jwheare

jwheare

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Assassin's Creed II
Grand Theft Auto IV
Beyond Good & Evil
LOOM
Portal 2
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
Harvest Moon GB

Harvest Moon GB This was how you did farming action RPGs before Zynga came along. Every day you wake up, hoe some turf, plant some turnips, milk a few cows, have a giant bread ball for lunch, smash up some rocks, cut some grass, and sprinkle your seeds before going to bed and starting all over again. Immersive, addictive fun.
youtube.com/watch?v=ztKUZNqhRAI

Yes Wed 22 Sep 2010 9:42pm reply

Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption Haven't finished playing this yet but I would already categorically and unequivocally recommend it. So much effort has gone into recreating pretty much every Spaghetti Western fantasy you could imagine in beautiful stylish detail. Very well written too, lots of off beat humour.

I personally love just galloping around gawping at the incredible landscapes for hours on end, but Rockstar have taken pains to let you skip a lot of that if you just want to advance the (mostly linear—in a good way) story. The perfect mix of open world do anything RPG and a cohesive campaign.

I haven't tried the multiplayer much, and what I saw was mainly 14 year-old Xbox Live-ism. I need to find me some chums to form a posse with…

And can I just say that chasing after a horse thief, lassooing him off his mount, stealing it back off him, then dragging him back into town behind you, before dumping him at the feet of his victim, hogtieing the bastard and then swaggering off, whistling for your own horse which you naturally mount at a full gallop before charging off into the sunset, kicking up dust as you go while two solemn notes of Morricone harmonica ring out… is pretty fucking badass.

Yes Tue 25 May 2010 12:12am 1 reply

  • jwheare jwheare Have finished playing it now. Review still applies.

    Tue 10 Aug 2010 12:01am

Tomb Raider II

Tomb Raider II A beautiful, challenging and detailed game. Jumping around Venice, shootouts in an opera house, swimming away from a fucking shark (terrifying) and nailing a mother fucking dragon amid a whole bunch of evil jumping puzzles. I'd be interested to see how well this has dated, but I suspect not too much.

Yes Sun 9 May 2010 5:02am reply

BioShock

BioShock Ok so I finally got round to playing it all the way through. The first time I tried it really did nothing for me. It was too dark and I couldn't make out any detail on my crappy TV. The world seemed uninteresting and very slow to give me any gratification for how awesome and deep it was supposed to be, as hammered in by the hype and grandiose teasing intro that I was completely unable to engage with.

But anyway, I got through that eventually and it turned into quite a fun and intriguing romp that held my attention for the most part. There are certainly some frustrating aspects to it, such as the "oh to complete the mission you just walk through that corridor and out the other side, oh wait the wall collapsed now you have to spend hours completing side missions for this maniac over here before you can proceed oh I NEVER SAW THAT COMING!" and the end was far too easy and anti-climactic given the rest of the game's pacing.

Another thing—and I think I'm just not well suited for this sort of RPG-*ish* game because I agonise over every decision and feel I need to explore every possible inch of a game that's put in front of me—there's too many damn crates and stuff to look in and half the time they're empty and unrewarding and all the "flavour" that's dotted around and painted on walls is pretty superficial. It's pretending to be a game that's incredibly deep and rich to explore but it doesn't really let you go there.

But yeah, you should probably play this, if only for cultural importance. It *is* really quite fun to hurl fire, ice and anything you can find around and I loved the radio snippets. It's certainly well crafted, The Twist™ *is* rather good, and sometimes the gameplay soars but it ended up leaving me with a good degree of post-coital emptiness.

Maybe Mon 12 Apr 2010 12:24pm reply

Peggle

Peggle I guess maybe if you're really into pachinko or something?

No Mon 29 Mar 2010 4:03am 4 replies

  • jphastings jphastings Politely: back your statement up brother! Have you played pachinko — its a whole heap less interesting than Peggle :P

    Mon 12 Apr 2010 11:58am

  • jwheare jwheare I have not, and have no idea how similar they really are, and that was sort of a throwaway remark :) Basically I played through the demo, and it didn't grab me in the way I had come to expect from the hype. I'm sorry =(

    Mon 12 Apr 2010 2:47pm

  • jphastings jphastings Aww! I'm just yanking your chain after you introduced your (highly awesome) replies here — Peggle can be quite fun tho :P

    Mon 12 Apr 2010 3:10pm

  • mxcl mxcl Peggle is great. For about 8 hours.

    Tue 20 Apr 2010 12:26am

King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow

King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow Classic Sierra adventure game. "Interesting" in that you could die. Very dated though, in control scheme, speed, responsiveness and some of the puzzles are pretty illogical and frustratingly paced. Some pretty whacky art/music though. I only just fully completed it, having failed to years ago, cos the sound card would crash every time the Minotaur appeared. So this is firmly a nostalgia-only review.

