The Greatest Games of the Decade: The Year 2004

After only two games making the list in 2003, 2004 definitely starts to pick up with some great games. This is the last year of only last-gen consoles (the Xbox 360 would launch in 2005), and some great games came out of this year, especially for the Xbox and PC. But for my favorite game of the year, I've decided to choose a game that I had always heard of, but hadn't actually played through/beaten until earlier this year. I had only ever heard great things about this game, and I was not disappointed. On the contary, despite everything great I had heard, it still blew me away (despite the fact that it was almost 5 years old) and I fell in love with it and its story and characters.





Half-Life 2

Quick Facts:

Platform: PC, Xbox; Xbox 360/PS3 (via The Orange Box)
Genre: FPS
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Sierra/Valve
Release Date (NA): November 16, 2004 (PC)
Rating: M


Easily my favorite FPS (first-person shooter) I've ever played, this game (and it's two expansion packs) combines so many elements and brings so much to the table that it's leagues above any other shooter I've ever played (with the exception of maybe Bioshock). This is more than just a standard shooter/action game. The variety of enemies are amazing (you've got soldiers, robots, aliens, zombies, helicopters, machines, and more). The weapons are all fantastic, especially the legendary Gravity Gun, which is really so much more than just a weapon. Half-Life 2 is also one of the best puzzle games I've ever played, and that really says something considering it's an FPS, a genre which does not usually have games with creative and challenging puzzles that dont just include things like "kill all the guys in this room." There are also some driving levels (either car or raft) which add variety and challenge to the gameplay, as being in a vehicle presents whole new challenges in these levels. Both the action and the puzzles in these games (expansion packs included) transition and play off each other great, offering smooth and believable (or at least as believable as something sci-fi can be) gameplay. And just when you've gotten used to certain enemy types or solved an environmental puzzle, Valve throws something else at you in the story to keep you interested.

One of the most unusual things about Half-Life 2 is that you are always in the body of Gordon Freeman seeing things only through his eyes. This happens throughout the whole game, with no exception. There are no cutscenes (besides the one at the very beginning, which you are still seeing through Gordon's eyes), no out-of-game narration to explain what's going on. You would think this would make it incredibly hard to tell a story or develop characters, but somehow Valve took this approach and told one of the best stories and developed some of the best characters in any FPS. And the fact they did this through only actual in-game play and no out-of-body experiences (aka cutscenes or narration) is astounding. That being said, the story is great. It takes place years after the events of the original Half-Life (sometime in the near future), in a post-apocalyptic Earth. Valve doesn't just spoon-feed you the whole backstory either, you are left to explore around in-game and find out many of the details for yourself (if you're still confused there are websites which basically lay the whole thing out for you).

I found both the game's story and the overarching backstory of the world engrossing, and, especcially because of Valve's story telling methods, I really felt like I was Gordon Freeman. This is perhaps why Gordon, a character who never actually says anything in the game, is still one of the most loved characters in all of video games. Because people feel like they really are him, and instead of the game assigning a personality to him, players wind up doing it themselves. This is just a theory of mine, but regardless this game is great and deserves to be played by anyone who enjoys FPS and doesn't mind having to think a little bit. Half-Life 2, along with both expansion packs (not to mention Portal and Team Fortress 2) are all contained in the game The Orange Box, which is available for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, and can be found for a very reasonable price now. Go check it out if you never have.


Honorable Mentions:

World of Warcraft (PC)- Everyone has heard of this game. Even people with no interest in video games. And if you've played any video games, chances are you've tried it at least once. If you're reading this blog, probably more than that. We all know it and have loved it at some point in our lives, no matter for how short a time. WoW- The One Game To Rule Them All. This game has by far made the most money of any game ever once you include not just buying the game and its expansion packs, but also the $15 monthly fee that all 11 million+ users pay every month (just think about that for a minute). This game wasn't the first successful MMO, but since it came out it has been the most successful by far. This game has not only left a huge impact on the gaming world, but in many other aspects of media (like the famous South Park episode) in a way few games ever have.

