Well, the move to the new house is pretty much done, although there’s lots of boxes left over at the in-laws houses that are slowly being moved over on a daily basis. This is made much easier by the fact they’re only 6 miles away, which is close enough if we need them, but far enough that we get our own space.

The biggest trouble we’ve had with the move is fitting everything that used to fit into 1600 square feet into 1100 square feet, along with a new baby. We’re having to carefully go through everything that we own and decide whether it comes with us, stays at the in-laws, gets sold, gets donated, or gets trashed. For many items, this decision is hard. For all gaming-related stuff, that’s an easy decision.

We’ve brought our laptops as well as the kid’s desktop, which is nested inside the corner desk unit that takes up a fair bit of space in the living room. We’re back to video gaming with our 54" projection television that’s managed to make it through 9 years so far with only one major repair needed within the first three years. Connected to it are the Wii, the PS2 and the Xbox. Having a new baby means changing a lot of things to compensate, and one change we’re making is going with wireless controllers, particularly after the kids almost pulled the PS2 off the shelf via the cables. All of our games are in bulk game cases, but as we keep adding more games to our collection we’re starting to run out of space for those and will be looking at revamping that. My PC game collection is in two large tubs, mostly alphabetized and in order, although there are some stragglers.

We found that we had a little extra cash and we’ve been looking at upgrading the kids’ computer and making it the family gaming computer. I specced out putting in a 3.0 Ghz dual core processor, 8Gb RAM, 1 TB HDD space and at least an GeForce 8800GT. This would pretty much make the computer game-friendly for the next five years. When I told my daughter, she simply shrugged and then said that she doesn’t need the computer upgraded as she has the Wii, and that she’d rather have her own laptop. She’s nine years old. She’s obviously been replaced with a pod person.

In that same vein, I looked at whether or not I should get an XBox 360. The money that was being put aside to upgrade the computer would mean I could get the Elite, a few extra wireless controllers, and a bunch of games to start me off. It would also mean I could retire the XBox. However, looking at my family/work/study schedule for the next three years I’ve already got plenty of games to play and not enough time to play them as it is. Buying an XBox 360 would just mean spending money that I couldn’t appreciate for some time. At least upgrading the family computer would be useful, although it pretty much is capable of running most of the games the kids need right now.

So, I think I’ll be staying behind the curve for the next couple of years. I’ve got a ton of games here at home that I can play and review on this site, and there’s a lot of gems in there, some of which I’m playing right now and will post about soon. There are also a lot of awesome free games that are available online today that either play in your browser, or can be downloaded. On top of that, there’s a lot of casual games that are available as that market segment grows and those really are the types of games that I tend to be playing right now as it’s hard for me to get more than an hour at a time to sit down and play a game without interruptions. Without having to keep this site updated on a set schedule, I’ll be able to post as I come across all manner of coolness. At least, that’s the plan.

Thanks for hanging around so far, and thanks for sticking with the site.

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Image courtesty of Wikia.

Yesterday, while at family dinner to celebrate my upcoming birthday*, my brother- and sister-in-law presented me with an Xbox care package: the spare Xbox they had serving as a media center, 4 controllers, a wireless adapter, HD cables and a small cache of games. Today I plugged it in (and the kids are currently hogging it) and pottered around on a couple of the games that they gave me, as well as cleaned out the save game files and the existing Live profiles on the drive**.

I plan to get an Xbox 360 at some point in the future; the current plan is for sometime early next year once some other things are dealt with. This gives me a nice start towards my Xbox-based gaming though because some of the games I received are in various top 10 lists of games and include Halo, Halo 2, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, Blood Wake and a number of Tom Clancy games. There are a number of Xbox/PC-based games that I’ve had my eye on for some time, but I put off buying them because I didn’t have an Xbox to play them on, and I focused on buying PS2 or GameCube games. The good thing about having done that though is that it allows me to focus on the games that are XBox-centric*** that I want, such as Fable, Jade Empire, both KOTOR games and DOOM 3. I tend to collect games and not trade them in when I finish with them (primarily because I never finish games), so this works out well for me because a great many of the games that I would otherwise get for the Xbox I already have on other platforms. Also, when I finally upgrade to a Xbox 360, I’ll still be able to play these games.

As a newcomer to the Xbox world, I want to mess around with the console and compare it to the other last-gen consoles that we have here. I’ve already noted some things that I like and don’t like, but more on that later. Once the kids are in bed tonight, I’ll crank up some Halo and Crimson Skies and enjoy my impending celebratory day of birthing pain.

* We celebrate all our family anniversaries together on the weekend before or weekend after rather than the day of the event. It allows us to make sure we can all be there and allows us to fit around conflicting weekday schedules.

** I’m conscientious like that. No, really.

*** Yes, I know that they’re available for the PC. I’d much rather get them on the XBox because my PC already has TOO many games on it.