Maybe Wed 17 Mar 2010 2:33am reply

Gorillas

Gorillas My school tried to lock down all games on their computers but they didn't know about Gorillas!

Yes Tue 9 Mar 2010 2:34pm reply

Myst

Myst My grandmother had a lodger who kept a Mac LCII with a CD-ROM caddy drive in the attic. My brother and I used to try out all the MacFormat demo CDs there and he also had Myst. I never got very far with it at the time, but it made a huge impression on me. Loved those Bryce 3D-esque landscapes.

I just finished the iPhone version last night and it's pretty dated. Controls are fiddly, some of the puzzles are really repetitive and tedious to complete, and the movement is very disorientating, it's hard to tell where you are and where you've been. And the characters are more than a little clunky. But some of the puzzles are very rewarding, and just reading the books is quite fun. It's more than worth checking out for historical reasons alone, and dead cheap on the iPhone too, I got it for £3: cyanworlds.com/iPhone/Myst_iVersion/Info.html

Maybe Sun 7 Mar 2010 4:24pm reply

Lemmings

Lemmings Many a happy hour spent keeping these buggers safe. I also did the sploding blocker death trap trick mentioned by @jonty. Uh oh!

Yes Sat 6 Mar 2010 1:21pm reply

Orbital

Orbital It's OK I guess. Mostly echo @blech. It's a fun mechanic certainly, but not essential.

Maybe Sat 6 Mar 2010 12:33pm reply

Full Throttle

Full Throttle Amazingly cool LucasArts point and click adventure game about a fugitive biker out to clear his name. Had a minigame that was basically Road Rash, and a destruction derby sequence, and you get to operate a magnetic crane in a junk yard.

Yes Fri 5 Mar 2010 2:10pm reply

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare I played MW2 first, so this was more like a prequel expansion pack. Fun set of missions, though some bits were really a bit too tediously hard until you figured out a better way of doing them. Ferris wheel anyone? Some frustrating missed checkpoint bugs too.

Yes Thu 4 Mar 2010 11:13pm reply

Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf

Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf Awesome isometric helicopter action for the megadrive. Played this at a friend's house along with sonic. Good times blowing up SAM sites on the White House roof.

Yes Wed 3 Mar 2010 8:57pm reply

The Secret of Monkey Island

The Secret of Monkey Island Played this after MI2, it showed its age a little, and I never really liked the insult sword fighting. Definitely a game you should play though, full of little gems and pretty much defined the point/click adventure genre.

Yes Wed 24 Feb 2010 10:55pm reply

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 Forgot this was a continuation of the SML series (well in name anyway), of course Wario was the boss in SML2. He's a great character and his insatiable greed was a fun and addictive premise. I *had* to have the largest castle. Need to dig this one out again too.

Yes Wed 24 Feb 2010 5:29pm reply

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins Loved the bosses in this game. Very satisfying to kill once you learnt the trick. Good system of level zones and a save feature! (remember Super Mario Land 1 didn't have one) Might dig this out again soon.

Yes Wed 24 Feb 2010 5:26pm reply

Quake III Arena

Quake III Arena Never liked this as much as UT. Probably cos I didn't play it enough with the right group of people. Just felt a lot less polished too.

No Wed 24 Feb 2010 2:22am reply

Fury of the Furries

Fury of the Furries I remember first seeing someone playing this on their laptop on a plane and being mesmerised for the rest of the flight. I *needed* to play this game. Eventually got it on a shareware disk or something and yeah I had some fun, but it could never live up to the hype.

Maybe Wed 24 Feb 2010 2:17am reply

Flashback: The Quest for Identity

Flashback: The Quest for Identity Incredibly stylish and hard sci-fi cinematic platformer with obscure puzzles, somewhat infuriating handling, gorgeous backdrops, rotoscoped prince-of-persia-esque animation and a great feel. Don't think I ever got much further than the first few levels though.

Maybe Wed 24 Feb 2010 2:07am reply

Nexuiz

Nexuiz Agreed with @metabrew. Quake clone. Only really worth a go if you're on a mixed office LAN and want a quick free FPS to play.

Maybe Tue 23 Feb 2010 7:14pm reply

Myth II: Soulblighter

Myth II: Soulblighter Again, as with Marathon, Bungie nailed just the right amount of polish for a sequel with Soulblighter. This is probably the game I will always have the fondest memories playing, even though the intense real time tactical micro management takes some serious practice to get good at. Worth the payoff though. Definitely not a casual game, but so worth the investment. Check out this site I made to get the story experience online mythjournals.com

Yes Mon 22 Feb 2010 1:17pm reply

Marathon

Marathon Graphics and feel are definitely dated now, much more so compared to Marathon 2 for example, but this game can still scare the fuck out of you. Love the Alex Seropian music too, even though it's really incongruous.

