My Expensive Addiction

Looking through the posts from the last month or two on here, you may notice they're pretty few and far between. You see, folks, I've unfortunately been stricken with a new habit. It's taking over my life, it's like nothing I've tried before, and it's near-impossible to kick despite taking all my time and money. No, it's not heroin (yet), but something much, much more unhealthy: Castlevania HD. I'm sorry, that wasn't a surprise, it might even have been disappointing. What I have managed to post of late has almost all been related to the damned game, so it should be no shock 'n' horror to know it's really been my go-to game this winter.

But that's not interesting, right? Indeed. What is unusual, however, is that Konami appears to have strolled into my life, a company whose games I have hardly touched, and taken almost all my money. Now, I'm not the kind of guy who will say 'DLC? Well, I liked the game, so I'll take it, TAKE IT ALL!'. In fact, with the exceptions of games I really want to squeeze the replay value out of such as Gears 2, Halo 3 and Red Dead, I often won't buy DLC at all. It seems that a simple old-school sidescroller made up entirely of sprites used in 10-20 year old games has avoided this rule.

I'll get this straight - Konami won't lie to you, or try to bend the truth, or even try to hide the fact they want your money. The game itself is 1200 points, 50% more than Undead Nightmare despite having not nearly as much content, or Puzzle Quest 2, which is a whole new game for goodness' sake. They've since steadily released new levels and characters, but get the prices for these. The first extra chapter was 400 points - a third of the whole game price for an extra 1/6th of the content. The following two were 320 points, and the two to come are 240 each, and that's only because they're in easy-to-code 8-bit format. The characters? All 240 each, except for the two 8-bit characters going for 160 each. These prices are undeniably ludicrous, but I have lapped them up like a cat with milk. Milk filled with delicious rare loot, and... sweet... 5 star drops...

But I digress, as I begin to drool over 2d items on a screen again. Funny, I've gone from a guy who's never touched a Japanese game in his life, to being utterly obsessed with one that might as well have been made 15 years ago. I suppose my only advice to give to readers, as people would with any drug, is don't start. If you like RPG elements, grinding, and killing fantasy monsters, you will love this game. Too much. And it will be the death of your wallet.

FailboatSkipper's Top 5 Games of 2010

I won't lie or deny it; this is a little late. I had intended to write this before December came to a close, but with looming exams, college work and generally being stricken with a feeling of apathy, I found neither the time nor the willpower. This is really if you see little point in reading the mammoth 2,000 word monstrosity posted below, and just want to get the jist.

5. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair

At a glance, this game isn't a massive achievement, at least not in Konami's history. It's basically a recycled, old 2D side-scrolling adventure game, but now with 6-player co-op. However, beneath its simple gameplay lies a mass of rare items to spend hundreds of playthroughs desperately trying to find, in an attempt to reach an end-of-the-rainbow objective of having every character fully maxed and geared out. This is more enough to make it addictive enough for me to have continued playing it since September, and to make success in grinding and farming remarkably satisfying. Not bad for an Arcade game, eh?

4. Alan Wake

I'm as willing to admit as any that Alan Wake should be more than it is. A 5 year project ended up being nothing more than a linear, 8 hour experience, with no 'revolutionary' free roam or RPG elements. However, what it does deliver is a hugely compelling story (easily the most finely crafted of this year), an innovative dual-element combat system with incredible visuals and soundtrack to top it off. Sure, we're all sick of Alan's voice by the end, but for a video game to have a plot of the same depth and quality of a Stephen King novel, you've got to hand it to Remedy for creating another brilliantly original title.

3. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Yes, another Castlevania game makes the cut, but this time its wholly different, as MercurySteam were given the job of rebooting the series and updating it for a modern audience. As much as Castlevania's hardcore audience will continue to moan about it 'betraying' the series, Lords of Shadow is aggressive yet beautiful, challenging yet accessible, and takes the player on a journey with a man who is willing to go further and turn darker than he could have possibly imagined to get back the one he loves. If you wanted a reason to believe hack 'n slash isn't just mindless blood and death, look no further.

