Game Blog
Blog
System: Xbox
Impressions: A decent game, but had to use a cheat to get thru it. Could've been better.
Brute Force
System: Xbox
Impressions: This is why story is important in games, people! This had all the elements of a good game. Nice game play, great controls, some interesting technology, but who cared about the charactors? They were flat with no personality and there was no story what so ever. Good game potential that ended up basically sucking.
Max Payne
System: Xbox
Impressions: I really enjoyed this one. Fun, dark, story driven. Lots of gratitious violence.
007: Agent Under Fire
System: Xbox
Impressions: I had a good time with this. Decent game play, the theme starts to get on your nerves fairly quickly, but an enjoyable game.
007: Angelfire
System: Xbox
Impressions: I didn't, however enjoy this one. I found it really difficult to play. Too hard? Maybe I'll look for a cheat to see if I can get thru it.
Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Outcast
System: Xbox
Impressions: An enjoyable game. If you don't like the theme from Star Wars, you'll get really annoyed quickly. The game play was fun, and there is a story here. Not bad.
Morrowind
System: Xbox
Impression: This is the game that I discovered that I don't like RPG's. I simply can't figure out what I'm supposed to do.
Prisoner of War
System: Xbox
Impression: Don't even bother. THE worst ever made.
Timesplitters 2
System: PS2
Impression: A basic first person shooter, with the emphasis on basic. Decent enough gameplay, but no story, just a bunch of little missions to accomplish. Eh, it was okay. Playable, but not memorable.
SSX Tricky
System: Xbox
Impressions: This is the game to play if you're new to console game. You get very comfortable finding the buttons to do tricks. I've made it thru all the levels, but not all the trick books (and no matter how many times you hear Run DMC's "It's Tricky" in the game, it doesn't get old).
Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
System: Xbox
Impressions: This was my first console game I ever played. It's mostly platform and it has a great story. Really fun and a good start to my console gaming addiction.
Devil May Cry
System: PS2
Impressions: This gave me good impressions when I started playing it, but in the end I found it lacking. I'm not sure if it was the age of the game, the really poor voice acting or the weak story. It had great potential, but it just lost it at the end for me. It was worth playing, don't get me wrong, but I was hoping for a great game, and I all I got was an "alright" game.
System: Xbox
Impressions: The reason to buy an Xbox. A compelling story, challenging game play, a super co-op mode and overall one of the best games out there that I've played.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance
System: Xbox
Impressions: This may be my all time favorite game to date. This is the only game that as soon as I finished it, I hit "new game" and played right thru a second time. The best story in any of the games I've played (but it is part of a series and see reviews of the other games). It's story driven, with excellent fighting and puzzle game play... what more could you want in a game? Superior voice acting?, well it has that too. I feel like I know these charactors personally, as the series so well written. If the gaming industry wants to appeal to more female game players, use this as a model.
Soul Reaver 2
System: PS2
Impressions: This is the third game in the Kain series (it goes: Blood Omen, Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2, then Legacy of Kain: Defiance). It's actually the first I played in the series and it hooked me. Again, it's story driven with lots of plot twists and drama. Who is the real enemy? Free will vs. Fate. "History Abhors a Paradox" Ah, it's less about game play (which is decent enough with lots of slashing & hacking fighting and a few puzzles to solve), but it's more about unraveling the puzzle of the story.
Soul Reaver *new*
System: Playstation
Impressions: I finally figured out how to get this one to work on my PS2 (uh, take the memory card for the PS2 out so it only reads the PSx card... duh). Wow. Considering the age of the game and the challenge of working with the odd control configuration (which didn't take me as long as I expected) it was well worth playing. The richness of these games is the story. Plain and simple. The box puzzles do wear a bit thin (but it's something they fixed in later games) and there was one truely annoying platform section (and I don't like the idea of clearing a room of enemies and they come back while I'm trying to solve a puzzle). It was well worth playing and I got sucked into the story so completely.
