The Gaming Experiment

Alright, I’m back. It’s been a damn long while, but I’m back. I completely realize that my last post said that I would be back in a couple days. Well, a couple days turned into a couple weeks... A lot of stuff has happened in the last couple weeks, I bought a house and had to deal with all the stuff that comes along with that. Like setting up TV (I can’t miss too many Judge Judy’s), internet (low latency while playing MW2 is critical), and phone (how else will telemarketers bother me during dinner? They have to make a living too).

So I had to take a hiatus from the site, maybe I’ll call it a furlough. But I’m back, and because I took a break from the site and the experiment doesn’t mean that I took a break from gaming. I was able to pile in a lot of gaming over the last couple weeks.

I was able to complete Assassin’s Creed 2, and I Prestiged in MW2. I told myself that I would stop with MW2 multiplayer once I prestiged, but that didn’t happen, and now I am level 40 again. It’s like crack I tell you! I can’t stop. The thing that really makes MW2 so addictive is that it’s extremely easy to jump into and play for a bit, then sign off.

But I have certainly been playing less MW2 than I had in the past because I also picked up Mass Effect 2, and the reviews for that have been crazy. I have a couple friends at work who have been playing it, and actually beat it, who had completely different endings. That alone has been very encouraging to know.

I also picked up the sequel to my 2007 game of the year, Bioshock 2. I still haven’t been able to play it, but I hope to dig deep into it this weekend.

But probably my biggest pick up over the last month or so has been my new dog. He is a Shih Zhu, and his name is Fozzie Bear, but we call him Fozzie for short.

So over the last month, what have you been up to? Any new games? What are you looking most forward to in the next coming week? Keep an eye open next week for Heavy Rain, I’m pretty darn excited for that one.

2009 was an exciting year for me, I got engaged, started looking for a home, and entered the HD world. Work was pretty hectic too. That lead to a pretty big backlog of games that came out and I wasn't able to finish.

This year I hope to get on to those games. Here is my list of the top 5 games that came out in 2009 and I need to play and finish in 2010! But this first list are some of the overlooked games. I'll put together another list of the big blockbusters that I missed later in the week.

5) Ghostbusters (Xbox 360)

I was able to finish the Wii version of the game, and it was fun. This HD version is the one that I really need to finish though. I've always been a big fan of Ghostbusters (probably in my top 5 favorite movies of all time).

4) Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360)

Alright, this probably isnt the last game on this list that was actually released in 2008. But this is a game that I was able to play for 4 - 5 hours and just never came back to it. I need to finish this, it will be done. It really helps that my fiancee really loves the GTA series, so I have a bit of a push to finish it.

3) Fallout 3 : Game of the Year edition

This is another game that came out in 2008, but the GOTY edition game out in '09. This is a huge game, and I hope to beat it by the end of the year.

2) A Boy and His Blob (Wii)

Enough said.

1) Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360)

I dont actually know if you can beat L4D2, but I definitely want to play through each of the campaigns and get good at it. I really enjoyed the first one on PC, but I am hoping to jump into more multiplayer games on the 360.

2009 was a fantastic year for games. There were a lot of great ones. But there were also some that really fell flat. He is a list of my 5 games that just didn't turn out the way that I had hoped.

5) Guitar Hero 5

I've been on the Guitar/Rhythm game bandwagon since the first GH. Though I had picked my horse in the Rock Band Series, I decided to try out the latest GH offering, GH5. The presentation was really fantastic, but the songlist was boring and un-energizing. While Harmonix came out of the gate with hit DLC and of course The Beatles Rock Band.

4)New Super Mario Bros. Wii

This one might be a controversial one, but I really felt as though this game fell flat. I didnt have the urge to complete each level to it's fullest and find all the secrets. NSMBW wasn't a bad game, but rather, it didn't deliver what I hoped for. The side scrolling was fun, but I definitely didn't want any motion controls at all, even how little there was. And multiplayer is almost unplayable. It's become a mess of a game when more than just Mario is on the screen. The game is also less forgiving than it's handheld cousin. The new suits were quite fun, and great additions, I hope the next one is on the DS and not on Nintendo's home console.

