We all knew it was coming, but it definitely looks awesome. A lot of blowing up on this game, and it’ll probably start with Modern Warfare 3′s sales records.
Releasing 11/13/12 for PS3, 360, and PC.
Burning through the Backlog
March 16th, 2012 
Mikey If you’re anything like me, you’ve been playing video games for almost as long as you can remember. I remember my first console quite well – it was an Atari 5200. This console was bulky enough to make the Xbox Classic cry, and used a controller that can only be described as the offspring of a TV remote and a joystick.
This puts the Xbox Classic to shame
But it was fun. I was hooked, and I spent an extremely large chunk of my time playing Donkey Kong and a few other generic titles, over and over [side note: I still own it and it still works]. We seemingly had all the time in the world.
It turns out that we were wrong. We grow up, and although we may still have a strong love for our favorite hobby, time and energy is constantly being spent elsewhere. Bills need to be paid, colleges attended, and jobs worked. To quote myself:
@passthemstickss I hate having more money than time for gaming.
Do you feel the same way?
Over the last several years, my backlog has swollen to over 100 games. I originally came up with a plan to reduce my gaming backlog last year, but it didn’t take long for that idea to fall flat. So, I’ve now devised a new plan that I think will suit me better:
Complete all currently owned games in a series before buying the new game.
I’ve created a chart to help me with this for the 2012 releases that I want. Note that this is not a list of ALL the games I want, but only those I have games from that series that need to be completed first.
| Finish this… | …to get this. |
|---|---|
| Mass Effect | Mass Effect 3 |
| Mass Effect 2 | |
| Ninja Gaiden 2 | Ninja Gaiden 3 |
| Resident Evil 5 | Resident Evil 6 |
| Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City | |
| Devil May Cry 4 | Devil May Cry HD Collection |
| DmC (may not release in 2012) | |
| Prototype | Prototype 2 |
| Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood | Assassin’s Creed III |
| Assassin’s Creed Revelations | |
| Bioshock | Bioshock Infinite |
| Bioshock 2 | |
| Tales of Vesperia | Tales of Graces f |
| Record of Agarest War | Record of Agarest War 2 |
| Record of Agarest War Zero |
As you can see, I’m going to be a very busy man this year.
Games I Bought and others I wanted to
January 17th, 2012 Mikey 
This is what gamimg did to my wallet in 2011
Another 365 days have come and gone, and the calendar has finally flipped over to the new year. Looking back, 2011 was a great year for gaming. So many great titles released throughout the course of the year, even the most avid gamers would have had a hard time keeping up. And while we’re all trying to catch our breathe and get caught up on the games we’ve build up into our backlog, the games releasing in 2012 are looking great and have a good chance of adding to our piles.
Before we get to that point, I’m going to list both the games I actually did buy in 2011, followed by the games I wanted to buy but didn’t.
Note: This list also includes downloadable titles and is listed in alphabetical order.
2011 Games Bought
1. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
2. Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury
3. Bastion
4. Batman: Arkham City
5. Beyond Good & Evil HD
6. Bloodrayne Betrayal
7. Brink
8. Bulletstorm
9. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
10. Crysis 2
11. Dead Space 2
12. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
13. F.E.A.R. 3
14. From Dust
15. Half Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax
16. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
17. L.A. NOIRE
18. Marvel vs Capcom 3
19. Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
20. Moon Diver
21. NBA 2K12
22. Portal 2
23. Spider-Man: Edge of Time
24. Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition
25. Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3
26. X-Men: Destiny
2011 Games I Wanted to Buy
1. Battlefield 3
2. Burnout Crash!
3. Catherine
4. Dark Souls
5. Dead Island
6. De Blob 2
7. Dragon Age II
8. Dragonball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi
9. Driver: San Francisco
10. El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
11. Goldeneye 007: Reloaded
12. Homefront
13. Mindjack
14. NBA JAM: On Fire Edition
15. Otomedius Excellent
16. Rage
17. Rayman Origins
18. Record of Agarest War Zero
19. Red Faction: Armageddon
20. Resident Evil 4 HD
21. Resident Evil: Code Veronica X HD
22. Saints Row: the Third
23. Shadows of the Damned
24. Sonic CD
25. Sonic Generations
26. The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile
27. The King of Fighters XIII
28. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
29. Venetica
So there you have it. You may notice a few games here or there that you feel are missing from my lists, and if so, let me know. What games did you buy and what games did you want to buy but didn’t? Leave me a comment or follow me on Twitter @passthemstickss
What I’m Gaming Vol. 14
January 9th, 2012 Mikey Welcome back to What I’m Gaming! At the beginning of every week, I post about the games I’ve played in the past seven days and give some quick thoughts and impressions about those games. To see past editions of this feature, click What I’m Gaming.
