Friday 21 March 2008

Return of the Pie

I've been off ill this week, and it suddenly occurred to me that I haven't blogged here at all in ages. Busy? Doubt It. Forgot? Likely. Lazy? Yes.

Anyways, last weekend Aquatic and I decided to do a little meet up. The plan was originally to venture to the capital of our fair and glorious nation to visit the Queen for tea, but unfortunately, we realised we we're completely and utterly skint, so gave up. Instead, we took a quick trip down to GameStation and browsed the used games section. An hour later, we left confidently with 8 games (for £20 too) and Aquatic also grabbed 2 Shadow of the Colossus models, which are awesome. Anyways, here are the eight games (all PS2, because that was the only console we had with us to play that night):

  • Crazy Taxi: As good a place to start as ever. Great, fun game though, if beginning to show its age a little. Oh and everything is crazy. Title screen: that's crazy. At character selection, everyone is crazy. Then jump into the game, crazy mode mind you, and it's all "Let's go earn some crazy money!". Just a note. In case you're allergic to crazy or anything. B-
  • Goldeneye: Rogue Agent: Now, I know a lot of people hated on this, but I love it. It's great fun to play, and to me that's what makes a fantastic game. Also the Environment Traps are great fun to use in multiplayer, and opening the trap doors on the Golden Gate Bridge before explaining to the Wanderer about said traps was great. A-
  • Red Faction: Okay, admittedly we didn't play this for long yet, but the idea seemed sound, story (outlandish but no complaints) seems solid, and the ability to blow the crap out of whatever is in front of you is fun. Probably the only annoying bit is the technological limitations of an early PS2 title: the graphics aren't great, and the gameplay, especially movement, is a little dodgy. Actually being able to shoot someone and they die instantly gives a great sense of satisfaction though. B-
  • Deus Ex: This is harsh bearing in mind I played about 10 minutes of it, and you have to remember when this was made (2002 on PS2), but I found serious issues. Terrible framerate, glitchy controls and gameplay, long and very frequent load times to name but a few (ignoring graphics). Having said that, I know that it is supposedly a good game, and it has 90 on Metacritic, so I will try getting into it properly somewhere along the line. C
  • Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: Aquatic and I played this is co-op mode, as Legolas and Gimli respectively, which was great fun. Or at least it was apart from Aragorn's seeming inability to do anything-at-funking-all bar sticking in an occasional sword to get some kill points. Still, combat is perfect, graphics are top notch, voice acting blah blah blah it's all great, kay? A+
  • Haven: Call of the King: I'd never heard of this before, but Aquatic told me to buy it and I'm glad I did. I'm a big platformer fan, but there just doesn't seem to be many good ones around any more. Here is one though, it has a little of the Beyond Good & Evil about it, but that's hardly a bad thing. Overall great quirky little game. B+
  • XIII: Not the Final Fantasy game silly, the actioner. I absolutely adore the comic book stylings and it is a great fun game to play, it's at the bottom of my pile to play at the moment just due to the amount of games I got, but my play of the first through levels reminded me why I used to love playing it on my mates Xbox 1. B+
  • TimeSplitters 2: I loved TimeSplitters Future Perfect, which was one of the first games I got for my PS2 back in the day. The gameplay was the best I'd seen and the game was both fun and hilarious. So finally, I dug out a copy of 2 and it is just as great! The time between the games doesn't appear to have hindered it at all, and it was a blast to play, both in co-op mode and deathmatch - which is insanely fast. A+

So overall, lots of awesome games!

FO