Snap Judgement Reviews 4: A New Hope

Black for the Xbox was pretty cool. A little too much cover taking for me, but unlike things like Gear of War (ick) if you get hit once or twice when you break cover to move, you don't get killed. I think that is what I dislike most about cover-heavy games: you have to think just like the programmer to move from cover to cover, because a couple of shots will kill you. Black, thankfully isn't like that. It is a modern shooter, another genre I don't especially care for, but again, I liked what I saw in this one. The control was decent and the story, what I saw of it, was acceptable. This is one that went on my to buy list, albeit cheap; something like 10 bucks or less.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon II. See the above for things I don't like: Cover heavy games, and modern setting. This game was full of those two. In the training area, I broke cover for 15 seconds to get close to a couple of the bad guys and they mowed me down. Game ejected, and ignored. I don't mind using cover occasionally, the thing is I don't want to be fragile enough that not doing so for 15 to 30 seconds gets you killed. Timeshift is a cover heavy game, and I liked that, because you could stand up to some damage.

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom. I never really played much of this series, I got Crusade for Christmas and played some, but not a whole lot. This means my view of this game is not colored by expectations of what it would be. I really like this game. A Dynasty Warriors kind of game, with RPG elements. Lots of things to kill, upgradeable weapons, spells, levels and stat purchasing. I really enjoyed this one. The biggest complaint I heard was repetitive, well I still play things like Pac Man and Space Invaders so repetition isn't something that bothers me. The camera can get blocked occasionally, and that can be a pain, but I like this one nonetheless. I rented it, and bought it the next week.

Two Worlds. I rented this to see if the game was truly as bad as the reviews I read made out. And you know what – they were. This game is completely and totally average. The dialog is painful – modern sentence structure and approach with a smattering of verilys anons and forsooths to make it seem archaic. Graphical glitches, and simple combat make this one to buy, but only when I find it for ten bucks.

Turok. Another FPS, which as a genre will pop up a lot here. Some cover play seems to help, but to be honest, it wasn't required. I hit around boulders when shooting dino's and I did a fair amount of cover when in a firefight, but then I turned around, grabbed my knife and ran out and killed smaller dino's in HtH. I truly enjoyed this one, and it has also gone on the to-buy list. My only complaint (and this one is not uncommon among recent FPS, is that you don't have a health monitor onscreen. I like to know where my life total is.

And now back to games - slashing monsters with swords, collecting drop items, and leveling up.

Games played since last post
Turok (360)
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom (360)
Rumble Roses (360)
Bonk (TG-16)
Solitaire (PC)
Conan (360)