The New Year came and I had the urge to start a new game. I perused my unusually large collection of games, and decided to continue the Assassin’s Creed series. I had recently watched my girlfriend play Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, so it seemed like a good idea to get caught up on the first part of Ezio’s story.
I had previously only completed the original Assassin’s Creed game (and yes, I collected all the flags) and thought it was pretty fun, and I had heard from just about everywhere that the second game was waaay better, so I began.
The second game certainly improves on many aspects of the first game (like adding swimming; seriously, what assassin can’t swim?), but the thing I enjoyed the most was a greater emphasis on storytelling. While the original game tells the story of Altair and begins the story for Desmond, you can play through the entire game and barely know what happened. Not this time around.
I was able to complete the entire game (full 1000G and all) in about a week of play, so it became the first game I completed in 2012. It also helped me get ready for…
Once again perusing my collection, I got the feeling that I wasn’t ready to be done with the swift dealing of death from ledges and rooftops and haystacks. I was fresh of Assassin’s Creed II, so it felt natural to continue the series – similar to when I try to watch only one episode of House.
The game seems to have a greater focus on developing the characters (Ezio, Desmond, and Desmond’s crew) and having a wider mission variety. I now have a group of Assassins I can send off to do random quests to level them up or use them on nearby guards so I don’t have to get my hands dirty. Once again, the series makes solid progression in improving the gameplay, with combat being an emphasis. All welcome changes.
It adds what I’ve heard is fairly addicting multiplayer, but I’ve yet to sink my teeth into it and probably won’t until the campaign is completed.
Bastion
I’d been interested in playing Bastion since the Summer of Arcade promotion, but I refuse to play $15 for an arcade game that I’m not hotly anticipating (which is almost never). But when they ran the 12 days of Xbox promotion to end the year, the very first day had Bastion half off – only $7.50. This price was much better for me and I couldn’t wait to start.
Right off the bat, you notice how attractive the game is, and throughout the game, the narrator kept me informed and engaged. Some people don’t like his voice, but I found him highly entertaining. The gameplay is simple but solid, and the music and sounds are quite fitting. This game isn’t one that has a strong story; it’s just enough to give you a reason to keep going. Unfortunately, it is a quite brief experience (in my opinion justifying my refusal to buy it at $15) that I was able to complete the two necessary playthroughs and do everything there was to do in a short 8 hours.
Bloodrayne: Betrayal
Another arcade I noticed was on sale and decided to pick up. This game is a 2D side-scrolling hack n’ slash game and it is a throwback in a modern skin. What I mean by that is it is fun to play and difficult to master. I tried my hardest to get an S rank on the first couple of missions, but no matter how many times I tried, I was unable to do so.
I haven’t given up, though. I enjoy a good challenge and this game delivers. If you like these types of games, it’s worth taking a look.
I had this game since launch, but with so many other games in my to-do list, it kinda got lost in the shuffle. I pulled it out and decided to take a run through the first couple of levels, switching back and forth between the new graphics and the old and seeing how times have changed. It’s pretty amazing to see what used to be the top-of-the-line graphics back then and come them to what just slightly above average now.
I’ll be getting back to this title eventually. I’m looking forward to my run through the game on Legendary, but it’ll have to wait until I find some more free time.
This is a title I hadn’t picked up in a while. I haven’t touched any FPS for a good while, so I decided to hop online and go a few rounds. It appears my FPS skills have deteriorated some after not having played them in so long, making playing this game online quite the struggle. It didn’t help that everyone still likes to use the Camo so much. I got frustrated pretty quick, but at least I knocked out a few achievements along the way.
Yes, the first one. I was working on this title exclusively in previous weeks, but I stopped when I realized that one of my graffiti tags (needed for a pair of achievements) appeared to be glitched. I’ve triple-checked all the graffiti tags on the map – of which there are 75 – and it shows I’ve gotten them all, but the counter in the menu says I’m missing one.
It’s a big downer for me that I’ll probably have to start over after making so much progress. I don’t think I’ll be playing this again any time soon.
Games I Bought
I went on quite the buying spree in the past month or so. It’s not my fault, though! All these different stores and publishers are to blame with all the sales and discounts that were calling out to me over the holiday season. Anyway, here’s the list:
Bloodrayne: Betrayal
Bastion
Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition
Burnout CRASH!
From Dust
Beyond Good & Evil HD
Bulletstorm
Additional Intel
I had been telling both myself and others than I eventually wanted to buy an HD recording device so I could record my gameplay and make YouTube videos, and I finally made good on my claims. I am now the proud owner of a Hauppauge 1212 HD PVR and I have to say it works great so far. The quality is astounding.
I plan on getting some recreational videos up and possibly a few video guides here or there. I’m going to try and have a good time with it, so be on the lookout for any future updates.