Yes Mon 22 Feb 2010 1:14pm reply

Marathon Infinity

Marathon Infinity Much prefered the linear story of the first two, and you can sort of tell it wasn't developed by Bungie in house. The SMG is fun though, and this is still great for some quick carnage every now and then with a mod or two.

Yes Mon 22 Feb 2010 1:13pm reply

Monster Max

Monster Max At times unbelievably frustrating, the isometric alignment fucks with your head somewhat. This game had character, humour and just the right amount of chunkiness for me though. Worth powering through the obscure puzzles at the start before you really get to grips with it. Good memories.

Yes Sun 21 Feb 2010 1:54pm reply

Doodle Jump

Doodle Jump S'alright as far as these things go. Wouldn't enthuse me that much if I was bored enough to play it.

Maybe Sat 20 Feb 2010 5:34pm reply

Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Half-Life 2: Episode Two I found the ending rather moving.

Yes Sat 20 Feb 2010 5:31pm reply

Half-Life 2: Episode One
Halo Waypoint

Halo Waypoint Not quite sure what they were thinking. Bit of a weird marketing stunt. Ah, franchises.

No Thu 11 Feb 2010 4:23pm reply

Record Tripping

Record Tripping Short but cute little flash game where you "scratch" with your scroll wheel to move time forwards and backwards to solve puzzles.

Maybe Fri 5 Feb 2010 2:51pm reply

Plok

Plok Used to play this on the flight to/from Hong Kong for the holidays. Virgin had a free inflight SNES arcade system that took ages to load. Anyway, never finished this game cos the flight would always end, but I have good memories collecting shells and flags and launching my limbs at things.

Yes Fri 5 Feb 2010 2:02pm reply

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Been playing the demo on XBox. Great squad based action along the same lines as 1943. A bit scary starting out on your own but excellent with a party of friends. Very nicely balanced player classes too.

Yes Tue 2 Feb 2010 11:44pm reply

StarCraft: Brood War

StarCraft: Brood War Don't think I ever finished this without cheating because the difficulty pretty much picked up from the end of the original. One of the first games to do the ambiguous Good/Evil/Enigmatic tripod of races things. Well, the ambiguity was far more marked and interesting in Brood War than the original anyway.

Yes Mon 1 Feb 2010 12:28am reply

Shinobi

Shinobi Come on, it's Shinobi.

Yes Sun 31 Jan 2010 2:41am reply

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 Enjoyed just watching people play this on the PlayStation, sharing in their frustration at failed landings. Great sound effects and achievements system. Satisfyingly crunchy. Also, I played the Game Boy Advance version to death.

Yes Sun 31 Jan 2010 1:35am reply

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell What can I say, I love stealth/gadget games.

Yes Sun 31 Jan 2010 1:33am reply

Deus Ex: Invisible War

Deus Ex: Invisible War Terrible. I could only stomach the first segment before giving up in disappointed disgust.

No Sun 31 Jan 2010 1:31am reply

The Dig

The Dig I played this point and click adventurer years after it came out and probably used a Walkthrough but it held up.

Yes Sat 30 Jan 2010 11:53pm reply

Duke Nukem 3D

Duke Nukem 3D Leagues ahead of the competition at the time. Full of character, atmosphere and titties. Just a shame the success went to 3D Realms' heads.

Yes Sat 30 Jan 2010 11:47pm reply

Postal

Postal Nutty, gory, exciting. Disturbed the hell out of me actually.

Yes Sat 30 Jan 2010 11:45pm reply

Quake II

Quake II Rail gun. Possibly the best weapon in any game ever.

Yes Sat 30 Jan 2010 11:44pm reply

Super Mario Land

Super Mario Land This game was really hard, and then really satisfying when I got good enough at it for it to not be so hard.

Yes Thu 28 Jan 2010 5:51pm reply

Day of the Tentacle

Day of the Tentacle Oh LucasArts, how far you have fallen.

Yes Thu 28 Jan 2010 2:06pm reply

The Orange Box

The Orange Box See individual reviews for the Half Life 2s and Portal. Not played TF2 properly, but the others make this totally worth it.

Yes Thu 28 Jan 2010 1:48pm reply

Halo 3: ODST

Halo 3: ODST I hear the coop multiplayer vs AI firefight mode is fun but I've never played it cos you're all lame.

Yes Thu 28 Jan 2010 1:48pm reply

Halo 3

Halo 3 Better than Halo 2 anyway. Fun multiplayer. Same lame story.

