Completed In 2012
Add-ons completed:
- BioShock 2 - Minerva's Den (PS3)
- Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City - Echo Six Expansion Packs 1 & 2 (360)
- Resident Evil 5 - Lost In Nightmares (360)
- Red Faction: Guerrilla - Demons Of The Badlands (360)
List items
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Platform - PS3 :: Difficulty - Medium ::
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - Let's Rock ::
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - Medium ::
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Platform - PS3 :: Difficulty - Medium ::
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - Easy ::
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - Medium ::
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - Normal ::
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Platform - PS2 :: Difficulty - Medium :: I think I started this back in 2005 and since it's not an easy game I'd play in spurts until I got frustrated and pick it up again a few months later. By 2007 I'd gotten really far, but then I got my PS3 and since I could now play my PS2 games upscaled for HD, I started my progress from scratch. I probably made it about 3/4ths of the way through this time but then the PS3 died. So I finally went back to my PS2 save and the part I thought was impossible years ago turned out to be really simple. The mercenaries do kill you incredibly quickly, and there are a ton of them on this last part, but I found I could run back to save my progress after every dude I killed which allowed me to inch my way through the level without soul-crushing frustration. A lot of them also did my job for me by running kamikaze into their own trip mines. After that section I was at the last boss, turns out that PS2 save was only about 20 minutes from the ending--ofcourse. The last boss was pretty cool, sometimes you're disappointed by last bosses that aren't as difficult as the levels leading up to them and that was pretty much the case here but I just wanted to beat the fuckin' Thing. I finally got to see how the game handled MacReady's fate and it was worth the wait.
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Platform - PS2 :: Difficulty - Medium :: I was in the mood for a dark adventure like Shadowman or Primal and while Rune: Viking Warlord isn't nearly as epic or complex as those, it was a fun little journey through the world of norse mythology. It's greatest strength lies in its platforming exploration; it's deep enough to occasionally stump you but never enough to send you running for a walkthrough. The other real highlights are the increasingly badass weapons and armor gained as you progress. As far as weaknesses, it's shorter than expected at 8 hours or less, is probably one of the worst looking games on the platform, and the combat is as basic as hack n', slashers get. But for 2 bucks, I had a good time with it; reminded me of Draconus: Cult Of The Wyrm for Dreamcast.
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - Sith Warrior :: I started this up again and completed it after stopping at the beginning of the last level about a year ago. I liked a lot of things about the game, the story was really cool, The combat system was better than average and using the force powers rules. I also loved the variety of environments and the different costumes for each level.
What kept me from sticking with it was that I found a lot of sections more frustrating than fun. I like a challenge, but there were a lot of boss encounters and puzzles that were annoying enough to completely kill my enjoyment. If I play the 2nd I'll probably do so on the easier difficulty, because I think I would've enjoyed this one a whole lot more if I just breezed through it in a couple days.
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - Normal :: Max Payne 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. Max Payne 3 did a lot of great things, unfortunately I didn't find any of them to be fun things. Rather than the slowmo supercop badass of the previous games, I felt like a fish flopping around trying not to die between cutscenes. Glad I threw this one back and got some reimbursement to ease the disappointment.
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - Normal :: ORC fails as a squad-based shooter and a Resident Evil game but I did have fun playing it with a few friends. I really like the new characters it introduces and as a side game it succeeds in letting you just screw around in the RE universe; so on like the most basic level. The glitches did get better as time went on but in its launch state it's probably the glitchiest game I've ever played. The Spec Ops campaign definitely had more interesting scenarios, but gutting it from the main game and pushing it as DLC is unforgivable so it deserves all the negativity surrounding it. The competitive multiplayer can be fun but feels pretty unbalanced and an opponent with the DLC weapons and motivation to be a douche can instantly kill any potential fun. It's a very flawed game and maybe it's just because I'm stupid for Resident Evil but I still go back to it from time to time just to roam through Raccoon City in a different way.
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - Normal :: RPG's are usually difficult for me to get into and as this was my introduction to the series I wasn't sure how it would work out for me. It turned out I couldn't help but get into this one, playing over 40 hours the week I got it; I just couldn't put it down. Unfortunately, playing so much so fast caused me to get burnt out on it and I stopped playing for a few months with just a couple hours left to finish. When I finally picked it back up and finished it, despite having a very good conclusion, I was pretty disappointed with the way the ending turned out for me, losing Legion, Samara, and Jack--the character I used most. It kinda killed my desire to try the 3rd one anytime soon but I did have a lot of good hours with this one. The story and universe were crazy original, I really enjoyed the amount of choice and character customization, and the combat was great.
