Dead Head Fred (PSP)
Though he may have been on a small screen, Dead Head Fred (voiced by Scrubs' John C. McGinley), had more character than 90 percent of the leads in this year's crop of console games. If you haven't played it, do yourself a favor and track it down. It's excellent stuff.
Though he may have been on a small screen, Dead Head Fred (voiced by Scrubs' John C. McGinley), had more character than 90 percent of the leads in this year's crop of console games. If you haven't played it, do yourself a favor and track it down. It's excellent stuff.
For a solid two-month period this summer, I could not put Puzzle Quest down when I went to go to the bathroom. It was, if you will, the king of the throne. I actually had to kick my addiction to it piecemeal, like I was killing a Zelda boss. First, I had to stop accumulating powers, then I grew tired of the gem-matching mechanic and (finally) was able to bring myself to defeat the final boss.
In mid-December, I started playing the XBLA version. So, to continue the analogy, I guess the boss killed me.
I'm actually kind of surprised this didn't make the big list, but it's here on my favorites now and that's just going to have to suffice. From its pseudo-superhero lead to the big open world, this is the sort of game that seems specifically crafted to, in the words of Jason Statham, gouge my fancy from its shell, and tickle it ad nauseam. D-lightful.
I'm going to need you to deal with something: TES IV:O:TSI was, hands down, the best RPG released last year. "What? What did he say?" I'll repeat it. Thanks to its beautiful graphics, engrossing story and overall radness, The Shivering Isles was the best RPG of 2007. I feel much better now with that off of my chest.
This is the game that I play when I want to show real video games that they're not the boss of me. I actually had to delete my bookmark for it, because I was far too prone to just sort of idly clicking on it and jettisoning four hours of my day into blackest space.
Mass Effect (Xbox 360) -- I think Mass Effect gets this dubious honor from me because it was full of so many little disappointments. It wasn't just as if I had anticipated it before its release and the final product let me down. The game itself was a cycle of promising fun was just around the corner and delivering tedium. It seemed that every time it got some momentum, on of the many, many flaws in the game was there to drag it down.
Here's a good example of my Mass Effect stance, one that I'll relate to anyone who'll listen. You can sprint in Mass Effect as long as you're in combat. Yes, the same combat conducted entirely through ranged weapons. I don't know why you'd want to sprint up to someone to shoot them, but that option's there. On the other hand, if you're not in combat and you need to, I don't know, run from one corner of the city to the other, then you're going to stroll like a fancy gentleman, no sprinting allowed. And don't even get me started on the elevators.
The big disappointment is that Mass Effect was a great game that should have been a classic. It's a fine line, but when a game has this much promise, it's an infuriating one.
(Page 1) Reader Comments
Good to see more and more seeing it as I do. It had so much greatness in it, but someone dropped the game in a muddy puddle and gummed up the works. It had no business being released now. Next Summer? We would have an undisputable classic. Now, just a game that shouldn't have been given the quality assurance seal of approval.
Reply
Reply
Ummm.....most definetly digging it.
Reply
Reply
Reply
...meant to click on the reply "Alex W". I swear I should've taken this week off.
And about the sprinting thing, you can jog by holding A outside of combat. It's just that the crazy sprinting you do in combat on functions only to knock down opponents and close a gap between you and an enemy. It also drains a fatigue meter, which then must recharge. Otherwise, I never found the jogging speed to slow at all.
Reply
And I have to say, I am really surprised that Crackdown has shown up a few times now. I thought Joystiq collectively hated Crackdown? It didn't hold my attention for very long at all, but I never gave it a second chance, so maybe I missed its greatness altogether.
Reply
It's factoids like this that has me reading Gamasutra all the time.
Reply
Reply
instantly transport you to roughly a dozen different locations on the Citadel? Oh, you just walked everywhere? Didn't even jog? Shame you didn't read the manual. You're probably one of those people that
didn't know the right bumber fired the Mako's cannon.
Reply
Personally, I think the combat feels incredibly weak so far. I can hide behind things and act all strategic-like, but it doesn't seem to have any real effect. Maybe the game is just misleading. If I stop thinking about it as an action game and just accept that it's turn based with fake action maybe I'll have more fun. I don't know.
The character interaction is really well done, but the game still seems stuck on overly-simplistic side missions that only have two possible outcomes: you help person X or you turn person X over to organization Y. Not that these are bad, but they've been done to death by recent RPGs.
I also don't like the feel where everything in the universe is somehow my character's responsibility. For example, there was this one part where this guard wanted me to stop this guy from breaking the law. Isn't that his job? Can't they at least give me side quests that are somehow relevant to my character?
Okay, I've ranted enough. In conclusion, it's not that Mass Effect is bad, it's just that it doesn't really break out of the norm for recent RPGs. It looks pretty, has nicely done voice acting and a cool conversation system, but it feels like I'm just going through the same situations that I already went through in Knights of the Old Republic. That said, I'll keep playing and hopefully the awesome story that everyone is talking about will kick in sometime soon.
Reply
The game is also really short if you don't bother with the side quests that are a bit boring to be honest. I still like the story enough that I will buy Mass Effect 2, but I really hope they use the time to make the playing of the game a bit more meaty.
Reply
Truth hurts.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Yes, I've seen the flaws in Mass Effect. THE biggest of which wasn't the games fault.(If Microsoft didn't have a non harddrive Xbox360, then all those slow 'loading' elevators wouldn't be neccesary). And complaining about not being able to run through the citadel...COME ON MAN! If it bothers you that much, use the rapid transit.
Normally, reviewers don't bother me. After all its just their opinion. But the constant little gripes reviewers have had with Mass Effect, that gamers don't care about, really make me wonder if these reviewers are playing games for the wrong reason. Similar to what Gabe(Penny Arcade) said about reviews of Assassins Creed.
Maybe its time for the practice of reviewing games to stop. Because when you turn on a game...ANY GAME...looking for anything to whine about, your guaranteed to find something.
Reply
Thank you, your views are mine as well.
Everyone... the game is stunning and amazing. Love it! Stop the hate!
Reply