So far it's been a decent year for me with video games. The poor PC doesn't get many really good games that often but then again it's debateable if the consoles do either. They may get more but as we all have found out in PC'dom, more is not always better.
My first great game this year was was Oblivion which I must say was very close to a perfect game. Jaw dropping visuals and outdoor scenes along with an awesome combat system and quests, quests, and more quests. A few glitches but hardly anything worth complaining about. A bit shallow on the dialogue system but it gets the job done. Since I waited so long I got the expansion pack along with the game for less than the cost of the original release. The expansion pack is far more than just an ad-hoc add in. It is huge and a definite pattern to follow for other companies wanting to do expansion packs.
Next was Sins of a Solar Empire which was worth every penny. Awesome game that interestingly enough created enough of a back story for the RTS portion that many people wanted a career mode. That doesn't happen very often. Gameplay is tons of fun, graphics get the job done, and no copy protection whatsoever which means no issues. Excellent. Warning, however, you better set aside about 10 hours of your day for this game because it's extremely addicting. It literally took me 6 hours to beat one map (I probably suck though.)
My newest and most recent game is Mass Effect. All I can say is WOW!! Top notch voice acting and so many lines of dialogue I doubt I've even heard them all after playing through the story twice. The game has excellent graphics, excellent performance (even on my dated rig), and an excellent story to boot. Very few games nowadays leave me sitting there wanting to play all the way through again just to see a different outcome or a different path to the outcome. However Mass Effect has done just that. After playing through twice I'm ready to go through again with a different character and try new dialogue options. Even with my sound drivers glitching and causing the game to pause for a bit I still thoroughly enjoyed the game....both times. There are not many games that you can play through TWICE and see completely different missions, side quests, and dialogue options.
If you don't have Mass Effect I highly recommend it. Everyone did an awesome job on this game and it's not just an XBox port. It has several new features, control schemes, a new HUD, and ultra high resolution textures all just for the PC version of the game. Thanks Bioware for a definite hall of famer. I'll be looking for new Bioware releases for sure.
(Shame on EA for the hideous copy protection schemes on this title)
So far these three: Oblivion, Sins of a Solar Empire, and Mass Effect are probably the best PC games I've played in recent years. Almost reminds me of the old days when PC games were more than just cool graphics.
If this is the new trend for PC's then maybe it's not all bad. I'd rather have a few select treasures on the shelves than a ton of junk.
