Week of 4/13/09 cmfl3x’s Gaming Thoughts

Two of EA’s new IPs at once – very different, but both very enjoyable

Dead Space & Mirror’s Edge
I’m putting these titles together because I’m in a bit of a “try out EA’s new IPs” phase and I’m playing both games at once. I basically play Dead Space during the day and Mirror’s Edge at night. Right now, I’m really digging both games. Dead Space feels a lot like Bioshock in that there is obviously a huge backstory and you learn a lot of it through audio logs. I still think Rapture trumps the Ishimura in terms of an actual setting, but both games do a good job of setting up a creepy setting. Just like Bioshock though, I’m getting used to the scares in Dead Space so soon I’ll be able to play it whenever, ha.

I’m having a lot of fun with Mirror’s Edge as well. After I finished the first few chapters, I went back to 3-star one of the time trials. I definitely envision myself trying to get the 50-star rating for time trials, I enjoy punishing myself by replaying the same thing over and over again until I master it. The story seems like it’s going to be generic and short, but really I’m most excited about the time trials. As an added bonus, the music and art style are a real treat.

Halo Wars
This game is still taking up a lot of time for me. I STILL haven’t finished the single player achievements because I’ve been playing too much multiplayer. Now that my team’s skill levels are higher, we are batting about .500, win one lose one win one lose one. I’m interested if they really do a balance update, since I still feel that in general Covenant is at a bit of a disadvantage in the late game (although I plan on trying the Scarab + 5 engineers business!). Definitely gotten my money’s worth out of this title.

Rhythm Heaven (DS)
I blew through this game on the plane and am pretty much done with it although there is still a little fun to be had. Being out of town means I’m DS only right now, and between this game and Hatsworth I have my hands full (pun intended!). Once my hand got tired I wrote up a short review for Rhythm Heaven, so look for that later this week.

Flower (PS3)
I’m staying with a friend who owns a PS3 and I told him to go and download Flower back when it came out. He ended up hating it, so when I got here I finished the last 4 levels for him. The game is pretty fun, outside of one level it’s pretty relaxing and it looks beautiful in 1080p. I can see how this game isn’t for everyone, but for me it seems like a nice change of pace. If I owned a PS3 I probably would put a lot of time into this game unlocking all the trophies, some of them are pretty hard. Anyway, now that I’ve played it, I still recommend it!

Other Random Playstation 3 Miscellany
We’ve actually been playing a lot of games, so I also tried out the Rock Band 2 drums, which really are quite an upgrade, watched some NBA 2k9 (which scrolls realtime sports scores on the bottom, awesome), and played some Street Fighter. I must say the PS3 thumbstick was much easier to use for Street Fighter, it made me play a bit above my usual level. The PS3 really is a great system, but some of the menu things/friends list are a real turnoff for me just because I’m so used to the Xbox. I asked my friend how to drop back to the dash and he looked at me like I was taking crazy pills. But if it ever drops in price (significantly) maybe I’ll pick one up. I really want to play Fat Princess! (It seems like the type of game that would have worked better with the 360 community, but whatever).

Gaming on the Cheap Part 2: Niche Titles

Last week cmfl3x and I presented you with a list of games that we felt were good value from a standpoint of being enjoyable for pretty much every type of gamer. This week we’ll share more “niche” titles – games that you can enjoy – provided you’re into the genre. Again, we want to look at games that are good value – ones that either have a lengthy/replayable single player campaign or plenty of multiplayer hours to keep you coming back while at the same time being enjoyable while being inexpensive.