I received a lot of positive feedback to my 2023 end of year wrap up on games and other media. While 2024 wasn’t as prolific for me, there were still many solid games. Here are some of the key video game experiences I had in 2024.
MoreHere in 2023, my video game playing has been heavily influenced by two things. The first is playing with my ten-year-old daughter, choosing games that are content-appropriate and within her interests. The second is having an engaged group of friends that are interested in playing games together or apart, but then discussing them afterwards. These both have kept my playing dynamic and social in a way that really has worked for me. The following is a list of video games I played in 2023 (potentially released earlier) that warranted a mention.
MoreWe often bemoan the encroaching invasiveness of the modern digital age. Services like Facebook and Google are pretty notorious for collecting all kinds of data on us. The amount of information that they know about a single person can be a bit creepy. There’s a fair amount of faith required to trust that they will respect our privacy, and it’s clear that some are better at this than others. But there are times when I really appreciate my digital footprint. I like being able to explore my memory with the aid of some automatic stenographer in the cloud. It’s with this help that with a quick run through of Xbox and BoardGameGeek that I can tell you exactly what I played in 2012.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
I feel compelled to write about Bastion. I mean, I could just say “it’s good, you should play it”, which is totally accurate, or “it’s so good I played it twice”, which is also definitely true, but I think the game deserves more than that. It deserves some gushing.
MorePlayed on Windows Phone
I've had a couple people ask me if I could disseminate the results from my various Windows Phone gaming expeditions. I keep putting it off, but the fact that Fable Coin Golf is on sale this week reminded me to stop procrastinating.
MoreIn the olden days, software was bought in a real physical store, came in a physical box, and was written onto some piece of physical media. If that software had problems with it, or lacked important features, then there was no real way to get an update out to the consumer. I think once or twice I had a game with such bad defects that they mailed out replacement floppy disks, but it was exceedingly rare. In general the mantra was “get it the right the first time, or don’t bother.”
MoreIn late 2006 (yes, this story starts five years ago) Microsoft released the first version of XNA, a development platform for writing games on the PC and Xbox. It put all the nitty-gritty details that generally plague game development behind a modern type-safe programming language (C#). It let developers focus on the more interesting aspects of game design. As someone who has dabbled in game development in the past, this simplified platform sounded like a great way for me to get back into it.
MoreContinuing our pictorial journey through Middle-Earth…
MoreI’m generally not a fan of landscape photography. Maybe it’s because the subject matter is infinitely patient. In general the photo will have everything in focus, and whatever is being captured has been there longer than you or I. There’s no immediacy to it. Sure, mountains and trees and waterfalls are pretty, but I just don’t know what a landscape photo is telling me other than “doesn’t wherever you are now suck in comparison?”
MoreAt last we’ve come to the reason that I’m even talking about Lord of the Rings Online again in the first place: the fact that it’s now to free to play. But what does that even mean?
MoreWe’re now at part five of my ramblings on Lord of the Rings Online. Time to stop beating around the bush and start complaining about what I really want to complain about: User Interface
MoreWell, this fourth part of my return to Lord of the Rings Online is maybe a bit more on the nerdy side. It’s not about what you can do, or where you do it; it’s about how you do it. The mechanics of the game.
MoreMy last article about Lord of the Rings Online focused on the solo activities one could undertake in Middle Earth. This article will focus on the “Multiplayer” part of the MMO acronym… probably what the rest of you play these games for.
MoreThe last post focused on the world of Lord of the Rings Online, because that’s the first thing you’ll see and care about. This post delves into the details of what to do within that world, once again comparing to my various quotes from three years ago.
MoreNow that I’ve put up my complete words from 2008, it’s time to re-evaluate the Lord of the Rings Online of today.
MorePlayed on PC
Recently Lord of the Rings Online went free to play, which is to say you can play the game without a subscription or even a credit card. Of course there are all sorts of potential microtransactions available so that Turbine can actually make money on their game, but these are all completely optional. Since there’s no cost to me I decided to log in and check out the game (the last time I played was alongside the Mirkwood expansion about a year ago). And as I evaluated the game in its current state against adjusted criteria I thought it’d be interesting to revistwhat I’d written about the game in the past here. It was at that point that I realized that there was a lot of content that I wrote about the game that somehow never got posted. So, I present to you what was intended to be an immediate follow-up to this post, further thoughts about Lord of the Rings Online, three years ago (circa early 2008).
MoreIt’s common to have a video game release alongside a film release as some sort of companion marketing synergy something-something. It’s rare that I actually experience those products in tandem as intended. But that has been the case with Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. So I have two pieces of media to process here, both of which have increased my curiosity about the original source material.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
Before playing Darksiders, I had already heard a lot of press about how the game is just one big Zelda rip off. It is accused of unabashedly stealing mechanics from that franchise and others. And you know what, that’s no lie. But I fail to see how it’s a problem. The Zelda games are almost uniformly excellent. And there really aren’t many other games that attempt that gameplay style. So really, there’s low supply and high demand for Zelda-style games, and something like Darksiders should be perfectly welcome. I mean, were people really upset when Shadow Complex blatantly cribbed from Metroid? I’m glad the gaming industry isn’t as crazy about patents as the rest of the software world - it prevents the culture from stagnating.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
My love affair with rhythm video games has cooled a bit. I don’t lust after the experience like I once did. I’ll never turn down an opportunity to play, but it’s not something I’m generally seeking out anymore.
MoreSo I’ve been continuing my exploration of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. And you know what, I took down the boss and saw the credits roll. So that means I beat the game, right? Apparently not so much. I just experienced the premature “bad” ending. In reality I’m only halfway through the game.
MorePlayed on PC
Okay, enough talking about games that used to be better. It’s time for some positive evolution.
MorePlayed on Nintendo DS
The new release of Spirit Tracks reminds me that I never commented on it’s predecessor, Phantom Hourglass. It’s not that I didn’t play it - I did. But I sent it back after only a couple sittings. I know, I know - I sent back a freaking Zelda games.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
I’m not as much of a slave to my Gamefly queue as I am to my Netflix queue. Given the various platforms and their different economic models it’s hard for rentals to be a large percentage. At any point I’ll generally have a disc out from Gamefly, an MMO I’m poking around in, a handheld game for the bus, some slow burner on the console that would take too long to rent, and some downloadable game. But I’m always trying to push as much of my gaming to rental as possible, which is the smartest option for my rate of play. It has the side effect of encouraging me to try games I would never risk real permanent money on. Which means I throw stuff into my queue that is sometimes pretty borderline.
MoreAs promised, I’ve started playing Symphony of the Night. And I’m having a hard time developing an unbiased opinion. I’m comparing my current experience with the experience other people had in the natural evolution of gaming. I’m coming to this game after having already experienced a half dozen of its indirect sequels. It’s extraordinarily difficult to pretend that I’m not bringing a ton of baggage with me on this experience.
MoreI just polished off Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, while at the same time the Angry Video Game Nerd completed his four part series on the Castlevania franchise (told in parts I, II, III, and IV, and of course supplemented by his classic coverage of Castlevania II). Given the type of game the Nerd generally covers I usually only go to him for entertainment value, not critical analysis. But watching these videos on the Castlevania franchise I found he and I seem to be in exact agreement.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
Like many, the first time I went roller skating I was timid and hugged the wall the whole time. But there was a turning point where I finally gained enough confidence to let go, power skate as fast as I could, and really enjoy myself. That point was when the Ghostbusters theme song came on. I remember later in my life, going to some skating birthday party where my mom told this little factoid to a girl I was crushing on. I was mortified, of course. But apparently it doesn’t embarrass me now, as I sit freely blogging it to The Internet.
MorePlayed on PC
This past Halloween weekend Cryptic decided to offer Champions Online for free for a couple days. Promotional weekends are increasingly common in MMOs, but generally they’re structured as a “welcome back” for old subscribers, and they’re offered for older games. But Champions Online is a brand new title, so having the opportunity to try out a fresh new game for free was quite a treat.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
I’d heard good things about Braid, so I snatched the demo up as soon as it became available last Wednesday. I was immediately surprised by the visual presentation. In static screenshots you don’t really see the constant motion going on in the background that gives the game a surrealistic painted quality. It’s subtle but really beautiful. But the first level included in the trial didn’t knock my socks off from a gameplay perspective. So far the game had only shown me relatively straightforward platforming, and if I hadn’t hear so much praise for Braid I probably would have left it at that. Thankfully I trusted in the good things I’d heard about the game and slapped down $15 for the full version so I could see more.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was the title that really kicked off the whole Xbox Live Arcade thing. It combined classic simple gameplay with high production values at a low price, making it hard not to like. It’s been quite some time since then, and this whole notion of small scale downloadable games on consoles has really taken off. And after all this time we now have a sequel, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2.
