Summer Slump

So I’ve been in a bit of a summer slump. I’m not entirely sure why, but for the first time in awhile games ceased to engage me. I generally find the summer drought to be a wonderful time to catch up on my giant and ever growing backlog. For whatever reason, every time I perused my list this summer, I found nothing I really wanted to play. Just about every game on the list is a game of at least some note; otherwise I wouldn’t have put it on the list. I just didn’t feel like playing games. There are probably several reasons for this, but I think a large part of it was a general disinterest in most of the games I did play this summer.

The slump seemed to start after I finished Chronicles of Riddick, which is when I started Fallout 3. Fallout 3 is, as far as I can tell, a vast improvement over almost every gameplay mechanic I had a problem with in Oblivion. The leveling system is straight forward and doesn’t require micromanagement, the combat system is much less awkward, and the VATS is a wonderful way of blending real time combat with turn based strategy. With generally hilarious results I might add. Still, it has utterly failed to captivate me for a few reasons I’ll get into once I actually put a few more sessions into playing it.

After that I started playing Majora’s Mask with the Vintage Game Club. This game resulted in a whole hell of a lot more discussion than Alpha Centauri ever did, but it seemed that everyone grew to loathe the title more and more until we were left with around six people that actually finished the game. I came to realize why it is the black sheep of the franchise. Not because of the time limit, it really is a non-issue once you learn how to slow time down less than an hour into the game. It’s because most of the game feels like a rushed and uninspired mess. There is a general lack of polish that often lead to bad game design and, of course, user frustration. That might be a little harsh, but considering the high standards that Zelda and the other Nintendo franchises are always held too, it’s easy to condemn a game that is merely average, especially when it so shortly followed Ocarina of Time.

Moving right along, I played inFAMOUS. The game was fun, but the entire time I just kept thinking I’d rather be playing Crackdown. I love the “sand box with awesome powers to exploit” style games, but inFAMOUS ended up feeling more like a glorified shooter without enough entertaining abilities. Don’t get me wrong, there were tons of abilities to use, but there were only about three or four you actually needed for almost all situations.

Don’t even get me started again on the Gears of War 2: Road to Ruin DLC. On the plus side, it seems like most of the online multiplayer has finally been ironed out. Now I’ve found myself getting owned from lack of experience rather than lack of latency, which is very refreshing.

I also played House of the Dead: Overkill for a couple hours, but that was almost a non-entity considering how fast I plowed through the main story and how much faster I lost interest.

The reason I think my slump in gaming and subsequent slump in blogging was caused by a bunch of games I didn’t really like is because of the last two games I played. ‘Splosion Man and Red Faction: Guerrilla. Both of these games are quite spectacular and helped to reinvigorate my interest in playing. ‘Splosion Man is a charming little sidescroller reminiscent of N+. There is only one button, which causes you to explode. It’s basically jump, but you can do it up to three times. This hardly prevents the game from becoming brutally complex and difficult though it ramps up at a slow enough pace to not be a major turnoff. The game really shines in co-op, the possibilities increase tenfold by adding what is essentially a second set of explosions to the mix. With proper timing you and your partner can reach heights far higher than you ever could alone. ‘Splosion Man also sports a style very reminiscent of that wacky ‘90s cartoon Freakazoid, which naturally is hilarious.

Red Faction: Guerilla is the other game I played and is a perfect example of the “sand box with awesome powers” type game that inFAMOUS failed to be for me. As a player you don’t even have super powers, unless you count being able to tear down skyscrapers with a sledgehammer, but everything they allow you to do is hilarious and most importantly fun. The game is also absolutely gorgeous. I often found myself just looking up to see the constant motion of the Martian sky. I have no idea how open world games keep getting bigger and prettier with every new one I play, but I’m all for it.

Anyway, that pretty much sums up the last couple months of my gaming exploits. I suppose it doesn’t look like month of a slump considering I mentioned seven games, but I spent a fraction of what I usually do and as you are well aware, wrote a fraction. I hope to end the blogging slump by writing about whatever cool shit I do at PAX next weekend, but since I no longer have a laptop this might prove to be more difficult. At the very least, I am now very much looking forward to trying some new games, something I haven’t felt since the end of June.