Summary of the Missing Months, continued!
10/16 -1/21 at a glance Currently Playing:
Borderlands (360),
Assassin's Creed 2 (working on treasures, feathers) (PS3)
Resident Evil 5(PS3) ,
Rock Band 2 (PS3),
Modern Warfare 2 (360),
Brutal Legend (PS3)
Civilization: Revolution (360)
Recently Finished (since 10/16 and haven't written up):
Castlevania: SotN (Replay)
Battlefield: Bad Company
CoD 4: Modern Warfare (Replay)
Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard
My Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Stats
- Platform: PSP/PS3
- Playthroughs: 1 @ 40+ hours (this time)
- I compare it to: Castlevania + Super Metroid = Classic
- Play it again?:Every 4 to 5 years.
There's nothing quite like having an awesome game to play on the PSP when the wife is playing a marathon Game of the Week on Civilization Revolution, and when I found this on PS Classics, I made the decision to buy it. (And by that, I mean, I asked for permission) I first played this about a year or two after it came out, and due to my love for all things vampires at the time (by the way, thanks for ruining them for me, Stephanie Meyer) and the fusion of RPG elements with the massive exploration component, and you have an instant addiction. Despite the plot and the hilariously bad voice acting (in competition with the original Resident Evil for all-time best of the worst), the sheer fun to be had from exploring the castle and slaughtering demons keeps SotN near the top of my best ever list, which you'll see eventually!
My Battlefield: Bad Company Stats
- Platform: Xbox 360
- Playthroughs: 1 @ 15-18 hours
- Achievements: 340/1000 as of 11/14/09
- I compare it to: Sandbox CoD with jokes, just more boring.
- Play it again?: No reason to.
So, I guess saying that I like military shooters because I like Call of Duty would be like saying I like RPG's because I like Final Fantasy. The reality is that I tend to enjoy individual titles more than genres as wholes, and while Battlefield: BF is by no means a bad game, it certainly doesn't hold my interest the way CoD does. I tried this one out based on a demo (as with most things I play nowadays), and what I enjoyed most was the characters and their dialogue. Especially compared to the deadly serious CoD:MW games, the hilarious banter of Sarge, Sweetwater, and Haggard was a reason for me to continue pressing on through the mostly generic military shooter. While there were some standout moments, Bad Company was mostly fire-and-forget for me. I hear Bad Company 2 is awesome though, so maybe that will be worth a future rental. So, put that into comparison with the classic....
My Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Stats
- Platform: Xbox 360
- Playthroughs: 6 @ 8 hours each, 50+ hours multiplayer
- Achievements:1000 /1000 as of 11/14/09
- I compare it to: The pinnacle of cinematic FPS action.
- Play it again?: Practically impossible not to.
My very first reaction to CoD4 was "Holy shit." Never before had I played such an intense, realistic, and downright exciting first-person military shooter. In fact, I was pretty bored with the genre at that time. However, I will never forget that first fast rope to the deck of the rain-soaked freighter, being as nervous as a real FNG when the first tangos appeared, and after the first exchange of gunfire, the relief that I was still alive and whole. I could go on, and maybe someday I will, but for now I will suffice it to say that CoD4 is one of my all time favorites, and I'll probably still be popping it in five years from now. By the way, out of all my achievements, Mile High Club, after taking over a month of practice to obtain, is the one I'm most proud of.
My Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard Stats
- Platform: Xbox 360
- Playthroughs: 1+ @ 18-20 hours
- Achievements: 890/1000 as of 1/17/10
- I compare it to: A great game parody script unhappily married to crappy gameplay.
- Play it again?: I'll just watch the cutscenes, thanks.
Sigh. This game has torn my gaming heart in two. On one hand, you have one of the funniest scripts ever written for a game, along with some great voice acting and characters (Will Arnett as the title character, and Neil Patrick Harris as the main villain with a hilarious motivation for revenge). Matt Hazard lampoons all of gaming history, and does it in a way that will have every lifelong gamer rolling on the floor. Or would, if the gameplay didn't suck so bad. Honestly, what this game has in humor and cleverness, it totally lacks in gameplay polish. Hazard moves like a lead marionette, and I really wonder which cartoons the animators had been watching to capture such a subpar simulacrum of human movement. The gunplay is a bad Gears of War knockoff, and the cover system, while implementing an interesting concept, oftentimes has you running right into the line of fire. It really is too bad that these and many other hiccups will keep most gamers from getting to the parts that make the slog worth it, such as the Altos Stratus boss fight, the Master Chef and Captain Carpenter encounters, and Neil Patrick Harris. You'll find this games box art if you Google "disappointment."
NEXT TIME! We're all caught up, and I'll starting writing about the games in my current batch, which is easily the biggest batch of current games ever! Stay tuned!
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