I did this a few years ago and it was pretty good. I just need to list each game I played this year and make a comment on it. Maybe it'll inspire me to write more.
XBOX 360
Batman: Arkham Asylum
I played this right to the end the year it came out. Can't remember when that was. But I couldn't beat the final boss. Not sure why. After completing Arkham City, I went back and managed to defeat the final boss quite easily. Still not sure why.
Batman: Arkham City
A lot better than the first game. I loved gliding and grappling through the streets and buildings. The main quest was fulfilling without going on too long, and felt episodic in that you have different sections with a different main villain. I like how the Riddler stuff seems more integrated with the game now, since you have to rescue his hostages and capture him at the end of it. I liked the side quests that introduced other villains, and some things that seem to have been left hanging... threads for a third game in this series? I'm hoping so.
Dragon Age II
Nowhere near as bad as people say it is. It's a much more focused story, doing something experimental such as staying in one place for a long time. Dragon Age: Origins was epic in terms of distance, II seems epic in terms of time spent. You do get the sense that a long time has passed. I don't mind that this game offers something different, since I had played Dragon Age Origins three times to see all the quests/choices and having another game exactly like it would have been tiring to think about. I haven't finished the game yet so I don't know if there's anything about the end game that's going to make my opinion more negative... though I have heard that there is. At the moment it's a sold 8/10 game.
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Picked this up cheap. Pretty good. Not that far in it yet. Had bigger and better games to play.
Fallout: New Vegas
Awesome game. Did a review, so I'm not going to elaborate. Recently picked up all the DLC in the recent XBLA sale, so a replay is on the cards for 2012.
LEGO Harry Potter 1-4
Bought it cheap, got all achievements, traded it in.
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean
Bought it cheap, still in the process of getting all achievements, will trade it in.
Rock Band 3
Awesome party game, and my song collection just keeps growing. I love that even after a year of solid playing, there's still plenty of stuff for me to do, like learn one of the other plastic instruments, or practice on a higher difficulty, and watch the marketplace for new songs every week. I'm glad there's no Rock Band 4 yet, because this game is still very much alive. Although RB4 will hopefully let me import all my songs from this one, but I hope they don't do a 4 until they have something significant to add to the franchise like 3 did (the pro guitar and keyboards).
Skyrim
This game took 100 hours of my life. At a time that I was unemployed. So I was pretty much pulling 8-9 hour daily shifts on this game for two solid weeks. And then a little more. And then I started a new character, but thought better of it and didn't play too much. This game is absolutely amazing. There is more to see that can ever be seen, more to do that can ever be done. If other franchises went 5 years between instalments they might be putting out games of quality like this one. Didn't encounter many glitches, either, so I was probably lucky.
Xbox Live Arcade
Beyond Good & Evil HD
Played this back in the Xbox era. It's still a good game, but not a great game. I need to find the motivation to come back and finish this one.
Hmm. I have bought a bunch of Arcade games during deal of the week, but looking through my list, I haven't played many of them substantially. I did start playing Bastion, but too early to comment on that one.
PLAYSTATION 3
More of a Blu Ray/DVD machine than an actual console. Barely played anything on it this year. I started Uncharted 1, since I picked up the Uncharted Double Pack really cheap. Keep trying to get into Disgaea 3 but it can't seem to hook me in. Waiting for a better price on Disgaea 4. Picked up the ICO/Shadow of the Colossus collection recently and made some progress in ICO.
WII
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
I've played through the beginning bit, and I'm just about to set off on my journey through the clouds to go look for Zelda. The motion controls take a little getting used to, but it hasn't been as bad as some people led me to believe... but then it's not as good as some other people led me to believe either. Too early to say where this ranks in the Zelda series, but progress might be slow going due to the effort and energy required to play this. I got this game for Christmas. And my 12 year old cousin also got it. On Christmas day he was pretty far into it. The Wii is his first console so the controls are second nature to him. For someone like me, they take some getting used to.
Mario Kart Wii
Speaking of my 12 year old cousin, he plays this game with the racing wheel attachment, which I think is impossible. Since he doesn't have any GameCube controllers or Classic Controllers, I had to make do with a numchuck and it was a little tough to play. My sister and I have been playing this a lot, recently. She'd loved Mario Kart 64 but didn't like Double Dash, but she's taken a liking to this one. Still need to unlock all the characters/karts. This game is awesome with a GameCube or Classic controller. If my cousin comes over here I'll let him use my plastic wheel attachment and I'll absolutely whoop his ass.
Xenoblade Chronicles
Chapter 2 is hard. I sort of hit a wall very early, where it expects you to remember and use all the complicated battle techniques it spent the first ten hours teaching you, and uh... either it's a lousy teacher or I'm not a good student. The difficulty jump is absolutely staggering, even with the Misc quests. Might need to read the tutorials again and do some levelling up.
