I finally got around to picking up Deus Ex shortly after Christmas and I started it a couple weeks ago. I'm really enjoying it. This game keeps getting better and better the more I play it. Which is rare in a game. I probably would say this is in my top games of 2011. Definitely a lot of fun. I think what is making it more fun and rewarding for me is I'm playing it on the hardest difficulty and trying to get Pacifist Achievement (Not killing anyone asides from bosses) and Foxiest of the Hounds Achievement (Never set off an alarm) So basically I'm going fully stealth. Which is a hell of a lot more fun then running in the front door guns-a-blazing. Normally I'm not great at shooters anyways so doing that on the hardest difficulty would not be easy for me. But going all stealthy the difficulty is pretty much unimportant. Another thing that I've really liked about this game is the art style. I love the whole Noir-Cyberpunk-whatever you want to call it atmosphere they have created. It's beautiful. The graphics aren't anything stunning, fairly average. But that is not required to make a beautiful game. I also really like some of the interesting fashion choices used in the game.
Anyways, enough about Deus Ex. So this is a fairly busy time for my gaming life. Just finished the onslaught of 2011's fall line up. Brutal. But so many good games came out of it. And that is partially the problem. I have little time to play all of them. I have managed to finish Saints Row the Third and Batman Arkham City. And that's about it so far. Of course I've played a lot of Skyrim but that game just keeps going so I'm not even going to include it in this. I've barely started Assassin's Creed Revelations which I really want to play because I love the Assassin's Creed series. But I'm trying to focus on one (two games max) at a time. Currently being Deus Ex and Mass Effect 2. I have beaten Mass Effect 2 many times already, and it is one of the very few games I can replay in its entirety multiple times and never get tired of it. And I'm not even trying for achievements. Mass Effect 3 is coming out in a little over a month and I really want to finish this playthrough of Mass Effect 2 before then. I wanted to fix some decisions and just have the Mass Effect series fresh in my mind once the third comes out. I'm greatly looking forward to it. I played the original Mass Effect a couple years ago and loved every second of it. Easily my favourite game at the time (and still possibly is) I had to have had atleast 10 complete playthroughs in that game. Never getting tiring or old to me. Then Mass Effect 2 came out, just as addicting as the first. Sure some features were changed and I preferred the original game in those regards. But the shiny new graphics and amazing story line made it just as amazing as the first. There hasn't been a game series (or any kind of story in general) that I have felt this connected to and generally cared for the characters in it. It's kind of funny because out of all my playthroughs in both games, I have always played as the exact same Shepard. I've been meaning to start a Female Shepard playthrough of both games, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I feel almost wrong to play Mass Effect as any other character besides MY Shepard. It just doesn't feel right. That being said I still will do a Female playthrough eventually. I normally prefer to play as female characters when I'm given the choice anyways. Odd that I went with the Male Shepard in the first place.
Okay I think that is enough from me for now. No one probably reads this shit anyways, but it kills some time while I'm on break at school. Mood: Neutral Music: Inception Soundtrack
Lately I've been feeling very 'hollow', or 'dead.' Just can't see anything fun or exciting in anything. The world is grey to me and dull to me. I feel nothing. Well, more like I feel less. Everyday is a little different of course. Some I might feel a bit more "normal", while other days I will feel very disconnected. This isn't anything particularly new to me though. I've felt this way for extended periods of time countless times in the past. And yet every time it does feel different or some how worse then the times before. If that is true or not, I do not know. That is beside the point anyway. I just feel like venting. Normally I don't like writing journal entries online in this nature, but it feels like my only venting option right now. I've felt a lot more distant from everyone in my life for the past.. well I don't know how long. A decent length of time. To the point where I don't feel comfortable or willing to talk about my emotions very openly as I once was able to do with particular people. I've also been feeling what seems to be like a building lack of empathy. I've never been someone to care too much about people, but it feels stronger then it does normally. These two things combined make me feel very disconnected. Disconnected from the people around me. Disconnected from society. Disconnected from myself. It's like I'm only half here. Only in body, not in mind or spirit (if you believe in such things.)I just go about each day repeating essentially the same routines with no looking forward to things in the near future. In fact I try avoid looking towards the future as much as possible. I only have negative feelings and pessimistic outlooks towards the future. And those thoughts have definitely been stronger lately. Maybe this little entry has been going on too long now. Not sure what else to say anyways. Nothing of real importance anyways. Like I've said, I don't expect anyone to even read my journal entries but I'll write them from time to time regardless. Like now. Oh well. I might as well attempt to sleep. Mood: Disconnected. Depressed. Music: "Outro" by Haste The Day
Asides from the entry I made on Christmas, I haven't really written anything on this journal in some time. Actually I don't even think there are any entries prior to the previous entry. I know I went on a deleting spree with most (probably all) of them. Anyways, seeing as I'm bored as hell at school with a four hour break I might as well take this time to write something... anything.
