Review of the year - Computer Games
Dec. 29th, 2006 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bookzombieThe first part of my traditional (in some forum or another) review of stuff I've been reading/watching/playing this year.
The highlights:
Tomb Raider: Legend (PS2). This is a significant improvement on the last, almost unplayable, entry in the stable. It looks good, plays well and has some good voice acting in the person of Keeley Hawes. Fun.
Fables (PC). Another light-hearted romp around an identikit fantasy world, but entertaining for all that.
Star Wars Lego II: The Original Trilogy (PC). This was a true 'guilty pleasure' entertainment. Not too difficult, with lots of John Williams' great music and laugh-out-loud funny. Even those not bothered about Star Wars will find something to enjoy here.
EVE Online (PC). Hugely complex MMO space trading game. I liked it, but had to put it aside. The problem is that it has a rather stately pace, taking a long time to do anything very much and I don't have that much time.
But the overall winners:
City of Heroes (PC). My first experience of MMORPGs and a really good place to start. A very flexible power system with many opportunities for personalising your characters and a well-conceived setting. It works best if you play for a while then take a break as it stops the missions getting too repetitive. Great fun.
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2). Follow-up to the first PS2 game I ever played, ICO, SotC basically consists of a series of 'boss' fights, which would not normally appeal to me (the traditional 'boss fight' in computer games is one of the things I don't like about them in general). But the game is beautiful and atmospheric and each of the fights is a puzzle you have to reason your way through. And there is something incredibly exciting about clinging on, and trying to climb along, the tail of a flying creature while it is twisting and turning through the are. Like ICO, the game is also an emotional experience; in particular the death of each creature feels like a crime.
And a quick lowlight (if you can use that word...):
Oblivion (PC). The much praised RPG that I just couldn't get into. Everything just takes too much damn time - if you have lots of gaming time then the immersive experience is probably brilliant, but I just couldn't get into it.
The highlights:
Tomb Raider: Legend (PS2). This is a significant improvement on the last, almost unplayable, entry in the stable. It looks good, plays well and has some good voice acting in the person of Keeley Hawes. Fun.
Fables (PC). Another light-hearted romp around an identikit fantasy world, but entertaining for all that.
Star Wars Lego II: The Original Trilogy (PC). This was a true 'guilty pleasure' entertainment. Not too difficult, with lots of John Williams' great music and laugh-out-loud funny. Even those not bothered about Star Wars will find something to enjoy here.
EVE Online (PC). Hugely complex MMO space trading game. I liked it, but had to put it aside. The problem is that it has a rather stately pace, taking a long time to do anything very much and I don't have that much time.
But the overall winners:
City of Heroes (PC). My first experience of MMORPGs and a really good place to start. A very flexible power system with many opportunities for personalising your characters and a well-conceived setting. It works best if you play for a while then take a break as it stops the missions getting too repetitive. Great fun.
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2). Follow-up to the first PS2 game I ever played, ICO, SotC basically consists of a series of 'boss' fights, which would not normally appeal to me (the traditional 'boss fight' in computer games is one of the things I don't like about them in general). But the game is beautiful and atmospheric and each of the fights is a puzzle you have to reason your way through. And there is something incredibly exciting about clinging on, and trying to climb along, the tail of a flying creature while it is twisting and turning through the are. Like ICO, the game is also an emotional experience; in particular the death of each creature feels like a crime.
And a quick lowlight (if you can use that word...):
Oblivion (PC). The much praised RPG that I just couldn't get into. Everything just takes too much damn time - if you have lots of gaming time then the immersive experience is probably brilliant, but I just couldn't get into it.
