Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Braid (2009)
Fun side scroller. Nice riff on Mario and other platformers. Enjoyed the rewind/nonDeath aspect to the games, yet even then struggled with some puzzles (yeah! youtube). Makes you wonder why the princess WAS in the OTHER castle.
Sunday, May 08, 2011
Trine (2009)
Fun Indie side scroller. Nice graphics and liked switching between characters. Decent length and difficulty.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Dead Space (2008)
Wasn't sure what to expect but enjoyed this horror FPS game. Sort of a streamlined System Shock 2 (1 was before my time) w/ some Alien(s) thrown in. Even though it was 3rd person control was easy & good. Digged the HUD and other effects and only had 1 major bug (walls were missing in 1 room and I had to stay on the floor area or I fell off the edges)
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Ghostbusters (2009)
Fun if you liked the movies (1st one!) but crappy mouse control saved by loose targeting in the options. I remember the C64 game and while I find its odd they waited this long to release it, the tech has finally come around to make a good GB game. Worth a play through if you like the movies and find it cheap (as I did).
Friday, January 28, 2011
Tomb Raider: Underworld (2008)
My 1st time playing a Tomb Raider beyond a demo of TR1 many years ago. Actually enjoyed it, 3rd person and all. Fun exploration and fighting wasn't bad. Story a bit more unworldly (even beyond Indiana Jones style) than I expected. Makes me want to try the other more recent TR games but will probably wait until the Castaway style reboot I've read about.
Alpha Prime (2007)
Nabbed this for $5 or less on steam. Character models reminded me or Shogo (Ohhhh to have another mecha + on foot game). Decent enough for the price and being a small studio. Nice mix of indoor/outdoor and OK story...and I actually played it to completion!
Red Faction: Guerrilla (2009)
Give up on posting long comments for the most part. Fun game. Reminds me of Total Recall. Enjoyed the environmental damage and running people over or smashing buildings, but couldn't keep playing. 3rd person just felt off too me. Still a good Target secret shelf or steam sale game.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Far Cry 2 (2008)
Picked this up like most things nowadays on a steam sale. I enjoyed the first Far Cry and Crysis too so wanted to see how this one was even though it only shares name and not dev of the first.
Had read enough forum posts to know of its sand box nature and what to expect. While I did enjoy the openness after a while I did get tired of how the mission structure is (Go back to center town then head back out). I did like that there was a bus to quick travel as I used that often to get to different parts of the map.
Combat felt fine as was vehicle control. Lots of confusion sometimes in figuring out where the bullets were coming from but at times like that you just run for cover. Even though the place was mostly desert or jungle, there were lots of nice little village or just random buildings that allowed for fun situations.
I mostly did the main missions. Still took me 30hrs to finish. I only did a few buddy missions and a few more gun missions to open up the weapons. At first I also explored more for diamonds but later gave that up unless I spotted one while driving/boating.
The fire effects were nice too. A few explosions and you might end up surrounded by burning grass or in a burning building. The villagers should be more careful with all those explosive barrels they have stacked around.
I didn't pay too much attention to the story. Just did missions and randomly drove around getting jumped by every other person in a car. Ending was a bit different than I expected. Fun enough game to jump in when you want some quick combat.
Had read enough forum posts to know of its sand box nature and what to expect. While I did enjoy the openness after a while I did get tired of how the mission structure is (Go back to center town then head back out). I did like that there was a bus to quick travel as I used that often to get to different parts of the map.
Combat felt fine as was vehicle control. Lots of confusion sometimes in figuring out where the bullets were coming from but at times like that you just run for cover. Even though the place was mostly desert or jungle, there were lots of nice little village or just random buildings that allowed for fun situations.
I mostly did the main missions. Still took me 30hrs to finish. I only did a few buddy missions and a few more gun missions to open up the weapons. At first I also explored more for diamonds but later gave that up unless I spotted one while driving/boating.