3) Brutal Legend

Why Mr. Shaffer did you have to make the game lean more towards an RTS. Those parts were ones that we had to slog through just to get to the better bits. The voice acting was great, the characters wer unique and creative, and the writing was phenomenal. But the gameplay fell flat and didn't really deliver the experience that we were promised.

2) Scribblenauts

Scribblenauts had such a great premise. Think of an object, write it down, and it will appear. That part work surprisingly well. But it was the control that really killed it for me. You use the stylus for action events and to guide your character Max. So much promise but fell flat due to controls.

1) Fat Princess

When I first saw this game in previews I was on board right away, but as the game seemed to be delayed and delayed later into the year, I became less and less interested in the game. Once it finally came out, it was plagued with server problems. Once those were sorted out, the gameplay just didn't hold up, because you had players who would never work as a team and try to play together. This really wasn't a problem with the game itself but with the community. It's really unfortunate because I still jump in every once in a while.

So, I have definitely taken some time off of the site, life has been extremely hectic, but the New Year is here, and that only means one thing. Lists, and lost of them!

Consider this first list the re-launch of the site with more content.

We’ll start the New Year off right with my games of the year. Before you read the list, please know one thing, these are only the games that I have actually finished. For the games that you think should be on my game of the year list, please look out for my top 5 2009 games I hope to finish in 2010. That should be later this week.

5) Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward)

I was damn frustrated with the single player portion of MW2, I still haven’t even finished it. Yeah, I know, the campaign is only 5 hours long or so, but I just couldn’t muster enough desire to finish it. I found that the pacing and the level design just wasn’t fun enough for me to coming back. I was getting extremely frustrated with the infinitely spawning enemies and their unparalleled accuracy. Who would have known that some enemies that are wearing soccer shirts could not only take 5 bullets to the chest, but also kill a special ops soldier with 1 bullet?

But it was the multiplayer that earns MW2 a spot on my year end list. Let me start out by saying that I didn’t play any COD4 (the first Modern Warfare) multiplayer. That was the year that Halo 3 came out, and I hitched my wagon to Master Chief. I stand by that choice, but now looking at Halo 3: ODST vs MW2, there is no choice, it has to be MW2.

What can I say; I’ve put more than 40 hours into the multiplayer offering and can’t wait to put in some more time into it. MW2 has a genius approach to multiplayer, reward you for everything. When I say everything, I mean everything. There are rewards for most time watching the kill cam to most time in the prone position to your standard most kills etc. There is a leveling up system too, which allows for more guns to be unlocked and more perks to be available.

One of my favorite parts of the MW2 multiplayer are the killstreaks. Once you get a certain number or kills in a row without dying, you have the ability to call a whole myriad of battlefield game changers like an UAV for surveillance of the battlefield to attack helicopters to a tactical bomb that ends the game.

One complaint people have with the leveling system is that it rewards people who play more and unbalances the game for more casual or novice players. I certainly see where those people are coming from, but I have to disagree, leveling up a weapon with the essential attachments (ie red dot sight or grenade launcher) would take even the novice player an hour or two to achieve.

And these upgrades, attachments, and killstreaks really make for my favorite online experience this year. If the single player was better paced, and an overall fun experience, it would have been higher on my list.

4) The Beatles: Rock Band (Harmonix)

Like I’ve mentioned on the site, time and time again, I love The Beatles and I even took a class about them while in college. So this game really spoke to me. This was definitely my most anticipated game of 2009, and it really delivered. When I initially wrote my review I was blown away by the visuals, the song list, and it’s accessibility to people who just don’t game all the time. Looking back on it now, I still really love the game, and it’s definitely a game that I’ll be coming back to over and over again.

The songlist was amazing, a very accurate slice of The Beatles catalogue that was incredibly fun to play. I also picked up the complete set with Paul’s bass and Ringo’s drums. This was a fantastic game that really belong in any Beatles fan’s game library.