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Platform - PS2 :: Difficulty - Normal :: One of the most purely fun playthroughs I've had in a while. Mostly because the game captures the spirit of its property better than the majority of licensed games. The story went way over my head but it was just cool to hear the characters (awesomely voiced by the original cast) discuss it--just like the real Ghost In The Shell. Luckily, it doesn't ride on its license alone, the visuals and gameplay (while somewhat simplistic) are incredibly solid. Stand Alone Complex is your standard run from point A to point B and shoot everyone game, but compared to all the average to terrible games to tread that ground on the PS2 before it; it's really great. On normal it doesn't challenge the player a whole lot and if it was any shorter it would seem too short, but I felt it delivered just enough content and suitable difficulty to remain interesting for the duration. This is the kind of game I could play endless sequels of whether improvements were made or not, I had a blast controlling The Major and Batou, using all of the badass weapons from the movie/show, and being treated to the familiar witty banter surrounded by glorious techno-babble. What other game would have you track down smugglers of "micromachine rice"!?
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - **** :: Quake III Arena is one of my favorite games of all time and having recently gotten a 360, it was the perfect choice for my first XBLA purchase. I went into it knowing the online was basically dead, which is unfortunate, but having had a blast playing almost exclusively against bots in the Dreamcast and PS2 versions it's still totally worth it to me. I'm incredibly grateful to have a version optimized for my HDTV with a silky smooth framerate, barely existent load times, and beautifully crisp textures. On top of that, Arena Arcade boasts what is undeniably the best campaign of any iteration of Quake III, featuring by my count 77 matches playable on 5 difficulties with great incentive to replay and top your own and friends' high scores on the leaderboards. With the natural addition of the "Practice Mode" which allows you to set up custom bot matches to your exact specifications, I don't see myself ever running out of ways to enjoy this game, even without the online play. The greatest benefit however, and one I couldn't have anticipated is that the new leaderboards system actually changed the way I play the game. I'm now much more conscious of giving up kills because of how much of an impact even one death has on your total score, whereas in previous versions my only focus was to get more kills than my opponent. Quake Arena Arcade not only improved the game it's based on, it improved my game at that game. What? 10/10
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - Normal :: More than most FPS games this was just an awesome journey. The gunplay, while fine, (though not as remarkable as similar games Doom 3 or Resistance) was totally overshadowed by the Portal-like puzzle-solving, interesting sights, and incredible start and finish to the story. Things did get pretty samey in the middle and the alien arsenal was awesome to look at but didn't quite pack the punch of the standard FPS loadout (I really wanted a shotgun), however those are minor complaints. This was the 360 exclusive I wanted to play most and I was not disappointed. I still can't believe it was only $2.99.
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - Normal :: Although I enjoyed Guerrilla, I was excited to see Red Faction return to its linear roots with Armageddon. I found the campaign to be fun the whole way through, the destruction was great as expected and dashing up to the alien creatures and blasting them into goo with the shotgun was especially satisfying. A lot of people criticize the mostly underground locales but I thought the environments were beautiful. Ultimately though, the story felt short and inconsequential and having had a few months to digest it, it's an extremely forgettable game (though I preferred it to the Gears Of War series for whatever that's worth). I had a few hours of fun with the infestation mode but the exclusion of competitive multiplayer for the first time in the series is a gigantic disappointment. I can't deny that I had a really good time with the hours I spent with it and I think it deserves more credit than it gets, it just feels like it would've been a more fitting rental than a buy. As a longtime fan of the series, I hope it isn't shelved for good like they say.
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - Commando ::
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - Hitman ::
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Platform - 360 :: Difficulty - Lieutenant :: I don't know if I've ever done such a complete 180 on a game before. As a fan of the Quake series, Doom 3, and Raven Software's games in general, I really wanted to (and expected to) like Quake 4. After years of anticipation, however, chapter 1 made a terrible first impression.
I found it so bland, boring, and generally "empty" of enemies and atmosphere that it took me over 6 months to get through it's 4-6 hour duration; as I'd play it in short bursts and lose interest. Then I finally reached chapter 2 and I was suddenly playing the game I'd hoped for all along.
The infamous stroggification sequence kicks off this middle chapter. And while it didn't really have an impact on the gameplay as advertised, the level design and enemy placement just got way better. It finally felt like Quake; from then on I couldn't put it down.
I was even more ecstatic when I reached chapter 3 (expecting the credits to roll after chapter 2) and it opened like somewhat of a remake of the beginning of Quake 2 (which I've never actually beaten, but plan to next). The game got progressively better in these final 2 chapters and never let up.
They finally introduced some environmental variety with locales like the nasty meat-carpeted Waste Processing Facility, and each new room began to throw way larger enemies at you and in larger numbers, straight through to the end with the brutally chaotic final boss fight.
Overall, to say it got off to a rough start is putting it lightly (though I'm wondering if I'll enjoy chapter 1 more on a second playthrough) and it's a shame the online's dead, but I'm glad I stuck it out long enough to discover the approximately 15 hours of pure Quake bliss hidden deep within the redeeming two thirds of Quake 4's Nexus.
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