RECENTLY PLAYED GAMES

Here is a list of games that I have recently played. My "reviews" of recently played aren't well written, I know, I tend to do them in a stream of consciousness way, but I don't feel right going back and editing them, wanting to retain the exact way I felt about these games right after they were played

Trauma Center - Under the Knife

Spring ’10 – I started playing this game because there was already a copy on my DS hard drive. It is actually pretty fun, but can be frustrating. You use different tools to operate on people, and I guess you also have a special ability called "healing touch" that allows you to slow time if you draw a star (??) There is also a weak plot underneath it all which I have no interest in. The game requires quickness and concentration so if you like to play casually, this isn't the game for you. I reached a spot where I have to do this impossible operation that is increasin my blood pressure like mad, so I need a break. But I'd pick it up again for fun; it's not too difficult to understand.

Scribblenauts

Spring ’10 – This is pretty much as fun as I thought it would be! Super easy to play casually, because there are no set mechanicis. You just write the name of something to bring it into the world, and hope you can use it to you accomplish your task. It's innovative and creative, and super easy to just pick up and play. I'm sure I'll play a round or two of this any time I open my DS to play a game. Only thing is, I'm writing out of words to get higher on the screen, which is almost always necessary. I've done wings, trampoline, jet pack, airplane. OH! Also this is great for sitting with a group who aren't playing, and just asking them "What's a good way to kill a shark?" etc; my family gave me some awesome ideas!!

Hotel Dusk

Spring ’10 – I found this game by accident. My friend bought me a removable drive for my DS and put a bunch of games on it, so I was testing some of them. I started this game up, having no clue what it was, and at first it felt a bit slow. I just didn’t stop playing it right away, so before I knew I was 3 hours into it and interested in the plot and enjoying the mechanics. It’s very communication based. You do some moving around and exploring, but within a few hours into the game, you’ve seen the entire hotel besides a few rooms that become unlocked later on. It feels slow because you spend so much time just click through long conversations with other guests. There’s no way to “die” you just answer a question “wrong” and you end up either losing your self-esteem and “giving up” or you get kicked out of the hotel. The plot is really interesting and I loved it right up until the end, but the ending itself felt really off. There were soo many loose ends that I would be shocked if a sequel hadn’t already been planned out. It was definitely a nice change from the formats of the other games I had been playing.

Machinarium

Winter '09 - Made by the same people who have made the Samarost series. The visuals are gorgeous and the gameplay is a welcome increase in difficulty and complexity from the Samarost games. I love games like this because they are equally an artistic and a gaming experience. I came for the art, stay for the fun puzzles. … So I finally finished the game! It was great! The increase in difficulty was perfect, and the increase in complexity. The puzzles were always unique, and never monotonous. To compare to another game I recently finished, Alex & Pixel, that game was repetitive and the puzzles were rarely challenging. Machinarium’s puzzles were challenging and fun, and always made sense. The artwork and music was perfect, and the characters so adorable. A+ for this game! I’d play it again once I had sufficient time to forget the puzzle solutions!

Axel & Pixel

Winter '09 - This game is pretty easy so far, but I'm okay with that because I was intrigued in it because of the artwork; it's gorgeous. It's an adventure game where you just navigate from screen to screen, never returning to the previous ones; each screen is self contained. I'm going through the game pretty quickly, but it's okay because I really like the environments. It's a sweet, laid back, artistic game. *** I finally completed it! The mechanics were pretty easy to understand and there were few levels that I was "stuck" on BUT the graphics and atmosphere made this game worth playing just for the "experience."

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Fall '09 - YES this is like the 20th time I’ve played this game. It’s funny because I have a bunch of others games I could be playing but instead, I just downloaded this one on Xbox Arcade. Go figure. I love this game though, it never gets old for me. It’s such a classic. The music is gorgeous, the gameplay is fun; it’s a perfect side scroller. I’m not as big a fan of the 3D versions of Castlevania.

Samarost 1 & 2

Winter '09 - These games were pretty quick so I'm grouping them together. They fall into the category of games that seamlessly blend art and game mechanics. The music is ethereal and creates a mystical environment, and the artwork is stunning. They are adventure games where you need to click around to solve puzzles. I highly recommend them and hope to see more from this company. If I could put my name on the development of any sort of video game, a game identical to these would be a high condendor. I am playing their game Machinarium now!

The Sims 3

Fall '09 - This game really has no "ending" but let's just say I've maxed it out twice so far; in the fall and then in the winter. I played for three weeks straight and then dropped it for months, then picked it up again to play like crazy for three more. That's the kind of game the Sims is. It's an excellent series and totally addictive; I've been playing these games since the first Sims game. The second game I think wasn't that great (didn't like the music much at all, and I loooved and still love the music from the first Sims) I'll probably pick this one up again in a few months and play for 3 weeks straight again! It's a very smooth running game if you have a good enough system and more than anything else they've just added onto the great gameplay style they had before, tweaking things here and there so the monotony is removed and only the fun remains.

