Defense Grid: The Awakening

Coming back around for more? Alright then...

Tower defence games thus far have been simpler affairs, notably in the graphics department. I don't remember all the tower defence games the 1001 list has put in front of us, but the majority have been Flash-based lunchtime entertainment, not detailed 3D polygon models of animated alien invaders stealing chunks of our blummin' core, as is shown in Defense Grid: The Awakening.

Is a considerable bump in graphics enough to get me to pay more attention to the genre, or does the idea of tower defence just turn me off at its first utterance?

Gears of War 2

"I have a rendezvous with Death"

Source // Xbox

When all you know is war, I guess it's inevitable that the war won't stop. When all you are is an impossibly proportioned man fueled by diesel and wearing parts of a car for protection, you probably don't get up to much else other than shooting things. It's a good job Gears of War 2 exists to keep the guys employed, is what I'm getting at, because I've no idea what they'd do without it.

Marcus Fenix and the gang return in a sequel supposedly bigger and badder than the first outing, the game that effectively unleashed cover-shooters into the world. What form will the chest-high walls take in this game? What horrors will we willingly march into for the sake of mankind's survival? Just how gruff can we shout this line of dialogue?

Let's time our reloads right and kick down the door to find out.

Far Cry 2

"To break a man's will, to break his spirit, you have to break his mind."

Source // PlayStation

I liked my time with Far Cry, difficult though it was, but it wasn't my first taste of a Far Cry game. That would be in the form of its sequel, Far Cry 2, developed by a different team entirely and making its way onto the PlayStation 3, where I could actually play an open-world first-person shooter.

Like other titles in the genre before and since I spent a sizeable amount of time roaming a fictional African country consumed in war, and causing just as much - if not more - carnage by my own hands. There must be something about the immersion of a first-player game that hooks me, and if it's the attention paid to the little things, then Far Cry 2 is an example of showing us how it's done.

Grab your bottle of malaria pills and pick the least rusted weapon you can find, because we're about to be thrown into the furnace.

Devil May Cry 4

"Listen to my voice"

Source // MobyGames

It's not the devil that may cry when playing these games, but me. As time goes on and I notice more and more of my skills drip away from wherever I store them, playing a game like Devil May Cry generally results in sadness and disappointment.

Devil May Cry was new and different, and button-mashing wouldn't be anywhere near enough to see me through it. Devil May Cry 3 cranked up the style, and with it the difficulty, but it was technical problems that finally put an end to my (pathetic) run through its early missions. Once more, my skills just weren't up to scratch to make progress, let alone make progress in style.

Now it's time for Devil May Cry 4, a new entry for a new generation of consoles, and I'm playing it with a hand in need of rest for some mysterious (and maybe even wholly psychological) reason. My hand feels... off. A little weaker and a little slower than I know it to be, but it does work. Enough to grasp a PS3 controller and carve up some demons? Let's find out.

Bangai-O Spirits

The name still means nothing.

The 1001 list deems Bangai-O Spirits "a game that defies description", a shooter merged with a puzzler with levels inspired by other video games. Wikipedia just goes with "action" because you do things, I guess.

The name rang a bell, but I think I was confusing it with something like Boktai for the Game boy Advance. Playing the original Bangai-O for this 1001 list a few years back clearly didn't leave me with a lasting impression...

What, then, does this handheld sequel that diverges quite a bit from the first game have to offer us? Some kind of chocolate firework? I think the 1001 list needs to go and lie down for a little bit.

Fallout 3

Oblivion. Oblivion has changed.

Source // MobyGames

"I don't want to set the world on fire." Where were you when that Fallout 3 trailer landed? Alright, as far as monumental occasions go, the trailer for Fallout 3 isn't exactly earth-shattering, but this would be the first Fallout title in a long while, and not only was it coming to consoles, but it was coming from the folks behind The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I could not be more interested. Oblivion With Guns was coming.

My literal first encounter with the series was an afternoon at a friends house, watching him on his computer, but I consider Fallout 3 to be my introduction to the Fallout universe. For those familiar with the isometric RPGs of the past, the drastic switch to a first/third-person perspective would be controversial, among many other topics for discussion, but for me, this was simply kinda cool. I played the hell out of Oblivion and wanted to play the hell out of Fallout 3 as well.

And so I did. Bugs and glitches and all.

Dead Space

No-one can hear you scream. Or speak, even.

Survival horror is not my favourite genre of video game, not by a long shot, but since playing a fair few titles for this 1001 list, I've got more of an understanding about what it is that fans of the genre admire. 

