I must not be alone as the only person with a blog who occasionally lapses into "busy-ness" and either can't find the time or the words to write about anything. I must!
I've not written a new post in about three weeks. I'll admit it - most of this current busy spell has largely been due to my Xbox 360, and more specifically, Call of Duty 4. It's a great game, and it really is scary how addictive repeatedly leveling up your online soldier can be. But as a game player who is familiar with the crack-like properties of other electronic adventures, like World of Warcraft, I guess I can understand.
For the last week, however, I haven't really been playing much COD4. Instead, I've been running around school grounds beating up kids, causing trouble for the administration, and generally being kind of a... well, bully. You know where this is going.
Yup - I've been playing Rockstar'sBully: Scholarship Edition. I picked it up on the first day it was out, and just finished the game today with 100% completion, and 1000 achievement points. It's an excellent game, and I highly recommend it. In a day where good game design is copied in triplicate by even the most respectable studios, it really is easy to forget what makes the original ideas (and the people behind them) great.
I played Saint's Row all the way through some months ago, and though it too was a good game, it never quite forged ahead with the confidence that the GTA series had. Sure, it did take the GTA formula and improve on many of that series' shortcomings, but when it came to interesting characters and narrative, smart humor, and social commentary, Saint's always came up short by comparison. Having not played a new Rockstar game since San Andreas, this realization was lost on me - until I picked up Bully last week.
Also to be found in Bully is the usual Rockstar humor and its ever-present social commentary. As you explore the school and surrounding town, you'll encounter all sorts of things that are both funny, and sometimes subtly truthful. Prefects wander the halls of the school, complaining about not being able to beat enough people. The gym teacher has a sick obsession with seeing jocks mistreat the nerds. The preppies won't be friendly to you unless you're wearing expensive clothes. Girls impressed with Jimmy's antics exclaim how they can't wait to graduate, so they can spend all day kissing him… Okay, so maybe it's not always so realistic - but the fact is, after playing a game like Saint's Row, where NPC's childishly drop the "F-bomb" continuously in hopes of a cheap laugh, most of Rockstar's efforts into injecting humor and social context into their games seems almost high brow. Bully pulls off its humor and social context well - while playing it, you can't help but wonder how many members of Rockstar's staff might have actually been bullies in their childhood, for them to have gotten the whole experience down so well, and for them to be able to find so much humor in it.
The 360 version of Bully definitely has its flaws; throughout my quest to rule Bullworth Academy, the game froze my system completely 4-5 times. But as with all slightly flawed, but nevertheless awesome games, I kept reloading and jumping right back in. I highly recommend playing this game, if you haven't played it on the Playstation 2 already, and now that I am done with it, I will hopefully have a little more time for my own game making again.
2007 was a good year for games. Towards the end of the year especially, a lot of amazing titles came out, all which only supplemented an already strong year for the industry.
Of course, me being a normal guy in his 20's (read: of limited financial resources), I couldn't play every game out in 2007, nor every game for any particular console (since I don't own every system), but I think between my PC, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS, I've covered a fairly large portion of 2007's games. So out of all the games I played this last year for these systems, here are a few that I felt stood out among the rest, in no particular order.
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (PC)
Back in the glory days of strategic Command & Conquer gaming, it seemed Westwood could do no wrong. Every iteration of their flagship RTS franchise seemed to push the genre further and extend the limits of how much fun one can have whilst commanding tiny men around a battlefield. Each addition to the collection of C&C titles, like Red Alert, offered a larger array of units, missions, and strategies. These games were good fun, and if you have a PC with an older version of Windows on it, I highly recommend grabbing these games from your local game store's bargain bin (with the possible exception of the rather stanky Command & Conquer: Tiberium Sun)
As seems to be par the course these days, EA came along and bought out Westwood Studios. Their first project with the old team was Command & Conquer: Generals, a game that turned out to be more fun than was expected, but didn't really feel like C&C. Many were afraid that this would hail the end of the franchise, or at least, the end of the franchise being any good.
