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