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Image courtesy of GameSpy

Platform	PS2
The Good	Beautiful game. Great story. Lots of moves and upgrade options. Massive world to play in.Boobies.
The Bad	Puzzles become repetitive after a while, as does the combat. Some annoying puzzles.
The Ugly	Combat can often end up becoming a button mash. Harder modes are too hard. Some rendering problems with visuals.
Overall	Should be renamed God of Whoa or God of Phwoar! Lots of gratuitous violence and smashing of enemies. Generous dollops of puzzles. Fun to play. Boobies.

I first bought this game many months ago on the recommendation of a friend, but like many other games it ended up in the collection gathering dust. A few weeks back I dusted it off because I found myself in the mood for some serious senseless violence, and I got caught wrapped up in the hype for God of War 2. I popped in the game and was bedazzled with it, to say the least. At that point, my gall stones decided to cause me a number of problems, I went in for surgery, and I stopped playing my PS2. Now that I’m better, I’ve gotten back into the game.

Wow. Wow. Wow. That’s really all I can say so far. I’m only about 5 hours in the game, so I’m about 1/4 of the way through according to most other reviews and I’m absolutely loving it. This game’s scale is huge, and when the camera pulls out to show you climbing across a bridge and you’re almost nothing but a small block of pixels on the screen, you really get a sense of the scale of the game. The graphics are beautiful and stylized, and there’s always lots of action on the screen at any one time. It quite literally just blows you away while you play the game. The sense of scale is amazing, and there are times you just have to sit back and admire how big some of the elements in the game truly are.

Combat is a key element of the game (duhhhhhhrrrrrrr!), and although it gets repetitive after a while, when you power up your various powers you get access to a wide number of combo moves that allow you to finish off enemies quickly and effectively. As you unlock various powers in the game, you gain special attacks and moves that allow you to defeat particular enemies. When you’ve got about 20 enemies on screen and you button mash a series of combo moves you end up flipping, jumping and throwing out Kratos’ twin blades all over the place watching enemies fly into the air or backwards before exploding into red, green or blue flashes of light. If you’ve ever played any of the new Prince of Persia games, combat feels a bit like that at times; a constant blur of motion, button mashing and on-screen devastation. One of the most awesome features is that as you kill and smash your way through the game you increase your Rage Of The Gods meter. Once this is full, you can activate a short term devastating attack on everything in the immediate area. This last for about 5 seconds and is enough time for you to wipe out even the hardiest of enemies. There are also a number of finishing moves that you can try on enemies, in particular level end bosses. The first time I used one of these finishing moves I was literally jumping up and down shouting “Oh my god! Oh my god!”. You’d think I’d just won American Idol or the charge of lascivious behavior towards a computer game character had been dropped by its electronic attorney. Finishing off a major critter is absolutely awesome, and until you do it, you don’t realize how awesome. That first series of kills with the hydra, and in particular how to finish it off, had me on the edge of my seat throughout the entire thing.

The major flaw with combat is that sometimes it’s just too hard, particularly when not on the Normal or Easy modes of the game. Enemies just keep coming and kicking your hiney all over the place. You often spend more time on your back than you do in the air or on your feet, and it takes some time for you to work out which set of moves allows you to take out the particular enemies you confront. Not every attack is effective against every enemy, so you have to improvise and see what works. You get some help in two ways. The first is that there are regular checkpoints along the way so that even if you die, you don’t need to go too far back in your progress before you can continue. The second is that if you continually get your donkey handed to you, the game will recognize this and ask if you want to try playing on an easier level. Sometimes it might just be easier to do so so you can get through the game. I have experienced this, and playing on an easier level doesn’t really detract from the game at all. It’s still challenging, and not as frustrating any more.

Save points are scattered throughout the game at reasonably regular intervals. Unlike a number of games, there are enough of them close enough together that you don’t have to spend too long before you can save your progress, This makes the game ideal for those who play in short burst of 30-60 mins of time. There are four save slots, allowing cyclical savers like myself to save and go back if we mess anything up.

There are a number of puzzles in the game. Some range from the standard “kill something to get something to do something to something”  to a couple that are a little more tricky. I like games that make me think and allow me to have a chance for an OH! moment when I finally work out how to get past a particular challenge. This game has had a couple of those for me. As a long time adventure gamer, the puzzles weren’t that hard, but they do require some lateral thinking, which in a mainstream game is very good. When presented with a problem area, the camera often pans and shows you a particular path or a problem area that needs resolved, telegraphing what you need to do to continue.

I have some issues with the game though, mostly to do with having to walk over beams or thin areas. It’s just too easy to fall off. The game controls respond with large and gross movements, and walking over these thin areas often leads to you falling off. Luckily you have a chance to pull yourself back up if you do fall and you take no damage if you fall. I find it frustrating though, and would have preferred for the developers to make the character more sticky to beams and areas like that. There are also some graphic glitches from time to time. Because the game is immense, sometimes there is flickering or graphic refresh slowdowns. It happens only every now and again, but it gets annoying when it does happen. The developers have really pushed the capabilities of the console, but perhaps they push it too hard at times. Camera control at times can be quirky as well, leading to not seeing certain things unless you stand in particular positions; the lack of an independent camera in the game is an oversight, but I can understand that the developers wanted to create an epic Clash of the Titans-esque feel to the game, so they took control of the camera themselves in-game.

