Here's some games that I've been playing in my spare time since my last update ( all the way back in last yearville! Wow! ):
- Resistance: Fall Of Man
I'm about two thirds of the way through the game so far. It's generally pretty good, but there's nothing that really stands out about it. It's just a solid, fun shooter.
- Modern Warfare 2
Only the multiplayer, and I haven't played it for a few weeks now. I go through periods of being very addicted to it, and then not playing it for weeks. I think I'm up to about rank 35 or something so far.
- Flower
Well worth the asking price. A totally fantastic use of the Sixaxis controls, and beautiful visuals and sound make for one of the most unique games that I've ever played.
- Lemmings PS3
A bit average, really. I've only played about a dozen or so levels. I just bought it off the PSN Store because it was on special over the holiday period.
- Dragon Age: Origins
Hmmm. I'm still not sure about this one. I've sunk a good ten hours or so into the game already, but it honestly hasn't really caught my imagination yet. The story so far seems very, very derivative ( it particularly "borrows" a hell of a lot from the Wheel Of Time series of books ), and there's just so much talking. It's a Bioware game, yes, so of course there's a lot of dialogue, but none of it so far has been very interesting and the way in which you choose your dialogue options seems like a step backwards after the brilliance of Mass Effect and it's handy dialogue wheel.
I'm sure I'll come back to the game and carry on with my quest at some stage, but for the time being I can't really be bothered.
- Torchlight
Now, this is more like it. Instant fun RPG action. I've been really loving this game. It's so user friendly, and you can just jump in for ten minutes and have a quick bash around a dungeon and collect some awesome loot. I haven't really played many Diablo style RPGs before this, but this has actually got me looking forward to Diablo III.
- Street Fighter 4
I just bought this off Steam on a whim, because it was so cheap during their holiday sale. I've only played it once so far for about an hour, and it reminded me that I'm not really particularly good at Street Fighter. Still, it sure is pretty to look at.
- Critter Crunch
Another PSN game that I bought. Very, very addictive. Easy to learn, but hard to master, as all good puzzle games should be. The online play is a blast, also, even though I get my ass handed to me most of the time.
Most of my time has been divided between Torchlight and Critter Crunch. I'm training for a half-marathon at the moment, so along with work, training after work and on weekends, and spending quality time with the fiance, I find that the little spare time I have I really just want to play a game that I can enjoy in small bursts.
What games have I got my eyes on next? I played the Bayonetta demo on PS3, and it was bloody awesome. I'll probably wait until I see it on special or can buy it second hand, but I'll definitely get it at some stage. Other than that, I'm very curious about Heavy Rain. I played through most of Fahrenheit ( The Indigo Prophecy to anybody reading this in North America ) and found it a rather fascinating experience. I'm hoping David Cage can actually wrangle a game out of Heavy Rain, but even if it just turns out to be an interactive movie then it's going to be a gorgeous one.
Oh, and I still want to get Brutal Legend at some stage. The demo really impressed me, and I'm sure the full game will be a blast.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Gaming marathons
Going through my box of old games recently, as well as coming across Suikoden like I mentioned in my previous post, I also came across my Playstation Final Fantasy games, numbers VII, VIII and IX. The one that really caught my eye, of course, was Final Fantasy VII.
Ahh, FFVII. This much loved, much derided game will always hold a special place in my heart. I had played RPGs previously, of course, on the Megadrive ( Genesis ); games such as Landstalker, Beyond Oasis, and the Shining Force games. FFVII, however, really opened my eyes to the possibilities of what an RPG could achieve. Since its release, I've recently noticed a bit of shift in critical opinion of the game. I accept that the nostalgia factor of this game is pretty high, but that doesn't stop me from loving it as much as I do.
And so, with this same misty eyed nostalgia making me smile like a loon, I put Disc One in my PS3 and have started up another game of FFVII. I have already played through the game twice back in the day. The first time I missed out a lot of the side quests, so I played through a second time and focused on uncovering all the secrets, such as defeating the Weapon bosses etc. Actually, come to think of it I don't know if I ever actually defeated Ruby Weapon. Bastard.
