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MMA Bets

Got another blog up that I will be working on.
A lot easier to maintain IMO so that's what I will be working on for the near future.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Date installed: May 2009
Date uninstalled: Approximately 1 month later



I have yet to see the new Wolverine movie though I do know the plot for most of the film as this movie-tie-in game seems to be fairly true to it's source from my estimates. Good news is I chucked the game before I beat it so it didn't spoil the ending!
I should mention that this game lasted a month and not a week as while playing it my GPU died and I had to do without for 2 weeks while I waited on a RMA. Gigabyte never told me what was wrong but said they replaced the entire card, interesting...

Now it's fairly common knowledge that games based on movies are sh!t but this one is not terrible by any means. I found myself enjoying tearing through people at first and there is some nice looking gore in the game also. There are a ton of combos for you to use but that doesn't save the game from it's repetition.

So I was I assume 2/3rds through the game when I got to a level in the snow where I had to take a bomb off a building and go put it somewhere. The game has a wolverine sense or some sh!t which basically tells you where to go. So I pick up this bomb and walk off the building as per my "sense" and then when I hit the ground the sense is now pointing up, WTF!? So I need to go up now? fine. I go over to a ladder but oh snap, can't climb a ladder with a bomb held over your head. So I try to find another way up and I got nothing so this game had to go. It's possible I missed something but I really hate games that can lead you down a dead end and leave you there. Reminds me of my last play through Fallout 2 and I tossed some critical game item I needed to beat the game and spent an hour backtracking through the damn world trying to find some piece of crap I tossed in the middle of the desert. Judgement day will come for these game designers and I will laugh (Fallout 2 is a great game though).

Quick aside: If you like groove metal then go grab a copy of the new DevilDriver album, it's fantastic.

Beaten Games

Decided to keep a list up of all the games I have played through and beaten on my new PC which earns them immunity from being bashed in a future post.

Game listed in green would be the most recent addition.

Assasin's Creed Bionic Commando: Rearmed Bioshock Braid Brothers In Arms: Hells Highway Call of Duty: World at War Crysis Crysis: Warhead Fallout 3 Grand Theft Auto IV Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Guitar Hero: World Tour Lego Batman Mirror's Edge Rainbow 6: Vegas 2 Tomb Raider: Underworld Wanted: Weapons of Fate

www.deletedgames.com

It's official now, this website is halfway to legitimacy.
Got a great deal on a domain name so I took it.

Guess this means I gotta put the 1 year I have it for to good use :)

Braid*

The whole concept behind this blog is to give me an outlet to complain about the games that have wronged me, but I think it might not be a bad idea to add just a touch of diversity.

If a game comes along that really knocks me on my ass. A game that I would score >= 8/10 then I want to just mention it. Maybe give them a plug and earn them a sale or two while I'm at it. if I can.

I just got finished with Braid and I'm just astounded by it in every way possible. This is a game that is just designed flawlessly, every single pixel is exactly where it should be. That may sound a bit strong but go play the game and post back and tell me I'm full of sh!t if you disagree.

The graphics are not cutting edge, everything looks like it has been hand painted but it looks fantastic. Not many games have a look like this one and that is something to be praised.
The real meat is the gameplay though. Braid takes a simple concept of the traditional platform game and adds so many layers of depth it is mind boggling. This isn't a game that involves going from point A to point B. You are responsible for collecting puzzle pieces in each level and the method you employ to collect these pieces is the genius of the game. Each puzzle piece is it's own unique challenge, this game involves a bit of trail-and-error and a lot of logical thought. Did I mention that you can control the flow of time? Super Mario ain't got sh!t on Braid.

I'm not sure what else to say about the game but anyone who hasn't played this game needs to do so ASAP. You have never played a game like this before and it's time you experience it.

Puzzle Quest

Date installed: Approximately January 2009
Date uninstalled: Approximately 1 month later




I usually like to stick to a few genres when it comes to my games; FPS, RPG, Sports and any other type of game where I shoot people. I do enjoy the odd puzzle game though, I am a big Super Puzzle Fighter fan. There is also an incredible flash puzzle game called Totem Destroyer which is a damn masterpiece. Anyways, I do have some puzzle tolerance and I heard good things about this game so I gave it a try.

This game is ridiculously addictive! I couldn't get enough of this game for the first few weeks. The concept is simple enough, trying to pair things off and gain magic ability or deal damage to your opponent. Now after a few weeks I'm sad to report the honeymoon was over. I was levelling up one day and I realized just how f*%king repetitive the game had gotten. It all kinda caught up with me at that moment. Same sh!t, different enemies is what it boiled down to. I realized at that moment that I would never play the game again and away it went. I did enjoy it while it was fresh but I think I'm going to avoid the sequel.

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X

Date installed: Approximately March 2009
Date uninstalled: A few days later



I've never been a big airplane/jet video game player. All my visions of those types of games are overly complicated controls and flying around in circles. There was 1 airborne game I loved once, it's name was Jungle Strike and it rocked the Sega Genesis' balls!

Anyways on to this game, yet another game with Tom Clancy's named pasted on it. I suppose this should make me want to play it but unless his named is followed by 'Rainbow Six Vegas' then I'm not usually that impressed. I still decided to try the game out as it looked like a arcady jet game and I had read some good things about it.

Now I mentioned complicated controls and I was promised that I wouldn't need some sort of homo airsim setup which was true but the controls on the PC really kicked my ass. I tried with a PS2 controller as well and that was an improvement but still no damn good.
I got a few missions into the game and then I had to defend an airplane (I hate defending anything in a video game) and the thing get getting destroyed. I gave the level a few go rounds and said to hell with it and just tossed the game from the hd.

