I played Silent Hill: Shattered Memories on the PS2, months after it had already been released on the Wii, because I didn’t want to deal with waggle controls. This is a common theme with me, and demonstrates my overwhelming apathy (bordering, in fact, on antipathy) regarding the new generation of motion-sensitive gaming; Kinect and Move may be wonderful creations for some people, but…. well, can I just have a controller, please? In fact, most of the reviews that I read and comments that I heard about SHSM were, in comparison to most other waggle control-enabled Wii games and pretty much ALL third-party titles in the same category, practically glowing. I don’t regret my choice, but I do find it interesting that, of all the bazillion and five titles third parties have dumped on the Wii since its release, one of the few to get it right is a survival-horror game, which doesn’t exactly target their core demographic of soccer moms and five-year-olds. As I said, though, I played this game for the PS2, so the discussion is purely academic, and doesn’t really affect my Five Things…. I just thought it was interesting. Continue reading →
Five Things: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Five Things: Cake Mania 2
As I write this, my fevered brain is attempting to cook itself inside my skull, so I really can’t be held accountable for anything that doesn’t make sense… like the fact that I am following through on my promise to write a column about Cake Mania 2. As a spiritual successor to the ridiculously popular Diner Dash titles, Cake Mania continues in the grand tradition of games that have you running around a confined space trying to please increasingly cranky and demanding customers by giving them whatever they want. Sounds like pretty much every job I’ve ever had…
Five Things: Mass Effect 2
I know, I know, it took me a really long time to get back to an Adult game (although really, Alan Wake counts, so shut up). I totally missed the boat on the first Mass Effect for a long time, only procuring a copy when the second one was imminent so that I would know what the hell was going on when I inevitably caved to peer pressure and played that too. What can I say? I’m totally a sucker for hype. I lean more towards JRPGs than those in the “western” style; this is a fact that is as well documented as it is unpopular within my circle of friends and acquaintances. However, I am completely able to appreciate a good open-ended storyline-based game when it’s worth it, and if any games are worth it, they’re the Mass Effect series. And KotOR, but we’re not talking about that right now. Anyway, read on to find out Five Things a confirmed JRPGer thinks about all this. Also, herein be spoilers, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Five Things: Alan Wake
Right, so I’m cheating a bit. I do have quite the list of completed games that I need to catch up on here, but I just finished Alan Wake, and I’m itching to write about it while the whole thing is still fresh. Anyway, this is MY column! I do what I want! /belligerent
Alan Wake, AKA The Game of Eternal Development Time, is a bit difficult to put an accurate plot synopsis to in a sentence or so, but I’ll give it a try: a popular writer takes a vacation with his wife in a rustic mountain town, where she disappears under mysterious circumstances. Creepiness ensues. There is, however, quite a bit more to it than that, which I can hopefully shed some light on (see what I did there?) with these Five Things.
Five Things: Pokemon SoulSilver
I’ve played a lot of Pokemon games, but I’ve never actually made it all the way through one. What usually ends up happening is that I start playing, think “THIS IS SO AWESOME,” then get bored and meander off to do something else in about two hours. I don’t know why this has generally been the case, as the Pokemon series, on paper, is perfect for me; it combines my love of JRPGs with my bordering-on-OCD completionism and my love of cute shit. Regardless of why I never latched onto the series before now, however, I attacked Pokemon SoulSilver with a vengeance. Many players cite the original Gold and Silver versions (upon which, of course, these remakes are based) as the best, so perhaps that’s why I found such a newfound appreciation for them. Regardless of the reasons, though, I had a great time with this game, and I’m ready to discuss five things about it. I should note before I get started that I imagine most of these observations will be equally valid for HeartGold, but I actually did play SoulSilver. I don’t know why, either; I just went with instinct.
Five Things: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
It’s been a long time since I played either of the Kingdom Hearts games for the PS2, so even though they remain among the few titles that I will never even consider trading in (a somewhat rare honor these days), I’ll readily admit that I had to hit up Wikipedia for a refresher on the overall storyline of the series before I started playing this title. Like many of Square’s games, it’s not exactly easy to keep straight, but once you get into the swing of it (and get past the WTF factor of Disney characters roaming around being badasses), Kingdom Hearts is a great ride. Oh, uh… spoilers, by the way.
Five Things: Final Fantasy XIII
As many of you know, I used to write a semi-regular column for this site chronicling my (mis)adventures attempting to reduce the size of my considerable video game backlog. It sort of trailed off into nothingness, though; I play a lot of games, but I play them at my own pace, which is sometimes very fast and sometimes very slow, but mostly just dependent on what the game is into which I happen to be sinking time at any given juncture. Sometimes I had quite a lot to talk about from week to week, and sometimes… well, sometimes things stayed pretty much the same and I felt like I was repeating myself just for the sake of having something to say. I still want to talk about what I play, of course, but I don’t want to run the risk of boring you or myself, so I’m going to give a new type of column a shot, and I’m calling it Five Things. Continue reading →
Some Other Podcast, Episode 44: Super-Effective
We’re back once more! Things have been a bit wonky for various reasons, but today we got it together to bring you another chunk of internet radio podcast goodness. Join us as we chat about interactive storytelling experiences, the versatility of Pokemon, and FINAL FANTASY XIII!!!! (I may be a little excited about that last one.)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:26:00 — 39.4MB)