If memory serves me correctly, I think my play time for the second play-through was probably up around 80 hours or so. On top of the 40 hours I would have spent on the first play-through, this is a hell of a lot of time to spend on a game. I remember sitting in front of the TV for hours and hours, playing this game non-stop.
This got me thinking about how much I play video games now has changed. When I was in my teens, and even up to my early 20's, I could quite happily have these marathon gaming sessions. I remember the longest that I ever played a game non-stop was on Civilization II on the Playstation.
I once spent pretty much an entire day, 14 hours straight, playing this game. I remember that a lot of this time was actually spent doing nothing, just waiting between turns as the little Playstation processor took longer and longer to calculate between turns the longer that the game went. Still, I sat there like a zombie quite happily waiting for my next turn.
In my early 20's I got into EverQuest.
This was a time in my life when I didn't really have that much free time. I was studying at a Theatre school full time, had a girlfriend, had a bunch of really good friends and a good social life, but I still managed to find the time to pump hours upon hours into this game. I spent so many all nighters playing this game, and rather sadly I recall actually forgoing social occasions sometimes in order to stay home and play EQ. I remember that there was a command prompt you could type into the chat box, /char , which would bring up some info about how long you had been playing your character. My main character - because, like most players, I had two or three toons that I would play as - was Smoove Grooves the bard. I typed in /char one day, and to my horror realised that I had been playing for over a month. That's more than a month real time, around 700 hours. And this was just for one of my characters. It wasn't long after this that I quit the game. I did go back on two occasions for short bursts over the next couple of years, but the addiction was never as strong thankfully.
As I've gotten older, I've found that I simply don't have the time, or the inclination, to put in these marathon gaming efforts. It's rare that I'll play a game for longer than two or three hours in a row. A lot of this is due to how I live now. I'm engaged, live with my fiance, and have a full time job. She's very understanding about my love of games, and she's actually a bit of a games player herself, but there is no way she would be quite so understanding if I just shut myself away in the computer room for 12 hours to play a game. As well as this, I wouldn't feel right about it either. There comes a point in your life, of course, when you realise that in the hierarchy of importance games don't really rank as high as they used to.
When I was younger, I actually felt a bit cheated if a game didn't give me at least 20+ hours of gameplay. Now, at the age of 30, I actually prefer games that I can finish in 10 hours or less. Because I can't spend as much time on games as I used to, I really want to play games that I can comfortably complete without dedicating my entire life to them. Obviously I will always make exceptions for certain games, and it's not as if I'm going to not play a game simply because I know that it will take a long time to complete. However, the chances are that I might not actually complete it because I can't spend enough time on it. A couple of perfect examples of this are the two most recent Bethesda Softworks games, Oblivion and Fallout 3. I spent so much time playing Oblivion, but I never completed it. I'm still in the middle of Fallout 3. I go back to it now and then, but I'm not sure if I'll get around to completing it.
The last game that I really had a marathon gaming session on was Mass Effect on the PC.
This was last year. We were living in Melbourne, Australia, at the time and my work hours and her's didn't really match up which meant that quite often I would have the whole day to myself at home. She went off to work one morning, I jumped on the computer and booted up Mass Effect. Eight hours later she got home and I was still playing. I think this is understandable, however, because Mass Effect is a totally fantastic game. It was the game of 2008 for me.
As I'm writing this, I'm also downloading another Bioware game through Steam, thanks to their awesome holiday special they're currently running. That game is Dragon Age: Origins. Will this be the next game to coax me into a long, drawn out gaming session? From what I've read, quite possibly. Of course, this all depends on whether or not I can find the time!
Ahh, FFVII. This much loved, much derided game will always hold a special place in my heart. I had played RPGs previously, of course, on the Megadrive ( Genesis ); games such as Landstalker, Beyond Oasis, and the Shining Force games. FFVII, however, really opened my eyes to the possibilities of what an RPG could achieve. Since its release, I've recently noticed a bit of shift in critical opinion of the game. I accept that the nostalgia factor of this game is pretty high, but that doesn't stop me from loving it as much as I do.
And so, with this same misty eyed nostalgia making me smile like a loon, I put Disc One in my PS3 and have started up another game of FFVII. I have already played through the game twice back in the day. The first time I missed out a lot of the side quests, so I played through a second time and focused on uncovering all the secrets, such as defeating the Weapon bosses etc. Actually, come to think of it I don't know if I ever actually defeated Ruby Weapon. Bastard.
