What have you been playing... IN APRIL 2012?

Oops. Another month has passed and I almost forgot to start this
thread again. Its not that I don't read Usenet anymore - I do,
everyday - but boy, time sure has a way of running through one's
fingers, doesn't it?

April wasn't a big gaming month for me, but I did manage to get some
time in for our favorite hobby. And having played the games, it is
incumbent on me to tell you about those games; that's what this thread
is about. You all know how this thread works so let's not go over it
again. Instead, right into the games!

Short and Sweet
------------------
* Metro 2033 (replay)
* Batman Arkham City (new)
* Left 4 Dead 2 (replay)
* I Am Alive (XBox360) (new)

TL; DR
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* Metro 2033 (replay)
It got a bad rap, but I really like this game. I must like it, since I
played it through twice this month (heck, I even read the original
novel the game was based upon). This is the first time that I've
played it with all the DirectX11 bells-n-whistles, and the game is
gorgeous. Metro 2033 is undeniably linear but it is incredibly
atmospheric and boasts a wonderfully imaginative setting; I can't take
my commute everyday anymore without gazing down the darkened subway
tunnels and wondering "what if..." Its gunplay is solid and rewarding
too, finding that unique balance of leaving the player feeling
empowered and at the same time fragily vulnerable to the nasties in
the dark. The short, tiny levels are disappointing but I am looking
forward to the sequel.

* Batman Arkham City (new)
Batman Arkham Asylum was one of the great games of 2009, with only one
major flaw: its boss battles. This problem has been rectified with the
sequel; the number of boss battles has been decreased and the few that
remain have been made much less annoying. So that leaves us with a
perfect game, right?

It should, but Arkham City left me cold. It has all the right
ingredients, but it never really seemed to come together. Maybe its
just the scale of the game; there doesn't seem to be enough focus.
During the course of your adventure, you will fight Joker, Clayface,
Solomon Grundy, Poison Ivy, Deadshot, Hugo Strange, Ra-'s al Ghu-l,
Bane, the Mad Hatter, Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Azrael, the Riddler, Zzazz
and probably a half-dozen more I can't remember. Each villain is
strong enough to be the focus of a single game; stuck together in one
title the whole experience lacks focus and pacing. Its also a bit
confusing to anyone who doesn't religiously follow the comic, since
many villains are not commonly known to any but devoted readers.

That can be set for the rest of the game; sure, Batman has more
gadgets, more combat moves, and a larger area to explore, but none of
them really seems fleshed out and I quickly became tired and, to some
degree, overwhelmed. It didn't help the entire quest was riddled with
what I call "pokemon quests"; a slew of totchkas scattered across the
city you need to collect to finish certain storylines.

Batman does look good - although it took a number of patches before
the game ran without stuttering in DirectX11 mode - and the voicework
is, as ever, fantastic. The game has everything it needs to be a
classic but too often feels like features were added simply because
new features were expected in a sequel, rather than because they were
actually needed.

* Left 4 Dead 2 (replay)
If in doubt, shoot a zombie. There's a valuable life-lesson for you.
Its worked well for me. And few games have better - or more - zombies
than the Left 4 Dead series. So when I couldn't think of what game to
play next, my course became clear very quickly. Bam, headshot to the
undead on the left, and my question was answered.

* I Am Alive (XBox360) (new)
I was looking forward to this game from when I first heard about it,
but was surprised and confused to learn that it was only going to be
available as a downloadable XBox Arcade title. It seemed like it would
be a strong new IP; why was it being denied a space on store shelves?
But it didn't take much playing to answer that question.

Firstly, there's just not very much game. Its short, and its levels
are not particularly large. Even among other six-hour titles, it would
still feel overpriced. Although its visuals were striking - all
subdued grays and browns - it wasn't particularly impressive to look
at. Its controls were clumsy. And it had a horrible gameplay mechanic
that we all hoped had died years ago: a limited number of lives and no
quicksave. Die too many times and you restart the level.

One of the core themes of the game is resource management; you have
an extremely limited number of items - health kits, bullets, tools -
and using any of them always required you to decide beforehand whether
the expenditure was worth it. I guess the developers wanted to build
on this theme by making your lives limited too, but the rather than
enhancing the tension it worked against the effect. I'd get three
quarters of the way through a level, reach an encounter that
repeatedly killed me, then had to restart the map. Then I'd do it
again... and again. The game quickly changed from "tense" to
"frustrating" and then "dull" as I revisited scenes again and again.
And you couldn't even skip the custscenes!

Minus that stupid game mechanic, the title was an interesting
diversion, but with it in place it is definitely not a game worth
playing.

------------------

Well, I'm done. That's my game list for the past month. Now, I see you
all waiting patiently in the wings so I'll bow out and let you all
have your chance.

What have you been playing... IN APRIL 2012?

.

Relevant Pages

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