In other news, it appears I will soon be a proud owner of a backwards-compatible ps3. My girlfriend’s brother had one and it stopped reading blu-ray discs, so they basically said if I can fix it, I can have it. I’ve already ordered the parts.
That wraps up my gaming report for this week. Now it’s your turn – what have you been playing this past week? What new games have you bought?
Let me know in the comments.
What I’m Gaming Vol. 13
December 12th, 2011 Mikey Welcome back to What I’m Gaming! At the beginning of every week, I post about the games I’ve played in the past seven days and give some quick thoughts and impressions about those games. To see past editions of this feature, click What I’m Gaming.
Well, I’m officially back and ready to pump out more content and impressions about the games I’ve been playing lately. It’ll probably be more concise than it has in the past because I’m not working as many games at one time like I used to. I’m trying to stick to one or two titles at a time and get them done. All the great releases from 2011 haven’t exactly helped me reduce my backlog, and 2012 is looking pretty strong, too.
Anyway, here we go.
Captain America: Super Soldier
Here we have a superhero game releasing the same year the film for the same character released. Unfortunately, most games of this ilk are underwhelming at best (side note: I recently played Thor, and it was THE worst game I’ve played this year).
Thankfully, Captain America: Super Soldier doesn’t fall into that category. I heard about it from friends on Xbox Live and they told me it wasn’t too bad, so I tried it out. They tried to borrow a few elements from Rocksteady’s excellent Batman franchise, to moderate success – the Captain doesn’t really have any true weak spots. The game was very enjoyable for me (especially since I love all the popular superheroes) and didn’t drag on too long, either. I was able to beat the game in around 6 hours, and I had gotten the full 1000 Gamerscore in a single day, putting my play time at a total of about 8.5 hours.
Overall, this game is decidedly average. It excels at no one thing, but does everything well enough to not suck. And that is a good thing.
Buy Captain America: Super Soldier on Amazon
Saints Row
Me and Saints Row have a love-hate relationship. I’ve never really been big into open-world games like this, but since I had bought the Double Pack (containing Saints Row and Saints Row 2), I decided to give it a try. I needed something new to play.
I love that the game never takes itself too seriously. I love that it has recognizable voice actors (for me, anyway; I usually don’t pay attention, but some of those are actors I’ve seen in movies and on TV). I enjoy the soundtrack. The gameplay, although a bit out of the norm for me, is fun, too. But I hate it when the game sabotages me and causes me to fail missions.
There have been a few missions where I spontaneously combusted, not knowing what killed me. There was one where my own gang members accidentally shot me with a rocket launcher. And there was the tme that, during a chase where the AI was driving and I was shooting, he drove smack into a wall and blew up our car. This stuff happens a little more frequently than I’d like it to, but in the end, the game is fun. The story is nothing to write home about, but riding around and taking control of the city of Stilwater (where the game is placed) is relaxing in a very chaotic way. It’ll be a while before I’m completely done, as is normally the case with open-world games, but I plan on moving to the second game in the series afterwards.
NBA 2K11
Yes, you’re reading it right. Although I own NBA 2K12, I’m still playing last year’s game. After a ridiculous amount of games played, I was recently able to get the My MVP, 4-Point Line, Buzzer Beater, Top Trey and Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown achievements completed. All of game left now are Association-related achievements and the Not Over Yet achievement, where you hit a game-tying three to force overtime.
I plan on sitting down and focusing on it to get it done in one day, and probably this weekend.
Additional Intel
If you’ve noticed, I’ve added links to Amazon following each game listed above. It’s something I’ll be doing now, to both make it easier for you if you want to get a game I’m talking about, and to support this site. If you purchase anything using the links I’ve provided, I will receive a small commission. If you choose to use them, I appreciate it and thank you in advance.
As always, I’d also like to find out what you’re gaming and your thoughts about anything I’ve mentioned in this post. Please feel free to leave a comment or follow me on Twitter @passthemstickss
Spike VGA 2011: Mikey’s Picks
December 10th, 2011 Mikey On Saturday, December 10th, 2011, Spike TV will air their annual Video Game Awards show. It began back in 2003, which Madden NFL 2004 won Game of the Year over games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker…
No joke.
But besides the blunder in 2003, they’ve been much better at selecting more reasonably qualified games. And with a strong group of releases for the year, the 2011 showing is shaping up to be pretty good.
I’ve taken the time to vote on their website for my picks of the nominees they’ve provided, and I will share more choices and some thoughts on each one. Please note that all choices I’ve made are based on my personal opinions and are based upon review scores or sales.
You can check out Wikipedia for current nominees and VGA history.
Game of the Year
Game of the Year is the most important category of them all, and even getting nominated for it is a huge honor. The nominees for GOTY this year are: Batman: Arkham City, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Portal 2, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
My vote goes to: Batman: Arkham City.
