Game of the Month - July 2010

[Rob_Merritt]

Does it suck that much?
I wanted to check it out since I like the series.

If you are a Dexter fan, you will probably want to play it but go in with ultra low expectations. The first major problem is it is a stealth action game with horrible controls. You either move Dexter too little or too much. Then the game doesn't give you enough information. You can't really see who you are hiding from and stalking so you end up having to replay levels over and over again till you memorize the path and the timing. Think of all the mistakes early stealth action games and add bad touch screen controls and you'll have Dexter.

[intruder]

If you are a Dexter fan, you will probably want to play it but go in with ultra low expectations. The first major problem is it is a stealth action game with horrible controls. You either move Dexter too little or too much. Then the game doesn't give you enough information. You can't really see who you are hiding from and stalking so you end up having to replay levels over and over again till you memorize the path and the timing. Think of all the mistakes early stealth action games and add bad touch screen controls and you'll have Dexter.

Wow sounds horrible.
I'm not that big of a fan to endure this...
Was mainly curious since they have chosen the iPhone as the exclusive platform to release the game.
Thanks for saving me a couple of bucks. :)

On topic:

Main game was Saints Row 2 with around 40 hours spend in (according to Steam). Done with main story line and 70% of the side-missions.
No problem playing it on my system (Win 7 64bit, Radeon 4870) with keyboard and mouse.

Apart from that I did play a bit of WoW in my quest to bring an ally to 80 before Cataclysm. My gnome DK hit 68 now and still has 2 zones to clear in Burning Crusade before hitting Outland.

Finally I fooled around a bit with Iphone apps but most doesn't suit my tastes. Notable expections (which I bought): Gem Spinner, Harbormaster, Airport Mania, Helsing's Fire, Spider, Ancient Frog and today Chop Sushi.

Oh I shouldn't forget GTA: Chinatown Wars on the DS which I'm also playing once in a while. I'm pretty pissed at crashing into one of the HUGE amounts of police cars all the time without much chance to avoid. Losing the wanted status / getting busted made me switch the DS off a couple of times already. Absolutely stupid design!

[sinnick]

I decided to start working my way through some of the console backlog this month before buying more games on Steam so this month it was two weeks for Gears of War and two weeks for Super Paper Mario. I enjoyed both, Gears of War probably more so (though they aren't really comparable).

Next month, it's going to be equal parts Bioshock 2 and Far Cry 2. That is if I can tolerate having to drive through the damn checkpoints on the way to my missions, otherwise it will be something else.

On the DS it's been Bowser's Inside Story, and on the iPhone it's been Uniwar

You know what's bad? I have so many games in the backlog, and so many new games that I want to play, that I sometimes feel like I'm rushing through a game to get to something else. Crazy, right? But it happens. I have to force myself to slow down, enjoy it, and just play what I want to play, new or old.

[Manresa]

You know what's bad? I have so many games in the backlog, and so many new games that I want to play, that I sometimes feel like I'm rushing through a game to get to something else. Crazy, right? But it happens. I have to force myself to slow down, enjoy it, and just play what I want to play, new or old.

Absolutely to the former, and I need to learn how to do the latter. Furthermore, when I have time to play games I find myself feeling stressed out thinking there is a game I should play, versus the game I want to play.

Games of the Month
I finished up Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer and then started Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes on the DS. Started Culdcept Saga on the 360 but decided the sloooow battle animations made it way to painful to play, made it through the vanilla Age of Empires 3 campaign, and polished off Zeno Clash on the 31st. Also gave Warblade a couple shots on the iPhone, and Serious Sam HD a look on PC. Not a bad month of gaming.

Next up: Forza 3 on 360, AOE3: Warchiefs on the PC, and my copy of Starcraft 2 should be on a truck somewhere. Not that I like twitch-based RTSs, but so many people have been raving about SC2 I felt compelled (should play vs. want to play!). There's scads of XBLA, PSN, and indie titles on Steam I'm interested in, I may pull the trigger on a few of them, as well.

[Cl_Flushentityhero]

Maybe he meant Cary Elwes.

Thanks for allowing me to save face, though I was indeed mistaken. Maybe better to say "what Mel Brooks did for period films."

[Brakara]

I mostly played a lot of iPad games, but the game of the month for me was easily Limbo. Short, but sweet.

[ElGuapo]

Mercenaries 2, playing the entire thing through online co-op with my brother. Man, if they had just polished that game a tiny bit more, and balanced the economy/money a but, it would be a near perfect game for me. I just love tooling around in Venezuela.

Crackdown 2, pretty early on but I'm liking it so far. I miss the car upgrades, and it feels a lot like a rushed sequel, but orb collecting and super jumps never get old. I'm wondering though . . . is the whole game going to be unlocking these towers and then defending beacons? No one to assassinate like the first game? How about other objectives? I liked the challenge of getting in some of the crazy fortresses in the first game . . . this one feels a bit too easy, as there are typically only 3 or so guys guarding the rooftops. I do like the day/night cycle and the zombie (freak) hordes at night. Feels very zombie movie sometimes.

And, as always, Uniwar. Best $.99 I ever spent. I mean, ever, in my entire life. I think we are down to about $.01 an hour for entertainment value now.

[Slainte Mhath]

I started the month with King Arthur the RPWG which I like a lot so far. Halfway through though I was given a PC copy of Borderlands and it has sucked up every minute of my limited game time since.

I didn't really think I would like Borderlands that much given what I'd seen and heard about it, but the story is a little more interesting than I expected and the gameplay mechanics are so simple and intuitive that there was literally no learning curve at all. I'll also freely admit that this was a clear case of "right game, right time" for me as work/home life has been pretty stressful lately and unwinding by crit-shotting skags, bandits and psychos while discovering ever new and more exciting ways of dealing death has been kind of nice. =)

[spatzi]

PC: The beginning of the month I was playing through Boarderlands and towards the end I started playing GTA IV.
Iphone: Dexter (I don't recommend anyone play this ever) and Angry Birds
Xboxen 360: Gameroom
Wii: Donkey kong (NES version on VC)

Ha ha! I bought Dexter on day one for $7 and instantly hated it on the first sneak mission and 'try to paint this blood spray' mini game. I complained to Apple about lousy controls, got my money back.

I'm back into The Witcher after not playing it for two years. Old computer slowed it to a crawl during city scenes so I had to stop playing. Started over with brand new system and played about 12 hours straight yesterday. Great fun, though I still don't understand the potion making part of it. It's always telling me I'm missing 'better alchemical base' but doesn't tell me what exactly I'm missing so I can go out and buy it. This is one aspect of the game I don't like. I've been collecting every herb and flower and chemical since I started and still can't make more than two simple potions.

[Shimarenda]

Leliana's Song was the game I played that isn't on my usual list these days. Toward the end of the month, I dipped into Tropico 3: Absolute Power.