Wednesday, April 26, 2017

The Crysis Is Over!


After finishing the previous Dawn of War games in preparation for Dawn of War III, I decided to try and use the time to knock out a few more games in The Backlog. Problem was, nothing on the list was really grabbing me all that much. But I powered through that and decided to play a couple of games I've had for ages, Crysis 2 & 3.


About 15 years ago when I was working at Gamestop it seemed like and fps was release everyother day. Not so much these days. That's why when a game like Doom 2016 comes out and turns out to be pretty good, it's a big deal.

I remember when Crysis 2 released and the PC master race threw up there arms, grabbed their torches and pitchforks and began to crucify the game for it's console-itis gameplay and feel. There's no denying that it's much different than its predecessor, a game that I loved a ton, but Crysis 2 isn't all that bad.


Over the course of a long weekend I played and finished both games, and even played through Crysis 3 a second time. I think they are both very good games that start off amazing, but lose steam once you begin to fight the Ceph. Crysis 2 the story was a mess, I had a really hard time following the narrative nor caring why I was doing what I was doing. Crysis 3 at least had better characters and a protagonist that could finally talk.


Of the two I think Crysis 3 is a better game, but not by a huge margin. The story and characters really is what sets it apart for me. There some gameplay changes to that help - refinement of the suite powers, being able to use alien weapons, and that overpowered bow!

Overall I am quite satisfied with both games. While I think the graphics in Crysis are pretty overrated, the gameplay in that and Warhead is so good that I felt compelled to finish both games twice! I'm happy that I finally played through both Crysis 2 & 3, and maybe someday I'll even play them again, but for now notch two more games off the list!


Saturday, April 1, 2017

The Money's Worth Conundrum

One aspect in regards to the backlog that I haven't talked about is the need for me to feel that I've gotten my money's worth out of a game. Many years ago I pre-ordered the collector's edition of Dead Space 2. While it's a great game, I was extremely frustrated and upset with how short the game was. So upset that I played through the game twice more in a row just to get my money's worth.

These days with digital sales being the norm I rarely pay full price for a new PC game so the need to invest as many hours as a game cost isn't as big of a factor for me as it was many years ago. Right now I find myself in a situation where I am playing Space Hulk: Ascension and replaying Just Cause 2, and I'm not sure I really want to but I want to feel like I got my money's worth.

JC2 I played years ago and I did play the faction missions and finished the story, but because of the size of the game I always felt that I was missing stuff in the game. Ascension is just a long ass game. I own four of the eight Space Marine chapters and there are six campaigns with at least fifteen missions if not more.

I have plenty of time before Dawn of War 3 is released to trim a bit off the backlog but neither of these games are really doing anything for me. I guess what's eating me is that I recognize these are two games that I probably won't play again, but I want to feel like I got my money's worth and satiate that feeling of completion so that I can remove them from the backlog list.

When I am suffering from that dreaded game paralysis, the backlog has been a useful tool to get me out of the funk. But I have come to the conclusion that I might not get my money's worth out of every game. Gaming is suppose to be fun, not a chore. When it comes to the list, it's something I have to often remind myself of.