New Kid on the Block

An alternate post title would be "I'm never going to finish."

We have a new addition to the video game family.

If you added up all of the hours I've spent playing the Playstation 2 I would assume it's under 20 hours. Last generation I bought an Xbox... which I barely played. Certainly not enough to warrant the purchase of a PS2. Later I did buy a Gamecube but only because it was a screaming good deal and I got the Legend of Zelda Collection with it. Overall I didn't have much playtime with the PS2, my brother had one and I would occasionally play it for a couple of minutes when I went over to his house.

Recently though I've very much wanted to try out a few Playstation 2 games, Shadow of the Colossus being a one. Problem being is that I didn't really want to shell out a ton of money for one. I really figured you could pick one up for $25 or $30... boy was I wrong. Looked like the price for a used PS2 was about $50 and that didn't include any games.

I kind of looked around, occasionally checked Gamestop, Amazon, and eBay but couldn't find any really good deals.

The other day my brother sent me a local ad for someone selling a PS2 and ton of games for $50. The ad had been up for almost two weeks, but still I emailed them hoping it was still available. Luckily it was.

So now I'm the proud owner of a PS2, 2 memory cards, 2 controllers, and 11 games and all for $50. So along with the huge list of games I need to play we have some new additions:

Devil May Cry, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 2006 Fifa World Cup, Athens 2004, SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Dark Alliance II, Champions of Norath, Prince of Persia The Two Thrones, Grand Theft Auto III, and Grand Theft Auto Vice City.

Edit: And with a trip to FYE I added Mafia, XIII, Max Payne, Max Payne 2, Deus Ex, Rogue Galaxy and Final Fantasy X to the list.

Some of the games look good and the two Grand Theft Auto games are my favorites of the series. All and all very pleased, plus I can borrow some of my brothers games, and there will be many Gamefly games to play in the future.

I'm never going to finish beating every game I own.

Squid.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Review

I love Star Wars. LOVE Star Wars. Ever since I was a kid I've had a fascination with Star Wars and everything related to Star Wars. I have a rather large Star Wars collectibles collection, I've seen the movies countless of times, I've read some of the extended universe books, hell I loved Star Wars Galaxies. I saw the "special edition" original trilogy when it was in the theater even though it was awful. I saw The Phantom Menace opening night and seven more times while it was in the theater. What I'm getting at is that I love Star Wars. So having me review a Star Wars game reminds me kind of this Penny Arcade comic.

I greatly enjoyed The Force Unleashed. Does it have it's flaws? Yes, certainly... but other then a few minor things it is in my opinion what a Star Wars game should be. When I harness the force in a video game I want to feel powerful. I want to be able to force throw people across the screen, I want to be able force lightning stormtroopers and then throw my lightsaber at their electrocuting lifeless bodies. In The Force Unleashed, I can do that... and so much more.

This playthrough of The Force Unleashed will be my fourth, why is that? Well one because it's an awesome game and two because it's an extremely short game. Short but sweet. You're looking at about six to seven hours of gameplay. After you're done though you're most likely going to want to pick it up and beat it again. I kid you not. The first time I played it I beat it to get a certain ending, I then immediately started over and beat it for the other ending. After that? Well I turned on all of the cheats and beat it as a God. Let me tell you how awesome it is to be able to pull a TIE Fighter out of the air and throw it at someone. The best thing about that? That wasn't some cheat code I had to enter... you can do that normally in the game. That's right, you can toss a goddamn TIE fighter at someone.

The Force Unleashed is set in the time between the prequels and the original trilogy. Order 66 has been executed and you're Darth Vader's new secret Padawan, in charge of hunting down Jedi as well as a plot to kill the emperor and rule side by side with Darth Vader.

When I play almost any game that has a morality choice I almost always go with the good side. I'm not sure why, I always have. Fable? Good guy. Fallout 3? Choir boy. Star Wars Galaxies? Fighting the dirty imperials with my rebel friends. I always choose the good side. Well with The Force Unleashed I got to play from the other point of view... and let me tell you, it felt good. There's something interesting playing as a complete psychopath of a Jedi. There's something very enjoyable about force lifting a jawa to the top of the screen and just letting go, thus solving the eternal question of "Can jawas fly?" (Hint: they can't.) I couldn't get enough of throwing a stormtrooper through a spaceships window and watching as him and all of his buddies get sucked out into the vacuum of space.

