Schweinehund

Video games with a serious approach to this particular dramatic period of the Japanese history are few and far between. In fact, the only ones worth mentioning on the PC are Sengoku, and of course Total War: Shogun. The problem with Total War though is that the cinematic real-time battles get boring after a short while and you find yourself playing on the over top map most of the time. And this is where Sengoku outshines Shogun, in the strategic department. The game puts really deep emphasis on characters, and their relations to one another, on plotting and preserving your honor. It even adds a, dare I say, roleplaying aspect to the game. Of course, warring is a necessary part of your rise to power, as well, since you need to conquer half of the provinces in order to beat the game.

I love sandbox games. Despite what some people might tell you, genuine open world sandbox games are few and far between. Just Cause 2 is one of them. It plays much like a B-movie, which of course is a good thing when it comes to an action game. I even downloaded a mod that turns the protagonist into John Rambo, it's hilarious (good job, modder!) The island paradise game world is huge and strikingly beautiful, but despite the game being so big, it never gets tedious getting from point A to point B, because you have your trusty grappling hook, and multitude of vehicles you can steal GTA style or purchase on the black market. The black market guy can also extract you to any previously discovered location, for a price. The combat is quite satisfying, it can get really hectic when a lot of enemies are on the screen. The explosions are over the top and incredibly fun as well.

Baldur's Gate 2 was one of my favorite games. I thought Dragon Age: Origins came close enough to being its spiritual successor as advertised, and I enjoyed that game for what it was, but Dragon Age 2 is as far from being a successor to the Baldur's Gate series as possible. It was just painful to play for so many reasons. Graphically, they somehow managed to make it appear even worse than its predecessor (not saying DA:O was bad graphically, but it certainly was groundbreaking in that aspect). The combat is now a mindless button masher, obviously tailored to please console players, because it ends up just being frustrating on the PC, only aggravated by the clunky camera. The formulaic dialogue and the cliche story are so inept in this one that it makes me want to stab furniture. Apparently BioWare were just looking for a quick cash-in. I'm definitely not buying Dragon Age 3 when it comes out (and it will, because their greediness knows no bounds).