In 2007 however, EA stepped back up to the plate with a continuation of the original series - Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. This game, built on a modified version of the Generals engine, was a vast improvement over Generals, and in my opinion, really did a great job of earning back the Command & Conquer title. With three completely different races to play as, a great campaign, and solid online play, C&C3 earned a permanent spot on my hard drive for 2007, and probably well into 2008. If you're a fan of RTS games, you should definitely try C&C3.
Orange Box (PC)
The Orange Box was one of those things that you know is going to be good, but which you don't want to get too excited about because you don't want to be let down. I'll admit it - I was a bit skeptical about Half-Life 2 going episodic. The last thing I wanted was for a great game like Half-Life 2 to be broken down into bite-sized chunks that costed too much and offered too little. HL2: Episode 1 proved my fears wrong however, and Orange Box, which includes Episode 2, serves only to re-affirm how misplaced my skepticism was in the first place.
With Orange Box, you get three very awesome games for the price of one (four if you order via Steam). The set includes Half-Life 2, HL2: Episodes 1 & 2, HL2: Lost Coast (a neat tech demo HL2 level), Portal, and Team Fortress 2. This package also includes a special version of Peggle if you opt to buy via Steam. I could go on and on about how much fun my buddies and I have been having playing Team Fortress 2 online, or how immersive the Half-Life 2 experience is. About how Portal is one of the most unique puzzle experiences I've ever had. I could even rave a little about how great Peggle is as well. I won't gush any more, however - you should just go buy it and see how great it is for yourself. The Orange Box is the best value you could get for your gaming dollar in 2007, and FPS fan or not, you'll find something you like here. $50 is hard to beat for three games... even on DS!
Mass Effect (Xbox 360)
Initially, I wasn't sure that I'd like Mass Effect. I own Knights of the Old Republic, but never got too far through it. I wanted to, because I liked the story and the Star Wars setting, but something about the game was just too slow for me. When Bioware announced they were working on Mass Effect, I was excited to give them another try, and things looked better with each press release they gave. With some amazing screenshots, and videos of the in-depth conversations that take place in the game, Mass Effect looked to be a much more lively game than the KOTOR series for me, and upon trying it out, I was extremely impressed.
I was recently talking with Lethalanvas, co-creator of Wanderlust, and we both came to an agreement about Mass Effect - the game is really a true RPG, unlike the weirdness that games like World of Warcraft spin into the genre. Mass Effect isn't all about crunching thousands of numbers or sorting through hundreds of different sets of armor. No, in Mass Effect, you make decisions that actually have consequences... you literally carve out a place in the game world for your character. You can be a noble good-doer (Paragon), a dastardly scoundrel (Renegade), or anything in between - and the game will react in a smart and appropriate way. It's hard to describe just how Mass Effect captures this essence of actual role playing so well, but I think it lies in the many moral decisions the game forces you to make as you play. Some carry more weight than others, but almost everything you do has a lasting effect on the rest of the game; the same permanence that your decisions in real life carry. In any case, if you're a fan of RPG's, and you have the time and patience to play a 40 hour game in its entirety, Mass Effect comes highly recommended from Marty.
The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo DS)
Many fans of the Zelda series decried Nintendo's latest revision of the classic tale as blasphemous, usually citing the touchpad-only controls as too mainstream / casual. As with other Nintendo titles gone "all touch," I reserved my judgement for when I actually got to try the game. In the past, I haven't been let down by this new type of control, and with Phantom Hourglass, this is no different. Sure, it's a bit wonky when you first try it out, but rest assured, once you get used to the controls, therein lies one of the best gaming experiences to be had on the DS thus far.
Call me silly, but there's just something about Phantom Hourglass that puts a smile on my face while I play it. I always get a certain satisfaction from charting my own course with the stylus and then watching Link's boat follow it around the map. When I make link do too many rolls or sword spins and he gets dizzy, I can't help but smile at the goofy sound effect and animation. And who doesn't get a kick out of drawing a patch for your trusty boomerang, and then watching it fly around exactly as you wanted? Phantom Hourglass is packed with all the little extra touches that people expect from a Nintendo game, aside from the standard epic story and amazing graphics (for DS, of course).
