Suvudu Universe

This month marks the release of the next generation of gaming consoles. The Playstation 4 will be out on November 15 while the Xbox one will be available on the 22. Available if you got it pre-ordered that is. I don't think there are going to be any of either of these consoles sitting on store shelves anytime soon. I was an Xbox 360 guy over the PS3, but I'm not sure where I stand on the next generation. What I do know is that there were plenty of great games for the 360. In my first of multiple post about the next generation of gaming consoles I will look at what games I enjoyed the most on my Xbox 360. These games are in no particular order, just the order I thought of them, so maybe the one near the top are a little better in my opinion.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Yup, that's right, Oblivion. Not Skyrim. Don't get me wrong, Skyrim was a good game. It improved on some things, like being able to duel wield weapons, but it didn't change a whole lot. It felt more like an Oblivion DLC pack than it's own new game, only I didn't get to keep my badass character from Oblivion. This is an easy thing to happen in an open world game where the story isn't very important. When I first picked up Oblivion it stole days of my life away. I wanted to do every quest, explore every cave, mix every potion. I could not put it down until I completed it. Skyrim, however, was fairly easy for me to abandon. I like all the Elder Scrolls games I've played, I just like Oblivion the best.

Fallout 3
Once again I go with the Bethesda original over it's sequel. I played through Fallout 3 three different times for a grand total of over 250 hours. New Vegas was the one that was made to be played multiple times through, and I only made it once. 3 was unlike any game I had ever played before. New Vegas was a lot like 3. The weapons in 3 were cooler, the deathclaws weren't impossible to kill, and the game was easy to get lost in for hours without saving, which meant when you died you had wasting a long period of time. Bottom line: 250 hours of gaming can't be wrong.

NCAA Football
I know, I'm suppose to be a geek, and geeks aren't suppose to like sports. But I do. I own three versions of this game: 08, 12, and 13. Unlike Bethesda, EA Sports got it right by releasing the better games as they went on. 13 was the best version of these three and the one I played most with others via Xbox live. The online dynasty that can be done with friends is why I bought 12, and the super safeties that picked off every pass you threw in 12 was the reason I bought 13. I still play it, choosing to remain with 13 over the next installment, and with wind of the lawsuit against EA and subsequent halt to the series I am seriously considering keeping my 360 and this game even after upgrading to the next generation (plus I have the R2-D2 Xbox which is so cool).

Star Ocean The Last Hope
The fourth installment of the Star Ocean franchise is the only one I have played, and it is so good it makes me want to go back and play its predecessors. Unfortunately I don't have a PS2, so I can't play them. I got this game as a birthday gift from my girlfriend at the time. She wanted something to distract me so she could finish Final Fantasy 12 (yes she was a gamer). I told her I wanted a new RPG and to go with either Star Ocean or The Last Remnant. I think she made the right choice. This game may be the best Japanese style RPG on the 360. It is definitely the best JRPG I have played, ever, for any console. It wasn't turn based, which I LOVED. I don't hate turn based games, I just like games in this style much more. So many RPGs have you going around and collected a lot of items that you don't even use. I feel like this game is the only game that made great use out of every single item you created. It had a lot of things going to keep a player interested through a long playthrough and even multiple ones. I just absolutely loved this game. It wasn't perfect, but I really loved it.

The Last Remnant
I know I said my ex-girlfriend made the right choice in buying me Star Ocean over this game, but when I finally got around to playing this game I really liked it. It is turned based, but what is cool about it is that it is almost as much a strategy game as it is an RPG. Commanding unions instead of individual characters gives this game a new flavor that I had never seen before, and also allows it to become insanely complex but still simple enough that easy-going gamers can enjoy it too. Star Ocean may have been a better game, but I have played a lot worse games.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance
My brother got this game for free and decided to give it to me. It was fun. I love the Marvel comic book
characters, especially the Xmen, but it had it's problems. Primarily, there were too many character to play as and they only leveled up as you played with them. It made the game frustrating, so I put it down. Then came the sequel which fixed that problem. All the characters leveled up evenly, even if you didn't play as them. Plus different groups got different bonuses, like if you played with all Xmen characters or the Fantastic Four. Even cooler than that is the combos. Different characters can combine to do cool moves, like a fastball special. This one I played through, twice because there is a point in the game where you need to choose one side or another.

