Game Addiction Blog

So another Christmas is upon us.

As always this is one of the best time of the year.

Meeting with family, presents…the Christmas lights. It’s all so uplifting in this darkest time of the year in Iceland.

My parents also managed to surprise me with this years Christmas presents. I got a Phillips Electric Shaver that dispenses lotion as it shaves, Guinness’s World of Records and Ripley’s Believe or not.

But the best present that I got and am really happy with was one of those things below.

A Nokia N73 Music edition. A wonderful present since I had been settling with a prehistoric POS prior to this one.

I spent most of yesterday messing around with it. Got a few games for it. I’m really surprised by how advanced mobile graphics have become. I mean having 3d graphics and colorful SNES like graphics on a phone.

This phone will come in handy on my trip to USA next year since with it I can also watch Divx/Xvid and listen to Mp3.

Anyway everyone have a merry Christmas and enjoy your time with the family!

- X

Finally something…

Maybe Duke Nukem Forever developement won’t be Forever after all.

Duke has never looked better, voice acting was meh though.

- X

Christmas time is almost upon us and because I’m so cruel and stuff I’ve decided to post a Cover of Oh Holy night I found on youtube.

Wish I could say it will get you into the holiday spirit but that can’t be guaranteed. At the very least you can laugh yourself silly watching this video.

- X

Christmas draws near…It crept up on me out of nowhere using it’s ninja skills or something..

My heavy workload is also drawing too a close next week so I’ll get to relax and play some games for a change.

I was going to take a trip to visit my friends but looks like I’ll have to save that for after Christmas at this point.

Oh, next year in March I will be attending Digital Overload which is a LAN hosted by Tim Buckley(Ctrl+Alt+Delete) in the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence. Tim is a casual acquaintance(we chat from time to time) of mine so it will be fun meeting him in real life not to mention all of my other American friends that will be attending the event.

I intended to go last year but as the event drew nearer I just didn’t have the money for the trip. Now however I have gathered over $3000 for the trip and already bought the plane ticket and signed up for the event.

I’m gonna try to sink myself into Assassin’s Creed this weekend. I need to finish it so I can focus on other games such as Mass effect which I’ve only scratched the surface on and Super Mario Galaxy to name a few.

I’m afraid that Assassin’s Creed is the weak link in this Christmas line up in my opinion. As pretty as it is, it still has some bugs that draw it’s appeal down considerably. Biggest con being that it can be horribly repetitive. You have orders to assassinate 9 person in the game. You do this by going in a city, look for lookout points which will reveal person that you can pickpocket, beat a follower of the person you’re supposed to assassinate ’till they talk, Eavesdrop on a conversation while sitting on a bench in a crowded area.

You can also help a fellow Creed member for information where he needs you kill someone or find some flags for him.

This is about it when it comes what you have to do to advance in the game and there isn’t a lot of variability throughout the game. You just arrive at a city, do all of this stuff mentioned above and go assassinate a person that’s about it.

You do have an option to help a thief who’s being beaten by a group of soldiers and in exchange they will help you blend in(I’ll get back on blending later) When you do, you have to swordfight with a group of fighters. Unfortunately the swordfight system is rather repetitive and not really that responsive, they could have done a much better job there. Now this is where it just gets stupid, after you have killed the soldiers. You can enter a blend mode which makes you look like a scholar. Usually a another group of soldiers arrives just a few seconds after you’ve killed the others and they go like “Who’s responsible for this?!” and there you are..standing above the corpses with bloody sword on your side and because you tilt your head down and put your hands in a prayer position they wouldn’t suspect you? These fights also happen in crowded areas, why wouldn’t civilians be able to tell on you? Are they also fooled by this lame blend ability?

The blend system is pretty weird and the AI is painfully stupid
at times.

Other then that, this game is good. The story is interesting and the game has a big twist. The ability to climb up or over pretty much any surface in the city is great, gives you the ability to take almost all routes through the game you please and that’s great.

I say get it but don’t expect that in five years you’ll be “Hey…I haven’t played this game in a while..” and I say this game is rather a rental then for keeps.

Right, I’m gonna go play it then.

- X

This is probably going to be the hardest list since there are so many to choose from. I guess it all comes down to picking the games that I played to shreds when I was younger and I still jump into from time to time even today.

#10

Secret of Mana

Secret of Mana is easily one of my favorite games. Released by Squaresoft back in 1993 at SNES popularity peek. It utilizes a Action Real-time RPG system and bears a resemblances to Legend of Zelda except your characters level up and can wear different equipment. Apart from fun action to be had from this game and a epic story this game had what should be a option in all games released Co-op. That’s right you could play this game with two other of your friends.

Story involved around a young boy who is playing with two of his friends near a waterfall that is said to be haunted. The boy falls from the waterfall shortly after landing he is forced to pull out a sword located near the waterfall. A ghost appears and gives vague hint about the importance of the sword. The boy lifts the sword and a brilliant light appears. When he returns home he discovers that because he removed the sword evil monsters have appeared and so he was banished. He meets up with a Knight named Jema and he tells him to travel to the Watertemple. There he meets Luka who tells him that he must go on a quest to restore the sword he carries called the Mana Sword.

