Year in consumables: 2006 games

Promises, promises…

You know, I said I’d have this posted by March first, but things got out of hand at work this week due to Daylight Savings Time. You know about that, right? Well, work got in the way of proper sleep, television viewing — ‘cept Lost and Heroes — and blogging.

So, I won’t bore you with the details of that, but instead bore you with the third and final installment of my 2006 Year in Consumables series. You can read the music and movie posts in the archives.

By my count, I have rocked se7en games on the 360 this year. Okay, it was really ten, but demos of Contra and the tarted up Pac-Man from the XBL Arcade and Hexic HD do not count. I even wrote some reviews — really more like impressions I guess — of four of them. The knowledge that this post would be pending, and general laziness, had me waiting on the other three.

Anyway, I’m going to go ahead and dispense with picking a top five and just rank what I done played:

1. Gears of War
2. Splinter Cell: Double Agent
3. Tomb Raider: Legend
4. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
5. Kameo: Elements of Power <... Continue reading »

Tomb Raider: Legend

Hopefully this is going to be a short review that I can just bang out real quick before hitting the sack. It should be short because the game itself was short. I used to hate short games, but I really enjoyed this one, so I wish it were longer.

I have played most of the Tomb Raider slash Lara Croft games. This one is the latest in the series and has a seriously long title: Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend. I’ll just go with TRL for short since that’s just fun in itself. We love Carson and how his good Karma inspired Earl, which in turn entertained me for a television season (and so far, Summer with re-runs).

I gotta say right off the bat that this is without a doubt the best TR game I have played. I really enjoyed the first two, but this one was just great. I suppose a lot of that has to do with the evolution of the game and character. The next-gen graphics really helped this game excel in that I wasn’t constantly trying to jump and grab onto everything in sight… unlike a night out. I have to tell you that the water in the game is just amazing. There are a few maps with waterfalls on them and they are spectacular.

You know what else is ... Continue reading »

Kameo: Elements of Power

As Ed noted earlier this evening after his post within a comment on my Perfect Dark Zero review, Mook is now in the Xbox 360 fold. Well, if there was a game made for him — besides Katamari Damacy of course — then this one is it.

Kameo: Elements of Power is actually the game I have enjoyed the most to date. So, the indictment of Mook may also be one of myself. D’oh! Well, at least this game is about a cute little elf girl instead of a King and his package.

Kameo is an adventure game where you must travel throughout your kingdom in the middle of an Elf (and other odds races) v. Troll war where the Trolls are trying to take over your kingdom after having served the man for so long. Really, what’s wrong with that anyway? The Elves and others live all high and mighty in their floating kingdom while the Trolls suffer as laborers and such. Well, Kameo’s sister sells her out and sides with the Trolls and that’s where the adventure begins.

The basic premise is as you travel throughout the kingdom you rescue different members of your family along with Elemental creatures you can transform into to help you succeed further in the quest. Th... Continue reading »