Games of 2011

I was looking over a list of games expected to be released in 2011, and here are the ones I am looking forward to, in order from most anticipated.  Just because.

 

- The Last Guardian

- Batman: Arkham City

- Mass Effect 3

- Ico/Shadow of the Colossus Collection

- Portal 2

- Uncharted 3

- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

- Brink

- Killzone 3

- Crysis 2

- Gears of War 3

- Deux Ex: Human Revolution

- MLB: The Show 2011

- L.A. Noire

 

That's 14 titles.  10 of which are sequels to existing franchises.  Another is just a remastered re-release.  Only 3 are new intellectual properties.  I'm sure there are a few additional games not on the list I'll become interested in along the way.  And probably a few on the list which I won't end up picking up.  But I really can't wait for those first three on the list!  Too bad none will be out until the 4th quarter.  And I am hoping The last Guardian doesn't slip into 2012!!!

 

Tuesday notes

Dead Space 2 comes out today.  Will pick it up on my home from work.  Reviews have been positive, but I am worried about the game's shift to even more of an action game.  I love me some slow paced survival horror.  We'll see how it goes.  I plan on going with the same set-up I used in the first game which greatly enhanced my enjoyment of it.  Playing on hard, at night, lights off, with my headphones on.  Good times (hopefully).

 

I've been playing AC: Brotherhood when I've had the chance.  Enjoying the single-player game for the most part.  Just like with AC: II, the game is huge with a ton of things to do.  You can get distracted just running around Rome, upgrading shops, renovating buildings, and burning down towers to liberate territories.  I often go an hour between actual story missions and don't feel bored.  It does feel overly familiar, since it hasn't been that long since the previous game, but it is still fun.  Haven't played as much of the multiplayer as I was anticipating.  Lets see how much time Dead Space 2 takes away from this game.

 

To Blog or not to Blog

Hello everyone I am just posting to say I posted!!!!  Someone is going to go into shock.

2011 many great games and many good games releasing this year, save your pennies gamers. Which games are you most looking forward to?

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Picked up Brotherhood a few weeks back and finally got around to play it.  As much as I enjoyed Assassin's Creed II, it felt way too soon for another AC game, so I basically picked it up because I kept hearing how innovative and different the multiplayer is. 

 

First thing I did was play a few matches of this multiplayer and it certainly is a breath of fresh air.  It emphasizes and greatly rewards stealth, as opposed to the typical fast-paced, chaotic gameplay more online games have.  It seems to be pretty intricate and requires specific tactics which I am not yet familiar with, so I was a little lost at the beginning.  But it does look like it can be a whole lot of fun and I hope to really get into it.

 

I also tried the single-player and the game picks up right where the 2nd one ends.  If you enjoyed part II, you'll enjoy this one.  On a technical level it looks exactly the same.  Maybe some improvements to the lighting.  The one big change is in combat, which now lets you sort of queue up your next instant kill while executing an enemy, making combat faster and far more satisfying.

 

So far I am enjoying the game more than I thought I would, since I thought I was AC'd out.  But apparently I am not.

 

My top 10 games of 2010

I've decided to do something different this year.  Instead of a convoluted list of my favorite games by platform, followed by overall favorite game, followed by best graphics and sound and multiplayer and blah-blah awards, I've decided to just list my top 10 games of the year.  My only criteria was which games I had the most fun with.

 

Overall, I thought it was a pretty weak year compared to others.  Of course, I also didn't game as much this year as I have in the past and there are many great games which I missed out on.  Alright, enough talk, onto my list.

 

10 - Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (360)

 

I have yet to finish this one (it is one long game), and while I have my issues with it, there was a point in the game where I was completely sucked in and having a great time.  The combat and magic system is plenty deep if you explore it and the visuals are absolutely stunning (if I was doing a "Best Graphics" category this year, this one would definitely be near the top).  Having the "Castlevania" title may actually hurt this game more than help it.  Sure, it gives it name recognition and probably helped with sales, but with that name there are also certain expectations of how the game will play and in that regard, it can be a bit of a let down.  "Castlevania" this ain't.  But a solid action title regardless.

 

9 - God of War 3

 

A fitting end to the trilogy.  Doesn't change the formula established in the previous two titles, it just ups the intensity, violence, scale and stakes.  Sony definitely followed the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mantra with this one.  A fun title, with a rock solid, familiar combat system and plenty of pretty visuals to look at.  It would have been ranked higher, but it played it a little too safe and the overall experience - while very entertaining - just felt a little too familiar.  Similar to this next game . . .

