Update 06/02/12

This week I have been much more productive. If you want to call playing video games productive. I started and finished 2 games.

5: Vanquish - X360 (Released 2010)


This is a game I have wanted to play for a while. I played the demo back when it was released and really enjoyed it, but I just never got round to buying it. But I am glad I finally did. It has some really good mechanics, from the rocket sliding to the way weapons are upgraded. Fantastic game by Platinum and I may have to order Bayonetta now.

6: Gears of War 2 - X360 (Released 2008)


I played through Gears of War when it came out back in 2006. And I did enjoy it. It was the best looking game I had ever seen at the time. But I had no desire to play the second one when it came out, nor the the third when that was released last year. I don't even know why particularly. But doing this 52 game challenge has made me think about the games I have missed, that I should go back and play. So I bought this cheap, and I have to say thoroughly enjoyed it. The single player game is so well produced. I also forgot how much I like the active reload system. Watch out for Gears of War 3, making this list sometime in the future.

Update 29/01/12

It has been a bit of a slow week. I was hoping to finish Yakuza 3, a game I started last year. Unfortunately on 2 occasions, the game crashed after 2 different and fairly big battles. The first time it happened I lost about half  an hour of play, and I didn't feel like replaying it again immediately. A day later I came back to it and got past the cut scene where it had crashed previously, and I got it saved. I then went on to play for an hour or so before a similar thing happening and the game crashed again, losing most of that progress. I don't know if there is a problem with my particular disc or if I have just been unlucky. Anyway, I will go back to it in the future as I really like the game. I did play through 1 game this week though, and although it was only a very short game it will be added to the list.

4: Puzzle Agent 2 - iPad (Released 2011)

I bought this one last year when it was on sale after playing through the first game, and it has been sitting on my iPad unplayed ever since then. I figured it was a good time to play it and get another game added to the list. The game itself is very much more of the same. Although it had been a while since I had played the first, I don't remember the puzzles being quite so easy. I had little problem with nearly all of them with maybe only a couple which left me... well puzzled. The story was OK but overall I preferred the first one. It was still an enjoyable game though.

That's all for this update. The next few weeks should be better. I have ordered 5 new games in the last couple of days, so I will have plenty to be playing for a good month or so.

52 Games, 1 Year

I decided at the end of last year that this year I would try and do something that I have never done before. I know of others that have done it in the past, and I figured I would give it a go. So my plan is to finish 52 video games in 2012. Now some of these games will be ones that I had already started last year and never got round to finishing. I will also count games that I replay, for example I plan to play Prey again before Prey 2 comes out. That will count. I just simply want to finish 52 games this year. I will be using this blog to keep track of the games I play. The general rule will be getting to the credits in the single player campaign/story. Not getting all the achievements/trophies or anything crazy like that. I will write a small amount about each game but nothing in depth. So with that being said, and us being 2 and a half weeks into the year already, let me tell you what I have already finished thus far.

1: Rayman Origins - X360 (Released 2011)

I believe I started Rayman on New Years Day. It was a game I had heard so many great things about so I had to get it when I saw it for under £20. I didn't buy it when it was first released as I had so much other stuff to play and couldn't justify paying full price for a 2D sidescroller. Well shoot me, because this is now one of my favourite games of all time. I love nearly everything about it. I think it has some of the most beautiful art and such an awesome soundtrack. I am now tempted to buy the special edition version which includes the soundtrack CD.

2: Duke Nukem Forever - X360 (Released 2011)


I always planned on eventually playing DNF. With its long and fascinating history in development I felt even with a bunch of bad reviews I still had to see how it turned out for myself. That being said I wasn't paying a penny over a tenner for it. When I eventually saw it for £6.95, I picked it up. And I actually don't hate the game. Yes, it is pretty average, but it kind of gave me a nostalgic feeling when playing it. Even though I had never even played a Duke game before. I preferred the first half of the game to the latter but overall it wasn't the offensive piece of crap I had been led to believe.


3: Bulletstorm - X360 (Released 2011)


Another game I had missed out on from last year. It's a fun game with an interesting scoring system for the way you kill the enemies. Others have tried, but I think they have nailed it here. The story was kind of crazy, but I didn't go into it expecting a masterpiece in story telling. Anyway, it was well worth, the £7.99 I paid for it.


So that is it so far. 3 games down, 49 to go. And by my calculations, I am slightly ahead of the 1 a week average that I will need to keep up for a year. Always good to be ahead, especially if I am going to be playing games that last longer than 12 hours.

Smackdown!

First of all welcome to my new blog. I didn't intend for this to be my first post but I couldn't help but blog about it. I went to see wrestling yesterday evening. I somewhat enjoyed the experience. The 2 pints before hand helped, but it was actually reasonably entertaining. It was actually RAW not Smackdown. I don't know the difference though. Some of it was a bit laughable. Well most of it really. I didn't know any of the wrestlers other than Sheamus. So I recorded that match. I also recorded a womens tag match because..... well why wouldn't I? I had fun anyway, and the ticket was free so it was worth going. Enjoy the videos and apologies for using the digital zoom, it was that or nothing. Usually I go with nothing but it was too tempting to use. Oh, and I won't mention how fake the whole thing was.