Of all the Halo titles, the one that always got me most curious was Halo 3: ODST. A very different approach to story and tone, the more open world like game design and even the uneven fan reception were things that got me interested and now that I’ve finally played it in the Master Chief Collection, I have to say that it was right for me to be intrigued. Maybe this will turn out to be not the best campaign in Halo games, but I’m sure it will remain one of the most unique ones.
Tag: great soundtrack
Thoughts on: Borderlands 3 (with DLCs)
I’m still not quite sure why is that I’m attracted to the Borderlands series. I’m not a fan of loot focused action RPGs, I don’t often play coop or multiplayer and every single main game in the series has been at best “kinda nice”. Yet here I am, playing Borderlands 3 (and 4 big DLCs for it) without even expecting to like it much.
Happy about: Journey
I remember how stunned everyone was by thatgamecompany’s Journey back in 2012, when the game was released as a PS3 exclusive. I didn’t have that console and missed it entirely, but knowing Flower and flOw, I planned to definitely play the game some day. Well, now that the game is on PC that day has come. Except, it’s 8 years later. Does it matter?
Happy about: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
Despite hearing a lot about the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series for years, and frankly how couldn’t you hear about it with how popular it has become, I’ve not played a single entry up until this point. Most of the world has met Phoenix in a localized version back in 2005-2006 when the original GBA title was ported to Nintendo DS and released worldwide. This original trilogy of games was already out in Japan, having been released in 2001, 2002 and 2004 on GBA, but it was at this point that the famous “Objection!” really took off elsewhere. And after years of popularity, different related media, sequels, crossover games and many direct and indirect imitators the original trilogy has finally landed on PC, worldwide (there were Japan-only PC ports of several previous titles) in its newest updated iteration. I was very excited to finally check it out.
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Thoughts on: Creaks
While I was never a huge fan of Amanita Design, some of their titles have been and still remain among my favorite games. What I always admired about their projects is the playfulness and unpredictability, with the art and music coming close second. And pretty much every time they wanted to do something more puzzle oriented, I was far less interested with their critical darling Machinarium being my least favorite of the titles. Yet, I was curious about what Creaks would turn out to be – a puzzle platformer from the studio is a new direction after all. The results are not as fun as I hoped they would be.
Thoughts on: 428: Shibuya Scramble
When I’ve first learnt of 428: Shibuya Scramble, which wasn’t too long ago, I got incredibly interested. While I’m not a huge fan of visual novels as a genre, there have been many great examples of how to build an engaging interactive narrative among these games. And this title seemed like it had many curious concepts of its own. Multiple characters with converging storylines, similarity to the good old (actually often really bad) FMV titles from the 90s, several story genres in one game telling different sides of the story… It was only later that I’ve learnt that the game was actually originally released back in 2008 on Wii and this new port was the first non-Japan exclusive version of the game. During the first several hours I didn’t even consider this, since the game felt really smart about how it used its own mechanics and how high quality the visual side of the game was.
I was thoroughly enjoying this title for hours, fully expecting to end up praising it a lot and calling it a gem that needed everyone’s attention. But that was only halfway through the game. Then the rest of the game happened.
O tempora: Halo 2: Anniversary (MCC)
O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
I found Halo to be respectable for when it was released, but ultimately tedious and frustrating as a single player FPS by today’s expectations. Its story was primitive, characters flat, levels a horrible copy-paste and even though its music was still memorable and the size and open nature of the levels (and the use of vehicles) was still impressive, it just wasn’t an enjoyable game to play. From my Halo 2 Vista memories, I knew that the sequel was a very different game, so I was hoping that it, in the new Anniversary version under Master Chief Collection, will be much more fun. And in many ways it is. But it has its flaws.
In love with: SteamWorld Dig 1 and 2
As a huge fan of “metroidvania” games when I first heard of SteamWorld Dig many years ago, I got curious. But then I saw that it focused on mining and my interest instantly evaporated. And even when SteamWorld Dig 2 got released several years later to extremely positive reviews, I continued ignoring the series. It wasn’t until very recently when I accidentally stumbled upon a playthrough of the game that I realized my initial thoughts about the gameplay were wrong and that I might enjoy the games. I love when lucky accidents happen.
Disapprove: Armikrog.
I was very curious about how Armikrog can turn out way back when the Kickstarter project for it got announced. Yet, for many reasons I didn’t have too much hope even then. When it was finally released in 2015 to mostly damning reviews I considered simply forgetting about this game. But recently, after seeing it go on big discount, decided to give it a go and see how bad things really were. Turns out, they weren’t as much “bad” as they were just “tedious” or “poor”.
O tempora: Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (MCC)
O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
I never played Halo on the “intended platform”. Never owned an Xbox, don’t plan to unless Series X impresses me with something exclusive and unique and even when I was borrowing one of the 360 from a friend of mine, I never ever played Halo on it. Yet, I did play Halo: Combat Evolved. The PC port done by Gearbox Software in 2003 which had some improvements and unique features, but also several bizarre downgrades. And back when I played it, I didn’t like it much. I did, however, feel that it was still a curious game to look at.
With the Master Chief Collection available and slowly updated with supported titles on PC, however, the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary brings the newest remaster of the original game to PCs. And, being curious about the series for a long time, I’ve decided to give it a go and play the games in the order they were released. As usual for me, I don’t plan to play the multiplayer or even the coop in these games, which is an important point to stress since Halo has always been most loved specifically for those modes. Yet, I feel that even with coop, I wouldn’t have enjoyed this revisit of the original Halo. Because by 2020 its campaign is genuinely unpleasant to go through.
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