A Half Year in Review (Replay Edition)

            Wow!  I am the most inconsistent.  This is terrible!  We’ll get over it though.  I have faith.  So…  Where the hell has the year gone?  It’s freaking July already.  Gonna have to try and slow it down a bit.  No more of this napping through the year.  By the way, if you’re wondering why I haven’t posted much (or even if you weren’t) it’s because naps are soooooo amazing.  But, they have been eating up a lot of my time and I have recently decided to finally start doing that whole living thing.

            Since the year is going by so quickly, I wanted to take this half of the year and review what’s been going on.  The fact that I am out of the global politics game, and haven’t kept up to date on many social issues, I’m going to review the year in games I have played!  Cause that’s what nerds do with themselves.  And if you’re not down with that… Well… too bad.  Because it has been half a year, however (and I play a ton of games), I’m going to break this blog up into like… 3 parts.  Maybe 4.  Yeah!  4 parts! 

            This first list of games is the replays list.  Games I have revisited this year because of reasons!!!  By the end of this one, if you think that it’s too long, then you are really in for a surprise on the next list.  I have game ADD something fierce.  But that is future Lazy Rhino’s problem.

            Civilization V started out my year.  61 hours in total.  Not this year of course.  I was real into it last year.  That didn’t stop me from dropping another 20 or so hours on the game.  I believe I spent an entire Sunday playing in January.  Just sat down at 8 in the morning and didn’t get up until I decided it was probably time to actually eat around 5.  Not my worst sit down in a game, least of which not my worst sit down for THIS game.  I just start a civilization and don’t stop until I’m either the winner or wiped of the planet.  And I have NO regrets!  (Here is a nod to Alexander, who I was dominating with the last time I played.)

            Mass Effect 3.  (And I don’t mean the single player campaign, cause that would just be rage inducing.)  Chris and I started drowning ourselves in the multiplayer again.  It was so awesome.  It reminded me how much I loved the Mass Effect series before the third game ruined every dream I’ve ever had.  (All of them, no exclusions… ruined… *sob*)  And it was an appreciated jaunt back into the frantic biotic throwing mania and Krogan rampaging party that it was when it first came out.  I can’t help but smile and remember that this series was once the best…  Mmmmm… Memories.

            Now, in-between little forays into League of Legends, I picked up Asura’s Wrath again.  This might not be popular “gamer” opinion, but I’m not going to apologize for loving this game.  It was like playing through an anime.  (Which I freaking love!)  I just needed that feeling…  The anger, the colossal task of tearing down the heavens, and the ending that was infinity times better than Mass Effect 3’s and Bioshock Infinite’s endings combined.  It was Gurren Lagann’s galactic brawl all over again, and I ate up every dang second of it. 

            After that, I was in game limbo for a bit.  (And I don’t mean the game Limbo, though I probably should go back and play that.)  A sudden urge to play some old school games came over me, so I plugged in the N64 and the PS2 and started to jam on some older titles.  First, Ogre Battle 64.  And if you are a fan of this game as I am, you know that it is in serious need of a real title sequel.  With a classic this good, though…  It isn’t a surprise that it never had a real follow up.  (Other than that Tactics Ogre one… Which I wasn’t really into… Just wasn’t the same.)  I had been rewatching Samurai Champloo and started watching Sengoku Basara’s 2^nd season around this time.  When I was satisfied with Ogre Battle 64, I played Way of the Samurai 2 and Samurai Warriors 2 Empires.  After slaughtering countless foes (Like we do), I put down these 2 gems in favor of real deal game time. 

            I soon picked up Spelunky again.  Oh Spelunky.  If you have ever been insanely frustrated yet completely entertained by hours’ worth of deaths you put into a game, then you have never truly lived.  It is a game with an incredibly high learning curve, and you will die a lot.  But all the time you put into it, will eventually get you where I am in the game… Nowhere… and you will love every second of it.  It has some of the most unique ways to die at random just doing your Spelunky thing.  It’s like if Australia was a game.

            Speaking of Australia the game; I also poured quite a few hours into the (still) amazing Don’t Starve this year.  And have gotten farther than I have ever done before in the game.  I’m not kidding on this game being deadly (if you didn’t get the Australia reference) and it is constantly testing your ability to not get killed by everything in the world that randomly generates for you to try and survive.  From spiders, hounds, pigmen, tallbirds, walking killer trees, deadly robotic chess pieces, and darkness that will eat you… to starving to death, freezing to death, going insane and being attacked by shadow creatures, and let’s not forget they keep expanding the list of things that can kill you…  Oh yes they do.  And it is just so enjoyable.  (Invest some time in their Wiki page if you want tips to survive.  It’s pretty much necessary now.)

            Honorable mentions:  Games I played for one day.  Awesomenauts (with Chris and MARCUS).  Borderlands 2 (also with Chris), Assassin’s Creed II (for the swordplay), Baldur’s Gate (because of a new PathFinder group), Dishonored (DLC tried out and enjoyed), and Halo Reach (cause it is best Halo).

            So yeah… those were the ‘worthy of talking about’ games I replayed at least some this year.  And much more fun was had.  I probably just can’t remember it.  Tomorrow, I will talk about the new games I tried and or poured my heart and soul into this year.  And there will be much rejoicing!  (Or at least some.)

                                                                                    LAZY Rhino “COO”

                                                                                                Andrew

(If you like this blog any of the other ones I’ve done; follow me on Blogger or Twitter @ANDCauthen.  I mostly just talk about stuff all the time, so feel free to join in on that!)