Halo 2 (Xbox, PC)- A great follow up to the original Halo:CE, this introduced things like dual-wielding, new vehicles, and players being able to use the energy sword. Most importantly, this game introduced people to the wonders of Xbox Live for the first time. This game actually still has a small following of people that play it on Xbox Live. I still have yet to complete the campaign (the only Halo game I haven't), but my junior year of college me and everyone on my hall played this game almost exclusively, whether it was a small group of us playing other people on Xbox Live, or a lot of us all playing system link against each other or other dorms at our college.

Fable (Xbox)- Fable was by no means perfect, nor was it even close to some of things Peter Molyneux (the game's creator) promised leading up to its release (surprise, surprise), but it was a good action/RPG for the Xbox, a system that was light on RPGs. It introduced an interesting world/story, and the leveling-up system was new and allowed for a lot of customization to build the character that you wanted. Truth be told I never finished this game, but I liked what I played.

Doom 3 (PC, Xbox)- Never played this game, but from what I heard it was a good shooter and very, very scary (for the time).


2004 was a good year for video games, and it only gets better as the rest of the decade goes on. Hope you'll join me as I continue to count down The Greatest Games of the Decade. Next up, 2005!

Review: Contra ReBirth (Wii)

"Just like the good ol' days?"




Contra ReBirth is a downloadable game available exclusively through the WiiWare service on the Nintendo Wii. It is not a remake of the original Contra (NES), but a new game based on the gameplay and mechanics of Contra.

Quick Facts:

Platform: Wii (WiiWare)
Genre: Action/2D Side-Scroller
Developer: M2
Publisher: Konami
Release Date (NA): September 7, 2009
Rating: E10+


The game plays and feels much like the original Contra. The graphics and music are also very similar, and purposely so. Like Mega Man 9, Contra ReBirth is a retro sort of a game: a game that's new but emulates a classic older game. The game definitely succeeds in this respect, because it feels very much like Contra. Everything about it screams "Contra!" They've also added a few new things, like the ability to hold two different types of guns and switch between them. These changes were nice and didn't take away from the old school feel of the game.

There are complaints though. The game only costs $10 to download, but even for that seemingly small amount of money it is far too short. A friend and I beat it in about an hour (one sitting) on normal difficulty, and that was with many deaths and continues (meaning we had to replay many portions of different levels). We both love the original Contra, and even though ReBirth has some unlockable characters and harder difficulty settings, after we beat it we really had no desire to play it again. $10 is usually a pretty reasonable price for a full downloadable game, but in this case there's just not enough to justify even the $10 purchase unless you're an absolute Contra nut. Even then, while the one hour of gameplay was fun, you might just be better off playing through the original Contra again on an emulator or something if you really need a Contra fix.

My other complaint about the game was the lack of the 3D "moving into the screen" style of levels from the orignal Contra. Those were my favorite levels in the original, and I was really hoping that they would throw in at least one short level in ReBirth to pay homage to the original game. But none of these levels were to be found. Adding a few of these levels would have rounded out the gameplay and added to the length of the game, but it appears that it was not meant to be.

In Summary:

Pros: gameplay, mechanics, graphics, sound, nostalgia (all assuming you like the original Contra), level design, can be played locally with a friend.

Cons: game length, lack of replayability, lack of any 3D levels.


Hardcore Contra fans may find something here worth the price of admission, but everyone else will probably just want to steer clear.


FINAL SCORE: 3 out of 5.

What I'm Playing (11/29/09)

Dragon Age: Origins, Uncharted 2, Left 4 Dead 2. Also, I was away much of this week due to Thanksgiving, so I had some time to play some good iPhone/iPod Touch games, including: Doom Classic, Doom Resurrection, Bookworm, Earthworm Jim, Metal Gear Solid Touch, Snood, Wolfenstein 3D, and, of course, Paper Toss. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Weezer Albums

I will now proceed to list Weezer's albums from my favorite to my least favorite:

1. The Blue Album
2. The Green Album
3. Pinkerton
4. The Red Album
5. Raditude
6. Maladroit
7. Make Believe

Any other Weezer fans out there who want to weigh in?

