50 Game Round Up: 251-300 (Jeroen)

Posted: 15th January 2014 by Mulholland in Round-Up

So here we are, another fifty done. Fifty games I had not played before, which was an interesting introduction. It’s also made us decide not to go for these themes again, not for this long – it took too long to get through and blocked too many other games.

Still, we made it, and the next fifty should be all the more interesting because of it.

Best Game I Had Not Previously Played

Well, there’s a field of fifty to look through this time – with the restrictions this fifty, I’ve got plenty of choice. Okami was gorgeous, Bioshock gave us some of the best story telling I’d ever seen, while Dead Space just impressed us with its scope.

The big winner for me though is The Witcher. True, expected from me, but it’s a game that shows me the more classic RPGs still have a future and that (as much as I loved it), the shooter/RPG merge from games like Bioshock aren’t all there is.

Worst Game

Right, so we didn’t get along with Race Pro – but I suppose there’s some unmet expectations involved with that one – the game just didn’t suit us.

Freak Out (or Stretch Panic) however felt puerile and unnecessary. It wasn’t fun to play and half the game’s challenge was non-existent. Beyond that, the story was twisted and the design felt made by a thirteen year old. Without adult supervision. Not worth it.

Most Surprising Game

It’s difficult to remember what my reactions were to a lot of the games, but one really stands out in my mind.

Earth Defense Force 2017 sounded like a pretty generic, B-Movie, boring game. And its plot is, to be fair – big insects attacking the Earth. You got to stop them and kill them. However, this is all wrapped in an engaging game that has some awesome fights and – more important – brilliant multiplayer. We just enjoyed running around shooting things and winning together. Far better than what we expected based on the name.

Biggest Disappointment

There’s been several games this round that really didn’t work for us, even though it should have. Just Cause was probably our fault, with everything pointing to us picking the wrong platform. NHL 10 looked like it would be a great sports game, but didn’t work.

The biggest disappointment for me, however, was far more personal than that. Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance is a good game. It just didn’t work for me. For me, the comparison with its PC version made it fell down. The struggle with multiplayer mode (which, as said, seemed a bit unbalanced when we were playing) didn’t improve this either. I think I need to give it another go (with no blog pressure behind it), but I had been hoping to love this more.

Best Blast From The Past

This (obviously) doesn’t apply for me this fifty. Only Gauntlet came close, I suppose, through playing its sequel in the past.

Games We Kept Playing

Despite the good games in this batch, there hasn’t been one I’ve gone back to yet. There’s plenty I want to come back to – The Witcher 2 first and foremost – but it just hasn’t happened yet. Just too many other things to do lately.

It’s been an interesting 50, and as an experiment it had plenty of challenges of its own. I’m happy to move forward to more free picks though in the next fifty – with plenty more Mario, revisiting some older series, and finally starting some of the greats (for me) like the Elder Scrolls series and Doom. Besides, during the next fifty we’ll reach that one in three games point… Onward it is!