Why 13? It’s a good number. It’s very prejudiced.
So I guess I'll start at the bottom. It gets better that way.
13 - Gran Turismo (PSP)
Let me get one thing clear: I love the Gran Turismo franchise. But not this one. In fact, out of all the games I’ve played over the summer, this had to be the worst.
I’m not sure how they managed it. Every feature in this game just fails epically. The graphics, while good, have a lot of polygon tearing (white pixels where segments of the track connect). I understand that while there are a lot of tracks, this games graphics just don’t have that level of polish that you expect from a GT game.
You get a pick of certain cars every two days in game. So you have to check the dealerships every time you finish a race. That is just overkill. The loading times are a bit too long, especially when you consider that the menu is pretty simplistic.
There are no set races. There are quite a lot of driving challenges, but they just don’t feel the same as a good old fashioned Cup challenge from ALL the other GT games, instead you pick a track and a car, then the game picks other cars to challenge you. It’s just not fun in any way at all.
It does have some redeeming factors though. The number of cars in the game is massive, around 900. And the number of tracks in the game, around 40, is also rather impressive. But the flaws in this game make those numbers almost meaningless.
12 - Destruction Derby (PS1)*
I’m actually surprised that I didn’t really bond with this one. This is another game from my childhood that I remember enjoying then, but found it rather dull now. It has some funny redneck elements, but overall it’s not a very exiting package. Because it has no multiplayer, unlike the original playstation, that could be the problem.
11 - Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel (PSP)
Yet another… Thing that I was surprised that I didn’t overly enjoy. I have been playing a lot of Metal Gear Solid titles at the moment, and that could contribute to that. It was worth watching it once, but I can’t really say it was worth going over again. There are a lot of bonuses and hidden things, but I couldn’t be bothered replaying the main video to attempt to get them. I think it would have been much better if it had voice acting. After playing Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker though, I think my expectations of Digital Graphic Novels must have increased somewhat. More on that later though.
10 - Locoroco: Midnight Carnival (PSP)
I got this as part of a deal, included was the walkthrough and some bonus levels. I like Locoroco, I loved the numerous demos that were released for the first game. This game’s level designs were not as good as previous iterations. I still have not finished it yet, as this is a very hard game! I was very surprised as to how hard this game is. Each level has some nasty surprises which will catch you, and put you off the game. It’s not the worst, but also not the best.
The only other Locoroco title I can really compare it to though is Locoroco: Cocoreccho, which was a pretty different game compared to this, but was more enjoyable.
9 - Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (PS3)
This is meant to be a gamers game, however, it’s a street brawling game, which I never really got in to. I’ve played a few levels of it, and it is fun, and everyone should play it, but it’s just not the game for me.
8 - Abe’s Odyssey (PS1)*
There certainly is a lot of older PS1 games I’ve played this summer! It’s not over yet though. Abe’s Odyssey is an awesome game. It is difficult at most parts of the game. The storytelling is awesome, the graphics are still pretty good. Overall this really is worth a play.
As a child, I never owned the game, and spent AGES playing Demo 1. Specifically this game. So it really is awesome to me that I finally technically own this game!*
7 - Zen Pinball (PS3)*
Not much of a story mode for this game really. What it is, is a set of 4 pinball tables. It’s simple enough, the physics and graphics are awesome. There are a tonne of tables that can be downloaded as PDLC, which I have experienced none of. But the included tables are fun, and that you can use one controller for multiplayer is awesome. But, and the only bad part is, it can get boring.
6 - Just Cause 2 (PS3)
This game is cool. It has a massive open map, and from the start of the game (nearly) you can go to any point of the map that gets you interest. And the map is HUGE! You could easily fit 100 GTA4’s Liberty City in this game and have room left over. And unlike *shudder* Fuel, you can get around and basically do what you want in it’s free roaming environment. Want to tie a small car onto an aeroplane, and fly out into the middle of a desert, or onto a mountain, jump out of the plane and into the car, while in mid flight, then untie the rope and go plummeting off the side of a cliff, then land stylishly upside down on the ground?
That is very easy to do in this game. It’s free roaming at it’s finest. And it’s graphically stunning too! The story though, is a bit weak, and the voice acting is just awful. But otherwise, it’s a brilliant game and well worth a play.
