• 19Jan 13

  My top 5 favourite games of all time!

  So after my previous blog about my favourite games I played within last year, I now feel I should share my top 5 favourite games of all time since it has changed so much in recent years. It's also for my to actually confirm them aswell, since I'm always trying to decide in my head what is actually my most beloved franchise / game!

  #5: Pokémon Emerald

  

  Yep, Generation 3. It's not that often you actually hear someone say there favourite generation was the third. I think the reason for it is that Generation 3 came out around the same time I actually started to pay attention to story and the goings on within the pokémon world. With Generations 1 and 2 I pretty much just played through them mashing certain attack buttons, because that's what 4 year old kids do! At the age of 7 when Ruby and Sapphire came out however, I began to take an interest in the story and further events within the game, such as finding the 3 'regi's' and searching for Latias / Latios. The reason Emerald is here however, is because it gave us some nice changes to the original two, and I prefered the general 'green' asthetic, aha. It was also the first pokémon game to introduce a proper cutscene, with the fight between kyogre, groudon, and rayquaza. That blew my mind back then!

  #4: Resident Evil 4

  

  Resident Evil 4 has long since been known as my favourite video game of all time, but a lot has changed recently! It's still incredibly brilliant though, and is the first game that properly introduced me into the world of survival / action horror. Unlike most people, I'm totally fine with games having both aspects of action and horror, and Resident Evil 4 pulled this off absolutely perfectly. There was tonnes of things you wanted to go back and explore after beating the game, not to mention the extra content after beating the game like Mercenaries, a minigame based on getting the most kills within a time limit, and Separate Ways, an Ada specific campaign giving you another perspective on the same story. The Regenerators / Iron Maidens still scare me to this day, and are probably alongside the Necromorphs of Dead Space as the enemies / creatures that freak me out the most!

  #3: Dead Space 2

  

  I wasn't so sure on the Dead Space series when I played the first one. It took the best elements of survival horror, using Resident Evil 4 as an inspiration, and threw it into a sci-fi environment. I loved the concept and the game was brilliant, it even introduced me to the necromorphs, one of my favourite gaming creatures / enemies. However everything felt very repetitive as we only really had one big objective: fix the ship and escape. There was a lot of unnecessary backtracking and the whole middle section of the game felt incredibly rushed. Dead Space 2 however, fixed all my worries. Less repetitivity, and more variety in terms of story and atmosphere. It also included some of the 'action' influence from other survival horror / action games, which I enjoy. The controls were well refined and easy to handle, and the graphics were absolutely beautiful. I played on PC at 1080p on the highest settings and it's a stunning looker, especially since my PC doesn't run games that well all that often. Dead Space 2 completed what its predecessor started, and became the refined 'Resident Evil 4' of the Sci-Fi universe, perfect.

  #2: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

  

  What can I say, from the moment this game hit store sheleves my life and any shred of existence of myself ceased to exist in the real world. From that moment on it was me, Skyrim and the hours and hours of questing I partook in. Everything about this game just stood out as perfect to me. The voice acting was brilliant (and produced some great internet memes), the story and general lore of the Elder Scrolls universe is top notch, and the exploration is so fun I literally wasted hours of my life simply looking around the map for caves and extra goodies I may find. The visuals were rather good, though I managed to improve them even further through the use of PC mods until it became too physically demanding for my PC! I haven't seen this level of immersion in a game ever, which is why this game stood out so well for me.

  #1: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2

  

  You might be asking yourself, how can this be his favourite game EVER?! It's certainly not perfect in terms of design, but as a fun to play, enjoyable, and faithful to the series kind of game, you can't get any better than this.

  I started watching Naruto about 19 months ago, and since then have grown into a huge fan of the series in general, so there was no doubt in my mind that i'd buy the accosiated games. First off I bought UNS1, which was a respectable game. The free roaming around konoha was great, and the fighting was fun and entertaining. It lacked any form of structured story however. It was there, but in a terrible mess of mission based fights / minigames that would have made no sense if I hadn't watched the anime beforehand. I then purchased Naruto UNS2, and was overjoyed and surprised as to what I found. The freeroaming aspect was now turned into a fixed camera perspective which took a little getting used to, but you could now travel elsewhere other than konoha and visit the sand village, or the hidden rain village etc. The system eventually turned to my liking and I grew to love it. The fighting is now a lot more fluid and refined, and the characters were now the roster from Shippuden rather than Unleashed. In this new story mode, there was an actual structure that stood true to the anime and was easily accesible to anyone not familiar with the series, whilst being great for long time fans. Some of the scenes in the game I felt were better done in the game than in the anime! For example (SPOILERS AHEAD), Asuma's death scene and when Naruto meets Minato. All of this makes for one absolutely brilliant fighting game, and at the same time a wonderful Naruto game, which for me makes it my number one title EVER.

  What are your favourite games? Let me know in the comments!

  • Posted Jan 19, 2013 7:32 pm GMT
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• 23Dec 12

  Favourite games I played throughout 2012!

  Hi there ;D

  So christmas and the end of 2012 is looming near and as far as I can tell the Mayans were liars, so we're still around to enjoy another game fuelled year in 2013! I thought I'd go through a list of games I played in 2012 that I particularly enjoyed. These games don't have to be released within this year, so long as I first played them to an extent anytime within the last 12 months.

  #5 Journey

  

  I bought this game on a whim. Everyone was talking about it, saying it was a new form of art and that it's one of the greatest games to ever exist. I honestly felt all of them were totally bold claims, but boy was I wrong, and I'm glad I caved in and bought it. It's a very short Journey, the entire game in length lasts about 2 hours, if that. But it's perfectly paced and put together so well that you'll be happy it only lasts that long. It's an experience that's only supposed to last for one sitting. Journey is a hard game to describe to someone who hasn't played it, so if you're reading this and trying to find a reason to purchase this game, don't. Just buy it, you simply won't regret it.

  #4 Pokémon White 2 Version

  

  Gamefreak changed things up this time. We all anticipated "Pokémon Greys" announcement on one of the Pokémon Sunday TV shows. But what we got I believe shocked everyone. My feelings were mixed at first, how will it work? Why did they do it? But eventually it dawned on me that Gamefreak didn't want the series to fall into the same category as games such as Call of Duty or games of that nature, they wanted to show Pokémon still had life and vitality in it, and they pulled it off extremely well. Set in the Unova region, 2 years after the events of the first game, you still start as a regular ordinary pokémon trainer looking to fullfil his dream of becoming the pokémon champion. This time however the game is a follow on of the story of the first two games in Gen V. The fifth generation games were known for having a more mature storyline behind the family friendly combat mechanics and visuals, so it only makes sense to continue this onward. What they pulled off kept the series feeling fresh and opens the doors for a lot of new oportunities for franchise, here's to the future Gamefreak!

  #3 Kid Icarus Uprising

  

  This was perhaps the biggest surprise of all for me. I'd known it was a good game, but at around the time it came out I wasn't interested in accosiating myself with a new IP (I understand there's an NES Kid Icarus, but to me that doesn't count!), so I just sort of disregarded it as another good game I probably won't get the chance to play, like Super Mario Galaxy. However I borrowed it from a friend in exchange for Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 1, and I loved it to bits. I played through day and night until I beat it, and it was one of the greatest gaming experiences I'd had for a long time, despite the rather awkward control scheme at first. My luck was pushed even further when he said he didn't want the game back, he never played it and it was just taking up shelf space, so I got it for free! I'd say my favourite part about the whole experience is probably the incredible voice acting and script. It breaks the fourth wall so many times without seeming incredibly cheesy, and brings a smile to my face every time.