Simply put, it was the best game in a year full of great games. Arkham City built upon a solid foundation laid by Arkham Asylum in 2009 and improved it in almost every way. Solid story, great gameplay, plenty of side quests and collectibles, challenge maps, open world- this game had almost everything you could ask of it.
Studio of the Year
My vote goes to: Rocksteady Studios.
If you’re surprised, then you must not have read my choice above for Game of the Year. Rocksteady Studios are the ones responsible for crafting Arkham City, so it only makes sense that they are awarded as the Best Studio for 2011.
Best Xbox 360 Game
My vote goes to: Batman: Arkham City.
Once again, it shouldn’t be a surprise. If the Game of the Year is the best game of the year, then it’s only natural it wins out on all platforms it was released for. If you haven’t picked it up yet, I highly recommend you do. But buy it new, since you’ll have to purchase the Catwoman DLC separately, otherwise.
Best PS3 Game
My vote goes to: Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
It felt kind of awkward putting another game other than Batman here, but it wasn’t nominated under PS3 for some reason. As a matter of fact, all the PS3 games were first party titles this year (Uncharted 3, inFAMOUS 2, LittleBigPlanet 2 and Killzone 3). All solid games, but I digress.
Uncharted 3 was definitely the best PS3 game listed here, and for me, it was a fairly easy decision. I’m not much into LBP2 or inFAMOUS 2, and, although solid, Killzone 3 isn’t beating Uncharted 3.
Best Wii Game
I’m afraid I’ll have to leave this one to you, as I didn’t play or even watch a single second of any 2011 games for the Wii. My personal interest in it was lost last year, and nothing has released to pique my interest in it. 2012 holds Xenoblade Chronicles, and I eagerly await that title.
The nominees for this category are: Epic Mickey, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land, Lost in Shadow and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
Best PC Game
My vote goes to: Portal 2
Disclaimer: I do not play PC games. At all.
Now that that’s out of the way, I did play Portal 2 on consoles, so I know it was an excellent game. Add in the fact that it has a level editor to create your own near-impossible “tests”, and you’ve got a really great game for this category.
Subjectively, I don’t understand what people enjoy about Minecraft and no matter how you spin it, Battlefield 3 is still just a military shooter. The Witcher 2 does look good from what I’ve seen of it, but I’ll go with what I know for this category.
Best Handheld/Mobile Game
My vote goes to: Super Mario 3D Land
Another very easy and straightforward choice. A solid and lengthy platformer on the 3DS featuring the world’s favorite plumber. The other nominees should feel honored to be named in the same category.
Best Shooter Game
My vote goes to: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
This was a difficult decision for me. I was able to at least remove Gears of War 3 right away because of my well-documented dislike for it. I’ve seen RAGE played a bit in person and it looks very solid, but I didn’t have the pleasure of confirming that myself, so it all came down to a showdown between the Battlefield and Call of Duty titles this year.
I chose Modern Warfare 3 because, as a complete package, I feel it is superior. It’s got strong multiplayer and a better campaign, along with a few other modes that give it a bit more variety and overall appeal. Oh, and your entire friends list is playing it.
Best Action Adventure Game
My vote goes to: Batman: Arkham City
…should I get a stamp for this? Seriously though, it’s an excellent game with plenty to do and enjoy. Moving on…
Best RPG Game
I am not voting on this category this year. The only game I’ve played of the nominees was Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and although I loved it. I would definitely not consider it an RPG – not even under the looser, Western-style standards. I do plan on playing Dark Souls and possibly Dragon Age II (though I’d like to wait for a GOTY edition with all the DLC), but it won’t be this year.
For the record, Skyrim will probably win this category going away.
Best Multiplayer Game
My vote goes to: Battlefield 3
I know I gave Best Shooter to Modern Warfare 3, but that was primarily based on the strength of the overall package. If we’re looking at JUST the multiplayer, I think Battlefield 3 shines because of the more dynamic, strategy-laden approach. There are plenty of vehicles and building to blow up, and you actually get experience for performing your role – it gets more people to play under a team concept because they’re being rewarded for it.
I’d love to see these two series fore-go single player and just package the multiplayer and co-op portions and sell them at a reduced price of say, $40.
Best Individual Sports Game
My vote goes to: Fight Night Champion
Well, not much to say here other than I like punching people in the face. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel here, but the competition is fairly weak.
Best Team Sports Game
My vote goes to: NBA 2K12
Color me biased here, but the other nominees didn’t even have a chance when they put this game in with them. Simply put, it is the best basketball game ever made, even going as far as to stomp on and spit in the face of its predecessor, NBA 2K11. If you like basketball games and you don’t have this, please head to your nearest retailer now.