The game certainly lives up to it’s M rating, with lots of gore and a proclivity of bare and barely-covered breasts throughout the game (the dress du jour of Ancient Greece).  Seriously, it’s just gory. Blood is everywhere. On the walls, the floor, the ceilings. It’s a painting medium and not so much a result of monsters and Kratos trying to one-up each other on the headcount.

Ultimately, the game is lots of fun. There’s something enjoyable about beating the living snot out of harpies, minotaurs and medusae. The story is great, the voice acting is good, and its challenging enough to keep most people interested in the game, but not too hard that you need to be a hardcore game geek to get through it. Oh, and there’s boobies.

Graphics	4.5
Sound	4.5
Gameplay	4.5
Challenge	4
Fun Factor	5
	4.5

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One of the things that I will admit is that I’m not your typical gamer. Yes, I’m obsessive about the games that I like to play, and collect lots of games. I love talking to others about my favorite games, and sometimes spend a lot of time thinking about games when I shouldn’t be. However, the one thing that makes me not a typical gamer is that I don’t feel obliged to buy brand new games and games consoles as soon as they come out.

A good example is my Playstation 2, which I only just bought around Thanksgiving 2005. This was one year before the launch of the Playstation 3, and 6 years into the life of the unit. I now have around 150 games for the PS2, most of which I’ve been able to get for under $10 each, free or for around $20*. I’ve got a nice collection now and it didn’t really cost me that much to build it up. The most recent PS2 title I have is Bully, by Rockstar Games.

See, I don’t feel the pressure to buy new games as soon as they come out. I want to, of course, but something inside of me tells me not to bother spending that amount of money when I can wait a year and get it cheaper. This also explains the lack of an XBox 360 in the Bagder household at this time (although the failure rate of units is also a factor in that). Besides, I’ve got more than enough games to play. On top of all those PS2 games, I’ve got about 50 GameCube Games, 25 N64 games, 30 SNES games, 25 Dreamcast games, and about 1000 PC-based games to still play. And this doesn’t include all of the old 8-bit home computer stuff I have for the Acorn Electron, Sinclair Spectrum, Atari ST or Amiga. Phew! So, it’s not as if I need to spend money on games.

This leaves me with a bit of a dilemma, but only a bit of one. All the cool kids are playing the new games on the newer consoles. Games such as Crackdown, Gears of War and that one cool game for the PS3. Many of these games are multiplayer and as much as I’d love to get in on that action, I tend to play a lot of games solo, even the online games such as Guild Wars. Why, you ask? There are a few reasons:

• I don’t often have a set time that I can play games with others, although I do make time when I can.
• I hate going through the trial and error process to find people that I’d enjoy playing games with on a regular basis.
• Even worse than finding people to game with is trying to find competent people to game with.
• I hate having to have to pay over the nose for a game that will drop to half price within 6 months at retail. Then again, I tend to buy a lot of games second-hand, which makes me a game publisher’s nightmare and a retailer’s wet dream.
• Most of the games I tend to play are solo-centric anyway, such as adventure games.
• I just plain like playing games on my own without any distractions from family or others, which means I play games as a way to get away from other people, not to spend time with them.

That last reason is probably the biggest for why I don’t play a lot of multiplayer games. I’m also the type of gamer who loves certain classic games and often is more keen to revisit them rather than to play the latest chart-topper that everyone else is into**. It’s not like I don’t have enough games to play already.

Which leads me to finally get around to talking about what this post is really about. Most game blogs focus on the current industry, and the games and consoles and computers  that have just been released. Pshaw! They can have that. I’m going to focus on stuff that’s been out already, stuff that’s Behind The Curve ***, stuff that others have played and forgot about.

Once or twice a week, I’ll dust off one of the games in my collection and play it for a bit, then post about it. I’ll post what I like and what I don’t like, what intrigues me and what doesn’t. It won’t as much be as review, but a revisitation, because I don’t intend to spend 20-40 hours per game playing it like many other game reviewers do. I don’t have time to do that. I do have time to create a little capsule about each game, and give you my impressions. It might interest you enough to hunt down the game yourself and either enjoy or hate it as much as I do. You never can tell.

Expect the first BTC entry by the end of the weekend.

* $20 is what I call my GPL, or Game Price Limit. I try not to spend any more than that for a single game, although on a few occasions I have done, but for notable games that I felt were worth the price. These include Star Trek: A Final Unity (which I’ve still to complete), Zelda games, and all of the Guild Wars games.

** This is a normal pattern for me. What everyone else is into, I’m not, or at least not until they’re not anymore and then I am. If you can grok that.

*** See how adroitly and cleverly I slid that in there? That’s hawesomeness in the making right there.

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