This Gaming Life Part IV: Moving Forward (C-F)

Image by Cool Text: Free Logos and Buttons - Create An Image Just Like This

Key:      F=Favorite     G=Good      M=Meh      S=Sucked

C.
 
Call of Duty 2 F
Call of Duty 3 S
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare F
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 G
Call of Duty Black Ops G  
I had really hoped that I could skip Call of Duty period and just never talk about it.  I have a love hate with this series, mostly because the companies that make the game are owned by Activision, the Satan of Gaming.  That’s a different story in itself, but the fact that Call of Duty has a new title every single year is a tad annoying as well.  I really enjoyed Call of Duty 2, hated the 3^rd, and fell in love with the Modern Warfare series.  Call of Duty Black Ops was pretty decent as well; however I do have to say that Call of Duty lacks a ton of creative story writing.  Instead, the games tend to focus on awesome action sequences and fighting.  There is never a dull moment when fighting through the single player portion of the game, so a mediocre story can easily slide on by.  Then there’s multiplayer.  I don’t have much to say because I suck so bad at it that I never bother to play it longer than twenty minutes.  Perhaps I’m reaching that gaming age where I hate multiplayer or maybe it really does suck and people don’t want to admit it.  Regardless of the gameplay, I hate the annual releases.  I feel like Call of Duty is the video game version of candy corn.  I always say I won’t buy the new COD game coming out, but low and behold, I always do.  Thanks for the love hate you jerks.  I rated the games next to their titles above. 

Cars  
I’m what you would call an achievement whore.  I hunt achievements down like a fat kid raiding the fridge.  I did have a time in my gaming past where I would play any game for achievements rather than for fun.  Cars was one of the games I played because it had an easy achievement list.  To my surprise, I actually didn’t think this game was that bad.  The driving was very smooth, the missions very easy, and I even got to go tractor tipping.  In the end I got all of the achievements and had a little bit of fun as well.  Unfortunately, I rated the game M because it was too simple and obviously built for people much younger than me, age wise, not maturity wise. 




Chessmaster Live  
Chess is my favorite board game.  I only wish I was better at it!  Playing this game on an electronic board versus a computer player is actually pretty lame.  Not once have I been gratified from besting a computer player and whenever I play online I get my ass kicked.  Strategy is not one of my strong points, but since I’d rather play a game like this against people I actually know (because they suck), I give this game an M.

Civilization Revolution  
I do enjoy a fun real time strategy game like Age of Empires or Rise of Nations, but I enjoy them on the computer.  That's where an RTS belongs in my opinion because when playing them on a console, I feel constricted.  I will say that out of all of the RTS games I've played on my Xbox, Civilization Revolution has probably been the best.  It's quite an enjoyable game and I love building my cities and watching them grow and grow into something amazing.  I also like the fact that I can win in other ways rather than just killing off all of the enemies.  Why spend eternity as one entity when you can watch everyone else suffer as your nation’s bitch?  This is a game I would buy for the Xbox for those times when I don't really know what I'm in the mood to play.  I rate this game G.

Comix Zone  
This game takes me way back to the Sega where the graphics were mediocre and the game play all too simple.  Comix Zone really stood out at that time as a creative loner with the unique way it took me into a comic book.  I literally had to play my way through the pages of a comic book.  However, because I was like freaking ten years old and I completely sucked at this game, I never got too far.  I'd always wind up dying at the same part and having to start the entire game over.  Was the “saved game” feature not created yet?  I eventually never played the game ever again which is the reason I give it an M rating.  Perhaps I should download it off of the Xbox Live Marketplace and give it another go round.

Crackdown

Branching off of other successful sandbox games such as Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row, Crackdown takes a different direction.  The games I just named typically feature a thug working his way up the ladder in a city polluted by organized crime.  In Crackdown, we play as a super cop hell bent on taking out organized crime units.  It was a decent story, even if it was extremely short lived.  The game play wasn't the best I've seen either, but I did enjoy how over the top it was.  Jumping to extreme heights, kicking cars so hard it sends them flying, and picking up fallen foes and throwing them at other people was all very entertaining.  Characters are also able to climb the highest buildings in the featured city.  This was neat because I could exercise my need for adventurous exploration by focusing on collecting orbs hidden all over the city.  This feature created a ton of mindless fun for me and I honestly spent more time screwing off than I did on the main focus.  It's a shame the story wasn't a lot better, but because of the mindless, orb collecting fun, and the quirky over the top game play, I rated this game G.