2. Red Dead Redemption

Any gamer should have seen this one coming, and if you've played the game, you'll know why. Rockstar put back on their sandbox gaming boots, and trod on almost untouched ground with RDD, a game that puts GTAs style of play into a Western setting, with all satire and social commentary intact. If you're not wrapped up in the edgy storyline depicting the end of outlaws (but also the end of civil liberties?) the game offers just as much playtime in the dozens of extra activities, and a massive, well-sculpted map to explore. I've said it before and I will say it again: this is free-roam on a new level.

1. Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Perhaps at the end of the day, I'm just a shooter fanboy, but Bad Company 2 undoubtedly offered the most for me in 2010. Battlefield's style of multiplayer is, to me, without competition and DICE's latest game is intense, believable and highly strategetic - all the right ingredients for a multiplayer game that refuses to get old even after well over a hundred hours. This is of course helped by DICE still steadily releasing new map variations 9 months after release (for free no less) and following that, the Vietnam expansion which reinvented the experience all over again. The times I have had on this game I will never forget, and I have no regrets naming this my Game of 2010.

2010: A Review

And as the Christmas and New Year festivities end, so does a monumentous year for gaming, certainly the best in my life. With a huge number of AAA titles being released, all trying to barge their way to the top of the sales, each and every gamer had their own experiences of 2010, having more than enough games to choose from. I'll try to document my year without making an epic poem of it.

The beginning of the year was undoubtedly the worst of it. DICE were endlessly flaunting their trailers for Bad Company 2, and considering at the time I was still addicted to Bad Company 1, I was really counting down the minutes for the release of the 'COD killer' (which it unfortunately wasn't). There was also a distinct lack of games for me. I rented Army of Two: The 40th Day, an incredibly average game in mechanics which somehow had the best weapon customization I've ever seen, along with some of the most infuriating bugs and unrealistically massive arms. Unfortunately, it was at this time that the entire gaming community was enjoying the masterpiece Mass Effect 2, a game that to date I still haven't played. Why, you ask? Sadly, my OCD-ish tendencies got the better of me, demanding that I play the first Mass Effect before even touching the sequel. This turned out to be a challenge, as Mass Effect delivered some of the clumsiest and most boring gameplay I have encountered this generation, and getting anywhere near finishing proved to be an impossible task. When I returned my copy, there was an air of 'I'll be back', but I fear a second attempt will yield no better results.

Things seemed to start looking up in February, however, as I began to play a lot of games that were 'good, but not great'. Bioshock 2 (which I still say is better than the first), Dante's Inferno, Aliens VS Predator - all titles I'd happily play once, but my mind remained unblown. In the long run, I suppose these games only made me more hyped for Bad Company 2, which at this point was only a few weeks away. Naturally, I was spending more time on the multiplayer demo than I was on any full title, which despite being the same map over and over never once got boring, and led to Ryan and I meeting the great Will Holden, who is now our best pilot and teller of drunken tales. He's given the 'clan' the catchphrase 'razz 'em lads!', and thanks to him we've won countless more matches than we would have before, and it's been great gaming with the guy this year.

I'm sure by now you can guess what March was all about: the release proper of DICE's next big thing. Being a pre-order kind of guy, and Amazon being awesome, I got the game a day before release, and never has a game totally fulfilled my hopes and expectations so thoroughly. In the blink of an eye, March was totally gone, envoloped in a hundred hours worth of near-constant play. While I still feel slightly disappointed in the game losing the comedy and sense of madness from Bad Company 1, as a shooter and a multiplayer team-based game it couldn't be better.

