Working Title 03.01.07: I Wish I Played That Sooner

Posted by Jordan Williams on 03.01.2007

This week is an off week, so let's take a look at some game I wish I would've played sooner.

Okay, before I get into my usual stuff. I'd like to apologize for the lack of column last week. My mom got in a bit of an accident and she hurt herself. She is okay now, but she was in a lot of pain this time last week. Family comes first, guys.


With that said...

WELCOME TO THE #1 COLUMN VOTED MOST LIKELY TO GET SYNDICATED BY UPN, Working Title!


A week ago I was just wrapping up WTNG2, and I will say it was a success, although my column about the Wii gathered quite possibly the weirdest fan mail I have ever gotten. More on that LATER, though, right now it's an off-week, which means it's time for another one-shot/rant like column.

Seeing as how in the past month I recently came upon an Xbox, I got to play a lot of games I never played before, mostly due to ignorance of the Xbox back then. So I think it will be fitting to post the Top 5 games I wish I had played sooner.


Given that I at one time did own a PS2, but I have NEVER owned an Xbox, this list will be full of Xbox games. That's just how it is.



Damn, I wish I played that when it was new.

It's not a secret anymore; I was a big hater on the original Xbox. I thought it had no real games I wanted to play, so I never really wanted one. If there was a game I -REALLY- wanted to play, a lot of my friends had an Xbox and I would just play the game over there. My Gamecube died earlier this year, and I am still saving up to get a Wii and an Xbox 360(I ironically love the 360), but I came across a very cheap Xbox, so I decided to nab it to see what little I have been missing.

Boy was I wrong. If I wasn't so goddamn ignorant, I would've gotten an Xbox a lot sooner, because there were some games I never played that I would've loved a fuck ton more when they were new. I still love them now, but now I have no one to talk about them to.


Either way, there are five games in particular I wish I would've played a lot sooner.


5. Jet Set Radio Future



Yes, this game is old as shit, and yes, before a month ago, I had not played it. To this day I still haven't played Jet GRIND Radio, so you can see just how behind the times I was. This game has, to me, a very annoying soundtrack, but it more than makes up for with his challenge and pick up and play style. Sure, the characters all sort of blur together and there is no real reason to try to unlock them all, but there is just something really cool about grinding along a roller coaster track, jumping onto a billboard and riding that onto yet another rail. All while tagging a wall.

This game really hasn't aged well, since you really can't find a single person who will outwardly talk about it, but if I had gotten an Xbox a lot sooner, I would've definitely had a ball with this. I almost want to go find the Dreamcast version.

Almost.



4. Dead or Alive 3



Despite how much I harp on Itagaki and the DOA Girls, I will say that they do make a damned good fighting game. But I skipped over DOA 3 because I didn't have an Xbox, I just now got to play it, and I still like 4 better. But there is ONE reason I like 3 so much.



Team Ninja hadn't resorted Tina to the big pile of slow useless he is in DOA4, It was actually possible to WIN with her again. It felt so good actually being able to own bitches with Tina instead of having to resort to my back up char, Zack. That was one of the things I really disliked about DOA 4, they nerfed a few characters (Tina, Tina, and Tina) and made others (Leon, Ayane, Haybusa) really friggin' strong. It resorted me to have to drop Tina as a char altogether and use Zack, now, I like Zack, but I really didn't want to use him as my sole character like I have to in DOA 4, so it was a GREAT change to play as Tina when she was still a fucking badass.

Although that air throw she has is HELLA cheap.

3. KOTOR II



Yes, I know this is pretty much sacrilege, but I was NEVER a giant Star Wars fan. Truth be told, I had never watched Episode 4, 5, and 6 before I saw episode 1, 2 and 3. Why? Because I was raised in a Star TREK family, and anyone who lives in those knows how much of a mortal sin it is to speak of the OTHER great space epic.

But I will admit one thing right now, Star Wars has better games. In all of my years of gaming, I've only played ONE good Star Trek game (Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force), but KoToRII still blows that away.

Seeing as I have yet to play KOTORI(That game is damned impossible to find, I tell you.), but I got filled in on the story pretty fast. I can't really explain the story because it did lose me about halfway in, but I will tell you the game was still fun as hell to play. Of course I could've done without that two and a half out long intro level. I hope there is a third one for the Xbox 360, mostly because I would LOVE to see what the 360 could do with this game and how I could improve the engine. Maybe you can play as a droid for once? Oh man, just imagine being able to be your own HK Unit. No, I don't want to imagine it. I have a problem with open ended games like these where you can choose to be evil...I always end up being evil. I need to change my ways!