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge   
The list of games I've never completed seems to continually grow and I have a lot of catching up to do.  At the top of my catch up list rests Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge.  I wish I could tell you about the story more than what I know, which is that it takes place in the 1930's and air travel is very popular.  I spent a majority of my time on this game playing multiplayer on Xbox Live, which was still very new to me at that time.  I was also still more into shooters than anything else, but the idea of playing people online turned on a hunger for competition.  Being one of the first flight sim games I've ever played (other than Star Fox); I would fly around American skylines and shoot other people out of the air.  I was attracted to how simple and smooth the flying was as well the colorful and cartoonish graphics, making the fact that I sucked that much easier to deal with.  With the many choices of planes to choose from along with the addicting online game play has made this game an unforgettable experience.  I rate it F.

CSI Hard evidence

Here is another victim to my achievement high.  It was ranked as a pretty easy game to net 1000 points to my score and that rank didn't lie.  The game sucked though and it felt nothing like the TV show.  The research difficulty setting was set to “retarded” and searching for clues was as simple as being placed in a small square room with the only objects in sight being the clues you need to “search” for.  I swear my three month old son could conquer this game effortlessly.  The graphics looked like the game was made ten years ago, and even if it had been, it would have been just as big a failure as it is today.  I have yet to even attempt the other games released in the series and unless I'm extremely desperate for easy achievements, I doubt I ever will.  Capital S for super sucky.

D.


Dance central
I don't know that it's really fair that I give this game such a crappy rating, but like I said, at the beginning, it’s based on my opinion.  I'm a top heavy, wide shoulder white male that is attracted to women, so I obviously can't dance.  I don't know that I even want to know how to dance if the only songs available to jive to are crappy bubble gum garbage hits that are played on the radio (Lady Goo Goo for the loss).  Pop in some disco and you may get a better rating from me because I've always wanted to dance like Travolta.  The game just seems to require way too much work.  First, you need to go through and learn all the moves, and then after an hour of repetitive practice, you can go do the whole dance and suck at it.  Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad if all the songs consisted of the same moves, but they don’t.  You have to learn the moves for each and every song.  That was my experience and I really didn't have any fun at all.  My sister got a pretty good kick out of it though, must pay off to be a dancer.  I give the game the same rating it gave me, S.



Dash of Destruction  
A few years ago, Doritos started having these contests where people would pitch their ideas for a game and the winner would get to have their fantasy become a reality.  Dash of Destruction was the first Doritos game I played and it wasn't too terrible.  The game is played in one of two perspectives.  In the first perspective, the player is controlling the Doritos car and must deliver the tasty chips to the given locations all while avoiding getting eaten by a Doritos addicted T-Rex.  The other perspective has the player controlling the T-Rex while he roams the city and devours any and all Doritos cars.  Who knew delivering chips would rate among the most dangerous jobs?  The game was fun for about five cheesy minutes; Pun totally intended.  I give the game an M.

Dead Island
 
This is one of quite a few games that I am currently playing through and I freaking love it.  It mixes some of my favorite elements together such as RPG, first person view, melee weapons, and ZOMBIES!  That's right, a zombie RPG is on the market, how cool is that?  At first I was thinking the game would be extremely heavy on the shooting like Left 4 Dead, but it's not.  I think it's more realistic in the sense that 90% of the fighting taking place is through melee.  The choices of melee weapons differ due to the surroundings and they are items that would most likely wind up getting used in a real outbreak.  You can play as one of four survivors, all of whom apparently can't be turn into zombies.  They’re goal is to try to help everyone out with the dangerous stuff because they can literally go out and battle these demon spawns without the worry of becoming infected.  The game really reaches out to me because it combines features from Fallout 3 (zooming in on the character who is talking to you), Dead Rising 2 (being able to custom make weapons, baseball bat with nails anyone?), and Borderlands (the leveling system and the pick and choose layout of the missions prior to running out and accomplishing them, which I suppose can be related to Fallout as well).  I may or may not give a full review on the game whenever I'm able to finish it, but for now I love it enough to grant it an F.  Oh side note, I love the opening video.

Dead or Alive M
Dead or Alive 2 S
Dead or Alive 3 G
Dead or Alive 4 S  
I went through a stage in gaming where I loved nothing more than fighting games.  Mortal Kombat is easily my favorite, but Dead or Alive 3 came close.  Eventually I played Dead or Alive one and two when they were released in a dual pack (dubbed DoA Ultimate) and I was extremely unimpressed.  I'm not sure if it was because I was use to the much newer version or what, but I didn't like them.  The third game was pretty cool though and I really enjoyed fighting on environments that changed as the battle ensued.  Over time the game would get boring, but that's why I'd play Mortal Kombat until that got boring and just repeat the cycle.  Also, being able to go back and watch the endings at anytime in the theater was pretty cool.  I especially like the one where the girl was naked.  Leave me alone, I was like 16.  It was Dead or Alive 4 that killed it for me.  I suppose I realized that every DoA game I've played doesn't require any skill at all.  I typically just button mashed, unlike Mortal Kombat where I knew everyone's specific combo moves.  That, and the computer cheated and beat me all the time and that made me really sad.  The fourth game was absolutely frustrating beyond belief and I honestly couldn't take it anymore.  I rated the games next to their titles above.



