Games

So given the recent arrival of my son, I figured that I wouldn’t have ANY free time on my hands. Come time find out, that isn’t entirely true. Now that doesn’t mean that soon to come I won’t have a chance to do anything for myself. I am not delusional, but at this point in his development, he requires minimal attention. So what can I do with all my free time… Well what comes natural to me, play every game I can get my hands on. So that’s exactly what I did.

Over the past several weeks I have managed to complete several games and come close in several more. I started a while ago (thanks to 1Up Yours) accumulating a “Pile of Shame.” There are more than a few games in there that when I mention that I have yet to finish them, I say it with my head hung in shame. So I was more than happy to take a couple off the pile. Here are a few of them, and a couple more that I am almost finished with. 

Hero Vs. Giant Troll

First off, I managed to play through the bulk of (since I had barely scratched the surface of) and actually finish Fable II. Now that doesn’t mean that I “completed” Fable II, just that I was able to finish the main story line. I played through the story as a mostly good guy, and I guess it was pretty fun doing so. Along the way I did realize that this game would be EXTREMELY short if all you did was try to advance the main quest, and never touched the side missions. Once I did get to the ending, I was shocked at how completely anti-climactic the ending was. When the final “boss” was going through his diatribe, I just hit him with my sword to shut him up and start the fight. Not knowing that in doing so would instantly kill him… LAME. After such a build up before hand i expected an epic battle, and was handed a one hit death, that’s pretty weak. Not to mention that as I said on twitter, that fucker shot my dog, and that sir ain’t cool. 

I am going to go ahead and play through the Knot-Hole Island DLC that I purchased the other day though. Then when all that is done, I will probably go back and start again this time being a total dick to everyone and anyone that I come across. Not sure if that will change my experience as a whole with the game, but I figure it’s worth a shot. All in all the game is actually quite good. There is much much more that I need to accomplish before feeling that I have “Completed” the game.  Several times I caught myself just kind of staring off into the background of some lush scene and being amazed at some of the level of detail in the game. I would recommend it to someone that is looking for a well done non-linear RPG for the 360.

Inside an Oblivion Gate

Next up on the list is a game that is sooo old I am very ashamed to say that I never finished it, but I have a good reason. That game would be Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Yeah I know, that is pretty much a launch title. At first it was just a game that I didn’t want to end so i futzed around with side quests and what not for months. Then, sadly, it killed my first 360, and I never went back to it. From the time that my 360 “red-ringed” playing Oblivion to the time I picked it up again to play, literally over a year had passed. I was to damn scared to fire it up again. However, I bit the bullet and decided that now was the time for me to finally finish the quest I started years before. 

So after over 120 hours in the game, I went ahead and started to walk the final path in the game. Oblivion, unlike Fable II, did not disappoint as far as the final fight and story goes. Closing the “Great Gate” was a task and a half when everyone and their evil grandmother is trying to stop you. Though it was fun to loot the bodies of the dead after coming back through again. Then it was on to “Paradise” to destroy the final boss. I can’t say that fighting him was all that hard of a battle, but then again when you are 100+ hours into a game and can kill most anything with two hits, it’s hard to have a long fight.

Mario takes on "the world"

Knocking both of those off the pile really made me feel better about myself as a gamer. They had long been mocking me, and I should have taken care of them well before I actually got around to it. It did inspire me to try and finish more games while I could though, so I made a go at other games as well. Not quite to the point of completion on the rest but I did get much closer, and that’s what counts.

Topping that list is Super Mario Galaxies. I had played through about three stages before I got bored with it and decided to put it down. When I picked it back up, I played through about five more. I really don’t know how close I am to finishing the game, but if I had to lay a guess out, I would say with in a world or two.

Guns and Doves...

Next up we have John Woo’s: Stranglehold. Yeah it wasn’t that great of a game, but it has a subtle charm to it. I will freely admit that I have not paid ANY attention to the story. Actually at one point I think he killed a woman for some reason, maybe, and I was left to wonder why because I skipped the cut-scene. Oh well. This one I am almost completely done with. Currently I am trying to finish off the last stage and boss fight. The game is full of action, to be sure, but none of it is done so well that you could label the game as something “not to be missed”.  I will finish it, and for the price paid ($10 when Circuit City was going under) I can’t really complain about what I am getting out of the game. 

Japanese Rhythm Fun

Also, since I was in the hospital with my wife, waiting for my son to be released, I got to play a lot of DS(i) games. From Gamefly I rented “Rhythm Heaven” and enjoyed it for what it is. My wife asked me to describe it to her and the best way I could think of was to say that it is the bastard love child of the recent Wario games and PaRappa The Rapper. It’s a lot of quick games that involve a lot of timing and like the title implies… Rhythm. This was not a game that I was destined to finish however. I knew that starting out. I played through the first two sections of 9 (or is it 12) mini games. That was enough for me. It isn’t enough for me to give a full “review” on but it was a good game none the less. 

There are probably other games in there that I am missing, but they all tend to blur together. My next couple games that am going to try and finish are Killzone 2 and Fallout 3. It will probably be a couple years on Fallout, but I guess given my track record with open world RPGs it’s not surprising. I will try to keep up with the reviews from here on out. Sorry for the lack of articles on the site but considering the recent events in my life, I think I am doing pretty well.