean, there is a lot of potential for stuff to go wrong.

Sad Thoughts: Things go wrong all too easily and all too often.

The Bottom Line: With a solid crew that is not made up of internet jackasses this game is fun. There are a few bugs that need to be ironed out. And if your group decides to kick you just before your reward gets calculated, even if they only made it to the end of the heist because of you, you won't get rewarded so that's kind of bullshit.

All images provided by the internet. So thank you to whomever it was that took these screenshots.