The last title I "Bought" at launch was Diablo 3, but I'd been locked into that since last October with my World of Warcraft Subscription. Prior to that, Mass Effect 3. Before that, Arkham City. (Ok fine, SWTOR, but that's different)
I am now looking around my workspace trying to figure out what the game before that was. Darkspore? Mostly I just keep to my MMO's
As a person immersed in gaming I am frequently not marketed to. Historically those big budgets reach out to the prime time TV viewers and magazine readers. This has started to change, Hulu and Youtube Ads have started featuring more gaming content as well as more internet based fan(ish) news sites trying to monetize their hobby business. I have been seeing a lot more of the big Budget games of the summer and fall season. August in particular has been a big month. Sleeping Dogs, Transformers and Guild Wars 2 all called to me.
Sleeping Dogs reminded me of Hong Kong Action Movies, and Shadowfist and Feng Shui the Action Movie Pen and Paper RPG. But for all its big bills and effective marketing it's just a stiff brawler with a sub par driving simulator and a disappointing shooter. The story seems pretty ok, if you overlook all the shit your character does while he's on the street...worst undercover cop ever. A slight disappointment, but I set myself up romanticizing Hong Kong.
Where I expected to most get burned was Transformers: Fall of Cybertron -- Have you seen those trailers?
I was totally hooked, but I knew there was no way this game was going to live up to those videos. Going in expecting to be disappointed set me up to be pleasantly surprised. The game play is solid, the voice work is good, the story is well told. It's a challenging and fun game. The Multiplayer is enjoyable as well. I normally don't play shooters, but this is fun. It would be more fun if I was playing on a console I think, the PC population is pretty low making it hard to find a game sometimes. But I'm happy enough with the solo game that I feel it was worth the price.
Finally Guild Wars 2. I am really excited about this. I have a lot of expectations going into tomorrow night when Pre Launch starts and going into the coming months when I hope to learn that there is enough content present to keep me from buying Assassin's Creed 3 on the PS3 (A PS3 that I don't own)
A side effect of these big titles has been a smaller titles that I've purchased from steam in the process. Orcs Must Die 2 is amazing! I'm having a lot of fun with Tower Wars, even though I just play the 3 classic Tower Defense maps because I'm afraid of other players. It's like Solitaire or Mine Sweeper.
I didn't have expectations for these titles, and I am thrilled to play them. On the one hand I feel like we'd all be better off going into our hobby like this, but without the passion how often are you really going to get that payoff?
No comments:
Post a Comment