Dead Rising
 
I'd love to tell you everything about this game, but I never got far enough to even know much about it other than it directly reminded me of Dawn of the Dead.  I know that I find myself stuck in a mall that is overrun with zombies and I spend a lot of time going out and looking for survivors and taking pictures of the grotesque scenery.  The most fun I had with the game was rolling bowling balls at the slow moving zombies and doing funny things like putting masks on their faces.  The game was goofy enough for me to like, but with limited time to play it, being borrowed from a friend in tech school, I never did finish it.  I can say that from what I did play, the game seemed very redundant in a boring way and because of that I give the game a G rather than an F.




Defense Grid
  I love tower defense games.  A tower defense game places the gamer in a setting where he needs to construct weapon towers as defense to something.  Defense Grid has the player defending energy from invading Aliens and it features dozens of maps to play on. Each level progressively gets more difficult and challenging.  Placing the right towers in the right places is very fulfilling when it pays off overall.  But what's the difference in tower defense games?  Nothing, they seem to be the same story with different methods of death, but that doesn't stop them from being fun.  This particular one gets a G.




Diablo II  
It's been at least ten years since I've last played this game and when I was playing it I didn't even know what was going on.  I just remember how much I loved using my potions and running around killing bad guys so I could loot them for awesome new weapons and armor.  Diablo III will be coming out soon though so I'm hoping to get back into the action with a more lucid view on things.  I rate this blurry memory, G.







Doritos Crash Course  
Doritos does it again, another free game offered on Xbox Live.  This game was much more fun than Dash of Destruction though.  Have you ever watched those crazy Japanese shows, which have now been recreated in America, where people run through these crazy obstacles and jumps in order to be the fasted contestant?  Well that's exactly what crash course is.  Using your Xbox Avatar, you run through a series of obstacles attempting to obtain a gold medal.  This game has provided some of the most stupid fun I've had in a while.  Try it friends, it's totally free and I rate it G.  



Donkey Kong (original)  
I'm sorry, but maybe it's because I enjoy modern games much more than the classics that makes me dislike this game.  Climbing ladders and avoiding lame obstacles to rescue a princess from a giant ape is not how I like to get my game on.  Besides, the hairy bastard can't win without cheating.  I hate him and his conniving ways.  This game SUCKS!





Donkey Kong Country (Super Nintendo)  
Now here is a Donkey Kong game that doesn't suck.  Using the typical side scroll view used on older systems, we get to play as Donkey Kong as he hunts down his missing horde of bananas.  I like this game way better than Mario because the obstacles are more fun (in my opinion) and the reward is much sweeter.  You may say, hey Cody, Mario gets the girl.  I say, Mario gets a lousy kiss before the dumb chick gets kidnapped again and he's on another mission to find her.  At lease Donkey Kong can gorge himself on bananas and if they get stolen again, who cares.  He could just save himself a trip and hit up a Super Wal-Mart.  I've beat this game like fifty times, I think it deserves an F.


Duck Hunt  
Seriously, how cool was Duck Hunt?  You could point your plastic gun towards the TV and shoot the ridiculously fake looking birds.  Does gaming get better than that?  Well yeah it does actually, but back in the day it would have kicked the snot out of the Wii.  Ha, actually it still does beat the Wii because it was actually fun.  I don't really have a complaint other than the fact that I can't shoot the damn dog for laughing at me when I miss a bird, not even if I put the gun right on the TV screen.  F, hands down.

E.  
I haven't played one game in my entire life that starts with an E.  What the hell is wrong with me? Has there even been a game made that starts with an E? If it's E.T I'm not playing it.  Oh wait, I actually have three games on my shelf that start with an E, but I have yet to play.  Elder Scrolls IV and V as well as Enslaved: Odyssey to the west.  Stay tuned for their reviews, if I care to do them.
 


F.
 

