List of games everyone liked but me. Part 2

You ever had it where everyone plays a game and loves it, and you hear about how great it is, and when you finally play it, it's really not that great, and you don't see why anyone would like it? Well, then, you know how I feel, here's my list of such games. PART 2!



Counter-Strike - PC/Xbox - Published by Vivendi Universal/Microsoft Game Studio - Developed by Valve Software - 1999/2004.

(First off let me note: This is based off of the Xbox version, and I know many hardcore Counter-Strike players will just laugh off this whole article, and perhaps blog. However, I have played the PC version as well, and besides control, graphics and mods, it's the same game. With a game that has no single player, gameplay is what counts, and it's pretty much the same on the xbox)

Ah Counter-Strike, kick of all online First Person Shooters, and as many would have you believe, all First Person Shooters. It has addictive online play, a huge community, tons of mods, and is the most played online game that's not an MMORPG.

I have watched people play this, I have heard them rant, I have seen the reviews, and read people's comments on forums, I know what people think of this game, so one day I saw it for $8 at blockbuster (For Xbox), and bought it.

So, for all of the good hype I heard from it, what did I think? Well, I found it to be really generic, with poor graphics, really chancy gameplay, and just not enough content.

let me qualify my statements, of which I will start with generic. Yes, it's generic, normal guns shooting at normal people, in normal locations. There's no twist, there's no gimmick, you just shoot people, you throw grenades, and that's it.

The graphics, are pretty poor, and that's because the game runs on the dated Half-Life 1 engine (Though, Counter-Strike source fixed this), and because of this, the blood looks like play-dough, and everything looks blocky, and just dated. This whole part could be ignored on the PC version, because it came out when the graphics were decent. The Xbox port came out the same year as Halo 2, and it looks like late Dreamcast-early PS2 era game, really unacceptable for the year it came out.

The gameplay is addictive, I'll give it that, but I still didn't find it to be that great, decent, but no more. It felt really clunky compared to other first person shooters I've played, such as Halo, and Killzone. Jumping and ducking are kind of strange, and you can't Melee or throw a grenade without switching weapons. But down to the actual combat, often it's just who shoots first, because you die so fast, aiming is only a secondary skill, where most it is just who can sneak up on another player, or shoot them without getting shot. Often it feels really random who will win, when you shoot at someone and they shoot at you at the same time.

This game has no single player, and relies on having multiplayer. The games does have botmatches, and quite a few levels. In my opinion though, this game just doesn't have enough to it to keep me playing, I just play for maybe an hour and think to myself "Is this it?"

I know many people will just scoff at this, but this is the opinion I have of the game. Sorry for having my own opinion.



Final Fantasy X - Playstation 2 - Published by Squaresoft - Developed by Squaresoft - 2001

Ah, Final Fantasy X, one of the most popular in the series, it's grand debut on the Playstation 2. Many people consider this to be one of, if not the best Playstation 2 games, and one of the best games of all time, with it's touching story, pretty graphics, and memorable soundtrack.

I heard so much good stuff about this game, but somehow, when I got my PS2, it kind of slipped under the radar, but was pleasantly surprised when I received it for christmas one year. I remember fondly thinking of the Playstation 1 Final Fantasy titles, and curiously thinking of what magic this game would hold.

It was sad when I was greeted into the world with an extremely annoyingly voiced main character, and when I finally got to it, combat which felt worse then previous games. As I continued on, I found that the other main character, was also just as annoying.

It's funny because the voice actor who played the main character, Tidus, is the same voice actor that plays Ratchet, from the Ratchet and Clank series, (James Arnold Taylor), in that role, he did great. Maybe the vocal director was on the side yelling "Sound more annoying" the whole time or something, but he manages to become your worst enemy, because you just don't want to hear him talk, and spew out the stupidest, and most unhelpful words ever.

The combat in this game feels like a step back from the original games, with turn based combat, over the previously nigh-perfected ATB (Active Time Battle), so you can take all day using a potion, without having to worry about the monsters even sneezing. It feels really strange especially because of how much more it's leaning towards making sense, in a realism type of way.

The story is actually not bad, but it's populated with characters you really don't care about, most of the time, you really wouldn't care of some of them just kicked off, which really defeats the purpose of having the story follow them. But I did like the twists and turns, I just wish it was less linear.

The graphics, are pretty. No argument from me, they held their own against even recent PS2 games, though, it's a same you couldn't move the camera, so most of the time, a lot of the scenery was hidden. Also, the dubbing was terrible, you'd hear someone talk, and then seconds later, their mouth is still moving. It was really distracting often, and made scenes just look plain bad. The pre-rendered cutscenes though, are unmatched, with amazing graphics, and spot on dubbing. It's odd the rest of the game didn't have the same dubbing.

The music is also great, with me looking for a soundtrack after playing it, and humming tunes later, but in comparison to some of the other Final Fantasy soundtracks, it's perhaps not as good, but it does contain some great songs.

Also, it's worth mentioning that this game was a really strange difficulty curve, with bosses often being pretty easy, but having the normal monsters take down your entire party often. It gets really weird when you run low on money, and can't buy anything to heal yourselves, but can't fight to get money...

Overall, this game I never finished without cheating. I got to the end, and just gave up before fighting the boss, it was just too boring, and I really didn't care what happened to the characters. I did use an Action Replay (Cheating device for Playstation 2) to finish the game, and was surprised by a rather good ending, though, it still didn't make up for the rest of the game being so dull.



God Of War - PS2 - Published by Sony - Developed by Sony - 2005

(Note: I never beat this game, and only put a few hours into it, at different times and places, and don't really know the story, which would probably make it a bit better. Doesn't save it from gameplay though)

Ah, God of War, the ultra popular PS2 game, which many of my friends played and loved, and I read tons of praise online for. Reviews often gave this game 9-10/10, so it seemed like a sure bet to be good.

Based on greek legends, and folklore, the game follows Kratos, the God of War, I think.. who must... I don't know. (I only played bits and pieces of this game, and wasn't able to follow the story because of such.)

The gameplay of this game feel much too much like Devil May Cry, which I already talked about, and that, in my opinion, isn't a good thing. it is pretty much a button masher, with button pressing mini games thrown in, Sure, you could disagree with me because you learned all the combos, and moves, but I'm sure most people just go through the game button mashing until everything is dead, or a mini game starts.

The game seems to be following Grand Theft Auto's footsteps of "If it is controversial, it will sell" including blood, gore, and sex, probably swearing too, I don't remember off hand. But unlike some games, it doesn't seem to use them in anything other then "look at this, it's bloody" sort of way, rather then using it in a way where it would feel like it meant something.

Of course this is a short view on this, but I only put a few hours into the game total, because I don't own it, and I see no reason to buy it for myself, it's just not my style of game or something, because I just don't get it...


alright, I am stopping, because my arm hurts, perhaps it's the large amount of wood chopping I did, or the breaking of sticks, or maybe it's just all the typing I'm doing, anyways, that's it for now!