5 - Wipeout HD* / Fury (PS3)
I’ve had Wipeout HD for a long enough time, but never owned it. Until I did!* Then I purchased the Fury expansion pack after an in game advertisement told me to. And I have to say it was worth it. 8 new tracks, 3 new game modes and new ship models? It was awesome! There’s not much to say, the expansion made a good game into a better game, unlike most PDLC, which is more of the same.
The new modes really change the way you play the game. After playing Eliminator, I can safely say that I play the races much more aggressively than before. Zone Battle was a bit weird, I couldn’t really understand it, but it was awesome none the less. Detonator was like playing a completely different game, but still awesome. If you can’t tell, I really like this game, and the expansion makes it better!
4 - Final Fantasy IX (PS1)
Ahh… There’s nothing like playing this game for nostalgia. I loved this game as a kid, and I love it now. The story is brilliant. The graphics are really good, even for a PS1 game. Everything looks like a storybook. The music is still superb. If you have never played a Final Fantasy title before, play this one first. Actually play any of them before this one, then play this one. Then some of the parts of the story make even more sense. The Final Fantasy games after this were awful. FFI – FFIX… Some of the best games ever made.
But IX is the best of the series. To continue, the combat is a lot of fun. There are a lot of ways to complete each battle, on GameFAQ’s there are even walkthroughs on how to beat the game staying as level 1, never equipping anything through the game, never curing your team, basically of you think of an extreme way to play the game, someone has already done it and defeated the hardest bosses with that combo. People just get that obsessed with this game. and I recommend it. It really is just that rewarding.
3 - Red Dead Redemption (PS3)
What a game… I was considering not getting this game at all, but I decided against not getting it, therefore getting it. And that was a great decision.
Every part of the game is perfect in every way. I cannot think of any criticisms of this game at all. It’s just too perfect. It has every and any reference to the Wild West that you can think of. Like kidnapping people and tying them to train tracks, or riding into the sunset and beyond. Epic.
2 - Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
The only entry into this list from a Nintendo console, but what an entry it is! The game is brilliant. Collecting every star was a great experience. No star is the same. The music, in my opinion, is brilliant, but not as good as SMG1. I collected every single gold star in the game, it is just that good. Of course the story is just in there so you can play really, it has no effect on the game.
A lot of people said that the game was harder than the original, but I would disagree with that too. I thought it was easier, although if I played SMG2 first, perhaps I would feel different. And when you finish the game, you have the joys of collecting the green stars, which really add to the challenge, and show that this game was a labour of love. It was just brilliant.
1 - Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (PSP)
Oh my god. This game was just incredible. I can easily say that this is the best game on the PSP, ever. I feel that in a way this game is an apology for the mess that was MGS4. I just didn’t think that MGS4 was a good game. A decent interactive movie, yeah. But not a good game.
Peace Walker, though, is just mindblowingly great. I didn’t want the game to end. Every part of it was so cleverly planned, the story so incredible, the graphics amazing for the PSP, it is in fact a perfect game.
The story is told in 33 or so chapters, each part might have a tiny bit of backtracking, but you don’t mind it, unlike most games. Cutscenes were again drawn by Ashley Wood, and the game was voice acted by the usual cast. And they were not just like normal cutscenes, some were even interactive. There’s even a traditional torture part, done through cutscenes instead of normal gameplay graphics. And the traditional escape from a prison cell? That’s here too.
Then after that, there’s the extra ops. These are 128 side missions each in bite size chunks, and each of these are pretty interesting. Some are very light hearted, such as the Pooyan missions (you shoot balloons attached to solders!), and some are a bit more surreal (such as the ghost photography missions). It’s just a great package, and surpasses all the other Metal Gear Solids in my opinion. Even MGS3. It’s just that good.
So that’s it. That is my list of games I played, here are a few others that I haven’t really had a good chance to play yet:
- Sam and Max: The Devils Playground (entire season)(PS3)*
- Micro Machines V3
- Chrono Cross
- Legend of Dragoon
- Ridge Racer Type 4
- MediEvil
*Game not actually owned, sort of rented off PS+.
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