Fable II
Fable III The RPG's I play are a lot more futuristic and crazy, and I typically avoid that crazy fantasy stuff.  I'd say Diablo is the only game that I've ever played where I use potions and fight the weird creatures of the earth.  That is until Fable came out and showed me that it's okay to play games that have the words “troll” and “magic” without looking like a giant dork.  To me, Fable is extremely unique.  Many games do it now, but Fable really mastered the decision engine, in my opinion.  Every choice I make in the game may come at a consequence.  Save the many, but your family dies type of decisions.  Also throughout the game every decision has an effect on whether or not my character is good or evil.  These types of moral decisions really made the game fun as well wielding a giant sword and shooting fireballs at people.  I'm a Fable fan for sure and both the second and third games get an F rating.  I should really look into playing the first one though.

Fallout 3

I can't give a proper rating on this game because I got three hours in and realized that I'd probably spend the rest of my life playing it.  Instead I decided to finish some of the other games I own but haven’t completed.  That mission is actually still in progress.  Fallout, I shall see you soon!  For now, you get an F.

                                            





                                                                                                                                     

Feeding Frenzy
Feeding Frenzy 2

What better way to teach children how the food chain really works.  It's one fish eating smaller fish, and so on and so forth.  I basically just described both games to you.  You start off small time, eating small fish until you're fully grown and all the while you're avoiding getting eaten by bigger fish.  After a good series of that you move on to play as the fish that was formerly trying to eat you.  Eventually you make your way all the way up to a killer whale and you get to totally dominate everyone.  It's fun; just make sure you watch out for those fishermen dropping mines because that stuff will mess you up.  Both games get a G.

Fight Night Round 3

I can't remember the name of the one boxing game I played decades ago, but I can remember it being Mike Tyson and Evader Holyfield squaring up and punching their terribly rendered faces into terribly rendered pulps.  That was the last time I played a boxing game until Fight Night Round 3 came out.  What happened to the first two games?  I missed them, oh well.  It really felt good to dodge punches and throw some of my own at the same time.  It really gave a sense of realness to the game that I hadn’t experienced playing that old school mess.  I played the game non-stop because it had an easy achievement list and with that, I got burned out extremely quick.  In fact, the game is terribly redundant and I mean the bad kind.  Maybe I could have avoided this outcome had I taken my time progressing through the game, but I didn’t.  If the fun didn't run out I'd rate this game much higher, but instead it gets an M. 

Force Unleashed, The
I do enjoy Star Wars games, but it feels like the developers gave up on making decent plots.  Sure, we already think the movies are great so why not use the name to milk more money from the faithful diehards.  As Darth Vader's apprentice, we find ourselves roaming around and hunting down remaining Jedi in preparation to assassinate the Emperor.  Of course the story has twists and turns and the same old boring expectations that any popular movie based game has, but being able to kick ass with a light saber and use the force to throw our enemies across the map is so entertaining that I'd play the game again just for that experience.  In fact, I’d play any Star Wars game for that experience no matter how lame the story is.  I give this game a G.

Frontlines Fuels of War

Panic and war break out when the world is enduring a fuel crisis.  You commandeer the role of a member of The Stray Dogs, a company sent to spearhead assaults from the games antagonist.  I did enjoy this modern FPS even though I tend to be anti-modern shooters.  Modern shooters all feel the same to me and because of that, they present themselves as being redundant and boring.  This game, though, flows very smoothly as far as the combat goes and I was as also able to drive around deadly RC vehicles to covertly take out the enemy.  Yeah, okay, that definitely curbs my negativity towards the genre.  I thoroughly enjoy games that allow me to get creative with my destruction.  The thing I liked most about Frontlines was the way it was played.  Online and single player followed the same format, territories.  There are a certain number of checkpoints on a map; the goal is to control all of them, making it a tough feat for both sides to progress.  It’s such a satisfying feat being able to best the other team in a battle of wits for the land you’re fighting on, who cares if the difficulty is set to easy?  Frontlines gets an easy F.

Fuzion Frenzy F

Fuzion Frenzy 2 S  
I was introduced to this game by playing Halo.  It was new to me at the time, but Halo actually had demos on the game disc and Fuzion Frenzy was one of them.  When we were a tad tired from playing Halo, we would retreat to this demo to enjoy one of three party games.  I'm not typically a party game kind of guy, but Fuzion Frenzy made it awesome.  With over forty different mini games, we would be busy for hours.  What better way to waste a nice day than to sit in a dark basement crushing giant bugs with a hammer?  My favorite mini game had to be the button combo ones because honestly, I'm just awesome at them.  Fuzion Frenzy 2 came out a little while after the Xbox 360 was released and it was such a disappointment.  New features, new game modes, new mini games, were all crappy, especially that annoying announcer.  I ranked them above.