If you look at my Backloggery, you will notice 27 games that I have played through recently. Recently in this case might mean within the last couple of years, but they are games that I have strong memories of playing through and that I do not wish to play through again for this little adventure. In the interest of giving me a head start, I'm going to count them as played for the purposes of this blog.
Army of TwoMarch 4, 2008 -- PS3, Xbox 360
When we heard EA was going to shut down the servers for this game (which they did on Aug. 11, 2011), a few friends of mine decided to unlock all the online achievements before they did. That entailed three nights of 3-5 hours of shooting the same hovercraft on the same map over and over again because you could score a large amount of money towards the Retirement Savings Plan achievement for doing so. We had fun. Just not the entire time.
In preparation for the long haul of multiplayer hovercraft shooting, my friend Doug (who I'm sure will end up being mentioned more than once in this blog) and I played through the single player mode a couple of times. It was an average third person shooter; my biggest gripe being that there were a few sequences that were ridiculously frustrating, especially on the hardest mode, caused by the tacked on/forced partner events. Hoisting your partner up a wall, back-to-back shooting scenes, driving hovercrafts, these situations seem like they could be replaced, or taken out entirely and the game would be just as fun.
Assassin's CreedNovember 13, 2007 -- PS3, Xbox 360
I remember going to Gamestop several years ago to look for
Dynasty Warriors 6, but I came home with
Assassin's Creed. I was a late comer to the 360 scene and I had no idea what to expect. What I got, for the then current price of $19.99, was one of my favorite games of this generation. From the parkour-derived movement system to the stealthy kills with the hidden blade, Ubisoft Montreal did everything right, yes even the monotonous quests and tower climbing in each location.
Currently, I've yet to get all the flag fetching and templar killing achievements. One day I will go back and get them, but I have a lot more games to play first.
Assassin's Creed II November 17, 2009 -- PS3, Xbox 360
Assassin's Creed II is just as good as the first one, adding quite a few new features to the fold without touching the core gameplay enough to change all the good things about the original. Gone are the aforementioned monotonous quests and tower climbing, replaced with story-relevant quests and action sequences. Generic, gameplay time increasing flag collection remains, only the flags have been replaced by feathers. I suspect most people who haven't played the series at all would enjoy the polish of
Assassin's Creed II more so than the first.
Batman: Arkham AsylumAugust 25, 2009 -- PS3, Xbox 360
I found the PS3 Collector's Edition of this game at a Walmart on clearance for $7.99 (a tip from Doug) about a year after it came out. It took me a while to get used to the slowed down "Freeflow" combat system, but once I did I thoroughly enjoyed the game. Getting all the single player trophies was fun too, since it had a semi-open world environment and you could backtrack for all the collectibles.
Brutal LegendOctober 13, 2009 -- PS3, Xbox 360
I will start by saying I love classic metal. When I saw the premise for this game, I was pretty excited. Luckily, I was not let down; Tim Schafer delivered what he promised.
I'm not saying it is an amazing game, but it is a good one. The stage battles could be a little annoying at times, and though I've never touched the multiplayer, I can't imagine that I would enjoy it. The story is pretty generic and the non-stage battle combat system is average. But, it's the things that are added on top of the proven action/adventure formula that make this game great. The voice acting (an exceptional cast including Jack Black, Lemmy Kilmister, Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford and Rob Halford), the subtle and not-so-subtle nods to metal cliches, and the incredible artwork help build an unforgettable and very explorable world. Not to mention the (mostly) awesome soundtrack. This is a definite play through for any self-professed metalhead.
I will also take a moment to say that if you are a fan of the Lucas Arts and Sierra point-and-click adventure games and have not played Tim Schafer's other works
Full Throttle (1995) and
Grim Fandango (1998), you are doing yourself a great disservice.
Burnout ParadiseJanuary 22, 2008 -- PS3, Xbox 360
My most recent gaming completion. I don't usually readily enjoy racing games, but this one being an arcade-style racer was a little easier for me to get into. One day I will try and get all of the online achievements, but I don't see much of a point currently since I don't own an Xbox Vision Camera Thing. This is a pretty good pick up and play game for those gamers who do not always have more than thirty minutes to devote to play time. And since there is 50+ hours or content, that could add up to quite a few play sessions.
Dragon Age: OriginsNovember 3, 2009 -- PS3, Xbox 360 
Dragon Age: Origins is one of my favorite RPGs ever. I really enjoy CRPGs, but being mainly a console gamer I hardly ever play them. And though I'm sure the controls would've been more enjoyable on a PC, nothing could detract from the excellence that is this title. Except for maybe the persistent gore. I hated that.
Fable IIOctober 21, 2008 -- Xbox 360
I never got into the hype around the original
Fable when it first came out, and I had only played it for a couple of hours when
Fable II came out and wasn't very impressed. So I went into
Fable II not expecting that much, which was good since it didn't really deliver. The game is good enough that it was worth one play through, but not much more than that.
And since we are on the subject of
Fable II, I will rant about its unobtainable achievements for a second. There is an achievement for this game that requires the purchase of, or knowing someone who already owns, a copy of
Fable II: Pub Games for XBLA. That is ridiculous. Then there is another achievement that I can no longer get because I picked a particular ending. So in order to obtain it, I must start another game. Remember that part where I said this game is good enough that it was only worth
one play through? Me too. I guess it's my fault for being such an achievement whore.
Fallout 3October 28, 2008 -- PS3, Xbox 360
Another one of my favorite RPGs. I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic/dystopian worlds, so I'm probably already biased towards the entire
Fallout series. Like most hardcore gamers, I also thoroughly enjoy Bethesda's
Elder Scrolls series (though I've always had trouble with Arena and Daggerfall since I only have a laptop and it is a little hard to attack creatures by swiping on my trackpad). So its not surprising that I enjoy
Fallout 3. A great game with tons of content in which it is easy to lose 3-4 days of your life.
As you can see, my recent gaming completions has mostly been current generation titles. That will change as this journey unfolds. I also apologize for the brief analyses, but I tried not to discuss too much about the games that everyone already has already played. Next time, I will post previously finished games 10-18.
