new games and what I think of them

Ok, as written in my last post, there are alot of new games out now or in the nearer future that deserve attention. Since I own a few of them now and will probably get more, I wanna use the chance to talk about my experiences and thoughts. This is not meant to be a full game-review of some sort, just my personal feelings as well as I still remember them.

Gears of War 2

What should I say? Awesome! Amazing! Incredible! The game rocks, it's fun, challenging but not unfair, looks amazing and plays smoothly. In co-op, it really shines and is even more fun! In fact, I didn't even play the game through by myself, I always had help - help that you need when you play on higher difficulty settings. There aren't any annoying parts really and even on highest difficulty, you always feel more challenged and motivated to try again than annoyed and frustrated.

Perhaps the only bad thing of the game that I can think of is the "A"-button. Before the game was released, Epic claimed they optimized its function and the character should behave better as you expect him to when you press the button. From my own experience, I can't say I've seen a difference. It works ok, but sometimes the char doesn't do what you want it to do. But hey, that's the case in many games, usually alot worse. And if that's the only thing I can complain about, then I'm ok with that.

Mirror's Edge

Ok, some games are hard to judge. Mirror's Edge is definitely one of them. I have to say ever since I saw preview-material, I was amazed and really interested in the game. And most of the things that made me want the game then did actually impress me once the demo was out: I like the Trance/Ambient style soundtrack, the clean and high-contrast surroundings, the pace and speed. All really well done and set in scene.

The finished game itself did have some problems though - and I don't just say that because most official reviews state the same. I have to admit I did get really angry with certain parts of the game since those were simply incredibly unfair or hard.

But after finishing the game, I have to say I might have to blame myself to some degree. Here's why: I made the mistake to play the game on "normal" instead of the proposed "easy" setting. That alone wouldn't have been a problem, but in addition to that, I intended to get the achievement "Test of Faith", which requires you to not fire a single shot at any enemy during the whole game. That turned out to be rather tough in many situations, as Faith can't take alot of damage in that mode. And when you are faced with a whole park-deck full of cops with shotguns and automatic weapons and you have to disarm them all while at the same time you can't take more than 2 hits, you can see why you need a couple of tries to get through there.

In defense though, I have to say that during the end of the game, the fun increased again - maybe because I actually did get the hang of the controls. After finishing the game, I realized I should've played on easy-setting, especially since the available achievements don't care which difficulty you finished the game on. What did surprise me is that after finishing the game, playing the time-trials is actually alot of fun. I can see myself trying those more often, even after finishing the game. Maybe I'll even play the game fully again, on hard mode - should be fine as long as I can shoot people! :)

Tomb Raider Underworld

I have to admit I've always been a fan of Tomb Raider. The first one grabbed my interest back when having 3D hardware-acceleration on a PC was the exception. I liked the first one, especially after applying an OpenGL-patch and running it with HW-accel. I didn't play all the sequels really, since the 2nd and the 3rd already went downhill in my view. There was so much more focus on fighting enemies rather than the exploring and solving puzzles part.

"The environment should be the enemy", that's what I always thought. When Tomb Raider got revamped by Crystal Dynamics and Legend was out, I got it for the PC and I liked it alot! Great level design and a Lara that never looked - or sounded - better! I still don't know why I never got the remake "Anniversary", perhaps for the same reason I almost didn't get this one for the 360... I'm not a HUGE fan, but I like the game idea and our heroine. I got the game when it came out mainly because I could get it alittle cheaper than normal and I don't regret getting it at all! Great wide huge levels, few enemies, lots of puzzles... it's all mainly about the exploriation part and I love that! Spoiler warning: There's not one real boss-fight in the whole game... but I didn't mind at all. After beating the game, you can revisit previous locations again the way you left them - with the riddles solved and enemies killed. Perfect to explore and search for those treasures to collect gamerscore.

All in all, I liked the game alot. It has issues, mainly with the camera and with Miss Croft not always getting what you want her to do and willingly jumping to her death. It's not the easiest game overall now that I think about it, but it's fair enough with savepoints and medpacks and me being no "casual-gamer", it was rather easy to finish. It plays smoothly, it's not too short (if you take your time exploring rather than rushing through) and the atmosphere is great - mainly due to the impressive sound effects and musical score. I felt very entertained during the time I played the game. And I can see myself trying to collect all treasures still while exploring the levels some more. And finishing the game at hardest setting - which shouldn't be much of a challenge either.

Images taken from and probably © www.amazon.de