I started playing a lot of games this weekend, and that’s not counting all the stupid shit I bought on Steam. And the sad part is – I don’t know that I’m ever going to finish any of them, not with Gears 3 arriving tomorrow.
Anyway. The bulk of the weekend was spent with my rental copy of Resistance 3. I’d not been a fan of the first 2 games – indeed, I only played about 5 minutes of R2 before boredom set in – but the reviews of R3 were positively glowing, and so I figured why not.
I’m enjoying it, for the most part. It generally looks really nice – not as jaw-dropping as Killzone 3 but it’s got great lighting and terrific art design. People move nicely, although their faces (outside of cutscenes) are a little weird. The weapons are probably my favorite part of the game – every gun is immensely satisfying to use, and I certainly enjoy leveling them up as I progress. Hell, I like that I keep leveling up even if I die repeatedly (which has happened in a few sections, unfortunately – so much so that I ended up moving the difficult down to Easy just so that I could finish it quickly). The biggest drawback, though, is the friendly AI, which is either stupid, non-helpful, or just plain broken. They don’t hit anything, and indeed sometimes they don’t even fire their weapons, even as enemies pour into view. What makes this even more frustrating is that the enemies seem to know this, also, which is why they only seem to target me.
I’m apparently at the end of Chapter 10 (of 20), so there you go. As noted above, I’m definitely not going to have a chance to finish it before Gears 3 arrives, and frankly I’m not entirely sure I’m ever going to finish it. But I’ll hold on to it in the meantime; maybe it’ll be something nice to switch back to if Gears 3 gets frustrating.
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I also spent an hour or two with Dead Island, which I’m playing on my PC. I’d been hemming and hawing about renting it for a while, and after listening to a bunch of podcasts I decided to forgo the console versions and just give it a download on Steam. I’ve heard it compared to both Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising, but to be honest the game it most reminds me of is Fallout 3 – specifically in terms of the size of the world, the combat, and the questing. I think this is a good thing. It’s a bit clunky in spots, and the writing/voice acting is a bit off, but it also feels wildly ambitious and I feel compelled to give it a good effort.
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I’m still plugging away in Driver: San Fransisco, which I apparently haven’t written about here. I like it! It’s a bit frustrating here and there, but I love how completely batshit insane it is, and I especially love how the developers really took this lunatic premise and went all-out with it. And I also appreciate just how much stuff there is to do, which goes a long way towards easing frustration with story missions or races or what-have-you.
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As for Steam sales… god. I’m such a whore. Picked up Darksiders and Mirror’s Edge for 5 bucks apiece – both games I’ve already played before on the 360 – and then I did the Star Wars mega-pack, mostly because we also bought the Star Wars blu-ray set and so we had it on the brain. (Which I’m sure wasn’t merely a happy coincidence on Valve’s part.) I did the first 5 minutes of KOTOR and turned it off immediately – it felt very clunky with a mouse and keyboard, and I didn’t want my memories of that game sullied by reality. Also – the Star Wars: Force Unleashed install was something like 24 gigs? WTF?
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I keep meaning to do another Subway Gamer piece, and I keep not having time. So here’s a quick taste of what’s been keeping my iPhone busy of late:
Jetpack Joyride might be my frontrunner for most addicting game of the year.
Quarrel is a fantastic word game – anagrams mixed with Risk. If it had online multiplayer I’d never turn it off.
Monsters Ate My Condo is… I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s a pretty insane little puzzler, good for quick 5 minute bursts.
Dragon Portals is something I downloaded for free the other day; it’s an intriguing take on the old match-3 formula. Not sure I’d recommend it at full price, but for a free download it’s certainly worth checking out.
Shouts From The Couch 