Hello 2009, Now Where are all the Good Games?

Post'd January 7th, 2009
Tags:

So I just finished playing the demo for Ninja Blade on Xbox 360 and walked away feeling… meh. Sure the game looks pretty, feels very much like Ninja Gaiden, but adds several quick time events to give it a more cinematic feel. Unfortunately the controls are a little on the sloppy, and much like Ninja Gaiden the boss battles are frustratingly hard. As such this shortens the list of games I was looking forward by one.

Which got me to thinking. What games was I looking forward to this year?

Looking at Gamestapo’s coming soon list got me a little disheartened. Aside from Street Fighter 4, a couple of Halo offshoots and Killzone 2 there was nothing really stellar lined up for at least the next three months. For me there are a couple of cheeseball titles like X-Blades and OneChanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad for the Xbox 360, but beyond that I see a bunch of remakes and budget-ware.

I guess it’s still early in the year, but seeing as how the past couple of years have been so good for games I just started to expect more. I’ll be keeping my ear to the tracks as I’m sure there will be more titles with news surfacing over the next 6 months. And I know we still have things in the pipes like Uncharted 2, Some kind of Bioshock prequel/sequel, Tekken 6 and the ever elusive FFXIII, but those are still too early to be sure of a 2009 release. And with news of more and more devs and magazines closing their doors the new years seeming a little gloomy for the industry.

Fable 2 Makes me Wanna be Bad

Post'd November 12th, 2008
Tags: ,

I just finished up the bulk of Fable 2 last week. In my time spent with Peter Molyneux’s latest RPG I vanquished many foes, saved tons of people and became a ruler of all the land. At the start of my adventure I fully intended to play things differently than how I played the first Fable. Since I was a pure evil bastard during my first trek through Albion I figured I’d try an angelic female this time.

My childhood years were full of hard times but my sister and I always took the high road when dealing with situations in Bowerstone. After my sister was killed I was determined to show that good can overcome and I could be a shining beacon of hope for the other citizens of our land. Alas there was a little voice in the back of my head, encouraging me to be evil at key moments.

That voice was my Xbox, and it wasn’t so much a voice as a little chime telling me an achievment was unlocked. You see, besides all the neutral achievements available to unlock, evil themed achievements seem to outnumber good by almost double. From a few simple acts of killing innocent bunnies, or having multiple spouses it was all downhill. And when I had to join the Shadow Cult to get the executioner achievement there was no turning back.

Sure I could have been more vigilant, but Microsoft has trained me to do anything in my power to get those achievements. Plus I wanted to see my character get fat and bloated so I had to eat many foods that corrupted my lovely young lady, although I used a rigorous diet to lose all the extra padding.

I will be going through the game again, and this time I will be playing straight good. At least until I get all those good achievements, then I can’t promise anything.

Next Page »