Games Played in 2010

My “Games Completed” list this year is quite good.  Part of that is that my total number of games played is inversely proportional to the amount of time I play World of Warcraft.  Meaning I didn’t play much Warcraft this year, so I played a lot of other things.  The other reason is that I really tried to put an emphasis on completing games this year.  I pick up a lot of games and tend to dabble a lot, but I’m easily distracted by the next thing and leave many games hanging.  This year I dabbled less and finished more.  So without further ado…

Decide the Fate of Carmine in Gears of War 3

Microsoft and Epic Games are running a charity promotion in which the public gets to decide the fate of Clayton Carmine in the upcoming Gears of War 3.  Fans of the series may recall that Clayton Carmine’s brothers Anthony and Benjamin met with some untimely ends in previous Gears of War games.  Will Clayton follow in his brother’s footsteps, or do what no Carmine has done before… survive?

The promotion started last month at Comic-Con, where attendees could cast their vote by purchasing real-life limited edition “Save Carmine” or “Carmine Must Die” t-shirts, with the proceeds going to one of my favorite charities, Child’s Play.  You can also buy them online at Amazon or NECA.  That has carried over to Xbox Live Marketplace, where you can buy male or female versions of the t-shirts for your avatar for 80 Microsoft Points (that’s $1.00 to you and me).  Or if you want to give to the charity in a fun way but aren’t a Gears of War fan, you can buy a Child’s Play Charity t-shirt for your avatar.

Voting ends September 2, 2010, so cast your vote now!  You can follow along with the charity promotion on the Gears of War section of Xbox.com

Game Impressions: Singularity

Introduction

When you “borrow” heavily from two of the most popular and highly acclaimed games in recent history, you have to be prepared for the inevitable comparisons.  If your game does not do the things those games did at least as well if not better, your audience can’t help but notice.  So does Singularity hold up to the big boys it tries to emulate?

Game Impressions: Alan Wake

Introduction

It’s no surprise that I would gravitate towards a game whose first spoken words are “Stephen King.”  But that doesn’t mean I will automatically like it.  Alan Wake is a psychological thriller action adventure game developed by Remedy Entertainment (aka the folks behind the Max Payne series) and published by Microsoft Game Studios.  It follows the story of thriller novelist Alan Wake, whose vacation trip to Bright Falls in the Pacific Northwest is cut short by the disappearance of his wife and the strange, supernatural events surrounding it.  So was the story a sleeper, or did I have no trouble staying A. Wake?

Game Impressions: LIMBO

Introduction

Xbox Live’s Summer of Arcade kicked of this week with the highly anticipated black-and-white puzzle platformer LIMBO. Yes, it’s spelled with all caps… I have no idea why. And having no idea why sums up a lot about this game.

Zark’s E3 Roundup and Best of Show

Ok, I’m saturated with E3 2010 news, and ready to throw down the final verdict.  It’s a long one, so grab some popcorn and adult libation (or beverage of choice) and read on…

E3 2010 Microsoft Press Briefing Live Thoughts

As usual, I like to watch all of the E3 press conferences (for at least the big 3 hardware makers).  Here’s my stream of consciousness on Microsoft’s briefing today.

Call of Duty: Black Ops
– I’m not a big CoD fan.  Looks ok. I’m sure fans will love it.

Metal Gear Solid Rising
– Cutting action could be fun, or could get old after an hour
– The logo graphic said “lightning bolt action” which they didn’t really show, but sounds a lot like “MGS infamous”

Gears of War 3
– 4 player story mode co-op is nice
– Anvil Gate is the title of the next novel
– Not a fan of the female Gears. I have nothing against the idea, and in general I like to choose female characters to play in games where there’s a choice, because it can be a different experience (female Shapard FTW!!). But to do it in GoW in game 3 just seems like they shoehorned it in to appease complainers. And they picked two attractive females, rather than the strongest one in the novels, who is not. I don’t even think I’ll play Anya, because Marcus Fenix is such a good character.