Patapon

Fall '09 - This game is so addicting! But it’s not really the kind of game that you play for longer than a few days nonstop without getting a little bored? I have no idea how long this game is because I don’t understand what my ultimate objective is. There hasn’t been any new concepts in the game, it just gets more difficult. So that kind of makes it boring. But it’s perfect for just picking up when you want to jam and enjoy the music! I would classify this game as grade A cute! Also, I have to give the PSP back because I don't own one, but if I end up purchasing one i'll get this game to play when I need a pick me up!

Parasite Eve

Fall '09 - I have quite happily realized that this game is just as excellent as it was when I fell in love it it many years ago when it was first released. I still absolutely love the fighting style (it's real time RPG strategy, but at the same time not because the clock stops when you open a menu.) The plot is extremely interesting and I'm really having a great time replaying it. I seem to be going through it pretty fast, but that's okay because then I still have the "ex" game when I complete the normal game campaign! I did finally beat this game but I haven’t done the ex game yet (again). I remember it being a bit grueling and frustrating. I'll get to it at some point

The Secret of Monkey Island (remake)

Summer 09 - So I wanted to play Monkey Island for the PC but at the same time the remastered one for Xbox 360 came out, so I decided to buy that. I’m so glad I did because so far, I love it. One thing that gives it major brownie points for me is that the game content is pretty much untouched. You can tell that the style and format of the game is the same as the original, and the graphics and music are updated, but with the same foundational idea. It’s a little tedious to choose actions by using the shoulder buttons but I think I’ll get used to it. Another awesome thing I discovered is if you press select, it turns into the original PC version of the game. I am having so much fun switching between the two and comparing them! Brilliant. Unless this game turns out to be tedious, I think I’m really going to enjoy it. ... I finished the game today and was great! The humor is excellent and gameplay was really fun and not boring at all. I really hope they remake the sequels!

Bioshock

Spring 09 - I really can't say anything more about this game that hasn't already been said. It's brilliant. The gameplay is fantastic... easy to learn but complex enough to lend an opportunity to the player to fine tune your particular style in one direction or another by choosing particular offensive and defensive buffers. The story is incredibly interesting and just plain cool. I'm still towards the beginning this one but will add more once I've completed the game. ... I finished the game and can't wait to play it again! It completely lived up to all of the hype. The story was fantastic and I wasn't disappointed at all. I can't wait for Bioshock 2!!

Devil May Cry

Summer 09 - This game really isn't as amazing as I remembered it being. I played like 10 missions of the game years ago and then stopped playing at some point. Now I understand that it's not completely fair to compare it to modern games but it's impossible to appreciate it as much as I probably did back then. I still really like the controls, environment and music, but man the missions are so short and boring. And easy! The only thing remotely challenging is some of the boss fights. I'm moving through the game pretty quickly so unless it suddenly becomes impossibly difficult (and therefore I'll be bored AND frustrated) then I'll probably finish it. Who can say if I'll play 2 or 3? Okay so I have been playing for a while now and I'm on mission 18 which I think is close to the end. It's getting a little difficult (I actually die now, usually a few times, before defeating a boss) and that's fine and all, but the game is still a weird series of tasks that don't make sense to me, besides mindlessly picking up items and then putting them somewhere else. … SO I finally beat the game! The ending got a little difficult, which sort of made it more enjoyable because I needed to be strategic rather than barrel through it. But I was also angry because I just wanted it to be over with! So, I can’t say for sure if I’m going to play the next few but I know I need a LOOONG break before starting playing another DMC!

Clock Tower Series

This is more of a "game watched" entry! On my "games to play" list at the bottom of this page lists the Clock Tower series. I realized I would never play any more hiding/defensive games where you just hide or run from stalkers after my short stint with Haunting Ground. But I really love the ambiance and storylines so I decided that instead, I would watch someone else play the game online! Genius! Especially since I'm geek enough to really enjoy someone else play a video game. So, without further ado:

Clock Tower for snes (The First Fear): I really like this game. I mean... I think it's my favorite in the whole series. Isn't that so odd?? But the game was great. It managed to be so eerie and the surprises really were... surprising! The plot was really cool, and the game was really entertaining to watch.

Clock Tower for PSX: This one I liked also, but maybe not as much as the first. The plot was pretty interesting and continued from where the last game left off. I think it has the same scare and surprise elements as the first, so this one I also enjoyed watching

Clock Tower 2: The Struggle Within: I watched this one for maybe 20-30 minutes and then had to turn it off. It was so slow paced and I was really bothered by the fact that it had nothing at all to do with the previous two games. The little girl who is trying to kill you in the beggining isn't scary at all and is quite boring. YAWN. Moving on...

