Maybe I'm just getting older and have less time on my hands, or maybe I'm changing with the mood of the culture, but I'm finding I'm having difficulty sticking with one game at a time.  There's more than a couple times I've been playing a game and thought, "Come on, just end it all ready!"  I suppose this is a testament to the stories in these games, though, since I'm willing to keep playing through the game to see how it ends.  Or maybe I just want to finally finish the game so I don't feel like I've wasted the time I've invested.  Regardless of the reason, I have managed to get through a couple games recently.  They are all solid games (with one major exception), but I can't help but notice some things in all of them, including the length.  So bear with me as I get down to picking some nits with the games I've been playing.

First up is Dead Space.  I liked this game, though I found I got tired of the gameplay about 3/4's of the way through.  The shooting was solid, but it felt like the same thing each time, no matter the variety of enemies I faced.  Of course, I also didn't buy too many different weapons, and stuck with the pistol, flamethrower, pulse gun, and sawblades.  So maybe I'm to blame for the repetition.  But I still think I was a couple hours too long.  I'm kind of curious how Isaac was the only one who managed to handle these creatures.  I mean, we have trained soldiers who are no match for the horrific monsters, but an engineer is able to mow down countless hordes of them?  That kind of stuck out to me, but not enough to ruin the atmosphere.  And the atmosphere is terrific, I have to say.  The way the plot and tension build, I was convinced Isaac was going to die at the end (I won't spoil it by saying if he does or not).  The ending confused me, though.  I'm talking about the very last part.  If you've beaten it, you probably know what I'm referring to.  That happens and then the credits roll.  It was a true WTF moment for me.

Another game that overstayed its welcome was Condemned: Criminal Origins.  I've only had my 360 for about a year now, so I missed this one when it came out.  I had to go hunt down a used copy, and the only reason I did that was so I could play the sequel.  I have a hang up about needing to know the continuity in stories.  In a pinch, Wikipedia will work, but if I can go through the original then I prefer to go that way.  I liked Condemned, but it was way too easy to get frustrated by the combat and incredibly dark enemies.  And yes, I know that was intentionally designed that way.  I was very ready for that game to be over before I beat it.  Well beat it I did, and went on to Condemned 2: Bloodshot.  In fact, I pretty much started it immediately after finishing the first.  That had advantages and disadvantages.  It became very clear what a huge leap the sequel made in graphical quality.  It looked beautiful after Criminal Origins.  It also really confused me with the combat.  They didn't change it that much, but it was enough to throw me off when the enemies attacked faster and the blocking was a little different.  Eventually I got into the rythym and found myself enjoying the game much more than the first (for whatever reason).  Unfortunately, my save file seems to have been corrupted and now it wants to take me all the way back to the start.  So maybe someday I'll finish Bloodshot, but right now, I just can't make myself go back through the last seven hours of that game so soon.

I can't really complain about the length of Prince of Persia, since it's not that long.  But I still found it pretty repetitive.  The reviews all pretty much nail it.  The game is beautiful, and the dialouge between the Prince and Elika was brilliant.  But you pretty much just do the same stuff over the course of the whole game, and it doesn't take much skill to beat the game.  Occasionally the bosses will give you a challenge, but it's not much.  The gameplay just seemed to be missing something the last couple games had, and I don't know what it was. 

Oh, but one game I have plenty to gripe about is Mirror's Edge.  Oh wow, did they screw this one up.  I really wanted to like this game.  I really, really wanted to like it.  In fact, I convinced myself I DID like it at one point.  I read Ryan's review and thought he was probably being too hard on the game, and that I could look past any faults and enjoy the free-running action.  Boy was I wrong.  His review is spot on, let me tell you.  There are good moments in Mirror's Edge, but they get dragged down by everything that's wrong with the game.  There are times you'll swear you pulled off a move right only to have Faith jump around like an idiot and plummet to her death.  The characters are unlikeable, the story is dumb and forgetable, and the e-Surance cutscenes are...well they're not THAT bad.  But the worst part is the combat.  Oh God, the combat.  Why...WHY...did they insist on having you fight in this game?!  It's just stupid!!  Faith is supposed to be a Runner.  I take that to mean she runs.  Not fight off tacital SWAT teams with kung fu.  I played through a lot of the game without firing a gun, partly for the acheivement and partly because shooting cops didn't make sense to me.  What if these guys are just following orders, trying to live out their lives and then go home to their families?  Yeah, they're working for a shady government, but who am I to judge?  I didn't feel heroic putting a bullet to their heads.  But I eventually found it impossible to continue if I didn't kill some dudes.  It felt wrong.  And the combat is broken regardless of how you play.  Every time that douchebag Merc told me to get ready for a fight, I felt like chucking my controller through the TV.  Oh, and Merc is a douchebag.  This is a spoiler, but when his character died, I actually chuckled and cracked a smile.  That's how much I hated that guy.  He actually chews you out for not knowing where you're supposed to go.  How about giving me a hint or something, instead of yelling at me to move my ass, you useless piece of crap!  For some reason I was determined to beat the game, so I kept at it and nearly did, but eventually I just reached a point where I had to throw up my hands and call it quits.  I think I'll be a better person for it.

