So what's everyone playing this summer, and why? I've got a whole whack of purchases to make and previously purchased games just collecting dust on my shelf. Here's what's on my plate, in no particular order:
- Red Dead Redemption (currently playing) – oh it's just so badass
- Deadly Premonition – Looks rad as hell, someone told me it's one of the best videogame experiences they've ever had, even if the "game" part is kinda shitty.
- Alpha Protocol – Chris Avellone, Mass Effect with spies, and I've heard it's fairly solid as a game, despite reviewer reports of massive bugs (LIKE THAT HAS EVER STOPPED ME BEFORE ANYWAYS)
- Fallout 1 & 2 – New Vegas is gonna take place in the same general region, I don't want to be caught out without knowing what the hell's going on.
- Persona 3 & 4 – I'm sure to have a couple hundred hours to kill.
- Final Fantasy XII – I put this down to play I think No More Heroes? It was really good though – I liked the characterization and setting a lot, and the Gambit system was a clever exercise in forethought.
- Chrono Trigger – I Am Buying This On Ebay And Ain't A Thing Any Man Can Do About It
- Skate 3 – Please don't underestimate how good the Skate games are.
- Secret of Evermore – I own this game, and Tim Rogers remembers it super-fondly. Probably owe it to myself to revisit it.
- Bully – I own this! I haven't come close to finishing it though. When I'm done with everything new and shiny I'll get at it.
- Assassin's Creed II – probably rent this one. It's really good, I hear? Confirm/deny?
- MGS3: Snake Eater – I've already beaten it, it's just a killer game. Like, so good.
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 – Who am I even kidding? OBVIOUSLY A MUST-PLAY
- Whatever SNES RPGs I can get my hands on – Illusion of Gaia, any Final Fantasy, Super Mario RPG maybe. I'm just jonesin' for them!
- VVVVV – Super fun but like insanely tough. Gotta beat it gotta beat it gotta beat it
- Shenmue 2 – nah just jokin' this game blows
And I gotta balance that out with my reading list somehow. Truly the Summer of George. What's everyone else getting into? Is there anything I shouldn't bother with, or anything I should add to that?
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Great idea for a blog post John! Here's my summer gaming list thus far, categorized according to console:
(NES)
-Ducktales -> The BEST Disney/Capcom collboration on the NES.
-Mega Man 2 -> One of the best action platformers of all time, and easily the best Mega Man game on the NES (unless you're one of those douches who prefers Mega Man 3)
-Contra & Super C -> I've made it my personal mission to collect every Contra game released in the pre-Playstation era
(Super Nintendo)
-Super Mario Kart (Super Famicom Version -> I haven't played the original Mario Kart in years! Can't wait!
-Super Mario World II: Yoshi's Island -> I was inspired by Matthew's post to get this game. I can't even remember a damn thing about it other than baby Mario and firing eggs. Stoked!
-Cho Makaimura (aka Great Demon World Village aka Super Ghouls and Ghosts) -> I don't care how goddamn hard this game is. I bought the Super Famicom version of Super Ghouls and Ghosts and I'm gonna fucking beat it. No matter how many energy drinks I must consume.
-Contra Spirits (aka Contra III: The Alien Wars) -> I also picked up the Japanese version of Contra III: The Alien Wars. One of the best games on the Super Nintendo, with awesome mode 7 graphics, a kick-ass soundtrack, and amazing run and gun gameplay. Can't fucking wait.
-Super Mario All-Stars -> Also inspired by Matthew's post. I'm playing through 'em all! Even the Lost Levels (aka SMB 2)
-Earthbound -> Like John said about Chrono Trigger. I am fucking buying this game. I don't care what it costs. I WANT EARTHBOUND!!!
-Super Castlevania IV -> Castlevania is one of my fav game series of all time, and I'm gonna play the fuck outta this.
Sega Genesis
-Revenge of the Shinobi -> One of the best ninja games of all time and my second fav Shinobi game.
-Shadow Dancer -> Another Shinobi game that owns.
-Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja -> My fav Shinobi game of the Sega Genesis ones.
-Contra: Hard Corps -> The only Contra game on the Genesis and one of the best in the series.
-Castlevania: Bloodlines -> One of the stranger Castlevania games in the series. Similar to Castlevania IV on the SNES.
-Mega Turrican -> Never heard of the Turrican series until recently but this game looks rad as hell.
-Thunderforce II & IV – Ditto for this series. I love crazy ass horizontal shooters!
-Gunstar Heroes -> My favorite game on the Sega Genesis. No contest.
-Dynamite Headdy -> This game by Treasure, one of my fav developers, is often overlooked, but it still rules.
-Ghouls and Ghosts – Because I am a sucker for punishment.
(N64)
-Goldeneye 64 -> This has already become the summer of Goldeneye.
-Mischief Makers -> This game from Treasure got panned by critics at the time it was originally released, which is a shame because its a lot of fun and has that classic Treasure feeling to it. Very similar to Dynamite Headdy actually.
Oh and lastly maybe Castlevania 64. I don't care that it sucks. I owned it as a kid, and well, it's still Castlevania. I guess that makes me a fanboy.
Hum… somehow I think I'm punishing myself this summer. Or maybe I'm just playing more bad games. I dunno. Didn't really enjoy Mass Effect 2 or Bioshock 2, now playing F.E.A.R. and it's kinda boring too. Maybe I should play Critter Crunch or Infinite Space. Maybe Strange Journey. I think the more you play FPSes the more you realize how little the genre has changed.
I probably should play older games, but there are so many new ones I want to try and this is the first time in a while I've had some free time. Can't wait for my Japanese X-Box 360 to arrive so I can play Senko no Ronde DUO. Will probably be the better part of my summer.
F.E.A.R. and its sequel were both kind of blah, and the third game takes place in some kind of mecha-heavy action nightmare world? I dunno.
Christian are you going to play anything released in the last decade?
I think the problem for me is that if I start playing jRPGs, they just take too long anymore. I mean, I would prefer that the 100+ hours of content not get in the way of being able to just play through the game, but rarely is that the case.
F.E.A.R. is actually a really good game mechanically, but the pacing is just awful (in that there isn't any) and I'm beginning to get a deja vu feeling about the environs. The game's also the most genuinely unscary game I've ever played, like pretty much all other FPS games. Enemies aren't threatening, for some reason Medkits are everywhere (TVTropes would be proud) and about midway through the game you get a sniper rifle that kills everything that's not armored in one hit (and you don't need a headshot, though ironically, headshots with any other weapon do not necessarily guarantee a kill).
Anyone have an opinion on Red Dead Redemption, Deadly Premonition, or Alan Wake? I've heard good things about them.
Red Dead Redemption is totally great so far, the GTA stuff but refined really nicely and matched with a stellar exercise in world-building. There's some shiftiness to some of the controls and combat mechanics but by and large everything feels right, including the excellent characterization. (There's only two characters so far that I'm not fond of, a couple of G-men played with way too much villainy.)
Alan Wake I've heard really good things about too – heavily indebted to Stephen King, but if you're fond of the dude's works then you won't see that as much of a problem. A fairly smart fella I know said it's one of the best-written games he's seen in a while, and it's a Remedy game so the mechanics are probably more sound than they are in Red Dead Redemption.
DEADLY PREMONITION MUST OWN, YOU CAN TELL BECAUSE THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL LOOKS LIKE A SILENT HILL GAME BUT IT TELLS YOU HOW TO FISH
Determinded to finish some games I've been in the middle of forever.
– Cave Story (And that battalion of bosses at the end) (PC)
– Kingdom Hearts (PS2)
– Radiata Stories (Both paths) (PS2)
– Banjo-Kazooie (N64)
– Ghostbusters (PS2)
– Portal (PC)
Also for playing:
– Half-Life 2 (PC)
– Star Ocean: Till The End of Time (PS2)
– Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS2)
– Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (DS)
– Final Fantasy: Ring of Fates (DS)
– Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC)
Hopefully I can get my hands on Majora's Mask for the N64 sometime this summer.
