January 21, 2010
Bog-Standard Shooters: Suddenly Nice to Have
Gamefly is currently sending me John Woo Presents: Stranglehold.
I’m excited.
I mean, I don’t have any good reason to be. The game was, at best, a competent but not all that wonderful shooter. I’m sure there will be bad guys, and I’m sure I will use a variety of guns and bullet-time (excuse me, Tequila-time) effects to kill them again and again. And you know what? That’s great.
Buying these sorts of shooters always seems like a bad value proposition. To make them last long, you have to play them at a high difficulty, which I’m just not willing to do anymore. Frustration will make me drop a game. If you play them on the easier settings, they don’t take very long. Often, there just isn’t much gameplay there. If there IS a long campaign, it probably gets boring near the end, and was probably padded. Thus, I never really buy many, if any, of the zillions of shooters that come out on the 360 every year. Sure, there might be a few gems, and they might be fun, but it just feels so wrong to buy them.
Gamefly has opened all of those games up to me. Suddenly, they’re a joy. I can blaze through them in a weekend on “Easy” or “Casual,” get some nerdpoints to increase my electronic penis, and feel no remorse. Sure, often they’re nothing special, but I get a feeling of accomplishment for actually beating a game, and it’s a good use of my time, and my rental. Plus, sometimes I find a shockingly good game, like Bound in Blood, and then I get to be pleased.
I guess what I am saying, in one line, is that renting games makes mediocre games worth it, and mediocre games on the 360 are, for the most part, shooters. I like playing through a lot of games. I like being knowledgable. I like beating things. I like this setup I’ve got going.
So bring on the Strangleholds and the Army of Twos and the Wets. I’ll play them until I get bored or beat them, and then send them back. It will be delicious.
Also, as a completely unrelated side note, Happy Birthday, Jonathan. Cause, you know, that’s today and all.