Finally, my last boring, already played games blog post. This list contains the last 9 games that I'm going to count as played for the purposes of this blog. These 27 games are by no means a comprehensive list of games I've beaten. They are just games that I have recently completed or that I know I've completed in the past that I have no current intentions of going back and playing again soon.
Ninety-Nine NightsAugust 15, 2006 -- Xbox 360
Ninety-Nine Nights is the result of Q Entertainment deciding they wanted to try their hand at making
Dynasty Warriors, calling up Phantagram (the company responsible for the
Kingdom Under Fire series) to help design it and getting Microsoft to pay them to do it. And it resulted in a decent first effort. The controls are a little unresponsive at times, the cutscenes are boring with bad voice-acting, the story doesn't make any sense and the gameplay is repetitive (See:
Dynasty Warriors). But, I'm a sucker for repetitive hack-and-slash action games, so I liked it and one day I will go back and finish the rest of the character's storylines.
Sacred 2: Fallen AngelMay 12, 2009 -- Xbox 360, PS3
Action RPGs also fall into the category of things that I am a sucker for, especially ones that try to be like
Diablo II (2000). All the standard fare is here: character classes, skills, different weapon and armor types, lots of monters, random loot, etc. and it is all handled really well. I might be alone in this, but I even enjoyed playing it on a console instead of a computer. I also like Blind Guardian a lot and since the following cutscene is played after you complete a particular quest which involves helping the members of the band get their instruments back from some monsters, I feel like I don't need to say anything else about how much I like this game.
Star Ocean: The Last HopeFebruary 23, 2009 -- Xbox 360, PS3
My only prior experience with Star Ocean was playing the first 30 minutes of
Star Ocean: The Second Story (1999). I've heard many complaints over this game, and it does have its flaws, but it is currently my favorite JRPG of this generation. The pacing is awful (hours of dungeons with no breaks followed by 45 minute cutscenes) and half of the characters have some of the most annoying voice acting I've ever heard. But, the battle system is where this game shines. In the middle of my third playthrough I'm not tired of getting in fights, even with the high, but avoidable, encounter rate. Plus, if you enjoy time-consuming achievements that require one to be very meticulous (who doesn't?) then this game will take 300+ hours of your life.
T&C Surf Designs II: Thrilla's SurfariMarch 1992 -- NES The sequel to
T&C Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage (1988), this is definitely an underrated game on the NES. That might just be the nostalgia talking. My brother and I played this game a lot when we were younger. I wasn't very good at it, but my brother could make it pretty far thanks to the easier-to-find-than-to-complete-the-level warps to later stages. I remember watching him and getting excited every time he made it a little further than the last time we had played.
Fast forward to my junior year of college, second semester, final exam week. I decided I was going to beat
Thrilla's Surfari, which surprisingly did not help me pass any exams. So I beat it and got C's.
Two WorldsAugust 24, 2007 -- Xbox 360
One can't help but compare 1st or 3rd person fantasy RPGs with fully-explorable worlds and (sort of) non-linear story progression to the Elder Scrolls series. Unfortunately for
Two Worlds, its contemporary comparison was
Oblivion (2006).
Two Worlds is decidedly not as good as
Oblivion. A lot.
This is not to say that there isn't an enjoyable game to play underneath the forgettable storyline and the horse control flaws. It just isn't an exceptional game. I had fun playing through the storyline and getting most of the achievements.
Viking: Battle for AsgardMarch 25, 2008 -- Xbox 360, PS3
This was the second game I bought for my 360. It's a fun, Norse mythology themed, part hack-and-slash, part action/adventure game. Limbs flying, blood spurting, heads getting ripped off, epic battle scenes with hundreds of demons fighting vikings, dragons flying around burning people alive. Everything that's needed for a good time is there, as long as you can ignore the repetitive nature of the story missions and the mostly uninteresting game world.
Warriors Orochi 2September 23, 2008 -- Xbox 360, PS2
If you have played any
Dynasty or
Samurai Warriors game then you have played them all. There hasn't been much changed from the formula since
Dynasty Warriors 2 (2000), and
Warriors Orochi 2 is no different. As a fan of the games, I can say that I enjoyed being able to play as characters from both series, and I also enjoyed the dynamic of switching between 3 characters during a level, but I don't truly have enough experience with the series as a whole to comment further than that.
Way of the Samurai 3October 13, 2009 -- Xbox 360, PS3
Honestly, I bought
Way of the Samurai 3 on a whim based on the time-consuming and difficult achievement list. I wasn't disappointed, but it is definitely an odd game unlike any I've played before. And it is pretty difficult to explain why to any that haven't played it. Also, I'm terrible at the fighting system. I do look forward to going back and unlocking a few more weapons/endings at some point in the future, though.
X-Men Origins: WolverineMay 1, 2009 -- Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, Wii
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is one of the (very) rare movie cash-in games that is actually better than the movie. In fact, the game pretty much follows the storyline of the movie exactly, so just do that instead of watching the movie. Plus, you get to tear shit up with Wolverine's claws. Though I do hear that the "Uncaged Edition," which was only released for 360 and PS3, is way better than the other versions of the game.