The fire effects were nice too. A few explosions and you might end up surrounded by burning grass or in a burning building. The villagers should be more careful with all those explosive barrels they have stacked around.
I didn't pay too much attention to the story. Just did missions and randomly drove around getting jumped by every other person in a car. Ending was a bit different than I expected. Fun enough game to jump in when you want some quick combat.
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Latest Artwork
Martian Gothic (2 Oct 2010): Riff on American Gothic. Has been rollin' in my head a while. Robbie the robot was easier than drawing Spirit or Opportunity but was able to throw in a Viking lander.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Fallout 3 DLC
Picked up Point Lookout and Broken Steel exp packs so I could continue my Fallout 3 adventures. Mostly wanted the additional levels and game not ending after finish OG story. Decent enough fun and enough levels that taking the explorer perk to show all map spots wasn't a big deal.
DLC Mods: Point Lookout Lower Health, Point Lookout Made Easy
Other Mods: Bobbleheads, Speedmod
Enjoyed the DLC but didn't like the difficulty of Point Lookout so modded it. Odd to have skinny humanoids with crappy guns cause so much damage.
DLC Mods: Point Lookout Lower Health, Point Lookout Made Easy
Other Mods: Bobbleheads, Speedmod
Enjoyed the DLC but didn't like the difficulty of Point Lookout so modded it. Odd to have skinny humanoids with crappy guns cause so much damage.
Sunday, August 01, 2010
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. :Clear Sky (2008)
Big fan of the 1st Stalker game. Series has quickly become my favorite. Enjoy the openness of the levels, the post apoc setting, weapons mods and game moddability.
Had picked this one up cheap a while ago, played a bit in the swamp and then stalled for one reason or another. Repicked up playing after getting my new rig which helped me enjoy it more since my old rig was way less powerful.
Always enjoy the level designers touches. I like finding and exploring new buildings and seeing the sites. Also like the weird russian dialogs the other stalkers say. I often used the guides to quick travel so I could sell weapons and upgrade my stuff.
Not sure of the mod links but any of the main stalker mod sites should work. Think I mainly used a carry more mod, a mod to open all weapons to modification and/or sellers sell all guns/stuff from beginning and also threw in some mod that changed the faction swamp fights (Supposed to make it easier).
While not as good as the first, it was still fun to revisit the zone. Enjoyed most of it once I was out of the swamp and until the last few levels. At the end (After leaving Red Forest?) it became very linear. Still fun just prefer the open levels.
Have the 3rd game, Call of Pripyat, but taking a break from these. Plowing through some other bargain bin titles I acquired.
Had picked this one up cheap a while ago, played a bit in the swamp and then stalled for one reason or another. Repicked up playing after getting my new rig which helped me enjoy it more since my old rig was way less powerful.
Always enjoy the level designers touches. I like finding and exploring new buildings and seeing the sites. Also like the weird russian dialogs the other stalkers say. I often used the guides to quick travel so I could sell weapons and upgrade my stuff.
Not sure of the mod links but any of the main stalker mod sites should work. Think I mainly used a carry more mod, a mod to open all weapons to modification and/or sellers sell all guns/stuff from beginning and also threw in some mod that changed the faction swamp fights (Supposed to make it easier).
While not as good as the first, it was still fun to revisit the zone. Enjoyed most of it once I was out of the swamp and until the last few levels. At the end (After leaving Red Forest?) it became very linear. Still fun just prefer the open levels.
Have the 3rd game, Call of Pripyat, but taking a break from these. Plowing through some other bargain bin titles I acquired.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Netflix Jan - Jul 2010
Signed up for netflix because it has cheap streaming to the nintendo wii. First tried it on a xbox1 w/ xbmc using playon but it would stutter and have other issues (PC Software did have to process and send it to XBOX). While the wii might have a bit of qualit loss it is uber smooth so far and good enough for me (I want good story, graphics don't matter as much).
