I never seem to talk much about games on here so I thought I would take a moment to run down what I’ve been playing. It’s been the season of the PS2 for the most part. The system is at its absolute peak, with a ton of A+ games being released and enough of a lifespan on the shelves that many quality games are now in the bargain bins for $20 and sometimes even less. I’ve gone a little nuts as a result, buying all kinds of games to play with.

I recently solved Star Wars:Bounty Hunter. For the most part I had a blast with this game. It’s got fast-paced arcade blasting action, good graphics, a well designed control scheme (with the exception of bounty captures) and a great storyline. The game involves Jengo Fett, the guy who gets beheaded in the recent Star Wars movie, and how he came to be the ‘template’ for the clone army the empire is building. In a nutshell he gets to be the template because the evil ones are so impressed with how he beats ass on a variety of bad guys 😉 (which is where you come in). The only downside to the game is I have a hunch it was rushed out for xmas – the boss fights are all pathetically easy, including the ultimate bad person, a dual lightsabre wielding female jedi gone bad. Also the bounty hunting aspect where you capture baddies for cash has a bad interface and serves no purpose – you can’t spend the money you earn so after a while I stopped even bothering with it. Still, I would give this game a solid B, which runs contrary to most of the gaming pubs which are giving it in the C range.

The other game I am spending a ton of time on (and should solve soon) is Rachet and Clank. It’s a cool mix of the sort of 3d platforming action found in games like Super Mario World and the blasting action in more traditional shootem ups. The graphics are some of the best to be found on the PS2 and the audio and voicework is top notch. I really see no downsides in this game – it’s a top notch game executed perfectly.

On the PC side I just scored a copy of Diablo II Battlechest, which has all of the Diablo games (Diablo I plus Diablo II and its expansion pak) for $20 so I have been playing through that. It’s still the same clickfest that annoyed me so much I sold off my original copy, yet there’s something compelling there that keeps me coming back for more. I hope to solve it this time then sell it off.

That’s about it for now. When time permits I’ll mention the other PS2 games I’ve picked up lately.