Though I haven't yet had the time to finish this game, my only complaint so far is that the Dark World theme from the SNES game, featured in almost all of the trailers for Phantom Hourglass, doesn't seem to be in the game. I could be wrong though, since I haven't finished it, but if I were a gambling man, I'd put my money against it at this point. It's a shame really, because I thought the remix of the tune for the previews was a real treat, and Nintendo has a huge library of music for the Zelda series, so why not toss a bone to all of us long-time fans now and then?
Regardless of this single caveat, Phantom Hourglass is a must-have title for DS, so if you haven't played it yet, go pick it up.
Other 2007 games I enjoyed, but didn't want to write about, include:
Assassin's Creed (360)
Call of Duty 4 (360)
Crackdown (360)
Gears of War (PC)
Halo 3 (360)
Games I enjoyed in 2007, but which were not released in 2007:
Civilization 4 (PC)
Clubhouse Games (DS)
Counter-Strike: Source (PC)
Gears of War (360)
Gun (360) (aside from the torturous end boss fight)
Saint's Row (360)
Sim City 4 (PC)
Tetris DS (DS)
Yoshi's Island 2 (DS)
And finally, how about a short list of games that I wanted to try out, but never had time to (full versions, anyway):
Eternal Sonata (360)
Unreal Tournament 3 (PC) (despite my rage for its mediocrity)
Thanks for reading, and be sure to let me know what 2007 games you felt were great with a comment below!
I've got a little piece of paper resting comfortably in my wallet right now. It conspires with recent purchases made by my credit card; it conspires to completely undo my productivity. You read about the damages to my productivity last week with my scribbling about Team Fortress 2... now brace yourself for the monster that this little piece of paper will unleash upon my free time. This small snipped of ribbon paper has printed upon it proof that I have paid the $5 pre-order fee at my local GameStop. Halo 3 will be in my hands this afternoon.
I could have picked it up last night. At about 10:30 PM, I called GameStop to see how many people were standing in line, and at only about 40, it seemed the wait would not be unreasonable if I headed over at around 11. When 11 came, however, I felt a sudden urge of sleepiness... and since my girlfriend was over for the night, and I did not want to leave her alone at my apartment so late in the night, I decided I'd skip the midnight release, and instead get plenty of rest, so that I may enjoy the game to it's fullest this afternoon. And so I plan on stopping at the very appropriately titled GameStop on my way home from work, picking up Halo 3, and playing through the campaign on co-op with my brother and a friend.
I'm actually somewhat excited at the prospect of playing Halo 3, which is surprising because a week ago, I was not. After being talked into a pre-order by my brother I knew I would enjoy the game, but since I thought the first game was only above par, and have never even played the second game, getting pumped up about the third seemed a bit ludicrous.
When the reviews started pouring in, I read them... and I think that amidst all the Halo soda promotions, commercials, and media hype, they were what most got me in the mood to play. As I have read, not only does the game have four-player cooperative play, something that will probably make the game worth it for me in itself, but it also has some really neat customization and replay features which will be great to play around with, if they are anything near what they are cracked up to be.
I am a PC gamer at heart, so the lack of customization in console games has always kept me from getting too close to many of my favorite games... and while Halo 3 will still be short of a full-blown level editor, it is taking a step in the right direction with the Forge, a kind of mini level editor, which allows you to change elements in levels, add and remove objects, etc. - all while people are playing the level! The replay system I mentioned sounds as equally cool, where everything you do in Halo 3 is recorded to a replay file, which you can view later on, using different camera angles, speeds, etc., and which you can then upload to the internet for others to watch. Sending my friends video clips of my shooting them in the face will never get old, let me tell you.
So all that, combined with my growing love for Team Fortress 2, and then the eventual rest of Orange Box coming in soon, makes for a very large chunk of my free time being eaten up by pure entertainment. Of course, I won't let every one of my priorities drop - I've really got to get to work on the update to Reflect, and continue one of my many game projects - but still... it's gonna be difficult to divvy up the time!
In any case, it's good to be a gamer right now... so if you play Halo 3, maybe I'll kill you online sometime! Thanks for reading!
