The Current Games Round Up
By trulyalive 2 Comments
This blog doesn't get updated nearly enough...story of my life.
Dead Space
I'm in love with this game. If I were to blame any particular reason for the lack of bloggage, this game is it. It's fucked up in the best way possible.
What with 2008 being my year of awakening when it comes to Survival Horror, I'm remarkably pleased that this game was released. It really does take the best of all Survival Horror games and packs it into one experience. I'm up to Chapter 10 (of 12) currently, and so far my only complaint is the story, which at no point has grasped me yet. I'm fulfilling objectives, but half the time, I'll have been focusing too much on the possibilities of Necro's jumping out at me to give the story proper attention. That said, what I have paid attention to has been worth while and I'm certainly enjoying the experience. 
Bang, motherfucker!
The guns are cool, the music is great and the atmosphere on the whole is one that puts all my other horror experiences to shame (and that includes Bioshock, Condemned and Condemned 2).
So in short, I'm spending all of my time terrified.
LittleBigPlanet
Being in the UK sucks ass. Whilst all you lucky sons-of-bitches have been playing LBP, I'm relegated to the corner of sulking as I wait until the 5th November for our release.
In any case, I have my Kratos Sackboy (sackman?) downloaded, courtesy of a magazine I picked up when they had the first LBP review in the world (Christ, that was like a solid month ago, now) and my Nariko Sackboy (sackgirl? sackchick?) will come with the preorder, which I think is pretty cool.
One thing I want to note is that I avoided the Beta like hell, because I don't actually agree with game Betas. I think it dates back to a bad experience with the MGS4 Beta, but although I'm unsure, I absolutely despise Betas. It's almost as if I feel that it's going to take away something from the game later on, or that if there are problems, it'll put me off the main game altogether. As a result, Betas are something I avoid. There's always been a special place in my heart for gaming journalism, so I'm happy to rely on that in terms of learning about games, in the end.
Fallout 3
Fallout...I don't think I'm really informed enough to say anything about this game, but I'm going to throw in my two cents all the same.
Naturally, having such a strong disdain of ESIV, having Fallout being described as 'Oblivion with Guns' puts me off it, but like any consumerist whore, hearing such an enthusiastic response from reviews, both from major and independant publications, I'm growing steadily more interested. I've heard that the game doesn't feel as overwhelming (which was probably my key concern with Oblivion and it's map). Then again, I've heard some complaints from Fallout fans, but having never played Fallout, or Fallout 2, I suppose their complaints won't really apply to my own tastes.
So maybe.After a price drop.
Fable II
I found myself particularly put off Fable by the advertisements they used to have at my local cinema. They were hanging over the urinals. And because I go to the cinema quite a bit, every time I went to the toilet, possibly 2 or 3 times a week, I found myself staring at a Fable advertisement. Add onto this my Sony fanboyiism (at the time) and the fact that they didn't take these adverts down for a year after everyone forgot about the game, and you'll possibly start to understand why it frustrated me so much.
If I was going to blame anyone, it would be Molyneux. The mans enthusiasm is infectious.
As well as my hatred of the original game (not for the game itself, but for the aforementioned advertisements) I found myself seething at the arrogance of the recent downloadable title Fable II: Pub Games. I mean, seriously, if you want to advertise your game, fair enough but you know you're tactics are becoming somewhat heavy-handed when you start charging customers, solely for your right to plug a game to them. "Hey, give me 15 bucks and I'll show you 1% of what your $60 game will look like!"
No thanks. However, I think the developers were aware of the backlash and have left a significant amount of time between that release and the release of the main title, so that hopefully, we will have forgiven them, I know I have, but Fable II is still not a game that I'm running out to buy. Probably after Christmas, although I'm not making any promises.
Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode Two
I only actually found out that this game was coming out today, yesterday. I feel stupid for that.
I read a fair few reviews commenting on the possibility that the gameplay might not be strong enough to hold an episodic series of games, but personally, I feel that's Penny Arcades ace in the hole. It's beem about 2 months since I finished Episode One and I'm completely looking forward to more, and when you take into account that Episode One had been out for 3 months before I even bought it, it goes to show that either I'm weird, or that this is a concept that's going to work. I think that the humour of Penny Arcade is very much for a niche audience, but it is the sort of audience that will continue to come back for more solely for that humour.
But, like I said...I could just be weird.
...
I probably am. In any case, I'm looking to finish up Dead Space before cramming through Penny Arcade and hopefully I'll be finishing that up in time for LBP. Looks like my gaming schedule is abnormally packed. In any case I'll try to remember to keep this blog posted.
That's all for now, folks.
B[o]ut.
EDIT: Condemned: Criminal Origins review is finally up. Insanely late, I know. I might get on my less late but still inexcusable Star Wars: TFU review, tomorrow.