A Mountain of Games

Every once in a while I get bombarded with having too many games to play. This usually happens around the holiday season. Anyone who has ever listed one of their hobbies as playing video games can attest to this. What’s the easiest thing to buy for a nerd? Games, games, games! So after the holidays, the games that I need to complete are as follows:

• Call of Duty 3
  This is your typical action, First Person Shooter set in WWII, but utilizes the Wii controller for some interesting in game actions. For example, sometimes the enemy will come up to you and grab a hold of your weapon, forcing you to push and pull the controller to jerk it away from him. Aiming is, of course, done by simply pointing the remote at the television, like every FPS for the Wii shall be. The graphics are not spectacular, but get the job done fine. The graphics don’t distract me at all when I’m trying to headshot a German. Which brings me to another point: doing simple things like headshots has a greatly increased sense of accomplishment because of the sensitivity of the controller. It feels like you’re actually doing something.
• Redsteel
  The other FPS game that I have for the Wii still needs some lovin’. Unfortunately, CoD3 has trumped it in terms of gameplay, so I will have to begrudgingly play through the game, thoroughly angry that the controls don’t work the way I’d like them to. For a game about the Yakuza, with you swinging swords around like a crazy-man, it hasn’t lived up to the hopes you had as child running around in your back yard wearing a black hoodie you pretended was a ninja suit while carrying a plastic katana.
• Trauma Center
  Now this game is good. You cut people open with scalpels, and shoot lasers to excise tumors. You can’t beat that crap. Unfortunately I’ve stopped playing it recently because of all of the other games that I’ve ended up with. The presentation in this game is nice, though, and you always feel a little bad when you accidentally kill someone, just like real life. The control is spot on, so if you make a mistake while cutting open a body, it’s your fault, Cpt. Shakyhands.
• Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
  The Castlevania series always brings good gameplay that keeps you wacking baddies for hours (the N64 Castlevanias notwithstanding), and this isn’t any different. With the added ability to control two characters at once, PoR is fun and add just enough new to make you want to play it. Currently, I’m stuck at a boss that keeps romping my face, so I’m in dire need of leveling up. PoR is one of the best in the series, although Symphony of the Night probably still holds the candle as being the best overall.
• Jump Superstars
  Why in the world Best Buy would have this import title, I will never know, but they did and I picked it up and it’s really fun, so neener neener. The game is essentially the DS’s version of Super Smash Brothers, allowing up to four people to fight at once. Instead of Nintendo characters as fighters, you get 34 from various anime. This will be the best fighting game on the system (well, until last week when Jump Ultimate Stars came out) for some time. The only downside is that it’s all in Japanese. By reading a guide online, though, managing the menus is not that hard, and I can now utilize all of the customization features without having too look up anything. If I can do it, anyone can!
• F.E.A.R.
  Last, but not least, is F.E.A.R. I haven’t actually started this game yet, so I can’t really speak of it, but from what I understand it’s supposed to be awesome to the max. You have shooting, ghosts, and…shooting. What’s not to love? Hopefully it’ll run fine on my computer, as I hear it’s a beast.

And there you have it. those are the games that will keep me occupied for the next few months. They are also the games that will keep me from getting good grades this semester.