My currently list of games

I just realized that it is not very often that I mention the games that I am currently playing. For a blog intended to give my feedback on new titles and gaming trends I often find myself merely reporting on news blurbs and such which is not entirely what I want this site to focus on.

As such I will now post my overly verbose rant on what has recently been in my systems.

XBOX360
For the XBOX I currently only have 2 words to say... Mass Effect. Being the avid fan of the Space Opera genre as a whole these game appeals to my inner space geek. This game combines the best aspects of the Knights of the Old Republic series with the frantic shooting of Gears of War. There is a myriad of equipment to build up your character (though most of it is garbage and you will end up breaking most into omni-gel) and enough diversity in the skills to make replaying with other classes worthwhile. The world is quite vast leaving plenty of exploration possibilities open. I can see this game being a bit too daunting for some people out there, what with the large assortment of options, side quests, equipment, dialog options and story variants, so I wouldn’t recommend this title for anyone faint of heart.

PS3
Currently I’m trudging through Assassin’s Creed, yes trudging, to trudge, as the game seems to flounder through monotony as well as actions that are very unbecoming of an “Assassin”. The game has some merit however, being one of the most visually stunning games I have played to date, and the ability to climb through such meticulously crafted cities contains hours of solid enjoyment. The downfalls however become glaring problems once you decide to return to the story. I’m an assassin, why am I grabbing someone off the street to “interrogate” (see: beat with fists) only to later let them go hoping they don’t spill the beans on my activities within the city? Combat can be hard at the beginning of the game (see: once your upgrades are stripped away) but once you get the ability to parry and counter attack back all combat loses value as you can effectively fight off the swarming city guards indefinitely. All in all I don’t know what I wanted from this game (it certainly wasn’t a normal mapped high poly rendition of Veronica Mars) but it seems to fall short of my nondescript expectations.

Wii
The only decent traditional game to come out for the Wii in a while has been Mario Galaxy, and thank goodness. It pains me to see any Nintendo platform collecting dust, it verges on being sacrilegious. Enter Mario Galaxy. I’m enjoying the game, though I believe the fevered hype surrounding it is a bit much for what it is. (see: Mario 64 on curved worlds) While the game is good the more I play the more I wish it was simply an expansion pack to Mario 64, one of my favorite games of all time. I want to be traversing a flat world, and that ideology is reinforced every time I am forced to navigate one of the smaller circular planets where I could no sooner pull a rabbit from my fanny then accurately land a jump on a goomba. The game is addictive and fun however despite this inherent flaw, but overall I believe the general media consensus of 95-100% is abour 5-10% into the realm of fanboy instead of an actual rating. With that in mind, it’s average of 97% on Gamerankings makes it the “best game of all time” beating out Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. Mario Galaxy is good, but would I say it’s the best game ever? Not in any way.

PSP
I’m currently playing through the PSP version of Final Fantasy Tactics, my number one pick of best overall games, judging solely on the hours I’ve sank into the PS version of the title. Across the years I have dumped over 1000 hours into the game (found after tallying my accumulated save games). The PSP version delivers the same merit and flaws as the original, but this time there are beautifully crafted 2D cinematic sequences within the rich storyline that bring together the characters much better than the now dated 2D sprites (though the sprites still hold much of their previous charm). The game is hard however and should not be taken on as a leisure activity. The game will be challenging from start to finish your first play through, and you may even see a character you have spent 30 hours building up die horribly at the hands of an errant red chocobo using meteor. But the experience cannot be dissuaded by the loss of a comrade. The story is one of the finest tales of royal subterfuge I have ever found in a game and it will keep you guessing the entire time.

DS
My DS has been a strong competitor in recent history in vying for my spare time with powerful candidates like Heroes of Mana and Puzzle Quest. Currently though my DS is heralding the most recent defeat of Ganon with The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass… wait, it wasn’t Ganon? I don’t understand, what’s a Bellum? Where’s Ganon? Well with Bellum defeated my DS is now the home of Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon to get out my strange urges to farm crops in dangerous monster-filled caves. After I was attacked by that jabberwocky in Howe Caverns I’m leaving pioneering caves for rare breeds of onions to the electronic realms.

PC
The PC market is always an odd one for me, namely because my computer is rarely up to snuff to run the biggest and baddest games on the market, and those that it can run I usually have to take a hatchet to the graphics settings. I guess this stems from my utter refusal to spend $400 on a graphics card. A piece of plastic and solder should not cost the same as an XBOX360. With that in mind my PC experience has been comprised of games that allow me to embark of truly epic adventures of self discovery, no more WoW for me, yes you’ve guessed it, I have been partaking in heaping sums of Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Ok, so it’s less about self discovery and more about pulping my enemies clad forever in red, both in life as their banners ring crimson and in death with their thick pasty blood caking their clothes. Portal was particularly interesting as a designer however because it was remarkable to see how Valve took the idea of an FPS and converted it into a dystopian science fiction story reminiscent of Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”. The puzzles were well thought out and the ending included a song which rang in my ears for weeks after beating it. There is a massive treasure trove of awesomeness to be had in the small Orange Box packaging, oh yeah... I guess there was also this fairly popular game in it too, something about Half-Life 2? I don't know, maybe you've heard of it.

\\drew