Highlights of 2011

So the Earth is once again cruising towards that point on its orbit where we celebrate the new year. 2011 has been an interesting year for me, I've moved house twice, been an event promoter, have now a significant other, almost had a job, got through one of the toughest college years of my life, have an impending mobile gaming release and will be entering the new year with an interview for a job in the gaming industry. With all this activity, there has sadly been not as much time to play games. As I've mentioned in a previous blog post, my beloved gaming mainframe is now no longer in my possession. This year I finally moved out of home and my brute was blocked from going anywhere by my father. He co funded the machine and is a gamer himself so this was only fair. However, I did manage to devote some time to this most glorious of pass times, so here is a quick list of the best bits of my gaming year.

Dead Space 2

This remains one of my favourite games of this year. I loved the scifi setting, intense atmosphere and the hugely satisfyingly gruesome combat. No game has had my heart pounding as much as this one. Lights off with the headphones was an intense experience I could not drag myself away from. The greatly expanded universe and proper development of Isaac really stole the show for me. The Sprawl was a richly detailed environment, beautiful and at the same time tragic as it was very obvious this was once a place where people lived normal lives. The new enemies were awesome and similarly forlorn with packs of mutated children and babies bursting through the air vents. The plot while predictable tickled my space nerd lobe to the extent that I played through the full game in about a week. I loved the return to the Ishimura, locked down under quarantine. Revisiting areas from the previous game three years later was awesome. Areas where bodies or Necromorphs lay all cleaned and sterilised for study. While only a small section of the game, it was a nice touch. Overall I loved an excuse to return to the Dead Space universe. There is also quite a bit of lore out there on the internet for those so inclined. An excellent anime movie and several cool comics all add a huge amount of depth to the game, one thing I really enjoy is playing a game in a well thought out and detailed setting. The Wii version, Dead Space Extraction, was also really cool. While many loath rail shooters, myself being one of them, this was one exception to that experience. The graphics were excellent for the Wii and I was really impressed with the facial animations. If you haven't played any of the Dead Space games, you are really missing out on one of the best survival horror games out there. No excuse, go play!

Magma Surge

Well what can I say. This has taken up the majority of my time since June. My masters project has expanded out from something to submit at the end of the semester into a game to be released on the mobile app market. It has been a great learning experience. Financial gain was not the original purpose behind the project so I am not under pressure to recoup any expenditure, instead I can use the games launch as valuable experience in how one goes about getting something out there. Whatever happens with this game, I will get some comfort to know something I made has been played by thousands of people. Haters are gona hate, but as a result of this project and my masters course, I have now gained my first tentative footsteps into the gaming industry. Hussah!

Minecraft

Before the Java SDK decided to corrupt itself and every other Java based software on my computer, Minecraft was my faithful companion over the months as I moved house and was supposed to be studying. I love this game, nay toy. Since myself and a few friends began a multiplayer server in 2010, I have never had so much fun simply 'playing' like I did as child with a box of lego. Between myself and the other nerds we've had about 3 maps this year and made some interesting structures. Highlights include the huge railway built across half the map, all the materials hand mined and crafted, to the gigantic castle and highly detailed internal town. Now that the full version of the game has been released, I look forward to another year of mining and building. Praise be to Notch.

Terraria

This gem of a game was something I bought out of curiosity. Id heard of this indie game that was like a sidescrolling RPG version of Minecraft. I pondered this for a while and though 'Minecraft....Minecraft you say??'. Plus thanks to some nice Steam promotional offers the sale was confirmed. I was enthralled. The games simple but excellent graphics, funky music, incredible depth and huge replayability had me playing through until I resembled a mighty warrior, clad in molten armour forged from ores mined from Hell itself. Armed with magical bows, laser weaponry and a sword that would make Frostmourne weep. The games clever boss system and the size and scope of the world kept me coming back in the search of more loot. While it could have benefited from more monsters and bosses, Terraria has a winning formula that has earned it a place on this list. Please check this game out if you have not had a go. 

Assassins Creed

Truly epic experience. This was definitely one of the most amazing games Iv ever played. For a long time I believed this to be a historical tale, but was thrilled to discover it was in fact a sci fi story through and through! The incredibly rich setting, the powerful cast and the high quality of the cinematic direction resulted in a breathtaking experience. The insanely cool setting, awesome concept and extremely enjoyable combat made this game stand out as one of the best third person actions games I've ever experienced. The original was amazing, it caught my attention and engaged me with its excellent plot. As soon as I had completed it, I immediately went and bought the sequel. This game literally blew me away. Every issue I had with the first game had been expertly fixed and a host of new features forged this in the polished masterpiece it is today. The games story is compelling, full of intrigue and will leave you gagging for more. Brilliantly merging the sci fi and historical aspects together, this game can appeal to both fanbases. Altair and especially Ezio are believable and likeable characters that are very well developed. The games facial animations are some of the best Iv seen and the games cut scenes are like watching a well acted movie. The amount of research and effort that went into creating the world is inspiring. I really found myself fascinated with the period background. The game also gives a lot of accurate facts about the time while at the same time cleverly interweaving the games plot into actual historical events. I cannot recommend these games enough. 

Just Cause

Both Just Cause 1 and 2 deserve an honourable mention. I picked up Just Cause 2 on impulse and was excited to have a go as it looked like a decent way to waste an afternoon or twelve. So I went to install the beast and my computer said 'Halt, this game is only compatible with Windows 7'. Aghast, I searched online to see if there was a remedy cooked up some crazy hacker folk. Obviously this was a foolish search and so Just Cause 2 has been sitting in my gaming collection quietly mocking me. Now I understand I cant complain considering I'm using an operating system a decade old, but I still felt cheated as so many other modern games are still compatible. Anyway, so I resigned myself to the fact that it will have to wait until my new PC is assembled before ever getting to see what Iv missed. However the story doesn't quite end there. I was again browsing in my local GAME and saw the original Just Cause for a bargain price. So I said fuck it, at least I'll get to experience one version of the game. Several bargain euro later, I was sitting eagerly at my computer as the game installed, when I noticed the letters in the words had all been rearranged into some unknown gibberish, most likely Spanish. So I crudely navigated my way to set it to a more familiar pattern. Lo and behold there was no option. So now I had a Spanish version of Just Cause with no option to change the language. Needless to say that was the final nail in the coffin for this particular franchise. 

Whats Next?

So there's my somewhat limited highlights of 2011. Now I eagerly look forward to the new year and some awesome titles on the horizon. This year I have set myself the project of building a brand new and highly potent PC. There are some games that I will refuse to play on console, so my computer will be being built for the express purpose of a threeway with myself Skyrim and Mass Effect 3. Other awesome games are coming I know but for now I long to lose myself in RPG bliss. 

So there you have it, thanks for reading my blog over the last year, I hope my occasional insights have been entertaining over this most unpleasant periods of recession, political shenanigans and the usual chaos that is the state of affairs of human civilisation. Happy Christmas to you all and have a great new year.

Peace

Teknocrat