Backlog Gamer 2/12-2/18

Well, my posts are getting closer to the beginning of the week.  At this rate I'll be posting on day one by the middle of next month.  All right me!

As I stated last week, when I first conceived this I thought it would be best to show some sport and only pick games randomly.  I failed miserably when the first group of games turned out to be some of the most highly rated recently released games in my collection.  However, this week I decided to play by the rules and  pick randomly.  Will I be rewarded for my honesty, or will I feel the flames of redemption?

                     
                                                                        Post Mortem

Portal 2: Wow.  I mean, wow.  The only way I think I can express myself properly is to directly beam the information to your brain in the pure emotional content (so as to not spoil the nice bits).  Ready?  Errrrrm.  Got it?  Yeah, what did I tell you!  Awesome, right?


                                                                          
                                                             Games List For This Week


Game 1: Enslaved
Game 2: Stellar-Fire
Game 3: Kyle's Quest 2 

                                                                                                                                   

Title: Enslaved
Platform: Xbox 360
Purchase Date: 9/29/11
Cost: $9.99

At last, Enslaved finally gets the attention it deserves.  I know that in the past I seemed a little "blah" on it, stating that it seemed a little average and maybe generic.  I would now like to formally take this back.  Sure, in some cases the action can be a bit predictable (I'm speaking specifically of the general direction of the action, not the action itself), but Enslaved has sunk its claws into me, and not just the story this time: The characters, action , along with the story are equally as important to my experience.  I especially enjoy how, for all his supposed strength, Monkey is often completely outmatched by the mechs in combat (even against the "weaker" ones) and is forced to rely almost exclusively on his unmatched agility.

If I reviewed games I would give this game a solid B as long as it holds out to the end.

                                                                             

Title: Stellar-Fire
Platform: Sega CD
Purchase Date:1998
Cost: $1.00


The funny thing is that I thought for sure that most of the games I randomly picked would end up being PC or NES games, which makes sense as those platforms make up over 26% and 20% of my collection (respectively).  In the end I think I had to hit the random button three times.  The first two were either demos or games I'd already beaten, and on the third Stellar-Fire popped up.  I have to admit I am rather nervous.  I have never played this game, not even to test.  I purchased all of my Sega CD games in a lot, and I was only really interested in the Working Designs games that came with it.

Playing this game might prove a little harder, as my Sega CD was acting "weird" the last time I booted it up.  Therefore, I will use my laptop as an emulator, which should be interesting at the very least.

                                                                                                                                                  

Title: Kyle's Quest 2
Platform: iOS
Purchase Date: N/A
Cost: N/A


Once upon a time there was a group of devices called PDAs.  While they were mainly for organizational and productivity purposes, it turned out that people wanted to also play games.  Many of these games were fun, but most sucked.  A game that didn't suck on this platform was a little series called Kyle's Quest.  At heart modeled after 8-bit role playing games, this two Kyle's Quest games featured Japanese-inspired big-head characters but with a nice Western twist: you could make your own adventures.  While this sort of control didn't appeal to everyone, it wasn't long before there were a ton of great adventures to play.  While the games weren't free (very little quality titles were free on PDAs) the adventures were, meaning that one could easily make the $14.99 price tags a non-issue.

Kyle's Quest 2 (and the innumerable downloads for it) provided me many hours of entertainment in a very dark part of my life.  Because of this I didn't expect to care much when I found this game in the iOS App Store (just thinking about it brought back memories of hospital-sterility) for free, but I was surprised.  Though the game has lost the ability to load player made levels from the Internet, there are still twenty different games loaded in, and since many of them are short, they fit the aesthetics of a mobile platform.

I don't see myself deleting this game on Monday as I have done with the previous weeks "Game 3" title.



In The Bag For 2012
Alan Wake - 1/25
Dead Space 2 - 2/4
Portal 2 - 2/10

Backlog Gamer 2/5-2/11

I probably should have explained the ideas behind this blog a it better last week.  My intentions were to play through my game collection, choosing only games that I had not finished (I know that is a subjective term, but we can cross that road later, I think).  This project should keep me busy for quite a while, even taking into account the extra time I now have.  Got it?  Good.

Regarding the Games List, because I cannot count on being able to play games either on a television or computer (my wife or one of my children are utilizing it, for example), I thought it best to choose two games from different platforms (usually PC and a console game) and play through them.  But since I have such a Jones for indie and mobile games, I would add a third game for that week that could be on any platform (and more importantly, allow me to continue gaming on my laptop should other avenues be closed).  The plan was that I would pick a primary game, a secondary game, and a "side" game.  The primary and secondary game would be from my personal collection, and could be played for the amount of time needed to "finish" the game.  The "side" game would be a indie or casual game of my own choice, but regardless of where I was at the end of the week, I would put it down and pick up another.  Because some games would be finished before others, I decided to changed the game naming convention from "Primary" and "Secondary" to "Game 1" and "Game 2", with the indie or casual being "Game 3."  Still with me?  Good. because that is enough ranting for this week.

                       
                                                                        Post Mortem

Dead Space 2: This game was wonderful from beginning to end, though I felt some parts of it were meant for a "Strategy Guide Gamer."  As I made my way through the game, I spent my Power Nodes on upgrades for my Rig, my Plasma Cutter, and a few other weapons. My error was apparent as I faced the final boss with nearly no ammo and for my main shooter (Plasma Cutter) and no sufficient "big" weapon.  It took me an hour to finally make it.  It wasn't pretty.  After I reviewed the a few guides on Gamefaqs I saw I could have cut a few hours out of my final time (about eleven hours) if I had followed the weapon upgrade paths listed.  Oh, well.  I will end up playing this game again for sure just to play with the weapons, I think.
                                                                          
                                                         Games List For This Week


Game 1: Portal 2
Game 2: Enslaved
Game 3: Cartoon Wars: Gunner 

                                                                                                                                     

Title: Portal 2
Platform: Steam (on PC)
Purchase Date: 1/1/12
Cost: $7.25

This game is...  The thing about Portal 2 is...  I just realized that I can't even really talk about this game without giving things away, which is the last thing I would want to do to someone who has yet to experience this masterpiece.  Ah, I have it!  The game takes the content from the first game and turns it up to eleven!  Too cliche?  Portal 2 takes the excellent puzzle-type gameplay and engrossing story and of Portal 1 and then eclipses it in every way.  Did you like Portal?  Then you need to play Portal 2

Title: Enslaved
Platform: Xbox 360
Purchase Date: 9/29/11
Cost: $9.99


The smart thing for me to do when I finished Dead Space 2 would have been to focus on playing this game first and pick a replacement later.  Oh, well.  I still contend that the best feature of this game is Trip, who exhibits emotions and behaviors that break the usual female stereotypes featured games up till now.  I'm just about out of things to say about this game, so I'll make sure to beat it next.

                                                                           

Title: Cartoon Wars: Gunner
Platform: iOS
Purchase Date: N/A
Cost: N/A


There are about a million types of this game available on iOS.  This is neither the best or worst, but the one that I saw first (that was free).  You play a stickfigure out to survive waves of various weapon-wielding stick figures and strange beasts, using various upgradable missile (such as guns and bows) and melee weapons (such as swords and... swords).  You can even get a minigun-firing mech at some point (with the appropriate amount of gold).  Fun and light, which is all I really need for a casual game.


In The Bag For 2012
Alan Wake - 1/25
Dead Space 2 - 2/4