My Top 10 Video Games

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and will be writing out entries, hopefully I can get all thirty days without any breaks, and if I manage to do that (since August has 31 days) I will think of an additional entry to write about.  I have done a 30-day challenge before, it for movies, but that was a while back, feel free to read those too if you like.

            Today is day 31 and the topic is “Top 10 Video Games”.

            This and yesterday’s entry (which were my favorite games "20-11") were not a part of the original 30-day challenge, I added them to replace categories that I decided to excise for being lame.  Some of these games I have talked about before in this series, and some I have talked about before that, so I will link to those when apropos.  Cause I have written more than 25,000 words on freaking video games this month and I am pretty tired so I am not going to bust my ass on a rehashing of what I have already done.

SO LET US BEGIN!

I sincerely doubt this game is in many top 10's.

10) Fable

I have already talked about this one.  But to give a quick rundown of that: a game that emphasizes humor and a whimsical tone with basic gameplay and basic fantasy story.

           

This is probably on more lists.

9) Resident Evil 4

            Haven’t talked about this one yet.  This is the only good “Resident Evil” game.  It drops most of the BS science fiction to instead focus on a Lovecraft type horror, with giant monsters, twisted monstrosities, cults, zombies caused by parasites rather than a virus, and a plot to insert mind control parasites into the white house.  It is often playing things with a tongue firmly in its cheek, goofy elements, and random puzzles.  While most RE games take themselves too seriously RE4 lets you throw eggs at people.

As for mechanics it has the best quick time events I have seen in a game, though it is also probably responsible for that mechanic being added to every other action title that came out around that time.  The controls do not allow you to move while aiming, instead requiring you to be still while lining up shots in an over the shoulder camera model that works shockingly well.  There are also siege-defense, which allows you to push furniture in from of doors, or shove ladders away from windows, a small but really cool way to interact with the environment that adds to the survival horror element.

Lastly, the game is all about escort quests, as you attempt to save a damsel (the president’s daughter, Ashley) from the monsters, and it is the gold standard in this type of gameplay; Ashley anticipates your movements and gets out of the way, she takes cover behind you, she ducks when she doesn’t have time to get behind you, she can be sent thru some windows to unlock doors or throw switches while you keep the cultists off her, and in one of the cutest aspects of the story she gives a “yeah” mini fist pump when you kill a bad guy.

Resident Evil 4 is a fun and adventurous game that has a good sense of humor and solid gameplay.  I love it. 

           

This is definitely on top 10 lists.  Everybody loves this thing.  I kind of feel mainstream by picking it.

8) Portal

            I have talked about this one too.  And mentioned it positively a couple times.  To some up, it is a tightly designed puzzle game with one of the best mechanics, best bad guy, and best senses of humor in all of gaming.

           

I imagine people's negative reception to the ending of 3 might make this game unfairly neglected during award season.

7) Mass Effect 2

            I have talked about the characters of the Mass Effect series, but this is my favorite entry in the series specifically because of how good those characters are.  While I do find the action gameplay fun what I am really here for is the space politics and the space drama.  I like seeing the bigger issues of the galaxy explored thru the microcosm of diverse crew members you interact with.  It is funny, sad, and awesome in numerous measures.  One of the truly great games of its time and one of my personal favorites.

           

I am so out of juice these captions are giving me trouble.

6) Super Smash Bros Brawl

            I talked about how Nintendo is my favorite developer and this is a good example of why.  The only fighting game I like because it is so easy to play, and much like the rest of Nintendo, it is about having fun not really about giving everyone a competitive system to waste one’s life mastering.  (Note: I think E-Sports are stupid, they are as inane as any game and give you none of the exercise of sports and none of the creative or educational benefits of non-competitive games like Dungeons and Dragons).

            “Smash Bros” just takes bright characters and goofy environments and tells you to have fun with them.  The meta-narrative is that of all the characters all being toys and acting out the play battles of the “Master Hand”.  This even ties back to my discussion of “Alan Wake” yesterday, that I like the idea of characters taking on a life of their own and fighting to break free of their creators as the characters in this game square off against the Master Hand at the game’s ultimate conflict.

            I am sure if I had a WiiU that would be the iteration of the series that I like the most, but I don’t, so it’s not.

I've got to find a way out of here...

5) Spec Ops: The Line
Already talked about this one.  It is a dark exploration of the impulses that make people want to be a hero and the destruction such a self-serving drive has on the world.

