Batman: Arkham City

Overfulling with content, but surprisingly boring. Too much flying through the town, fights not really catchy, something essential is missing. Open world doesn't work well for this franchise, it seems. Too much distraction for me from the main storyline. First part was linear but felt like movie, this is not a movie anymore, Too much little things to do, no single thread to follow.

Grade: 5/10

Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon

Mechanics similar to base game. Weaponry and setting updated to far future. Missing cover system, probably on purpose. Either silent kill or open conflict. Enemies overrun quickly, what is logical, hide helps. Throwing dices for bait is a nice Easter egg. Generally the game and interface is full of humour, however the setting is not my tale really. Comparing to FC3 and FC2 it's lower league.

Grade: 7/10

LOTR: War in the North

Actually very generic hack and slash with slight RPG elements. In this case RPG elements are 4 primary stats, skills tree, 3 races/professions and some quests. The engine is bland, invisible wall is blocking access to problematic terrain (like 30cm elevation with grass???), no jumping, etc. Fight is too easy (why limit the difficulty? does everybody need to playthrough it 2 times to access very hard, really?), camera barely show your character bottom, so if mobs attack from behind you are totally surprised. Though you cannot fight effectively even if you know they are somewhere there. (vide Batmans or The Witcher) Level design is linear (? come on, no open world, not open locations it's 5th decade of gaming).

Story & Setting: 9 (main interest)

Level Design: 2

Graphics: 5 (old game, ok)

Music: 9 (very nice ambient music and rain)

Playability: 3 (though curious for quests and locations, so will play anyway)

OVERALL: 6