Most of my issues with these games are the limiting controls, be they because of hardware limitations on the early consoles, for example, or design choices to keep you on your toes, and not let you get on top of your surroundings.

Resident Evil 4 was a turning point for the way the genre was presented and, importantly, controlled. It was easier for new players to grasp and it was still just as spooky to play as any other survival horror game, but for me, it was still a bit of a slog. I liked the over the shoulder camera, but not the controls that go along with it, even knowing they're a vast improvement over earlier titles.

What I need is Resident Evil 4 with a bit of refinement. And a plot that isn't too bonkers. And maybe set it somewhere that isn't brown? What's Dead Space?

Fantastic Contraption

Both those words are a stretch, to be honest.

The physics playgrounds return to haunt me, as does Flash, this time in Fantastic Contraption, a little toolbox to play around with on your lunch break. Your goal is clear. Can you get there?

Yeah, right. Like I've got the brains to get there. Come on then. Let's see how fast we fail.

Echochrome

Impossible, I say.

Source // PlayStation

Nothing says "classy minimalism" quite like a string quartet and a wobbly man. But you can't just have a wobbly man chilling on stage in front of a string quartet. No, that's not classy enough. That's not minimalist enough.

You need to drop the wobbly man into an Oscar Reutersvärd-inspired impossible geometry platform puzzle, where he'll casually walk around his environment as best he can to the laid back sounds of a string quartet, contrasting with your frantically working brain as you try to work out how to manipulate the perspective in Echochrome.

This was a sight to see on the PlayStation 3, and one I'm finally giving a proper look towards.

de Blob

No mono anymore, I want them to turn red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple...

Colour. It's everywhere. Sometimes it isn't very apparent, though, looking a little drab, a bit bland, and generally miserable to look at. A bright and colourful space, if done correctly, can bring new life to the area, sparking positivity and creativity and good vibes all around.

So when an evil corporation takes over your town and saps the colourful life out of every single thing in sight, and you happen to be a watery blob capable of absorbing paint pigments and splattering them upon every surface imaginable, you know what to do, don't you?

Nintendo Wii title de Blob puts you in such a circumstance. Obviously, otherwise, this would be an absolute waste of an introduction. Let's paint the town.

N+

Good night?

2D platformers often require a degree of precision that no other games do. To miss a jump is to die. To breathe on a threat is to die. In N+, to not even get through the stage in time is to die, so you better get a grip on the physics of being a minimalist gold-hunting ninja pretty sharpish.

Fable II

You can pet the dog.

Source // Microsoft

I wasn't too pleased with Fable. Even with the English language being correctly represented through all kinds of colourful accents, a lengthy beginning section sapped all the enjoyment I may have had for the game itself, and I haven't gone back to it since.

Perfect time to see if the sequel has improved on things, then. Enter Fable II, open-world action-RPG where everything matters, and by everything, I mean how long you maintain a fart for. Don't understand? Neither do I.

Cursor*10

If you want something doing...

As Adobe Flash dies (or has it finally actually been killed off by now?), we get to experience another little gem of a game that I have never come across on my travels, Cursor*10, a small puzzle game where you've got to be a team player... with yourself.

How's that work, then?

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution

Around the world, around the world.

Source // MobyGames

My time with Civilization games has been long and fruitless. With multiple paths to victory, there are multiple ways to fail, and I have seen them all it seems. Nothing I do is good enough, fast enough, precise enough. Another nation always pips me to the post, rubs my nose in it, and kicks me when I'm down.

But like an absolute idiot, I keep coming back for more. This very second I am re-installing Civilization VI because of my experience playing Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution, a "simpler" game designed for consoles and handhelds that aims to give you a considerable chunk of the full Civilization experience.

50 minutes of downloading to go, let's see how I got here.

Castle Crashers

No, don't beat me up...

Hack & Slash. Beat 'em Up. Button mashing. There's pleasure in the simple things. Following an intricate story, solving a challenging puzzle, mastering complex mechanics... sometimes you're just not in the mood. You want to sit back and press an attack button over and over, watching the chaos unfold.

It can be too simple, though. You'd prefer it if your button mashing made you look cool, or if the context was humourous. It'd probably be much better with co-op partners, too, to really hammer home that old school feeling of fighting your buddies as much as you fight the baddies.

A game like that could take many forms, but chunky colourful visuals from the golden era of Flash gaming, from the folks at Newgrounds, no less, sure sounds like a damn good idea, and that pretty much leaves us with Castle Crashers.

Will the knights in shining armour please rise and promptly run out of the castle to hack and slash everything in sight? And try not to hit each other?