Black Mesa

I really wanted to like Black Mesa. I mean, it's an indie rebuild of Half-Life on the Source engine - what's not to like? How could I possible not like it?

Weeeell, it was OK. Certainly there was nothing wrong with it and as a technical accomplishment it was highly impressive. Except, well frankly I was just a bit bored and felt like I was going through the motions.

Some parts were just a bit too long, some were too short, some parts were frustratingly difficult (particularly the helicopter battles) and I just didn't enjoy it all that much.
So it deserves some of your time, especially as it's free, but don't expect to love it :-(

Darksiders II

So it's Zelda without the Nintendo charm, Bayonetta without the style, It's God of War. It's Shadow of the Colossus. I'm sure there was some Bionic Commando in there. Don't think this game has an original bone in its body!

On the positive, it's very well put together and really good fun (apart from the Gears of War bit) - so definitely worth playing.

Skyrim

Well... I guess I liked it. I mean, I played it for (at least) 120 hours so I must have liked it, right?

I didn't like the way it kind of forced you to take on all the evil missions as well as the good ones. Role-playing went out of the window quite quickly and it was just a game.

There were certainly some great moments, but there did seem like an awful lot of random-quest type filler. I mean hours and hours of it. I suppose completely open-world games just don't suit me - I like a bit more focus and direction, a more carefully paced story and, frankly, something a bit shorter!

Now I come to think of it, the actual combat was pretty weak too...

Obviously this is far too late to be a useful review for anyone - if you're going to play it, you already have. But then, I'm just writing these posts for me, not anyone else - I'd have to write much better articles if that was the intent :-D

So yeah. I liked it. Good game. Glad I played it. Glad it's finished!