Overlooked Games
Saturday, February 28, 2004
Yeah, it's not overlooked, but I just picked up James Bond: Everything or Nothing, and am surprised at what a great use of a license it is - it's like Enter the Matrix in many ways, in that it uses the license to tell a new story, but keep the same feel - though it doesn't intertwine with the movie as EtM does, it's actually a good game, instead. Excellent action sequences, cinematic as all hell - they have these "007 moments" that just work great, like if you shoot the right thing, and blow up a whole bunch of stuff at once, or if you flip on the steam release vents, and trap people in these steam jets, and stuff. Crazy fun, and the production values are through the roof. It's still weird to see scanned faces animated, because no one's got the level of detail necessary for proper facial musculature, but it's weird seeing recognizable celebrities in a game like this. Neat, too, because it definitely lends it a quality of professionalism and polish unlike using "fake" actors. The voice talent is great, by and large, and hearing Judy Dench as M works wonderfully.
Anyhow, just something I picked up, and was totally surprised by, in a good way, which is sort of rare these days.
Saturday, February 21, 2004
Been playing a lot of multiplayer hack & slash games - Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2, and Champions of Norrath, from Snowblind, the company behind the original BG:DA. BG:DA2 has some pacing issues, and the balance of the game feels off to me. Champions of Norrath, however, has a great balance of difficulty and power, but is a lot buggy. However, the multiplayer aspect has been so much fun, playing with the housemates, and other friends, that it's just been a blast to spend time on games like this. Reminds me a lot of the days of gauntlet, and a bunch of other similar games - even the old side scrolling beat 'em ups, like Final Fight, or Double Dragon.
The whole concept of playing cooperatively with friends is one of my favorite aspects of gaming - whether it was playing RTS games or FPS games with the guys in college, or going to the arcades with friends when I was younger, the social aspect of gaming was always something that appealed really strongly to me. So I'm defintely happy that there are a lot of great multiplayer games on the market right now.
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Been playing NBA Street v.2, and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 recently. NBA Street's an excellent arcade basketball game - worth every penny of the $20 it costs now. Baldur's Gate has gotten some really middling reviews, and I suppose I can see why, since it's really more of an expansion/add on for BG:DA, rather than a revolutionary sequel. Still, for what it is, more of the same, it's not bad at all. Plays well, the new powers/characters are a good evolution from the original game, and most of all, it's fun. As a multiplayer game, it's a really enjoyable experience, and frankly, that's all it needed to be, for me to really enjoy it.
What's next? Probably R-Type Final. Got a thing for side-scrolling shooters.
Monday, February 09, 2004
No, it's not overlooked, but I picked up NBA Street V.2 for the xbox last weekend. Fun, fun game. Exactly what an arcadey basketball game *should* be, and hands-down the true successor to NBA Jam, instead of Acclaim's NBA Jam. I kept typing MBA Jam. That might have been pretty interesting. Arcadey, over-the-top competition for a business degree? I dunno.
Monday, February 02, 2004
Picked up a console RTS called Goblin Commander, by Jaleco, from Amazon, for $10. Lotsa commas in that last sentence. Apparently, a reasonable little RTS for consoles. Not much more than that, but it sounds kinda fun.
Been playing more Metal Arms. I'm about 80% of the way through it, and it's still damn fun. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good shooter.
Picked up Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (actually, it was a gift). Great little multiplayer co-op game. Basically, a modern-day Gauntlet. My friend and I played through the first batch of missions, which was great. Why more games don't feature co-op multiplayer is beyond me.
Not too many ideas in the way of overlooked games that I could talk about. I suppose System Shock and Mechwarrior are likely to be next, but I'll need to think about it for a bit. Sacrifice, maybe. We'll see.