Clock Tower 3: I enjoyed watching this one, though it does lose some points just for having nothing to do with the great plot and story that was developed in the first two games. But I did think it could be scary and the plot was at least engaging. At points, I was thinking to myself "Hey, I would have kind of enjoyed to play this..." but later in the game I found it a bit boring again. The plot didn't end up being awesome, but still decent. Good game all in all... at least to watch it! The first Clock Tower for snes will remain my favorite. Perhaps I'll play it some day in the future.

Grim Fandango

Late Winter 09 - I had to go back and play this game even though I missed it when it was first released because I heard how great it was. Well, it was great. Very funny and very interesting. I loved the characters and the humour, and even caught myself quoting it to people once in a while. Movement was a tad choppy, but I was expecting that. Some of the puzzles were easy... other's were a matter of trial and error... and that's precicely why I stopped playing 2/3 through the game. I slowly lost interest in it and I don't have time for trial and error unfortunately.. I'm honest enough to say that I do give up on games when I feel like I'd be enjoying another one a lot more. I'm really glad I played it as much as I did though and would definitely say it was a great game. I'm hoping I'll pick it up again some day.

Restaurant Empire

Late Winter 09 - This game was a little fun but it seemed like the system on which you were judged sort of depended on both luck and how long you had been playing the game for. Sort of like Lemonade Stand 2.0. Didn't hold my attention more than a day.

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

Winter 08-09 - I really enjoyed The Longest Journey so I wanted to play the sequel, but at first I didn't like the fact that this one was more of a first person overhead type of game whereas the original was a point and click adventure game. I got used to it and ended up really enjoying the game. Everything was fitting, from the puzzles to the music and scenery. The only thing I think gets a big F is the parts where you have to use combat. It was used to little that you never really get a good grasp on it, and it was also very poorly designed so that it was more about luck than skill. I also didn't like the cliffhanger ending. It made me almost feel like I played the game for nothing. Because really... is there going to be a The Longest Journey 3??

Haunting Ground

Late Summer '08 - This game was actually very interesting and quite scary. I really enjoyed the visuals and music, but I stopped playing because I was sick of hiding and running (pretty much the premise of the game is to elude enemies). I would have probably seen it to the end if there was a better balance between defense and offense. I'm not saying that the gameplay made it a bad game, just not the kind of game for me. Too many games out there to play that I'm not going to keep playing one that is kind of boring for me! Moving on...

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

Spring/Summer '08 - Finally, a game replicating the basic dynamics of SOTN that I’ve been waiting for! I know I skipped a few games before this that had the same side-scrolling interface (compared to the PS2 and N64 games) but it was a Christmas gift so I had no choice! But I really enjoyed it, even though at first I was averse to playing the game on the small screen, since I enjoy the experience more when it’s on a bigger screen with a better sound system. Once I figured out the intricacies of the souls, which I neglected to figure out until about 70% into the game, I did a little harvesting just to make sure I got the coolest souls and was able to upgrade my weapon to it’s max and really enjoyed that new dimension to the gameplay. Besides that, it played a lot like SOTN which is one of my favorite games, without being repetitive or so difficult that the gameplay becomes slow or requires excessive amounts of leveling. The music was also good, though maybe not quite as epic and varied as SOTN. All in all, this game is a gem in my book and has replay ability.

Fatal Frame

Late Winter/ stoppped play for 7 months/ Summer '07 - This is to the survival horror video game genre what The Ring was for the American movie genre: unique. The biggest plus is that it's a refreshing deviation from the Resident Evils and Silent Hills (although don't get me wrong, I love those series... in fact, more than this game) As creepy and original as it is, I found it to be rather slow and a bit too action-free to keep me interested. My biggest problem was the 7 month hiatus that I took from the game... I found it nearly impossible to get back into... especially since it was at a point where the difficulty rose significantly, after day 2 (there are 4 days total). I guess it would have been more fun if I had wanted to run around capturing ghosts that weren't necessary to the game... but after I realized the atmosphere was creepier than most active elements, I lost interest in exploring. I admit I didn't completely give this game justice, but I will say that it was well thought out and executed. I will probably check out FF 2 and pay more attention to how I upgrade my camera. I ended up watching the rest of the storyline on youtube because I was interested in the plot.

The Suffering

Late Winter '07 - Action/Horror. The controls suck but the plot and the atmosphere are very compelling. I found fighting enemies a little more frustrating than anything else. Sometimes it would autotarget, but often in a bad way, where if the enemies got too close you would end up aiming at the ground and become disoriented. The best part of this game was the ambiance. It was creepy, and the flashes on the screen of creepy images definitely made me jump more than once. I also really really liked the "flachbacks" of what happened in a particular area in the past, I wish all creepy games did that. Silent Hill sort of does that. I also appreciated the choice of helping people or not to influence the ending to be good, bad or neutral. The plot was interesting, but I think they could have done a bit more to flesh out the history of the area and make it all fit together.