The visual style of the game was really unmatched by any other game of 2009. The dreamscapes were fantastic and the recreations of the Beatles venues were beautiful.

Not many games really moved me and made me have a smile on my face like The Beatles Rock Band did. Because I was somewhat knowledgeable with The Beatles career, the game made even a heavier impact on me.

I also think that The Beatles Rock Band was a signal of the beginning of the end of the popularity of rhythm based games as we know it. How can you top The Beatles?

3) Plants vs Zombies (PopCap Games)

Plants vs Zombies was a big surprise for me. I was a fan of most of PopCap’s other games, but PvZ totally sucked me in. Before MW2 came along, I had piled the most time into PvZ.

What a crazy idea for a game, plants fight off the zombie apocalypse. But it worked amazingly. The game was funny and the characters, even the zombies, were endearing and a blast to watch.

The gameplay is simple to pick up, but it’s the different plant configurations that make PvZ tough to master. There are a lot of different plants, zombies, and levels which really help keep the game fun and fresh.

Definitely a great game to pick up whether you are a core gamer or more casual.

2) Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios)

Where do I start with this game? I really struggled with the placement of this game on my list. It was very close to being my Game of the Year. Sure, a bit of my love for this game is the nostalgia factor (I’m a huge Batman the Animated Series fan).

Batman: AA is a phenomenal game. A must play game. The voice acting of the original animated series cast really helped bring this game to the next level.

In the past, Batman games haven’t been the best, but Batman: AA changes that. The boss fights are fantastic and the locations, though all on Arkham Island, are gorgeous and unique.

One of the biggest features of the game was the new detective mode. This allowed Batman to see through walls and detect objects that can be interacted with in the environments. This was an extremely cool and helpful addition, but unfortunately, it is so helpful, that keeping it of often causes the player to miss out on the fantastic graphic of the game.

Batman is the kind of game that should be played by everyone because of it’s pacing and overall gameplay. The story is great, the voice acting is unmatched and I can’t wait to see the next game, which Rocksteady announced at this years VGA’s!

1)Red Faction Guerrilla (Volition, Inc)

This even surprised me as my Game of the Year. Red Faction Guerrilla really left a great impression on me. Red Faction was the first game I bought for my PS2 with it’s revolutionary GeoMod system that allowed for destruction of the surrounding environments. Guerrilla kicked that concept into high gear. Now everything is destructible. You don’t like how that building is looking at you? Walk up to it with your sledgehammer and bring it too the ground.

That idea was really fundamental to how this game played, and why I really loved it so much. The story was simple, Mars is colonized, and you need to make some money, but when you arrive you realize that an evil corporation has other plans. You must stop them.

Volition tells you this story, and then leaves you to your own devices to bring them down. The different mission types were great, including an interesting building demolition when you have a scarce number of supplies to bring down your target.

I felt that the game really handled it’s open world in a way that we freeing to the player, but still enough structure to not get lost, which can definitely be a problem with some open world games.

Another part of the game that I really enjoyed was the multiplayer. I wasn’t able to play as much as I would have liked, but I certainly would love to go back and play some more.

This game did well in 09 and there will definitely be a sequel which I will be getting day one. Red Faction really personifies why I love open world games, it works in the same vein as another one of my favorites, Crackdown, and that’s why it’s my game of the year.

What are your games of the year? Let me knwo what you think of my list in the comments! Have a great New Year!

I was pretty ill this weekend. I’ll use that as my excuse for completing Cabela’s Big Game Hunter 2010 this week. When I was sick, I didn’t want to dig too deep in any of the big releases because I wanted to be able to focus 100%. Luckily for me, little concentration is needed to complete the game.

Now, I’m not saying it’s a horrible game, just a boring, repetitive, and convoluted game. So I bet you’re asking yourself how a hunting game could be convoluted. Well, you play a hunting recruit named Jack, and you’re trying to get admitted into the esteemed hunting group called The Order. Really, The Order? That made me laugh because my only motivation was to shoot bears and mountain lions.