Once again I have decided to go back to my abstinence of all games flying related. Now of course if they ever make 'Zombie Strike', then I will have to reconsider my position...

SPOILERS

Something I just thought of addressing before I post anymore games.

Some of these games I have gotten a good way through before i have tossed them so there is spoiler potential with any game I have listed here.
I won't usually make reference to story elements but I will mention where i got stuck or fed up with the game which may provide specifics you won't want to read.

So be warned, potential spoilers to come, you've been warned.

Bully

Date installed: Approximately Nov 2008
Date uninstalled: A few weeks later



Bully sounded like GTA meets school so what wouldn't there be to like?
I installed the game and started it up and within 5 minutes I had my answer, how about the worst console to PC port in the history of video games!

The game was almost completely unplayable. I'm talking major texture issues all over the place. I had audio out-of-sync and cutscenes running faster than normal. I'm not the only one who had those issues and I tossed the game rather then wait for the patch I figured would never come.

I've been called lazy in my day but not Take 2 Interactive / Rockstar Vancouver lazy.
I can't imagine this port sold well, why bother if you aren't going to do it right!?

LOL, Sweet!
I found a petition asking for Bully to be patched. Maybe everyone should sign it and give the game a try if it gets it's patch :p

Left 4 Dead

Date installed: Approximately Nov 2008
Date uninstalled: A few months later

I am a major fan of all things zombies.
Book wise I own The Zombie Survival Guide & World War Z (which is going to be made into a movie soon, fingers crossed on the final result). I also own over a dozen zombie DVDs including my personal favorite, The Return of the Living Dead. So needless to say I was all over this video game when it came out, I had visions of barricading myself in some safe house and battling back a zombie onslaught.

First hiccup with this game was it kept crashing on me very shortly into the game.
Some digging on Google pointed me to the fix which involved editing the shortcut and punching some random crap into the console window, crisis averted.

Game started great, some random zombies busted through a wall which was a nice touch. Seemed to be a good mix of zombie types and I made my way through the first set of missions. The developers decided to reward me with another set of missions eerily reminiscent to the previous ones. Same creatures, same balls-out battle at the end of each level, same everything basically.

I stopped playing the game for a long while and one day just decided to remove it. I'm told it was great in multiplayer but I'm not into that. The game is really repetitive and the gameplay didn't do much for me. It is basically a glorified Half-life mod, damn shame really...
I guess i'm stuck watching zombie clips on youtube till someone releases some zombie stuff worthwhile to enjoy on my PC.

Spore

Date installed: Approximately Sept 2008
Date uninstalled: A few days afterwards



I should start by saying I hate The Sims and for that matter I hate all video games that involve managing crap.
I basically despise any game that has "sim" or "tycoon" in it's title because I know I'm going to have to micromanage some bullsh!t I can't be bothered with.

Now Spore was a video game that was hyped to no end so I felt compelled to give it a shot. I'll admit that what I had read about the game was intriguing so it found it's way onto my PC.

I fired it up and spent a good deal of time as some sort of amoebae in water fighting other guys and floating away from the SOB's who were trying to destroy me. I survived this and got to the point where I got to make my own guy. I'm not sure if you can make a creature that doesn't look like sh!t so I didn't feel bad with what I slapped together.

So I'm running around some island to other creatures hangouts and I have the option to fight them (crap) or dance for them (WTF!?). I danced a few times, I fought a few times, I laughed, I cried and I uninstalled this glorified sim tycoon game.
I wasn't overly angry when I tossed the game, more disappointed in the final result and myself for giving it a few hours of my time.

Looks like I'm not the only one not impressed with Spore.

Velvet Assassin

Date installed: 06/21/2009
Date uninstalled: See date installed and add 30 minutes

Wow. This video game holds the unique distinction of being the only game in recent memory that was both installed and removed within the same hour. I knew this game was going to be heavy on stealth but holy sh!t was I not prepared for this.

Lets see, I cranked up the graphics to full and started my game.
I climbed up to a bridge, killed a drunk guy and moved onto an area with 2 guards. I hid in the bushes like a pervert and that was when I got spotted and shot to ribbons in seconds. I said something to the effect of "That's bullsh!t" followed by quitting->uninstalling->and telling the game to "F*#k off!".

Next time I want to play a stealth video game I'll fire up MGS. Any game that lets you hide in a box is the sh!t.

Anger Meter

I figure this element is pretty self explanatory but I'll include some info on it anyways.

Basically the anger meter is a reflection of my anger (scale of 1-10) at the time I removed a video game from my system.

Some games have me seething at that moment before uninstall where I'm wishing I purchased more RAM because the time it is taking for the game to uninstall is too lengthy.
Other games haven't really offended me in any way but just lost my interest because of other video games or events in my life.

The anger meter is just a quick visual representation of this for every ones viewing pleasure.

About

Well there are plenty of sites where you can go read reviews on video games.
They will include pictures, videos and all sorts of other goodies but they fail to capture one thing - the anger that a video game can trigger in an otherwise sane individual.

Every gamer has a breaking point where they toss their controller/mouse, let loose a diatribe of obscenities and put there game up for sale on eBay or wipe it off the face of their PC for life.

What I'm attempting to do here is provide an ongoing account of my trials & tribulations with the various PC games that come my way.

The first group of entries are from memory so the details may be a bit lacking but look for more accurate accounts in the future on my blog.

If you've also been frustrated by a specific video game or want to bash me for not giving it a chance then feel free to post in the comments.

Matt