Alpha Protocol
This was billed as "The espionage RPG", and it was. I liked this game a lot because I like RPGs and this had those elements, but what I hate most about most RPGs is how they have long cut-scenes. I want to play a game, not watch a damn movie. What Alpha Protocol did to keep it interesting was to allow you to talk as the character during the scenes which not only kept you interested, but made it exciting because your responses determined how the other characters responded and treated you. I know it wasn't the first or the only game to do it, but merge that aspect with good gameplay that didn't get repetitive, which is easy for an RPG to do, it makes for a great gem of a game that few people ever played.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
This was a game made from a great pedigree. It was written by one of my favorite fantasy authors: R. A. Salvatore, and designed by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane. It kind of disappointed. The graphics were a little underdone, and the story wasn't anything special. However, it was super fun to play. The leveling system was cool. The weapons were awesome. You could create a total badass character and go slay some monsters like it was Christmas (don't as me about that analogy. Comparing anything to Christmas means it is awesome). I spent too much time running around killing things and looting corpses. More time aimlessly doing that than following quests. O well, it was worth it.

Gears of War
Gears of War is probably the only shooter I enjoyed playing on the 360. With the evolution of online gaming, all FPSs are made to be played online, and all online gamers are better than me at shooters. I don't spend the same amount of time as they do playing the games. I have a job. I have other hobbies, like this blog. I am a casual gamer and there is no place for them online playing shooters, except here. Gears of War is the only franchise I played online where I didn't keep dying 10 seconds after I spawned. I know you only get one life per round so that can't happen. I was competitive online in this series only, but I believe the first was the best of the bunch.

Two Worlds
I tell all my friends that this is the best bargain RPG you can find. It is a fun game. The graphics aren't good and the story is nothing special, but the gameplay is great. And the other good thing, I bought it for five bucks. It was used but I think I saw it once at Best Buy for $10 dollars brand new. Anybody who likes medieval RPGs should pick this one up in a heartbeat. I did when the sequel got cheap, but it didn't have the same appeal as the original.

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution
I like strategy games. In college my roommate and I would play Command and Conquer together in our dorm. I mentioned earlier I liked The Last Remnant because of the strategy aspect to it. However, I cannot play real-time strategy games on a console. RTSs are better suited for computer gaming. The great thing about Civ Rev is that it is turn based. I can control my units in turn one at a time and not have to worry about simultaneously controlling two different unit on opposite side of the map at the same time. Also it is cool how you don't have to win by conquering everyone. You can win if your civilization gets enough gold, culture, or technology. It is nice to see a game that doesn't require violence, but still contains it if you want to use it.

Dishonorable Mention

Final Fantasy 13

This game was pretty, and it had the best leveling system of all the Final Fantasy games I have played, which admittedly isn't many. What I hated about it, aside from the long movie scenes, was how linear the game was. What kind of RPG doesn't have side quests? The gameplay was too basic and repetitive. All I had to do was click the button that had the computer choose the best attack for me and I win most battles. 13-2 looked like it corrected some of these flaws, but I can't bring myself to play a sequel until I beat the original, which isn't happening anytime soon.

Mass Effect

I downloaded the demo to Mass Effect 3 and thought it was awesome, so I decided to borrow the first one from my brother (is it weird to do that considering I bought it for him for his birthday?). I couldn't get through it. It is interesting, but long and drawn-out. Not enough action, and the side quests are SUPER repetitive. I couldn't get through 1 which meant I couldn't get through 2 which meant I couldn't get to 3.

Game of Thrones

I know, officially licensed games normally suck. Seeing as how there is only one of those on this list it is hard for me to argue. But I love the books and the show so much I just had to give this game a try. I wish I hadn't. I hated the gameplay. I felt like I had no control over my character while he was fighting. The only bright spot to that is that there is little fighting in this RPG. It is mostly talking. Which is BORING. I feel like the game designers had to really try to mess up as bad as they did, and congrats boys, you succeeded.

As I said earlier, I was a 360 guy. I never owned a PS3, hell I barely even played one. Below are the games I regret not being able to play because I never had a PS3

The Last of Us

This game looks amazing. I want to play it so bad I was thinking about getting a PS3 just for it. I haven't yet, (until this blog takes off I don't have the money to do so haha) but everything I hear from friends who have played it is great. So I am sad and excited at the same time.

Kingdom Hearts

I loved the original for the PS2. I loved the sequel. They are some of the greatest games I have ever played. That is how strongly I feel about the gameplay of the action sequences. Because of that, I will play anything with the Kingdom Hearts name on it. I understand there is one out now on PS3 and one coming out soon. If I had a PS3 I would probably grab both of these titles.

Wow this was a long post. Well, I do love video games, always have. This list brings back happy memories and feeling of sorrow. I just hope the next generation of consoles will continue to improve gaming.