Saturday, January 03, 2009

2008 revsited:


I can't promise to be as specific as the previous posts, but 2008 goes something like this:

Xbox 360:

Bioshock: My first 360 experience. Brilliant in a every aspect.
Shenmue 2: My second 360 experience. I bought the Xbox game without actually owning an Xbox. I bought it for the Shenmue 1 DVD. Couldn't resist making it my 2nd game on the 360.
Call Of Duty 4: Great on mission mode, but I don't see the attraction of endless online matches (unlike my middle son who puts in an hour before school each day...)
Gears Of War: Enjoyable but not earth shattering... That's not meant to be as dismissive as it sounds.
Condemned: I liked it! (Played during my dislocated shoulder convalescence)
Viking: Battle For Asgar... played a good chunk, but never completed. (I felt bad about letting Nebacha down on that one...) Enjoyable!


Max Payne 1 & 2: Definitely two of the greatest games of all time.
Dead Rising: Dabbled, but didn't get very far, then I bloody lost it! How do you lose a game in the relatively small confines of a house???? Not the first time this has happened either!
Sega Rally Revo! (360) Could this game please get some more love??? Still want to play friends online on this one, but hate the vertical split screen)
Virtua Fighter 5!!! Awesome online, but I get my arse kicked! (Playing Nuno and speaking to him - and his mum- was a gaming highlight of the year...)
Soul Calibur 4! Awesome online and I kick arse!
Blacksite: Area 51. (360) Critically panned (specifically by Funnyman) but I enjoyed it!
GTA IV (half way through...) This is the game that totally opened my eyes to the potential of the franchise...

Nintendo Wii:


No More Heroes (Wii) A great game, but I got stuck on the last but one boss. Disappointed I never finished as it was one of the only Wii games I've enjoyed this year.
Umbrella Chronicles (Wii) If I could defeat those damned Twin Ivans, this would have been my game of the year! (however, as I couldn't complete the game, it remains something of a bitter-sweet experience)
Ghost Squad (Wii) Great, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected...
House Of The Dead II & III Return - Wii (a lazy port... I've ony put it into the Wii once)

PS2:


Resident Evil Dead Aim PS2: Loved it!
Devil May Cry 2 PS2: Loved it!
Yakuza PS2: Simply stunning. Perhaps the greatest revelation of the year!
Matrix Path Of Neo: Second playthrough... Totally satisfying!


Gamecube:


Resident Evil: (Gamecube) Simply stunning, with graphics that I've yet to see betterered on any next gen console. Unfortunately, I lost my GC memory card and thus, never completed! DOH!

PC:

Sega Rally (PC) There's something great about playing a Saturn game on the PC and I can sneak in a bit of Saturn gaming at work too.
HOTD III (PC) Very nearly completed it...

Dreamcast:



In terms of the old Dreamcast, this was the year I centralized the collection, with the intention of actually playing games I'd bought but not tried, However, the only games that received any real attention were Half Life (which I tired of half way through) SOTB: Gut's Rage which I played during Dreamcast June and completed and loved and Jet Set Radio which I played as much as I could and loved, but on which I got stuck around the Russian level. I'll definitely return to it at some point... Tee Off Golf was a great distraction. 2008's only Dreamcast release, Wind And Water Puzzles, proved to be nicely packaged and lovingly produced, but was never going to set the world on fire!



At the moment I'm loving Fallout 3, my Resident Evil 5 Demo and Burnout on the DS. I'm sure there's more but I'm running out of steam... I'll post separately about my retro downloads on the 360 and Wii. I'll post separately about my handheld gaming on GGOTG. I've also got a bunch of games spread across the consoles mentioned above and the glory of the PS3 to investigate during 2009, which look's like it could be a good one for gaming.


Happy New Year to you all...

17 comments:

Junlee said...

If you liked Devil May Cry 2, then PLEASE play the other games! It is no understatement to say that #2 severely pales in comparison to the other games.

Nice post fatherk! :)

The Sports Satirist said...

I am really hoping Yakuza 3 will be available in the USA. The first two game were underrated.

Great point about the original Gears. Cover your eyes Neba. I do concur with you that it is "not earth shattering." However, the sequel is epic beyond believe.

I take it that you own a PS3 now. Are you taking full advantage of your kids again?

By the way, Happy New Year!

fatherkrishna said...

Junlee, I have 1, 3 and 4 already to play in the house... There's a big queue (line) of unplayed/uncompleted games though, so when I'll get round to them I don't know!

