Command and Conquer

Title: Command and Conquer
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: August 31, 1995
Date Played: Summer 1998
Time Played: 30 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5


Opinion:
Mid 1990's saw a lot of breakthroughs in gaming. Games were starting to use midi cards and Sound Blasters instead of the PC speaker, developers were starting to utilize filtering and depth techniques to make the games look better, and a new genre was being born, the RTS. One of the first pioneers of this genre was Command and Conquer by Westwood studios.

Command and Conquer came on two discs, one for each faction. Depending on who you wanted to play as (GDI or NOD) you would put the appropriate CD-ROM disc in. Did I mention it was one of the first games to use CD-ROM? That was pretty insane back then. The technilogy seemed incredible, and the fact that virtually within the same physical space we now had about 450 times more storage was crazy!

Each faction had its own story, everything from the intro to the ending was tailored towards that faction. Each mission briefing was accompanied by a full motion video (FMV) clip with real actors portraying the characters in the game. This was super cool and really drew you into the action. Instead of associating with little 10 pixel sprites, you were associating your experience with real people. The jump from 1.44Mb floppies to 600Mb CD-ROMs allowed Westwood to have a lot of video in the game and not worry too much about space. It would have taken them nearly 700 floppies for each copy of the game instead of two CD-ROMs.

The FMVs made the game stand out for me, it felt like I was participating in a cool war movie, and overall production values made Command and Conquer stood head and shoulders above the competition at the time.

Overall Command and Conquer is a great game, it is now a classic, and surprisingly it didnt age too bad. The difficulty curve can be brutal, but that is to be expected from the games 20 years ago. I am definitely going to install DOS-Box sometime in the future and play through it again. It revolutionized the genre, and it's success gave birth to some of my favorite franchises (Red Alert and CnC Generals).

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Title: Batman: Arkham Asylum
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Date Played: September 2009
Time Played: 12 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5



Opinion:
Licensed games are generally pretty terrible. Not because the material sucks, but because they are usually made on short deadlines and with strict guidelines as to their content. The guidelines dictated by those that do not know anything about video games. Arkham Asylum, a game using the Batman license came out of no where and showed everyone that yes, licensed games can be amazing.

In Batman: Arkham Asylum as you would expect you play as Batman, and as you would expect the action takes place in Arkham Asylum. It is sort of an Alcatraz style penitentiary on an island off the coast of Gotham City. The game starts with you (Batman) delivering The Joker to rot in a cell on the island, little does anyone know this was The Joker's plan all along. Joker lets all of the island's prisoners escape and it is up to you to subdue and capture them. Throughout the game you will encounter many of the iconic Batman villains. You will wrestle with Bane, escape the grip of Poison Ivy, race with the Killer Croc, brawl with The Joker, and even solve some riddles with The Riddler. Many others make cameo and face to face appearances as well.

What makes Batman: Arkham Asylum such a great game is actually... everything. The graphics are stunning and detailed, the combat is visceral and rewarding, the setting is spot on, interesting, creepy and engaging, and the story is exactly what one would want to have in a Batman game. As Batman you get to use all sorts of gadgets, fly down on top of the villains and traverse all nooks and crannies of the asylum.

I was pleasantly surprised by this game. I would go as far as saying that Batman: Arkham Asylum is in my top three games of 2009. Absolutely everything about it is awesome. I can not recommend this game enough. Go get it, and play it!

Jak 3

Title: Jak 3
Platform Played On: PlayStation 2
Release Date: November 9, 2004
Date Played: Summer 2006
Time Played: 30 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5




Opinion:
Jak 2 was a pretty big departure from the first game. Some would argue that it did what it needed to do in order to stay relevant. I guess Naughty Dog (developer) was satisfied with the direction if Jak 2 because they kept almost everything intact from it. Instead they focused on the world layout, controls, story and mission variety. In essence polishing the heck out of the formula they established with Jak 2.

Jak 3 takes place not long after the previous game, it is still the same locale, with some new areas and some changes, but for the most part it remains to be an action platformer that it was in Jak 2.

Jak 3 still feels like a GTA and Ratchet and Clank hybrid set in Jak universe. You still have a hub with missions, and you are still in a futuristic roboty Ratchety city. This time there is a lot more focus on driving, as a large portion of the game depend on it (not my favorite part).