I 'need' to be finishing up the story on Pokemon Soul Silver before I spend hours resource managing everything over from diamond, ranch, XD etc.
Get the good ending on NMH before picking up 2.
I've been roosting Battalion Wars 2 because I don't want it to ever finish.
Oh and I'm determined to finish the special mission on Umbrella Chronicles which is the only thing holding me back from 100%.
Lastly, I'm going to try to get my MK race points up to 8000 but I've been stuck on 7500 for a while now.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/depressed-roommate-hitting-the-gamecube-pretty-har,1375/
But seriously, I am planning on hitting the Gamecube pretty hard this summer. I had a Gamecube for so long and I'm kicking myself for not checking out some of the more seriously awesome games on the system. I plan to spend my summer tackling:
Timesplitters
Ikaruga
Beyond Good and Evil
Baiten Kaitos
I'm also looking at getting some import games for my Wii:
Captain Rainbow
Fatal Frame IV
Disaster: Day of Crisis
Finishing some of those gigantic timesinks on the 360:
Red Dead Redemption
Final Fantasy XIII
Lost Odyssey
I'm going to finish series of games if it kills me:
Zelda series
Final Fantasy series (numbered installments only, or else you will never see me again)
Metroid series
Most of all though, I'm probably going to be (like a lot of people) ploughing through the big Nintendo releases:
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (well, replaying this one because I'm basically finished my first playthrough)
Metroid: Other M
Sin and Punishment 2
John, it's looking unlikely at this point. I bought an ass-load of old-school games this week, and since picking up the Retro-Duo and the Firecore I've been bitten by the retrogaming bug pretty badly. On top of that, there isn't really anything on the 360 that's peaking my interest right now. Red Dead Redemption is certainly nice to look at, and seems to go very far towards making the player "feel like a badass," but I'm not convinced that I'll enjoy the game itself (an assumption based on how much I hated the gameplay in GTA IV), so I'm waiting until it's cheap before picking it up. At this point, aside from buying Deadly Premonition for humor's sake, there's not really a 360 game I plan on buying until Fallout: New Vegas.
That being said, I wish I had a Wii again. Sin and Punishment 2 owns so hard, and so does the new Super Mario Galaxy. I need to make money this summer, so not every amount of disposable income I have can go towards games, but if I can find a cheap Wii somewhere down the line, that might be happening.
As for other retro consoles I'm always on the lookout for: The Sega Master System and the Turbografx-16 are on my list.
Amy a couple other sweet N64 games you should check out are:
-Mischief Makers
-Mystical Ninja starring Goemon
-Goemon's Great Adventure
-Jet Force Gemini
-Paper Mario
-Also I know you just bought Banjo-Kazooie but I was at Replay Games the other day and they also had the sequel: Banjo-Tooie
I think my friend told me great things about Jet Force Gemini (at least the soundtrack). I've beaten Paper Mario about 4 times; one of my favorite games ever. I would like to get my hands on a Game Cube for a while so I can play 1000 Year Door.
I would really like to finish the game Tomba! for the Playstation. I was near the end of the game using my friend's computer and an emulator… but I accidentally pressed F1 (Save game) instead of F2 (Load game) on the opening screen. I'm still really sore about that so I'll give it another year before I have another go at it.
-Bioshock (my 360 can play it now)
-Rock Band 2
-Pokemon Soul Silver
-Red Dead Redemption
-Half Life 2 (never played it)
-Monster Hunter Tri
-Super Mario Galaxy 2
@Amy I was about to correct you but would you believe it was Tombi! in Europe, rather than Tomba!? mental
@Cunzy11 Yeah it was called Tombi! in the PAL regions. Weird hey?
@Amy you can borrow my Gamecube for a bit if you want. I need to get some hookups for it but I should have them in a couple weeks.