I remember vividly spending hours at a time after school playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, the game that not only got me spending ages at a time playing it, but also kicking off a love of skateboarding games. It's a shame, though, that the series went so far downhill after American Wasteland, and then a couple of years later, EA's Skate came on the scene and I've never played a Hawk game since. I bought THPS2 this morning from eBay, and can't wait for it to arrive.
Day 2 - Your Favourite Game Ever
If you don't like spending a lot of time watching cutscenes, then Metal Gear Solid 4 is most definitely not the game for you. If you do, however, then by God, are you in for a treat. The game's probably got one of the most engaging storylines I've ever seen, and it's one of the few games that's made me actively care about what happens to the characters. I couldn't think of a better way for Solid Snake to bow out. It's also the prime reason I bought a PS3 after my Xbox died on its arse.
Day 3 - Your Favourite Arcade Game
Metal Slug, probably one of the best arcade games ever, always reminds me to the Megazone. If I wasn't downing a bottle of orange-flavoured Panda Pops, munching an ever-present hot dog or looking at the scoreboards to see how badly I'd played, then you could see me playing this.
Day 4 - Your Favourite PC Game
At times, Football Manager 2009 has been the bane of my existence. Every time I start with a new team, I either do amazingly for 5 seasons before the save file corrupts itself, or I just ruin every team I join. Sadly, the second option happens far more often than the first.
Day 5 - Your Favourite Console Game
Metal Gear Solid 4. It is my favourite game, after all.
Day 6 - Your Favourite Game Intro/Teaser/Trailer
I looked forward to Grand Theft Auto IV so much after this first trailer came out. It said so little, but promised so much.
Day 7 - Your Favourite Fighting Game
To be perfectly honest, any one of the Tekken series could have been here, but I picked Tekken 6 because there's so many characters to choose from, and the game looks amazing. Very much looking forward to Marvel vs Capcom 3, though.
Day 8 - Your Favourite Third Person Game
Because you can play Metal Gear Solid 4 in first person as well, the honours here go to Grand Theft Auto IV. Trying to escape the police with a five-star wanted level while driving a bus never gets old.
Day 9 - Your Favourite Console
The Playstation 3 takes this one, not only because it's the console I'm currently using, but because it plays Blu-rays, has free online play, you can't get Metal Gear Solid 4 for anything else and it has a huge hard drive. Top-notch!
Day 10 - Your Favourite FPS Game
As good as Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops are, their campaign modes kinda suck, given that the stories make no sense whatsoever. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, however, has not only a story that is impressive, gameplay that's easy to pick up and play, but a nightmare to finish on the highest difficulty levels, but also contains the stellar multi-player that spawned a thousand inferior knock-offs.
Day 11 - Your Favourite Game Soundtrack
Nowadays, whenever a decent game has a soundtrack, they end up just having a crappy selection, with maybe one or two great songs in it, in order to appeal to the widest audience possible. Anamanaguchi's soundtrack to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game does the exact opposite, and I love it for that very reason, among others.
Day 12 - Your Favourite Survival Horror
Yeah, the Resident Evil games are alright, but I just found them difficult more than anything else. Dead Space, on the other hand, is totally solid, but it's scary as hell, and even though I never actually got round to finishing it, I jumped out of my seat on a number of occasions. It's like The Terminator: once I finish it, I'll never play it again. Except I'm now almost 20 years old, and being wee isn't an excuse for being scared shitless anymore.
Day 13 - Your Favourite Driving Game
Both Burnout Paradise and Race Driver: GRID are both so different games, I really can't choose between the two of them, so I've picked both. GRID's much more of a racing simulator, focusing on circuit-based races, but Burnout Paradise is way more of an informal game, which actively encourages you to crash and make as much damage as possible. And I love both in equal measure.
Day 14 - Your Favourite Handheld System
Even though I haven't played the PSP in aaaaaages, it's still way better than the DS, because of its graphics, games, memory stick capability and Internet browser. Plus, it has a fair few Metal Gear Solid games for it too, so there's another reason to love it!
Day 15 - Your Favourite Game Character
Solid Snake. You'll never find a cooler person. Really. That's an open challenge, by the way.
Day 16 - Your Favourite Shoot 'em up
Grand Theft Auto IV's aiming system's what makes this my choice. With so many other games dying on their arse because you can't shoot properly, it's an important reason as to the game's success. Even though it might not be strictly a shoot 'em up, it's one of the very few games in which firing a rocket launcher into a crowd of chasing police is fun.