As I mentioned before The Force Unleashed does have its flaws.

Like I said, it's short. If I had paid $60 for it this might have mattered, but I picked it up for $20 and have played it four times now. So even though it's a very short game it appears to have a rather high replayability factor.

Quicktime Events. If there was something I could banish from the gaming world forever it would probably be quick time events. That being said, I didn't mind them all that much in The Force Unleashed. They only appeared when you were about to kill really large enemies or bosses. Taking down a huge rancor with some awesome moves, but having to do it through a QTE? I can deal with that.

Combat can be kind of difficult at times. Occasionally my targeting was kind of wonky. Instead of using force lighting on the guy in front of you it might go just to the side of him, or a guy behind him. If you pay attention and try not to do things to quickly this usually isn't a problem, you just have to pay attention to what you're targeting. Overall it's a very small gripe about the game.

The Force Unleashed is probably one of my favorite Star Wars games. As I said, to me it's what a Star Wars game should feel like. If you're a fan of Star Wars (and how could you not be?) I would highly suggest it. Here's a tip though, if you play it through once and aren't a huge fan? Play it a second time, preferably with cheat codes. Having all of the force powers and being all powerful in this game is one of the most fun gaming experiences I've had.

Squid.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Xbox360

I'm a huge Star Wars geek, shocking I know, I love everything about Star Wars. I recently sat down and in two days watched Star Wars Episodes I through VI and loved every minute of it. I then remembered that The Force Unleashed tied the two trilogies together... but I couldn't remember how.

So now it's time to sit down and get my geek on and force push everything in my way... hopefully through windows and into outer space.

Squid.

Halo: Combat Evolved - Review

Okay, I have a geeky confession to make. I never beat Halo. I've owned it for years, and yet I've never managed to finish it. Every time I tried to I made it about halfway through and then just stopped.

You see, I didn't actually like Halo. Never really enjoyed it. I kept hearing how great it was and how it was the best first person shooter ever... and yet I just didn't like it.

I was about twenty when Halo came out. I had heard very good things about it, but at the time I didn't have an Xbox. Well that year was my grandpa's 80th birthday, and my dad and I were going to drive out to Illinois to surprise him (great idea, surprising an 80 year old man), well there's not a whole lot to do at my grandparents house so my dad said that he would buy me an Xbox to bring out and play. It was great, I would finally get to play this amazing game I had heard so much about.

We went to CompUSA and bought an Xbox, the first games I got were Halo: Combat Evolved, Silent Hill 2, and Amped. I immediately went home to play some Halo.

It was somewhat fun at first. I had a good time... it wasn't great, but it was fun. The more I played it though, the more I found it kind of mediocre.

I had one main problem... at this point in time I was still pretty much a PC gamer. The controller felt so odd, I had a very difficult time getting used to. It just felt so foreign in my hands. It was fine for other games, but I just couldn't get used to controlling an FPS without a mouse and keyboard. I think this very much effected how I felt about the game. My other problems were with how the vehicles handled and how the levels were designed.

Several times in the last couple years I've tried to make it through the game. I usually get about halfway through before getting frustrated and giving up.

Nine years later I'm now a console gamer almost exclusively. All of the sudden the game I couldn't grasp the controls of felt much, much more natural. And something else, I was enjoying it a whole lot more.

Don't get me wrong, the warthog still handles like absolute crap... I constantly feel like I'm driving on ice. It's like the warthog's driving physics were coded by someone who had never been in an actual vehicle before and doesn't know what friction is. The level design is still atrocious as well. I don't know how many times I though "Wait, am I walking in circles? This corridor looks exactly like ever other corridor." You also have to love when the level you're in now is just the same level you recently played but it's nighttime now.

Okay, those are really my only gripes. Besides the level design and the warthog the game is good. I'm not going to hop on the bandwagon and say it's the best first person shooter, however I will say that it was a very good console first person shooter... especially at the time when it was released.

