Juxtaposed Life

This is a great year for Thanksgiving Gaming, one of the fullest I can recall in a long time. This week as I have been squeezing game time I have had to choose between several great games; Dragon Age, Assassin’s Creed 2, and Modern Warfare 2. It could have been worse I could have bought Left4Dead 2, and if I was a PS3 owner I would also have Uncharted 2 on my plate. Overall this has been a great year for gaming, and next year looks to be started well with Splinter Cell:Conviction, Mass Effect 2, FF13, and Alpha Protocol.

Thus far Assassins Creed 2, has been a great experience. The story, game flow, and side activities are improved from the first, while retaining the awesome freedom of movement the of AC1.  I find it amazing that spend more time picking pockets, opening chests, decoding secret messages, and updating my villa, than I have spent on assassinations. And all that time I spent without feeling like I was doing any grinding, which is a testament to the how much fun AC2′s core game loop is.

So many games so little time, between MW2 multiplayer and time in AC2 I have had to put my Dragon Age progress on hold for a bit. Which is alright since DA is such a big game taking short break from it will help keep me from burning out before finishing, and its too good to not finish.

Oh and thinking of MW2, I have never wished for a mouse/keyboard set up for my Xbox more than when I am playing Multiplayer MW2. Yes I could have bought the PC version and I still might, but I knew way too many people with the 360 version.  I had to trade good controls for a large community to play with, it was a tough trade but one I feel, at least for now, was worth it.  This is the only game I can recall that I have kept playing even though I generally don’t do very well. Those guys at Infinityward found the secret sauce in the MW2 unlockables reward structure, I keep wanting to play to unlock something new.

Time for me get back to holiday gaming.

MrAnderson Games, Musings Action Games, Games, RPG

Over the last 10 days I have played a lot of Dragon Age, and enjoyed every minute. It is a fantastic game, full of so many things I like. I am sure I will write up all of my thoughts and comments after I finish this first play through.  All I wanted to say today was if you like RPGs and you have not started playing this yet, then go right now and play.

Heck the only thing that stopped me from playing was the Modern Warfare 2, peer pressure. This game has a short campaign, that I wanted to complete so I did not have to fight to avoid spoilers.   The gameplay in the campaign was, minus a few exceptions, a whole lot of fun even if the story was to me a bit nonsensical.

I will give it at least a week before I go into any details. But I will say that after the awesomeness I felt from the narrative in MW1, MW2 was a big let down. Good news for them, the game play is top notch and their multiplayer aspect of the game (co-op and competitive) are going to be where most players spend their time.

MrAnderson Games Games, RPG, shooters

Yesterday Dragon Age: Origins was released and since I had it pre-loaded from Steam, I was ready to play when it unlocked.  Well I say ready to play , but what I really mean is I was ready to go OCD on acquiring my pre-order / collectors edition DLC.

I was working when it unlocked so I could not simply start playing , that would have to wait until later in the evening, but I could make sure I had all my DLC installed. Something I expected to take a minimal amount of work, was surprisingly confusing and broken. I finally gave up and when the work day was over I simply started the game with no dlc installed.

In total I have played for about 2 hours, and it has been a great experience thus far. Each of the character backgrounds gets their own start of the game, and I have now played the Human Noble and the Elven Mage storys up to a point where the story lines look to converge.  The human noble was a much stronger experience than the mage one was to me, even though I really like the lore behind DA’s magic system.  I won’t give anything away, but the Human noble storyline clicked with me, and actually envoke a bit of emotion from me. Sure its a bit cliched but it was presented well, and they gave me a Dog!

Tonight I hope to give the myself some extended time in the game, though I will most likely not press forward much. Instead I will probably play through more of the background stories. I suspect I am going to be playing this game for a long time.

Oh, and this morning when I got up and launched the game I found all my DLC was being downloaded. It appears that whatever was broken was finally fixed.

MrAnderson Games, RPG Dragon Age, Games, RPG

Call of Duty 4, xbox360

When Call of Duty 4 was released a lot of people I know told me I needed to play it, so I borrowed a 360copy and gave it a try. It seemed alright, but all it did was reinforce my belief that I suck at console FPSs. Actually, my thought is more along the lines of, “console FPS controls are simply terrible”. *shrug*   I gave it a go, but it just did not stick to me. So I handed the game back content not to play it, which would have made this a much shorter post.  Luckily for me the story continues…

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MrAnderson Design, FPS, Games, RPG Design, FPS, RPG, Story