Hart & Usagi Podcast #58: FPS

This is a special episode of the Hart & Usagi Podcast. We welcome back ebbderelict. Our main discussion will be about first-person shooters. However, beforehand we discuss some news.

Enjoy the show and remember to subscribe via RSS or iTunes and follow the Hart & Usagi Podcast today!

NEWS/TOPICS:
* Top 5 Most Violent Games of 2014, According to Consumer Reports
* Hackers Ruin Christmas for Xbox and PlayStation Users
* CISPA To Be Reintroduced in The House This Week
* ESRB Gives Hatred An Adults Only Rating
* Hotline Miami 2 Designer To Australian Gamer: Just Pirate It
* USgamer Community Question: What’s Your Most Anticipated Game of 2015?
* First-person shooters discussion

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Steve: @ebbderelict | ipernity blog

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Top 18 Middle-of-the-Road Video Games

Today’s video game industry doesn’t care much for the modest budgeted titles of just the last generation. The focus is always on the gimmicky no-budget or the all sizzle no steak of the million dollar titles.

What I’m going to focus on here is my favorite eighteen mid-tier games I’ve played. These will be listed without description, but they will have reviews linked for more information. These aren’t usually the best rated games, but if you go in being forgiving of some of the faults you’ll no doubt find, then you may just realize you’re enjoying yourself. But who am I kidding. It’s not like we’d want that to happen. Let’s get to it.

* Batman Begins
* Black
* Guitar Hero
* The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
* Kill Switch
* Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil
* Mercenaries
* Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
* NightFire
* Stuntman Ignition
* The Warriors

* Bionic Commando
* Conan
* Demon’s Souls
* Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
* Mirror’s Edge
* Viking: Battle for Asgard
* X-Men Origins: Wolverine

2006 Game of the Year

2006 wasn’t the best year for myself gaming wise. Evidence of this can be seen in the nominee Call of Duty 3. It wasn’t a very strong offering, but it showed up on my short list anyway.

NOMINEES
Black
Call of Duty 3
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Gears of War
Tomb Raider: Legend

2006 Game of the Year: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Runner-up: Gears of War

I liked the two games chosen enough that I couldn’t choose which I wanted to win. I let it be decided via a coin flip giving it to Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. This second portable Castlevania game on the DS was a much better experience without the touchscreen game mechanics of Dawn of Sorrow. In a similar way to how you uncover the second half of Symphony of the Night, you can also play much more of the game by using a specific spell Charlotte has on Loretta and Stella. There’s quite a lengthy game here that took me over 14 hours to play through.

In the same way that 2003’s Kill Switch was an entertaining game, Gears of War took the cover system and applied it to popular success. I enjoyed much of what I played even if the default walking speed was a bit too slow. I don’t really need to talk much about Gears of War because even if you haven’t played it you know about it.

Previous entries: 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005

My Score Versus GameSpot’s Score (Pt. 2)

I’m back. It’s time for the second part of My Score Versus GameSpot’s Score. This time I’ll finish up with six games that I rated much more positively than the GS crew.

The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
GS: 8.2; me: 9.0
The difference in ratings here shouldn’t surprise anybody that’s already in the know. I really liked this game when I played it back in January. I’ll definitely be going back to it in the future!

Day of Defeat
GS: 8.1; me: 9.1
This game was originally a free mod for Half-Life and it was released at a time when there wasn’t tons of World War II first-person shooters out there. I liked this mod before Valve made it cool to do so. Now if I didn’t have to pay for the upgraded Source version maybe then I’d play it.

NightFire
GS: 7.9; me: 8.8
I first played NightFire at a friend’s house and I liked it enough to buy it for myself. I found it to be more exciting and enjoyable than the two that surrounded it, Agent Under Fire and Everything or Nothing. Oh, and I also played the PC demo before I bought my copy. It took much longer to load the levels and it surprisingly didn’t control as well. For an FPS on a PC that just never made any sense to me.

Black
GS: 7.4; me: 8.8
I never really understood why not many others liked this game. It’s true that I didn’t much care for the extreme length of the levels after the first one. But, the shooting is fun and just like Ultimate Destruction the game explodes real, real good.

Street Fighter Collection 2
GS: 7.2; me: 9.1
I know that I like this Street Fighter II collection because it was the first time that I could have arcade perfect versions of the first three games in the series. This same package later showed up in Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1, but somehow they managed to mess up the sound. I also liked the Deluxe mode that let you play different versions of the same character against one another. That mode is essentially what Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition is in Street Fighter Anniversary Collection.