JUST TO BE VERY CLEAR, I'M NOT A PSYCHOPATH. HONEST.
Day 17 - Your Favourite Online Game
Like I said before, Call of Duty 4's multiplayer is probably the most fun to play, when there isn't some 12 year-old dick camping or shouting over his headset, that is.
Day 18 - Your Favourite Handheld Game
Set just after Metal Gear Solid 3, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is the best PSP game I've ever played. The sequel, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, comes a very close second though. You can tell I'm very much a massive fan of MGS.
Day 19 - Your Favourite RPG
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is the RPG (after Final Fantasy VIII) that I've spent the most time playing, primarily because it's amazing, but also because there's so many ways to play the game, and the in-game area is gigantic. I can say that because I've found myself lost on multiple occasions. The expansion packs are really rather good as well.
Day 20 - Your Favourite Facebook Game
I don't have one, because I don't play them. The fact that you can buy Facebook gift cards in WH Smith, just so you can buy more cows in FarmVille or something like that horrifies me. Also, considering that Zynga, the company that makes it (and Mafia Wars) is worth over $850million shows how much money you can get for giving idiots something to do.
Day 21 - Your Favourite Simulation Game
I'd say that would be Football Manager 2009 again, because it's such an immersive game and has so many statistics and options that you can't help but lose yourself in the game.
Day 22 - Your Favourite Puzzle Game
Tetris. No game is more addictive, or fun. It's fun in short bursts. It will destroy your mind if you play it for more than 10 minutes at a time.
Day 23 - Your Favourite Free Game
I have a free version of Tetris on my phone, if that counts...
Day 24 - Your Favourite Sports Game
The FIFA series, in the last two years or so, has finally overtaken Pro Evolution Soccer as the best football game on the market. FIFA 11 is definitely far and away better than PES 2011, I'd say...
Day 25 - Your Favourite Music/Family/Social Game
The Beatles: Rock Band is the most fun music game I've played, and it's even better with friends. Sure, there's a couple of songs that weren't included that might have made the game even more superb, but it's still great to play.
Day 26 - Your Favourite Side-Scrolling Beat 'Em Up
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game came very close to taking this one, but I can't not choose what's clearly one of the major influences on the game: Streets of Rage, on the Mega Drive. When I found an emulator for my laptop, the first thing I did was download the file for Streets of Rage. I'd rarely felt happier.
Day 27 - Your Favourite Platform Game
While the original game was the first PlayStation game I ever owned, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped was the one I enjoyed playing the most. Come to think of it, Spyro: Year of the Dragon was also one of my all-time favourites. While newcomers like Ratchet and Clank have seemingly taken over as the top platformer, I'll never get tired of playing Warped, so much so that I bought downloaded it from the Playstation Store, along with Crash Team Racing. With the unlockable abilities, fun boss battles and great variation in the gameplay, you can't go wrong with it at all.
Day 28 - What Game Would You Like To See Made Into A Movie?
Yes, I know that a film based on the Uncharted series, which is probably one of the best action-adventure games ever (and it would have been mentioned earlier if there was a category for that), is currently under development, with Mark Wahlberg playing Nathan Drake, and with Joe Pesci and Robert de Niro playing family members (I think). While, yeah, Mark Wahlberg's pretty good, a much better fit for Nathan Drake would have been the similarly-named Nathan Fillion, who actually looks a lot more like the character anyway.
See what I mean?
Day 29 - Name The Most Over-rated Game
I liked the Resident Evil series, like I mentioned earlier, especially Resident Evil 4. That was an amazing game for the Wii.Even though the games might have a similar control system, I just preferred Resident Evil 4 in every aspect to Resident Evil 5, from the characters, to the speed of the "zombies," to the setting of the game. It was well-received, but I really just didn't like what I played of it.
Day 30 - What's The Next Big Game You're Looking Forward To?
I watched the 12-minute gameplay trailer for Battlefield 3 this afternoon, and Jesus Christ, it's probably the best-looking game I've ever seen on a console. You'll need to watch in 1080p to get the full effect, but it looks fantastic. EA have said they want to try to break Call of Duty's grip on the market with this game. I'm going to go ahead and say that judging from this gameplay trailer - that apparently isn't even the final code for the game - they don't exactly have their work cut out to do it. Here's the trailer, enjoy:
So all in all, there's the insight into myself as a gamer. I'd say there's a pretty varied taste there, but have a go for yourself and see if any of the games tickle your fancy a wee bit. Cheers!
