wake me when it's 2006
So far, this new year sucks. It is depressing to think that one can spend so much for an education and get almost nothing back. Yes, it hasn't been that long since I graduated, but one would think the rewards would show up a bit sooner.
2004 was an almost perfectly bad year. I nearly saw all my dreams go up in flames due to money problems. So, on New Year's, I said "I hope 2005 is better than this year was".
Not happening, yet. It may take a little time.
So, to make things a bit happier, I bring you video games!
Or at least my thoughts on the ones I've seen recently.
Paper Mario 2: The Thousand Year Door (GameCube)
Just when everyone is raving about Half Life 2 and Halo 2 for their graphics, along comes this game. It almost looks like something you'd see in the old SNES days. And yet, it is one of the best games I've seen in a while. It's not the most graphically intense game out there, but the game is fun. A game with a sense of humour (and some of it is aimed at Nintendo games) that plays well and is a lot of fun.
Baten Kaitos (GameCube)
Someone call Square-Enix and ask them to return their "Best RPG Maker Ever" award. Namco just earned it with what has to be hailed as the most beautiful game ever seen on the GameCube. Possibly one of the best looking games on ANY system out there. It's almost like you're playing the most detailed Anime movie on the planet. Smoke, fog, and water effects that Hollywood would kill for. The game looks and plays very smoothly, but some of the voices sound like they're coming from in a tin can. The opening made my spine tingle, something which hasn't been done since Final Fantasy 3 for the SNES. Best opening sequence in a game to date.
Baldur's Gate 2: Dark Alliance (XBox)
I had the first game for the GameCube, but the company decided not to do a sequel for the Cube. So, we had to get it for the XBox. Graphically, the game looks very slick. The sound is good and gameplay is very nice. Only problem with the whole game is that at one point, we experienced some serious lag. Serious as in Gradius 3 for the SNES lag. The whole game slowed down for a minute, which I've never seen on an XBox, or any modern system for that matter. Saving progress is much faster than on the GameCube version ( Hard Drive:1, Memory Card:0 ), but load times for both systems are still annoyingly long. Not a big D&D fan (not a fan at all, actually), but the game doesn't require you to go hide in some neighbour's basement to play with a bunch of geeks.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (XBox)
Completely unexpected gift for Christmas. I'm a huge fan of the show, so the game should be a good one. I haven't really gotten into it, but my first complaint is the name screen. They give you this tiny font and a full screen width to fill in the name. But they limit your name to 10 characters. What gives? Grissom needs to find out for me.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GameCube)
The first game was something to behold. A great game. What happened to the second one?
Well, they made it better and added a multi-player mode, that's what happened! I haven't gotten too much into the game as yet, but we've had some multi-player deathmatches and have had no problems with this game. New weapons and a hacker mode which made the deathmatches into an interesting fight. Very fast play, almost to the point of being comparable to Unreal...okay, maybe not that fast. But it is fast. The opening is like a sci-fi movie, and Retro gets to show off the new logo. I hope the big N lets Retro do some more work for them. They know what they're doing. And I hope the Halo 2 hype doesn't mean this game becomes a dust collector.
All the games are decent. I'd recommend them for anyone with a Cube or a Box. But not a Station. I don't have or need one of those..
2004 was an almost perfectly bad year. I nearly saw all my dreams go up in flames due to money problems. So, on New Year's, I said "I hope 2005 is better than this year was".
Not happening, yet. It may take a little time.
So, to make things a bit happier, I bring you video games!
Or at least my thoughts on the ones I've seen recently.
Paper Mario 2: The Thousand Year Door (GameCube)
Just when everyone is raving about Half Life 2 and Halo 2 for their graphics, along comes this game. It almost looks like something you'd see in the old SNES days. And yet, it is one of the best games I've seen in a while. It's not the most graphically intense game out there, but the game is fun. A game with a sense of humour (and some of it is aimed at Nintendo games) that plays well and is a lot of fun.
Baten Kaitos (GameCube)
Someone call Square-Enix and ask them to return their "Best RPG Maker Ever" award. Namco just earned it with what has to be hailed as the most beautiful game ever seen on the GameCube. Possibly one of the best looking games on ANY system out there. It's almost like you're playing the most detailed Anime movie on the planet. Smoke, fog, and water effects that Hollywood would kill for. The game looks and plays very smoothly, but some of the voices sound like they're coming from in a tin can. The opening made my spine tingle, something which hasn't been done since Final Fantasy 3 for the SNES. Best opening sequence in a game to date.
Baldur's Gate 2: Dark Alliance (XBox)
I had the first game for the GameCube, but the company decided not to do a sequel for the Cube. So, we had to get it for the XBox. Graphically, the game looks very slick. The sound is good and gameplay is very nice. Only problem with the whole game is that at one point, we experienced some serious lag. Serious as in Gradius 3 for the SNES lag. The whole game slowed down for a minute, which I've never seen on an XBox, or any modern system for that matter. Saving progress is much faster than on the GameCube version ( Hard Drive:1, Memory Card:0 ), but load times for both systems are still annoyingly long. Not a big D&D fan (not a fan at all, actually), but the game doesn't require you to go hide in some neighbour's basement to play with a bunch of geeks.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (XBox)
Completely unexpected gift for Christmas. I'm a huge fan of the show, so the game should be a good one. I haven't really gotten into it, but my first complaint is the name screen. They give you this tiny font and a full screen width to fill in the name. But they limit your name to 10 characters. What gives? Grissom needs to find out for me.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GameCube)
The first game was something to behold. A great game. What happened to the second one?
Well, they made it better and added a multi-player mode, that's what happened! I haven't gotten too much into the game as yet, but we've had some multi-player deathmatches and have had no problems with this game. New weapons and a hacker mode which made the deathmatches into an interesting fight. Very fast play, almost to the point of being comparable to Unreal...okay, maybe not that fast. But it is fast. The opening is like a sci-fi movie, and Retro gets to show off the new logo. I hope the big N lets Retro do some more work for them. They know what they're doing. And I hope the Halo 2 hype doesn't mean this game becomes a dust collector.
All the games are decent. I'd recommend them for anyone with a Cube or a Box. But not a Station. I don't have or need one of those..
Comments