With another 50 done, it’s also time for another round up post. Again, I’m running out of these, with only five more to go if I include this one – and considering how they always take that bit more time to write, I’m actually starting to think that’s not too bad. In a way it’s time to move on.
At that same point, the last 50 is also another fifty – no more themes, just more games to play. Plenty of good ones, thankfully, so I’m still enthusiastic about continuing – and I know how many good ones there are in the two hundred or so that are left.
Best Game I Had Not Previously Played
During this fifty, I’ve given in to playing a number of games I’ve been holding off for years for the blog, but have been desperate to play.There’s a set of three that stands out there in particular.
I’m not sure I knew too much of The World Ends With You, but it’s a game that resonated with me when I saw it and the setitng and mechanics of it worked to make a really good game. Psychonauts has an interesting setting, adding to the game’s decent mechanics for something more.
But I am who I am and X-Com: Enemy Unknown just pushes all the buttons for me: a strategy game with a good story and decent progression. The original was outdated, but here the extra polish just works for me.
Worst Game
As for the worst games, it really comes down to the military shooters. The team based stuff hasn’t appealed to me, in part because it felt like they didn’t try to do something to change that. There’s two that stood out -negatively.
Battlefield 1943 was online only, but I didn’t get anything new out of it and with a broken tutorial, I bailed out pretty quick. Worse, though, was Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. It’s meant to have a singleplayer campaign, but that broke for me on the first level… It might sound silly, but why did I bother?
Most Surprising Game
I think I can say that this time, I genuinely was surprised by some games being a lot more fun and playable than before. One of them stands out a lot – I mean, I could talk about how Donkey Kong Jungle Beat worked a lot better than before, or how I played Shadow Complex for quite a bit longer than I expected.
But really, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher’s Bay takes it. I was expecting that it was a simple shooter I could get through fairly quickly, but I got an FPS game with a mor eengaging story than that and some more complex mechanics. It gave me a lot more than I expected, and that’s what made it great.
Biggest Disappointment
I can be quick here too, really. Spore may not have aged well, but both Star Wars Rogue Squadron games, the original and Rogue Leader, felt like they were highly rated and beloved, but felt like a broken mess in practice that I couldn’t play half the time. It’sactually pretty bad and disappointing and I’m glad I could just finish the series.
Best Blast From The Past
As I’m moving to the end of the list, I’ll soon be playing a bunch of games I’ve played before – it’ll be part of my theme for the next fifty, to help with game selection and give me something else to focus on. In the last fifty, though, I haven’t played many. Myst is one of the few, and it still stands out as an adventure, one that held up far better than I expected.ย It’s a classic for a reason and deserved to be played for that landmark.
Games We Kept Playing
As I am starting to get eager to get back to the gaming I love, there are fewer games I stick with. I want to play my own thing, and not everything expires – often I’d rather restart the game anyway. But there’s one game that I intentionally played to finish, that’s how much of a blast I had, and Full Throttle deserves to be recognised in this post. It was a birthday present to myself, and that’s how it worked out.