So that's pretty much it.  I did beat World at War, but there's not much to say.  It's a Call of Duty game.  It's good.  It's not COD4.  Overall, I've had to accept that growing up and becoming an adult is changing the way I play and think about games.  I don't have the time I did before to power through Final Fantasy (or any other RPG).  I have more income to spend on games and less time, so I've got games piling up to play and no time to beat them.  So the movement I see in our culutre in regards to gaming makes sense to me.  I want more quality in my game and less quantity.  COD4 had one of the best single player stories ever, and I didn't feel ripped off about it being incredibly short.  I want to get through Fallout 3, or Fable 2 (or even FFXII...) but I can't seem to get a few hours into them before I feel like playing something else.  I know there are these incredible gaming experiences out there, and I don't always feel like I can devote a whole month of my time to one game at a time.  I hope developers are taking note of this with their consumers, because if we get more experiences like COD4, I think many of us will be more satisfied with our games as a whole.  We'll feel like we got our moneys worth, got closure by beating the game, and still have time to have a life somehow.  But I'm sure even if that happens, we'll find ways to nitpick.  I mean, we're gamers.  It's what we do best.

I seem to be living off of downloadable games.  Geometry Wars 2, Braid, Bionic Commando Rearmed, and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People have been occupying the vast majority of my time, with brief stints of Hotel Dusk wedged in during bathroom breaks.  Although I've beaten that now (again), so I guess I have to find something else to do while on my porcelain cruises.  But I'm sure no one cares about my time in the bathroom, so I'll cut that out right now. 

But all those things seem like dust right now.  I'm finding it hard to pump myself up to play these games.  The reason?  I beat Peggle.  I don't mean the adventure mode.  That thing went down like a day after I got the game.  I'm not talking about Challenge mode either.  That took me a while, but that went down earlier this year.  I mean I BEAT Peggle.  There's nothing left to accomplish.  I cleared every level and got the extreme master trophy.  Now I'm sitting here wondering what to do next.  Peggle had been my fallback game, and I was determined to conquer it.  Now that I have...well, it's like the Joker said in The Dark Knight: "I'm like a dog chasing cars.  If I caught one, I wouldn't know what to do with it!"  Well, I caught that car.  I'm playing those games listed above, but I'm just playing.  I don't feel compelled.  Maybe now I can catch up on my reading?

I love the idea of digital distribution, if only because it's one less reason to get off my bloated behind and venture into the wild outdoors.  My transformation into a crazed shut-in is almost complete!  So when Siren: Blood Curse was released as a downloadable title on the PS3, I was all for it.  I used to cower in the corner while cradling a shotgun at the thought of horror games like Siren or Silent Hill, but now for some reason I can't get enough of them.  I tried the demo, thought it was an interesting, and bought the game.  I downloaded the first episode, which took over an hour, installed it, and got to play for maybe five minutes before the episode was over.  Okay, so it's just a prelude.  No problem.  The rest will be meatier, I'm sure.

