Overlooked Games
Sunday, November 28, 2004
kill.switch - definitely overlooked. While it's a pretty simple third person action game, the cover-fire mechanic is really well done, and remains fun throughout, much like Max Payne's bullet-time effect. It's a short game, with a surprisingly weird and interesting story. Given that it's $10 a lot of places, it's definitely worth picking up.
Second Sight - again, definitely overlooked. Almost a month after its release, it's easy to find at $20 almost anywhere. It has a very distinct "Free Radical" feel, which includes both the controls and the character designs. The voice acting is pretty awful, at least at the beginning, and the graphics and controls, well, if you like Timesplitters, it's not *too* far from that. But the gameplay's quite good. A wide variety of psychic powers complement the solid run & gun action, to create a game where both force and stealth, combined with some forethought, make for a surprisingly fun game. Add to that one of the cleverest plot twists I've seen in a game recently, and you've got one of my favorite recent games. Definitely overlooked, and I wouldn't expect it to really find its fanbase, but worth picking up, for sure.
Yourself!Fitness - wha? Yeah. It's a fitness program for the xbox. Is it overlooked? Well, it's certainly not mainstream, though I understand it's selling better than ResponDesign actually expected. Basically, you undergo a series of diagnostic exercises, then the program generates a series of workouts based on your fitness level, and your responses to some queries throughout the workout. It's consistently interesting, varied, and a good workout, and a hell of a lot better than any workout tape. Both me and my finacee are using it, though not as regularly as either of us should. It also asks what sorts of equipment you have - weights, step, ball, whatever, and incorporates whatever you have into your workout. Great stuff.
Headhunter: Redemption - Just about as generic a third person action game as you can get. Though the targetting mechanic is unique - your target sways back and forth, and timing your shot is as much a rhythm thing as anything else - the game itself is so ... underwhelming in its ambition, that it's really hard to get into with any sort of enthusiasm.
Lord of the Rings: The Third Age - though the story's really weirdly told, though re-narrated cinematic clips from the movie, it's surprisingly ... fun. At least through the 65% mark, which is where I am not. There's a lot of battles where you'll wipe out three guys, to have them replenished over and over until you've basically killed 20+ enemies - those are irritating. But then again, the fight with the Balrog was one of the most compelling battles I've seen in a Japanese-style RPG. Crazy stuff. Strangely compelling - I think part of it is seeing "more" of the locations in the movies. Wandering around Helm's Deep is neat. Wandering around Moria is neat. Not much character development, not a lot of story, so if that's what you're here for, go elsewhere. But I expected to be extraordinarily underwhelmed, and strangely, I wasn't.
Catwoman: One of the worst games I've ever played. Rightfully overlooked, and should remain that way. In this day and age, the right stick is for camera control. If you want to do something else, like control a whip, fine - make it so you have to hold down a trigger and use the right stick, but by default, the right stick controls the camera. Period. You screw that up, and you're not worth playing.
Galleon: Awful graphics, but pretty good animation, and a really excellent sense of scale in the levels. The story is charming, and the general exploration is reasonably fun, but it feels like about a quarter of the necessary animations are simply missing, and the "momentum" aspect of the control is put to use, but it really sort of sucks, and makes moving Rhama around the levels a chore sometimes. If you're *really* interested in what the next Tomb Raider might be like, it's worth picking up, but otherwise, it's a very flawed game, with some pretty excellent ideas.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Picked up a lot of stuff since the last time I posted. Probably not a *lot* of "overlooked" stuff, but definitely a few things out there.
- Rogue Ops - deserves to be overlooked - maybe one of the most generic stealth action games out there.
- Armed & Dangerous - a wacky little third person shooter. Would it appeal to most? No - but its sense of humor will definitely tickle some people's fancy.
- Counterstrike - too many people played this for free for it to sell particularly well, but I wasn't one of 'em. It's a blast to play with friends, and cheap.
- Links - A great golf game - also really fun online, though I haven't played too much.
- Ninja Gaiden - definitely not overlooked, but slick as all get out.
- Outlaw Volleyball - cheesy, yes, but WAY better than DOA:XBV
- Rallisport 2 - overlooked, if everyone with an xbox doesn't get it. Stellar, beautiful, fun as hell, and one of the first games in a long while to make me actually gasp with how *good* it looks.
- Fight Night 2004 - the new control scheme is incredibly fun.
- NFL Street - mostly got it to play in the virtual lawn outside my virtual office. Bizarre, to say the least.
- Sonic Heroes - Sonic + 3d = suck. Just not fun, due to a really crap camera.
- Need for Speed Underground - definitely not overlooked, and a lot more fun than I thought it would be.
- Alias - got it cheap, and I'm glad I did. Fun enough for a what it is, but not much more.
A couple others, but the WoW beta calls.
Friday, April 02, 2004
Definitely not overlooked, unless you haven't picked it up yet. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow has the best multiplayer mode I've seen in ages. The spies vs. mercs gameplay is completely unique, and one of the most fun multiplayer games I've ever seen. Would fill in more details, but really, it's something you just have to try to appreciate.
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.