Yes Thu 28 Jan 2010 1:47pm reply

SimAnt

SimAnt If you haven't played this game, you haven't lived. Battle red ants, spiders, power sockets, lawnmowers and expand your colony. Pheromone trail modelling and everything.

Yes Wed 27 Jan 2010 6:06pm reply

Street Fighter II
Dr. Franken II

Dr. Franken II Classic Game Boy adventure game where you have to escape from your creator's castle and stave off debt.

Yes Mon 25 Jan 2010 2:35am reply

Command & Conquer

Command & Conquer Good old GDI Humvees. No match for the flame tank and Pillar of Nod though. RTS at its finest. "Unable to comply: Building in progress"

Yes Thu 21 Jan 2010 3:46am reply

Syndicate

Syndicate I loved the the RPG launcher that looked like a flaccid dong. And the cars. This game blew my mind when I first saw it. And hard too.

Yes Thu 21 Jan 2010 3:38am reply

SimTower

SimTower I think I always cheated to get to the cathedral on the roof. Best part was when you had enough car parks to set up a subway station.

Yes Wed 20 Jan 2010 4:57pm reply

The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time

The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time Awesome Quicktime VRish time traveling adventure game. You wear a chameleon suit and go round talking to locals in pre-apocalyptic Atlantis, El Dorado and Shangri-La to figure out what went down.

Yes Wed 20 Jan 2010 3:10pm reply

The Daedalus Encounter

The Daedalus Encounter One of the early "interactive movie" adventure games where your brain has been implanted in a drone and you investigate aliens and stuff. Also has Tia Carrere in it.

Maybe Wed 20 Jan 2010 3:02pm reply

Battlefield 1943

Battlefield 1943 Great multiplayer flag domination fun set in the Pacific. Play as US marines or Japanese in 3 character classes.

Yes Tue 19 Jan 2010 8:13pm reply

The Outfoxies

The Outfoxies Fighting game with interchangeable weapons scattered about the level. Each level was a large and detailed interactive environment that exploded and collapsed and dropped things on you. Badass slap bass sountrack.

Yes Tue 19 Jan 2010 7:37pm reply

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 Addictive 2D shootemup. Brilliant use of sound and music and a fun controller scheme.

Yes Tue 19 Jan 2010 7:36pm reply

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead I think I much prefer cooperative games really. Good social fun, well considered mission design. Genuinely frightening AI.

Yes Tue 19 Jan 2010 7:32pm reply

Oni

Oni One of the best combat models ever. Great music too. Must admit I spent many hours staring at Konoko's arse.

Yes Tue 19 Jan 2010 7:31pm reply

Unreal Tournament 2004

Unreal Tournament 2004 Many a good round of Onslaught played on the office LAN. "Your power core is vulnerable"

Yes Tue 19 Jan 2010 7:22pm reply

Flight Control

Flight Control Once missed my bus stop cos I was engrossed in this. Good public transport time passer, not played much of late.

Maybe Tue 19 Jan 2010 7:21pm reply

Zen Bound
Braid

Braid This is what a true understanding of game mechanics looks like. Beautifully self-aware little game.

Yes Tue 19 Jan 2010 7:20pm reply

Myth: The Fallen Lords

Myth: The Fallen Lords The game that got me into the web. I cut my teeth making fan sites for Myth. Groundbreaking RTS, 3D camera, great physics, lots of pixelly spritey gore, fantastic music, story, and mood.

Yes Tue 19 Jan 2010 6:58pm reply

GoldenEye 007
Blast Corps
Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum Great combat model, good stealth, captures the spirit of Batman.

Yes Tue 19 Jan 2010 6:48pm reply

StarCraft
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Great story, stealth, tool use, action, HUD, music, atmosphere, characters.

Yes Tue 19 Jan 2010 6:57am reply

Halo: Combat Evolved
Samorost

Samorost Lovely little point and click flash adventure puzzle game.

Yes Tue 19 Jan 2010 6:56am reply

World of Goo

World of Goo Ingenious building game, charming characters/music/sfx. Gotta love a good physics game.

Yes Tue 19 Jan 2010 6:55am reply

Marathon 2: Durandal

Marathon 2: Durandal Early FPS for the Mac. Best of the trilogy. Brilliantly designed. Enthralling story told through communications terminals with AI constructs that are sending you around like an eager pawn that's very very good at killing aliens. If I Had a Rocket Launcher...

Yes Tue 19 Jan 2010 6:30am reply

Half-Life 2
Portal

Portal Genius game design. Cheeky dark humour. Particularly enjoyed flinging myself huge distances in the giant hall with the tall ceiling near the end.

Yes Tue 19 Jan 2010 6:30am reply

Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2 Just more of the same really.

Maybe Tue 19 Jan 2010 3:27am reply

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

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