Oh hey, so 2013 happened. Not a whole lot to say about it. No really dramatic changes in my little universe. Did a reasonable amount of gaming (though probably could've done more, if I wasn't such a lazy sod).
For me, it was, perhaps most of all, the year of Mass Effect. Technically it begun already in late 2012, but over the last year I played a lot of Mass Effect, and enjoyed other related activities, as documented in this blog. But here's one more entry to add to the list.
Randall Ezno is a operative for the shady paramilitary organization called Cerberus. He returns from a mission to find things at his base are amiss, and... Well, I won't spoil the plot. There's not really a whole lot of it. The 'proper' Mass Effect games are famous for their plots and dialogue, but Infiltrator is more of a straightforward action game. You don't get much choice about the main character or how the story develops. It's not a lengthy game, either. I easily played through it over my holiday week, and while I can't quote an exact time, it's not like I spent hours gaming every day.
The action emulates the style of the main games, of course, meaning it's a shooting game with emphasis on the use of cover, except you don't have any support from squad members. You don't get experience points, but you get credits you can use to improve your weapons and special abilities. And you can replay earlier missions in order to get more credits, which was handy as a few fights a little way into the game proved kinda tough for me.
The touch screen controls were... OK, I guess. Took a little getting used to, obviously. You target enemies simply be tapping on them, and move between covers by swiping in a particular direction. Actual running around using touch controls is a little awkward, of course, but since you spend much of the time behind cover, it's not as big an issue as in some mobile games. One thing I noticed, however, was that after an intense session my hands and wrists would be aching pretty bad. I do much prefer a decent traditional game controller.
Battery life is always an issue with mobile gaming, and this game was no exception. It's not something you actually want to do while literally 'on the road'. You want to know pretty well when and where your next opportunity for a charge is.