Haven’t done much with this blog as I’ve been focused on Retro Gaming Australia, which needs a whole lot more work, and my substantial gaming backlog. However, in order to scratch that reviewing itch, I thought I’d continue to do capsule reviews every three months with a nice binary scoring system – green means play it, red means don’t worry about it.
Darksiders Darksiders is a shameless ripoff of the best bits of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, God of War and Devil May Cry. While it actually plays well, nothing it does is original and the games it derives its mechanics from are far better, so play those instead.
Mass Effect 2 Mass Effect 2 sheds the vast majority of the RPG elements and depth of the original game in order to deliver a more streamlined experience. The gunplay is better, the story and dialogue are much more gripping, but there are middling elements like mining that drag the experience down. Still good, but I hope the third game strikes a better balance between the two schools of thought exhibited in the first two games.
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
The Versus series returns with an unlikely clash between the Tatsunoko universe and Capcom’s usual suspects. Not as deep as previous entries, which is saying something, but highly accessible and enjoyable, and licenses are handled delicately.
BioShock 2
Unnecessary sequel explores virtually nothing new about the world of Rapture, tacks on ill-conceived multiplayer mode, and generally does little to justify its existence beyond improving the gunplay of the original.
Alien vs. Predator
Rebellion’s return to the franchise that brought them to glory reminds us that they’ve done little to grow as a developer in the last ten years. Wretchedly short, cliche-ridden story mode with baffling level design and poorly thought out progression overshadows mildly enjoyable multiplayer mode.
Heavy Rain
Third time’s a charm for Quantic Dreams’ odd excursions into games development. Strong story grips the player early on and never lets go, and the quick time events that drive the game are handled better than ever before. Allows for a lot of variation in how the story plays out, but replaying the game shatters some of the illusion of its perceived flexibility.
Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver
Second of the remakes reminds us that the second generation was the best. Mechanically, the game is showing its age, but the concept and gameplay are timeless.
God of War III
Sony’s third (technically fourth) pillage of Greek Mythology is technically accomplished but repeats the existing formula with less freedom than previous outings. You’d get just as much from the game watching someone else play.
Red Steel 2
Ubisoft’s second sword wielding FPS outing is so much better than the original that they should have called it something else so people would actually want to buy it. Fantastic sword mechanics, sound gameplay structure and an accomplished visual style make it one of the Wii’s better action games.
Just Cause 2
Avalanche’s super agent sim gets it right the second time, replacing the endearing-yet-clunky gameplay of the first with something that you’d actually want to admit to playing and enjoying. Huge gorgeous world with spectacular, explosive action that abandons any sembalence of realism in the name of unadulterated fun.
I have decided that next week will be the end of my commercial freelancing career. I won’t stop writing completely, but with a return to both work and study, I cannot commit to regular pieces and commercial pressures. I’ll still continue to produce content for this blog and Retro Gaming Australia, however. I have been writing about games in some capacity for 10 years – now I can worry less about being on the cutting edge, and play games for fun.
Decided to pull my finger out and get started on the projects I wanted to work on this year. The first one is a retro gaming community site with a forum and blog. I’ve registered the domain www.retrogamingaus.com for it. Once the domain is ready, I can start work on that.
The intention behind the site was to establish a local community hub for fans of older consoles, where they can discuss the games of yore with folks who share their interest, and hopefully foster some sort of trading forum so we can get the things we want, in the condition we want, without dealing with the undesirables of the world.
My other project is working on cutting down my substantial gaming backlog. I would like to see the backlog fall under 400 by the end of the year. It’s currently 424, and there are some easy games on there to get it down – the trouble is just making sure new games don’t pile up. Not that it will be a problem with my lack of income for the first six months of this year.
Over the last seven years, I’ve written 420 game reviews – about half of those in the last two years for “professional” rates. I’d love to review games for the rest of my life, but over the last three months, I’ve been educated on just how volatile this industry can be, having gone from reviewing 8-12 games per month to none.
In the extra time I’ve had to twiddle my thumbs and watch other people review games that I wanted to cover. Much of it, even from alleged “seasoned veterans” has made me want to bang my head against the wall until I pass out.
Reviews of AAA titles have become superfluous. The sheer amount of media – screenshots, previews, videos and demos – provided before a game’s release is enough to influence the consumer’s decision to buy a game well before a review hits. People who read websites for games news are well-informed compared to what we were 15 years ago when we solely relied on magazines for all gaming news – there’s no need to provide these consumers with advice. Most people who read online reviews basically come to see whether or not you agree with their opinion on the game so they can feel validated.
The system is so focused on reviews of these mass-market titles that many smaller projects and independent games – games where a review could have due influence – go uncovered. From a financial perspective, it’s well and truly understandable, but there’s a gap there – one that I intend to start filling.
Managed to fail keeping this up to date like I said I would, but it is still my intention to do so, especially now that my freelance work has hit the skids and I’m essentially back to studying. I think I can also attribute some of the blame toward having left Uncharted 2 to become my main present for Christmas, despite the fact it’s one of the most important/critically acclaimed titles of the year.
More reviews will be incoming, hopefully we can build something out of it here. Site most definitely needs a facelift. I’d like to do audio and video things, but I need training and other (preferrably competent and reliable) people to work with on such ventures.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (MA15+) BY MATTHEW KELLER / November 24, 2009 (Single Player Only Review)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the gaming industry equivalent of the summer tentpole film. It carries a huge budget, it’s destined to sell millions of copies and it’s full of big explosions and screaming military men. Yet like many summer sequels, Modern Warfare 2 is bogged down by the need to always one up its predecessor, losing sight of plausibility, basic storytelling and gameplay innovation in the quest to shock its audience. Continue reading →
It’s been a month since I’ve done anything on there, the reason being that I’ve been in a bit of a flux over whether I should continue to write. My position at Games On Net, though always historically a freelance one, has been marginalised to the point where I do not expect that my services will be required by the editor in 2010.
That’s kind of a problem to someone who was once deriving a livable income from the site, so I’ve had to re-examine the prospect of returning to full time accounting, which I will be doing mid next year. First, I have to catch up on multiple CPA subjects, which I cannot do while working full time.
At this point in time, I have no intention of stopping writing. It’ll remain a side endeavour while I work full time, but I am seriously considering just continuing to review games on this blog, and hopefully for a few other sites if I can build some better contacts.
I’m thinking 500-1000 words in length with a rating from zero to four stars. I feel five stars gives reviewers too safe a middle ground where they can slap every average game into that 3/5 rating with soft justification.
I still have the intention of producing some sort of video review show, but I think that will have to wait until I have the money to invest in a proper camera.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (MA15+)