Leveling Down

Alas…

I booted up the last mission of Halo Wars Sunday night, planning to cap off a fun week in gaming with a triumphant victory over the Covenant and Flood. After being treated to an exciting cut scene introducing the mission, my friend and I were prepared to finish the fight. But really, a picture is worth a thousand words. I should have taken the picture with my new phone, which I needed to get because my phone got run over by a car yesterday. All in all, not a good weekend for me and technology. Hit the jump for my thoughts on Far Cry 2, Halo Wars, Street Fighter IV, and Retro Game Challenge (DS)!

Far Cry 2
This game occupied the majority of my time this week. I’ve unlocked all of the weapons and now just need to collect enough diamonds to buy all of them. I’m coming up on the endgame and it seems like this entire African country is spiraling out of control with me at the center of the vortex. It’s pretty awesome. I am getting a little tired of shooting every single person I see driving on the street, but in this game I’ve learned that it’s better them than me. The biggest thing I’d like for the game’s ending to resolve is this: Am I a good guy or a bad guy? Right now I really have no idea.

Halo Wars
One more mission to go (that will have to wait a few weeks). Also got destroyed in a 2v2 map the other day which was pretty fun. It’s good to know that one basic technique (which my partner and I were trying to execute) will not always win the day, we lost because we didn’t adapt fast enough and the enemy did a good job of recovering quickly from our attacks. I am enjoying this game a lot, but the little things really are piling up to annoy me. There is yet another achievement that is incredibly difficult solely because units will not move without attacking. Oh yea, and for some reason units were never taught by their mothers to walk in a straight line. I guess that’s what happens when you are the product of genetic modification, but what excuse do non-Spartans have?

Street Fighter IV
I have been trying to improve my game online, and met with a pretty steep learning curve. I’ve decided that Akuma’s ultra is pretty much useless because you can’t combo into it, so I need to find myself a new character. But who!? For those interested in continuing the nitpicking SFIV theme, feel free to check this out.It’s written by the guy who put a lot of work into balancing HD Remix. It’s interesting stuff, though some of it is a bit over my head.

Haggleman is the side scrolling beat em up you never remember playing

Retro Game Challenge (DS)
I’ve been hearing a lot about this game on various podcasts and sites and finally decided to pick it up. I tried to get it at Best Buy and then Target, but those stores seem more interested in selling Hannah Montana and Hillary Duff games, which made me kind of sad. At Target, half the display case featured games with different shades of pink on their cases. It boggles my mind to see the audience that Nintendo caters to these days (Wii too). I’m not hating, it’s just shocking for someone who grew up in a time when games were for nerds.

Speaking of those times, Retro Game Challenge is a throwback to simpler times. It is a compilation of 8 “classic” 8-bit games, which are classic in the sense that they are all knockoffs of previous games even though they’ve been built from the ground up. You progress through the main game by beating various challenges in the “classic” games, which unlocks them for freeplay. There are so many things I am enjoying about this game that I think I will write some brief impressions on it and maybe even a review down the road. So far I’ve played through Cosmic Gate (Galaga clone) and Haggleman (side scrolling beat-em up). I’m about to start Rally King, the token racing game. I am excited to see the RPG they come up with (I think it’s the 7th game you unlock), I still remember playing the original Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) on the NES and instantly falling in love. A slime appears!