• 18Apr 09

  If you like brackets and ellipses...

  Given that this is the time of year that school decides to pick a fight with me (and inevitably win), I thought I'd write one last blog before things get too serious and I'm busy studying or at least guiltily procrastinating. Since I last decided to relieve myself of game related opinions I haven't played many new releases. This is largely down to my disinterest in most of these games (Street Fighter IV being a prime example of this). However I did play through Resident Evil 5 as well as some slightly older games.

  Might as well start with the zombies. I'm sure anyone who happens to be reading this (for whatever reason) is tired of hearing about RE5 at this point, so I'll keep it quick. It's pretty good. To be honest, RE is not a series I'm particularly fond of; the control scheme, the story, the very concept, none of it appeals to me. That being said, I found the game to be fairly enjoyable. The incredible graphics, intense boss fights and... hilariously bad presentation of local co-op, all fought against my apathy and made the game worth playing.

  The next game that immediately comes to mind is Too Human (timely huh...). For me, Too Human is the most frustrating kind of decent game. At every turn, something just prevents it from being great. Be it the slightly clunky controls, the somewhat off animation, or the damn Valkyries. OK, so the Valkyries are decidedly worse than most other aspects of the game, but they're still indicative of the problems that drag Too Human down. Overall, I still enjoyed the game. Although it was largely down to the fact that Too Human is the type of game that I generally enjoy.

  Next up, Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction. I haven't actually finished this yet, but I think I'm close enough to the end to form an opinion of sorts. This is actually the first game in the series I've played, and it was mainly out of guilt for neglecting my PS3 that I played it. The gameplay itself is not particularly compelling, but the story, setting, characters and colourful art styIe that surround it most certainly are. The game has an all round (to use a technical term) pixar-ish quality about it, from the funny dialogue to the creative character design. I'll probably finish it in the next few days.

  Besides these I have played quite a few other games that I don't feel like writing as much about, these include: Iron Man (...), CoD: WaW (good, but not good enough. Sorry Treyarch, you just can't win), Amped 3 (unbridled madness) and Need For Speed: Undercover (...). On the DS front, I finally finished New Super Mario Bros and have spent shamefully little time playing Chrono Trigger. I'll play through it eventually.

  This post has a lot of brackets...

  • Posted Apr 18, 2009 3:42 pm PT
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• 25Jan 09

  So many games...Act II: The Revenge of something or other

  Let the writing of several lines of text indicating how I feel about a game commence:

  Far Cry 2

  
  This game is one I'm largely conflicted about. It has its awesome moments where the open world stuff plays off, however, it also suffers from just about every problem a game of that type can do. Besides these problems, it has a backwards difficulty curve, to begin with the game is frustrating, as you are constantly being attacked when you drive around the map, yet, by the end I was making it through missions without having to use many (if any) health packs. The game also has uniquely terrible voice acting. Most of the lines sound very rushed...bewildering.

  LittleBigPlanet

  
  LittleBigPlanet is a game that I don't find particularly compelling. It's just a platformer...a platformer with odd controls. Now, the creation stuff is interesting and playing user created levels is often fun but in the end I can't help but feel that this is a game which is massively overrated. To me, the only standout feature is the game's music, which I find to be amazing at times, especially in the Savannah levels. In saying this, I have yet to complete the game, maybe when I'm done with it I'll somehow be blown away.

  Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts

  
  The vehicle building aspects of Banjo give it surprising depth. It can be frustrating at times, but finally building something that makes a mission easier is a rewarding process. Besides this, the game is wonderfully written and genuinely funny (I think I used that phrase in my last blog). The basic objectives of the missions can get a little repetitive but overall, the game is great. I think I still have to collect about 30 Jiggies before I can face the last boss.

  Final Fantasy IV (DS)

  After feeling bad about neglecting my DS, I pre-ordered Chrono Trigger (which isn't out here in the U.K yet) and bought Final Fantasy IV. I've played FF IV for about 30 hours and am about to enter what I believe to be the final dungeon. Besides some shoddy voice acting, the game is very good. It looks great, it's a good challenge and has a fairly interesting, if a little dated, story. I'll probably finish the game in the next few days and then start looking forward to Chrono Trigger, which I've heard described as one of the best RPG's ever. Hopefully it lives up to that claim.

  • Posted Jan 25, 2009 12:07 pm PT
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• 18Jan 09

  So many games....Act 1

  I qoute:

  "start writing them more regularly"

  That was a lie.

  The longer I put off writing these, the more daunting a prospect it becomes. I'm going to have to craft this in such a way that I can eliminate the various games I've played from my mind before it self-destructs. Here goes:

  Before Christmas (BC if you will):

  Shortly after lamenting the difficulty of a boss fight close to the end of Final Fantasy X, I finished the game. Apparently Aeons were the answer. I also played through Mass Effect again, getting some more achievements and enjoying the dialogue all over again. I almost certainly played several others before Christmas but I'll be damned if I can remember them.

  After annual gift day...

  I played many games. Underlined (or not) text shall represent them:

  Dead Space

  While I'm not generally a fan of horror games, Dead Space garnered enough praise and looked promising enough for me to give it a try. I'm glad I did because it turned out to be one of my favourite games this year. The game appealed to me in similar ways to Bioshock, it has an amazing atmosphere, an interesting setting and audio logs to listen to. The game's story isn't as compelling or original as it might have been but it's enough to keep you moving along. Derivative as it is, Dead Space in sublimely crafted game. Play it.

  Fable 2

  As a fantasy RPG, Fable 2 is a game my various interests won't allow me not to buy. The stand out feature of the game is its world, Albion. The land is full of interesting and genuinely funny, well voiced and well written characters, a rarity in video games. The game's story is entirely forgettable but does take you to several interesting places for long enough periods of time for your various morally charged choices to take effect and shape the world. The combat in the game is fine and stays relatively interesting for the entirety of the experience.

  Gears of War 2

  I wasn't particularly excited about playing Gears 2 until I had actually played a good chunk of it and remembered how awesome the original was. So much so that I played through the single player campaign in one sitting. Gears 2 improves on the original in enough ways to make the concept of shooting aliens from behind cover interesting all over again. One of the main improvements was the addition of an actual story to the series, which makes moving from one showdown with monsters to the next far more meaningful than it was in the first game. As far as multiplayer goes, my indifference knows no bounds.

  Expect Act 2 in 6-8 weeks.

  • Posted Jan 18, 2009 12:02 pm PT
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