What am I playing?

Sam Hart

2009-08-24 12:52:43

I'm going to start writing now and then about games that I'm personally playing that I think you should know about. It's a bit narcissistic, I know, but then again, so is having a "blog" at a domain name which is your name.

In this maiden voyage of this series I'll talk a bit about the games that I have recently finished (some of them more than once), those that I am currently playing, and what I plan on playing next. We'll be getting off to a semi-poor start considering my 360 is currently on her journey back to the homeland for repairs, but I'll do my best to include her anyway.

So, without further delay, here are some of the games I've been playing...

Xbox 360

We'll get the temperamental bitch-cakes out of the way.

Fallout 3

I had beaten Fallout 3 last year when it came out and absolutely loved it. I played as good and then as evil, but neutral I had put off because of how difficult it seemed. Additionally, I wanted to wait and get a few of the expansions before trying again. Unfortunately, working on Duologue pretty much derailed those plans for many months and I wasn't able to return to Fallout 3 until after we had wrapped Duologue up. Of course by that time all of the expansions had been released- which honestly was a good thing :-)

Anyway, played the game again in its entirety and loved it again. But I've been a bit irritated at the press coverage of the expansions because I tend to completely disagree with the average reviewer's opinions on them. Most tend to view "Brotherhood of Steel" as the "best" of the bunch and view others like "The Pitt" or "Mothership Zeta" poorly, which seems very ass-backwards to me. So, here's my personal preference of the Fallout 3 expansions:

• #1 - The Pitt
  
  IMHO, "The Pitt" is the absolute best expansion for Fallout 3. It's the perfect length, adds a nice mix of main missions and side-quests, and adds a good sized area with something you don't get elsewhere in Fallout 3- verticality. I especially like the story in "The Pitt", it has a fun plot-twist in it (that you actually get to effect) and overall fits into the rest of the Fallout 3 story (it makes sense that someone fresh out of Vault 101 looking for their father could be suckered into servitude by a ruthless band of slavers). Plus the buzzsaw axe is the shit for people wanting to use melee (which I did on my Neutral run).


• #2 - Point Lookout
  
  "Point Lookout" is almost as good as "The Pitt". It brings a large, new area to the game which is radically different from other areas in Fallout 3. It has some excellent weapons and gear (including a new shotgun that is actually useful :-) and has some enjoyable side-quests. That being said, its story doesn't fit or make sense in the Fallout 3 world. Yes, the story is interesting and fun, but it doesn't make much sense. I mean, why would my character waste so much time there while they are on this mission to find their father? Non-sequitur story aside, the expansion is awesome... And it has redneck undead... Squeal pig, squeal!


• #3 - Mothership Zeta
  
  Zeta is a fun expansion that expands upon my favorite easter egg in the original game: the crashed alien spaceship. It brings us some great new weapons, has a lot of fun places to explore, and has some spectacular hidden easter eggs. The only problems with it are a) it's crazy linear, b) it's quite short, c) it has zero side-quests, and d) has a semi-disappointing final battle with a fun cinematic that doesn't quite make up for it. Oh, and the original alien blaster that you found by the crashed spaceship? Yeah, you don't find others on this ship. What the hell's up with that?


• #4 - Brotherhood of Steel
  
  I'm going to take flak for this but I really didn't like BoS. Yes, it raises the level cap to 30, and it lets us fight alongside the big robot again, but it has a lot of other problems. For one, the raised level cap coupled with very few new locations means they have to raise the levels of enemies in the main game- which means that a lot of the balance you had in the main story is now lost (for example, GnR can no longer be done early in the game which can fuck up the story-arc). For another, the fact that it continues the main story means that you don't actually die at the end, which really pissed me off. I know many people didn't like the death at the end of the original game, but damnit, they were idiots. It was a great ending and had a lot of literary qualities to it! BoS ruins that original ending and does so in a cheap way. I felt like the Annie Wilkes character in Misery when she was complaining about the old serials, "HE DIDN'T GET OUT OF THE COCK-A-DOODIE REACTOR!"


• #5 - Operation Anchorage
  
  I actually have a hard time placing this one under BoS. Personally, I enjoyed it more than BoS (I found BoS annoying as fuck). It had a fun story, was overall an enjoyable expansion, and gave me awesome items I wound up using the rest of my game. However, I can't deny this is the weakest expansion. It's the shortest (I think I wrapped it up in 2 hours), has zero side-quests, is insanely linear, and suffers from the "..and then he woke up" story-telling trap.

Miner Dig Deep

Currently rated #1 over at Xbox Indies, and it is very deserving of that rating. I'd go further by suggesting this is easily in the top 10 games available for the Xbox 360 (including retail and XBLA games). Before my 360 bit it, I was playing this game daily. It's such a simple idea you wouldn't think it would be as much fun as it is, but man is it fun. It just has a great balance and flow- every time you start to feel tired of the game it throws some new thing at you that sucks you right back in.

The game is currently 200 MS points (or $2.50) and is an insane steal at that price. Every 360 owner owes it to themselves to check it out.

Livelayer Prototype

The reviews for this Xbox Live Indie game are mixed- some people love it, others hate it. Personally, I'm of the "love it" mindset. This is a fun and original game that reminds me very much of my old 8-bit gaming days. Really, this game feels like an old NES or Sega Master System cart reborn in HD. It's only problem is that the graphics and text can be a bit small and hard to make out if you don't have a decent HDTV. If you can get past that wrinkle, however, this is a very cool game.

The game is a "prototype", which I take to mean it's a preview of something the developer is working on. This basically means there's only one level and one "boss" battle. But considering the game is a buck (80 MS points or $1) it's totally worth it. I'm really hoping the developer continues this and we get a "Livelayer Full" at some point in the future.

A Robots Conundrum

This is the last game I downloaded before my 360 died, and I only got to play it for a few hours. That being said, I have nothing but positive things to say about it. The game is basically Penguin Land with a robot instead of a penguin and some unknown block instead of an egg, but that's not a bad thing by any means. Penguin Land is still one of my favorite games of all time and I've always wanted a sequel to it. A knock-off with new features is probably as close as I'm going to get :-)

Nintendo DS

Dark Spire

You know what's funny? The DS is known as this casual platform, but all I ever play on it are the hardest of the hardcore. Between Shiren, Ninja Gaiden, and this, there's been no shortage of hard core titles for it.

Dark Spire is basically a very classic WRPG in the same family as the old Wizardry games. It will also eat your face and anally rape you if you aren't prepared for it. Very fun game :-)

PS3

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Thank goodness for PS3 games that I haven't beaten yet while my 360 is in for repairs.

Folklore

A few weeks ago I finally managed to track down a copy of this game. Excellent title.

inFamous

You know the whole inFamous versus Prototype debate? Yeah, well, it's stupid. The clear winner is inFamous. This is such an incredible title. It's also insanely polished, more polished than just about anything I can think of. It makes owning a PS3 worthwhile.