So far this year I have watched:
We Were Soldiers, Moon, There will be blood, Watchmen, The Dark Knight, The Prestige, Stalker, The Illusionist, The Hurt Locker, Flags of our fathers, The Blind Side, 500 Days of Summer, Book of Eli, The Office S1-S5, Metropolis, Beer Wars, Lat Jetee, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, THX 1138, Wall-E, Better off Ted S1, Up, The Tick S1 (Live Action), Silent Running, Man From Earth, Omega Man, When Your Strange, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, King of Kong, SLC Punk, Bubba Ho Tep, Dead Like Me & First Men on the Moon.
So far this year I have watched:
We Were Soldiers, Moon, There will be blood, Watchmen, The Dark Knight, The Prestige, Stalker, The Illusionist, The Hurt Locker, Flags of our fathers, The Blind Side, 500 Days of Summer, Book of Eli, The Office S1-S5, Metropolis, Beer Wars, Lat Jetee, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, THX 1138, Wall-E, Better off Ted S1, Up, The Tick S1 (Live Action), Silent Running, Man From Earth, Omega Man, When Your Strange, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, King of Kong, SLC Punk, Bubba Ho Tep, Dead Like Me & First Men on the Moon.
Latest Artwork
Son of 5 Minute Doodle (31 July 2010): Based on a quick doodle I did at work while waiting for a business objects query to run. Felt I needed to get a work at in 2010. Other stuff still rolling in my mind just having put it to paper yet.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Crysis (2007)
Picked this one up on a steam sale with its sequal Warhead. Waited a while since I knew my old rig would cave on it. Actually surprised how well it runs on my current one since while its quadcore and lots of ram, the vid is only a HD 4600. She was still able to handle the game on mostly medium settings @ 1440x900. Still looked very nice and had a steady 30+ for most of the game.
I really enjoyed Far Cry, even the alien parts (except that last bit) and enjoyed this one too. Lots of nice set pieces that were fun to replay. Good physics and AI for the most part. Suit powers were nice though I mostly just used hide or strength when not using bullet protection.
While I often more prefer most realistic FPS, this one still hit that itch even with the power suit. In fact, the suit sort of made this make more sense as to how I was a super soldier, unlike other games where you mow tons of enemies down. You still had to play defensively though and hide a bit to recharge or the AI would take you down.
Good amount of weapons. I mostly went with a sniper gun, an auto rifle and then pistol. Tanks and jeeps were fun and wish the flight parts lasted a bit more or were more open. Also enjoyed how destructable they were (Shoot out wheels to effect steering, etc.). Only thing missing was a ride in the helis I often shot down.
Story wasn't bad. Sort of made me think of Predator in a way. Definitely worth a play through. I didn't even mind the alien parts, which were better in this one than in Far Cry. Need to clear out some other games before trying out Warhead. Won't be too bad even if its more of the same.
I still need to go back to Far Cry 2 and see how they compare/diverge even though its 2 in name only (Diff dev).
I really enjoyed Far Cry, even the alien parts (except that last bit) and enjoyed this one too. Lots of nice set pieces that were fun to replay. Good physics and AI for the most part. Suit powers were nice though I mostly just used hide or strength when not using bullet protection.
While I often more prefer most realistic FPS, this one still hit that itch even with the power suit. In fact, the suit sort of made this make more sense as to how I was a super soldier, unlike other games where you mow tons of enemies down. You still had to play defensively though and hide a bit to recharge or the AI would take you down.
Good amount of weapons. I mostly went with a sniper gun, an auto rifle and then pistol. Tanks and jeeps were fun and wish the flight parts lasted a bit more or were more open. Also enjoyed how destructable they were (Shoot out wheels to effect steering, etc.). Only thing missing was a ride in the helis I often shot down.
Story wasn't bad. Sort of made me think of Predator in a way. Definitely worth a play through. I didn't even mind the alien parts, which were better in this one than in Far Cry. Need to clear out some other games before trying out Warhead. Won't be too bad even if its more of the same.
I still need to go back to Far Cry 2 and see how they compare/diverge even though its 2 in name only (Diff dev).