 

8 - Halo: Reach

 

Another game series putting an end to a "chapter", Halo: Reach, like GoW 3, delivers the goods in a refined, polished, yet all too familiar package.  It delivers on all the goods offered in previous Halo titles: solid campaign with some of the best AI in the business, fire fights that seem to be different every time you play them, options-galore multiplayer, insanely deep Forge mode, yet when the credits rolled I was left wanting a bit more.  I felt that with how high the stakes were supposed to be in the single-player campaign, I never got that sense of desperation, despair, loss, tragedy, etc.  The fall of Reach is a huge deal in Halo fiction, yet the severity of that loss did not come through in the game.  It may be the most polished of the Halo titles, but it still left me wanting more out of it.

 

7 - Limbo

 

Here's a game that satisfied a hole I've had for one of my favorite game types, the Out of this World, Flashback, Oddworld category.  Excellent art style, clever puzzles, and deaths?  Sign me up!!!  It may all be over way too soon, but in those 5 or so hours I spent playing Limbo I was completely sucked in.  I hope we get some kind of sequel, or at least a spiritual successor in the near future.  My one complaint (aside from the short length) is that the game quickly shifts theme and location very early from a spooky, survival setting in a creepy forest, to an industrial setting that revolved mostly around puzzle solving.  I really, really enjoyed that first bit a lot more yet it made up a very small portion of the game.  If the entire game stuck to that this title would have been way higher on my list.

 

6 - Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (360)

 

Here's a title that caught me completely by surprise.  This game didn't interest me one bit when announced or when I saw the initial gameplay videos.  An isometric-view Tomb Raider game?  That could never work.  As it turns out, it is the best Tomb Raider game I have played since the original titles.  Excellent play mechanics, plenty of polish, great level design and perfect controls equal my 6th favorite game this year.  I have yet to play this co-op with a friend, who knows, it may have jumped up a few spots if I would have.  Highly recommended to those that haven't tried it.

 

5 - Super Meat Boy

 

Three Live Arcade games in a row?  Super Meat Boy is old school platforming perfection.  When you talk about perfect controls, this is the game you point to.  You know how the Super Mario games have that perfect feel?  Well, Super Meat Boy achieves just that.  Moving Meat Boy around is a joy.  Good thing too, because you need perfect controls to tackle the game's insane levels.  Make no mistake, this game is brutally tough.  Get ready to die.  A lot.  And then die some more.  But the payoff when you finally pass a particularly tough level is exhilarating.  Surprisingly, as many times as you will die, the game rarely gets frustrating and it is all thanks to the fact that you respawn the very second you die.  No delay.  No annoying sad death song.  No black screen showing some death animation.  No "Get ready . . . set . . . go".  Just an immediate chance to try it again.  If not for that one design choice, this game might have not even made my top 10.   It may not be for everyone, I really think it caters to those of us that grew up playing games in the 80's, the kind that were harsh and unmerciful and losing all your lives meant starting the entire game over.  If you are one of us, do yourself a favor and try Super Meat Boy.

 

4 - Call of Duty: Black-Ops (360)

 

Even though Blops falls into the same "more of the same" category as GoW 3 and Halo: Reach, offering a been-there-done-that single player campaign that is extremely linear, with robotic A.I., never ending enemy respawns, and so many over-the-top moments you become desensitized to them 1/4 of the way through the game, I just can't get enough of that multiplayer!  It doesn't stray far from the groundwork CoD 4 laid and WaW and MW2 have refined.  But Blops further enhances and balances that foundation.  Ever since its release, this has been the one game that has steadily stayed in my 360's disc tray.

 

3 - Red Dead Redemption (360)

 

GTA with horses?  Kinda, but not really.  Red Dead Redemption is a fantastic sandbox game that while it follows the GTA formula, offers up such a different experience because of its setting and location change, that it surpasses GTA in every way.  Rockstar really nailed the western theme.  Everything shows an amazing attention to detail.  The game plays smoother and the gunplay is far superior to GTA IV.  Plus, I find riding on horseback to my objectives far more enjoyable than driving even the most exotic sports car.  The game world is so lush, detailed and alive, that I actually enjoyed traveling the sometimes huge distances to my next objective and I rarely used any of the fast travel options.  The voice acting is also excellent and the story serviceable.  Throw in a pretty large DLC pack with zombies, and you have one hell of a winning formula.  The game is long and definitely gives you your $60 worth.  And I never even tried multiplayer!

 

2 - Darksiders (360)

 

This one surprised even me.  Darksiders?  Yup.  When looking back at my gaming experiences this year, Darksiders was one of my absolute favorites.  Something about this title just clicked with me.  Maybe it was the art style (I love Joe Mad).  Maybe it was the Zelda-esque gameplay.  Maybe it was the comic book fan in me.  Whatever it was, I enjoyed every second of this game and I was completely enthralled with it from beginning to end. 