Honestly, I wasn’t super excited for this release. As good as Geometry Wars for its time, a lot has happened since then. The core formula was really simple, and since then two-stick shooters have become as ubiquitous on XBLA as first-person-shooters on the PC. I just couldn’t see how this little game about shooting shapes in a rectangle could really evolve into something more interesting.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
You see, the original Geometry Wars was pretty hardcore. The whole scoring mechanic celebrated The Perfect Game. Dying reset your multiplier, but the difficulty of the game constantly increased, so a mistake early on prevented you from getting a decent score. The beginning of the game was really easy, so it took awhile to see if you were going to cut the mustard and walk away with an awesome score. But difficulty skyrocketed from trivial to ridiculous in a short time period, and pretty soon you were dead and stuck with too many enemies and no multiplier. The end result was largely decided by one little split-second mistake. Although I appreciated the skill involved in it, I just wasn’t interested in getting that hardcore over a split-second.
The sequel innovates in a couple of key ways that dramatically improve the experience. First, your multiplier is not reset when you die, so there’s no need to get overly frustrated when your perfect run is flawed. Second, your multiplier is not defined by how many kills you get, but instead by these little green geoms that drop from defeated enemies. This forces you to balance your play between adding to your score and increasing your long-term score potential by gathering multiplier. It also forces you to play aggressively, flying head-on into enemies instead of endless circling. Finally, the game features a couple of truly innovative modes that feel unlike anything else out there and emphasize the best parts of the new Geometry Wars gameplay.
Probably my favorite of these modes is King. In King there are bubbles where you are protected for a short time, but you cannot shoot while outside a bubble. This creates a brilliant pacing between aggressive and defensive gameplay. One moment you’re unleashing carnage, the next you’re racing for your life. It’s one of the most brilliant gameplay innovations I’ve ever experienced. It effortlessly blends strategy into an action-packed twitch-fest.
GW2 also introduces multiplayer to the franchise, and King with four players is one of the best multiplayer experiences I’ve ever had. It’s not head-to-head in that you don’t shoot at other players, but that’s not to say that it isn’t brutally competitive. Do you put yourself at risk to farm multiplier or do you stay safe and shoot? Where do you shoot so that the geoms are most likely to benefit you and not your opponents? How do you plan your movement between bubbles so that you have a safe escape route at all times? How many bubbles can you pop to limit your opponent’s options without impeding your own strategy? The amount of stuff going on is gleefully overwhelming. And at the core of this is a fast paced action game, so pretty much every part of your gaming brain is being tickled at once. It’s incredibly fun, and thoroughly addictive.
King is great, but Pacifism is pretty awesome too. In this mode you can’t shoot at all. The only way to kill enemies is to fly through gates that explode as you cross through them. Instead of dealing with sparse nimble enemies you deal with lumbering swarms. By having your offensive capabilities crippled you’re forced to focus completely on movement, frantically bobbing and weaving through overwhelming odds. As far as I’m concerned the mode could have been called Balls, because without them you will fail. Just as in the other modes you have to balance multiplier and score, but in Pacifism getting that multiplier often means launching yourself directly towards the oncoming swarm. Seriously, balls.
Singleplayer turns out to be just as addictive as multiplayer in GW2, primarily due to the tight integration of friend leaderboards. You are constantly aware of your friend’s high scores and encouraged to better them. It feeds that competitive drive, but in an oddly social way. My only complaint is that there is no persistence to multiplayer scores whatsoever.
Achievements are often misused in games. They should add something to your game experience, not entice you with ridiculous goals that exploit your inner obsessive completist. Geometry Wars 2 strikes a perfect achievement balance. Each mode in the game has an achievement that encourages you to play it in a different way. Instead of merely awarding excellence, the achievement gives you new stuff to do. It enhances the core game.
All told, I’m happy to have been proven wrong. I wasn’t really looking forward to this game, and it’s completely surprised me. Geometry Wars 2 has brought some serious innovation to the two-stick shooter genre. And it’s only $10. So, um yeah. Hot.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
Given the reviews I knew that Stranglehold (sorry, “John Woo Presents Stranglehold”) probably wouldn’t rock my world, so I guess I wasn’t too disappointed when it didn’t. It’s not bad, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it over all the other games out there. The premise is solid: a shooter with crazy destructible environments and a combo system that awards you for taking dudes out with style. But the execution of that premise left something to be desired.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
I’ve been doing the GameFly thing for quite some time now, and I’ve noticed that my play style has changed somewhat. Gone are the days of playing only a handful of games, but playing them so deeply that I know every last inch. I don’t think it’s correct to say my taste has changed, but I do think it has expanded. I now seek out games where the reviews criticize it for being “too short.” I often would rather have short but memorable experiences with multiple games than a long deep relationship with one epic game. I’ve shifted to be a gaming polygamist. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy deep, long-term gameplay (just look at how much MMO blogging I do), but I’ve now got a soft spot for the short but sweet weekend rental.
