Games Rebels Play — January

The first week of February is already coming to a close, which means we’re a bit late this time around. But at least we’re late in style. Read on to find out how we here at 4cr spent our gaming time during the month of January, and about how Sean thinks dwarf chicks are uncannily hot. Be sure to chime in and tell us what you’ve been playing, too.

Edgar:

I picked up Borderlands in January, been playing a lot of that. Really fun game, especially playing coop. Still in my first play through of Dragon age too, god that game is fun. It’s keeping me from buying lots of game, cause I just want to finish this one. I love the story. That’s about it for me. The rest of my days have been planning the stuff for the new house we bought, and taking care of my baby boy.

Greg:

Well, rebels, I recently flew off to China for a two-month business trip, so January was a mad dash to make sure everything was in order. Of course I still got a little bit of gaming time in.

I finally polished off Sega’s incredible Valkyria Chronicles. I know that I’ve ranted about this game a few times already, but it really is an experience that every strategy fan should dive into. I also dashed through my 2009 game of the year, Uncharted 2. It’s easy to see why everyone is ranting about it – nothing quite matches up in production quality, voice acting, or raw charm.

The other game that I played in January is Climax’s reimagining, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. This game is.. I don’t even know how to feel about it at this point. The ending, which you should absolutely not look up if you have any intention of playing the game, really did knock me out of my chair. Really, this is the game that reassures me that the Wii is a perfectly valid system for a mature, ambitious game. The storyline and characters are well-written, the motion controls are superb, and the psychology-based shifting gameplay is a neat innovation. Check it out before it becomes scarce.

Jody:

I have been playing through all of the Zelda games in order of release. Finished up Zelda and Zelda II, and have been working on A Link to the Past. It’s been a bit slow going though, because my wife and I are expecting our first kid very soon, and most of my weekends have been spent putting together a kickass nursery of awesome. Aside from that, I have been playing Borderlands on 360 off and on when I can, and have recently started up Suikoden Tierkreis on DS again. I had made it about eight hours in previously, before moving on to other games, so I started it back up. It is actually a neat game, even though the main characters voice acting is way too fast. It’s like there are no pauses between lines in his dialog, but the pauses are in everybody elses. It’s strange.

GK:

I just did a bad thing. I just did a very bad thing. I reinstalled World of Warcraft.

Shaun:

I’ve become absolutely smitten by No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. I didn’t care much for the first game, but this sequel takes all the cool ideas from the first, adds in new ones, and takes out all the stuff I thought was super lame. It’s got just the right amount of humor and absurdity to balance out the over-the-top violence.

Vinnk:

Not a lot of time for games with the new job and new baby. But sometimes, late at night, when I can’t sleep due to the stress of the world I boot up the original No More Heroes and do some good cathartic killing. I intend to continue this tradition when I finally get my copy of No More Heroes 2. It isn’t out in Japan yet but I am getting a US copy shipped to me. Any day now…

Sean:

To help sate my appetite for Mass Effect 2, I dove feet-first into Dragon Age: Origins over the past month. While certainly a few themes apart from BioWare’s Sci-Fi epic, Dragon Age is a kindred spirit. The density of character interaction and party management has been turned up to 11, which should please not only BioWare fans, but any veteran of the RPG genre.

That being said, BioWare has played a horrible trick on us; Dragon Age is actually a real-time strategy game, which becomes all the more apparent when playing the PC version. The game doesn’t sit quite as comfortably in the console arena, where direct party member control is often needed, and can become quite tedious.

The story is compelling, however, charging each event in the game with layers of moral dilemmas and uncertain outcomes. The last few hours of the game present the player with one difficult choice after another, leaving almost no room to consider the full ramifications. But these decisions do matter, even if effects of some won’t be felt until the inevitable sequel. It’s rare that a game makes you seriously think about your choices, let alone take the time to force you to experience the consequences.

Those who were disappointed in Fable II may be able to find solace here. You can choose one of six distinct origins, the threads of whichcan be felt in your travels — even for the origins you did not choose. Aside from the achievements/trophies, it’s worth completing each origin story to fully understand the political landscape.

That, and dwarf chicks are uncannily hot…

Nick Rumas:

I was once again consumed by Wii Sports Resort in January. It is the game I simply cannot get enough of. I love it so very much. NSMB Wii also took up a lot of my time, and I’m extremely happy with it in virtually every respect. It’s pretty much exactly what I wanted the DS game to be. Not the greatest 2D Mario platformer in the world, but a step in the right direction. Lastly, I finally got into Wii Fit Plus, and I’ve been having a blast with it.

Unfortunately, with the Wii taking up all of my time, I’ve once again started to neglect Mother 3, which I only managed to put a few minutes into during January. I am still determined to finish it before winter’s end…