... and since I've basically been mainlining Xbox 360 games lately, I think that now is a fine time to look back and reflect. Meditate, even. I think I might have mentioned this before, but I'm pretty lucky in that I have very giving friends (and even friends of friends of friends) that have been steadily unloading games for me to play like a Darma supply crate (or is that too soon?). It means that I've only actually paid for two games outside of the pack-ins that came with the machine; and I haven't even come close to touching those.
What have I touched? Perhaps more importantly, what has touched me? Lovingly? Well, shit, let's do some short reviews. It's my List Issue...
Halo ODST:
Again being the first Halo game that I've even considered playing, a lot of people are telling me that I started at the bottom of the quality totem pole and should have just started with Halo 1 and moved chronologically. After playing ODST, though, I'll say that I still really don't give much of a shit, but that doesn't mean that I didn't have a good time. The combat was fun and the first mission in the 'sploded city was pretty neat. However, it didn't really do anything that touched my soul like the many, many other Xbox people out there. Yeah, yeah, I know it's not fair for me to judge the series based on this one, seemingly weak game, especially since I just said that I liked it. But the setting and story just didn't really do it for me.
Plus, I'm too far removed to start playing these games competitively online. For one, it looks like a lot of work for me right now to really learn the ins and outs of the game mechanics for competitive play, and since I barely play first-person shooters at all to begin with means that I'd be almost starting from scratch. Thanks for the memories, Halo, but you may be on the way to the resale shop this weekend.
Mass Effect:
Being nearly the sole reason for me to buy a 360 that I didn't really need, it's time for me to suck it up and say that I was a little bit let down with its brilliance. Is that a sentence your noggin can't reconcile? Ok, then. I really, really dug ME, but it wasn't half as great as I made it out to be in my head. I think after hearing all of the good press that ME 2 has been getting and all of the Dragon Age that I've played since November pretty much made Mass 1 into a rock star that I met in real life that just didn't stack up to my idol worship. The lunar tank thing was a total drag to drive around, even stressful at times. The graphics were really good for a lot of it, but the backgrounds got pretty bland, pretty fast. And on that note, a whole lot of locations were recycled throughout the game that made me wonder how many original areas there really were. This game also had the misfortune (like Persona 3 and Final Fantasy XIII) of being one in which when the main character gets killed off its game over, even though your comrades get popped constantly and get up after the fight is over and they're totally fine. I get why, but still. Stupid.
Though there really wasn't that much to make me want to run through the game again (although I still probably will at some point), I did like the skill building system enough that I'd be interested to see how I'd use more weapons than just the assault rifles. The morality system of the game was fine but very binary. The good vs. bad choices were really easy to spot, and I climbed to number one on the Paragon charts (as well as number one in your hearts) steadily without much trouble. I didn't really use a lot of special skills and powers during my trip through the game since I found it easy enough to just rely on blasting people, but the few times that I used them made for some diversity from pointing, shooting, and hoping the craps game of RPG shooting landed in my favor. So to sum up, another play through as an evil female space wizard that packs pistol heat seems to be in my future. Yeah, that sounds about right.
On the absolute plus side is the stellar voice acting. I know that many prefer the female Commander Shepherd voice over the male, but he did a pretty good job if you ask me. The characters weren't as memorable to me as the Dragon Age ones, but they were still a bunch of cool people. I was surprised how pro-Christian some of the tone (and one specific character) of the game was, almost refreshingly so. Not that I think that a video game should be pushing a specific religion to the player, but since the topic of God is something either danced around (Xenosaga) in gaming or completely against (see Final Fantasy IX, X, and to a lesser extent, XII and XIII). Sure, Ashley turned out to be kind of a bitch by the end of the game, but I appreciated that faith was a defining character trait.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2:
The biggest video game release of all time. Ok I've gotten the requisite finger pointing out of the way. It was pretty fun for the same reasons that I liked Halo, but I honestly didn't have any idea what was happening half of the time. At least with Halo I was pretty good about keeping a level head, but if Modern Warfare 2 is any indication, I would be the worst infantryman in the history of armed forces: comrades would be shot on sight, running would happen in complete opposite ends of where objectives would be, and gunfire-induced panic would usually overtake me during the first 45 seconds of any mission until I died once or twice and got my head straight. Still, I can see why people like this game and it's brethren. The game certainly looks pretty and the online modes that I actually tried out where pretty fun, albeit overwhelming bloodbaths (I was never against anyone lower than level 43).