MoreI quit WoW once I had seen all the sights I wanted to see and I knew that the rest wasn’t worth the effort. I quit Lord of the Rings Online when I realized that the gameplay just didn’t do it for me anymore. So why am I deciding that now is the time to quit Tabula Rasa? I’ve been totally digging this MMO. It’s managed to turn traditionally slow MMORPG gameplay into something much more exciting. So if the game plays great, then what’s the freaking problem?
MorePlayed on Xbox360
There was a fair share of controversy around Assassin’s Creed when it was released last Fall. There seemed to be a split between people who thought it was flawless and others who got caught up on something and ended up bashing it. And now that I’ve played the game I totally understand why it played out that way. Assassin’s Creed is a game that is so close to greatness that it’s few flaws stick out in sharp contrast. Whether you love it or are disappointed by it depends on whether those flaws are enough to pull you out of the experience. I personally was able to largely ignore the blemishes and really enjoy myself, but I was left with a feeling that this game could have been so much more.
MoreYou can currently get Tabula Rasa dirt cheap on Amazon. If you were on the fence but didn’t want to plop down the money for the initial purchase it should be a no brainer now.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
If you’ve played one Katamari game, you’ve played them all. There have been some small variations on the core formula, but it hasn’t strayed too far from “roll up stuff and get big.” Which is good, because that simple thing is so entertaining. If you’ve spent a lot of hours on the PS2 Katamari games, there’s not much new to play around with in Beautiful Katamari on the Xbox 360. But if you’ve never experienced the joy of rolling up huge balls of crap, Beautiful Katamari delivers. You’ll grow from the size of a penny to be bigger than the sun, all while listening to crazy J-Pop.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
Back in December I was harsh to Guitar Hero III, but with good reason. By the time I was trying to write down my thoughts on Guitar Hero I had already started playing Rock Band. And Rock Band blows Guitar Hero out of the water.
MoreThe new Zune software has added support for podcasts, so I’ve been spending the last couple months trying to find the right podcasts for me. Finding podcasts is really easy, but finding a small set of good ones to listen to regularly is no small feat. To really decide if you like a particular podcast or not it generally takes listening to a couple episodes, each with a running time that is often an hour or more. And there are hundreds of podcasts on each conceivable topic out there.
MorePlayed on PC
I’ve been struggling to figure out how I feel about the MMO genre. I love the epic worlds and character persistence, but I hate so many of the game mechanics that slow enjoyment to a crawl. I definitely have the capacity to enjoy these kinds of games, but the concentration of good stuff is extremely diluted. I feel like I’m in denial about a failing relationship because once in awhile we connect and I forget about all the arguing and apathy.
MorePlayed on PC
When is the appropriate time to evaluate an MMO? I usually post a review of a game after I finish it, but MMOs are designed to have no end to them. I could give a first impression, but many of the finer gameplay elements are not immediately available or apparent. In fact, MMO systems are generally so large and complex that I might not understand the “bigger picture” until the time I’ve invested is approaching triple-digit hours. So it is that I’ve gone so long without saying much about Lord of the Rings Online.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
It feels silly to do a review of Halo 3. Given the ridiculous sales, chances are you either already own it or have decided you’re not interested. But it feels equally silly to not comment on the “largest entertainment launch of all time.”
MoreOkay, I’m about to go off the nerd deep end and rant about RMT (Real Money Trading). But even the Discovery channel has recently discussed this space, so maybe it’s not too niche. I’d even argue that this topic extends beyond gaming. Increasingly our world is being defined by goods that are easily cloneable and have to be controlled by Intellectual Property laws and the like. With the music industry scrambling to figure out how it fits in anymore, it’s valuable to look at the virtual economies happening in online video games. I’m sure there’s a great discussion to be had there, but as I said, this is a rant…
MorePlayed on Xbox360
It’s hard to talk about Guitar Hero III without also blabbing about Rock Band, but I’ll do my best to fight the temptation. We’ll save that comparison for when I do a proper Rock Band review. But it’s totally fair to start talking about Guitar Hero III by looking back at what I had to say about /2007/05/16/guitar-hero-ii-xbox-360.html.