Said the Joker to the Theif.

4) Age of Empires III

            Already talked about this one.  It is a Real Time Strategy game set in the colonial era of history.  It has lots of different units and a fun system for gathering and managing resources.

           

Breath that glorious desert air.

3) Fallout: New Vegas

            I beat this thing into the ground with my praise and the amount of time I have spent discussing it.  A mailman is left for dead, and now he is back and out for revenge in the post-apocalyptic desert of Vegas.

           

My brain is tired.  Maybe I wouldn't be cut out for it.

2) Psychonauts

            I already talked about this thing with a glowing review of how I wish I could live in this world.

This is from the opening cinematic of the game, but I have my doubts as to whether this would be the best place to settle down.  The river has advantages, but the mountains might make it too difficult to get enough workable tiles.

1) Civilization V

            This is my favorite game.  At time of writing I have 4100+ hours logged on this game via Steam.  This game introduced me to Steam and I have spent many a long night up playing it.  I love it, and I still to this day suck at it because I have no interest in ever playing it against anyone else.  “Civ” is what I do so as to busy my hands and mind while watching Netflix, Channel Awesome, or whatever else might be on the internet.

I have innumerable complaints and compliments for this thing (I still have no idea how the religion mechanic works), but I don’t want to list them all.  It would be pointless to as that 4100+ hours count would just underline how I have not let anything stop me from playing.  I have learned a lot about historical figures and great wonders of the world because of this game, and I look forward to “Civilization VI” later this year.

            What are your top 10?  What do you think of “get gud”?  How much time have you spent on your favorite game?

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If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.

Most Underrated Game

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and will be writing out entries, hopefully I can get all thirty days without any breaks, and if I manage to do that (since August has 31 days) I will think of an additional entry to write about.  I have done a 30-day challenge before, it for movies, but that was a while back, feel free to read those too if you like.

            Today is day 28 and the topic is “An Underrated Game”.

            This game is one of my personal favorites, and is my favorite game of its genre, the Real Time Strategy Game.  I estimate that I have played it more than 1,000 hours since I purchased an actual physical copy from an actual physical store years ago (it was around the same time I bought “Exo-Squad” on DVD and I would watch my cartoon on one monitor while playing this on the other, since that time I bought a copy of the game on Steam, and use Netflix to watch cartoons because technology marches on).

            I would like to point out this game is well regarded with 90% of its Steam reviews being marked as positive and an 81 on meta-critic.  This game I speak so highly of is the final entry in a now dead and buried franchise.  It is “Age of Empires III”.

While you can zoom the camera, this is not the most accurate artwork for depicting this game.

            In the game you take on the role of a colonial leader who must manage villagers to gather resources, erect shelter and economic buildings, and then raise an army of diverse soldiers, mercenaries, and native allies to drive off rival colonial powers.  Different civilizations have different strengths and weaknesses, the Dutch produce and consume the most gold via their banks and mercenaries, the English have the best houses and bombs, the Spanish have the best medieval units like knights and spearmen, and the Ottomans have the least expensive villager production and ultimately the biggest and most powerful cannons in the game.  Those who make more progress in the new world thru building structures and establishing trade routes will be able to request greater support from the mother country, such as small orders of soldiers or better economic tools.  By utilizing these items, you must snowball your resources to crush your opponents.

            Each game takes about 40-50 minutes (sometimes longer, probably less if you are skilled at strategy games, I am not, I suck and split my attention between this and something on Netflix because I don’t really care about being good I just do this to relieve stress).

            “Age of Empires III” came out right after the well-received change of pace in the series, “Age of Mythology” which took the series back to its roots in the ancient/classical settings of antiquity, but introduced the monsters of myth and legend, like medusa, giants of various elemental flavors, and sphinxes.  It was colorful and had an epic campaign that told a spin off story of original characters and some lesser known players from “The Iliad”.  It had taken the series in a cool new direction and opened things up to being a little more unusual.

This game (much like "III") also seemed to be short on expansions.  It's not like Asia doesn't have gods and monsters.

            Prior to that “Age of Empires II” is considered a classic with dozens of civilizations (almost all of which play exactly the same) clashing for supremacy in (what was for the time) an epic game, I remember playing it back in middle school for hours and hours at a time.

            Here is the thing, I think that “Age of Empires III” is over shadowed by its big brothers, and the fact that no future games will ever come in the series might be causing it some unfair derision by those who got the game back when it first came out and it now doesn’t seem to have inspired any nostalgia except for my own, it is almost 11 years old now but I see no memes or posts about it anywhere.