Best Driving Game
I am unable to choose for this category. I’m not into realistic racers, so Forza Motorsport 4 and DiRT 3 were out from the get-go. I planned on picking put copies of the other two, Driver: San Francisco and Need for Speed: The Run, but it didn’t work out.
Best Fighting Game
My vote goes to: Marvel vs Capcom 3
I’m kind of bummed that they’re not including Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 instead of the original, and they can’t use the release date as an excuse since The King of Fighters XIII didn’t release until November 22nd. Regardless, I love the crossover games because they’re the most fun to play.
I believe Mortal Kombat will win, though. Great reboot for the series and it looks better than ever, but I’m just not into the series anymore.
Best Motion Game
My vote goes to: Dance Central 2
Although Skyward Sword has a strong chance at winning, I hope Dance Central 2 takes it. It’s just a really fun experience, embarrassing yourself in front of family and friends from the comfort of your own home.
Best Independent Game
My vote goes to: Bastion
Considering I didn’t even know what two of the games were (The Binding of Isaac and Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP) and the other I don’t understand the popularity of (Minecraft), it was an easy choice. But really, Bastion would have won just off of its narrator alone.
Best Adapted Game
My vote goes to: Batman: Arkham City
*stamps*
Captain America: Super Soldier was nominated here as well, and I’ve heard they tried to copy the Batman model and to found some success. I’ll be playing it this weekend and I’ll find out for myself.
Best Song in a Game
My vote goes to: “Want You Gone” from Portal 2
I listened to each song, and “Want You Gone” was the only one I could ever see myself listening to outside of the actual game it’s from. Plus, it’s pretty funny.
Best Original Score
My vote goes to: Portal 2
Once again, it’s the only music I could find myself listening to outside the game. It fit’s the game well, and it’s comical. I love things that can make me laugh.
Best Graphics
My vote goes to: Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
I thought a lot about this one. L.A. NOIRE was easy to rule out because the graphics in that game aren’t that great – I don’t even know why it was nominated for this category. RAGE is very nice, and I was tempted to use my stamp and pick Arkham City, but then I realized that you’ll spend so much time in Awesome Vision (read: Detective Mode) that you’ll barely even see them. So, Uncharted it is.
Best Performance by a Human Male
My vote goes to: Mark Hamill as The Joker in Batman: Arkham City
All the performers here were excellent, but I’m going with The Joker here. He’s been doing it for years, and it shows. He’s got the Joker’s personality down and brings that cynical spirit to his character. But I can understand if anyone else is chosen, I can understand.
Best Performance by a Human Female
My vote goes to: Ellen McLain as GlaDOS in Portal 2
For me, it was between Harley Quinn and GlaDOS. I ended up choosing Ellen McLain because she has a much more prominent role in her game and more varied dialogue. She performed admirably in the game, but also did some excellent additional work, as well.
Best DLC
I choose not to vote in this category. I don’t like Fallout and didn’t get around to Mass Effect 2 yet (although I own it and the DLC). Freddy Krueger was cool, but I’m not into Mortal Kombat anymore. I guess I’d choose Peer Review since it was free, but I’m very disappointed that The Missing Link from Deus Ex: Human Revolution was not nominated here.
Most Anticipated Game
My vote goes to: Bioshock Infinite
I plan on playing through all the games in this category aside from Diablo III, but it wasn’t too hard of a choice. Although I love Halo, I haven’t been into it as much as I was a few years ago. So I went with Bioshock Infinite, which seems to be going in a great new direction. I’m surprised there were so few nominees here, though – 2012 is shaping up to be another strong year for gaming like 2011 has been.
GameTrailers.com Trailer of the Year
My vote goes to: Tomb Raider
I gave Dead Island some serious consideration here since it was such a beautifully executed trailer. But the reason I changed my mind on it was because it was not truly indicative of the game it was representing and didn’t feature even a second of gameplay in it. While Tomb Raider doesn’t have any gameplay either, I felt it more accurately portrayed the game that it belongs to (it should, since it looks like part of the intro for the game).
So there you have it – my personal choices for the Spike Video Game Awards for 2011. But, I only represent one of the many people out there, and I’m interested in what your choices might be. Let me know in the comments.
I promise, I haven’t gone anywhere
October 20th, 2011 Mikey 
The site has not exactly been the epitome of activity lately, as it’s been nearly two weeks without a peep from me. That shouldn’t happen, and I plan to do much better going forward.
However, the recent inactivity can be explained by two things:
1. I am about to move out of the my current apartment and into a house
2. I’ve spent a lot of time actually playing games
I’ve gotten over a bout of fatigue and I’m feeling much more spry and ready to take on the continual challenges of running this site and keeping it updated with new content. In the coming weeks, I plan to have several new opinion posts and a couple reviews up for your viewing pleasure. Just so you know what games I’ll be reviewing, they are:
· Deus Ex: Human Revolution
· X-Men: Destiny
· Spider-Man: Edge of Time
· NBA 2K12 (more impressions and comparisons to last year than review)
· Deus Ex: Human Revolution – The Missing Link DLC
Also, I’ll be getting back to my weekly What I’m Gaming posts, so you can see what I’ve been playing and what I’ve bought and plan to buy. I’m still struggling with the logo design, so that’s holding up the launch of the new theme, but I’ll be working on that, too.