Overall I enjoyed the first two games more than this third installment; however the story itself kept me interested throughout my playthrough. The graphics look better than the previous games and the controls and overall game mechanics (such as death) have been pretty much ironed out to create a smooth and enjoyable experience. I could not care less for the driving sections of the game though, and there are quite a few of them. I am a little bit bummed that Naughty Dog did not push the envelope and make yet another evolution in this franchise. Jak 3 is a good game, but I can not stop thinking that it could have been something much more.

Jak 2

Title: Jak 2
Platform Played On: PlayStation 2
Release Date: October 14, 2003
Date Played: Summer 2006
Time Played: 30 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5



Opinion:
The first game in the Jak and Daxter series was an action platformer. While Jak 2 retains a little bit of platforming it has been clearly influenced by other successful games that came out during it's development.

The entire gameplay structure has been molded into kind of, sort of a GTA clone. The story takes place 300 years after the events of the original game, and instead of being comprised of separate diverse levels majority of the game takes place in a huge industrial city. It is structured exactly as you would expect a GTA clone to be. You grab missions around the city and complete them in order to advance the story.

The other clear influence is the Ratchet and Clank series, and that is not surprising. Naughty Dog and Insomniac are sister companies and both games use the same engine. So now instead of platforming around floating rocks you are in a huge city with your GTA style mini map and vehicles and Ratchet and Clank style robots.

Jak 2 is a completely different game from the first one. While it is more modern, personally I am tired of GTA clones. Generally a GTA game has so much content that you are satisfied until the next one comes out, so playing all of these clones can and does get boring at times, partly due to their inferior quality to the real thing. That being said, I played Jak 2 for its characters and its story, which is more engaging and enjoyable than the first game. Mostly due to the fact that there are a lot more things going on, there are more characters, and more events. The first game's success and several years of development allowed Naughty Dog to make the game look better and to have more cut scenes to tell the story.

Overall I enjoyed Jak 2, to me it was a lighthearted GTA set in a different universe. It was interesting to find out what happens to the characters after the events of the first game. I played all 3 Jak games in succession, and enjoyed all of them. It seems like Jak 2 can be enjoyed by those that played the original and by those that are new to the series.

Trials HD

Title: Trials HD
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: August 12, 2009
Date Played: February 13, 2012
Time Played: 2 hours
Completed (Y/N): No
Score: 3/5




Opinion:
Trials HD is a side scrolling puzzle/platforming/racing hybrid. The main objective is to get from the start of the track to the finish (a few hundred yards) in the fastest time possible. The track is not a straight line however, it is a jumbled mess of planks, re-bars, boxes, tires, steel beams etc... thats where the puzzle and platforming elements come into play. You need to navigate these increasingly hard levels to progress through the game.

I am going to start off by saying that Trials is not my type of game. I did like Excite Bike from the NES days, but that was more because of my childhood fascination with motocross. While I do enjoy spending a few minutes with Trials, ultimately the drive long, fly high, wheelies and flips end and you find yourself spending hours doing hundreds of attempts to make it a few feet on the track. This type of gameplay is simply too frustrating for me, and feels like a huge waste of time.

What makes Trials HD popular is its graphical presentation and near perfect controls. The game's presentation is excellent, it is very detailed and the physics model is fun to watch. A lot of it is also wanting to beat the level to see how ridiculous the next one is.

While Trials HD is a good game, and I personally know a bunch of people that enjoy the tedium of it. I will be the first one to admit that it is not the game for me. The frustration induced by my compulsiveness to get perfect scores on every level will simply drive me insane.

Metroid: Zero Mission

Title: Metroid: Zero Mission
Platform Played On: GameBoy Advance
Release Date: February 9, 2004
Date Played: 2004
Time Played: 7 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5




Opinion:
Metroid games helped define the "MetroidVania" genre, and are some of the best Nintendo-made games. The franchise has nearly a dozen games and all of them are in the good to excellent range as far as scores are concerned.

Metroid: Zero Mission is a retelling of the story from the original game released in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. For me it was a great way to play the original without having to suffer 1986 8bit NES graphics. It was actually one of the first Metroid games I have ever played. Not sure why, but just like Zelda it never made it to my NES in the early 90's. Perhaps these franchises were too good and gamers did not want to give them up or sell them. I actually didnt find out about the franchise until the late 90's.

