Day 54, Game 54 - House of the Dead: Overkill - Extended Cut

Today was a really productive day for me. Well, productive in gaming, that is. I continued my slice and dice journey through Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, I ground out some trophies in Sly Cooper 4, I went back and finished up Machinarium, I got suckered in by my oldest son to play some Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 with him, and then I finally got around to playing my game of the day.

Here is what I took from my huge day of gaming:

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a lot more difficult than it appears on the surface. You can't just wildly hack your way through the game, you have to be precise and calculated in not only your offense, but your defensive moves as well. Oh, and it is still incredibly fun. I'm already looking forward to my next play-though with all the upgrades and weapons from the start that I'm collecting on this first play-through.

Sly Cooper 4: Thieves in Time was an awesome and refreshing upgrade to the franchise. It was a lot of fun, but now, as I stare the last trophies square in the eyes, I have to ask myself if the grind to go back and get them is worth that beautiful Platinum trophy. Especially with the first three Sly Platinums already collected, I would hate to bail on this game. But man, the ridiculously long load times makes grinding and chapter hopping very, very tedious. I might just have to stick to grinding along on my Vita, when console gaming isn't an option. Also, I synced my cloud-save to my PS3 version for the first time since about the second chapter, and when I did, I sat there for several minutes watching trophy after trophy pop up. I tell you what, as a trophy whore, there is hardly anything better than watching double trophies pop. Thank you, Cross-Buy!

As I mentioned, I went back and finished up Machinarium. While there was no Platinum trophy, since it is a PSN game, there were a handful of silver and gold trophies I got just by finishing up my adventure. When I wrote about the game before, I questioned whether or not I had it in me to go back and finish this game. I wondered if I would eventually find out what the game is all about, and also if it was something I could finish in just one more sitting, and lastly, if the final trophies would all be worth it. Well, the game never explains itself at all, with the ending being as big of a let down as I can remember in games. I did finish it one last sitting, thankfully, because I couldn't go back and continue it after today - it was now or never for finishing it. And were the trophies worth it? Well, I didn't have to grind, just beat the game, so yeah, I suppose so. I immediately deleted the game and save file from existence after completing it, however, so take that for what it's worth.

My oldest son, who is almost 13, asked me if I wanted to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 with him tonight. He never wants to play games with me, but I think he got a little jealous since my seven year old got to play an entire week of Halo with me. I of course couldn't say no to this awesome opportunity to enjoy some games with him, even if it is a game I don't particularly love to play. His selling point to me was the Double XP weekend, which obviously I couldn't care much about. But honestly, all he had to say was "Nuketown," and I was all in. I freakin' love that map, just for the quick, frenetic, everyone-has-a-chance pace of the map. Sadly, I realized that compared to everyone else playing tonight, I flat out suck. Maybe I don't play enough to be good, maybe I just suck, I don't know for sure, but what I do know is that I was basically just target practice for everyone else. There was only one match where I finished with a .500 kill-to-death, and that of course was the only match in which I didn't finish dead-last. Good news is that I leveled up quite a few ranks, thanks to the double XP, and also because when you have a lower ranking, the leveling up process goes pretty quickly to start out. He eventually got bored playing with me, as he was bombarded by party invites the entire time we were playing until he finally succumbed to the peer pressure of his peers to ditch his dad and play some reals games ... or something like that.

No biggie though, it finally gave me a chance to play my game of the day, The House of the Dead: Overkill - Extended Cut. And yes, before you ask, that is the longest title of any game I have wrote about to date.

Now, this game wasn't my first choice to play tonight. I was anticipating getting a couple of games in from Gamefly today, but because their service is becoming increasingly slower and slower every time I make the game switcheroo, I didn't get them as I had hoped. So I had to find a back up plan, and somehow, this game tickled my fancy. I wish I could say there was a really cool reason for me playing it tonight, but nope. Just random, dumb luck.

I got this game when it came out on the Wii several years ago, and absolutely had a ball with it. So when I saw the Extended Cut on sale in the PSN store a few weeks ago for just a couple of bucks, I couldn't resist. You see, the House of the Dead franchise holds a special place in my heart. If I manage to find a House of the Dead game (especially 3) in an arcade, I will dump quarter after quarter into it. I don't know why, but the series has always been fun and rewarding. It's dumb, it's cheeky and over the top, but I just can't get enough of it.

Overkill, however, takes everything the series is famous for and covers it in gas, lights in on fire and pushes it over a cliff, only to drop a nuke on it after it lands. It is easily the most over the top, unbelievable, violent and mature game they have ever made, but there is a charm to it you either will love, or hate instantly. For one, the game is very self aware and has no problem making sure it is as cheesy and corny as possible, intentionally. Better than that, however, is that the game is made to be just like an old-school grindhouse movie style. It's completely insane, gory and exploitative, and I totally understand that this game isn't close to being a favorite amongst the masses. But for some of us weirdos, the type who enjoyed movies like Death Proof and Planet Terror, this game fits right in to the twisted genre.

The controls, I noticed, are super sensitive, as it was clearly made to be used with PlayStation Move, but honestly, more people will play and like this game than the amount of people who have Move controllers, and that's saying something. I can't say I will ever sink tons of hours into this game, but it is a fun little shooter to dabble in when the serious, realistic games start feeling a bit dull. 

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