So you travel the world trying to restore the Mana sword to it’s former strength to hinder evil from taking over. The hero is joined with a young girl and a lost spirit on this quest.

If you like co-op this is a must have game. It’s a great game to play with a friend.

#9

Super Mario Bros 3

Predictable? Sure.

But don’t look so shocked. It quite simple really, Super Mario bros 3 is the best Platform game that was made on the NES and almost universally renounced as the best game made on that console so it deserves a place in here as much as any and it is after all my favorite NES game.

If you have never played Super Mario Bros 3….well now is a good chance to do that, you won’t be disappointed I promise.

#8

Warcraft II

Blizzard’s masterpiece released back in 1995.

Warcraft II is one of the best RTS games ever made. While by todays standards the gameplay is simplistic and there were only two races to choose from. WCII had a charm that will never be matched. The epic battle music, the gameplay, the strategy and not to mention the endless hours of fun spent trying to outdo your friends through use of swords and magic.

It comes highly Recommended by yours truly.

# 7

Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past

My personal favorite Zelda game. Released back in 1992 this is considered to be one of the best games of all time(how many are considered that, really?)

Zelda 3 took what Zelda 1 had done and just made it 10x better. Great graphics, story, soundtrack and gameplay. What more could you ask for?

This game is currently available in Wii’s Virtual Console so if you never played it check it out there.

# 6

Resident Evil 1

The game that single handily created the Survival Horror Genre. What the game lacked(good voice acters) it made up with it’s great story, puzzles and graphics for the time. A true classic.

While it’s painful to play this game today due to the horrible(though often hilariously bad) voice acting and bad translation RE1 had more effect on me then any other survival horror game to follow, the effect being me shitting my pants.

# 5

Tomb Raider

Ah the adventures of the big boobed Indiana Jones also known as Lara Croft. Combining boobs and one of the greatest action hero was a good move by Eidos and Core. Not only did they make a kickass 3rd person action platform game but they also made a character who’s popularity rivals that of Mario, spawning two crappy movies and encouraging girls to get a boob job!

mmmm boobs…

# 4

Metal Gear Solid

Now here is a great game.

Great story, great graphics, great gameplay…great everything. It’s one of those rare cases where a game actually deserves a 10/10.

I lost count on how many times I’ve gone through this game and I imagine I’ll finish it at least once more.

# 3

Half life 2

Half life 2 is my favorite Single player FPS. I was never into those until I got dragged into this one so to me, it is what opened me up to the genre.

At the time of it’s release this game had the best graphics ever seen in any game..ever and the physics were unbelievably accurate. The Story is interesting and keeps you wanting more as evident by my addiction to the episodes being released. Plus who doesn’t love zooming around on a buggy over water while dodging bullets or throwing the enemy around with the gravity gun?

# 2

Unreal Tournament

Oh man, this is the game that has eaten up most of my free time and it’s been 8 years now since I first played it. I played it competitively for 5 years and for awhile there didn’t go a day by that I didn’t jump in to frag someone.

I’m free from it’s clutches now but I’m always at risk slipping back to it’s familiar and incredibly fun gameplay.

At this point I’m sure that I will never play another Multiplayer FPS game that will captivate me as much as UT did, but I guess you never know.

# 1

Final Fantasy VII & Star Craft

I couldn’t decide which one so I just put both.

I LOVE this game. Of all RPG games I’ve played through the years this game is on top by far and I really couldn’t imagine how many times I have finished it now(I’m working on it right now)

There is just something about it that captivated me and is never going to let go.

The nicks I have used over the years have all been based of characters from FFVII including my current one (Cloud “(X)Strife”)

This game has everything needed for a good game, brilliant soundtrack, great story and a blend of classic and new RPG elements.

The ultimate RTS experience. No other RTS game has consumed as much of my time as this game.

What made this game so great was how excellently balanced it was and there was a counter for every attack. It is also the perfect LAN game supporting up to 8 players over TCP/IP and having a free online service where you could go to search for other to play with.

Seriously if you are a huge RTS fan and have never played Starcraft(…..not likely and if it is, shame on you!) then go buy it…now!

That concludes my top ten list.

I’m not really happy with it exactly. But this is the first time I make a list like this so with time I should get better at it if I just make myself keep doing them.

Q: Gee your list is so cliché!

A: Yes, yes it is. But that doesn’t change the fact that these are my favorite games. Of course there are so many games to choose from that this list doesn’t really contain all my favorite games. With great games such as Bioshock, Gears of Wars, God of War etc being left out. But I decided to limit myself to true classics and games any hardcore gamer should be proud of having played.

So until next time.

- X

Just a few words.

First a Super Mario Galaxy, Mass effect, Guitar Hero 3 and Assassin’s Creed review is way overdue on my part. I’ll try to do it later tonight or tomorrow.

Secondly, I am planning on starting a top ten gaming related section. Where I count up my top 10 favorite games or favorite gaming webcomic etc.

I know it’s rather cliché the whole top 10 thing but who cares. :p
Plus this will be based of my opinions not someone elses.
Since my gaming experience expands four generations I’ll probably have a good blend of old and new in my top ten list.

For now, foooooood!

- X