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
System: Xbox
Impressions: One of the most beautiful games to look at. The graphics are simply breathtaking. Great game play (you don't have to fight the controls) with smooth fluid motion. A little love story (again, appeals to my need to have a plot line in a game). One that I've played thru twice and enjoyed both times.
BloodRayne
System: Xbox
Impressions: Apart from the main charactor's gravity defying breasts (a popular trait in video games) this was a truely enjoyable game experience. What's better than killing off a bunch of evil nazi solders? Well, when they're evil nazi soldiers turned into zombies! Just can't beat that. The game was funny (okay, even I'm amused by Rayne's absolute pleasure in sucking the blood from her victims... she obviously loves to feed). I think I've got a thing for vampire games...
System: Xbox
Impressions: I was very happily surprised by this game. Normally, I don't like the cel shaded games, but it really set the tone for this game. The story was interesting enough to keep going, the game play was challenging without being difficult (but I may go back and play it at a higher difficulty level) and I hope that they continue the series...
Indiana Jones & The Emperor's Tomb
System: Xbox
Impressions: eh. .Too much platform for me. Even on a cheat I can't finish it.
Fatal Frame
System: Xbox
Impressions: only weapon is a camera... which is impossible for me to use. Thumbs up on "tone" thumbs down for game play
Blood Omen 2
System: Xbox
Impressions: This is an other Kain game, and while enjoyable, didn't have the same storyline as the other Kain games. (I also never was able to beat the final boss).
Hunter, The Reckoning
System: Xbox
Impressions: A true smash the buttons fighting game. Never got past the 3 or 4th level. Does have co-op, but that only makes it more difficult
Silent Hill 2
System: Xbox
Impressions: A survivor horror game which is story driven. A little clunky in the game play, but not bad. Decisions made during the game affect the ending story. Excellent tone and an all right story.
Half Life
System: PS2
Impressions: What a good first person shooter should be. A compelling story with interesting game play (tho' near the end it gets "weird"). Long, enjoyable game.
The Thing *updated*
System: Xbox
Impression: I finally finished playing this. It was a tough, frustrating game. The controls were clunky and some of the levels were near impossible. However, it was a blast to play as the game's story kept you wanting to keep going. The ending was great and it kept the flavor of the movie that it was based on.
Enter The Matrix
System: Xbox
Impression: Don't even bother. One of the worst games ever produced.
Grand Theft Auto
System: PS2
Impression: A fun, gratitiously violent game. My problem is that I suck at driving in games (except the warthog in Halo: I'm a master of the warthog), so I'm a bit stuck with this (as finesse driving is key in some areas)
Armed & Dangerous
System: Xbox
Impression: The potential of this game was high (like Brute Force), so I'm not surprised that I was disappointed with it. I did laugh out loud at one of the cut scenes, but I expected more. The cut scenes were so poorly done that they were hard to watch (just having played PoP: Sands of Time didn't help) and although some of the weapons were great (and funny), the Topsey Turvey bomb, the weapon that was touted highly for this game, was only used in 2 levels. At least it did have a story.
The Return of the King
System: Xbox
Impressions: So far this has been a beautiful game to play. The graphics are beautiful and the cut scenes meld from the movie to the computer graphics. The game play is a little more "mashing buttons" than I normally like (similar to Hunter the Reckoning), but I'm only on the second section and I'm enjoying it so far.
There is also a Co-Op play feature, which is the main reason we bought it. We've played one level together, but Matt gets tired of playing fairly quickly.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
System: Xbox
Impressions: I did finish this and played it thru a second time. Always a good indication that I really liked it. I'm still not sure about RPG's, but the story was good enough that I enjoyed playing this a lot. I still have a problem with the fighting in RPG's and I spent a lot of time waiting for loads (as there's a lot of back tracking in this game). Loads were slow and there were way too many. Also the saved game eats up a lot of space on the Xbox. I actually ran out of space on my Xbox, twice, while playing this (I understand there were some bugs and didn't want to over write old saves just incase I needed to go back). So all in all, a good game, very engraging, but I'm not an RPG convert.