Hot games right now
You're reading Mikko Saari's blog Life and opinions. This entry was written 12/ 8/2004, at 11:01.
If you want read more of my entries in the same topic, this entry belongs to the category of Games.
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Finally, there's a good reason to own a N-Gage. That reason is called Pathway to Glory. While World War 2 is a hot subject in games right now, Pathway to Glory is very old-fashioned: it's a turn-based war game. How boring and hardcore gamer is that? However, I don't think the game's target audience is necessarily the mainstream and if they try to get gamer credibility for N-Gage, it just might be a good move to appeal to a group like hardcore war gamers. And really, anybody who's played and enjoyed gems like Laser Squad, Jagged Allience or UFO should like Pathway to Glory.
I've played the demo mission twice now. First time around my squad got slaughtered by my carelessness. Second time I managed to reach the objective (blow out a water container) losing only two men (and both died executing dubious orders). Better placement of my troopers was the key to the victory, proving that Pathway to Glory is a serious wargame. Most of the enemy forces were killed by a single trooper, placed rather strategically. But hey, what can I do, the enemies came on in such a tight group that even missed shots killed soldiers around the actual target.
The complexity level of the game seems quite good - I'd expect more from a PC game, but with the limited user interface possibilities N-Gage offers, there's only so much you can do. Nothing essential is missing. I'm looking forward to getting the full version and trying the online play. That should be the main treat. Well-implemented GPRS connections allow playing wherever I want, 55-second turn time limit makes sure the game doesn't bog down in analysis paralysis and world-wide ranking system guarantees interesting matches between opponents of the same skill level. Sounds fabulous.
Also on the N-Gage front, Pocket Kingdom sounds like something I should check out. These are the hot N-Gage games, not the boring conversions from other platforms.
Meanwhile... On PS2, the main game after Burnout 3: Takedown wasn't FlatOut (even though it has some redeeming qualities like being Finnish, neat physics, fun ideas), but Sly 2: The Band of Thieves. It's probably the best platform action game since Jak & Daxter: Precursor Legacy (me and Johanna are in the minority who actively dislike Jak's later doings and anything relating to Ratchet & Clank). It has very cool graphics, brilliantly smooth gameplay and good sense of humour.
One more addiction: we got Tales of Symphonia for the GameCube. It's epic Japanese styled console RPG, with all the cliches and still it's quite enjoyable. We've never figured out what's so great about the likes of Final Fantasy, so it's quite strange we like this one. The nice graphics (even if the animation is sometimes substandard) and interesting plot help, as does the exciting realtime combat system. Johanna is already addicted and I like it a lot, too.
The Sims 2 - well, yeah, we did play that, for a while. It's not that new, really, even though it adds lots of good stuff to already working game idea.
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