When your most important survival tool is a rusty bolt, you know you're living in some sort of Hell. When you're playing the prequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, you practically confirm it.
Not much has changed between Clear Sky and Shadow of Chernobyl. The world is still full of other-worldly artefacts and an awful lot of radiation, death can still come for you before you know it, but entire factions are vying for control over whatever is left, and you're in the middle of it all, a walking anomaly.
I didn't have the most successful of times in Shadow of Chernobyl, but I was intrigued by what it tried to do. Is the expandalone story of Clear Sky an easier entry point into this harsh universe, or just more of the same?
Racing fans have been treated with these past few 1001 entries. If you're looking to tear around the city streets, you've got Midnight Club: Los Angeles. If you want a colourful arcade offering closer to Mario Kart, you can try MotorStorm: Pacific Rift.
If you've been following along, though, you'll know I prefer my racing games to be on the more formal side - not necessarily in terms of being simulations, just structured into something of an FIA-sanctioned race.
Race Driver: Grid isn't quite the legal alternative to Midnight Club or MotorStorm, but it is a lot closer to my wheelhouse and from a developer with some serious racing pedigree behind them, it's a title that interests me... but one I completely overlooked at the time.
"The stage is set. The land braces itself. Welcome to MotorStorm."
Source // PlayStation
Nearly 100 games have gone by since I last saw MotorStorm. I ended that write up by saying "I'm not sure how people who didn't play it at launch will see it, though. Hopefully, with a smile at least."
I also mentioned in that write up that I hadn't played any of its sequels, and now that the time has come to play MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, where we're going to put that statement to the test. Will I see this sequel with a smile at least? Has MotorStorm's time in the sun long gone? Does anything hold up 13 years later?
Enough waffle, crank up the volume and let's get this festival rocking.
The Midnight Club series of racing games blazed their way across the PlayStation 2 as early as 2000, but no matter what the street racing culture of the day looked and felt like, I just wasn't interested in goofy-looking cars with neon-lit skirts, hideous vinyl artwork, and rearview mirrors full of red and blue flashing lights.
Whether colourful or gritty, arcadey or simulation-centred, street racing wasn't my thing, and even after playing a couple for this 1001 list, the genre still isn't doing much for me. Will the next game of the series, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, out on new hardware, make me think again?
It's one of my favourite parts of this blog, blathering on about video games for no real reason other than that I can, and you can't do a damn thing to stop me, insert maniacal laughter here, insert comedically timed loss of Internet connection here.
Rough times are almost inevitable, and mine aren't really that rough, considering. Staying indoors playing video games isn't exactly rough now, is it, and we're meant to be playing the very best, according to the fine folks of some point in 2010 or so - it's not like this is an absolute slog.
On the contrary, it's been a delight, for the most part, to check out some of these titles, be it for the first time in a long time or the first time at all. Some haven't received the warmest of reactions from me, but some have caught me by surprise and introduced me to new things.
Having just finished the latest batch of 50 games, fittingly ending with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, I get to look back and reflect on what I've seen and done these past few months in the world of video games for The 851/1001 Milestone Awards. This particular list goes all the way back to Wipeout Pulse, which isn't very far, but a lot can happen in between it and MGS4 on a list like this. Enough to churn out an awards post like this, in any case.
The end of the 1001 list is coming up to the horizon now. 150 games seems like a lot, but many I'll surely have played and many more are of an age where most video games knew how to control themselves properly. It should be plain sailing, and then I'll have to see what to do afterwards. I'm already forming some ideas, but who knows what will come in the future?
All we know for certain is what has come before, so to cut this dillydallying short, let's begin.
To kick things off as ever are The Indifferent 5, games that are there to fill a hole that may or may not need filling. They're usually small and replaceable, but almost always games.
Congratulations on being recognised for a second time, though this will likely be the last.
My favourite thing to do is moan, if you ask the right people, and moaning is what the next award is all about. What Was That 1 Even Put On The List For? was a tough question to answer this time out, believe it or not. You'd think Banjo would be a shoe-in from this batch of contenders, but my choice actually goes elsewhere. The death of Flash was not fast enough in my opinion.
If I want a video game to mock my lack of understanding with regards to physics and engineering, I'd at least prefer it to not be disguised as homework.
What takes its place? What game must be play instead of physics homework? There were probably quite a few choices that could have been made, including LEGO Indiana Jones, as you can see in the image up top. It's not the greatest LEGO game, nor is it the most revolutionary, but it showed us that the formula could be applied to any film license under the sun and still work. When you want to put seemingly every iteration of Mario Kart on the 1001 list, what's the problem with another LEGO game that's slightly different from Star Wars?
But I didn't go with Indy. Instead, after double checking the list both in print and on screen, I came to a staggering oversight that answers the question You Forgot What?!
Is Mirror's Edge seriously not on this 1001 list? First person parkour set in an incredibly artistic future city? Yes, it was a little cumbersome, but have you seen the speed runs, both glitched and glitchless? Clearly not. It has to be a better depiction of parkour than Free Running, surely...
Shouldn't dwell, though, should we? We know Mirror's Edge is worth a play even if an old book ignores it, just like we know the games that make up The Top Ten are worth a play too. Quite a few heavy hitters in this list, and even if they've got their flaws, they remain great games in my eyes.
Mostly included in the top 10 because of P2 and the board game, but as digital adaptations go, this is a good one. Since bettered, but still a thoroughly enjoyable game.
