Spooky horror games aren't my thing, but Siren: Blood Curse intrigued me for its approach to the genre. I've got this PlayStation 3 title through a PS Plus subscription, where it downloaded a whole bunch of episodes, rather than an individual game. Is this game a wannabe TV serial?
Set in a mysterious Japanese village where all kinds of 'not right' is taking place, Blood Curse follows the story of a few characters episode by episode, giving players plenty of perfect opportunities to take a breather and gather their wits once more, and the game itself an opportunity to stand out in bite-sized chunks.
Could this horror game actually win me over, simply because it is presented in an unusual way for a game? Let's find out.
4X games come in many forms, especially on the tabletop. Exploring, expanding, exploiting and exterminating comes naturally to humans, whether the backdrop is of the other side of the world or the other end of the galaxy, as is the case in Sins of a Solar Empire.
Dubbed a real-time 4X game, you don't even need to wait around for other players to finish their turns before you can focus on checking off your next X. The galaxy will evolve around you, military factions bombarding defenceless planets, flourishing trade networks linking allies together, and diplomacy serving as your last chance to turn a dire situation around.
Will we survive the vast expanses that lay ahead of us?
Grand Theft Auto started out as a criminal playground where you got up to mischief first and missions second, before it morphed into the heavily story-driven critiques of modern America we've seen since GTA III. Sure, you could go on a rampage for the fun of it, but it was always a side event, something you did when the story was done, or the story wasn't interesting to you.
What if there was a game about running a criminal empire that put the fun back into being the absolute worst person in the city? Where missions weren't separated from silly shenanigans, but made of them? Where you could be the kind of badly dressed asshole you always wanted to be and still not look out of place in a cutscene?
"Crawling in my skin. These games, they will not disappear."
Source // Nintendo
From time to time I've spoken about how this 1001 list makes some pretty awful decisions regarding which games to feature, to the point where basically identical games are listed to justify a new sentence that has words to the effect of "this time they got it right!"
Part of the appeal of this 1001 list is seeing the evolution of video games through the decades. Milestones in technology are important things to remember, be they successful or not. A game can introduce the world to something, it's sequel can perfect it. You can argue for the inclusion of both games - after all, there's still room for 999 more games, right?
But Rock Band. Bloody Rock Band, and it's spin-offs, and it's competitors... they can get a goddamn 1001 list of their own at the rate they're going. Here's Rock Band 2. This will not take long.
Game, Set, Match, Not You. How did you even get into this Tournament?
Source // PlayStation
Oh, joy, another tennis game, and one that is said to be simply impossible for newcomers to get a good start in. That sounds like fun, doesn't it?
Not content with working its way up as the underdog (so I'm lead to believe), the Top Spin series' must-play entry, Top Spin 3, overhauls everything that makes a tennis game a game about tennis and drops everyone, amateur and professional alike, into a simulation that demands you put the legwork in.
Defense Grid: The Awakening proved that you could have a graphically impressive tower defence game, but the power of the PlayStation 3 wasn't used for chucking out 3D models of invading aliens, but cartoony spiders in a somewhat chill and strangely named PixelJunk Monsters.
I'm aware of the name, but not of the game, so it's time to see what's going on.
How do you describe an experience like Rez HD? Because that's what it is, mostly. There's a game in here for sure, one about shooting things before they shoot you, but Rez isn't a shooter, really. There's a story, too, but it's not a game about that story either.
In short, Rez is a strange little oddity that sticks out like so little else, and has to be seen - and played, ideally - to be believed.
Let's see if playing it will give me the words I'm looking for.
This isn't an education about hydrocarbon chains, is it?
Source // Steam
Ah, physics. Where would we be without you, huh? How boring would games be without physics, eh? Why, we wouldn't be able to drag and drop gloopy goo in World of Goo without physics, would we? What kind of world would we be living in without World of Goo?
"Quad-bikes aren't cool," is the gist of the 1001 write-up for Pure, but they're actually more versatile and interesting than you might think. Light and nimble, they're a cross between the stability of an off-road car and the showmanship of a motocross bike.
Stick a boost on them, point them at a gnarly hill, and you can get extreme, and all the kids love extreme racing, right? Mud is all the rage, as shown by MotorStorm, isn't it?
When I played Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, I wondered just when it would actually become a playable video game. It had my attention, and an hour or so later it finally gave me something to do that wasn't advancing the next in a long line of dialogue text.
But I liked it, somehow, and now the 1001 list tells me that Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is an even better place to start in the series.
Does that mean it'll get going before the hour mark, or should I settle in for the afternoon and just go along with it?
When the PlayStation 3 first came out, most players could only afford to play free demos on it. Thankfully, this was a time when demos actually did exist, and one of those demos I played a few times was for Resistance: Fall of Man, an alternate history/universe sci-fi Second World War first-person shooter pitting men against monstrous aliens up and down the United Kingdom.
I didn't end up purchasing Resistance, nor did I look into Resistance 2 when it came out, a sequel that no doubt improved on the original, but didn't catch my interest in any way.
The 1001 write up mentions how there are multiplayer matches that support up to 60 players, which was pretty much an anomaly in terms of player counts on the PS3. Wikipedia mentions how those servers' plugs were pulled in 2014, so I guess all we've got to enjoy these days is the story.
But what is that story? Who are these angry-looking fellas from another planet? What do they want with good ol' Blighty?
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.
