Ok. So I was gonna do a big proper run-down from 10 to 1 on this, but I can't be arsed because there are so many games I haven't played, or haven't given enough time to. Besides, as you'll see, my feelings about a game can't always be summed up all that simply. There are ten games here, but this is not my top ten. Rather it's the ten games I felt most like giving awards to. You'll see.
Best Retail Game
The main purpose of this award is to illustrate how my two favourite games of the year are download-only. As such the winner isn't actually that important. Anyway, it's Dead Space.
Best Sequel
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 is possibly a flawless example of how to make a sequel. It's still got the main mode which is better than ever, and it adds five extra modes which all play with the formula in brilliant ways, building tactics that are useful in other modes, and are varied enough to be fun while never being just novelties. Plus it's prettier and has better music. Yeah, it's the perfect sequel. Which means it's Game Of The Year right? Oh unless someone released a really amazing original game. Hmm.
Best Worst Sequel
Super Smash Bros Brawl is basically the same as Super Smash Bros Melee, which in all honesty wasn't that much better than Super Smash Bros No Subtitle. Somehow it still ended up being my most played game last year.
Best Game For The First Hour Or So
God, Boom Blox got really boring after that, didn't it?
Best Game That Was Split Into Five-Second Chunks And Mixed Together With Five-Second Chunks Of The Worst Game Ever
Consistency is not a word Mirror's Edge knows. Playing it, I can't help the feeling that if I could just peel away the moments of perfect clarity, beauty, exhiliration and grace (of which there are many) and make a game out of them, it would be the best game ever. Problem is, the game left over would be so abhorrently evil that it would probably destroy the world and everything in it.
Best Drumming
Admittedly I haven't played Guitar Hero World Tour, so I am completely unqualified to judge this award. However Rock Band contains some very fine drumming indeed. In fact it is the most fun I have had drumming in a game this year.
Best Game I Had Already Played
Banjo-Kazooie was so much better than I thought it would be. I'd barely rose-tinted it at all. See, this kind of thing is the reason I didn't do a top ten. You can't really put retro-re-releases in a top ten can you.
Best Game That I Still Can't Make Any Sense Of
This sort of game is the other reason I didn't do a top ten. No More Heroes could reasonably go in any position on the list. It renders criticism utterly irrelevant. I can't properly articulate why I like it. I can't properly articulate why I hate it, either. The only real flaw I can pin on it is that none of it makes any fucking sense.
Best Place To Stop Playing A Game
I'm told Zack & Wiki becomes really horribly unpleasantly frustrating at some point along the way, but fortunately I'm nowhere near clever enough to get that far. I'm tempted to just leave it where it is and preserve my love for it.
Best Game
Braid, obviously.
Showing posts with label rock band. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rock band. Show all posts
Monday, 12 January 2009
Monday, 8 September 2008
Rock Band impressions
I finally got a go on Rock Band.
Seeing as I've already played Guitar Hero and Singstar I was most interested in the drumming side of the equation. The way the pedal hooks on to the drumkit is really awkward - it seems you have to have either the drums too far away or the pedal too close, unless you want to use a table, something I haven't tried yet. It's murder on your toes. Apart from that, I'm really enjoying my solo drum career (under the ingenious name of "PatROCK", and yes, I did come up with that all by myself). I'm only playing on medium (I've been informed the game is a lot more fun on hard, but having little-to-no sense of rhythm might get in the way of that) but even so, when I nail a little drum fill - particularly the one on In Bloom - or hit the last "note" after going mental on the freestyle ending, the feeling is extraordinary.
It's actually engaged me far more than Guitar Hero ever did. While I enjoyed Guitar Hero well enough, it never produced this feeling in me. Maybe because drumming is a lot closer to actually playing the drums, while the plastic guitar always felt like just that, a plastic guitar, flimsy and with loose, rattling buttons. Or maybe drumming is just more primal. The other way Guitar Hero let me down is that it didn't interest me long-term, maybe because I've never been much of a highscorehead. It remains to be seen whether Rock Band will be the same.
Obviously the multiplayer mode is meant to be the main source of longevity, but oddly the few sessions I've had were a bit subdued. Despite the little "Unison" markers and so on, I found there wasn't much of a sense of "we're in this together" when everyone's concentrating on their own bit. I was barely aware of the other players' presence unless someone was singing or getting out of time on the drums. It's still a lot more fun that Guitar Hero's multi anyway, but so far I haven't really got that sense of being in a band.
I've got no interest in the guitar and bass side of things but I did have a go at singing. Fortunately there are quite a few songs on there I know and quite like, but even so it's annoying having to stick to those few. I'll have to seek out a few of the other songs and get to know them. Singing is the aspect of the game that's closest to doing the real thing, but even then it's not quite like proper singing. You're always aware that you're playing a game. Especially when I do high-pitched "fweee" noises on the freestyle bits.
Seeing as I've already played Guitar Hero and Singstar I was most interested in the drumming side of the equation. The way the pedal hooks on to the drumkit is really awkward - it seems you have to have either the drums too far away or the pedal too close, unless you want to use a table, something I haven't tried yet. It's murder on your toes. Apart from that, I'm really enjoying my solo drum career (under the ingenious name of "PatROCK", and yes, I did come up with that all by myself). I'm only playing on medium (I've been informed the game is a lot more fun on hard, but having little-to-no sense of rhythm might get in the way of that) but even so, when I nail a little drum fill - particularly the one on In Bloom - or hit the last "note" after going mental on the freestyle ending, the feeling is extraordinary.
It's actually engaged me far more than Guitar Hero ever did. While I enjoyed Guitar Hero well enough, it never produced this feeling in me. Maybe because drumming is a lot closer to actually playing the drums, while the plastic guitar always felt like just that, a plastic guitar, flimsy and with loose, rattling buttons. Or maybe drumming is just more primal. The other way Guitar Hero let me down is that it didn't interest me long-term, maybe because I've never been much of a highscorehead. It remains to be seen whether Rock Band will be the same.
Obviously the multiplayer mode is meant to be the main source of longevity, but oddly the few sessions I've had were a bit subdued. Despite the little "Unison" markers and so on, I found there wasn't much of a sense of "we're in this together" when everyone's concentrating on their own bit. I was barely aware of the other players' presence unless someone was singing or getting out of time on the drums. It's still a lot more fun that Guitar Hero's multi anyway, but so far I haven't really got that sense of being in a band.
I've got no interest in the guitar and bass side of things but I did have a go at singing. Fortunately there are quite a few songs on there I know and quite like, but even so it's annoying having to stick to those few. I'll have to seek out a few of the other songs and get to know them. Singing is the aspect of the game that's closest to doing the real thing, but even then it's not quite like proper singing. You're always aware that you're playing a game. Especially when I do high-pitched "fweee" noises on the freestyle bits.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)