Ok, Modern Warfare. I get it. You're just not for me.
Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition:
Though I'm man enough to admit that I was more hungover than I usually am at 8am on a Saturday and that that may have played a part of it, I really didn't like the beginning of this game. After all of my friends gushed over how deep the customization was and how vast and varied the world was and blah blah blah, getting out of Vault 101 and getting my ass constantly kicked by monsters from the blue lagoon and Thunderdome rejects because I was better with a lead pipe than the fucking hand gun my stats said I would be fine with made the Fallout 3 feel more like work and less like fun. I like fun, and I sure as shit don't like work. Persevere, they all said. So I did.
Fallout 3 turned out to be one of the better games I've played since, well, Dragon Age. Though I didn't really think the story was as great as it could have been (though that ain't Liam Neeson's fault. He's a cool guy), turning my lowly vault-dwelling jive turkey into a walking death machine is one of my favorite things about RPGs, and by the time I was done with Fallout 3 I felt empowered with every single shotgun blast that killed my enemies. But maybe that just makes me weird. I'll probably go back and play the game again someday, especially since I only finished half of the packed-in DLC for the GOTY edition.
I also finished the game one night, and spent nearly eight straight hours the next day collecting all of the missed bobble heads if that tells you anything. Fallout 3 was really, really, really good.
Brutal Legend:
With my limited exposure to Tim Schafer games, I'm starting to think that he's a better writer than he is a full on designer. That isn't to say that BL isn't an alright game, but that's just what it is: alright. The single action goes out the window almost right away (one of the things I thought was stronger than the rest of the game) in favor of really jank RTS trappings that make it feel like a bastardized Overlord than a bastardized Starcraft. That's not a compliment.
On the flip side, the dialogue is really hilarious. Jack Black stood right at the edge of the annoyance cliff, but didn't take the plunge with a somewhat restrained performance, and the metal icon guest stars like Halford and Ozzy were surprisingly good actors. Sure, they were kind of just playing themselves (well, not really Halford, but still), but Ozzy in particular delivered his lines perfectly. I find that I can't really play this game more than maybe an hour at a time because I get stupid bored, but I finished it because of the characters, not the gameplay.
On Deck and in No Particular Order:
Bioshock 1 and 2
Gears of War 1 and 2
Mass Effect 2
Shadow Complex
Alan Wake
Blur
MagnaCarta 2
Forza Motorsport 3
So if you've been paying attention, that's two 360 exclusives and three multiplatform games. I probably wouldn't have gotten around to playing those multi- titles if the goodwill of some folks hadn't led them to loan them to me, and for that I'm pretty grateful. The BioShock games fall into that category. Not that I've ever been opposed to playing them in the past, they just happen to fall in my lap right now, so I'll be giving them a shot sooner than later.
Mass Effect 2, being on of the two games that I've actually purchased, is something I'm excited to play. Since I own it, though, I feel a little guilty about playing that instead of the shitload of stuff people have thrown my way. Same goes with Shadow Complex. I played a demo of it last night and was very happy with it.
I am morbidly curious about MagnaCarta 2. Reports from across the internet mix from "worst RPG of the last decade" to "most underrated game of last year." It's usually that kind of wadded up spaghetti press that attracts me to niche games in the first place. I own the last one for PS2 and even though it sure wasn't all that great, it still wasn't too shabby, so I'll probably grab this one.
Probably see you in a month. Go Comments!