Strangely, Bad Company 2 made me almost completely forget about a game that I had been anticipating for the last year - Just Cause 2. It wasn't until April, when I went to Center Parcs (and as such had no LIVE connection for BC2) to play it. Yes, I played games at Center Parcs. I hate myself too. It was a game that delivered... sort of. It had everything I wanted: stupid stunts, loads of vehicles, a massive map, and a parachute. But for all the game did right, it's still seems, for lack of a better word, dumb. I'm fine with the childish playfulness of the stunts and crashing planes into enemy bases, but with such horrendous voice acting, the gunplay being a joke, and car handling being ridiculous, it felt like a game that was actually trying too hard to not being taken seriously. I'm all for a humourous game; hell, I'd prefer that over a dead-serious title, but at the end of the day Just Cause 2 is an action game, and I want those adrenaline-fueled action scenes to look believable, rather than having cars that can swerve around hairpins effortlessly at 180mph, and fighter jets that have such sensitive movement it's nearly impossible to use them effectively.

April also saw the release of the Splinter Cell reboot, Conviction. But I was playing Bad Company 2 again.

In May, I played the Splinter Cell reboot, Conviction. It was a risky move for Ubi, as it took a brave step away from the Metal Gear-type play and went for a more macho style of stealth. However, it's a risk that for me paid off, and it's easily my favourite Splinter Cell. As well as implementing a fantastic into the game in real-time, it also has a playstyle that I have heard aptly compared to Predator, or Batman, in which the enemies will usually know of your presence, but not your exact location, and your task is to quickly and brutally take them out one by one. It made creeping in the shadows as tense as ever, and each kill much more satisfying, and I loved every minute of the campaign. Well, apart from the Iraq mission, which sucked. The co-op, while critically acclaimed, I didn't find much fun in. It's all well and good doing dual executions and such, but without such a good storyline pushing the action, and two incredibly boring playable characters, it seemed to me like a simple task of constantly clearing out rooms with little reward.

With that played, May then offered two of my favourite titles of the year, on the same day no less. Alan Wake made his way to Bright Falls to have the worst holiday of his life, and John Marston got off the train at Armadillo to begin Rockstar's latest masterpiece, Red Dead Redemption. These games need no introduction, both being masterful storytellers, and in Red Dead's case, boundary-pushers for sandbox games. Alan Wake may have struggled at times due to fairly constrictive play, a pretty brief plot and a few lip sync issues, but it was also visually stunning, had yet another brilliant storyline written by Sam Lake, and an original approach to combat. Red Dead, due to its longer single player and multiplayer that was in my opinion double as good as GTA IV's, spent a lot longer in my Xbox, and is one of my favourite open-world games ever, second only to Mercenaries.

June was a month of poor games: Sniper: Ghost Warrior not living up to the COD player's dream, Naughty Bear being a game to laugh at rather than with, and Alpha Protocol coming out of its 5-year development shell in the form of a hideously broken, shallow RPG that had the visuals of a PS2 game. Thankfully, I managed to avoid these, and amidst more Bad Company 2 I rented the game of Toy Story 3, a kids game which also managed to be equally enjoyable to someone whose game library consists entirely of 15s and 18s. It was funny, addictive, and certainly a breath of fresh air. If you're a little tired of relentless seriousness in your games, and see Toy Story 3: The Video Game going for £10, I'd recommend it. It's like therapy.

Once I sent back my Toy Story 3 rental in July, Limbo had been released, and if you've read the post below this one, you'll know I absolutely loved it. It was dark, mysterious and edgy, and though there was no dialogue, a thousand words could have been said, if you'll excuse the cliché. I still think 1200msp is quite a hefty price tag for a 4/6 hours story (depending on how long you spend solving puzzles) considering it should not be priced on quality but on content, but nonetheless it was certainly one of the most original games of the year, and probably the only one where you can yank off a giant spider's leg with your bare hands.

A couple of other 'good but not great' games came out in August, namely Mafia II, a disappointingly linear sandbox game which talked the talk, but only occasionally walked the walk, and Kane and Lynch 2, which had the shortest single player for any full retail game I've played and its interesting multiplayer concept which simply wasn't all that fun. What took up most of my time, however, was vampire hunting, grinding, and more grinding on Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. For a simple sprite game its looting and leveling is incredibly addictive, and as an example, I spent 5 hours on it just yesterday. Konami have been sly and deviant to make this game have serious lasting power, be it with the slow but rewarding spell-grinding, the super-rare loot which has players replaying and replaying levels endlessly, or the very steady stream of DLC. Co-op is also an amazing addition to what is usually a solo-only experience, and I've thoroughly enjoyed my experience.