The Greatest Games of the Decade: The Year 2003

The list for 2003 is a short one for me. In fact, out of all the years of this decade, this one has the fewest games to make the list. I'm sure there were other good games that came from this year, but looking over a few different lists of major releases from this year, there were only two games that caught my eye as ones that I played and thought were great games. The greatest game of this year is one that I only played for about a week (in which time I beat it and played through all of the optional content), but it completely enthralled me while I was playing. I would play all day and into the wee hours of the morning (I was home for break from college and didn't have a job at the time). So even though I only played this game for a week, I put a lot of hours into it. It was a short, but very hot, fling.





Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Quick Facts:

Platform: Xbox, PC
Genre: RPG
Developer: Bioware
Publisher: LucasArts
Release Date (North America): July 15, 2003 (Xbox)
Rating: T


Another great Bioware title (noticing a trend in my favorite games here?) with a great story and cast of characters. I wont give away too much here (though anyone who hasn't played this by now probably isn't going too), but this game has one of the greatest plot twists ever, and I'm not just talking about in video games. I'm talking about any form of media, including movies, TV, books, plays, etc. That's how shocking it is. And of course, a plot twist cant be great unless it has a great plot to twist, so like I said the game has an amazing story. The game takes place a few thousand years before the movies do, during the reign of the fabled "Old Republic" (hence the game's name) and their conflicts with the Sith Lords and other various factions. While fantasy RPGs (Baldur's Gate, NWN) are great, there's something about the world of Star Wars that seems to make things even cooler. That may not be true for everyone, but for someone who fell in love with Star Wars as a little kid from the first time they saw it on VHS (thanks, Mom!), having a game take place in that universe and being able to use things like the Force and lightsabers is even cooler than a game that takes place in some fantasy world (no disrespect to Faerun of course).

The character customization in the game was also great, with lots of different classes and jedi classes to suite your play style however you like it. And, like Baldur's Gate II before it, this game was notorious for your decisions affecting the world around you and even the characters that traveled with you in your party. Of course, being a jedi, you could eventually choose to follow the Light side or the Dark side, and whichever path you picked would greatly effect the outcome of the game. And certain characters in your party liked you better depending on whether you were good or evil. If you were evil enough, you could even permanently kill people in your party to intimidate the others and set an example. Stuff like that is still deeper than a lot of the games that come out today.


Honorable Mention:

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (PC, Xbox)- The only other game that I truly loved from this year also happens to be a Star Wars game, though a far different one. While Kotor (Knights of the Old Republic) was an RPG, this game was an action game (I believe you could switch between a first person mode and a third person mode). Also unlike Kotor, this game is part of the Jedi Knight series of games (that started with Dark Forces and Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight), and this series takes place a few years after the Return of the Jedi. Jedi Academy was a lot of fun, with lots of cool weapons and force powers, great levels, and a decent story.


So 2003 was short but sweet. That's the way it goes sometimes. Comments are always welcome, and stayed tuned for 2004!

What I'm Playing (11/21/09)

A good friend of mine will occasionally ask me "so what have you been playing lately?" I usually think for a few seconds and then name a few games I've been playing recently. This gave me an idea, so a new thing I'm going to start doing on my blog is list what games I'm currently playing. I'll try to do this once a week either on Saturday or Sunday, and I'll list the games I've been playing and any that I'm planning on playing for the next week. Not many people may care about this, but if one of the games I list is something you want to know more about, feel free to comment and I'll let you know about the game and what I think of it. Also, feel free to comment and let me know if you're playing any of the same games, or any other games you're playing. This little intro here will only appear this one time, as this is the first time I'm doing this. From next week on I will just list the games I'm playing. So without further ado:

Dragon Age: Origins, Demon's Souls, Uncharted 2, and if I have time (which I probably wont) Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2 (online), and New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Review: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360)

"Believe the hype."