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
GS: 7.0; me: 8.2
I found a number of times when the GameSpot crew would be down on this game, at the time, just because it was similarly titled to the original Xbox 360 and PC versions. Sure the game didn’t do anything that we hadn’t seen up to that point. Maybe I just like this game more because it included voice work by three actors that starred in the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers.

In The Anticipation Zone

Now that the new year is here, I’d like to do what others have done and that’s to present my ten most anticipated games of 2007.

TNA Impact by Midway
PS3, X360, WII – TBA 2007

Ever since I started watching TNA in mid-2005, I’ve been ready for a game to be made. Midway has been given that task and at least at this point we can see that it looks good visually. I really hope that they do this game better than just above average like most of their titles.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary by Crystal Dynamics
PS2, PSP, PC – TBA 2007

Ever since the beginning I’ve been aware of the Tomb Raider series. I just never cared that much to bother with the games. That all changed once I got a glimpse of Legend. This time it looked like a game that I actually might want to play. Upon its release I played the game and loved it. Now I’m a fan of what Crystal Dynamics has accomplished and I’m ready for the remake of the original game!

Burnout Dominator by Criterion Games
PS2, PSP – Q1 2007

My introduction to this franchise was Burnout 3: Takedown. I loved every second of that game and I still go back to it every so often. My favorite mode has to be Road Rage. When I started playing the sequel, Revenge, I wasn’t as enthralled with that game. I have yet to play very much of it as compared to Takedown. Here’s to hoping that Dominator gets back to what I loved about Takedown. No multi-paths needed. Just great arcade style racing that only Criterion can provide.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames by Pandemic Studios
PS3 – TBA

I’m currently having a blast playing The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. I haven’t played a game with this kind of misc. mayhem since I last played Mercenaries back in February. Because of that I’m really looking forward to the release of the sequel, World in Flames.

Other anticipated games of 2007:
Assassin’s Creed by Ubisoft
X360, PS3, PC – TBA 2007

Black 2 by Criterion Games
X360, PS3 – TBA

Fall of Liberty by Spark Unlimited
PS3, PC, X360 – Q4 2007

God of War II by SCEA
PS2 – February 2007

Stranglehold by Midway
PC, PS3, X360 – Q2 2007

The Darkness by Starbreeze
PS3, X360 – Q2 2007

2006 Game Awards – Special Achievements

It’s that time of year again for me to choose which games wowed me throughout 2006. I will say again that these awards include games that I played for the first time this year. They do not have to be released within the past 12 months. On with the show!

Best Original Music: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS)

Best Licensed Music: Guitar Hero (PS2)

Most Surprisingly Good Game: Tomb Raider: Legend (PS2)

Best Story: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (PS2)

Best Sound Effects: Black (PS2)

Best Graphics, Technical: Gears of War (X360)

Best Graphics, Artistic: Guitar Hero II (PS2)

Most Improved Sequel: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (PS2)

Now Playing: March ’06

If you’ve noticed my now playing list recently on GameSpot you’ve seen what I’ve played throughout the last month. I’ve taken to adding games to that list regardless of whether or not I played a game for one day or three weeks. In February this list consisted of about nine games. As you can see it hasn’t really gotten near that amount.

I started out the month still playing the Castlevania Double Pack from the previous month. However that slowed somewhat when Black and Guitar Hero were introduced about a week later.

I finished Aria of Sorrow in February and I’m nearing the end of Harmony of Dissonance. Black has kept me coming back since I love first person shooters. Obviously, after my post “Rushing Though Black” I got a clear consensus that Black isn’t the favorite of most. That’s fine, but if you’ve ever played Disruptor you’ll likely appreciate Criterion’s FPS effort a little more than those that didn’t.

Despite not owning the game myself I still got a lot of time in on Guitar Hero. It’s definitely up there in my all-time top 10 list.

Rushing Through Black

Since the first level of Black is by far the shortest in the game. Usagi and I decided to trade back and forth trying to speed run though said level to get the shortest time possible. Our first attempts were around the 3:20 mark. Each time was faster until I lowered the time to 2:48. On Usagi’s final try he managed to get 2:50.

I know that my final try of 2:48 can be improved upon since I usually backtrack a little from explosions from time to time. Anyone else try running though this level? If so, how well did you fair?