I know I've said this before, but bear with me. By 2001 I had been playing Half Life, Deus Ex, Alien Vs. Predator 2, Strife, Counter Strike, Team Fortress Classic, and to a lesser extent Doom, Doom 2, and Wolfenstein as well as a host of other PC first person shooters. The PC had tons of great first person shooters while consoles had... Goldeneye and Halo. And despite the fact that these were the best of their genre on the console, they really couldn't compare to what we had on the PC. In today's world a game is more likely to be released to a console then it is to the PC, and almost certainly if it gets a PC release it's getting a console release. Back then? That didn't happen as much. So console gamers missed out on a lot of very good games that PC players had.

I'm glad that I finally beat Halo, it was a good game that I didn't really give a fair shot. The story was good, and overall I enjoyed the game a lot despite it's flaws. I've never really wanted to play the Halo series, but now I'm looking forward to picking up Halo 2 & 3 somewhere down the line.

Is it the greatest FPS ever made? No, not in my opinion. It's a good game and a great console FPS, and we certainly have to give it a lot of thanks. Without Halo you probably wouldn't have a lot of the first person shooters being released now, and frankly without Halo you might not be playing your Xbox 360. So go ahead and give it a shot if you've never played it before, it's certainly worth a try.

Squid.

Halo: Combat Evolved - Xbox

Wasn't sure what I wanted to play next, then I saw Halo on the list. Figured what the hell. It also has the added bonus of seeing how well backwards compatibility works on the Xbox 360. I have a lot of Xbox games that I want to play but my Xbox is kind of on the fritz. Would be nice if I could just pop them into my 360 and play them.

I've played Halo many times before and have had my gripes about it. It will be interesting to see how I feel now that I'm more used to controllers as well as controlling FPS with controllers.

Either way a game with this many fans and followers has to be good, right?

Squid.

Borderlands - Review

When I first got Borderlands from Gamefly I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I only knew one other person who had played it and he didn't have great things to say about it. But reviews were generally favorable so I figured I'd give it a go.

I'm glad I did, let me just say that Borderlands is a hell of a fun time and a great game. Plus you get to shoot midgets in the face with a shotgun. Name me one other game where you get to do that.

Borderlands is set on Pandora, a barren wasteland of a planet with small settlements scattered around it. You can choose between four separate characters, each with a different skill set. I decided on the sniper character because that's what I usually play as... but Borderlands did something that I didn't expect but greatly appreciated.

Snipers aren't the most robust of characters. Sure we're good at long range but what happens when you have a bad guy standing right next to you? Or two or three? In borderlands you can be proficient with any weapon. As a sniper I could use machine guns or even rocket launchers. Sure I didn't get the upgrade perks that say the soldier did, but I could still use them. Trust me, when you have four huge bad guys barreling down on you the ability to switch from a sniper rife to a machine gun is greatly appreciated.

I've been sitting here staring at this screen for about an hour now. I'm not exactly sure how to review Borderlands. I could tell you that it reminds me of several other great games rolled into one. I could tell you about how quirky the humor is or how cool the art direction is... but at the end of the day I'm not sure that matters at all.

Sure it, reminds me of other really great games that I liked. It reminds me a lot of a much more linear Fallout 3... but if you didn't like Fallout 3 that doesn't really sell it for you.

I find the humor funny, but that doesn't mean you'll enjoy Scooter talking about his "mama's girly parts" as much as I did. I thought the humor in it was very funny, but that's really subjective.

The art direction is kind of fun, and has a bit of a different feel then a lot of other recent first person shooters... but it's not like it's the first time we've seen it before.

Borderlands is a really fun game, that's what I'll tell you. I enjoyed it and founds myself wanting to play it for hours at a time. I would highly suggest it to anyone who is a fan of the FPS/RPGish type genre.

Will you like it? Hard to say, as I started this review off I said that the only person who I knew that played it ended up not really enjoying it. On the other hand I had a hell of a fun time playing it and once it drops a little more in price will probably end up buying it so that I can play it again.

Sure Borderlands had some flaws, I think enemies reappeared a little too quickly and the ending was somewhat sudden, but overall Borderlands was an awesome game that you should really give a shot.

Squid.

Borderlands - Xbox360

Another Gamefly game. God I love Gamefly.

This is a game I've been waiting to get my hands on for a long time. I first remember hearing about this a while back in OXM and really wanting to play it. I love RPGish First Person Shooters, add in an apocalyptic wasteland and I'm sold.

Squid.