Unfinished Business

One day... it shall be mine!

As I sit here writing this article about unfinished business; I find it ironic that I am listening to the soundtrack of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, simply because it is a game that I thought I would never finish. I played that game across two xboxes, and even two different discs (one stopped working). I did, however, finally finish it. After 100+ hours of play, I closed the last oblivion gate and thwarted the daedric invasion. It was a very satisfying feeling. Maybe not so much looking from the game out, but rather the fact that I had accomplished something that I never thought I would do. That game is MASSIVE, as I think we all as gamers know. As far as RPGs go it was just a giant time sink, with thousands of things to do, see, and well… kill.

Which brings me to the meat of this little piece: I have way too many games left, just from this year, to finish. As any gamer worth his weight in plastic peripherals knows, the couple months before Christmas is THE time to get big games. Last year the bigger titles were: L4D, Little Big Planet, Resistance 2, and the biggie Gears of War2. This year the list is probably twice as long and much more spread out over different genres. Games like Dragon Age:Origins, Assassin’s Creed 2, L4D2, and Modern Warfare 2 will satisfy the hardest of the hardcore. There are also games for people that are more casual with their games (not necessarily “casual games” however), games like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Forza 3, Borderlands, and even the New Super Mario Brothers Wii game. Needless to say, the shelves have been stocked for a while with quality games for pretty much any kind of player.

Anyway… I now have sitting on my shelf in the gaming lair: AC2, NSMB Wii, Borderlands, Modern Warfare 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Left 4 Dead 2. Of those 6 titles, I have finished a grand total of ONE, and that would be MW2, because the single player is like 5 hours. Although, I have started to go back and play through it on Veteran, which is taking up even more of my time. Point being, I have a LOT of unfinished business with my games. I have played quite a bit of each title (save DA:O) and thought I would at least write up my impressions of these games so far. We’ll start with the oldest first…

"Boom! Head shot!"

Borderlands is one of those games that you can just jump right into and have mindless fun with for hours. I am sure to catch a lot of flack for this (should anyone actually read this) but THIS is the game that I wanted Fallout 3 to be, so very badly. Not that Fallout was a bad game, I don’t think that, but it just never felt right to me. If you put a gun in a persons hand, set the camera behind the gun, and give me lots of targets to shoot at, I NEED the game to be more responsive and the controls to be tighter. Sorry. Fallout was way too slow and methodical, as a regular RPG should be, but not one with guns and a first person perspective. I enjoyed the game; it just didn’t satisfy enough of either genre to keep me interested. Borderlands, however, is a very satisfying game for me. Having four classes to choose from (Sniper, Tank, Soldier, and overpowered Chick) makes it a game that could possibly be played through several times with different effect.

Speaking of multiples… there are thousands and thousands of guns for you to find or buy in this game; literally. Granted, a VERY large chunk of them are pieces of junk that you will never use except for padding your wallet, but the few that are rare finds are well worth the search. Searching is something you will do a LOT of. Chests, lockers, safes, piles of garbage, sometimes even animal carcasses will have weapons or ammo in them. This game makes the loot factor in Diablo seem tiny and insignificant. Seriously, it’s just that overwhelming.

The controls are easy enough to manage if you have EVER played a FPS before. Everything functions as you would expect it to. The visuals are done in an almost “cell-shaded” way that makes them look almost cartoon like. It definitely adds to the visual style of the game, and sets it apart from just about all the first person shooters out there.

The biggest and probably most fun draw for this game is the Multiplayer. You can grab three of your friends and jump into a game. The person that hosts the game is the one that you will follow the story line and quests for. So say, if you have already finished a certain amount of quests, but your buddy hasn’t, you may still have to go back and play them again if you are playing in his game. Also the game scales to that person as well. So be careful getting into games with higher level characters because you may get your ass handed to you.

The story in Borderlands is, hmm… we’ll just say, thin. Actually, to be quite honest, I have almost no idea what it is about AT ALL. I know that I am some sort of mercenary or something, and I am looking for pieces to the “Vault”. There is some chick in my head that keeps telling me I am on the right path and doing the right thing, but I couldn’t tell you who she is or why she is talking to me. What I do know, is that this game does a great job of give you a fuck-ton of quests to accomplish, as well as giving you a rather large world to accomplish them in. If you are looking for a decent FPS that blends in simple RPG elements then this game is probably going to be a good match for you.

Also, this game just came out with what looks to be a rather fun DLC. It’s an entirely new island full of new monsters (ZOMBIES) and a few new weapons.

Seeing as how this article is a bit longer than I first expected it to be, I will post it in parts. You have just read (obviously) Part One. Part Two will be coming up soon, on one of the other games that I listed above. Probably with less exposition and filler.