What I've Played (January edition)

My little corner of Korea.

A little bit of sci-fi, a little bit of western, and a dash of drama.



I play a lot of games.  Before I journeyed to South Korea with my wife to teach ESL I worked for GameStop.  While working at GameStop I played a lot of games.  I also talked about games with a lot of people.  I was always interested to see the different types of people who enjoyed the many games out there.  Prior to working at GameStop I worked for Best Buy in the home theater department (not that it kept me from working in any other department in the store...).  While at Best Buy I once helped an 80-year-old couple pick out an HDTV for their PS3.  The woman informed me that she enjoyed Resident Evil 5 but that her husband just kept getting killed all the time.  So he would watch while she would play....  I immediately asked her how in love with her husband she truly was and if she had ever thought about meeting another man.

Sitting in South Korea (I'm still sitting in South Korea) I have all the time in the world* to play my favorite games and most of the newer AAA titles that release.  My biggest problem is that I just don't have people to talk with about my passion.  (Side note: while many Koreans play Starcraft, it's not as big as you would think... for example, in the year that I've been here I've met one Korean who plays regularly.)  My wife, God bless her, can be my soundboard at times, but I know that she cares about this as much as I care about what type of BB Cream she uses (that is to say, we both smile, nod, and tell each other to keep it under $100).

So here I am: I'm on the Internets!  In this monthly blog post I'm going to be taking a look at what I am playing and my random thoughts surrounding it all.  Please note the word "random" as I will be segueing into a myriad of topics seemingly unrelated at times, I'm sure.  Also, if you make it all the way to the bottom of this and your brain is still functioning, be sure to drop a comment about what you've been playing.  Sound off and let me know what you think!

*"all the time in the world"- I work Monday through Friday from 1:30-8:30.  Any time around there is my time....

January's playlist:

1.) Dead Space, Dead Space: Extraction, Dead Space 2-  Sometimes I get in the mood to play a whole series rather than a single entry.  When this mood set-in in the earlier part of January I reached for my copy of Dead Space: Extraction on my Dead Space 2 disc.  I powered through it on the hardest setting to get those trophies and then moved to Dead Space.  I originally purchased Dead Space when it released to hold me over until the release of Fallout 3.  Honestly, I didn't know what I was getting myself into.  Dead Space is one of my favorite games of the generation and I can't speak highly enough of it.  So it was only fitting that my first platinum trophy would come from this game.  I actually played through Impossible mode with little difficulty (8.5 hours and relatively few deaths).  After completing Dead Space I dove into Dead Space 2.  Now, this particular title has "hard-core" mode that only allows you to save three times throughout a single play-through.  I'm not sure if I have enough gusto to make it through that right now, so I didn't get around to completing it.

2.) Red Dead Redemption-  When the title originally released I was working at GameStop and I convinced our manager (who received a free copy for the 360) to give me his copy.  I played it a bit but was never able to finish it for one reason or another.  When we decided to come to Korea, I decided to only bring my PS3 (its region-free capabilities really made this decision) so I traded-in several 360 titles to pick up their PS3 counterparts.  Sadly, RDR didn't make the swap.  Then, in early January, I saw the GOTY version and decided to pick it up.  I played through the original campaign and loved it.  It was a great story with a surprisingly likeable main character.  The game controlled well and I didn't see any of the graphical problems associated with the PS3 version of the game.  The multiplayer was interesting, although it didn't really hold my interest for too long.  The GOTY version also included Undead Nightmare, which won several awards back when it first released in 2010.  I found it really repetitive.  I loved the subtle (and not-so-subtle) humor tied to having characters from the main game experiencing a zombie apocalypse, but the missions were all far too similar to keep me going.  I'm sure that I'll pick it back up again sometime in the future, but it won't be for awhile.

3.) Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II-  I loved DA:O.  I played it on the 360 originally and purchased the Ultimate Edition for the PS3.  I played through the game several times back in the earlier half of 2011 and earned most of the trophies.  The one trophy keeping me from my platinum was the glitched "Blight-Queller" trophy.  To earn it, you must kill 1,000 darkspawn.  I had done this, probably two times over, but it hadn't popped.  So I played the Tower of Ishal portion of the game for 2 hours and 30 minutes.  When it finally unlocked (along with the platinum) I immediately quit-out of the game and ejected the disc.  I then decided to do a platinum run for Dragon Age II.  I won't even bring myself back to that dark experience, but you can read about it here if you are so inclined.