MoreWhen making my request for a specific type of zombie game, I had no idea that there was in fact an entire web site devoted to that genre. So I went through and tried a whole bunch of them to see if what I was looking for already existed. Short answer: no. But some of them were close.
MoreSo I recently ran into this little Flash zombie game called The Last Stand. Zombie games are plentiful, but this one is interesting in its focus on zombie defense with light RPG elements. Each night you defend yourself against the zombie horde, and each day you decide how to split your time between repairing the barricade, searching for other survivors, and looking for weapons.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
I’ve already pumped a ton of time into The Orange Box and I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. I started out with Portal, which is a little slice of gaming perfection. I then moved on to play Half-Life 2 for my third time (yes, it’s that good), but for my first time on a console and my first time with achievements (Ravenholm with only the gravity gun = good times). I’ve only cracked open Team Fortress 2 for one round but it was a total blast. I’m big supporter of renting these days, but really no one with a 360 should be without The Orange Box.
MoreA healthy, balanced life is within reach - I can almost see it. I haven’t had much energy to post here, but thankfully I haven’t been completely absorbed in work during all this time. I figure the best way to get back into the swing of things is to recap what I’ve been playing over the last couple months during my radio silence. I’ve got a big fat pile of games that I’ve finished and should really give a proper review, but I don’t know if I’ll ever own up to the backlog. So I’ll just run down the list and keep it short:
MoreFor someone who’s such a Metroid fanboy, I’m actually not much of a fan of the original. I’ve been spending a decent amount of time on the Virtual Console lately, and the original Metroid hasn’t aged nearly as well other big franchises (like Mario and Zelda). Even when I know where I’m going I invariably get lost in the repetitive environments. And entirely too much effort is spent farming energy to fill up your tanks. In Zelda you may have more heart containers (energy tanks), but each heart drop gives you back a full one (not 5/100) and there are both fairies and potions to give you big refills in times of need. I’ve never actually had the stomach to finish the original Metroid, although I try every now and then if only to experience it’s historical significance.
MoreIf you couldn’t tell from my lack of posting, life has been rough lately. But not yesterday. Yesterday was a good day.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
It’s hard to really explain how much I love Guitar Hero II. But I don’t really have to, because everyone else seems to as well (reviews: GameSpot, GameSpy, GameRankings). It’s one of those games that anyone can play and have a blast. I played the first Guitar Hero for the PS2, which totally rocked, but the sequel’s arrival on the Xbox 360 is a distinct upgrade. The graphics are totally better, although that’s more a feature for the spectators, not the player. There’s a cooperative mode where one player can play lead and the other can play rhythm or bass. There are more songs. As a 360 title there are achievements, which are well balanced. There are also leaderboards where you can size yourself up against your friends or the whole world (I’m currently ranked around 13,000). The gameplay itself is more of the same, but no one’s complaining about that.
MoreGameSpy has a periodic article that they do called What We’re Playing where all the staff weighs in on what games they’re playing (aptly named, yes). I find it interesting because comparing all their lists can give you an idea of what games have broad and/or lasting value. But it’s also nice because you get little two sentence impressions without the pressure of a full preview or review. And as I continue this blog I’m seeing the value in that from their end. I try to complete every game I come across and have something interesting to say, but sometimes the journey to get there is so long that it’s worth throwing in offhand comments along the way.
MorePlayed on Wii
There was an article over on GameSpy awhile back about how innovation in games is overrated And I agree with them - there’s nothing wrong with an incremental evolution of an old formula. But it is quite refreshing when something totally different comes along. Trauma Center: Second Opinion is one of those games (links: GameSpot, GameSpy, GameFly). In it you play the role of surgeon, using your wiimote to slice, dice, and stitch your patients into good health. It’s the sort of experience that couldn’t really happen on any other platform (save the DS).
MorePenny Arcade’s post today stirred some thoughts on the whole concept of “unlocking” in games.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
I actually finished Saints Row a couple weeks ago, but I felt compelled to keep playing it because there was just so much extra stuff to do (links: GameSpot, GameSpy, GameFly). The game is an unabashed GTA clone, but it’s a pretty decent one. It nails all the core elements of driving and shooting, and gives you plenty of varied missions. It doesn’t hit the strong thematic stride of Vice City or San Andreas, making it feel more like GTA III but with more contemporary gameplay.
