Playstation 3 Junior-Reviews
If you’re not into videogames or guys talking about videogames, move along. With schoolwork and regular work occupying the majority of my days, not too many people I know in town, and still in perma-grin mode with my new TV, I have understandably spent a lot of down-time with it. Gamefly has been kind enough to send me games to play, and play them I have. Much like the post I did with short Wii reviews, I’m going to run through the games I’ve been playing with some thoughts, likely about those games.
Assassin’s Creed: This is the game I’ve played the least since I just started it yesterday, but I’ve done about 3 assassinations, so I’ve got a pretty good idea of how it plays. This game got mixed reviews mainly because the whole crowd-behavior thing wasn’t as amazing as promised/speculated. I’m not too bothered by this- the main draw to this game for me was the free-running and exploration. The cities are huge and you can climb up and on pretty much everything. The “Save the Citizen,” “Eavesdrop,” and “Pickpocket” missions are pretty repetitive, but finding fun ways to get to the locations of these missions is a lot of fun, and I’ve wound up doing all these missions simply because I wanted to run around the town more, so I might as well go toward some objective or another. The sci-fi “twist” in the storyline isn’t as bad as I thought it would be (not a time-traveling assassin, thank god), and the piss-poor voice acting is actually kind of entertaining. The combat is about as interesting as it was in Prince of Persia, which is not very. You basically block until someone attacks and you counter-kill. It’s a lot more fun to lead a group of baddies on a chase across the rooftops than actually fighting them. Graphically, this thing is fucking gorgeous. The animation is fantastic and the way the game mixes little sci-fi bits into the visuals creates a really pleasing presentation that is very easy on the eyes. This is pretty good game, a great rental for sure. Due to the repetitive nature of the gameplay though, I wouldn’t recommend paying full price.
Call of Duty 4: I really don’t have much to say about this game. Incredible graphics and design- I think it’s the best-looking game I’ve ever played, and in many cases the visuals really ratchet up the tension. It certainly takes a few good steps forward in terms of storytelling in a game like this, but the gameplay itself isn’t anything new or astounding. Unless you love the online multiplayer, I’d say this is a good rental.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma: Fuck this game. And not because it’s really hard. I enjoy a challenge and have slogged through many a difficult game. But I cannot stand the way this one controls. Auto-wallrunning is incredibly stupid, futzing for the d-pad in the middle of a battle to use items is stupid, and the camera is awful. Other fun things like getting raped up against a wall by three enemies when there is a save point right next to you means you cannot attack since the button to activate the save point is the attack button. Also, the creator of the game looks and acts total fucking douche. The fact that the creator of Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball (a virtual tit-staring game) considers himself A) awesome, and B) a serious artist is a fucking joke.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Now we’re fucking talking. This game has completely sucked me in. The sheer amount of different things you can do and different ways to go about building your character up are staggering. The game world is freaking huge, and it’s a lot of fun to ride around on a horse, exploring. I’m having a blast building up my Argonian assassin, working my way through the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood; stealing, sneaking, and murdering. But that’s just me- you can go through the world all goody-goody if that’s your thing. I personally like being a burglar/hitman/dinosaur. I suspect this game will continue to monopolize my time for a while.
The Orange Box: The only way you could not love Orange Box is if you are a robot. And even then, what the hell is wrong with you, robot?! The Orange Box is a killer package of Half Life 2 with episodes 1 and 2, Team Fortress 2, and FREAKING PORTAL.
PORTAL PORTAL PORTAL
Portal, if you are not aware, is totally awesome. It’s a short-but-sweet puzzle game with great design, a snarky sense of humor, and a fun story. It’s only about two hours long, but this also means it’s easy to just pick up and run through sometime when you want some chuckles. The portal gun also means there is usually multiple ways to deal with a situation, so going through to try different things is fun as well. Pantswise, Portal might be the greatest game ever. If you have a PC that can run Portal, get it, as the potential stuff the mod community is doing with it is incredible.
Episode 1 and 2 of HL2 are also very good- the new scenarios are a lot of fun, especially in Episode 2 where at one point you are tearing ass through the wilderness in a rickety jalopy, running over previously-bitchtastic-to-fight Hunters, to catch up to gigantic Strider aliens (think War of the Worlds) where you proceed to use your Gravity Gun to lob a basketball-sized sticky bomb all up upons it to blow it up before it shoots down a rocket your team is trying to launch. Then you do it a dozen more times, and they start to gang up on you. This is all following a close-quarters firefight with about six 15ft tall Hunters. Episode 2 rocks my socks.
Man, I’m gonna go home and play Orange Box.
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