If memory serves me correctly, I think my play time for the second play-through was probably up around 80 hours or so. On top of the 40 hours I would have spent on the first play-through, this is a hell of a lot of time to spend on a game. I remember sitting in front of the TV for hours and hours, playing this game non-stop.
This got me thinking about how much I play video games now has changed. When I was in my teens, and even up to my early 20's, I could quite happily have these marathon gaming sessions. I remember the longest that I ever played a game non-stop was on Civilization II on the Playstation.
I once spent pretty much an entire day, 14 hours straight, playing this game. I remember that a lot of this time was actually spent doing nothing, just waiting between turns as the little Playstation processor took longer and longer to calculate between turns the longer that the game went. Still, I sat there like a zombie quite happily waiting for my next turn.
In my early 20's I got into EverQuest.
This was a time in my life when I didn't really have that much free time. I was studying at a Theatre school full time, had a girlfriend, had a bunch of really good friends and a good social life, but I still managed to find the time to pump hours upon hours into this game. I spent so many all nighters playing this game, and rather sadly I recall actually forgoing social occasions sometimes in order to stay home and play EQ. I remember that there was a command prompt you could type into the chat box, /char , which would bring up some info about how long you had been playing your character. My main character - because, like most players, I had two or three toons that I would play as - was Smoove Grooves the bard. I typed in /char one day, and to my horror realised that I had been playing for over a month. That's more than a month real time, around 700 hours. And this was just for one of my characters. It wasn't long after this that I quit the game. I did go back on two occasions for short bursts over the next couple of years, but the addiction was never as strong thankfully.
As I've gotten older, I've found that I simply don't have the time, or the inclination, to put in these marathon gaming efforts. It's rare that I'll play a game for longer than two or three hours in a row. A lot of this is due to how I live now. I'm engaged, live with my fiance, and have a full time job. She's very understanding about my love of games, and she's actually a bit of a games player herself, but there is no way she would be quite so understanding if I just shut myself away in the computer room for 12 hours to play a game. As well as this, I wouldn't feel right about it either. There comes a point in your life, of course, when you realise that in the hierarchy of importance games don't really rank as high as they used to.
When I was younger, I actually felt a bit cheated if a game didn't give me at least 20+ hours of gameplay. Now, at the age of 30, I actually prefer games that I can finish in 10 hours or less. Because I can't spend as much time on games as I used to, I really want to play games that I can comfortably complete without dedicating my entire life to them. Obviously I will always make exceptions for certain games, and it's not as if I'm going to not play a game simply because I know that it will take a long time to complete. However, the chances are that I might not actually complete it because I can't spend enough time on it. A couple of perfect examples of this are the two most recent Bethesda Softworks games, Oblivion and Fallout 3. I spent so much time playing Oblivion, but I never completed it. I'm still in the middle of Fallout 3. I go back to it now and then, but I'm not sure if I'll get around to completing it.
The last game that I really had a marathon gaming session on was Mass Effect on the PC.
This was last year. We were living in Melbourne, Australia, at the time and my work hours and her's didn't really match up which meant that quite often I would have the whole day to myself at home. She went off to work one morning, I jumped on the computer and booted up Mass Effect. Eight hours later she got home and I was still playing. I think this is understandable, however, because Mass Effect is a totally fantastic game. It was the game of 2008 for me.
As I'm writing this, I'm also downloading another Bioware game through Steam, thanks to their awesome holiday special they're currently running. That game is Dragon Age: Origins. Will this be the next game to coax me into a long, drawn out gaming session? From what I've read, quite possibly. Of course, this all depends on whether or not I can find the time!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Hidden gems
I was just going through a box of my old games, and came across Suikoden on the Playstation. Out of curiosity, I looked it up on TradeMe ( the New Zealand version of Ebay ), and discovered it's worth around $250 - $300 NZ. Needless to say, I have now cleaned it up and put it away safely in a drawer where it won't get scratched or damaged.
I wonder how many other people out there have old games in their collections which are worth a small fortune, and don't even realise it?
I wonder how many other people out there have old games in their collections which are worth a small fortune, and don't even realise it?
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