And once I’m settled in to new home and recovered (financially speaking), I am thinking about buying an HD PVR so I can make some walkthroughs and perhaps a video achievement guide or two. If I do, I’m going with the best – a Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR
And thanks for sticking with me here.
What I’m Gaming Vol. 12
October 3rd, 2011 Mikey Welcome back to What I’m Gaming! At the beginning of every week, I post about the games I’ve played in the past seven days and give some quick thoughts and impressions about those games. To see past editions of this feature, click What I’m Gaming.
It’s going to be a rather short list this week, as I have really been focused on completing some stuff before the new releases of October get underway, plus there’s always that life stuff, too.
Games I Played
X-Men: Destiny
Well, it was a pretty short ride, but I’ve completed the entire game. Beat it, beat it again on X-Treme difficulty and got the full 1000 Gamerscore out of it. I enjoyed my time with this game, but I probably won’t be playing it again, since the replay value is pretty low. I’m trying to see if I can see it on Glyde.com. I bought it for $40, so if I am able to sell it soon, then I should get around $35 or so back, making it a $5 game. Not bad. Be on the lookout for my forthcoming review of this game.
Medal of Honor
As I’ve stated in the previous entry, all I need for offline is to complete Tier 1 mode – basically Hard mode with a time limit (par time) and no checkpoints. There are nine levels to complete, and I was able to complete the first one. I’m thinking maybe I’ll do one or two per day so I can knock this out pretty quickly, then I’ll move on to the multiplayer. I hope the multiplayer can be done with only two people so I don’t have to organize some big group to play.
NBA 2K11
Knowing that NBA 2K12, aka the greatest basketball game ever made, releases on Tuesday, October 4th, my brother and I played our annual best-of-seven series to see who takes the crown for that year. Spurs versus Lakers, of course (and I’m the Spurs). After going up 3-1, he took the next two to tie it up. In a crucial game 7, every glitch and exploit in the game reared it’s ugly head. I didn’t even complete the game – I turned off my 360 in anger and shattered my wireless headset by heaving into my closet door. I can’t wait to get 2K12. I hope they fixed these issues.
Games I Bought
I haven’t bought anything yet, but I WILL be buying NBA 2K12 right after work on Tuesday. It has been a long time coming. I’m interested in Rage, but I’ve simply got too much on my plate to get it right now.
Other Gaming-Related News
Not really gaming-related, but more of a site update. I know the theme I’m currently using doesn’t look all that great, and I’ve been searching for a better one for some time, I found one I like and am currently testing it on the back-end. It looks nice and clean. I need to make some small adjustments and then create what will be the passthemsticks.com logo, and it’ll be ready for a public release.
Be patience with me – I’m getting there.
Conclusion
That wraps up my gaming report for this week. Now it’s your turn – what have you been playing this past week? What new games have you bought?
Let me know in the comments.
What I’m Gaming Vol. 11
September 27th, 2011 Mikey Welcome back to What I’m Gaming! At the beginning of every week, I post about the games I’ve played in the past seven days and give some quick thoughts and impressions about those games. To see past editions of this feature, click What I’m Gaming.
Games I Played
X-Men: Destiny
Seeing as it was the number seven game on my top 12 most anticipated games of 2011 list, I felt I needed to go pick this up. After all, I love the X-Men universe and it looks like a decent game, plus Kmart has a deal going on this week for it.
It’s a pretty simple game that doesn’t do anything you haven’t seen before, but it feels pretty solid. I spent about three and a half hours playing and exploring it, and when it comes down to it, I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played. It’s strange I haven’t seen any reviews yet, but I’ll be getting one up once I complete it.
Medal of Honor
As I mentioned in last week’s post, I bought this game for a whole $4.19 from Gamefly. I had the urge to play through it, so I started it up on hard. Aside from a few annoying parts, the game’s hardest difficulty and mostly a cake-walk for any mildly experienced FPS player, but it was still pretty fun. I got all the offline achievements done except for the Tier 1 mode, which requires completing each level in under par time…without dying. Then, on to the multiplayer! Shouldn’t take long.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Yes, the first one. I never completed the campaign, and I didn’t realize I had a copy (I obtained several CoD games from buying a second 360 from Craig list, but didn’t notice it before) so I felt after completing Medal of Honor, I might as well. I’ve recovered from my period of FPS-related burnout and I’m back to shooting things! Anyway, I started over, and I got past where I got stuck in “Charlie Don’t Surf” and stopped at “The Bog.” I’m playing on easy to get the collectibles and other miscellaneous achievements, then I’ll try it on Veteran. Like last time.