There wasn't a man alive who didn't notice the spectacular release of Halo: Reach in September. Unlike Black Ops, I was actually fairly excited for this. Halo 3 is one of my favourite multiplayer games, and I for one loved the campaign, and after not enjoying ODST, Reach seemed to be the new start the series needed. For a while, that seemed to be what the game offered. There was perhaps a few doubts in my mind after finishing the campaign, which seemed to manage to be anticlimactic with little buildup in the first place, but sadly the writing was on the wall after a few hours of multiplayer. The new ranking system sucks, there are fewer maps than ever (no, I don't count variations of Forge World as different maps, they all look the same) and frankly with the dull greys and browns the game feels like a drag to play in all its seriousness. I haven't touched the game since October.

Speaking of October, this was certainly one of the biggest months for releases. Medal of Honor, Super Meat Boy, Fable III (mine broke), Enslaved, The Force Unleashed II - all of these games got little to no play time from me. Missed opportunities? Definitely. As it happens, I was too busy playing my second most anticipated game of the year, Fallout: New Vegas. At first, all seemed good and dandy. I spent a good 70 or 80 hours on it by the end of the month, but it really was beginning to hit me through the second playthrough what the truth of the matter was. Everything that I liked about the game wasn't because it was New Vegas, it was qualities of Fallout 3 that I was enjoying. Everything that showed the mark of Obsidian sucked: the landscape with its stupid impassable mountains, the boring quests, the new weapons which didn't fit with the Fallout universe, horrible textures, the laughably designed Las Vegas, and most significantly, the bugs. I loved Fallout 3 for its grim yet entrancing atmosphere, and there is none of that in the Mojave. A place where the bombs didn't even fall? Why would I want to be there, in a post-apocalyptic world? I never finished that playthrough, and thank goodness for it.

I managed to get over this grievance on the rebound, by playing the spectacular surprise, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. If you know me, you know I hate hack and slash, but without repeating everything I said in my review of the game, I loved this title. It was visually and musically beautiful, the storyline twists were insane, and the combat was refined and smooth. It joined Mirror's Edge in being one of the few games I rented but then subsequently bought, and the £30 I spent has been worth its while. If you like fantasy and adventure games, I can't recommend it enough, it's truly one of 2010's best.

November, in terms of gaming, may as well be renamed Call of Duty Month, and this year's Black Ops took me by surprise. It didn't have a dumb story and lame gameplay like Modern Warfare 2, its multiplayer was nearly frustration-free and not ruined by modders, and its maps and use of tactical play has been amped greatly. It's not Game of the Year material, and I can't profess a lot of love for it, but it's an FPS worth playing a couple of times, and definitely something I come to if I'm just looking for some relaxing multiplayer fun. What I played more, however, was Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. It irritated me in being a semi-sequel, a game that didn't really move the series forward but simply continued the second. It had a banal first half of simply following and assassinating, before finally giving way to a damn good second half, in which the storyline finally picked up speed. If you intend on following the AC series, this isn't something to be missed out on... just don't expect the multiplayer to blow your mind. It's not a lot of fun.

And as the days get shorter and December finally arrives, the game releases slow to a stop, as 2010 comes to an end. Its swan song for me was Bad Company 2 Vietnam, a top-up for my year-long addiction, and a hugely worthy purchase. I also finally got my hands on a copy of Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, a game I had hoped would be more like Most Wanted than Burnout, but I'm happy with it nonetheless for pulling off the whole police chase theme in a balanced and enjoyable way. The autolog gives it a much longer life, but so far I haven't even finished the single player, due to both Castlevanias and Vietnam seeming much more appealing when I sit down at my Xbox.

So ends what did actually turn out to be something of an epic poem. Congratulations if you read this far, and if you enjoyed 2010 or a certain game in particular, feel free to either leave a comment below or tweet me at the usual @failboatskipper. Happy gaming folks.