I'm trying to think of games to buy my 8-year-old and would appreciate recommendations.
I have a plan. So far this year I have finished somewhere in the vicinity of 30 games. This list of games spans nearly all the generations of gaming starting with the NES. I say nearly because I have not finished anything from the N64/PSOne era or the "next-gen." With 3 weeks left in 2013 I am going to try to finish a game from each of those eras.
I recently sold my PS2 copy of Silent Hill 2 so when I saw a copy of SH HD collection for $15 on the weekend I snapped it up. I still have SH 3 in mint condition but that's neither here or there. Hey I'm the guy who bought Rayman 2 on 4 different platforms. :D
For those interested the the pen and paper rpg I blogged about a while back...
Tombraider
Tombraider is probably my favorite AAA game this year. I know certain people took issue with the way “new Lara” was handled (Her voice actress Camille even got death threats.) but I absolutely love her! Put simply,Lara’s a believable person now. Er, more believable. I mean she’s still pretty friggin amazing! While Lara can’t do back flips on a whim and duel wield pistols she’s still plenty agile, dexterous, and light on her feet. Personally I prefer her bow over the twin pistols anyway. It just seems to fit more in line with Lara’s personality and it’s a great weapon for stealth killing, hunting, and miscellaneous other purposes.
I was actually surprised there was in fact so much plat forming and exploration. I read this Tombraider got knocked for not having enough of those things yet most of the areas are in fact rather expansive and come with their own plethora of secrets.
Puzzles are present but they are easier. On the other hand, they make sense within their environments which to me adds to the immersion factor. If you prefer Rube Goldberg hijinks I can see how you’d be disappointed but for me personally, that kind of puzzle design always seemed silly and awkward in the older Tombraider and Resident Evil games. When you have to turn two statues to face each other and put gems in their mouths just to open the door to the bathroom it bluntly reminds you “Hey Bub, this isn’t real! You’re still playing a videogame!” By contrast, none of the puzzles in this game seem surreal or out of place.
So, is there anything I dislike about this beautiful beast? Unfortunately yes and it has to do with a discussion Casey, Blake, and I had not too long ago. Tombraider has way too many goon fights. You’d think Mathias and his sun goddess cult would only have 150-200 people tops but I swear this guy has reserves that would rival America’s and Britain’s armies combined! After you kill your 300th person it gets rather excessive. Sure, a big boat or downed plane can have quite a few survivors. But the thing is Mathias also puts these folks through brutal conditioning before they earn their membership into his cult. As such he shouldn’t have thousands of henchmen, especially not on a small hidden secluded island. Worst still, the firefight physics are shit. Seriously, I had one guy survive getting hit by three grenades. There are also times a headshot with the pistol will not even have the desired result. It’s odd on account if Lara is in stealth mode and puts an arrow through someone’s head he dies instantly yet if you hit the same mark during a larger scale skirmish these same guys can soak bullets and arrows as if they’re being pelted by marshmallows. If you or I get shot point blank with a shotgun at close range we’re going down. These assholes? Nope! A certain perpetrator in particular lived through 3 consecutive shotgun blasts to his body. (Of course the above issues become less problematic as you upgrade your guns and your skills.)
I scanned three lovely video game print ads, The Wolf Among Us, Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death, and Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, from my comics these last few weeks. Thought I'd share them and maybe discuss them a little.
Now that the PS4 is out, I always like to take a look back at the previous console and honor it by listing my favorite games for it. Last time we looked at my favorite PS3 disc-based games that you have to buy at retail. Now we’ll look at my favorite games I downloaded on PSN!
Then please listen to my podcast! It's good. There's holocaust jokes and casual racism. You'll love it!
While the industry welcomes a new generation of consoles, I'm finally embracing the PC as a gaming platform.
As you know by now I recently acquired a PS4. I have not sat down to truly enjoy it since the day that I set it up. Life has gotten in the way. Between countless errands, Thanksgiving, a Lakefront Brewery tour, the in-laws and a super slow-draining tub I found myself with little time for myself. Whenever I did find time for myself, other things got in the way.
First, a quick intoduction for anyone who might not know me (which is most likely a lot of you out there): I'm just some guy who signed up here after 1up went into suspended animation, and took his sweet time in finally getting around to posting here, aside from the errant comment now and again.
Well, it looks it’s that time of year to shop for deals for the holiday season. Between everyone’s bargain shopping of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I actually came away with a rather interesting find this past Saturday. The wife and I decided to go into a nearby Value Village thrift store and kill some time before taking care of a few things in the morning. I knew I would find much in the way of video games. Even if I did, I probably wouldn’t want to buy it since thrift stores are too organized in their pricing nowadays (they’re getting smarter about retro games). Anyways...what I did find was this, nestled amongst other music CDs:
We're nearing the end of a full week of 2XP for Battlefield 4 and I've only managed a few hours of gameplay. It's not all bad, though, since I've managed to finish some books I had been reading.
A lot of people have this idea that metal is always harsh and about aggression. I beg to differ, and I posit that it can create some very beautiful music. To prove this, have some songs.
It's Friday night and I find myself slapping SKU labels onto boxes as quickly as I can pick them up.
Whenever a new console comes out, there’s a lot of excitement centered around it. That’s why whenever that happens, I like to take a look back and honor that console’s predecessor. So in this two-part blog series, we’re going to take a look at my favorite PS3 disc-based games.