I don't think I'd play this game again, because the controls were annoying when fighting (I often found myself running through areas to see the weird flashbacks in an attempt to avoid the monsters). The game was pretty easy, some areas of medium difficulty. Most of the difficulty came in trying to figure out how to kill a monster than anything else. I am looking forward to playing the second game, and hope that the fighting system improves even slightly.

Clock Tower (PSX)

-played briefly- Horror. Couldn't play it. The polygons and navigation system hurt too much, and my movements didn't make any sense at all. I couldn't get through it. Instead, I'm going to play the translated Japanese Clock Tower game for Snes, which came before this game and got great reviews, and then I'll play 3. 2 got even worse reviews than this one did.

Resident Evil 4

Winter '06 - Survival Horror/Action. This game got a crapload of good ratings, and almost every source says it was the best game of 2006. Well, as a game it was excellent. The graphics were top of the line, as well as the movement, incredibly smooth. The addition of that aiming line was well over due. Lots of weapons to choose from, that was awesome.. but(and now we're getting into my "Resident Evil" complaints) not very much survival or horror. I mean, we've got all these guns and they took away typewriter ribbons, which made sense for the nature of this particular game, but it was quite a deviation from all the other Res. Evils, from what I remember. It also wasn't scary. Not "horror" scary anyway. Sure, there was some blood and weird monsters, and I nearly had a heart attack when 1) A villager/cultist would suddenly be right behind me smacking me around and 2) When I had to press the shoulder buttons or A+B at the blink of an eye in the middle of an fmv. Was that fun? Yes and no. It was a tad annoying, actually, and was used a little too often I think. The plot was decent and solid, but the atmosphere just wasn't what I expect from Resident Evil. I expect cramped spaces that you need to familiarize yourself with, and you unveil different rooms in the location one at a time. I mean, if they felt that one location was getting worn out, why didn't they just choose a couple of building locations, a la Silent Hill?


The game was certainly challenging, and I'm no gaming amateur. To me, the game felt more like a Metal Gear Solid Game or a James Bond game than a Resident Evil. Just being attacked by lots of enemies at once in a crowd, in a foreign country, having to shoot like mad instead of a few well played shots so as not to waste ammo... eh, it just felt different. Good game, all the same, just not what I wanted. I felt myself often running away from enemies a lot and it was becoming annoying. I swear a good few hours got added to my game time just from having to run around before I shot. Basically, I'm trying to say it was a good game in itself, very well orchestrated, but when it comes to that good ol' Resident Evil feel, I'll take 1 or Code Veronica, thanks.

The Longest Journey

Winter '06 - Adventure Point and Click. Definitely an excellent adventure game. You play as April Ryan, an 18 year old art major in Venice, CA who is told that she is a shifter, and has the potential to save the world, so to speak. You alternate between two worlds that are each half of what Earth was in the past before the breach, which are now called Stark and Arcadia. This game takes place in the 23rd century. The graphics were pretty well done, each location was unique and had it's own identity. The humour was one of the best parts. I especially love when you click on this strange black guy at the police station who is rocking back and forth and the main character says "Tuvok?" One thing that bothers me just a bit is that some of the characters use very obscene language, dropping f-bombs like crazy. I mean, I'm not personally offended, but I don't want to offend anyone else here, so I try to keep my speakers relatively low when they start cussing up a storm. The "shit" and "ass" usage I don't mind, it's when character say "You're a stupid f*cking bitch, you're going to f*cking get it, f*cking bitch" that I lower the volume.


The ending felt like a bit of a gyp. My entire life in Stark wasn't really wrapped up, and although you spend most of the later game in Arcadia, you spend the beginning of the game in Stark. The ending felt rushed, and it was definitely not challenging. As soon as I got to the "final" location, all of the "puzzles" were basically "rotate between your only 4 items and try out each one to see which is right." Not challenging at all. Still, the ending was a small percentage of the overall game, and I think overall it was a great adventure game, and I can't wait to play the sequel.

Rule of Rose

Winter '06 - Action/Survival Horror with creepy children. So much to say, I'll try my best to not write a novel. I have a difficult time writing a review for this game, but I know overall my "rating" is high. Did you ever see a film that even though it had numerous downfalls, you still would recommend to others because plot elements were so rich or the soundtrack was so flawless? That's how I feel about Rule of Rose. I was attracted to the graphics immediately, and I found the soundtrack to be absolutely excellent, perfectly fitting and akin to my particular taste (lots of bittersweet strings). The game itself is extremely bittersweet, and the plot revolves a lot around social issues between young girls/orphans, and the confusion and sometimes cruelty of adolescence. Well this game depicts the epitome of a childhood tragedy, in so many ways and incidents. Your main character is a young woman named Jennifer, age 19, who loses her parents in a tragedy. You find yourself in a bus which drops you off at an orphanage. There are creepy children who hide from you and tease you from the shadows, and eventually put you in a crate. You end up on an airship and are demanded by the "Aristocracy of the Rose" (a group of pretentious little girls) to obey their rules and deliver a gift to them every week. I cannot precisely say that these events follow one another, because you come to find out that the "chapters" of your life that you play as very disjointed.


