Whoa........what happened?
Well, I got my new TV (which is utterly awesome, enough so to keep me from writing) and played a shiz-it-load of games, and cut my hair, and got married, and went on a two-week honeymoon, that's what. :P Anyway, the gaming blog is back, and we've got a lot to cover:
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):
Halo Wars (story playthrough)
Fallout 3 (Completed #9!)
Uncharted 2 (Platinum #4!)
Red Faction: Guerrilla
Castlevania: SotN (Replay)
Battlefield: Bad Company
CoD 4: Modern Warfare (Replay)
Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard
On Hold: Dead Rising (I just can't get into it, it has not aged well) SUPER EXCITED FOR: MASS EFFECT 2! Ok, stat and short note time:
My Halo Wars Stats
- Platform: Xbox 360
- Playthroughs: 1 @ 10-12 hours
- Achievements: 255/1200 as of 10/21/09
- I compare it to: It's Halo as an RTS. No cleverness from me here.
- Play it again?: Maybe, it's a lot better in HD.
So, I'm the first to admit that in general, strategy games are not my bag. I tend to go for either hardcore action games or games with rich story and/or characters. While Halo Wars is an extreme shift of pace for the series (comes with the territory of another genre), I've always enjoyed the fiction, so I decided to give this a try. To be honest, I didn't enjoy it enough to do anything with it beyond a single playthrough. Not to say it's not a good game. It controlled about as well as any RTS could on a console, it was pretty, and had an interesting plotline. This is just one of those cases in which while I appreciate a game for it's technical and artistic merits, I just don't enjoy it all that much. (Of course, one of my new favorites is another RTS, but that plot will thicken in a later post)
My Fallout 3 Stats
- Platform: Xbox 360
- Playthroughs: 3+ @ 60-80 hours each
- Achievements: 1550/1550
- I compare it to: The best parts of the Interplay series and Oblivion, becoming greater than either.
- Play it again?: Desert Island. Totally.
I bought this game in February of 2009, and did not stop playing it regularly until NOVEMBER. The absolute wealth of content this game offers out of the box is reason enough to drop $60 on it, but the steady stream of high-quality DLC Bethesda released over the course of the year was more than worth the additional dollars I put into it. From the epic battles of Broken Steel to the rust choked wasteland of the Pitt, to the absolute gonzo of Mothership Zeta, in one year, Fallout took me to more places I never wanted to go (or never knew I wanted to go) than any other game I've ever played. No one does post-apocalyptia better!
My Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Stats
- Platform: PlayStation 3
- Playthroughs: 2+ @ 12-16 hours each
- Trophies: 48 /48 (Platinum #4!)
- I compare it to: The best action movie ever played on your console.
- Play it again?: Please?
The only people I hear criticizing Uncharted 2's top spot on hundreds of industry Best of 2009 lists are those that haven't played it. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a copy of this game a week after launch (Thanks WingGar, and thanks for nothing GameFly :P), and was treated to some of the most incredible setpieces I've ever seen in a game. I've done a lot of things in my gaming career, but continuing a firefight while a BUILDING COLLAPSES into another building is a whole new level of awesome, to say nothing of the incredible train sequences. The story, (very well written as it is by Amy Hennig, writer of one of my all time favorite franchises, the Legacy of Kain series) won't blow your mind, but you'll enjoy the hell out it, as you will the finely polished gameplay. Uncharted 2 is proof that you don't have to do something totally new as long as you do it as well as it can possibly be done.
My Red Faction: Guerrilla Stats
- Platform: PlayStation 3
- Playthroughs: 1 @ 45 hours
- Trophies: 30 (51%) as of 11/14/09
- I compare it to: Grand Theft Auto: Mars. With an awesome hammer.
- Play it again?: Someday
Red Faction Guerrilla could easily have been blasted for being derivative, and I would have been the first to do so, that is, if it hadn't have had the sledgehammer. And the ability to destroy anything and everything in the world with it. The destructive power of the hammer and the many explosives you find throughout make RF:G stand out among the glut of open world titles out there.
That's right people, ME2 is out next week, and, as the fact that I've had Exploding Saren as my XBL gamer pic since I finished the first Mass Effect can attest, I absolutely love this series. I'll post impressions and more notes on finished games next post! -B