While the story in Zero Mission follows that of the original game, the layout and some sections are not clones of the 1986 game. Some iconic rooms are copies with the upgraded graphics (such as the Mother Brain fight), which give a great nostalgic vibe. This was a great design decision because for the hardcore fans there were still new things to discover in this re-imagining, things such as the zero suit Samus. The first time anyone was able to play as her without her armor.

Gameplay-wise Zero Mission is exactly what you would expect from a Metroid game. Explore a maze like base, get new power-ups to gain access to new areas. The controls and graphics are solid. Metroid: Zero Mission has to be one of the best games released for the GBA. It is an excellent entry in the series (even though it covers the story we already know). And having this experience on the go in your hands make it an even better proposition.

To this day this is THE way to play the original Metroid game (unless you emulate it on an iOS or Andreoid device I guess). But with Nintendo DS's support for GBA cartridges I would say this game is totally worth a purchase. Alternatively you can play the original NES version via the Virtual Console on the Wii, 3DS and Wii U. However I think the updated graphics are totally worth playing Zero Mission over the original.

Metroid (1986) and Metroid: Zero Mission (2004) Mother Brain fight comparison.

Aladdin

Title: Aladdin
Platform Played On: Sega Genesis 
Release Date: November 11, 1993
Date Played: 1995
Time Played: 10 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5



Opinion:
Back in the 16bit era it was rare to own more than four or five games. So you owned some, your friends owned some. You would swap them for a few weeks at a time and that was the way to play a lot of games. This also meant that the five games you got to own for the entire generation of consoles had to be cherry picked, they had to be the best of the best. For me Aladdin was one of my five.

One of my most distinct memories with Aladdin was when my father and his friend were walking by on the way to the balcony to grab a smoke and they stopped by the 10 year old me, looked at the screen, and said... look at those graphics, pretty soon its going to look like real life. They were right to be amazed, for its time Aladdin looked pretty spectacular, the animations were fluid and since the only point of reference is the Disney movie everything looked hand drawn and basically one for one with the movie. In fact you could argue that the graphics were already life-like, since they looked exactly what you would expect them to look like.

The gameplay in Aladdin consisted of mostly action platforming. You can tell that the developer put a lot more work into the game than they necessarily needed to, the animations alone probably had more than double the amount of frames than most other games at the time, and just extra work of including little funny things like a male/female and genie bathroom out in the desert and little genie cameos throughout the game made it a really likable experience. Every level looked very unique with what seems to be entirely new assets, the soundtrack consisted of all of the favorite tunes from the film. Aladdin on the Genesis (or as I knew it Mega Drive) was great!

Kiddish or not (doesnt matter anyways... I was a kid at the time), Aladdin was amazing. To me it was like being part of one of my favorite Disney movies of all time. I kept playing it over and over again. I think we can look back and say that it was a really good Genesis game, and everyone that got to play it at the time is likely to have a good memory of it. Of course there is no reason to play it now, other than for nostalgic call backs to the childhood years...

General Chaos

Title: General Chaos
Platform Played On: Sega Genesis
Release Date: 1994
Date Played: 1996-1997
Time Played: 10 hours
Completed (Y/N): No
Score: 4/5




Opinion:
My early teens were spent playing games on at the time amazing Sega Genesis. One of the games I happened to play was General Chaos, a satirical strategy game similar in some aspects to the modern day Team Fortress.

At the time I hardly knew 20 words in English, and so the campaign was of little interest to me. I spent most of my time with General Chaos playing skirmish matches against the computer or against my friend Alexei Gavrish.

The premise is fairly simple. Pick a team of 5 soldiers, each specializing in a firearm. They could use machine guns, bazookas, flame throwers, demolitions and explosives. After picking your team you are put on the battlefield. Your goal is to defeat the opposing team, also consisting of 5 soldiers. While your squad uses their weapons when at range, if you manage to get in melee range then your soldiers can kick and punch their opponent.

Developers of General Chaos did a good job with the art style, each character had his own personality. My favorite was the Chuck Norris looking dude.

Now that I think about it, Team Fortress 2 reminds me a lot of General Chaos, the sense of humor is very similar and the character classes are basically the same. The one major difference is that TF2 is an FPS and General Chaos is an isometric RTS game. I wouldnt be surprised if the original Team Fortress concept was at lest somewhat inspired by General Chaos.

