Life gets busy at times, and those times seem awfully frequent here in Washington. Health care reform, you may have noticed, is a pretty big topic among pretty much everyone. We not only have strong personal opinions on what may be the biggest domestic policy debate this country has ever seen, but many of us have jobs that are directly involved in the ever-shifting, day-to-day insanity that is health care reform.
I am no exception. And things look to stay crazy until our dear elected officials finally wrap things up around the holidays and visit their constituents for a few weeks.
This environment is not ideal for keeping up with the latest games, let alone the classics I have recently vowed to play-through in an effort to fill in my gaming history gaps. But I’ve kept my Dualshock 3, my Wiimote and my, erm, standard Xbox 360 controller to the grindstone, and I perservere on my quests.
I reviewed Red Faction the other day after a (nearly complete) playthrough. Check out the review below.
Super Metroid: I continue to be impressed with this esteemed classic, despite its age and endless hype as one of the “true greats” of the medium. I find myself needing to take day-long breaks every 90 minutes or so. Not because I don’t enjoy the game, but because it’s seriously tense. I feel a lot of pressure as I cavort around Planet Zebes. Nintendo games are so unforgiving — there’s no experience points for killing standard enemies (compared with, among many others, Symphony of the night); save points are frequent enough, but they do not replenish your weapons cache or your energy; you receive many unique weapons and abilities, but their pragmatic usage is not always immediately clear. This game makes you work for every last thing. It’s not a terrible policy for game design at all — it’s actually kind of refreshing compared to some of the handholding we see these days in modern releases. But it does make for a tense experience. I literally find myself taking deep breaths, and telling myself to stay cool. I feel genuine relief when I finally find my way back to my yellow spaceship — the one true sanctuary Samus has in the game so far — where ammunition, energy and a save point can all be found.
Not sure how much is left, but I’m enjoying my playthrough a lot. I intend to see this one through.
Next up — I’m not really a Batman guy — I stopped obsessing over super heroes when I was about 15. But I do like the occasional summer, super hero blockbuster (Dark Knight kicked ass, though it wasn’t quite the instant classic the critics made it out to be) and Batman: Arkam Asylum really has wowed critics. Though the PS3 version has bonus maps featuring some sort of Joker-related challenges, once again the 360 version supposedly has the better graphics. I’ll try to compare the two side by side, but I’m once again tempted to go 360 for my third party releases, despite the extra PS3 content. Why? Because I generally just don’t care about tacked on game bonuses. I never download the extra missions for games (see: Red Faction, Grand Theft Auto IV, etc.) because they tend to play like exactly what they are — half-baked ideas designed to extend the shelf life of a game for hardcore fans, not legitimate, worthy extensions of an already great game. I’m sure there are exceptions to this — when I finally get around to Fallout 3 later this year, I intend to buy the Game of the Year edition that includes all of the many expansions at no additional cost — but generally, I like to play through a game, enjoy it, and walk away feeling satisfied. I almost never feel the need to explore bonus levels, and I steadfastly refuse to hunt for achievements/trophies. Will let you good people know which version earns my dollars.
Contra: ReBirth came out last week apparently — slipped right by me! This is a great idea, though it drives me nuts it apparently does not support online co-op. In this day and age, Konami? Really? Still, for 10 beans, this one will be hard to pass up.
Tags: batman: arkum asylum, contra: rebirth, konami, nintendo wii, playstation 3, red faction, Super Metroid, Xbox 360