NBA 2K10
A good week to turn back the clock, right?
With the release of NBA 2K12 coming next Tuesday, I wanted to work on this game and try to have it maxed out before I move on. I needed to start over on the dreaded My Player mode because my data for it was lost, and then there are a few random ones I never got around to attempting before, so I’ll clean those up. I’m almost done with My Player – just three more games, assuming I don’t get cut from training camp.
NBA 2K11
Yeah, had to get my weekly dose of the current year’s title. Been doing the same old thing I’ve been doing: My Player and random player matches against my bro. I’m getting a bit tired of it, since Tuesday can’t come soon enough. Too bad 2K12 will likely have early server issues. They do every year. Sigh.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
I’m still on my second playthrough in this game, mostly because since I beat it once, I’ve been trying to work on other stuff. I popped it in to continue my quest, only to realize that I am missing an eBook for the “Doctorate” achievement that I can no longer access. If you’re trying for that achievement, do NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT sneak around The Hive. Talk to the Bartender and convince him to let you see the Boss. I got discouraged and turned it back off after that.
Tales of Vesperia
I finally had a chance to pick this back up. All I really NEED to do is go through the final dungeon and beat the game, but I’m spending my time GRADE farming so I can buy all the things I’ll need in my New Game+. There’s a lot of stuff I need to be able to get, so I’ll be farming for a while. At least I found a method where I get around 2000 GRADE in one 20 minute battle.
Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard
It was only Hazard Time for about 20 minutes. I played one level and unlocked a few achievements I was missing and that was it. Very slowly working my way through on Max Hazard difficulty. This game doesn’t lend itself well to replay value.
Soulcalibur IV
I had a friend help me for a few minutes with this game since I only needed to win a few matches online in the maps I hadn’t unlocked yet. I got the “World Traveler” achievement, played with my custom character a bit, then took it out. I’m just not into fighting games like I once was.
Ultimate MK3
A friend asked me to help him try to get his 100 online wins. We tried, but we were unable to connect to any ranked matches. We’ll try again some other time, but I fear the servers may have been taken down.
Condemned 2: Bloodshot
I got a random message from someone who wanted to boost this, so I got on very briefly. It was a one match affair – I kill him and his friend, they kill me, finish the match. I’m now one Serial Killer kill away from the “SKX” achievement and finishing the multiplayer portion. Once I’m done, I might get around to playing the single player, too.
Games I Bought
This week, I bought X-Men Destiny through the aforementioned Kmart deal. I also found some info about a bunch of XBLA games that went on sale; pretty good ones, too. I have only bought Moon Diver so far, but there’s a few more that I’m considering. In case you’re wondering, here’s the XBLA sale list I am referring to.
Conclusion
That wraps up my gaming report for this week. Now it’s your turn – what have you been playing this past week? What new games have you bought?
Let me know in the comments.
My Top 6 Reasons NOT to buy Gears of War 3
September 21st, 2011 Mikey 
September 20, 2011. The big day – “Re-emergence Day” – has finally come and gone, and Gears of War 3 was released to much fanfare. Similar to when Halo: Reach came out, they held several events in NYC to celebrate the affair. In addition to all that hoopla, the game had three different versions (Standard, Limited and a whooping $150 Epic Edition) and a special edition console to boot. With all this craziness going on around you, it can difficult not to wonder what all the fuss is about.
I will not be joining the party.
That’s right. I said I will not be buying Gears of War 3 at any point. It may seem a bit odd, especially considering the fact that the 360 is the only current-gen console I currently own, but hear me out. I’m going to give my reasons for not seeing this trilogy through.
1. I’ve never been a big fan of Gears
Yes, I own the first two games and have completed the campaign for both the original Gears of War and the sequel and, chainsawing aside, I didn’t really enjoy them much. The first two games carry a relatively weak story, which is excusable since it’s a shooter. We tend not to expect much more than a reason to shoot at things from this genre. What I cannot excuse, however, are the cumbersome mechanics of these games. Gears of War was really the first game to have a good cover-based mechanic. Press ‘A” to stick. However, since bringing this idea to the table, it hasn’t improved, even as other titles have taken this idea and made it better. In Gears, I find myself getting stuck in cover far too often when trying to do, well, anything else. I appreciate the game wanting to keep me safe, but let me run into the battle when I choose to.
Oh, and the running. It’s bad enough they’re crab-walking the whole time (shout out to LeBron James), but the stopping power mechanic is crazy. In no other game I’ve ever played to the bullets slow your sprint to a crawl. When this happens to you, you’re almost guaranteed to be downed and hoping your partner will be nearby to revive you. Individually, these are small gripes, but together, they can ruin an experience. They’ve done that for me.