Well.. this isn't going as well as I'd have hoped. Well luckily no one actually reads these things so I can technically ramble on and say anything I'd like and not worry about seeming like.. well I don't know.. but something someone might think I am being.
Well where to start? Well 2011 just ended. Things happened this year I guess.. not too different from any other year. I did about the same old stuff, new games came out, new movies came out, and the world did stuff that I, for the most part, ignored.
Seeing as my interest in a lot of things is minimal, I think I'll take a recap of things I am interested in and do enjoy talking about (even if no one is listening.. or reading in this case) That subject being video games.
This year saw a lot of great titles come out, a lot of which came out in the last couple months. (Typical)I've managed to play a good chunk of the big titles. More the ones I'm interested in, so not Call of Duty or Battlefield.
So I figured I would share my thoughts on this years best and worst games (That I have played) this year:
Lets just get right to the point, the best game of the year in my opinion was the hugely anticipated The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The game has its fair share of haters, which is expected. Anyone who disliked Oblivion will more then likely not care for Skyrim. What makes Skyrim so great? Well, one being I love open world games and RPGs. Skyrim being both. Another personal reason, I love looting. And Skyrim has a hell of a lot of it. Seriously. I find myself constantly leaving dungeons and buildings being majorly over encumbered. (Generally carrying atleast three times the weight limit) For less personal reasons, Skyrim is a big game. Very big. While most games on the market can go for 10-20 hours of gameplay (excluding multiplayer), Skyrim has atleast 200+ hours of game play. Technically it can keep going indefinitely depending how you play the game. With the hundreds of quest lines and miscellaneous objectives to complete, and hundreds of locations to explore. Many taking a few hours to explore each dungeon/cave/castle. I've always loved games that let you explore as much as you want. Hell, it's clearly encouraged in Skyrim to explore as much as possible. Over all Skyrim is an amazing game, sure it has bugs and technical issues, but really so does everything these days. It makes up for this problems with the massive world Bethesda has created. And even better then that, the world they have made actually feels alive. The world and the people and creatures in it seem to live out virtual lives of their own and the world itself feels like its never the same.
Well I think that is enough talk about Skyrim. Clearly I have spent more time on this game then probably any other game this year. Some other exceptional titles this year include:
Assassin's Creed Revelations. I have not managed to play a lot of this game so far what with being busy with school and just a lot of other games to play as well. Assassin's Creed is a cerious that, although comes out yearly, has not managed to disappoint me yet. And so far the fourth game in the series is keeping up with this trend. Taking what worked well with previous games and building on them. Trying out some new features as well but not focusing too much of the game on these new features either. This is how you make a sequel. So far I've even found myself playing more multiplayer then I have been playing single player. Which is very different for me. I've found the multiplayer to be rather addicting and unique. I tried it in Brotherhood last year but never really got into it. Not sure why, but I love Revelations multiplayer. Maybe it just wasn't the right time for me when I played Brotherhood's multiplayer.