So, first the biggest flaws. The battle style, as many other reviewers have noted, is horrible. It's clunky and seems obviously thrown into the game, as one other put it, as a "neccesity of the genre." You usually can run away from enemies, and should, so you battle very rarely. This means you never get the hang of it, but movement is so awkward, that that's probably a good thing. I must say, fighting a boss batlte wasn't something I looked forward to. They were either boring or ridiculously awkward. Another big flaw is that your main companion, your golden retriever Brown, does all of the work for you. You merely give him an item to search for, he finds it, and then you have him sniff that to locate the next item. Rinse, repeat. There is no way around it, the gameplay was tedious. But (here's the good junk) I NEEDED to see the fmv's to further the plot. I was utterly engrossed in the story line, and I have to admit, later in the game, when I knew I was close to the end, I wasted my time just running around because I was so engrossed in the environment, from the music to the subtle differences in your location in each different "chapter." One other flaw I just thought of, having mentioned the environment, was that some, myself included, may find it boring/irritating that the story only takes place in two major locations.


In my big conclusion, I must say that I learned to appreciate the game the most in the aftermath. The ending of the game was only semi-satisfying, and many strings were untied and the hints that I got in the conclusion were elusive. So I did lots and lots of research. I read through many plot analysis from others and then finally, I understood. I even reread the games script, and it all made sense. What an amazingly heart-wrenching tale. I can't stop thinking about this game now, I was thoroughly touched by this sad, sad story to the point where I felt like I went through Jennifers losses. Clearly, they did something very right. I think this is the kind of game where you can look past the blaring sore points if you're engrossed and personally interested in the plot. It's definitely eerie, a bit frightening, terribly sad, a tad erotic, completely twisted. 100% scary little girls. Roses, thorns, blood, lots of animal mutilation. It's completely a psychological thriller. I know I'm going to play this game again in the future, probably enjoy it more and attempt to collect all the special items, and to relive the incredibly rich story. It pays off.

Of Light and Darkness

-played briefly- I had this game for a long time, and tried to play when I was younger but didn't understand it. It's not explained very well, I figured out, but when I understood, I thought "That's it?" It's got a cool creepy-meets-vibrant-comic look to it, which attracted me, but really that's a cover up for a horrible gameplay design. You need to find a ghost mask, find an artifact that goes with it's sin, and then flash a certain color orb(s) at it to redeem it. Over and over again. And that's it. It plays like Myst... and as beautiful as Myst was, it kind of annoyed me. Although I did play 7th Guest back in the day, I seem to not have patience for that sort of thing now unless the gameplay is exceptional and varied. Strike two.

Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within

-played briefly- Well, unfortunately, I only played for a few hours then gave up. They changed a lot of things that I had really liked in the original. For instance, they interlaced real video instead of the usual animation and illustration of people, which means it's a bit slower. It also doesn't seem as funny. I liked it better when it was simpler. Also, the inventory system seems more of a pain. I just couldn't get into it. How sad.

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers

Winter '06 - Adventure Point and Click. I absolutely adored this game growing up, and I'm sure I beat it a number of times. I just had the urge to play it again. I had originally purchased it because Tim Curry was the voice over actor for the lead character (I found out later, Michael Dorn and Mark Hamill were other character voices too). Speaking of voice acting, it's one of the best parts of the game. It's excellent and believable, there's a lot of emotion in each character. It's a point and click non-linear adventure about a Voodoo Massacre in New Orleans. There lives our hero, Gabriel Knight, an author who owns a bookstore inherited from his late father. The game is all about puzzle solving and using items in the right places or showing items to the right people. It also involved asking a lot of questions. Unfortunately, later in the game you have so many items and so many available questions, it becomes tedious to remember which you asked/showed to whom, so you have to cycle through the whole thing to figure out what you haven't done yet.


Despite that, the gameplay is entertaining, as well as educational (I learned so much about Voodoo, Hoodoo, New Orleans and German). Two of the few lines I rememebered from this game was "Drachen means dragons" and "Bessesen means possessed" in German of course. This game is really funny as well. The characters are quirky and their sarcastic comments are usually really funny (I love when Gabriel's bookish office manager Grace groans over all of Gabriel's faults and womanizing habits). For the first half of the game, I remembered the solutions to most of the puzzles, but for the later half it took a while to get past some. I'm really excited to play the second one now, which I have owned for a while but did not play due to some bug I had back in the day. If you can deal with the graphics and simplistic game display, I'd say this is a game worth playing even 13 years after it's release, especially if 2 and 3 are as good as the first.

