backloggery now playing

backloggery now playing
now playing on the backlog

Thursday 28 February 2013

Awesome little indie game with great atmosphere and fantastic tunes. Can't make head nor tell of the story, but just a joy to play all round. Boss fights in particular are epic and awe-inspiring despite what they would first appear. And the narration is hilarious. And the old skool graphics despite being limited do a great job of creating the world and the characters. Everyone play it. It's short but very sweet

Wednesday 27 February 2013

Christ almighty. So fucking hard. Dolphin HD upscaling did not seem to help the visuals for some reason. Still looked very very blocky. As enjoyable as the gameplay was, the difficulty was so maddening to the point that I doubt I will play the sequel for fear of eating the controller.

Tuesday 26 February 2013

Much more serious and cinematic than the first one. And much prettier thanks to the updated Frostbite engine. Quite a bit harder too. It was possible to run through a lot of the first one. Not this one. Had to kill everything and everybody. Apart from that, more solid oorah shooter action

Only played this because I was given Bad Company 2 and only an idiot jumps into the middle of a series. Fairly run of the mill FPS action. Liked the destructible environments and humour between the guys in the company. On to the sequel!

Monday 25 February 2013

Incredibly short. No idea why it took them so long to make such a short game. I guess they were concentrating too much on stupid multiplayer. Asides from that, eye-achingly gorgeous as usual from Crytek. And lots of nano suit enhanced fun. Makes you feel like a total bad ass. Good to see Psycho back in action too. Story tied up nicely now. Or is it...? Just wish it had been longer...didn't feel like there was enough of it to enjoy. Wanted more.

Take note: this is the PC version. Won't look this nice on console.

Sunday 24 February 2013

Wow. Epic saga. Started off in the run down streets of the Grove in Los Santos and rose to fortune and fame through the countryside, San Ferrio, the desert and Las Venturas. With crazier and zanier missions as it went ranging from taking over airfields, commendering jets mid-air, stealing harriers, robbing military trains with a jet pack and much much more wackiness. Bought this on PS2 pretty much on release in 2004. But only getting round to playing it now 9 years later. And on PC. Haha. I can see why a lot of people complained about GTA 4 being too tame and small time after this huge production of mad scale. But they are very different games. 4 was a much more personal and localised story. Where as this was a state wide crazy journey of gigantic proportions.

Anyone who has missed this entry in the series: play it now.

Thursday 21 February 2013

Cool little indie puzzle game. Art style was good but at the same time a little...creepy..a bit monty python-esque. Brought about a feeling of isolation for some reason...

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Cleaning up some more old XBLA games. This one (along with the last one) came on the XBOX Live Arcade Unplugged Disc. Curious little base building game. Not too bad but not great either. Fairy meh.

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Decent enough little puzzle game, but got repetitive fast and felt too long.

Downloaded this ages ago on XBLA with the intention of getting easy achievements. Can't be arsed with that any more now...just got to get through the backlog. And fortunately, 'finishing' this one did not take long.

Sunday 17 February 2013

Multi player based game wherein the single player campaign was just 8 missions designed to train you on how to play the multi player mode. Which I will not be playing anyway. Haha. Bought this a while ago on Steam mistakenly thinking it had a co-op campaign but it did not. As for the game itself, seems a fairly standard run of the mill multi player FPS. Kind of reminded me of Tribes.

Saturday 16 February 2013

Started playing this not long before the film came out. But then stopped playing it so as to avoid spoilers. Then only got back to it now 8 years later. Overall a fairly standard hack n slash affair but well put together and enjoyable to play. Also nice splicing of bits of film footage into it. However, I am tired of every Star Wars game on the planet trying to find ways to nerf lightsabres. It is a lightsabre. Besides other lightsabres and corodite armour, it can cut through anything in 1 slice. But yet every Star Wars game finds ways to make everything be able to block a lightsabre. Which is bullshit.

Friday 15 February 2013

Nice spin off of the Metal Gear series. Hacking shit up is a lot of fun. Was quite short though. But good to see Raiden take the main stage again in a non-sucky form like he did in Metal Gear Solid 2. Gameplay wise quite similar to Platinum's previous game, Bayonetta with the added edition of the blade physics and lots and lots of cutting shit up in slow motion. Interesting to see how the world of Metal Gear has moved on since #4 as well. Another win.

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Another curious take on Mega Man battles...slightly better than the first but still just like...a whiff of a proper Mega Man game.

Interesting take on the Maga Man battles. Originally an arcade game but bundled with the Mega Man Anniversary Collection. Cheap cash in it seems like.

Another ancient one long left behind finally laid to rest. Seemed a lot harder than I remembered it being. But then, maybe that's why I stopped playing it 6 years ago... Asides from that, this was a decent enough entry in the Burnout series. Despite not being a real Burnout game and just something EA shoved out to cash in on because Criterion (the real makers of Burnout) were taking too long to get Burnout Paradise out the door. So EA studied previous Burnout games and copy/pasted them to make this one.

Been meaning to play this one for a while now. Very unique and challenging game. Lots of fun but a tad more difficult than it should have been on a touch screen...feel it would have been easier with a mouse

Monday 11 February 2013

Gradually departing further from the series' horror roots and going more towards action. Just like Resident Evil... The addition of co-op was nice but also made it less scary. Still a lot of fun for an action game. Thankfully, the micro-transactions were not that noticeable. Apart from some upgrades/weapons needing a huge amount of resources. The art and levels and enemies were all their usual gorgeous selves. But can't help but feel it's losing it's way... I think that Visceral had their hand forced by EA to put in most of the more negative parts like the micro-transactions and cover-based shooting.

Saturday 9 February 2013

Almost 2 years on and off to complete this one. And man was it hard.... Definitely fun though

Friday 8 February 2013

Charming original adventure apparently based on an old Chinese story. Interesting mix of Uncharted climbing and light hearted combat. Plus colourful and beautiful scenery. Ninja Theory know how to make their characters come to life.

Thursday 7 February 2013

Bit of a meh RTS game. Not much of a story behind it and almost all engagements were of the same 3 mission type cut outs. Nowhere near as epic as I was expecting World War III to be...

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Good portable entry in the series. Classic GTA action hampered only slightly by awkward controls and viewpoint due to hardware limitations. Apart from that lots of criminal antics fun and interesting to be part of the triads this time rather than murdering them. Well, murdering all of them rather than just some of them... Mini games also nicely done and don't feel tacked on.