Since this is my blog and I can talk about WHATEVER I WANT, I’ve decided to review some video games. I wont say I spend a lot of time playing video games these days, but the time I do spend is quality time. I just don’t have the time I used to, say, back when I was living on a certain grandmothers floor. I’m not going to fire up the old PS3 and waste my precious time slogging through just any piece of crap. I want a killer app, an escape, a engaging chunk of digital art to blow my hair back and make me feel like smoking a cigarette with finished because I’m that satisfied.
These days I spend a lot of time reading video game reviews. I like writing, and I like gaming, so I like reading about gaming. It makes me feel like I’m not missing anything since I’m pretty much missing everything now that I’m committed to this life of adult responsibility. However, the times I do get behind a controller are so momentous I feel the deep need to capture my worthless thoughts about them, and annoy you.
During my rehab days this past season, I had a lot of dead time when not in the therapy clinic. I was stuck in a hotel room with no wife and a sequel to a book I was going blind writing (about 4 months of my rehab process I was living in a hotels… somewhere). I got a much needed distraction by playing a few games. What follows are my reviews on two of them, abbreviated into Cliff Notes (Dirk Notes?) for your sanity.
First is the game Dead Space. Dead time = Dead Space. The game was a little past it’s prime when I got my hands on it, but like many classic titles built with solid concepts and controls, it was still good. In fact, it was excellent. A survival horror style game set on a giant spaceship floating above a planet with demonic alien powers? Pardon me while my inner nerd takes a cold shower. Artistically it did a fantastic job of capturing not only the tense, anxious moments that make a horror game a horror game, but it also created a wonderfully engrossing science fantasy world around them. There’s a love story mixed in there someplace but it never get in the way of your gun barrel long enough to count for much. The game’s use of gravity, unique weapons that specialize in dismembering, and a sweet HUD set it apart in the genre and make it a real innovator in video gaming period. This is not Resident Evil in space. It’s more, much more. My only beef is that it ends to fast and the ending is really… well, I can’t tell you that, can I? I highly recommend this game, and that you pick it up if you haven’t already since it’s dirt cheap at used game stores. Considering it’s current discount price and value, I give it 5 Garfoose berries out of 5.
Second is Deamon Souls. I read a lot about this game and how absolutely, mind bendingly, frustrating it was. Reviewers said it was good, but hard, which sounded like a dare to me. The fine folks at Game Stop told me straight up that I would throw my controller at the television at some point in the gaming experience, and I did. In fact, I threw it at the wall, at the television, at the ceiling… That’s not to say it’s not a good game. It is, and it’s this very reason it’s so frustrating. It’s mercilessly, rookie hazing style hard but you can’t stop playing it. I mean, you do something dumb, take a risk, push your luck and you’ll pay for it with your life and all the experience you’ve painstakingly accumulated. It’s an 3rd person RPG, and you really do get to level up into an all out badass who can go back in time and wipe the floor with the scum that made you crack your television screen, but you have got to play smart to get there. This game rewards the smart in a way that makes you respect the game and yourself more when you’re done. It’s tough, but fair, and the world and mechanics are such that when you do go Carlos Zambrano on your controller for a particular bad beat, you’ll come back when you’ve cooled off. It’s a great suck-you-in experience, but you may not like what it can turn you into once you’re there. It’s also not short which means it’s a lot potential property damage if you can’t convince yourself it’s just a game. A solid 4.5 Garfoose berries. It will be a classic on this system, but it’s a workout.
Well, this concludes my gaming review of 2 fine PS3 titles. Wish they could all be that good (but not that frustrating). I’ll have some bad ones up later unless you comment me into oblivion for not talking about baseball enough… Oblivion was a good game, actually…