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

Winter '06 - Action First Person Shooter. This one was hard to obtain as a torrent, but I tried for days until I finally found an Italian torrent, and luckily, it contained the game in English with an optional translation exe. As soon as I began playing, I saw an improvement from the DS9 game in all areas. I know, it is a bit unfair to compare the two since EF is more recent, and a straight out FPS where DS9 dealt more with exploring and all that, but what was important to me was to feel that I was truly entering the Star Trek world, and in this game I did. This game even had opening credits identical to the series opening, and each section of each mission had it's own chapter name. I didn't play as a series character like in DS9, but as a member of the Hazard Team, a team Tuvok contructed to handle dangerous missions. I really liked being accompanied by other crew members while on these missions because it made me feel more like a part of the Star Trek team (aww). It was a special treat when I got to occasionally go on missions with Tuvok and Seven. All of the original voices were present, including Seven of Nine, who was added in the expansion pack, which I also downloaded.


The game allows you to explore a bit between missions, and you can do a bit more than you can in DS9, but usually only on the Hazard Ops level, which isn't anywhere near as cool as engineering or the bridge. The actual gameplay is standard of any FPS, nothing too special or creative. That is one area where DS9 wins out, because the use of the tricorder is more interesting. The controls in this game, however, are almost as frustrating, because you have to be able to both move and to look around. I originally had one joystick on the controller designated for movement, and the other for looking, until I remembered the format of the old 64 game Goldeneye... and then I designated the X button as forward, and had a much easier time of it. I still ended up often times using my laptop touch pad to look around/aim my gun because it was more accurate. That may also be a result of my generic, older controller. The graphics were all right, they were about what I had expected. One major down point was the final boss - very difficult. The majority of the game was average in difficulty, most of the time it was pretty easy to understand and go through the motions, though depending on level of health and ammo, the game could become quite difficult, and certain areas, especially later in the game, might have to be attempted a few different ways to survive. I usually just "went for it" and saved even in poor health status, and then ran like hell to the next health station. I would definitely recommend to anyone to have more than one save file, and to rotate saving just in case you get stuck.


The expansion pack was a great addition, because it included what I really got the game for, a virtual Voyager. I could explore the entire ship, unlike in the game where you saw engineering once, the bridge once, and I believe all the rest was Hazard level. Also, the holodeck missions are excellent, especially the black and white Captain Proton one. I would definitely come back to this game in a few years, and I will be going back to Virtual Voyager and the holomissions even sooner.

Deep Space 9: The Fallen

Winter '06 - Action/Adventure 1st Person. Wow I didn't even know this existed! I had never played a Star Trek game before, so I did some research to find some that would suit my interests. I'm not big on tactical games, so FPS seemed the only way to go. I figured even if the game was bad, it would still be cool because it was in the Star Trek universe. I admit though, this game was a bit better than I had expected. First off, I must say that I've only technically beaten 1/3 of the game, as I only played through as Sisko and the game also has separate missions as Kira and Worf, though the storyline seems the same. The gameplay was a bit confusing and difficult to get used to. Even though I had my controller plugged in, I still needed to use my keyboard for some of the scrolling functions. After getting used to it though, it was useable, albeit occasionally monotonous. I felt the speed of alternative between tricorder and phaser took a bit too long, and I suffered more damage that way than any other. Both are used frequently throughout the game. I did appreciate the use of the tricorder in general, such as having to obtain sheild frequencies to shut down force fields or enemy shielding. The manuevering was all right. Being able to walk around Deep Space 9 in between missions was neat, but after the novelty wore off, I was dissapointed as to how few people were walking around, and those that were had very few things to say.


The voice acting was all right, and most all the original actors reprised their roles, including Andrew J Robinson as Garak (my favorite) except Avery Brooks, which was a huge disappointment, though the man who did the voice of Sisko did a fine job (he didn't "try" to sound like Sisko, which I think is a good thing, else it would have been cartoony) The graphics/visuals are where we get to a weak point. The actual face maps and environments are where I thought they would be, but 85% of the time the area was too dark for me to do anything. This may have been a result of my using a laptop to play the game, because peering at the screen from a sharp angle made the area look brighter, but straight on it was incredibly dark. I was equipped with a wrist beacon, but the battery doesn't last too long, and when it wore out, I was unable to go anywhere because I couldn't see and didn't want to risk being attacked. As for the soundtrack, there were few songs, but they were amusing and fit in well with the rest of the game. Finally, the plot was interesting and I thought it was about equal to a "good" episode (although a tad simpler than would be an average episode). Though it was fun, it was tedious. I will get around to playing as Worf and Kira, but I'm going to take a looong break.