Saint's Row The Third. There is nothing special about Saints Row Th Third in terms of game mechanics or story or anything of the sort. What makes this game stand out to me is just how addictingly fun it was. It even had me ignoring Skyrim for the first two weeks that I owned Saints 3. I managed to 100% the game within the week but I still had a lot of fun running around the streets of Steel Port causing chaos, buying clothing, and customizing cars. And once the fun of this wore off, I jumped into co-op with a friend. And the fun was completely renewed. The amount of fun I have had with this game is equal to the fun I had back with GTA Vice City, which was my first GTA game. Although they stripped the content in Saints 3 down from what was in Saints 2. Everything that was kept in was improved greatly. The game feels a lot better to play then the previous one. Just an over all fun game that is addicting but great in every way. Main downside though being the length of the story and activities. I can't wait for DLC to come out for Saints 3.
Batman Arkham City. I'm normally a sucker for most super hero related games and movies. So no doubt I had to play Batman Arkham Asylum back when it came out two years ago. To say the least, I loved the game. The best super hero game I have ever played. So of course I thought I would love Arkham City. Luckily this assumption was true and the game was great as well. Although the story felt shorter, I didn't mind one bit. The story is in general just a good story. Easy to get into and constantly making you guess what will happen next. And just like the previous game, this one leaves many questions unanswered by the end of the game and leaves plenty of speculation of what will come next.
Alice Madness Returns. Back in the Spring when Duke Nukem came out, so did another title that most people seemingly ignored. This was Alice Madness Returns. This game is a sequel to an older cult classic PC game simply titled 'Alice'. That game was set up as a sequel to the classic Alice in Wonderland story we are all familiar with. Alice Madness Returns picks up the plot that was started in the original game and builds greatly on the back story of Alice and how she came to be insane. The game is a standard platformer adventure game and third person action game. Complete with equal amounts of puzzles, fighting, and platforming sections. Although it is nothing special compared to some other big titles in 2011, Alice definitely is not one that should be over looked. Great for a wide audience as well.
Dead Space 2. A title that was big but soon forgotten due to its very early release date in Winter 2011. Dead Space 2 is a great Sci-fi third person shooter with horror elements to it. Although it is set up to be a horror game, it clearly has more action then horror. If you want a game that will scare the shit out of you, then this probably isn't the game for you. If you want a fun Sci-fi shooter with smaller horror elements then this is perfect. Not a whole lot to say about Dead Space 2 asides that it's a great game and you should check it out if you liked the first game. If you never played the first game then play that first. (Obviously.)
Portal 2. And last but not least, we have Valve's sequel to it's cult hit Portal. Portal 2 is a full length sequel to Portal (which for those not aware was only an hour or so long game) Portal 2 still is not a very long game. Clocks in at about 8 or 9 hours I believe. Portal 2 (much like Portal 1) is one of those rare games that is extremely unique and made with such quality that they could called 'perfect games' I really can't find any problems with them. Even the lengths. They are perfect lengths for the content. Nothing feels skimped out on, or stretched too far. Everything is perfect. The story is great and hilarious. The subtle background jokes are even more funny then the main ones. The characters are great. Well written and well acted out. Fan favourite GLaDOS returns in this game and is just as great as she ever was. But to my surprise she was not my favourite character. I was blown away by Cave Johnson, voiced by J.K. Simmons. As well as Stephan Merchant's character, Wheatley. Who knew Valve could make a game about solving puzzles with two portals have so much depth and creativity. More reason why Valve is my favourite developer.