Game Impressions: Bioshock 2

Introduction

Few games make an actual lasting impression on me.  I may enjoy them immensely at the time, and remember them fondly, but press me for details and I won’t be able to produce many.  The original Bioshock is one of those rare gems that captivated my imagination and has stuck with me.  I love the concept, the art deco look, Big Daddies and Little Sisters and madness and mayhem under the sea.  I think my appreciation of it actually rose from the time I wrote the Game Impressions on it to present.  So it was with both longing and trepidation that I approached the release of Bioshock 2.  Could the Electro Bolt plasmid strike twice?

CAG Wish List Wednesday

I never win anything… unless it comes from Cheap Ass Gamer.  Long time readers might remember that I won an Xbox 360 Elite from their CAG Fund for Child’s Play 2008 Charity Raffle Extravaganza.  Well I won something again last week.

CheapyD has made a lot of improvements to the website over the last year or two (thanks to the coding brilliance of Super Programmer John), like collection lists, a game marketplace, a trade-in value tracker and so forth.  One of the new items is the wish list, which you can use to keep track of the games you want to get, and can be used to match up potential trades with other CAG’s.  CheapyD has been promoting this feature on the website and on the CAGcast podcast via a contest called Wish List Wednesday, where every Wednesday two CAG’s are chosen at random to win an item $60 or less from Amazon from off of their wish list.  Well I was one of the two winners last week!  I heard it announced Thursday on the CAGcast podcast about a half hour before getting PM’d about it.  I picked the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Hardened Edition, which arrived at my door today.  Thanks CheapyD!

If you haven’t already, go register on cheapassgamer.com and add some things to your wish list.  Check out the other features when you’re there, and look me up!  You find me listed as Zark7 (some other person that hasn’t been active since 2005 has ZarkSeven… the nerve!)

Game Impressions: Mass Effect 2

Introduction

I remember the gaming Fall of 2007 very well.  Bioshock came out on August 21st.    Metroid Prime 3: Corruption came out on August 27th.   Halo 3 came out September 25th.  The Orange Box came out on October 7th.  Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare came out November 5th.  The first Assassin’s Creed came out November 16th.  Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune came out on November 19th.  Finally, on the same day as the original Rock Band came out, Bioware’s Mass Effect came out on November 20th.  In the span of exactly 3 months, 9 blockbuster titles came out.  It’s enough to make a gamer shout for joy and sob on his joystick all at the same time.

Of those titles, a few had a big effect on me.  I named Portal my Game of the Year, followed closely by Bioshock at #2.  Mass Effect was #7 in my Top 10.   While that might not seem high on my list, a quick look at my achievements shows that I started the game on November 21st, 2007 and completed it on December 5, 2007.  It doesn’t appear by the achievements that I played every day, but in that 15 day span I visited every planet, completed every side quest, and finished the game in just over 40 hours of gameplay.  Given the number of games I buy and never play, or start and never get far into, the fact that I spent 40 hours in 2 weeks on Mass Effect during that crowded Fall season says something about how much I enjoyed the game.

Still, I didn’t really wait with bated breath for Mass Effect 2.  In fact, as soon as it was announced that it would be coming in January, after the holiday release season, I sort of put it out of my mind.  When January came, I saw it on the list of upcoming titles, and it came back to the forefront of my consciousness.  I started reading Mass Effect: Ascension.  I played Mass Effect Galaxy.  I got the first issue of the Mass Effect: Redemption comic.  And I pre-ordered Mass Effect 2 from Gamestop.com, with free shipping.  As the date approached, my anticipation rose and rose, until I regretted that free shipping option I picked.

Thankfully, my game arrived the day after release, and I fired it up that evening.  So do I think Mass Effect 2 is a worthy successor to the original Mass Effect?  Was my heightened anticipation rewarded?