I was wrong

In my moving to london summary blog I said and I quote ,

“As much I hate to admit it, I’m really not that interested in games any more”

Now. I should have factored one large facet of my personality into this piece of analysis. This facet is,

Jason Burt-D’Arcy is fickle

I am very much of a flavour of the month kind of person, so for me to say I’m not interested in games anymore is quite daft. I really should have said “at the moment” rather than “any more”.

Being the living in the moment, vigorous go getter that I am (was), I was going out doing things because I was in London and felt games had passed me by. Not true. I’m still going out doing fun stuff but I’m now quite passionate about games again, think you just need to find the right one. So there you go, I was wrong. To clarify this point, I feel the need state

Jason Burt-D’Arcy has always loved and always will loved games

(At this stage it is worth mentioning that this doesn’t mean getting my laptop was a bad decision, I lurve it and it can play games too!)

So what now?

As I said at the time I was still playing:

Rock Band

Street Fighter IV

Marvel vs Capcom 2

but I didn’t know if any other games would spark my interest. As we know, things change, and I haven’t played any of the previously stated games for a while now. I have found more new games to play! Games I’ve not touched for far too long, games I’ve bought because other people are playing them and games recommended by many a good reviewer. I’m gonna do a run down of what I’m playing and why.

Games I’m playing

FIFA 10

We all know that FIFA 09 was the game that knocked Pro Evo off the top and we know FIFA 10 cemented that position. So there’s not rehashing that information at length, we can take that as read. Now.

I have been LOVING this game, Chris and I are really into it. You feel so free, as free as you used to feel playing Pro Evo.

There aren’t many games where you genuinely feel that anything is possible within the scope of the game. It is the sign of a truly fantastic game when you feel like the only real limit is your own ability.

Therein also lies the blind frustration in the game where you make the same mistakes over and over again. But that is a problem with the way I play games like this and certainly not with the game, I’ll address this issue in another blog somewhere down the line.

The best example I can think of to illustrate how good it is comes at the Emirates stadium. Arsenal are 3-0 down at half time to a team I can’t remember, something like Wigan. Burt-D’Arcy stands on the touch lines scratching his head over how he’s gonna get out of this scrape. His assistant Chris James says, “Bring on 3 subs and see what happens”. I go ahead and make the changes. By the final whistle, the score is 3-3. Robin Van Persie coming from the bench to score a sublime hat trick including a perfect free kick. This is football and that in itself is the highest compliment you can give a game like this.

Resident Evil 5

Now I believe that Resident Evil 4 on the Wii is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played. The Wii was actually made for that game. Such was its impact on me that I actually avoided Resident Evil 5. That might sound strange, but the control system on Resi 4 was a thing of grace and wonder. So they idea of muddling that down to an Xbox 360 controller was of the greatest repugnance to me.

So why the change of heart? Two letters my friends, PC. I stumbled upon the PC version on my travels around them World Wide Internets and thought why not? Mouse + Keyboard will be happy compromise when faced with the possibility of playing it with an cack handed 360 controller *spit*

So, I’ve almost completed it now and have thoroughly enjoyed it. As good as Resi 4? No. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth playing. The introduction of the second character, Sheva, seems to be as a response to the racism rhubarb that Capcom had to fend off during the games development and it’s not a move I think works as well as it might.

I don’t like look after other characters in games, it winds me up. Now Sheva is ok as it stands, she can handle herself quite well. But I would rather be on my own and I’m fairly sure I would be if people hadn’t gone mad about the race issue (which was groundless) at the time. Hey ho, nevermind.

It’s pretty much the same as Resi 4 in most ways apart from the little things like the upgrade/purchase system is now faceless and dull. Gone are the days of

“Whadya Buyin? Whadya Sellin? I’ll buy it at a high price”

The merchant in Resi 4 was so cool and they’ve taken all that away, it’s a little thing but such a shame. Also by the end, the zombies have machine guns which is just plain silly.

So Resi 5, great but not Resi 4.

Mass Effect

I bought this on PC for £fuckall  quite some time ago and decided to give a whirl, not too much to say right now about it as I’ve only got to the bit in any game of this nature where it spreads out.

What I’ve experienced so far is encouraging though. Much like KOTOR, which is a game that I rate very highly as it is one of the few games where I genuinely cared about the characters. When Bastilla asked if I loved her, after 5 minutes of mulling I said no, then had to kill her.

So Mass Effect is coming along that way, I’ll let you know how I get on.

Brutal Legend

Ah yes, the Jack Black Metal fest. There were quite a few factors in me picking up this game.  They were

• Tim Schafer
• Seeing the vid of in game Ozzy Osbourne
• My deep love of energetic music of which this kinda metal definately is
• Tim Schafer
• and Eurogamer’s 8/10

Again like Mass Effect I haven’t played this for long enough to get a cast iron opinion but let there be no doubt, this game oozes Metal, good Metal. Everything I’ve played so far I’ve really really enjoyed. It’s a rich land of rock, gore and humour which is kinda what I’d like all life to be. We’ll see how it goes but the signs are favourable.

Call of Duty: World at War (Nazi Zombie Mode)

Now I don’t actually know what this game is like because I haven’t touched the WW2 mode. I’ve gotta problem with COD on single player, you can’t see who you are supposed to be shooting. It might be my feeble eyes and the brain they’re connected to but I just can’t do it. There is no such problem with the Nazi zombie mode though. Some of my chums on twitter play it and suggested I pick up a copy. I have to admit it’s damn good fun.

The first map is somewhat what of a “tribute” to Left 4 Dead Survival mode and by the time you get to the latest map pack it’s a full blown rip off, but what the hey it’s still good fun.

So what next?

Well I have more games to play than you can shake a stick at and there ones that are coming up…

• Dynasty Warriors 6
• No More Heroes
• Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barboros’ Treasure
• Condenmed 2
• Star Wars Lego
• Metal Gear Solid 4
• Psychonauts
• EDF (\m/)
• Uncharted 2
• Modern Warfare 2
• Persona 3 (PSP)
• Okamiden (DS)
  
• and probably more…

I’d like to say I’ll blog about this stuff but I can’t guarantee that, who knows? I would like to write some stuff down. Musings about game psychology (ooOOooOOoo) and good sources of games evaluation. See how it goes, I’m back baby!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 4:09 pm and is filed under Games, Me. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.