GAMES PLAYED: #BioshockInfinite and not much else - read the blog post!
MUSIC PLAYED: #Chvrches, #TheChemicalBrothers, #TheDeadWeather, #LauraVeirs
MOVIES/TV WATCHED: #TheWalkingDeadSeason3, #DexterSeason5, #DexterSeason6, #Nashville, #WallE (on infinite repeat thanks to #Henry!)
BLOG UPDATE:
Many of us who could be labeled #gamers have what is known colloquially in gaming/entertainment circles as the "Unfinished Pile of Shame" - this basically amounts to the pile of games that, despite your best endeavors, you bought but never got around to finishing or even playing.
What with #BabyNumber2 on the way soon, I decided to take stock of my own #UnfinishedPile and catalog it, along with the reasons why certain games are still unplayed.
The majority of the games on this list will most likely be there because I just don't have the free time anymore due to parenting or playing with #Henry (definitely time well spent!), or due to other life commitments; things like working or worrying about the potential of a trip-dip recession!
Games
Title: L.A Noir [Xbox 360]
Reason: I wanted to like it, and was avidly following the story and reveling in the absurd level of motion-capture on display, however there's got to be something seriously wrong with the game-mechanics if I'm always getting my partner to drive me to every location in the game because I can't stand the feel of the controls!
Title: Red Dead Redemption [Xbox 360]
Reason: #JohnMarston - you're a legend of the Old West but by god you're stupid. How many A-to-B murder-quests have you been sent on, with the promise of information to help you track down your former Gang Leader only to be told after massacring another village of Mexicans that your employer knows nothing and was just using you!? If you're that gullible you don't deserve my help...
Title: Metal Gear Solid HD 2/3 [Xbox 360]
Reason: I don't know what I was thinking getting this game - there's no way I'll be able to fit in the 3hr cutscenes around parenting... Thanks for nothing Kojima-san!
Title: Gears of War 3 [Xbox 360]
Reason: Too violent to play - if there's any chance (no matter how remote) that #Henry could see or hear anything occurring in-game I couldn't live with myself.
Title: Left 4 Dead/Left 4 Dead 2/Dead Rising 2/Dead Rising 2: Case West [Xbox 360]
Reason: Vetoed by @TheHomemademama - something about not wanting our offspring to be soothed by the sound of #zombies moaning or #GunShots ...
Title: Modern Warfare 3
Reason: See the previous comments about the sound of #GunShots with L4D...
Hitman: Absolution
Reason: I love the Hitman series, and the latest entry enticed me in the free Sniper Challenge. The new graphics engine updates the looks and make them beautiful and yet grimy at the same time, but forcing the #GrindHouse plot into the game that doesn't need it just does nothing for me...
Title: Modern Warfare 3
Reason: See the previous comments about the sound of #GunShots with L4D...
Hitman: Absolution
Reason: I love the Hitman series, and the latest entry enticed me in the free Sniper Challenge. The new graphics engine updates the looks and make them beautiful and yet grimy at the same time, but forcing the #GrindHouse plot into the game that doesn't need it just does nothing for me...
Title: Skyrim & DLC [Xbox 360]
Reason: I bought this game assuming that I would be the only game I ever needed to play for the next few years. You don't play Elder Scrolls games, you move into them...unfortunately I don't have that sort of time any more, unless I give up working for a living, sleeping, or caring for my family I'll have to console myself that my month-long jaunts into #Tamriel are on hold and live in the past now.
Title: Xcom
Reason: Xcom and Terror From the Deep are two of my favorite games from decades back. The reboot captures the original game perfectly. I've been playing it but haven't completed it...Xcom isn't about saving the world, its about how beautifully you fail while trying to save it...
Title: Crysis 2
Reason: Its not in set in the jungle like the original Crysis was...
Title: BioShock 2
Reason: It's not the original Bioshock...
Title: Xcom
Reason: Xcom and Terror From the Deep are two of my favorite games from decades back. The reboot captures the original game perfectly. I've been playing it but haven't completed it...Xcom isn't about saving the world, its about how beautifully you fail while trying to save it...
Title: Fez [XBLA]
Reason: I paused it a long, long time ago, and now I can't comprehend what I was tying to achieve, or where I'm trying to get to spatially-let alone re-training my brain to think in 90degree 2D/3D coordinates again! Plus, if the rumors are true and people have gotten completion stats of 209%...I just don't stand a chance. It's got an amazing soundtrack though...