 

1 - Mass Effect 2

 

Wow.  Just wow.  Mass Effect 2 takes what was established in the first game and improves upon every single aspect.  I have never felt more ownership of a gaming universe than I do with my Mass Effect universe.  The sequel delivers on the promise the first game made that decisions you make will carry over.  I was just surprised at how many of those decisions make an appearance.  It is amazingly satisfying to see a character, or see the result of an action or decision from the previous game, show up in ME2.  You really feel like this game world is your own.  I simply cannot wait to see what occurs in the third game and how my decisions in this game will carry over.  It also helps that the storyline is fantastic and carries with it a gravity that doesn't come across in other games.  Bungie should take note, this is how you do it.  When things pick up, I really do feel the weight of mankind's survival on my shoulders.  Every action and decision requires careful thought, especially when your choices can mean the difference between life and death of your squadmates, because you actually grow to care about these characters and don't want them to die.  Again, that is something very few games manage to capture.  Mass Effect 2 is simply a must play experience, made all the richer if you played through the first title.  Easily the best gaming experience I have had this year.

 

And there you have it folks.  Interestingly enough, my top two games of the year both came out in January.  That might be one of the reasons I felt this year was a disappointment, I reached my peak of gaming enjoyment at the very beginning, and no other title for the remainder of the year managed to surpass it.

 

I had a few titles I had high hopes for that ended up letting me down.  They were not "bad" per say, but my expectations for them were pretty high.  Mafia II, Heavy Rain, Gran Turismo 5 and even Halo: Reach which made my top 10, were all games that I felt could have been more.  None are bad games.  But the potential was there for them to have been excellent games.

 

There were also a handful of games which I wanted to play and never got around to.  Alan Wake, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (which I hear has the most innovative and fun multiplayer in a while).  I hope to play these at some point .

 

Here's hoping 2011 is a better year in gaming.  I get an early gift with Dead Space 2 coming out in January.  Dead Space was my GotY in 2008, so I have high hopes for this one.  My two other highly anticipated games this year are The Last Guardian and of course, Mass Effect 3.  If all three of those are as good as I hope they will be, then 2011 will definitely be a great year to be a gamer.

 

Gaming update

I realized I never put up impressions of Black-Ops or Gran Turismo. Of
course, that is usually the case, me not putting up anything I say I am
going to put up.

I'm still playing Black-Ops periodically, but I'm spending a lot less
time with Gran Turismo. Some impressions on both titles, listed by
positives and negatives:

Black-Ops:

Pros:

+ Online play is more balanced than MW2. Killstreak kills don't count
towards earning more kill-streaks, there are no death-streaks (hated
those, if you suck, you suck), NO SHOTGUNS AS SECONDARY WEAPONS (thank
God!!!!), a lot less knifing from 15 feet away, and I have not noticed
any ridiculously over-powered weapons.

+ All levels are fun and balanced. No real stinkers in my opinion

+ Love the new currency system that lets you buy attachments and perks
in the order you want. Some items and weapons are still locked until a
certain level, but this method works a lot better for quickly setting up
classes you feel comfortable with and suit your play style.

+ The wager matches are a lot of fun and a unique twist to the regular
on-line formula. In fact, I should play more of these. I tend to
forget they are there.

+ The "Service Record" is awesome! It keeps track of a TON of stats
for you. I find myself constantly examining my performance via all the
helpful stats.

+ The Saved Films work basically just like Halo's and I absolutely love
it. Wish I had this since CoD4. Plenty of matches I would have loved
to have saved.

Cons:

- The visuals seem to be a downgrade from MW2. The game is not ugly,
but MW2's gun models, textures and overall look seems to still be a
notch above this one. I recently played some MW2 and sure enough, I
felt that games does look significantly better.

- Even more so than in MW2, if you have less than 4 connection bars you
have a severe disadvantage to other players who do. This is the most
annoying aspect of the game by far and I almost stopped playing it
because it got so bad. The difference can be huge. My k/d ratio is
probably more than two or three times as high when I have a four bar
connection or when I am hosting as opposed to when I have three. That
Killcam discrepancy can often make you want to throw your controller
across the tv.

- I have been having some matchmaking issues lately (360 version btw, I
know PS3 has had a ton of problems). If I am in a full lobby and after
a match ends players leave or quit and there aren't enough players to
start a new match, other players NEVER join the lobby and I have to back
out and search for a new game. As a test I've waited around for over 10
minutes and nobody ever joins. It says "awaiting "x" new players", but
for some reason, none ever join. My NAT settings are open, so I'm not
sure what is going on there.