We all know about this game. I dont need to say much about it here, because chances are anything I could say here you've already heard. This game is the sequel to the immensely popular and successful Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and the amount of hype and coverage it's received since it was announced is the most I've ever seen for a video game. In the first day of being released, this game sold over 4.7 million copies in North America and the UK alone (breaking GTA IV's previous record in the process). And the best part is that the game actually lives up to the immense amount of hype that was being given to it, a relative rarity for games that receive this much coverage and have such high expectations.

Quick Facts:

Platform: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Genre: First Person Shooter (FPS)
Developer: Infinity Ward
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: November 10, 2009
Rating: M


Everything about this game is great. It picks up where the first game left off and improves upon it where it needed improvement (which is very few areas). The gameplay, grapichs, and all other techincal aspects are perfect (as to be expected from a Call of Duty game), but what really sets this game apart is (like the first game) the amazing story and characters. Many FPSs, especially "wartime" FPSs sacrifice real story and assume that delievering fun gameplay will be enough to sell the game (*cough cough* World at War). This is actually somewhat true, becuase if a game (especcially an FPS) is awesome enough most players (myself included) are willing to push a lackluster story (*cough cough* Halo 3) aside and enjoy the game just for the gameplay. But this is where few FPSs, like Modern Warfare 2, get set aside as the best of the best, because they give us the fun gameplay and a great story and characters which we are bound to remember. I believe that this combination of two elements is true for all modern games, not just FPSs. In my experience and opinion, the best games are the ones that include both great gameplay mechanics and a memorable story and characters, and not just one or the other. Modern Warfare 2 definetly suceeds in this respect in a way that few games truly do.

So the campaign mode is great, and so are the other two modes (Spec Ops and multiplayer). Spec Ops is a mode that allows 1-2 players to do short missions (some of which are taken from levels in the campaign) together. This mode is Infinity Ward's answer to gamers who cried out for a co-op option in campaign mode, and it works very well. They didn't want to sacrifice the story and intensity of the single player mode by having a friend there with you the whole time, but they also understand that gamers wanted to play some of these missions with their friends. The result is Spec Ops mode, and I think it's a great success.

The online multiplayer for the game is similiar to Call of Duty 4, which means it's awesome. There are a lot of new features and options for ranking up (which I wont get into here), and I like the changes they made to the ranking up/perks system.

If I have any complaints about this game, it's only that a) the story mode was a little too short, and b) a few of the story missions seemed to drag on a little too much or not offer quite enough variety. I finished the story on normal in about 6 hours, which isn't terrible, but it isn't great either. I suppose I could go back and start trying to beat levels on veteran mode, as this would certainly add a lot of playtime, but I dont think I have the heart or patience to die that many times (especially because I'm not a CoD god by any means). As for the individual levels, they were all good, but in a few of them I felt like I was doing the same thing for just a little too long. I can only go down the same suburban street killing enemy soldiers for so long before it starts getting boring; I can only defend the inside of the same cabin for so long (constantly dying in the process) before I'm ready to start ripping my hair out. But these are minor complaints for a game that offers so much replayability (Spec Ops and online multiplayer) even after you're done story mode.

In Summary:

Pros: it's everything you've come to expect from an Infinity Ward Call of Duty game, and somehow even managed to live up to the obsence amount of hype. 'Nuff said.

Cons: campaign mode is a little short, levels can be a bit repetitive at times. But these are both minor complaints when you look at the whole scope of this game.


FINAL SCORE: 5 out of 5.





Note: All reviews on this site are solely the subjective opinion of the author. If you disagree with my review please feel free to post in a polite manner and state your opinion. I welcome respectful discussion on my blog and would love to get feedback on my review and also read yours. Thanks!