PC
Just got into Steam recently. I haven't been a PC gamer in a long, long time. But I have a decent laptop so most stuff runs. Steam Summer Sales and the Humble Bundle 4 made my list of games grow quite fast so I'm only mentioning stuff I've played longer than an hour.
And Yet It Moves
Bizarre indie game. Check. Bizarre control scheme. Check. Not a fan.
Audiosurf
Fun little racer where I can use my own music.
Beat Hazard
Fun little twin-stick shooter where I can use my own music. I have played this a LOT more than Audiosurf, because it feels more dynamic and it is a lot of fun.
Crayon Physics Deluxe
Interesting concept that works quite well. I love that I can draw solutions to the problems the game throws at me.
The Longest Journey
Okay, where has this game been all my life? It was released in 2000, which if memory serves is when the adventure genre fell into decline. After Grim Fandango, I needed more of these sorts of games, and I really, really wish I'd known about this game back then. I'm loving the level of detail to the world, the story, the characters. A very compelling game. Picked it up on Steam with Dreamfall, which I'll play when I'm done with this.
Psychonauts
Missed getting this for Xbox back in the day, and it was on sale so I grabbed it. Interesting game to play, but it really feels more like a console game than a PC game (so I plugged in a wired 360 controller and it helped a lot). Not that far into this one, and don't really understand the mechanics of it yet, but I'll get there.
3DS
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
Maybe it's the fact that I've played this game half a dozen times, but I'm just not feeling the motivation to finish the game. I've had it since August and I'm only up to the water temple. And it was the only 3DS game I had for a while. Another thing is that I haven't replayed this game in years, and I've forgotten a lot of things. Like, I'll get stuck in a dungeon and then get frustrated because I should know what to do, and then I look up a FAQ and I just about kick myself for forgetting something very stupid. I like how the game looks now.
Mario Kart 7
Mario Kart has always been sort of chaotic and full of mayhem, but never before I have I felt such vindictive hatred from the CPU whenever I sit in first place. There's just so much unavoidable shit that can hit you that there's really no incentive to try and stay in first. Hovering around second place until right near the end seems like a better strategy. Getting hit with three or more blue shells each race is just not fun.
Pullblox (Pushmo)
Very addictive puzzle game. Pull and push blocks strategically to reach the goal at the top. You can make your own puzzles and share them with people, and the AR reader can pick them up off the screen so the puzzles are limitless*
* limited to the size of your SD card.
Super Mario 3D Land
A very odd mix of old Super Mario Bros 1 and 3 and Super Mario 64. It seems to work. Only at World 3 at the moment, but it's currently the game occupying my 3DS so I play it quite often. The levels are only a few minutes long which is a perfect fit for a portable console. Honestly, Nintendo should not have released the 3DS until this game was ready. This would have been a perfect launch title.
DS
Dragon Quest IV
I started a file years ago and I'm still going. This game moves at such a plodding pace that I think I'll still be at it by the end of this year.
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
Golden Sun was fun, but it felt dated when it was released. While this much requested third game looks nice, it plays exactly the same as the old one. And while we see some new features, like a Wiki styled information glossary, the game's battle system and silent protagonist keep this game stuck in the past. And what is up with these silent protagonists anyway? Isaac was silent in the first game, but in the second game he could speak (since he wasn't the main character) and he can speak in this one. Why can't they speak if we're controlling them? It makes absolutely no sense. The game started off well, but the whole thing feels like one big sidetrack. You're just trying to get one thing, but then something happens so you try to get back, but then something happens, so you have to do something else, but then something else gets in the way of that, and ten hours in you've only seen the villains once, and the party is still just reacting to things that have happened and very soon it begins to dawn on you that this may just be the extent of the game. Really shoddy storytelling. I'm done with this series.
Pokemon Black
I'm done with this series.
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honestgamer - January 03, 2012 (09:36 PM) It's good to be reminded again that I'm not the only one who found the AI in Mario Kart 7 a bit unreasonable. You should definitely review some of those games. |
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jerec - January 04, 2012 (11:57 AM) I will try. |
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WilltheGreat - January 04, 2012 (03:39 PM) Christ, I have to replay FNV too now that the last DLC is out. What mods are you rollin' with, Jerec? |
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jerec - January 04, 2012 (06:19 PM) No mods. I've got the 360 version. |
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bloomer - January 05, 2012 (03:51 AM) Am I missing something? Shouldn't this be games of 2011? |
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jerec - January 05, 2012 (12:46 PM) Yes, yes it should. Whoops. |
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