  #2 Resident Evil: Revelations

  

  So Resident Evil Revelations was the series first step onto the 3DS if you exclude the full priced mini-game package of Mercenaries 3D. And in many ways, this felt like this years flagship Resident Evil title after the horror that was Resident Evil 6 which came much later in the year. You were thrust into the shoes of some classic Resident Evil characters such as Jill and Chris as they try to uncover the happenings at different locations, from the somewhat desolate yet beautifully decorated and designed cruise ships to the tall, modern buildings of the "floating city" of Terragrigia. The gameplay mixed the old with the new, tight corners andclaustrophobic hallways during Jill and Parker's sections and then fast paced open areas for Chris and Jessica, not to mention it's also one of the best looking games on the system. The feel of the game fit both of these perfectly and Revelations may have even surpassed the balance of Resident Evil 4 in terms of Action x Horror. 8 hours or so await you in single player goodness, but Raid mode and some nice replayability options will give you a lot more time to play with.

  #1 Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 2

  

  I also bought the first game in the UNS series this year. I'd only started watching Naruto a year and a half or so ago, so I wanted to wait until I'd surpassed the point in the anime that this game covers before picking it up. Needless to say, this game improves upon the first game to no ends. The combat feels much more fluid, the graphics are a little sharper and brighter, and there's so much more to explore in terms of content. One of the big problems I had with the original game was that the Ultimate Mission Mode felt very rushed, the story wouldn't have made sense to anyone not familiar with the anime. In UNS2's Ultimate Adventure Mode however, the story is much easier to follow and the hidden secrets you get from beating the quicktime events quickly really add that little extra depth for anyone looking for it. The character roster this time round is certainly more varied, and includes a whole cast of playable character rather than sticking most of them as supports like UNS1 did. A brilliant triumph of a game not only as a sequel, but in its own right. I've already pre-ordered UNS3 Will of Fire Edition!

  Honourable Mentions:

  Red Faction Armageddon - The desctructability in this game is incredible, and I could spend hours just in the sandbox mode destroying every waking building and enemy in my path. The short story and lack of replay value held it back from my list however.

  Gotham City Imposters - Best F2P game I've ever played, no doubt. The style, setting and Bat vs Jokers idea behind it is so good, and the combat just feels perfect. However there's a ton of matchmaking problems that cause me to stop playing a lot.

  • Posted Dec 23, 2012 2:44 pm GMT
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• 12Dec 12

  Games I must beat before I kill a kitten. (need suggestions)

  Hey there! ;D

  So I have a lot, and I meana lotof unfinished games that I keep avoiding but still need to beat. It's rather frustrating, I just can't find the time to beat them all and whenever I do, I end up drifting off to play a different game. So without further ado, I'm putting a list on my Gamespot blog of all the games I need to beat. This is mainly for my future reference, but I thought it'd be fun to share it with everyone!

  Red Faction: Armageddon

  Kid Icarus Uprising

  Pokémon White Version 2

  Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 2

  Shin Megami Tensei: Demon Survivor (1&2)

  Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky

  Deus Ex: Human Revolution

  Dragon Age Origins

  Just Cause 2

  The Saboteur

  3D Dot Game Heroes

  Halo 4

  Blazblue Continuum Shift

  Brothers In Arms: Hells Highway

  Gears of War 2

  Oblivion

  Forza 2

  Splinter Cell 3D

  Company of Heroes

  Mafia II

  Saints Row: The Third

  Darksiders

  Dishonored

  Far Cry 2

  Metro 2033

  Dead Space (1&2)

  Mass Effect 1

  Aaaaaaaaaand that's it! wow I have a tonne to get through....

  2013 resolution!!!

  To beat every one of my unfinished games by the end of the year.

  Any suggestions on what to beat first? It'll be tough, especially because there is a lot of amazing games coming out in 2013. I've got to start somewhere though, and I can't complain about not getting new games when I have this many unfinished, so it's about time I made some changes around here. These are the current games I plan on buying in 2013, and I hope I'm not convinced to get any more than this...

  South Park & The Stick of Truth

  Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (Will of Fire Edition)

  Any and all Pokémon related titles.

  Finally I'll leave you with a new segment I'll do at the end of every one of my blogs from now on...

  Epic Picture Of Epicness...

  (please help me think of a better segment name...)

  

  • Posted Dec 12, 2012 1:04 pm GMT
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