That's about it. Other than some network issues, I have really been
enjoying Blops online. I also finished the single-player campaign and
it was entertaining to an extent, but ever since CoD4's campaign (which
I loved), I haven't really enjoyed any subsequent campaign in the
series. It seems like they are just trying too hard to top all the
awesome "wow" moments in CoD4 but they just can't. Maybe I'm just
desensitized at this point to all the over-the-top action sequences.

Another issue is just how linear and scripted these games are. It was
even more noticeable in Blops, maybe because I had played through Reach
about 3 times recently. The Halo "formula" may be getting a little old,
but there is no denying that its campaign gives you a dynamic experience
where the same battles can play out differently every time thanks to the
great non-scripted enemy AI. CoD's campaign and enemy AI is laughable
in comparison.

Gran Turismo:

Pros:

+ The premium cars look absolutely gorgeous

+ The photo mode can produce some amazingly realistic looking results

+ The driving feels fantastic

+ Plenty of variety: standard racing, NASCAR, F-1, rally, go-karts . .
.

+ TON of tracks

+ Tuning cars never gets old

Cons:

- The menu system sucks. Looks like it was designed to work with a
mouse. Too bad you use a controller to play this game!! Just stupid
design. It looks nice, but it's a chore to use

- Even with a pretty large HDD install, the load times in this game are
way too long. Everything needs to load. Even navigating the menus have
enough of a delay that it just makes doing anything pretty annoying.

- Even though the driving itself feels fantastic, the physics for
collisions (against other cars or roadside obstacles) is laughably bad.
For a game that strives for such realism in certain areas, this one
aspect will always make GT feel like a video game instead of a "real
driving simulator". You can hit a barrier, head-on, going 200 mph and
all that happens is that you car will come to a complete stop. You can
then hit reverse, straighten out, and continue as if nothing happened.
Boo Polyphony. Boo. It's 2010 (2011?), these are basically the same
collision physics the series has had since the very first game on the
PSone!

- Visual car damage is so bad I wouldn't be surprised if they only
spent one week of the game's 5 year development cycle programming it.

- Is it just me, or does it seem like there are too few events to race
in in the single-player? Maybe it is because a lot of the events have
very specific requirements to enter, but I find myself wanting to use
certain cars which I enjoy driving a lot, but I can't really find any
events to use them in. In Forza III it just seemed like there were far
more events to choose from and if I wanted to used my 2010 Camaro then I
would have plenty of events to choose from. Not so much in GT. Yes,
this forces you to mix things up and constantly buy new cars, but what
if I want to use my favorite car more often? I like those specific
events that have very strict entry requirements, don't get me wrong, but
I just want more chances to play the game the way I want as well.

- Overall I'm slightly disapponted with Gran Turismo. The series has
been evolving at a snail's pace and it is being left behind by other
racing titles as far as innovation and moving the racing genre forward.
So far I have enjoyed my time with Forza III more than Gran Turismo.

And that's about it. I recently picked up Lara Croft and the Guardian
at Light and all the Mass Effect 2 DLC thanks to the great 12 days of
Christmas deals on Xbox Live. Lara Croft is excellent. A lot of fun.
Haven't tried the ME2 DLC yet. Maybe I'll put up impressions soon.
Start holding your breath as of . . . NOW!

Gaming update

I just recently had 10 days off from work and I did a whole lot of nothing.  Well, I did a whole lot of sitting on my couch vegetating and gaming.  I hadn't done that it forever.  Just hours upon hours of gaming.

 

You know what?  I don't like it.  Sure, it is just as addicting as it used to be when I was younger.  But I just feel awful about it now.  Countless hours wasted.  I could have been far more productive.  My entire apartment needs a severe deep cleaning.  Laundry needs to be done.  My car needs to be washed.  I need to get back to the gym.  I basically needed to do anything except what I did.

 

And time just flies when you are lost in a game.  I'd look at the clock, tell myself I would stop playing in an hour and get some things done, and the next time I  would look at the clock four hours had gone by.  Again, terrible feeling.

 

That being said, I put in a ton of hours in CoD: Black-Ops, beat the game on Hardened, and already reached level 50 (max) in multiplayer.  I also spent a good deal of time with Gran Turismo 5.   I also played some Enslaved, but not much.  Not because it was bad, but because I was addicted to fragging people on-line and modifying cars to make them go fast.  I'll hopefully get back to Enslaved soon.

 

So I once again find myself with a ton of games left unfinished and not knowing which to play.  Black-Ops and GT5 are no brainers, I'm seriously addicted to those at the moment.  But I have Enslaved going, Castlevania has been all but forgotten, Super Meat Boy is begging for attention, and RDR: Undead Nightmare needs to be finished!  And that is not counting the full back-log of titles I have incomplete and pending.

 

Anyway, I'm definitely putting up some Black-Ops and GT5 impressions soon.