2004 and 2005 were lean years for me when it comes to games. I’d been a full-time game tester for a year when the summer of ‘05 rolled around and let me just say that playing the same game day after day for months can really kill the gamer spirit. But I was then promoted to marketing, where I rarely touch a controller during business hours.
With the boost in pay and more time on my hands I decided to pick up a few of the games I’d missed… and, well, the result is now a queue of over 30 games that are sitting on my desk, bookshelf, or on my hard drive, not to mention the tons of demos scattered about the place. Here’s the list, acquired between September 2005 and now:
God of War (completed) Killer 7 (completed) 24: The Game (completed) 50 Cent Bulletproof (completed) Drakengard 2 (completed) Shadow of the Colossus (completed) The Warriors (completed) Psychonauts (completed) Hulk Ultimate Destruction (completed) Gish (played a few levels) Samorost 2 (played a level or two) Abuse (not yet played) Wik and the Fable of Souls (not yet played) Jazz Jackrabbit (not yet played) Spiderman 2 (unopened) Gun (unopened) Metal Gear Solid 3 (unopened) We Love Katamari (unopened) Cold Winter (unopened) Darkwatch (unopened) Leisure Suit Larry Magna Cum Laude (unopened) Ice Age 2 The Meltdown (unopened) Empire Earth 2 (unopened) Empire Earth 2 Expansion (unopened) Kingdom Hearts 2 (unopened) The X-Files Resist or Serve (unopened) GTA: Liberty City Stories (unopened) Crash Tag Team Racing (unopened) The Sacred Amulet (unopened) Half-Life 2 (unopened) Ground Control 2 (unopened) Aliens vs. Predator 2 (unopened) F.E.A.R. (unopened) World of Warcraft (unopened) Jurassic Park Operation Genesis (unopened) Heart of Darkness (unopened) Out of This World (unopened) Eternal Darkness Sanity’s Requiem (unopened) Metal Arms Glitch in the System (unopened)
The most recent completion is 24: The Game. I became a fan of the show via the syndicated episodes of season 1, and as many reviews have said it definitely caters to the hardcore fans. All of the characters play great roles in the game (albeit some of the in-game models look either fatter or more deformed than their real-life counterparts), and I thoroughly enjoyed the mix of 3rd person shooter, mini games/puzzles, and driving sequences that fill in the many missions. I’d give it a 7.3/10.