I really enjoyed General Chaos; however I never got to own a copy, so once my friend wanted his game back I had to give it up. Nevertheless I really enjoyed that game, even without knowing English it managed to make me laugh and have fun either vs the CPU or vs my friends. While there is no reason to go back and play it now, it will forever be in my memory as one of my favorite Sega Genesis games.

Puzzle Craft

Title: Puzzle Craft
Platform Played On: iPhone
Release Date: August 16, 2012
Date Played: August-September 2012
Time Played: 30+ hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 4/5

Opinion:
The iOS store is flooded with 99 cent junk. It is rare to come across a good game, and there are very few good games that have been made specifically for the iOS platform. Most of the decent stuff are ports of the existing games. This is slowly starting to change though. As the developers are starting to figure out what works and what doesn't on iOS. Puzzle Craft is one of these example where the developer has figured it out.

Your main objective in Puzzle Craft is to build the most awesome village that ever was. Majority of the gameplay takes place via a connect more than 3 of the same thing puzzle game. By connecting more at the same time you can get better things. For example connecting 10 wheat will yield a carrot. You can then hire villagers to reduce the amount you need for the next tier. For example, after hiring 3 "reapers" you will need only 7 wheat to get a carrot. This principle applies to all resources you harvest. Eventually you will start getting pests and wild animals. For example rats eat your wheat and wolves eat your chickens. Overall the game is structured as a basic form of supply and demand chain. You pay the farmers to collect wheat and meat for you, which you in turn use to feed the miners that gather rocks and minerals, which you use to build better buildings and expand your village.

While Puzzle Craft has an in app store where you can buy gold for real life money it is completely optional, and the games makes sure you feel that way. You are provided with plenty of supplies and gold by solving in game puzzles (in essence playing the game). You are given more than you would need to play the game normally. But if you do want to just rush through it you still have that option. Very few games with in app transactions manage to pull this off. Most of them try to get you hooked at first but then put you in a situation where unless you spend real life money you will have to deal with a grindfest.

Puzzle Craft is the type of a game that you play over a long period of time. I can see myself going back to it for a few minutes a day for at least the next several months. It was a great way to make the flight from Cartagena, Colombia to Ft. Lauderdale, FL seem like a 30 minute trip. Puzzle Craft is 99 cents, and in my opinion worth every penny.

Portal 2

Title: Portal 2
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: April 19, 2011
Date Played: April 2011
Time Played: 12 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5



Opinion:
Portal 1 made quite a splash when it was released as part of the Orange Box in 2007. It instantaneously gained a huge fanbase, which undoubtedly sent thousands of emails and post cards to Valve headquarters demanding a sequel. With such a great success of Portal 1 it was a matter of time before we saw Portal 2.

Unlike its predecessor Portal 2 came out as a standalone game, a complete experience with a full featured campaign, co-op and challenges. It even has a level editor (PC only), in which you can create your own test chambers.

Portal 2's main campaign takes place sometime after the events of the first game. You are still a test subject; however the world around you has changed due to events that would be considered a spoiler. You quickly meet a companion (Wheatley) and start your journey to the surface. Wheatley  has got to be my favorite character of 2011. His lines are incredibly well written and he made me laugh quite a few times as I played through the campaign.

While Portal 1 is mostly based around moving from one puzzle to another, Portal 2, while still emphasizing puzzle solving as the main progression tool has a completely different objective. Instead of moving on to the next puzzle, your objective is to get the hell out. This coupled with the excellent job Valve has done with the environment creates an incredibly tense and interesting narrative. It never becomes dull or boring, and the story never stops intriguing with its twists and quite literally dives (in a good way). Portal 2 introduces quite a few new mechanics to keep puzzles interesting and complicated.

When you finish the single player campaign, there is a whole another campaign that you can play with a friend either over the internet or split screen (on consoles). You play as one of two robots and cooperatively solve test chambers. It is one of the best co-op experiences I have ever had in any game and on any platform.

Portal 2 is one of the best games of 2011, and is a must play for every gamer. The source engine looks as good as ever, and the story will pull you in no matter what kind of genre interests you. I couldn't get enough of Portal 2, and am hoping that we'll see Portal 3 before 2016.