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| MY TOP TEN GAMES OF 2005 by Ice Cream Jonsey 01/10/2006, 11:41am PST | ||||
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| 10. Cleve Blakemore's Grimoire (PC). It wasn't released, but it will never be released, so the "game" is in how crazy Cleve is. And this was not a particularly lucid year for him.
9. MVP Baseball 2005 (PC). It's KILLING me to state that an EA Sports game is good, but this one is. 8. Future Boy! (PC) I am friends with the designer, so I am biased, but if you would like to know the current state of graphical text adventures, look no further than here. 7. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2). Others are better able to describe why this game is fun, but I do like the process of taking one element of video games and making a great game about it. As someone who never bought in to the common disdain of the "ice level," I'm hoping that some console developer gets inspired. 6. ObsCure (PC). This is a game about five or six high school teenagers coming to grips with the fact that their high school has been silently invaded by monsters. I dare say it's "genre busting." The controls are a weakness until, inexplicably, you get used to them and like them, but there's a great opening scene, logical explanation as to why (suburban) (white) teenagers find loaded pistols and a horror movie feel with a low cheese factor, thus making you feel like a retard for playing. Uses Starforce, but there is a crack. This game has the best character graphics I've ever seen. 5. God of War (PS2). The first thing that comes to mind with this is how well I am able to choreograph my killing moves. Hipsters say that Karateka is "cinematic." It isn't, of course, at least I don't remember that movie where the protagonist ran like a girl through three wide-angle camera shots and then died instantly because he wasn't in a karate mode when he finally found an enemy. GoW made me feel like I was able to send all manner of bad guys flying wherever I chose, stylishly, while continuing to beat the shit out of them. It also took a game that had nothing but boss fights to have better boss fights than this game and I daresay SotC only did so barely. GoW also gains points by not being spoiled in the message titles on here by PoE posters. 4. Jets n' Guns (PC). Things blow up very nicely, don't get me wrong, but there is a shopping subgame to this that brings out your inner queer and I found it to be very satisfying. None of the Elite clones I put myself through do it as nicely. I really like the art direction with this one, too. And the music. And killing the little guys that eject out of the enemy ships, like how everyone would prefer to play Defender. The only real negative was a sequence on the second level (an escort mission -- I know, I know) that I had to use a cheat code for. To this day I have no idea how to beat it normally. There was no such problem with the rest of the game. 3. Tecmo Super Bowl (PSP). I never played this when it first came out. It hasn't left my PSP since I started playing it. Technically not a 2005 release. 2. Civilization IV (PC). The only thing I don't like about it is the state of the desktop I come back to after I've finished playing it. With Civ II, I would sometimes play all night until the sun came up and that would lead to awkward locomotion, Jolt Cola breath, general "gaming stench" and sluggishness. I now get all those features metaphorically on my system when I shut this thing down. Sid, here is my change request for the "Exit to Desktop" option, free of charge: "mov bx,472h" and "mov word ptr [bx],1234h". Of course, my memory of how to perform a warm boot is probably wrong, but this is a review that does more than just complain. Caltrops Dot Com - YOU ONLY GET THIS STUFF HERE! 1. Resident Evil 4 (GC). I did not receive this until Christmas of 2004, so I am counting it. Simply a masterpiece. the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey! |
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