Peggle

Let me start by saying that lately, I haven’t exactly been in a “let’s play video games!” mood. No sir.

I noticed this a while ago, and attempted to rekindle my love of gaming with something casual. Something small and addictive, that I was recommended to by the Internet. That game was Peggle.

Damn, it’s good.

Not only will it keep you playing for hours (roughly 1-2 a day, before it got boring for the day, in my case), but it looks and feels smooth, and it’s actually quite intricate. Decimal-point differences in shots can make or break your chances of winning.

Unreal Tournament 3

Unreal Tournament is a great series, and surprisingly, the games did not suffer drastically when sequels were made. The best ones are the first and last, last being UT3. The game’s story is actually different from the other ones, but not by much. In UT3, you are hired into service by a large military company, headed by none other than Malcolm. You have to do a variety of missions for the company, in order to get more important missions, so you can eventually take out the monsters that destroyed your town. It’s basically the same ladder climbing system, but with a different reason.

The gameplay is phenomenal, and is great for lengthy play and quick gore-fests alike. You can turn down the gore, but why would you want to? To me, there nothing better than seeing your foe’s brains splattered all over the screen by an impact hammer. Anyway, there are 3 different mode to choose from: campaign, quick play, and multiplayer. Campaign is what I previously described in the plot section. Quick play lets you choose between a bunch of different modes, all of which are ridiculously fun. Deathmatch is your basic blow the hell out of everyone, UT killfest I’ve come to expect. Capture the flag is just capture the flag. Grab the flag, bring it back to your base. Team deathmatch is just the same as deathmatch, but with teams. Vehicle capture the flag is one of the three new modes in the game, and lets you control tons of cool vehicle, from tripods to tanks, in order to get the other team’s flag. In this mode, I have to assume the flag is made of diamonds, seeing as you die a lot for one flag.

Warfare is the best new mode, and lasts longest. You can use vehicles, your hoverboard, or just walk in order to blow up the enemies “nodes”, which are like the shield generator on Endor. They protect the “death star” as I call it. Its actually a spherical generator. Blow it up, you win. Finally, there’s duel. You just have to kill one other guy, and he switches out with another guy, and whoever has the highest score wins.

Portal

 

 

Spoiler Warning! Don’t keep reading unless you want the game spoiled for you.

I wanted to do a review of a bad game today, but I couldn’t get Portal out of my head, because I replayed it recently. So, here’s my review of Portal.Many, many people love Portal, and I am one of them. I bought it the day after The Orange Box came out, because Gio wouldn’t shut up about it. I had previously planned to go to Gio’s house, but was a little late because I had gotten The Orange Box. I got to his house, and installed it on my laptop. I decided to play Team Fortress 2 first, but that’s not what I’m reviewing. When I finished that, I began my wonderful adventure with Portal.

When I started, I instantly knew that the antagonist would be GLaDoS. I could just feel the evil coming off her.

Anyway, I proceeded to play the game, and found it to be very entertaining, if a little easy at first. It got harder. Eventually, I got stuck on a level which included making a laser ball hit a catcher thing. I didn’t give up, seeing as it was just too fun. I eventually got it by moving one of the portals slightly to the left. I went on with the game, through crazy jumps, pools of greenish goop, and creepy turrets who kept asking, “Are you still there?” in a childish voice.

Starcraft

Starcraft is a classic RTS by Blizzard, and is widely seen as the best RTS ever. I agree that it is fun, and is one of Blizzard’s best games, but not the best ever. I picked up the game, along with the expansion “Brood War”, for $19.99 at my local EB Games.

I installed it on my computer, and began to play. I decided to start out on the original, and play the Terran campaign. The first couple missions weren’t bad, but I noticed them getting harder…and harder…and harder, until, around level 6, I could not win. I didn’t know if I was just terrible at the game, or if I had missed something, or if the game was just too hard. I decided to play a couple skirmishes, to get the hang of the game. I chose the Terrans, and made my foe “random.”

I started playing, collecting resources, buying units, exploring, etc. I THOUGHT I was doing well, but after about 10 minutes of playing I was attacked by a massive horde of Zerg, who completely obliterated me in about 60 seconds. I tried again, this time using the rush tactic, and was again obliterated. I gave up, and went to play Guild Wars.

Over the next month, I continually attempted to play, and was thwarted every time. I wasn’t getting better, and I could not find a difficulty setting. I had fun playing, and on the occasion I did okay, found it to be very fulfilling, even though I lost every time. Overall, Starcraft is a good game, but quite a bit too hard for newcomers.