Final Fantasy 6

Winter '06 - Classic RPG. Amazing. Just amazing. Totally epic, just like I was told it would be. This game combined so many elements that I enjoyed in 4 and 5. I liked the characters in 4 more than in 5 (besides Faris) but I liked the class system in 5. It was also more enjoyable and varied to level up in 4 than it was in 5. 6 had excellent characters and handled the "class" idea much better. In 5, there were so many classes, you really couldn't experience them all and have strong characters unless you spent a very long time doing so. But with 6, you got to pick and choose which of your many characters (and their individual skills) you wanted to use at each particular mission rather than having to assign the same 6 or so characters different classes, and not having to worry about them running off after you just leveled them up (and gave them your best equipment!). Of course, because you choose what characters you're playing with, it meant that you probably would have some favorites, and those would be your strongest charcters, but that's just the way RPG's seem to be. I was a tad dissapointed in 5's soundtrack since I enjoyed 4's so much, but I thought the soundtrack for 6 was excellent.


Besides the varied class and esper options (Espers allow all characters to level up in magic. Think crystals from 5, but magic, not classes), the shining points were the side quest and user controlled story elements. There were numerous times in the game where a user has to make a choice, or has to complete a mission within a certain amount of time to get a particular outcome. And the optional side-quests were numerous and varied, totally creative. The graphics seemed to be up a notch as well. There was this one scene I remember where Setzer is walking down stairs to the new airship in the World of Ruin, and there are "flashback" scenes in the dark background behind the stairs. I thought it was really beautiful. Honestly, I have no idea how someone could go through this game "perfectly" with the best outcomes without referencing a walkthrough at some point. I did for the time limit missions and for some boss strategies. And I only used the Vanish/Doom trick on one boss! For the record, my favorites were the magic users because they had Ultima which proved to be very important later on. That would be Celes, Terra and Relm for me. Sabin was my favorite in the World of Balance however, because of his amazing blitzes. Personally, I thought having to enter blitz combos was a really neat idea. My overall opinion was that this game was worth the hype and deserves praise for it's epic and unique story as well as it's varied and clever battling options.

Silent Hill 3

Winter '06 - Survival Horror. Well, it was definitely scary but.. I don't think I liked it as much as the other two. I forget how long it's predecessors were, but only 5 hours?? That seems like a total gyp. The plot and characters were lacking, I had no real interest to follow it really. It felt like a rehash of the first game. The first game was original, the opening of the series, just great. The second was a deviation, but still took place out and about the town and was interesting and the characters were deep. In this game, Vincent and Claudia were annoying and forgetable, and it was like Douglas didn't even exist (We are told so little about him, why would we care?). I'm sad to say I was dissapointed big time... also, it was the easiest final boss fight EVER! Even easier than Psychonauts for God's sake... and for those of you who've played it, that wasn't meant to be a play on words. I love the atmosphere and ambiance of the games so I might play it again some day, but definitely after 1 and 2. Still looking forward to playing 4.

Psychonauts

Fall '06 - 1st Person Adventure/Platform. Awesome game. The graphics are awesome and everything about the game is incredibly creative and wacky. It's hilarious to boot, so basically all in all a very enjoyable game. The game play is easy/medium difficulty. I'd say most of it was easy, but there are some things like manuevering around platforms that make it medium challenging. I'd say you won't spend more than 15 minutes on any one challenge, and those you do are far and few between. I love the environments and the special powers, they're a blast. It's almost like this video game was directed by Tim Burton. This is the kind of game I totally would go back and play again for fun. There are a lot of side-quest items I didn't complete, such as collecting figments, emotional baggage (hilarious.. crying luggage) and mental cobwebs, so I'll definitely be playing this one again in the future, and that says a lot, 'cause I gots lotsa games to play!

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence

Fall '06 - 1st Person Action/Adventure. Well, I couldn't help it... I got into this game hoping it would be as good as Symphony of the Night. It is totally SOTN in a 3D enviroment... but what a bad idea! I feel that the controls and fighting style for this game were appropriate for a side-scroller, but it wasn't as impressive in the 3D environment. I HATE that I can't control the camera. Sometimes I felt like I was going through the routine of playing it just to beat it, and a game should be fun... yes? Funny enough, I'm probably going to play Curse of Darkness also, even though the ratings were actually not as good. Oh, one thing I will say for this game is that it has the same genius composer from SOTN, Michiru Yamane, so the music is gorgeous. Don't get me wrong, the graphics are gorgeous too, and the environments and beasts are classic, but the game play itself I didn't think lived up to the Castlevania standard. It wasn't challenging at all, and I was shocked that the game ended at 100% (instead of 200% like in SOTN) because it was so short and easy. Maybe I can say the same thing I did about Parasite Eve 2 (as I am a huge fan of PE 1) ...if it didn't have the name (Castlevania) attached, then maybe I would have enjoyed it as it's own game, but I expected something from it and was not pleased.