MoreGamasutra posted a great article on Rethinking the MMO. If you’ve ever played one of these games, it’s worth a good read.
I’ve pulled out some quotes that spoke to me:
MorePlayed on PC
I held it off as long as possible, but at last I have hit level 70 in World of Warcraft (TBC reviews: GameSpot, GameSpy). I had no interest in rushing the journey from 60 to 70 because I knew that the returns diminish pretty dramatically after you hit the level cap. It’s likely that Blizzard has handled it better this time around, but it’s a fundamental limitation of this kind of game that at some point the content thins out and they have to string you along with a decreasing time/value proposition. So I’ve absolutely taken my time to smell all the flowers as I’ve strolled through The Burning Crusade.
MorePlayed on Wii
Warioware: Smooth Moves (GameSpy, GameSpot, GameFly) is my fourth contact with the Warioware series. And it feels like all the previous iterations were just building up to this one. It arrived on the GBA. Multiplayer was added when it was ported to the GameCube. When it hit the DS it brought a more intuitive set of controls. And then it revisited the GBA to experiment with motion controls (which is the one title I missed). And now it’s here on the Wii, and the Wiimote makes it the best yet.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
I usually wait until after I finish a game before I review it. But I’m pretty sure that Viva Piñata doesn’t have an end. I guess the closest thing would be getting all the achievement points. But given all the other games I have going on right now (ahem, new Wii), I don’t think that’s happening any time soon. So I’m going to jump the gun and tell you what I think now instead of later.
MoreOne interesting aspect of the new Armory feature for WoW is that you can now go look up that bastard who corpse camped you for half an hour. Now I know that I was only one of 49514 (Contrast that with my lifetime kill count of 2372, which unfortunately I was never able to add that bastard to).
MorePlayed on Xbox360
Well, that didn’t take long. I finished Crackdown (links: GameSpy, GameSpot, GameFly) before I was even able to add it to my “Now Playing” list. Which you think would have me fuming about value or something. But I’m not. I actually had a blast playing Crackdown. I’d recommend you rent it, not buy it, but it’s definitely a really fun game that’s just different enough from the other games out there to feel fresh.
MorePlayed on Nintendo DS
I’m happy to say that after some difficulty I finally finished Final Fantasy III for the DS (Links: GameSpy, GameSpot, GameFly). And I’m having some trouble deciding exactly how I feel about it.
MoreGameFAQs’s list of top FAQs is generally a really good indicator of what games people are playing right now. And it’s quite telling that Final Fantasy III (the DS port of the Japan-only NES original) is still hanging out on that list after 5 months. Because old school RPGs are fucking brutal. I’m glad to see that many of my fellow gamers are still working on this one. My commute gives me near infinite time to grind through any game. Unfortunately, RPGs demand just that: infinite time.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
I really wanted to like F.E.A.R. (despite it’s really lame sub-title “First Encounter Assault Recon”). The reviews made it sound like it was going to be good (GameSpy, GameSpot). Kinda like Eternal Darkness meets FPS. But it wasn’t. Not even close. This is my first review of a game that I started playing after I had already started this blog. So my thoughts are pretty well catalogued. I even went so far as to even take notes while playing :O. And looking back on them just backs up what my gut was telling me 10 minutes in: this game kinda sucks.
MoreI’ve noticed a bad trend in the FPS these days: I can’t seem to hear what the hell is going on. Oh, I can hear the action all right. The sound of the gun rattling off. That grenade detonating right next to me (whoops). Those I can hear just fine. But that guy standing next to me giving me important plot details? Mumble mumble mumble. The guy on my radio telling me what to do next? No clue what he just said.
There are two main causes of this:
MorePlayed on Xbox360
Considering that Quake 3 opted out of a singleplayer campaign entirely, I wasn’t expecting much from the Quake 4 singleplayer campaign. But it wasn’t half bad. It’s a title you’d want to rent, not buy, but at least I was entertained the whole way through.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
The second campaign in Far Cry Instincts Predator for the Xbox 360, called Evolution, managed to suck a lot less.
MorePlayed on Xbox360
I finished the two campaigns in Far Cry Instincts Predator (Xbox 360) (GameSpy, GameSpot) and sent the game back to GameFly with mixed feelings. In many ways, the game was thoroughly disappointing. But in other ways it was inspiring.
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