I am in no way, shape, or form a fan of hunting. This game helped illustrate my distaste for hunting. I don’t judge anyone for hunting, that is your personal prerogative, but I am not a fan. If you’re willing to go on a one-on-one with a black bear, and you can kill him that way, you are a hero among mere mortals. But shooting it 100 feet away doesn’t count.

Cabela’s Big Game Hunter 2010 is less of a hunting simulation and more of an arcade style of a hunting game. There are 12 missions in different locations of the world ranging from the Rockies to the deserts of Argentina. You are given animals that you need to hunt ranging from deer to caribou to bears.

The world itself is pretty well designed. The levels look lush and plentiful with scenery. But one thing that is definitely is missing is, while on a mission to hunt an animal, the world is completely barren aside from that animal in a particular area. This took me out of the game, because I found myself walking to where the herds of white tail deer are, and there were no other animals around. Another problem is that the variety of animals was low. A couple different species of deer, some goats, caribou, and bears were really the stand outs. But I found myself hunting the same animal several times throughout different landscapes.

There was an added feature of a shooting gallery type minigame where you need to hunt as many hares, birds, jackals, or foxes within a certain period of time. The control of the reticule was imprecise and made those hunts more frustrating than fun.

I will give the game credit for some of the gameplay mechanics that have been used when you are hunting. There is an interesting effect called ‘Hunters Sense’ which highlights the checkpoints to your trophy, the alert level of the beast, and cover points. The cover points allow you to stay in cover while stalking your prey, and give you a bonus on your kill.

Too bad the game isn’t fun, exciting, or even varied in locations or animals. There is no real re-playability to the game. No multiplayer or worthwhile stat tracking. I can not recommend this game and have to suggest that you ‘Toss it from the Pile’.

When I was growing up, I had a healthy dose of both console and computer gaming. Some of my favorite computer games ranged from King's Quest to Captain Comic to Half life and Half Life 2.

Steam is a digital distribution portal for gaming that handles the complex issues of DRM and game ownership in a really great way. All your games are connected to your profile, and as long as you're connected to the net and your steam account, you can download the game as many times as you like, and on as many computers as you'd like.

I really love that there are weekly, and sometimes even daily deals. I have really bulked up my PC gaming collection because of Steam.

What digital distribution sites do you guys use?

You probably have read a lot of different reviews for the new entry into the Halo franchise, Halo 3: ODST. Let me start off by saying that this is a great game. The single player offering is a new take on the standard Halo 3 formula, with an open hub world space and interesting storytelling mechanics.

Now let me put this out there right off the bat, you are not Master Chief. You play the Rookie, an ODST that is dropping into New Mumbasa to fight the covenant. The ODST's drop to earth in single passenger pods, but as the team was dropping there was a problem, and the Rookie slams into the pod of another and goes unconscious for about 6 hours.

The Rookie wakes up in a barren world at night time. Luckily you have a type of night vision that outlines the game area and highlights visible baddies. You go through the world tracking you ODST buddies, and you play as them. I dont want to spoil any of the story because I do think that it is well constructed and told. You should really give it a chance.

I enjoyed the single player campaign, but it was the new multiplayer mode, Firefight, that keep me coming back for more, and even stopped me from completing a game a couple weeks ago.

Firefight mode is similar to Gears of War 2's horde mode, where waves of of enemies come and attack, and you must hold them off. I did enjoy GoW2's horde mode, but it didn't really stick with me the same way as Firefight. My biggest complaint with Firefight mode is that there is no matchmaking. You have to play with friends, which makes for a fun time, but if you dont have a lot of Xbox Live friends, it can be tough to make much progress.

I would have to say that overall, I really liked Halo 3: ODST. Unlike some other reviews, I do think that this outing is actually more than just an expansion, but not quite a full retail game. However, ODST packs in a pretty good single player story, the new multiplayer mode Firefight, and comes with a second disc of Halo 3 multiplayer with every map that has been released to date, plus 3 new ones.

For any shooter fan, you must Add it to the Pile.

What did you guys think about the singleplayer story? or firefight mode? Let me know in the comments!