• 19Dec 09

  Three Years Gone

  April, huh? It's been a while.

  Writing can be tough. Give me a blank screen and no specific topic, and there's a good chance I'll write absolutely nothing. In saying that, I have been busy. The last 12 months of school have seen to that. As far as games go, this year hasn't appealed to me as much as 2008 did. Indeed, the only games that have impressed me in any huge way (or at least enough to have me remember them off the top of my head) have been Arkham Asylum and Uncharted 2. Which one more? Well, I'd have to go for old Batman. If there is one thing I like in a game, it'd have to be audio diaries. Which reminds me, ODST wasn't half bad either. And I'm not even into the whole space marine thing.

  Merry December.

  • Posted Dec 19, 2009 2:42 pm GMT
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• 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 GMT
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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 GMT
  • Category: Games
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