The Final Countdown
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Nechrol
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No, it’s not a thousand words on seminal 80’s Swedish melodic metal band Europe but a dissection (read: list) of some of the games I had the good graces of playing this year. For a complete breakdown of Europe feel free to forward me your address and money for a flight ticket and I will arrive at your earliest convenience in a leotard and with a gallon of hairspray.
It’s near the end of the year and thought I’d breakdown some of my more enjoyable gaming endeavours.
Tales of Vesperia
Takes the prize as the best JRPG that I played this year without a doubt. I tried to phone the man in charge at Namco-Bandai to extend my well wishes but he failed to pick up… suffice to say I’m taking him off my Christmas card list and putting him on my people-to-punch-in-their-boy-parts list.
In regards to the game and the ‘Tales’ series in general they continue to improve with every incarnation. Everything gets tweaked and improved with every iteration, the battle system becomes more engaging and interesting, the refinement and upgradable items are more in depth. It manages to imbue itself with the heart of a classic RPG but cover itself in a next gen body like Arnold in Terminator 2. But unlike T2 you can enjoy it without worrying your friendly neighbourhood police office is out to stab you in the neck.
Even though the game doesn’t have the most original story and like every Tales game it usually revolves around a member of some ‘Royal’ or ‘Religious’ faction getting embroiled with a common ‘every man’. They all join forces to tackle some ‘insert alien goo name’ that’s trying to kill everyone, or sustains itself on babies. Whatever, it’s bad; it’d probably slap your mother in her sweet, pie baking face given the chance. The games were never about the overarching story but more about the internal struggles that the characters face which it nails in my opinion.
Dragon Age
Yep, it beat out Mass Effect 2 to my WRPG of the year. Given this came out before 2010 but the point is that I started playing it in January this year. One of the very few games this year that actually kept me up past my bed time. I hammered this for a straight week to completion like some sick console karma sutra.
It’s the usual fair of the mute protagonist rising from a broken life to unite an army and bring some evil thing to justice because Obi-Wan told you to. It’s classically Tolkien-esque in its setting and races and follows the Bioware School of going to several locations to gain favour.
What set the game apart for me was the accessible battle system that though clunky at times felt visceral and nicely paced. It had the old ethics of starting small and then progressing to larger things with the usual tasks seen in many games in that era, kill this, fetch that, shall we kill this child to save everyone?
I think that though this game wasn’t reinventing the wheel in any respect it had character and charm unmatched by any other in its genre (save ME2). This engagement instilled the choices made in the game with a verisimilitude unmatched by other games I played this year.
Fallout: New Vegas
The previous incarnation would have been in my GOTY in 2008 had I even transferred my mental list onto paper. While rife with bugs and other such issues that countless patches and updates will hopefully cure the game is still a great experience which has definitely improved from the last.
Sometimes it does feel like a glorified expansion pack that some bright spark decided to hawk for full price, though upon purchasing said add-on I found that my investment was well worth it. In terms of scope and setting the game has (and I use the word with a grimace) a very ‘immersive’ atmosphere.
The game feels ‘big’, something that some other games (I’m looking at you Fable III) haven’t achieved. Bethesda have always had a knack for that and everyone can tell this is just Oblivion fast-forwarded a couple of thousand years. And still when talking to people the camera has a tendency to some zoom in like I’m trying to see into their souls but instead I end up talking to a haunted mannequin of person.
This is another game that is loose on the over-arching story which seems to be a pattern in new games being released, have we rinsed all the originality out of narrative so we’ve just given up? Once again though it doesn’t really matter as Fallout is all about the players experience and interaction with the great wide world.
I enjoy the combat immensely, especially pummelling unsuspecting children with spiked fists and bolt action rifles, yes; I have a problem than can only be satiated by throwing grenades at kids. Fallout helps me take this out in the virtual world… though one day I fear even that may not be enough.
Chaos Rings
After purchasing my Iphone and managing to not faint/splooge myself to death with the shear excitement of conforming like the sheep I am, I decided to indulge in some games for its platform. There are a lot of games and developers vying for your attention on the tiny gaming platform and you can blissfully burn a pile of money buying games of indiscernible quality.
Those of us in the ‘know’ can usually tell whether a games going to suck or not and when it’s coming from a developer such a SquareEnix we can usually take solace in the fact it’s made with quality. Suffice to say I wasn’t disappointed with the game and it was in fact the best I played on the phones platform. It surpassed even Angrybirds though many users thought that such quality would stay unmatched for years to come eventually culminating in a blockbuster movie directed by David Lynch.
It had an interesting materia-like system akin to a cross between FFVII and IX in that you equip base skills and level them up by fighting different enemies. There are different worlds to fight in and the story unfolds with each level, usually filling in the story on the way there which is shrouded in mystery for each character in the beginning.
The writing could have been better, coming off wooden or clunky at times but what endeared me to the game most was that it has potential. I’m talking take the main characters and the heart of the story (mysterious alien force kidnaps people and makes them fight to the death) and transport to a PS3 exclusive. The vision here would have made a game that could easily be ten times better than the debaucle that was Final Fantasy XIII. Why o’ why do you not invest in quality SquareEnix, where did it all go wrong?
Honourable Mentions
Mass Effect 2 was a great a game, well written and such a step up from the last game. The only thing that bugged me was the damn mining aspect of the game, it drove me mental and I wanted to careen my ship into the centre of the sun out of protest for their archaic mining techniques. Surely they could have employed a giant magnet to suck it all up. Otherwise, a nearly flawless adrenaline fuelled tale of space marine bad-assery. Definite GOTY contender.
Bayonetta was another gem that went largely unnoticed in terms of sales, but then, it’s all about quality and not quantity. The game, while more stereotyped than a 70’s sitcom topped any previous game in the action game canon. I think the only problem is that it left a lot of people thinking, where do we go next with this?
Dishonourable Mention
Final Fantasy XIII. I had such high hopes for this, I wanted, neigh needed this to be great but through all my wishing and hoping I was disappointed. SquareEnix really dropped the ball in the FF franchise this year and need to start employing some specialist ‘ball catches’ to rectify this problem. To be honest they’ve dropped so many balls in their next gen endeavours that I feel like I’m at some tea-bagging enthusiasts meeting. It lacked the scope and feel of previous FF games and I think the only hope in the franchises future rests with Versus XIII.
Two Worlds. I paid twelve of my hard earned pounds on this monstrosity. Some people have said that you need to give it a chance and look past the awful graphics and hack dialogue and see what’s on the inside. I’m not that kind of guy, I’m superficial, I drive fast phallic-shaped cars and date a carousel of supermodels so I have no time for this wait and see attitude. God’s be damned it sucked so hard it nearly caused a vacuum after I inserted the disc and tried to suck me into its world of suckiness.
There it is then, the countdown. This is my opinion and it does not relflect the opinions of other New Game Network staff or the site as a whole. My opinion is to be taken as solid, stone cold in your face facts endorsed by an almighty power from up on high. If you have any queries please direct them to your hand. Merry Christmas.