4.) Mass Effect 2- God, I love this game!  I bought the collector's edition back when it originally released for the 360.  I enjoyed the hell out of it.  I made sure to grab the PS3 version when it came out a year ago.  I actually received it in May of last year (thanks to our awesome postal service...) and, unfortunately was unable to redeem any of the DLC due to the PSN being down.  So upon finishing the game I deleted my character with the thought that as soon as I could I would download the extras and do a full playthrough.  After forty hours I had completed the game fully and on Insanity to earn my platinum trophy and now I'm fully prepped for Mass Effect 3 when it launches on March 6th.

5.) Shadow of the Colossus-  I truly did not see what all the hype surrounding this game was about.  I go into a little more depth in my previously written post entitled My Thoughts on Shadow of the Colossus HD.

6.) Back to the Future: The Game ("It's About Time")- I got this game for free (along with the other four episodes) thanks to Playstation Plus (which you can read about here).  This episode was pretty good, but unfortunately not quite good enough to propel me into the next episode.  There is one noteworthy part of the game that I found really interesting.  As Marty McFly, you are tasked to help a young Doc Brown to mix a fuel for his "rocket drill."  The way that you are given instructions, however, is by listening to word cues shouted by Doc Brown as he argues with his father about his future.  It's a really ingenious technique and one that I enjoyed listening to just as much as I enjoyed playing the segment.

7.) Starhawk (beta)- As a Playstation Plus member I was given early access to the beta for the upcoming third-person action shooter, Starhawk.  I wrote a post awhile back outlining my first experience with the title in which I go into a little detail about what to expect and what I thought of it.

8.) Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12- I really enjoy the opportunity to play golf with my dad.  It's been quite awhile since the last time that we hit the real links, but over the last couple months we have tried to find time once in awhile to play a few rounds on Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12.  Although hands-down, without a doubt the most whorish title to ever charge for DLC, I do enjoy it in moderation.  Seriously though: you can easily spend triple the original retail price of $59.99 on DLC alone, most of which, was available day one.  Day one DLC doesn't really make me feel good about a product that I just dropped sixty bones on, especially when it constantly reminds me at every turn that there is DLC to buy.  For example: you cannot finish an entire season without buying DLC.  "EA Sports, it's in the game"?  More like, "EA Sports: it's in the store".

9.) Find Mii (Street Pass)- This addictive little addition to the 3DS has me turning my handheld on every day before I walk the thirty minutes it takes me to get to and from work.  I finally beat Find Mii for the first time last week after using 199 heroes.  Of course, since the 3DS hasn't released in Korea, I don't actually get any tags so I just use the coins I earn from the pedometer function.  The 3DS logs me at about 5,000 steps every day and you can earn 1 coin for every 100 steps with a maximum of 10 coins per day.  To recruit a hero, you must spend two coins.  You can do the math.  Either way, my only problem with this little game is that there is a maximum amount of coins that you can earn in one day.

Finally, I'd like to establish a little section here for what I'm not playing... I know, sounds weird, right?

1.) Skyrim- I waited for Skyrim for several years.  I owned its predecessor, Oblivion, on all three platforms.  I was a day one adopter of both titles.  I enjoyed about eighty hours of  Skyrim until it just simply broke on me.  Right now it doesn't matter what character I play, new or leveled, or what I do, the game freezes my system every fifteen minutes of play.  I am not one to say that Bethesda should be strung-up over this.  However, their simple nonchalance in the matter of the PS3 version really worries me.  How long must we wait while they, allegedly, "perfect" their "Creation Kit"?  Also, they're going to give PC users a "surprise" when it launches today (February 7th)... for what?  I'm not suggesting that anyone is entitled to anything, other than a functioning product.  Unfortunately for most PS3 users, we are out in the cold while Bethesda coddles the PC fan-base.  Bitter?  A little: I own the title that I've been waiting the longest for and all it's doing is gathering dust due to poor testing or straight-up lies from a developer that I once trusted and adored.

So that's it for January.  February looks terribly promising with my copies of Resident Evil: Revelations and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning arriving (hopefully) within the next week.  Both titles are receiving good to great reviews and both are extremely promising.  Also in February, Far Cry 2 will be free for all Playstation Plus members on Valentine's Day (February 14th for those of you with significant others...) and the Mass Effect 3 demo will be available to everyone that day as well.  Happy Valentine's Day indeed!