Backlog: Fall Clearance 1
By angularbanjo 3 Comments
Game 1: Katamari Forever
BEFORE: The Katamari series has been intrigueing to me for some time, maybe more so because the original isn't available here in Europe unless you get time-consumingly creative. I've played Beautiful Katamari only briefly on my 360, but I have it on pretty good authority that Forever is a much better starting point for a curious newbie.
AFTER: Loving the intro and the tutorial - oh! First trophy already 4:56 after pressing start. Need to play five minutes more. The audio is amazing, especially the vocoder bits.
Game 2: Halo Wars
BEFORE: Lately, I've been getting into a bit of strategy. I've always had a thing for turn-based games like Civilization, but lately I've played a bunch of tower defense games, as well as the League of Legends beta. To my surprise, I've really enjoyed it. I picked up a discounted copy of Halo Wars along with ODST, and I'm actually more excited to play this one. Jumping straight into the tutorial.
AFTER: Just shy of the half-hour mark, achievement for completing the first mission. This seems like a pretty satisfying action RTS, need to play more. The CG story sections look great.
Game 3: Sonic Unleashed
BEFORE: I've read the reviews. I know it's supposed to be horrible. After playing the demo with my 4-year-old, I decided to pick it up on the cheap.
AFTER: 40 minutes in, first achievement for leveling up my werehog's combat skills to 5. I can see how reviewers would hate having to play through this for review. The werehog sections aren't totally awful, just a little bland, gameplay-wise. The daytime stages are stronger, though it sucks when you lose momentum. It's a kids game, and I bet my kids are gonna love it.
Game 4: Halo 3 ODST
BEFORE: I'm not the biggest Halo fan, but after 40 minutes of Sonic, I'm reasonably psyched to play ODST. Seeing as this is a North American game, the achievements should be more sensibly distributed here.
AFTER: 8 minutes, "Heal Up." Ominous atmosphere, solid combat. This is my kind of Halo game, I would very much like to continue playing this right now. Pressing on, though.
Game 5: NBA Street Homecourt
BEFORE: I bought this game on sale on the strength of FIFA Street, which I enjoyed for what it was. This should be a comparative experience.
AFTER: Wow, that took longer than expected. I had to consult an achievement guide and play three games before getting this down. If I didn't suck so much, I might have had the achievement come naturally. 45 minutes, two achievements at once for 100G. Apparently, this game's got some easy ones. NBA Street seems to have more personality than FIFA. Really digging the music.
Game 6: Marvel Ultimate Alliance
BEFORE: Reviews for MUA 2 were fairly good, though most of them expressed a preference for the original MUA. I've been a little interested in this game for a long time, and the arrival of the sequel finally pushed me over the edge.
AFTER: Excellent intro cutscene. Now for some gameplay. OK, I killed 5 guys pretty quickly and got the "Fledgling Hero" achievement after 7:24. How come I haven't played this before, though? Sure, it you can tell that it's an early 360 game, but it still feels great.
There's a bunch more bargain bin games incoming, including Resident Evil 5, Bionic Commando, FEAR 2, MK vs. DC, EndWar and 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. The next backlog session's gonna be meaty.