My Gaming Week Version 7 (Week of 10-04-09)



Alright, I keep trying to put this in the description, but youtube keeps telling me it's too long, and it's driving me apes***-batty. So instead of trying to cut it down any more while being further frustrated, I decided to post this on my personal blog.


This week was all PS2. It's funny, nine years old, and still my most played console. Nothing this gen even compares to it.

Anyways, I has the urge this week to play tactical FPS. I realized that this gen is nearly devoid of an in depth tactical shooter (which is about to change with Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising). The only two games I'd say fit the bill, are GRAW 1/2, and Rainbow Six Vegas 1/2 (though the Vegas series is a completely watered down sad shell of the tactical shooter that the RS name used to be, and can only very loosely be classified as a tactical shooter). Here's hoping for a good Socom sequel (that isn't Hollywooded) with a good single player. I know that UBI says there is no more money in such games, but I'm so tired of seeing developers take the in-depth gameplay of such games of the past, and water them down, till they don't even have a fraction of that depth. I for one am definitely going to look into OF:DR, because I've been wanting to experience a good tactical shooter for a while, but have to look to last gen to find them.


Anyways, enough rambling, here are the games I played this week:





Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PS2)-



OK, so this isn't a tactical shooter, but it is a very addictive game. In fact I went through the PS1/N64 era not being much of a platformer fan (which is why I constantly hear about not having Spyro in my PS1 vid). In fact I only really had the Crash series on my PS1 for the longest time, and Donkey Kong 64 (DK64 was $40 and came with the expansion pack, and the expansion pack on it's own was $30, so I decided to pay a little bit more and get a game with it, but I bought the expansion pack for Perfect Dark).

Jak and Daxter is actually the game in the genre the made me decide to give the whole genre another chance. I borrowed it from a friend many years ago, and it was the first platformer that I tried to complete 100%, and I was one scout fly away from doing that when I had to return it to my nagging friend. I believe that this was 2001 or 2002. Either way, I only just finally got the game for myself earlier this year, and it's completely addictive to me. I don;t know what it is about this game, but when I get into it, I find it harder than hell to stop playing it. Maybe it's because the game feels more like a straight up adventure game than a traditional platformer.

I'm currently trying to complete the game 100% again (minus some Precursor Orbs that I've missed here and there), so this time when I beat it, I'll finally have earned the good ending.


Rainbow Six 3 (PS2)-



OK, I suppose that this is where the Rainbow Six series first started to get watered down, but unlike in Vegas, you don't regenerate health, so it still feels a lot more tense in that way. It just feels a lot more strategic, and tense when you actually get punished for getting hit aside from it messing with you view while letting you regenerate.

The PS2 port of the game is a pretty good port. I already had it on the Xbox, and always wondered how the PS2 port stacked up. The enemy animations are a little choppy, but overall, it's a solid game.

The online mode is a ghost town, so if you're the type who likes to take an online game with your friends,a nd claim it for your own, this game is definitely one you can do that in. I log on every time I've booted the game up this week, and haven't even found so much as a trace of antoher player aside from the leaderboards.

Granted, the biggest nail to the coffin in the online mode is that it only supports up to 6 players in a room for some inexplicable reason. It have voice chat support, but 3 on 3 isn't exactly exciting considering that the Xbox port allows up to 16 players.

In all honesty, they should have degraded the visual quality of the game, and allowed for at least 4 on 4. 3 on 3 is just sloppy, but that's kinda how UBI was with their PS2 ports. Sloppy.


SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs (PS2)-



I actually finished up a save game I had for Socom II before I booted the original up. I don't think that I have ever beaten the SP campaign in the original Socom. I used to play it all the time at my friend's house when his Internet was down (I didn't get high-speed internet untill 2005, so I used to have to get my Socom online fix at a friend's house).

Despite the popular claims that the single player in Socom is crap, I find the Socom SP to be very good. Think of them as a mixture of the slower methodical pace of a Ghost Recon mixed with some of the more arcadey feel of Rainbow Six 3. It's plenty heavy on the tactical aspects of the game, but also allows you to do a fair share of running and gunning.

What I like about the mission structure is that you actually have a bit of choice in how you tackle a mission. There are quite a few secondary mission objectives in each level that you can choose to complete, or not. If you fail a secondary objective, then no big deal. It's only the main objectives in the game that you can't fail. You also don't have to stay stealthy if you don't want to. Like I said, you can run a gun with an M60 in most of the levels if you so chose.

Now that may lead some people to ask, if you can just blindly run and gun in most missions, then where exactly is the depth in the gameplay, well, because of the mission structure, you can get as much in-depth tactical gameplay as you personally want to get out of the game. I like running and gunning a lot, because I run out of patience for hiding, but those with more patience who want to go the stealthy route as much as they can will find that this game is also completely immersive in that regard.

It's the kind of game where you get out of it what you put into it.


SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs (PS2)-



Like the original Socom, I had never beaten this game in all my years of owning it. I mainly just played it online, but it's also got a very good SP.

They even improved a few things over the original. The graphics are of course better, the arsenal more varied with the guns being more balanced, but the squad A.I. is also vastly improved, and watch your back a lot better. Just tell them to fire at will, and they'll have a field day taking out guys you never even would have seen. The only downside is that they like to block you in hallways, and doorways which can sometimes get you killed, but overall, they do their job admirably.

I finally beat this one. granted, I didn't go on the hardest difficulty, but even on the the difficulty I chose, this game is hardly a cake walk. Just like the original, there are no mid-mission check points, so if you happen to die (which death can come so swiftly in this game), it's back to the beginning of the level. This will no doubt be frustrating to most of those who have been spoiled by some games who hand out checkpoints like candy on Halloween.

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