I don’t think people give this game enough credit, and I do not think enough of its positive features (like unit variety and the speed at which units can be trained) were taken and put into the remastering of “II” (the remastering of “II” is a shit show, the thing does nothing to mix up its old rules and as such feels unplayable by modern standards, I had hoped when I bought it to see some tune ups to the AI and the rules… No such luck, and I still see its HD release as an exploitative cash grab).

This game had its charms, but I do not feel like it holds up.  It is almost 17 years old.

            What is weird though… “III” isn’t really overlooked.  It has a slightly better review score than “II” (though only 29% the number of people reviewed it) and has both more reviews and better reviews than “Mythology”.  Its meta-critic score trounces both of theirs (81 to their 68 and 66, though on Wikipedia, reviews of time were less kind), so I guess “III” is more positively regarded overall.  It just doesn’t feel like it to me as I look around the internet.  This is the only “article” I can see on the topic, though there are some message boards and a reddit thread.

            Regardless, I think that this title is a good RTS, so good in fact that I am still disappointed that the series ended.  At the very least I feel that “III” could have used 1 more expansion.  It has 8 European civilizations, the first expansion introduced 3 American Indian civilizations (that expansion is kind of shit), and the second expansion introduced 3 Asian civilizations, which means that the game left out Africa (the last great colonial scramble) from any play, even though the Zulu and Ethiopia would have made sense.  They could have even done a 4^th expansion, including Oceana civilizations like Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand.  But that is just wishful thinking, I have gotten used to the burdening to the point of being bloated mod culture on “Civilization V” and wanting more content for a thing I have liked for a solid decade doesn’t seem unreasonable to me.

I know there are handheld entries in the series.  No, those don't count.

            What game do you think it underrated?  Is it something that came out years ago and never got the following it deserved?  Or is it something on early access that should be getting more purchases to get the project into full gear?  “Slime Rancher” looks alright, is that it?  Let me know in the comments.  Conversely, is there any franchise that is no longer around that you miss dearly and you want to talk about where it could have gone? 

Seriously now, promises of future installments were made.  Deliver.  I want them.

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If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.

What am I Currently Playing

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and will be writing out entries, hopefully I can get all thirty days without any breaks, and if I manage to do that (since August has 31 days) I will think of an additional entry to write about.  I have done a 30-day challenge before, it for movies, but that was a while back, feel free to read those too if you like.

            Today is day 13 and the topic is “What am I currently Playing”.

            This and tomorrow are easy days, and I put them at this part of the line up so I could play catch up.  I started out with a 4-day lead, now I am pretty much on the day of.  This also has the side effect of giving this entry the shortest shelf life and the least substance.

            There are some games that I am pretty much always playing, “Civilization V” and “Age of Empires III”.  They are games which have instances, they generate a map, some allies and opponents, and then you play until you win or lose.  I play these games whenever I am watching something on my other monitor (usually Netflix) and they have no story or narrative element to keep track of.  “X-Com” was on this list, but it got really temperamental when I upgraded to windows 10 and I uninstalled it, it has story elements but I don’t dwell on them.

            What I am playing that has a definite end is “Fallout 3” (which I am playing thru on an Xbox360 with my brother’s hard drive, because he has the DLC, and I have to play on his profile) and “Fallout 4” (which I am playing on my brother’s Xbox 1, there is no DLC and I plan to play thru the complete version of the game once it is on console so that I can mod some of the REALLY dumb problems the game has.  Most of which have to do with the Pip-Boy, more specifically the “Notes” section, and holy crap are there other things that just make me want to bang my head at how cluttered and disorganized it is).

            I would like to send a short message to Bethesda: fix up the PC version of “Fallout 3” to run on windows 10.  Hell, do a remastering like you are with “Skyrim”, add in the weapon crafting from 4 and touch up the skills (NO ONE NEEDS A BIG GUNS SKILL).  Then do the same thing to New Vegas.  In fact, do both of them and release them together on the 10^th anniversary of 3.  You have 2 years to do this.

            There are also a bunch of games I started for 40-90 minutes, thought they were fine, but have not returned to.  For instance, “Kingdoms of Amalur” (which is basically “Fable”), “Mark of the Ninja”, “Super Meat Boy”, “Shadowrun Returns”, and “Invisible Inc.”

             What are you currently playing?  Share yours in the comments.

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If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.