Two decades of PC Gaming (1990-2010)

Seen a post on Reddit featuring the best games from each year from 1990-2010 (http://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1bo5ng/wanted_to_share_this_useful_chart_of_some_of_the/) and looking through it I realised just how brilliant a lot of those games were, and also just how many of them I already owned but never completed or really enjoyed playing. 

So it got me thinking about a challenge to myself (gah! another on including my writing which is almost done for this fortnight). I'm tempted to start back at 1990, pick a game from each year that I either really enjoyed and completed (Baldurs Gate 2), already own but never finished (VVVVV) or one I've heard good things about but never played (BioShock). Work my way through the years consecutively and have fun playing!

So looking through them all I've discovered there's only two years there where none of the top games I had completed but I've got at least one from each year so that will help the finances anyway and there's a couple of them I want to pickup at some point anyway (Baldurs Gate Enhanced) so could  be fun. It's not a timed challenge, just a.. "Well give it a shot" sort of one, no rush or pressure on it :) I'll post about it if I remember and even start the challenge but in the meantime have a browse through the games and see how many years you've played.

Sayonara Shogun 2

Had a chance to watch the recent Total War: Shogun 2 trailer that is out and I have to admit it looks good but I won't be buying it... Why? Read on young Samurai!

I've loved the Total War games since I first picked up Medieval 1 many years ago, I skipped Shogun the first one because I have no interest in Japanese history, it's not that I don't care about it, but simply I have too much other historical interests to keep myself occupied with. M1 and Rome were amazing games, loved them to bits and played the crap out of them. Hell I was playing Rome as recently as early last year and enjoyed it, but then I'm a Roman military fanatic so  I have a natural bias towards it. But apart from the setting of Shogun which I could get around why wont I bother? Well to be brutally honest it just looks over complicated from what is supposed to be a battle simulator. From talent trees for your agents to trade routes and research it just adds more and more to the game. I thought Medieval 2 had the perfect balance of depth and warfare without getting overly bogged down in micro management, hopefully you can set the PC to intelligently manage a lot of those in Shogun whicih may change my mind.

The other reason I'll be skipping Shogun 2 is bugs... After picking up Empire and playing it I honestly just got grinded into despair with the game due to the bugs and some of the 'realistic' effects (troops hiding behind flimsy stone field boundary, cannon balls bouncing off it repeatedly and it doesn't even crack), add this to the sluggish nature of the game and the micro management that was needed and I never got far on it before turning it off.

I'll wait and see how people react to Shogun 2 before making my final decision but I feel I'll be waiting for Rome 2 or another ancient themed (gimme Mesopotamia) before making a Total War purchase again. I wont jump to buy it like I did with Empire as the subsequent re-reviews noted that the game wasn't all they believed at the time and I'll hold off until at least 3-4 months after release.