Something weird has happened to me lately. I have actually managed to finish a few games! I have way too many games and way too little time to ever be able to finish them all, the way I play. But within the last few weeks, I have completed three games. OK, so one of them was The Secret of Monkey Island (redux), which I have finished a few times before (the original game is from 1990, after all), but still! Two days ago I completed the original Company of Heroes (I had an inkling it was drawing to an end when my mission turned out to be cutting off the retreating Germans), and yesterday I returned to Fallout 3 after a few months off, only to finish it (very suddenly) within a couple of hours. I had read about the ending being very abrupt, but didn't really see how they could have made it such a big surprise on everyone. Yesterday I understood what they all meant. Luckily, I had already paid for the expansion pack and so could continue after the original ending. Also, the way I play, I was already midway through level 25 by the end of the game, which originally only allowed players to level up to 20 (the expansion pack allows up to level 30). Imagine having wasted enough XP to fill five and a half levels...that's quite a lot of extra skills and perks gone down the drain.

Well, Batman: Arkham Asylum was released last week, and I wasn't the least bit interested until I saw a brief clip of the gameplay on Gamespot and read the amazing reviews it'd had. People were tweeting about it and so I ended up downloading the demo on the PS3. I have to say, the demo is GB 1.4 in size and for that mass it contains very little actual gameplay, but it certainly convinced me I may actually be able to play the game. So I bought it the next day. And it was great. Really. I usually suck at action games, but the way they've implemented stealth in this game, it works so well. The graphics are beautiful, even though I have to admit I don't really see the scenery as I'm in Detective Mode most of the time (which makes the screen go all blue and x-ray-like, with some yellow and red dots here and there). The voice acting is superb, and there are so many extras there you just want to keep playing until sunrise. Yes, I play it only at night (hence why I suddenly finished the two other games; had to play something while waiting for it to go dark outside).

Also, I have to admit it is quite nice to see those achievement tokens popping up on the screen; a medal here, a trophy there... Even though they're more meaningful for boasting to your online gaming friends (of which I have none, as I don't play online), I like taking a glimpse now and then. Some of them have surprised even me; 'how on earth did I manage to get that one?'

Anyhoo, my hair's been cut and I feel like going back to a post-apocalyptic D.C., so Fallout, here I come!

Labels: gaming