The Week in Gaming is a new weekly blog im going to update each week about my impressions and opinions of whatever games I've beeen playing this past week.
This Week: Lair (PS3), NBA Live 08 (PS3), Orange Box (PS3), LotR: Battle For Middle Earth (PC)
Lair: I got Lair as a late B-day present when it first came out, but was reluctant to play it due to scathing reviews. I played the first 5 levels a month ago and played the 6th level this week and I'm glad to say that Lair is actually a decent game. Unfortunately decent is not the category that people base their game purchases on. People expect great games and Lair on that account failed to deliver.
Anyone who questions the graphics of this game, however, is just plain foolish and needs to see an optometrist. The game is downright gorgeous, with seeping vistas and alarmingly detailed textures that make you sigh and think if only the controls weren't so inconvenient. The controls are, simply put, a mistake. It isn't that controlling the dragon with your sixaxis isn't terribly difficult, but rather that it comes across as a real inconvenice: just let me rotate the goddamn analog stick! The inability to use the analog stick is an enormous oversight by Sony/Factor 5.
The voiceacting is fine and the soundtrack is excellent, but the story is the same old "two nations at war" rehash. Overall, this came really can be enjoyable, but any game with people riding dragons should be able to do that.
NBA Live 08: I'm playing dynasty mode and I might have to actually revise my opinion of this game. What first appeared to be a mediocre baller can actually get interesting once you get a better hang of the controls.
Orange Box: I already beat Portal, which was very fun, but not funny until the final battle. Portal could also benefit from a few more challenging puzzles. Team Fortress 2 sufferes from lag on the PS3, but other than that is obviously a very well-balanced game, the highest complement that can be paid to an online shooter.
Half-Life 2, however, was the only game I played this week and I can't believe I never played it before. I'd seen it at stores and get rave reviews, but it always looked kind of boring to me. Fortunately the game is very exciting and the levels are so varied you never feel like youre palying just another shooter. Each level really feels like another game because your playstyle changes to adapt to the new environments that each new level brings. I just got out of Ravenholm, which I must admit was my favorite level by far. I won't spoil anything, but let me just say it's more frightening than Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil 4 put together, not because of the monsters, but because Gordon's perpective and the graphics make the whole situation seem incredibly real.
LotR: Battle for Middle Earth: It's an old game, but I got it cheap and I'm really enjoying the campaign right now. The only problem is that the strategy isn't really hardcore enough and some unit types are obviously unbalanced (Rohan Riders, any Heroes).