PixlBit

I might have gotten confused, frustrated and dead in many of them, but I enjoyed them all. Who says you got to finish stuff? It's the journey not the destination, I say. 

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 - This WWII shooter by Gearbox Software mixes direct action with strategic gameplay. You play as a squad leader dropping behind enemy lines during D-Day operations. Cut scenes are fantastic and much historic detail is included because it's based on a real story. You fight in first person and control your squad with very easy to learn mechanics. You can stop the action and view the situation from above to plan your attack, then give your squad orders as you proceed. I was only frustrated by some of the limitations on your movement through the environment. You can’t stray too far from the battle zone. I clumsily got myself killed trying to jump a hedge wall that made up the invisible wall of the map. I guess I couldn’t be bothered with the strategy elements this time around. Back in the day, MK and I beat this game and its sequel Earned in Blood. Both are very good.  

Psychonauts - A lovely action game with lots of different mechanics at work like shooting, platforming, fighting and probably lots more if I could ever get through it all. I completed the first mission with coach Oleander and was working on Agent Nein’s (or 9?) challenges when I got lost trying to get the marksmanship badge with Ford Cruller because I couldn’t find him. You would think the map screen would move the objective marker to him, but it doesn’t. I explored all the areas of the map twice and still missed him leading to my exit from the game. I have a low tolerance for exhaustive exploration right now (I subsequently looked up his location and he should've been easy to find). Additionally, I forgot Richard Horvitz (Invader Zim, Skylanders’ Kaos and others) voices the main character Raz.  

Morrowind - I made a random character, a Khajiit rogue with the Ritual birthsign (turns undead, healing). I figured with that birth sign I’d head towards the cults and become a Shrine Sargeant. I had to travel to Ebonheart to find a shrine, but it wasn’t on the Silt Strider destination list. So how was I to find this place? I wish NPCs in games would answer any question instead of only a short list of responses. It seems totally stupid that no one in the game could tell me simple directions. Well, if I have to go online, I’m out - at least during gameplay, that is. Later, I found someone online with exactly my problem and, apparently, I need to take a boat from Balmora. How was I supposed to know that in game? Yikes! How annoying. Well, I got a little farther in Morrowind this time and didn’t die right away. I’d say that’s progress.  

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath – It's both a third and first-person shooter/brawler and adventure game. I love the crossbow that uses various critters as ammunition. The squirrel even talks to you as you play (memories of the recent High on Life). Your objective is to capture enemies for bounties in an old west style environment. I got stuck on the Looten Duke boss because I couldn’t figure out how to get into his water factory to get at all the guards. You can only snipe or lure enemies with the squirrels just so far from the surrounding cliffs. Looking it up days later, I discovered I could just destroy the front doors. Honestly. I think I’m losing my basic gaming instincts to destroy anything and everything. I usually take a more simulation approach these days and try and imagine I’m in a normal world.  

TimeSplitters 2 - This is a FPS. I couldn’t deactivate the communications dish in the first mission. The solution from IGN’s walkthrough I looked at later: "You have to plant a timed mine on the roof, to blow up the communications dish". I saw the dish and shot at it but didn’t know I could get up there and plant a bomb. Ok. I’m dumb.  And I beat this game back in the day without a problem. 

Burnout 2 - Like Burnout 3 but without knocking other cars off the road and the aftertouch feature when crashing. I love the music in this series. The main theme is burned into my mind forever. 

I would've kept playing but for some reason, crashing was beginning to bother me during races. You get scores for damage but you really don't want to crash too much to win the races. They make for some funny moments though. 

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge - I got deep into this flight combat/adventure game. Flight controls are so fun. I wish all those WWII/WWI flight combat games had these sort of arcade style controls. What stopped me was having to do escort missions and enemy AI, which have this annoying habit of flying right at you the second you turn around so that you have to turn around again. It's almost the circling thing all over again with simulation flight combat games. The main character and story remind me strongly of the Uncharted series, possibly drawing from the same sources - pulp fiction adventure novels of the early 20th C. 

Beyond Good & Evil - The stealth mechanics in the Factory got to me again. There was this one sequence where it seemed clear that there was only one way you could outwit this single guard. If you tried anything else, the guard would change his behavior. Not fair, I say! But maybe it was just fatigue from several previous stealth segements. Great game though. Fantastic. I loved photographing all the life forms for money. I want this job in real life. 

KotOR II: The Sith Lords - Surprise, surprise, I got quite far in it this time. I freed the Ebon Hawk, escaped the Peragus Mining Facility, and traveled to the Telos Citadel Station where, just as I was about to leave for the planet surface, I got an emergency call from the Ithorian embassy. When I got there, I was ambushed by a huge number of mercs and got killed along with my team. The game is pretty fun if janky as heck. The battle system is a mix of real-time and turn-based strategy and navigating the environment is confusing. I was almost always lost and just hitting doors hoping to get to the right place. Luckily it worked. I enjoyed the music and was getting pretty engaged in the story and characters. Next time I'll be a little more cautious. 

Fable - An escort mission annoyed me kind of early on and I stopped. I've beaten this game before anyway. It was nice to revisit the beginining, your character's training and the first few missions. There's something not quite smooth with the sword fighting, but I think it's pretty good. Bow & arrow could be a little faster to execute though. Magic is tight and fast. I certainly like the variety of leveling options you have and the way the game responds to your actions and boosts your abilities accordingly. There's some ground breaking mechanics going on here for the time. I'm happy to have the game to replay again and again. 

I'll hold off on Return to Castle Wolfenstein until next week because I'm still playing it. 

At Game Junkies I bought Hunter: The Reckoning. I noticed a new game in the series announced on MK's Xbox Series X this week. And I also bought Call of Duty: Finest Hour. Both were pretty cheap ($10 each) and CIB. 

And that's a week. I organized my DS collection because I'm alreadying thinking about it. I have quite a few more Xbox games to get through though.