State of the Steke Address

My fellow gamers, heck yeah, I’m back!  I recently finished up the second of my collegiate degrees – again with little or no prospect of actually pursuing a career with said degree.  Now that that is over with we can get back to the important things in life:  Videogames, Lego, Running, Friends.  Awesome.

It’s been nearly a year since I last posted.  Ironically, it was a self-reflection post about getting my ass in gear and rejuvenating my passion for the things I like to do.  Well… then the final semester of an engineering degree took hold and doing things I like went out the window.

However I did play some games since last February and, much to my own surprise, most were pretty good.  That said – Time for the Rapid Fire Bonus Round

Round 1: StarCraft 2

I finally caved and bought it, then proceeded to easily sink about 200 hours into it.  I’ve beaten the campaign several times on the hardest setting and played on ladder for two or three seasons (I’m a pretty poor player, in most respects – mid to high silver at my best).

Needless to say, I love the game and still spend at least an hour a day either watching pro level casts or playing. 

Round 2:  Kirby’s Epic Yarn

Kirby is a nice title for the Wii with a very unique and original presentation.  While playing Epic Yarn, I was constantly marveling its creativity and outstanding level design.  At numerous points in the game I commented, ‘This is how you make a 2-D side scroller!’  My only complaint was the absence of challenge, as it is impossible to die and getting the various medals for each level is pretty stinking easy. 

Not exactly what you see everyday

Round 3:  Donkey Kong Country Returns

Fan-freaking-tastic!  I loved DKCR!  Throughout the entire game I was amazed at pretty much all of it.  I constantly commented, ‘Screw Kirby, now THIS is how you make a 2-D side scroller!’  The music, graphics, play control, challenge, everything was all top notch.  DKCR easily makes it high on my best games of all-time list.  Very awesome.

So effen' sweet!

 

Round 4:  Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Okay.  Let’s get this straight.  The Uncharted games are all really good.  They are fun, cinematic, challenging, and have a truly adventurous feel to them.  Uncharted 3 is no different.  Each of the different environments is exquisitely presented, vary dramatically from one another (and from previous games), and a blast to play.  However, I feel that the story linking each of the different set pieces lacked a certain… umph, and simply served to get us from one action scene to another.  Plus, I was very disappointed in the ending.  Seriously, I feel like I shot a rope and that was it – end of story.  I enjoyed playing Uncharted 3, but was left feeling a bit hungry.

Round 5:  Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

This is the fourth of the metroidvania-style games I’ve played, and to be honest, is my least favorite.  It was fun and got me just as addicted as the others, but I didn’t quite dig the art style or feel that the ‘castle’ map was very intriguing.  I’d recommend it for fans of the series, but not to new-comers (I’d have them play Symphony of the Night – so awesome!).

Round 6:  Gaia Seed

Let me tell a bit of a story.  I love 2-D shooters.  It kills me that the genre is all but dead.  So, when I was reading Destructoid a while back and saw a mini-review of an old PS1 era Japanese 2-D shooter, I was intrigued.  When the reviewer stated that Gaia Seed, ‘was probably one of the best 2-D shooters ever..’ I was obsessed.  I hurried over to the PlayStation Store and the description of the game confirmed that Gaia Seed, ‘…is widely touted as one of the best side-scrolling shooters ever…’  Hurry up and take my money!

Then I played it.  Uh, what?  Am I missing something?  I beat the game on my second play-through, beat it on one credit on my third, and got the ‘good’ ending on my fifth (It took me to my fifth only because the game tricks you into getting the bad ending).  The graphics look like a late generation SNES game, the music is unremarkable, the power-up system is weak, and the levels lack challenge.  Maybe I’m missing something, but Gaia Seed is nowhere near the best shooter ever made.  This game, it kinda sucks.   

That's some serious epicness... for serious?

                                        

State of the Steke:

See, I do play games every once in a while!  Let’s take a look at the stats:

Games Owned:  329

Games Finished:  132

Percentage:  40.1%

Progress to Date:  Present, but not quite visible to the human eye