Satan Sam.co.uk

http://deathbyrobots.com/2011/01/18/review-big-sky/

These guys are ace. That’s why I’m pointing it out.

For me 2010 was a rate good year of new games and discovering old games, lets chomp through it. The PSP had a surprisingly great year. It also turns out I rather like handheld RPGs and not much else.

A lot of these games have high scores – I generally only buy games I know I’ll at least like. My gamedar was flawless this year.

Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker

I’m not much a fan of the series but this game. This beautiful game. It was love at first sight, I even upgraded my PSP to an official firmware just so I could play this game and set it to next day delivery so I was bound to have it for my holiday. It worked. I played it a bit at home but sunk my teeth into it 30 trillion miles above the equator on my way to Africa. The story is more grounded than the other MGS games, the music is just brilliant, the boss battles are perfect. I wish the campaign had more missions in more varied environments, though.

70 hours in. Still not 100%ed it.

Straight off the bat, a 10/10

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite

There’s an awful lot of content in this game, overwhelmingly so. It’s really worth sticking with and especially good with local co-op, especially when your co-playeree is an RPG, MMO and MMORPG fanatic and you’re not. I’ve sunk 15 hours into this so far and it hasn’t let up yet, which is fair enough since the game has reportedly 300 hours of missions.

A healthy 9/10

Gran Turismo PSP

Plenty of content, not enough raw gameplay meat. I’ve thrown around 30 hours into this and I still haven’t seen all the tracks and all their variations.

Generously a 7/10

Persona 3 Portable

This is my first Persona game so I had no idea what to expect. What ended up in my PSP for weeks was a large, complex and heavily story driven RPG. This wouldn’t be my cup of hot chocolate but consistently rave reviews have a way of pulling me over. It’s yet another giant game which I didn’t find too great, but certainly worth a buy. I find the non-Tartarus scenes tedious at times even though they do really add to the setting.

In fear-of-my-lifeingly a 7/10

Ys Seven (special edition!)

Brilliant. An action RPG similar to Zelda, but not Zelda. The focus is on the large rather than the small and pacing is very fast. Zelda for the ADHD crowd. Yeah! The music and boss battles in this are really the meat of the game and it’s fun to just run about levelling up. Grinding doesn’t necessarily feel like grinding – it’s a way of learning new attack patterns and testing out new characters.

An gingerly 10/10

Zettai Hero Project

Only got this game earlier today so I’m just at the gates still – but I can tell it’s going to be one hell of a ride. It’s just full of references and non-sequitur jokes; the Family Guy of RPGs. The art style is beautiful and the gameplay, so far, is a nice blend of turn based action with the very lightest hints of a strategy RPG. It’s Nippon Ichi so it’s perfectly executed.

Daringly a 9/10

Pokemon Heart Gold

My first time in Johto and the last Pokemon game I had to play (I only joined the party during Ruby). Massive amounts of content seem to be the running theme this year. I accelerated through the game originally hoping to take my sweet time, I ended up ploughing through multiple gyms in single days hoping to “unlock” the whole game. It’s bloody good and typically Pokemon – beneath the cute exterior lies a deceptively deep RPG. The Pokewalker has been in my pocket for every walk I’ve taken this year, levelling up my 7 year old team.

There is a lot here. And with the cross-generation compatibility of these games it’s just full of personal history. Like the time I caught a Regigigas in a church listening to my girlfriend’s choir rehearse Mozart’s Requiem. I should have named it AWESOMEGIGAS.

Automatically a 10/10

Final Fantasy XIII

Everyone hates it. I love it. ‘Specially the levelling up method and the music.

Fuck-youingly an 8/10

Final Fantasy Tactics A2

It starts off well, it gets going well, 20 hours in (if you took your time like me) and you hit the first boss. Then the difficulty curve kicks in and you stop playing. Oh well… there are a thousand side quests to be getting on with.

Had to think up this for a while-y, 7/10

Super Meat Boy

Yeah I forgot I bought indie games! I generally don’t play games on my PC unless it was developed by Valve but there was a lot of raving about this one. It’s fast and reminds me of N+ an awful lot, and it did pull me in until I hit the 3rd world then I just lost interest. I can’t really fault it though… there is a lot of content, a lot of references (mostly to games I’ve never played, so maybe that’s why I didn’t get “it”), some okay music and some huge boss fights.

Also; why have so few games got great map layouts? World of Goo and Mario World have superb maps. They set the area really well. More games need those.

I don’t think it helps that I got Minecraft around this time and all my game time went into that and an old buddy got back into playing L4D. And speaking of…

Fearing-for-my-life-again-ly, a 7/10

Minecraft

So brill.

10/10

Worms Reloaded

Plenty of content, lots of gameplay meat. A proper juicy one this. Shame the multiplayer lobby is still broken.

Candidly 8/10

Flashback (iOS)

Great game. Oddly reversed control layout, making it very difficult for a game that requires such precise controls. Infact there are a few iOS games I’ve bought that I really wish I hadn’t. Apple really do just let anything in there!

Shouldn’t have 1/10

It’s Christmas all of a sudden. I love this time of the year, I’ve got a big and cool family so gifts and good times a-plenty!

I did some quick calculations and I have approx 8 days worth of TV right there. 192 days worth of games. 2 bypasses worth of chocolate.

My girlfriend’s snowman is a bit horrific>

The first proper review of Big Sky is up, and it’s a good un! http://www.midlifegamer.net/2010/12/big-sky-review/
I should make mainstream games more often it seems.