I decided I would download the rest of the game so I wouldn't relive the hour-download-equals-five-minute-gameplay disappointment again.  I started that download Saturday night.  It is now Monday morning and IT'S STILL FREAKING DOWNLOADING!!  I haven't even installed the game yet!  It's only on episode 8!  Now, I didn't do any downloading on Sunday, but still!  It's taken three hours to get TWO of the episodes!  TWO!!  There are twelve of these things!  Yes, I should have expected this for a game that must be around twelve gigabytes.  It's just that we hail the idea of digital distribution as the great future that retail is holding back.  Yet if this game was in stores (which it will be soon), it would take maybe fifteen minutes for me to go pick it up and and play in my system.  OK, barring the likely mandatory install the game will have, but still!  That would take at most an hour.  This download is taking almost half a day!  Digital distribution may be the future, but it will be a while before it's actually practical for console owners.  At least there's Geometry Wars 2 to keep me busy until then (which only took like a minute to download and play).

Man, there's some cool stuff out on consoles right now.  I'm dying to go try the demo for Siren: Blood Curse, or go nab Geometry Wars 2.  Unfortunately, I'm house sitting right now and am nowhere near my consoles to go buy and play any of that.  Thank God for the DS.  You know, there's a lot of talk right now about how Nintendo has abandoned its fanbase to go fish the bountiful waters of the mainstream market.  And yeah, they have in a way.  I'm not going to argue against an obvious fact.  The latest talk is about there aren't any good "hardcore" games on the radar for the Wii right now.  But just turn your head towards the DS, and you'll find plenty on offer to satisfy your tastes.  Unless your tastes involve high-def graphics, in which case, you probably stopping giving a damn about Nintendo a long time ago. 

So I've had my attention occupied lately by three games.  The first is Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: Grimoire of the Rift.  I haven't gotten too deep into it yet, but yeah, it's an FF Tactics game.  Cool look, deep gameplay, and I'll probably want to claw out the designers eyes at some point when I get wiped out by some fluffy bunny.  I paused playing that to get into Final Fantasy IV.  This has been one of my most anticipated games of the year, even in the midst of a year with GTA IV, MGS4 (man, a lot of fours this year!), and Fallout 3.  Not that I was wanting it more than those games, it was just up there with them.  It hasn't disappointed.  Beautiful graphics (for the DS) and voice acting compliment the storyline, and there's still the challenging difficulty that forces you to go grind in order to survive.  I might finally beat this game!

It might take a while, though, because I put THAT game on hold to replay Hotel Dusk: Room 215.  Holy cow, do I still love this game.  It was one of my favorite games last year, and it still stands strong a second time through.  I really wish there were more games like this for the DS, and way, way less of that Bratz crap that clutters up the Target display case.  I think Hotel Dusk was poorly marketed, because I could see a concept like this going huge.  Look at the popularity of mystery novels.  And remember how big a deal Myst was back in the day?  So why not market this game (or a line of game) as interactive mystery stories for the DS?  Am I the only one who thinks this could be a big deal?  I mean, even my mom owns a DS!  She frikken' loves mystery stories!  Anyways, Hotel Dusk still rules, and so do the two Final Fantasy games so far released this year.  I may be away from the 360 and PS3 for a couple weeks, but I sure haven't suffered any withdrawals.

Jimmy's Gaming Journal - 7/23/08

So I decided to start a journal about the games I'm playing.  I don't know if anyone will ever read it, but it might be fun to update every now and then.  I started The Bourne Conspiracy yesterday, and I almost quit yesterday too.  The first mission just pissed me off.  The designers thought it would be cool to have you go through the mission where Jason ends up losing his memory, but they just take a piss all over the whole premise of Jason Bourne in the process.  In The Bourne Identity, Jason learns that he was supposed to be a silent assassin, one that makes hits without anyone knowing he did it.  In the movie, he was supposed to kill Wambosi in a way that made it look like only one of Wambosi's own men could have pulled the trigger.  No one was supposed to know Bourne was ever there.  In the game, the bad guys know he's there from the start.  You fight other assassins, Wambosi's army, blow up a fuel station, and then fake your death in the water so Wambosi's men think you're dead.  However, not five minutes later, you get in a huge gunfight on the boat with men screaming, "It's the assassin from the docks!"  So what was the point of that whole fake death thing?!  Just utter stupidity.  That whole mission didn't make me feel like I was a part of the story at all.

The gameplay is decent, though repetitive and frustrating at times.  There seems to be too much emphasis on the shooting gameplay, which again seems odd in a game about Jason Bourne.  But the emphasis here is on when he was an assassin, so that doesn't matter too much.  In the end, it's not a bad game, but not really a good game either.  I'll probably play it a little longer, but I wonder if I'll finish it or just move on to something better.