Thursday, December 31, 2009

My picks of the year?

Really meant to do this earlier, but I'd been kept indisposed. Sometimes you just can't get away from the friend that doesn't know how keep his mouth closed long enough for you to tell him to do so...

Anyways.

Here are my picks of the year. They might be in line with other people's, they might not. And not everything will be from this past year. Mostly, but not entirely. If anyone reading this likes my picks, great. If not, remember this is my opinion, not yours. And if you try to pull that "Well your opinion is wrong." shit, well then you can go fuck yourself. And one last note, this is based on what I've seen and played, and I haven't seen or played everything.

Favorite Games (no particular order)
Borderlands
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Deadspace
Deadspace: Extraction
Halo ODST
Super Mario Brothers Wii
Muramasa: Demon Blade

Favorite Movies (no particular order)
Star Trek
District 9
Inglorious Basterds
Avatar
Corarline
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Zombieland

Favorite Books (no particular order)
Infoquake - David Louis Edelman
The Quiet War - Paul McAuley
Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks
Grass for His Pillow - Lian Hearn

Other Favorite Stuff (no particular order)
Warehouse 13
Venture Brothers season 4
Doctor Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog
Deadpool
Radical Comics

Worst Games (not necessarily bad, just disappointing) (no particular order)
Cross Edge (went over this one before)
Overlord II (average)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (single-player gameplay is okay, but the writing was the biggest sack of shit outside of Transformers 2)
Star Ocean (combat good, but the characters look like dolls, the VA work and writing are pretty crap)

Worst Movies (no particular order)
Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen (only good thing about it is the Robot Chicken skit "Michael Bay presents 'EXPLOSIONS!!!'")

Worst Books (not necessarily bad, just disappointing) (no particular order)
Crossover - Joel Shepard (couldn't get into it)
Godspeaker trilogy - Karen Miller (found almost all of the characters unlikable on some level or another, and depictions of fanatical religious devotion is a loaded subject these days too)
The Difference Engine - Bruce Sterling and William Gibson (what was the point of the story?)

Looking Forward to Next Year (no particular order)
Geosynchron (book) - David Louis Edelmann
Gardens of the Sun (book) - Paul McAuley
Mass Effect 2 (game)
Final Fantasy XVI (game)
Iron Man 2 (movie)
Shutter Island (movie)

Those lists are a whole bunch of crap, aren't they? Whatever. That's what I've got for now. :P

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Games I would have/have not...

...paid full price for.

Some games are good, some bad, most average. If you're sure they're good, you buy them day one (or shortly thereafter). If they're bad, they hit the local gamestop/used-game retailer just as fast. If you're just not sure, then you wait until it drops in price, or a cheap used copy. Regardless of how you play it, you find most are or aren't worth full price.

Things I paid less than full price for, but would have paid full price:

1) Deadspace: Okay, I'm not big on horror media in general, though I've watched enough to know how it all works. Space horror works on me. Of the horror movies that I've seen, Alien and Event Horizon are the only ones that actually scared me beyond the standard-issue "spring-loaded cat" moments, and I like those movies. Most other horror movies, ehhh... not so much. And even though it uses the Doom-style monster closet spawns, it still has the atmosphere those two movies had. Scared the crap out of me first playthrough, while going through with powered up weapons wasn't so bad. Then I played on the hardest difficulty. Yeah... I ended up listening to a podcast most of the way through, the enemies were so much harder that listening to the music and SFX would've freaked me out more. Either way, if I'd been interested in the game when it came out, I definitely would've paid full price for it.
2) Civilization 4: Got it during a sale on Steam, heard about it because the guys on the Rebel FM podcast (www.eat-sleep-game.com) went on about it for several episodes. Great turn-based strategy game, look up some reviews.
3) Assassin's Creed 2: Just came out (at time of writing), so just look it up. Admittedly, it was a used copy for only $5 cheaper, but, you know.

Games I paid full price for and wish I hadn't:

1) Cross Edge: I bitched about this one a couple months ago. Douchebag friend borrowed it, liked it more than I did, but has also failed to finish it. Haven't gotten it back yet, though I would since I plan on trading it in as soon as I do...
2) Prototype: Fun for what it is, but average game.
3) Overlord 2: Would've/should've gotten it used, but didn't. Kinda quirky and different, but still, a meh game (to me anyways).

Games I bought for partial price and glad I didn't:

1) Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard: Okay, this game is a definite rental. Gameplay is kinda average, BUT the plotline is worth playing through once simply because of how sharp the writing is, with its large number of homages to games and nerd culture, all the way to its incredibly genre-savvy hero, Matt Hazard.
2) Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Just finished this today (of this writing). Not a bad game, graphics are good, so is the story (to my suprise). But there are enough bugs and wonky controls, among other things, that I glad I didn't pay full price.
3) Mirror's Edge: Liked the demo, played the first couple levels. Haven't gotten around to finishing it, and need to.

Full Price, worth every penny:

1) Batman: Arkham Asylum: Well duh!
2) Borderlands: "You know there ain't no rest for the wicked..."
3) Halo ODST: Screw Master Chief, ODST for life!

I'm probably missing some, but I didn't want this to be too long, especially with this long list of tags.