2. Max Payne 2



What is with the original versions of games being so damn hard to find? I went into EB looking for Max Payne 1 and couldn't find it for the life of me; instead I found Max Payne 2 and was glad I did. I never understood the big hoopla about Max Payne when it first came out. I just looked like a lot of painfully cheesy bullet time effects...and I was right. But I didn't expect it to be fun like this. Sure, it's a standard FPS, and I usually don't care for FPS games, but this was a lot of fun. Getting to see my bullet whiz by and just impale itself right between the eyes was a great little moment in gaming history, plus it let me know that I had some great-ass aim. I don't think there's ever going to be a Max Payne 2, simply because I don't think the market is there for an over stylized shooter with Matrix effects like this anymore, but man, it would be really kick ass if one did show up again in the future. It'd look nice on the 360 or PS3



1. Fable/Fable: The Lost Chapters



Man, I hate to admit I am wrong. But I was wrong. When this game first came out, I was one of those people leading the fucking charge saying that it was overrated as shit. Well, in the past two weeks I have completely eaten my words. This game, even though it didn't make good on it's promises, and was a wee bit short, blew me the fuck away. Why oh why did I not play this game sooner? This game had a pretty great story, the magic and combat system was nice, and I didn't like how fast I aged, but oh well. It really has a pick up and play style that isn't seen in most action RPGs these days, but it still requires a bit of skill if you want to really level up fast. Scoring 45 hits on a group of enemies is A LOT harder than it sounds.

If this game did anything, it definitely showed me that I will NOT judge Fable II by its hype machine, instead I am going to ignore any and all hype for it and seek this game out when it comes out and make my own decision about it. Because I really feel like I missed out on a great game with Fable 1, I was just glad that EB had Fable: TLC up for sale, or else I would've never found this game.

Although, I hope Lionshead learned its lesson about over hyping, though. Maybe they won't chug the hype train so much this time around.




There you have it, my short little Top 5 off-week column. Now onto some reader mail.


Working Feedback

Our only mail is from Norman Ford who has sent me the most mind boggling reader mail I've gotten to date:

Jordan,
I must say that your article really wasn't that well rounded. You sound like a Sony/Microsoft fan or a Wii-hater. All you talked about were the worst parts of the Wii. You didn't mention anything good about the Wii other than the fact that the Wii launch was spectacular. You then proceeded to systematically destroy the Wii. I don't know what you mean 'I may say some unpopular things here'. Your whole article was unpopular. I really think you should've said 'I may say some popular things here'. Maybe that would've reflected your article better.
Also the whole thing with the games. You only mentioned Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Metroid Prime 3 because those are universally popular games, even with non-Wii owners. If you'd trashed those your article would've been flamed so bad it wouldn't have been funny.

Next time, at least title the article better or warn us ahead of time if you're going to trash a console and left the others up.


Wait, what?

I bashed the Wii? I've reread that article (and even had other people re-read it) and NONE of them can find overly harsh things I said about the Wii. Did you take me as saying that I didn't say the Wii was the best thing since sliced bread as a bad thing? Or that I said the Wii can't produce graphics like the PS3 and Xbox 360? Because those were about the only negatives I've sighted in that column. I must be a Sony or Microsoft fanboy, especially after I ranked the PS3 THIRD out of all three consoles, highlighted the bad points of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. I usually don't want to get outwardly snippy with people who send in reader mail, but this mail really just sounds like you're just a Nintendo fanboy who is offended that someone pointed out the kink in its armor, and told you straight up that the Wii isn't the best thing ever, not yet, anyway.



I only mentioned SSBM and MP3 because they are universally popular? Notice I mentioned Halo 3 for Xbox 360 and Metal Gear Solid 4 for PS3? Why? Because those games are flagship titles for their respective consoles, all four of those games are widely popular. And I don't think many people are there with your 'if you trashed those your article would've been flamed so bad it wouldn't have been funny' movement. Seeing as you were the only person to mail me about this, and everyone else I did show this article (coupled with this response) to completely disagreed/had no idea what you were talking about.

Sorry that I told the truth, dude. Thanks for the mail.



Next time...

That's another one-shot in the books, and next week that means it's the start a new series. Seeing as spring and summer are coming soon, that means movie blockbusters are going to start dropping like crazy. I already did a series about games that should be movies, but now I'm going to do that in reverse (I touched on it a bit on the last part of that series). Next week we kick off Gaming goes Hollywood, and I will show you four MOVIES that would fare well as games, if handled correctly.


Until then, I'm Jordan Williams, and crunchy chicks are AWESOME.