This summer..: In games

Summertime summertime, never was a funner time.

Or something.

To give an impression of what I've been up to this summer, I'll present my activities in several posts, each concerning a new catagory. This one, obviously being most important to my existence is gaming. Video-gaming that is.

So, here's a run down:

System Shock 2.



Brilliantly scary and argueably the inspiration behind any sort of rpg/survival horror elements in todays fps games, inspiring even Half Life and Deus Ex in its methods. Still holds up well 9 years on.


Street Fighter 3



To me this is THE best streetfighter; weighty animations, easy to learn but difficult to master gameplay and jaw-dropping character design. The parry system makes this a fiendishly addictive game.

Contact



An imaginative RPG, essentially a spinoff of the 'Mother/Earthbound' series as you play the role of .. yourself AND a small boy who make contact with the professor from the previous games. You then scour the world looking for cells to power his systems so he can get home. Or something. I honestly wasn't listening as he explained his problem as I was too focused on the stat-building system which involves changing into different outfits and digesting food, but to be fair, a game that gives a young boy an army combat knife and then only provides him with benefits if he uses it to slaughter screen after screen of woodland animals can only be a good game in my eyes.

Pokemon Diamond



(Its essentially the same grind-fest it's always been; went off it in a couple of days)

Castlevania SOTN



The most popular of the Castlevania series, I find myself drawn back to it whenever I have some time on my hands and a playstation in my grasp. The music is atmospheric as is are the lush landscapes and monster designs and its all wrapped in the neat little bow of being a kick-ass son-of-a-vampire.

GTA IV



Played this for about an hour one lunch time and got really tired of it quickly. To be fair I cant' have given it much of a chance but I felt almost .. queasy from the transition of 'usually cartoony and therefore hilarious' car-on-pavement rampages of the previous titles to this installments 'you're basically a real life murderer now' interpretation. I'd been looking forward to this game but.. bit too realistic for my liking.

Fable



I'd actually missed out on this game when it came out so when I saw it for a quid in a preowned bin, I jumped on it. Honestly, wasn't that impressed with the result.. not the level of depth I was expecting maybe or.. perhaps I've played games that have borrowed from and subsequently built on this supposed classic.

Morrowind



Messed around in the massive Morrowind for a day or so, trying to get a feel for what an immersive RPG is; hence Fable as well. There is something about Morrowind that ends up feeling very cold and... isolated. Sure it's huge and there are alot of places to go and kill the same 7 monsters but everyone is just a quest giver and never really seem to have alot of depth to their own characters, where as in Fable, people could be seen milling about in their own lives and involving each other in their own story.

(I was conducting this research for a game that I'm designing but dont' want to put up on here just yet.)

and Capcom VS SNK Millenium Fight 2000



Another very good 2d fighter, combines elements of street fighter, darkstalkers and king of fighters into one huge mishmash of smashy smashy intensity. I really love Capcoms character designs but SNK's all felt very similar and 'serious'.

Hmm, that is quite alot of games! Next time, Books!