Clearing my backlog, I may be some time.

Just Cause was amazing. Far Cry 1 and GTA San Andreas have a baby. That child is brought up by Antonio Banderas and is only allowed to watch Guillermo Del Toro and Quentin Tarantino movies. It's high school gym/PE teacher is Chuck Norris, and John McAfee teaches Computer Science . This is what Just Cause feels like. And it's awesome. Roughly 40 hours of what can only be described as a less raunchy version of the Jason Statham film Crank. I 100% the map, but did not do the races. The last 2 (4) story missions are absolute nuts compared to the somewhat easier earlier ones, basically anything after "Sink the Buccaneer" is absolute carnage, and largely luck if you make it out alive. On to Just Cause 2 now. I have played the tutorial already and, while I miss the unlimited dual pistols, seems to be just as bonkers.

So I did the tutorials and a couple of hours of the Hunger Dungeon single player game and it was Meh. I see no real progression other than just doing more of the same over and over. I also found the combat very unsatisfying. Multiplayer, and the dev support is gone, so no real reason to continue. Next on the list was Initial Drift Online, but this is a purely PvP driving game and is also a complete wasteland. After driving around for an hour or so on my own, I also decided to call this quits. So, next on the list is Just Cause. This is a series I have had on my "will get to this later" list that keeps getting longer and longer, so time to knock it off.

Well, that took longer than expected. Finally Hitman Absolution has been finished absolutely. Well not quite. Contracts servers are dead so I've left those alone, and the evidence and styles cheevos will have to stay undone. The game was largely good, but some of the missions seemed to go on too long. The hotel one where you first get stuffed by Sanches was more boring than challenging, even on Hard. I did enjoy the story though. Unlike any previous Hitman game, all the missions are purely about achieving your own goal, except for the King Of Chinatown, which is just so he'd give you info. Prominent characters were largely relevant to the story and it had a satisfying conclusion. Most of which are completely absent from prior Hitman games. I also did some of the Sniper Challenge, which I realised too late was a prelude to Absolute. Also having the World Of Assassination installed, meant I needed to give it a go and ga...

Hitman Blood Money finally finished last night. Was delayed due to a weekend away otherwise it would have only taken 4 nights. When I say finished, I took the easy road out of Requiem, man that level is the worst final level along side the final mission in Codename 47, whoever thought that was a good idea needs help, the ballers take so long to reload, you go from full health to dead before the animation finishes on the first one. Up until that point I was really enjoying Blood Money, and because doing nothing is an option, you could say I still did. However I expected a different twist at the end. 47 being the reporter wearing a bad wig, it being 6, 17, or a long lost 48 on the slab, and 47 takes them out from a vantage point, the priest being Vittorio, or even Smith and helping 47, but they just went straight for the shoot your way out approach, which was kind of dull. Anyway time for Hitman Absolution, and the first one tha...

That's Hitman Contracts out of contract now. I thought it started off well, if a bit odd. The first half was some nice new missions presented as flashbacks while in Mr 47s fever dream, but the second half is just a rehash of a handful of Codename 47 missions, not the best ones, and made changes which made them confusing, rather than refreshing. It was also considerably shorter than I expected. Anyway it is done now. Onto Hitman: Blood Money and its weird saving system.

And down goes hitman 2 silent assassin. So much more fun than the first, the save option mid level was a cool addition, but only felt necessary to use it really 3 or 4 times. I used it more than that to give me a chance go try different stuff, but other than the last 2 levels it really was just so I could have more fun. No need to look up help, no real pinch points, apart from The Motorcade Interception, that level is just a pain in the arse. It was just good old years of playing splinter cell and the chance to dress up now and then. Looks like its time for Hitman Contracts next.

Hitman Codename 47, I hit that, man. Over the years I've tried to play this game a few times and never been able to deal with the lay up of most of the levels. And man, it has not got better with time. A quick save would have saved me so much time. The time I wasted just trying to get through the security gates to get to the ship drove me mad, then just to then not be able to figure out the layout of the ship, so the nuke goes off and I have to try it all over again. This game is brutal. I ended up using a guide from about the forth or fifth level in, the one where you go through the hotel. I actually found some better approaches than the guide provided on a couple of mission, but just knowing what needed to be done made things so much easier. Stuff like wearing the right outfit was pretty obvious, but which is the right outfit? And a fail could immediately lose you half an hours work, at least. What stopped us having a quick save...