Post mortem: Nier

Video Games 1 Response »
Oct 092011
Post mortem: Nier

There are great games, and then there are games that are great despite actually being rather poor in the “game” department.  For some reason flawed gems like Nier (Mass Effect is another) end up becoming some of my favorites because they managed to overcome their shoddy implementation to tell a phenomenal story, and thus leave a lasting mark on my gamer soul.  I played through Nier twice in order to see the (first) alternate ending, and I almost never play a game more than a single time.  It was just that gripping. Nier puts you in the shoes of a [... read the rest ...]

Posted by Andrew at 17:22 Tagged with: ,

Post mortem: Dungeon Siege III

Video Games Comments Off
Aug 292011
Post mortem: Dungeon Siege III

Back in my university days I played the original Dungeon Siege.  It was a passable roleplaying game – I remember the world being generic and the combat being slow-paced – but not special enough to warrant the purchase of the sequel.  With that history in mind, I never would have given Dungeon Siege III a second glance without the mini-revolt that diehard fans of the series started when details of the third game started to surface. “This isn’t a Dungeon Siege game – it’s more like Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance!” the complaints went.  That got my attention.  My wife and [... read the rest ...]

Posted by Andrew at 13:02 Tagged with: , ,

Post mortem: Bayonetta

Video Games Comments Off
Aug 222011
Post mortem: Bayonetta

I’m having a hard time deciding what to write about Bayonetta after polishing it off last Friday because, after all, I’ve already written nine hundred and twenty two words about the game’s demo. I played the game at an incredibly leisurely pace which was completely at odds with the cadence of the game’s content; the twelve hour story mode took me nearly two months to complete (but that was mostly a result of the beautiful summer weather and should not be taken as an indictment of the game).  In almost all respects, Bayonetta’s demo was an extremely accurate portrayal of [... read the rest ...]

Posted by Andrew at 12:53 Tagged with: ,

The first hit is always free

Video Games 6 Responses »
Aug 062011
The first hit is always free

During the PSN outage I managed to clear up my backlog of demos, but the gorgeous Canadian summer weather has me behind the eight ball again, although not as severely as before.  I recently carved out a chunk of time to sample a few games that caught my eye. Red Faction: Armageddon The most recent installation of the moderately successful Red Faction series, Armageddon, is sadly also the last.  It’s a damning indictment of the mentality of the huge AAA publishers that a series that sells decently is not considered profitable enough to continue.  You sell a gazillion titles, or [... read the rest ...]

Posted by Andrew at 14:12 Tagged with: ,

Games for July

Video Games 5 Responses »
Jul 022011

The dog days are summer are almost upon us, and while I don’t have nearly as much time for gaming (let alone writing) when the weather is this nice, I find myself spreading my miniscule gaming hours across far too many titles.  Here is a brief look at my current ongoing titles…. Bayonetta (PS3) I loved this brawler back when I demoed it, but it took quite a while for me to find a copy for a price that I was happy with paying ($15).  I’m three chapters in, and the game is every bit as action-packed and bat-shit insane [... read the rest ...]

Posted by Andrew at 18:59 Tagged with: , , , ,

Plowing through the demos (3 / 3)

Video Games Comments Off
May 162011
Plowing through the demos (3 / 3)

With the PSN slowly coming back online, what better time to finish off my backlog of demos. Today’s set starts with four lemons, but ends with a pair of absolute gems. Red Faction: Battlegrounds Looking to capitalize on the “Red Faction” name popularized by 2009′s well-regarded Red Faction: Guerilla, Battlegrounds is nothing like the open world shooters that have preceded it.  Instead, this game is a twin stick vehicle-based shooter that feels like it was put together in a rush and pumped out onto the various downloadable platforms.  The vehicles that the demo features (a light assault truck, a tank, [... read the rest ...]

Posted by Andrew at 07:11 Tagged with: ,

Plowing through the demos (1 / 3)

Video Games 3 Responses »
May 062011
Plowing through the demos (1 / 3)

On Monday I blew through five PS3 demos, but there are eighteen more in my backlog.  Since I still have some free time, I’m going to try to barrel through them in three sittings.  Here are the first six. Funky Lab Rat A bizarre little puzzler starring a rat who is, apparently, hopelessly addicted to pills.  The goal of this brightly coloured game is to navigate Diego the Rat from the start of the level to the exit, using only a flashlight and a pair of mind-bending powers:  one which allows you to stop time and move various objects (crates, [... read the rest ...]

Posted by Andrew at 19:05 Tagged with: ,

When demos attack

Video Games 5 Responses »
May 022011
When demos attack

I’m trying not to start any big games right now – The Witcher 2 is due out on May 17 – so I have been making a run at finally getting caught up on all of the demos that I have downloaded for my PlayStation 3.  It helps that the PSN is still down…. no new games can sneak into my queue while I’m not looking. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West Enslaved is a third person story-based action game that appears to be tightly scripted in a manner that is reminiscent of the Uncharted titles.  The demo plays out the [... read the rest ...]

Posted by Andrew at 07:11 Tagged with: ,

Whiplash

Video Games Comments Off
Apr 162011
Whiplash

I gave myself a pretty severe case of gaming whiplash the other day.  With an hour to kill, I decided to sit down and play a couple of the PlayStation 3 demos that I had been neglecting.  Working from the bottom of my unplayed list, I couldn’t have stumbled into two more wildly different titles if I’d tried. Shank First up was Shank, a game that I came into with no knowledge of.  Shank is a stylish comic book-inspired beat ‘em up in the vein of the classic Double Dragon arcade machines, only with buckets of blood and over the [... read the rest ...]

Posted by Andrew at 17:40 Tagged with: ,

Post mortem: Uncharted 2 – Among Thieves

Video Games 7 Responses »
Mar 312011
Post mortem: Uncharted 2 - Among Thieves

Three weeks ago, hot on the heels of polishing off Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, I came home from the mall with a copy of Among Thieves.  Upon seeing what was in the bag that I handed her, the conversation with my wife went something like this: Me: “Look what I bought! Uncharted 2!” Wife: “When are you going to play it?” Me: “Well, I….” Wife: “Now. You’re going to play it now!!” And so it began again. Like with the first game, I was not allowed to play Uncharted 2 without her in the room watching, and even more than the [... read the rest ...]

Posted by Andrew at 07:34 Tagged with: , ,
Older Entries
© 2004-2010 - Systemic Babble is created and maintained by Andrew Anderson. Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha