Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: The Ancient Greek, the Malaka, and the Animus

Over 68 hours in to my attempt at forging a tale grander than any Homer ever wrote, I have become an Olympic champion, hunted down and destroyed every member of a secret cult, dueled with the likes of Medusa and the Minotaur, saved democracy, and fetched countless herbs and animal pelts for random villagers. The last major cutscene has played following completion of the final of the 3 major quest lines, yet there are still places in the massive 230 km2 map that I will never set foot on.

The Amazing Selfie-Man

Of all the games I've spent an unhealthy amount of time playing this year, none have come close to being as much fun and joyful to play as the recently released Marvel's Spider-Man. It's basically like the developers figured out how to make the best Arkham game ever with a hero that is fun and hopeful instead of bleak and 'roided out. The story is absolutely fantastic Naughty Dog-quality stuff. The combat is silky smooth. There are hundreds of amusing collectible side-quests, and web slinging through New York is the best traversal system I've ever experienced in a video game. Most importantly, though, it has a killer photo mode that I spent entirely too much time playing with when I should have been saving citizens in peril. Instead of writing a lengthy post detailing why I love this game so much, I thought I'd just show you with some of the 100 or so pictures I took while having a blast.

God of War Part 1: God of Damn That’s a Great Game

Five months in to 2018, I was shocked to discover that my front-runner for game of the year is the new Norse-mythology based reboot of God of War. I have to admit that I was not a fan of the original God of War games. While the originals were fun to play, I found the rampant misogyny to be so extremely off-putting that I could never truly get into them (note: I feel the same about Grand Theft Auto). Thankfully, this game is vastly different. In fact the entire premise is based on you respecting your beloved deceased wife's final wishes, and finding a way to protect and raise your son in his harsh new world.

The Definitive Ranking of Colossi

For almost two months, my Nintendo Switch ruled my gaming life with a string of charming Indies and some nice ports. While these games made for some fun late night adventures, I found myself searching for a gaming experience that felt much more grand and truly epic. As a result, I decided it was finally time to try out the recently released remake of one of the most adored games of all time, Shadow of the Colossus. From the second I lifted my ancient sword to guide me toward the first mammoth beast I was to slay, I knew my wish for something truly remarkable was going to be granted. Each creature was magnificent and the challenges seemed daunting but never insurmountable. Over the course of a week, I felled each increasingly elaborate behemoth while bonding further with my faithful steed, Agro, and growing ever closing to resurrecting the poor maiden no matter the cost.

Wolfenstein: The New Colossus

After last weekend's cheerful jaunt in India with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, I decided to switch things up with the acclaimed first-person shooter Wolfenstein. Set in an alternate reality 1960s where the nazis won World War II and have taken over the United States, Wolfenstein has you once again in the shoes of the OG Captain B.J. Blazkowicz as you travel throughout the states trying to spark a revolution to take back control of the country. There is a lot happening here, so instead of attempting to somehow present a coherent article about repeatedly punching nazis in the face, I've broken things down into a series of questions and answers about my time with the game.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy – A Perfect Weekend Adventure

The Uncharted series is without a doubt one of my favorite video game collections of all time. It consistently blurred the line between video games and cinema, reaching its pinnacle with one of the best games ever, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which managed to basically allow you to recreate a big budget action movie from the comfort of your couch and turned single player gaming into a spectator event. Despite its stellar history, our favorite thieves have been showing some signs of age recently, as the rebooted Tomb Raider has completely lapped it from an adventuring/shoot-em up perspective and now owns that formula. But the first entry of this generation of consoles, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, proved that this series still has the most heart, and the trademark Naughty Dog storytelling and beautiful graphics sucked me in for one of my favorite experiences of 2016.