Title: Any Kinect-based Title [Xbox 360]
Reason: #Microsoft, I bought into your family-fun dream in brightly-lit, spacious, colourful (yet tastefully decorated in a minimalist-style) sunlight-flooded houses, and I imagined me and #Henry having a whale of a time jumping around together. The only downside being is that I bought into this dream years too early to do this with my son and before the Kinect was even ready to work properly.
Plus if you can think of a way to stop #George, the family dog from either flipping out when I talk to the Xbox, or attacking me because I'm dancing in front of the #Kinect please, please, please feel free to let me know...
Title: Crysis 2
Reason: Its not in set in the jungle like the original Crysis was...
Title: BioShock 2
Reason: It's not the original Bioshock...
LA Noire - the game city is too big, just because you can fit LA onto a game disc doesnt mean that its worth doing. The meat of the game is superb (the story, the mo-cap...), the plate it comes on (the city) is a game city devoid of a soul.
ReplyDeleteRed Dead - This is one of the greatest games ever made, get over some of the poor reasons for the missions and just enjoy it. If you dont like this game then you are wrong and just about the rest of world agrees that this game is platinum covered goodness!
Metal Gear solid - every house needs an emergency ashtray.
GoW3 - Its gears of war...3. Did you play the first 2? Congratulations you've played number 3. Plus shouldnt kids be in bed at some point leaving the grown ups to some personal time?
L4D/2 are two of the greatest games ever made for multiplayer. If im honest you have probably missed the boat for experiencing the fun that these games contained. Dead rising? Not so much.
Modern warfare - like the rest of the CoD games - powdered buffalo shit. Spend your time watching your toe nails grow, this will be more fun and a more productive use of your time.
Absolution - everything that made the first two hitman games great is missing in this title. The AI doesnt work properly, its got too many game mechanics that dont make sense, the story is hackneyed bullshit that would be deemed poor on a Wesley Snipes straight to dvd movie.
Skyrim - I didnt get this. I got fallout 3, oblivion and new vegas and loved the shit out of all 3 when they came out. Then the never ending DLC for each title arrived. I decided to play the waiting game for skyrim and get the game of year edition. I will probably get this in about 2 or 3 months once the summer is waning.
XCOM - GotY contender. Superb game that shows games how they should be. Am I brave enough to try Iron man mode? Hell no.
FEZ - ???
Kinnect Titles - WHISKY TANGO FOXTROT?!?!?!?
Crysis 2 - Not a patch on the first game but if you get creative its an enjoyable enough title.
Bioshock 2 - This is where I get lynched. I tried to like the first one, I really did; but I just couldnt get into it. The weapons felt and sounded puny, they handled wrong, the movement of the character seemed un-natural and I found the level design disorienting. I made it all the way to the big reveal (would you kindly...) and that almost made up for what I thought was a mediocre title. I made it all the way to the last boss battle (he is still waiting for me to enter that final room) but I just couldnt bring myself to endure more time in that game. Contrary to my experiences I got the second and managed to last an hour. All was forgiven with the magnificence that was Bioshock Infinite.
Now as I have told you before, get yourself some wireless headphones, as a parent they are ESSENTIAL to any 30+ manchild who wants to continue to play "soldiers" when his offspring and 'fairer-half' are resting up. Now if you will excuse me - this old timer has rattled on enough.
All good points!
DeleteJust to clarify some of them though
Red Dead Redemption - It's absolutely amazing (and probably the finest game set in the Old West since Lucasart's; Outlaw). Plus it probably has the finest sky-boxes known to man and beast. I was fully invested in the story, but I got tired of the play-loop of; "I'll give you information if you help me", kill a village-full of people, "Hah! I lied and don't know anything at all - why don't you go speak to my friend...!" I got fed up with John being so gullible.
L4D/L4D2 - Played them online in their prime, so haven't missed out on them, I just never got to follow the story all the way through to the conclusion - and playing with bots kinda missed the point. But these are absolutely phenomenal games. Can you imagine what they could do with a next-gen engine for a potential L4D3
Fez - please see; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q55RJ41hv4c
..and; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfpKTclOnfI
...this should explain most of what you need to know about this title - its awesome, but after leaving it for so long I had no chance picking up where I left off previously.
Skyrim - I belive the legendary edition is out now, and was possibly in the #SteamSale just gone.