2. Grenade Tagging
Yeah, this one gets a point all to itself. Gears of War 2 introduced grenade tagging. For those who don’t know, it basically allows you to stick a grenade to anything, People routinely put a grenade on some random spot on the map and forget about it because someone will inevitably run across that area and blow up. They have no hope of survival, because it will explode immediately. This sort of gameplay tactic cheapens the game, since there is no work involved to get the kill. You’ll rarely see people actually using grenades the way you’d expect – by throwing them at people (note: I’m primarily referring to regular grenades, though ink grenades are abused, too). It leads to a lot of frustrating deaths, which lead to…
3. Inconsistent Spawning in Multiplayer
I understand that some game types have different respawn circumstances. Sometimes you get one life, sometimes you respawn when you don’t control the hill, and so on. However, it has not and will not ever make any sense to me how long the timer can run sometimes. There are times I die and respawn almost immediately, then there are other times that I’m waiting a full 15 seconds. And that 15 seconds is in addition to the time it takes to complete my death animation and the camera to zoom out. In Gears 2, that meant I’d generally spend more time watching the fight than participating. And that’s no fun.
4. Glitches
The first game wasn’t too bad, but the second was absolutely filled with glitches. And a lot of them were really bad, too. The second game had a total of four major title updates with the goal of fixing glitches, and yet many can still be found in the “final” product today. Recently, I was playing the “Road to Ruin” level with a friend (sneaking through) and he was dropping a crate to distract enemies before the big doors had even opened on my screen. And that was just a campaign level. Similar issues are found in multiplayer all the time. People still bridge for host to gain a big advantage, lag switches have been used, and there is no host migration, so if the host quits, the game ends. I cannot think of any other major shooter where there is no host migration. Yes, I’m aware several of these issues will be/are resolved with the addition of dedicated servers (and host migration added for when servers are not available), but the sour taste is still in my mouth from my previous experiences. And to top it all off, some people have had their levels reset for whatever reason. I’ve known of some who were level 85 or higher, working on getting their wings (awarded at level 100), only to have all their progress erased. The original had a similar issue with losing track of people’s kills.
5. “Seriously?”
It’s a relatively minor complaint, especially when compare to the above (and the fact that it doesn’t affect the actual gameplay), but it is a problem for some, so it is worth mentioning: some of the achievements are ridiculous. I’m not saying they’re hard – this isn’t Ninja Gaiden, after all, but some are ridiculously time consuming. The first game had “Seriously”, which requires 10,000 ranked kills in the online multiplayer. That’s a lot of kills, and will not even be considered by some people because of the sheer amount. I don’t have too much of an issue with that – they want you to play their game to death. Unfortunately, the above issues (glitches that erase kills, the lack of host migration) can make it take even longer and it becomes really infuriating. Some have even gone as far as 20,000 kills to unlock their achievement.
Thankfully, the “Seriously 2.0” achievement is more forgiving, allowing all campaign and unranked kills to count. However, they still added in the aforementioned level 100 achievement which is much more time consuming than either one of the “Seriously” achievements. In Gears 3, they’re at it again with the “Seriously 3.0” which requires you to reach level 100 AND earn every Onyx medal. That one will take some serious dedication – I can only hope it’s less frustrating for those who choose to pursue it.
6. The true cost of admission
This is the sneaky one. As shocking as it may be, Gears of War 3 will cost most people far more than the $60 sticker price. Assuming you only buy the standard edition, that’s what you’ve paid so far. But you know there’s going to be DLC – otherwise, why would Epic be selling a Season Pass for 2400 Microsoft Points (read: $30)? If you choose not to take advantage of this “bargain” (and why wouldn’t you if you’re going to get the DLC later anyway?), then you’ll be shelling out around $45 for the DLC that would’ve been included in the Season Pass. Oh, and apparently they’re selling individual weapon skins. If, for whatever reason, you chose to buy ALL of those (and hopefully you wouldn’t do that…), then that’s another $45. Epic may not be done with you yet, though. They left the description for the Season Pass open by saying “the first four DLC packs” are included. It’s not unreasonable to think that there may be 1-2 more after that that would need to be purchased separately.
That’s a lot of money. I’m not saying that other games are not going to have DLC, because they will. But I’m saying I’m not going to drop that much money (again) on a game that I’m not going to spend an intense amount of time with. I’d much rather give my hard-earned dollars to someone who will craft a more polished, enjoyable experience for me. This holiday season, I’ve got games like Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, Halo: CE Anniversary and Goldeneye 007: Reloaded to fulfill my shooting-related needs.
Because of my past experiences, I don’t have any faith in Epic as a developer. I tried to like Gears 2, but I just couldn’t do it. I’m not down with E.P.I.C.