I've been the bigger man and let them have exclusive access to the PS3 so far Funnyman, apart from a couple of drunken Singstar and Guitar Heroes goes.

Have Fifa 09, Condemned 2, Need For Speed Undercover, COD World At War and DMC4 awaiting me on the PS3 whenever time allows...

Junlee said...

So you DO have a PS3!!! I must add you immediately!

I knew something was up when you said you were gonna play Valkyria Chronicles.

Junlee said...

It appears I can't read after looking through your post again.

lol

Ice Koobs said...

COD w@w is all that. And it's good to see I'm not the only one that thinks that Gears Of War isn't great (sorry again Neba).
Good to see you posting again Father K. I'm guessing your shoulders is fully better if you are rocking out on Guitar Hero.
Koobs

gnome said...

Excellent, excellent round-up.

The Sports Satirist said...

I really cannot determine your taste in games father. With you enjoying Devil May Cry 2 and Blacksite Area 51, I am unsure what to say to that.

Junlee said...

It's because he hasn't played the other 3, vastly superior games in the series, lol.

Having played DMC2 first, I'm afraid you might not be prepared for the action of the other 3, especially DMC3.

:P

NebachadnezzaR said...

Nice round-up! I'd love to do something like this, but I played so many games last year, it would take me ages to make a list...

BTW, you might be interested to know that, thanks to your enthusiasm, I played and beat Resident Evil: Dead Aim (with the gun it's a whole new experience) and was playing Yakuza (chapter 6, if I remember correctly) before my PS2 died.

Oh, and I'm totally with Junlee, you GOT to play the other DMC games!

Funnyman, it's funny (lol) you say that, since GoW 2 is pretty much an improved GoW. What I mean is, if you loved the second, you should love the first too, since they play basically the same.

Oh, and Father, congratulations on your PS3! You now have the complete current-gen set! :D I should really buy something for mine, haven't played anything else after MGS4, nowadays I only use it to watch dvd's and my anime collection (those who are compatible, they should really add support for .mkv files...).

The Sports Satirist said...

That is where I disagree with you Neba. I have probably mentioned this before, but I thought the original Gears was an average game. Maybe I am the only person who never bought into the first Gears, and I am presuming that makes me an exception to the norm. But they improved so many things in Gears 2 that it felt like a completely different game from the first Gears. They did more than just tweak a few trivial things in Gears 2. Like Cliffy once said, it's bigger, better, and more bad ass.

fatherkrishna said...

"I really cannot determine your taste in games father..." You can Funnyman, I'm a rare and unfathomable creature who appreciates high art and trash culture! My taste in music, art, films and food are similarly contradictory... ;)

"Having played DMC2 first, I'm afraid you might not be prepared for the action of the other 3, especially DMC3."
I think you're spot on Junlee...
Martin struggled far more with DMC1 and has not yet completed it...

Thanks Nebacha! God Of War III, MGS4, Motorstorm and Yakuza 3 were all things I thought I'd have to wait years to play, but it seems not... :)

Cup of tea anyone?

Ice Koobs said...

Oh yes please. I'll it white with two sugars please.
By the way Funnyman, you aren't the only person who feels like that about Gears of Wars. I'm guessing you haven't listen to the pod cast of J's that I guessed umm voiced in. He had to edit out most of what I said. My original rant went on for around an hour.
The only thing is that I disliked Gears 1 so much that I don't want to get Gears 2.

Junlee said...

You should just upload your rant to your site koobs so everybody can enjoy it, fully unedited! :D

NebachadnezzaR said...

Is DMC too hard for you, Father? :D

This is an interesting subject because, as you probably know, I absolutely hate hard games, I play for fun, not for a challenge, but still I've never had a problem with the DMC series, even DMC 3 which everyone said was fucking hard, so much that the special edition had an easy mode or something.

I really don't understand, maybe it's just the gameplay that feels so tight, like you're in absolute control

Come on, Father, give the first game a try. I beat it when I was 13, don't tell me you're not better than I was back then :P

Junlee said...

He might not be able to tell you that neba! :P

lol, jk. But the first game is great, but I like the 3rd and 4th games better. The 3rd game is ridiculous action all over the place with a great story to boot! The 4th game, while the backtracking annoyed some people, I loved it! And Nero is a great new character, unlike that purple (red?) haired, boring bitch in DMC2.

fatherkrishna said...

I very much doubt it Nebacha! I am in the categry that might be determined "Special Needs Gamer..."