Well this concludes my apparently very lengthy look back at the best of 2011. I just really love talking about games and could go on forever talking about them. I'm obsessive like that. Anyways I know there were plenty of other great titles this year. Not to mention titles that, well, weren't so great. I guess I should quickly go over my disappointed list:
Dragon Age 2. I loved Dragon Age Origins. It was a great RPG with great elements reminding me of old RPG games. Dragon Age 2 took most of the things I loved about Origins out sadly. The only thing they changed that I didn't have a problem would be the combat. Instead of being slower and almost turn based feeling, they made it more into a hack and slash action style. Which I was okay with the original combat style but I'm also okay with the new system. Over all I guess I'm just neutral with it. Now some of the big problems with Dragon Age 2 was the environment. Or the lack of. Almost the entire game takes place within the same city and two or three different small areas outside of the city. Every area that takes place inside a building or a cave or dungeon all look identical. Just sometimes with a different skin over them. The layouts are the exact same and it gets so repetitive after a short amount of time. Another thing that was repetitive was the quests. The quests felt all the same after a short time. Also the enemies were very repetitive. Very little variety of types of enemies, and all of them being very predictable. The main story I was also not very impressed by. It felt more a random series of introductions to stories. And when each 'introduction' was completed, it felt like a new one began. But none of them felt like they at all fit together. The story didn't even really get anywhere interesting till the very end where they finally start bringing things together and tying things with the original game. But my biggest problem with this game was something not everyone experienced, but it seems like enough people did. Glitches and bugs. My first playthrough of Dragon Age 2 consisted of minor bugs, nothing to bad. But once I started my second playthrough everything went to hell. I believe there were five seperate occasions throughout the game where I encountered a glitch that would not let me advance through the story and would make me reload a previous save file from many hours ago. The first two glitches made me restart the entire game because I did not have extra save files. After this I started making tones of save files and various points within the game. And to this very day, I still am stuck on a glitch that makes the final mission impossible to begin. Which saddens me because I liked my second playthrough character so much better then my original one. Now where Dragon Age 2 failed in so many areas, it did have some good areas hidden within. Mostly in characters. Dragon Age 2 did over all have more interesting characters with more personality then the characters in Origins. (Save for a couple in Origins) Along with this, the dialogue system was completely changed from Origins to one that resembles the Mass Effect dialogue system. Which works well I think. Your character now has an actual voice and personality rather then being a mute and choosing replies in text. But these small good things could not redeem the game from being just a huge disappointment.
L.A. Noire. Now don't think I'm going to attack LA Noire like I attacked Dragon Age 2. I liked L.A. Noire as a whole. Just it just couldn't stand up to previous Rockstar games in this genre. L.A. Noire is set up as a open world sandbox game similar to Rockstar's other previous titles; Red Dead Redemption and the Grand Theft Auto series. The first two thirds of the game were great. The story was engaging and well written. But the story started to fall away from itself towards the end. Things felt like they began to get away from the what the game is about and by the end it felt like a completely different game. Not to mention I felt little closure by the end. The characterization in L.A. Noire was odd. It was written very well. And the facial capturing animation added a lot of depth to characters. But Even with all of this, I could not feel any form of attachment to any characters. Maybe they were just unlikable people to me. I don't know exactly. And unlike Rockstar's past games (most notably Red Dead Redemption), L.A. Noire had no final lasting impression on me. Once the game was over I never thought about it again. Unlike in Red Dead, where I still randomly think back to that game and how great it was. I know they are two different games, but a sign of a great game is one you think about even after you've turned the game off and are finished with it.
Well so much for "quickly going over my disappointment list." Like I said, I can go on forever talking about games. I also ramble a lot. Anyways I think that is a good place to conclude this novel of a journal entry. Seeing as I've been typing for atleast two hours now I think. Well if anyone actually made it through this journal, thank you for (whatever reasons) paying attention this long. Doubtful anyone will read this though. But I never expected anyone to in the first place. I just wrote this for my own entertainment. That's what journals are for, aren't they? Mood: Neutral Music: Nine Inch Nails
I just noticed I've been a member of this site for about 6 years, give or take a few months. I'm pretty sure this is the longest I've been a member of a site and stayed relatively active the entire time. Yet it feels like it has been longer then 6 years. Odd. I'm rambling now. Bored really. Anyways, that is all for now. Mood: Tired Music: Trocadero
