christiangamer

Umm, mostly lots of real-world stuff, and though it has included some gaming, it hasn’t included writing about gaming. Here’s my current playlist and running recommendations:

Age of Conan for PC (as I mentioned in my last post): although I’ve had some fun with this game, it takes a very good game to make me cough up 15 bucks a month to keep on playing. And I would say it’s a good game, but I wouldn’t say it’s amazing. RPG fanatics may find something to love, and the story and rpg elements are good. The only thing that AoC brings to the table that is new is the more visceral combat and combo system – while those are generally very well done – they are also very violent. Hacking off arms and heads in an MMORPG – yep they’ve got that here. It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever seen, but it’s not a kid-friendly game… I’m not going to be subscribing to this game, and will be re-upping my subscription to Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar instead (I miss my dwarf, Ghladri, on the Windfola server).

Lost Odyssey for Xbox 360: Now this is a great game – if you like Japanese RPG’s at all (Final Fantasy especially) you ought to check it out. 4 dvd discs of great storytelling mixed with traditional turn-based battles and exploration make this game well worth whatever you pay for it. It’s teen-rated and that fits pretty well. There’s some violence and some very silly sexual innuendo that didn’t need to be there. At it’s heart is a deep and mature story that really makes you think and feel real-world emotion. At the end of the first disc, I was pretty close to being in tears. I just lost someone close to me in real life, and this game touches on that theme throughout and in a very emotional way. I highly recommend it.

God Of War: Chains Of Olympus for PSP: Another game that I can’t recommend for kids is the effort by the company Ready At Dawn to bring the venerable God of War series to handhelds. Well they did it and did it well. This is a great action game that unfortunately has boatloads of inappropriate content that should probably be kept out of the hands of your kids. Buckets of blood and gore, nudity, and a really stupid sex mini-game have caused this title to more than earn it’s M for Mature rating and then some. No, it’s not as bad as Grand Theft Auto in my opinion, but it’s definitely not for kids – even when it’s on a handheld system.

Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3: No I haven’t played it yet, but I will be in line at midnight tonight to pick up my pre-ordered copy. I haven’t really played a MGS game since the Playstation 1 game that blew everybody away back in my college years (I still remember avoiding study just to watch my buddies play through that game – they didn’t let me play because I stunk at sneaking around). I’ve been following the hype and catching up on the story lines of the two sequels just so I can be ready for this one. It looks pretty amazing. On the parental advisory front – the Metal Gear series has been known for it’s potty humor and violence. I would imagine that some older teens will be alright playing this game, but I can’t be sure until I do.

Well, I’ve been playing and anticipating these games and more. As I stated in my last post; I’m done with GTA IV because I just can’t stomach it any more. I will try and get some final thoughts on it up soon so I can truly be done with it. Some other games I’ve been playing include:

• Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (PSP) – loving it! Teenager-safe.
• Hellgate: London (PC) – liking it. Not for kids due to fantasy violence and scary monsters.
• Eternal Sonata (360) – loving it. Kid friendly in content, but mature in some subject matter (Death)
• Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (360) – love it! Violent and wordy though, not for kids.
• Battlefield: Bad Company demo (360) – love it but lag is a big issue. A T for Teen rated shooter sounds good to me.
• Ninja Gaiden II demo (360) – not loving it – camera angles and difficulty ruin it. It’s also one of the goriest games I’ve played. Definitely not kid-friendly
• The Eye Of Judgment (PS3) – innovative card-strategy game – loving it. It’s not for everybody, but if you have no problems with cartoony monsters then it’s pretty teenager-friendly.

Hmm… this is a pretty good summary of last-month’s playlist. Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 are always in the rotation as well, but I’ve reviewed them already. I’ll get some impressions up on Metal Gear Solid 4 towards the end of the week…