Kingdom Hearts II

Fall '06 - Adventure RPG. The beginning really surprised me because it wasn't the main character at all, so I knew that I was in for a long game, as this was the prequel of sorts. The terms that they use are pseudo-mystical and stuff, which is kind of annoying, because it doesn't really make sense of course. But then again, it's Disney and they have to be fantastical, huh? The battle system seemed a bit more complex than Kingdom Hearts 1 in the beginning, but after a while, I got used to it, and realized it really wasn't too complex, just explained poorly. The graphics are excellent, the beginning was a bit fmv heavy later it is reasonably well balanced. The plot is great despite the "Disney" terms, and the voice acting is awesome. Controls are still good, and the characters and worlds are beautiful and rich. All in all, a lot of fun, worth playing, pretty easy game but still a fun ride.

Resident Evil 0

Summer '06 - Survival Horror. I enjoyed it like every other Resident Evil game, but not as much as say the first one. It felt absurdly difficult, and really I'm not a complete wuss. It was almost too challenging, to a point where playing the game wasn't about dexterity and logic, but luck. Which is obnoxious. You know, one thing I've always hated about these games was that you could only save when you had a typewriter ribbon cause what if I wanted to go to bed? Of course, I dealt with it because the games were awesome, and worth shirking other responsibilities for, but in this game I just found it annoying. I did, however, enjoy the option to play as two different characters at the same time. That was unique and enjoyable, and of course, the graphics were amazing. Yay Resident Evil! You'll see that I'm playing Res Evil 4 soon.

X-Men Legends

Summer '06 - 1st person/Multi-player Action RPG. I really enjoyed this game. I played it all the time with my best friend. Excellent game, great fighting styles, so much fun. I love the way the characters are presented and the mansion and all of that. I love how you can switch between 4 people during the gameplay, it's completely seamless as well. I played as Beast at first, just cause he's my favorite character, but after trying others, I came to realize actually that he was my favorite player also, even though I guess he has a bad rep as far as playability is concerned. Let me first assert that one thing I always liked about any melee fighter is foremost to be fast (usually this would be a female fighter who uses her legs a lot a la Mortal Kombat). Secondly, I don't like projectile weapons. Sorry, I just don't, I never played as any projectile characters in any RPGs, like Rogue's in Diablo. I was always either magic (Necromancer) or the hack and slash characters. I also don't like playing with "cheap" characters because it's no fun. I also find "condition" and protector characters boring (ie, Knight from Diablo or Emma Frost in X-Men)

That all being said, I found Wolverine to be fun but far too "cheap" (no strategy) and I didn't like to play with any of the condition characters, neither did I like someone like Iceman because his strongest attack was the projectile (I did like Magma, she was tough and fun to play, but I had already been building up Beast when we got her). Some of the others, Colossus, were too slow for my liking and even Nightcrawler I found to be too weak. I kept switching around, but kept coming back to Beast. First off, I love the double jump. I like lots and lots of freedom of movement and fluid control in any game (one of the things I love about Devil May Cry). He was really fast, which was a huge plus, and pretty strong too. Additionally, even though in the beginning his attacks were mediocre at best, once I got him up to a certain level he was incredible, especially thanks to one attack: the Propeller Kick. This thing would knock out like 5 people at once, and dealt heavy damage.


The only flaw that I found with this game is that the levels were very repetitive. It seemed like we just cycled through 6 generic layouts over and over again. The game seemed a bit too long, too, which usually isn't a bad thing, but is a bad thing when the levels are repetitive. But seeing as that I consider that issue to be a big problem in any game (boring repetitiveness) and yet I still consider this game to be incredible, well that's a testament to the awesomeness of the gameplay as a whole.

Final Fantasy 5

Summer '06 - Classic RPG. Well, for those of you who don't know, I'm playing the Final Fantasy's in chronological order, and I just finished 5. I play 6 next, of course. I really enjoyed 5, and it was completely worthy of the Final Fantasy name. I don't think however that I enjoyed it as much as 4. The soundtrack was good, but not as good as 4's. Maybe because I took a few big breaks from it (2-3 months in intervals) it was hard to get back into it each time, whereas I played 4 straight through. I heard great things about 6, being both long and epic, so I'm excited. Oh one thing I did like about 5 was the job class thing, that was really neat. My favorite character was Faris, who I absolutely loved. My favorite in 4 I think was Edge.

Silent Hill 2

Spring '06 - Such an awesome game. A lot of people like this one better than the first, which I completely understand, but I dunno, the first was so scary... Maybe because the graphics were more grainy and the movement was choppier. The plot of this one had me so involved... after I beat it I spent days researching and reading other people's interpretations of the plot. Pyramid Head was awesome. Awesome awesome game. Great graphics, totally scary, interesting, intriguing. Great thing too is that it's an awesome game to watch someone else play, at least I hope so... because my best friend watched me play all the time. We're both video game geeks so it's okay.





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