I could have given the PlayStation Portable some props for either LocoRoco 2 or Patapon, but let's face it, I'm going to get more enjoyment from button mashing sharp steel through hundreds of enemies in Ancient Greece, aren't I?
Not perfect, but ambitious and alternative in the right ways. Is there a sequel incoming, or are Battlefield games just going to borrow the mechanics some more?
You're going to see a theme with these titles, "Not perfect, but". This first-person survival in the blistering heat of Africa isn't perfect, but I must have enjoyed it to play so much of it.
Flawed, yes, in many ways, but when I was putting up with those flaws I was enjoying my time in the wasteland, and there was a lot of time spent there, soaking up all that radiation.
A surprise for me to like a survival horror, but this one kept me hooked more than I thought it might, and is one I look forward to returning to. Its sequels probably not...
It's already been so long since I've played this incredible looking gobble 'em up, I want to see what more it has to offer that I've not been introduced to yet.
It is an absolute mess of a game. A mistake. It shouldn't have been made. But damn, look at the lengths they went to to get it done, for better or worse. You can't deny it's a hell of a talking point at least.
But there's no way I could give MGS4 the number 1 spot. That's silly, even for an MGS fan. No, there can only be one winner of this top ten, and you know that it's going to be Grand Theft Auto IV. Again, following the theme, it's not perfect and isn't at the top of its series, but I just enjoy being in that world for hour after hour.
Can it, and any of the other 'not perfect, but' games get onto The Topper Than That Top Ten list? It's a tough nut to crack, this one. The top end has been rock steady for a long time, but Rockstar aren't strangers to it. What's changed at the top?
I think the first photos of the Uncharted film have come out since this found itself onto the Topper Ten. That'll be something to look out for in the normal times...
It's going to take something very special to break through into that list. I'm not even sure what could. There are still 150 challengers hoping to do so, but to be honest with you, I can't think what is yet to come on this list. There are so many titles from 2008, 2009 and a little bit of 2010 to go through. It must have been the golden age of video gaming - or merely recency bias on the part of the editors and selection committee.
Was there even a selection committee for this 1001 list? They forgot Crash Bandicoot, for goodness sake...
Anyway, let's look ahead to all the greats we're still to look back to. Up next is Midnight Club: Los Angeles, a racer I never played because I preferred my racing to take place legally, on closed circuits with safety standards. I guess I limited my fun considerably with that, didn't I?
Stay indoors, especially in this winter weather, doubly especially with these virus variants, and game the Hell on.
Not too long ago, I said when looking back to the Grand Theft Auto series, I'd want to go back and play GTA IV before any of the others. It's not that it is the 'best', but it is the title that called to me the most.
There's another long-running series with games that ought to be returned to more than once, and another game with a '4' stuck on the end, but this one, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has a lot more going on.
If GTA IV is something I want to go back to and relive, MGS4 is something I'm not sure I do want to go back to - not sure to the point of having spent the last few days watching some 7 hours of YouTube video essays on the game instead of actually putting it into my PS3 for the first time in years.
Metal Gear Solid has been my top-rated game on this 1001 list since its appearance and is unlikely to be moved. MGS2 and MGS3 are up there too, the latter still sitting in the top ten. MGS4... well, MGS4 has a lot to unbox and I'm not sure where to begin.
Slow down there, Ryu. You'll cut someone's arm off.
Source // Moby Games
When I said that Ninja Gaiden Black killed ninja games for me (what a bastard), I didn't think it would literally kill ninja games for me, but it did. Sat next to it in the DVD case was Ninja Gaiden II for the Xbox 360, the new and improved (again?) sequel to Ninja Gaiden. Not a v1.5, but a v2.0.
With poor Internet, playing games offline has been basically all I can do, so it's a good job I've got hundreds ready to go, physically, digitally, even those made of cardboard. I am all set for having no Internet and playing Ninja Gaiden II.
But it has been killed before it even left that DVD case...
Yes, even the space between those two words is lost.
We've been having a torrid time with the Internet this month, though "without the Internet" is probably a better choice of words. Do you know what you can't do without the Internet? Download video games. Do you know what you definitely can't do, even with the Internet? Download WiiWare platformer LostWinds, an artsy little game about the wind, I imagine.
Luckily, it's been ported to the PC in the decade since that original release, and it's small enough to not require hours and hours of a stable Internet connection to download. Oh, what I'd give for a stable Internet connection...
Until then, let's see if we can chill out in this game I know nothing about.
Back when we played Patapon, I mentioned that the PlayStation Portable had two cutesy and musical platformers and that it was the other of the two that I was more familiar with, LocoRoco. A couple of years later, the bouncy yellow blobs were back for LocoRoco 2.
While I played more LocoRoco than Patapon, I've played little of either - another error to correct at some nebulous point in the future. I get the impression the storyline won't be the important part of LocoRoco 2, though. Who needs a story when everything looks so damn adorable?
Let's get rolling and bouncing through what must be the happiest game on the PSP.
How can you tweak a classic like Tetris? Different shaped blocks? A landscape-oriented grid to fill? Special abilities and power-ups? These are just a few ideas off the top of my head, and all of them cause a little shudder because they all seem a bit naff when compared to the pure Tetris experience.
And yet developers have still tried to make some Tetris-y spin-offs work, and may well have succeeded in Tetris Party, a collection of different Tetris-based modes for a gathering of Tetris fans.
Are any of the games in here good enough to replace the O.G. itself, or is this just a neat little compilation of something to do with your mates?
