d+pad

Looks like it’s another Monday. School’s out for the summer, and I’ve been spending the week looking for a summer job. Ugh. Looking for work is a career in and of itself. Luckily, I have a lead, and if anything comes of it, you’ll be the first to know. Well, the first after I’ve told all my friends and family. Then I’ll tell you. And then I’ll tell Joe. (I’ll hold my breath – JBE)

I’ve played Conker’s Bad Fur Day out for the third time now, and damn if that game isn’t the best game ever created on any platform. I’ve played my share of games, on pretty much every platform under the sun, and I have never, ever experienced anything like this before. Conker is the only story-based game that stands up to repeated play. The second and third times through were just as much fun as the first, perhaps even more so. It was worth every penny paid for it (and trust me, it was a lot of pennies). Not even the venerable Metal Gear Solid could claim that.

I got to thinking about why that was, and the inevitable answer was that not only is the Conker’s gameplay unique and inventive, but the story elements are also funny, interesting, and not very long. That last bit is the important part, because it’s a real pain to have to sit through long story sequences multiple times, especially when the game took it’s subject matter seriously. That was Metal Gear Solid’s biggest failing. It got so caught up in issues like genetic engineering, the nature of war, and whatnot, that the weight of the matter just dragged the entire thing down.

I really wanted to play MGS a second time, but I just couldn’t, because I would have to sit through either Solid Snake or one of his cohorts whining about one thing or another. Yes, it did move me when I first went through it, I’m not denying that, but when it was done, I didn’t get the feeling that I had gotten my money’s worth out of the title. And that’s saying a lot considering I paid twenty bucks for it. Does this mean that serious games can’t be fun over repeated playings? No. It just means that a developer has yet to figure out the magic formula that will make it work. Until then, I’ll be saving up for a Gamecube in order to play Conker’s Other Bad Fur Day.

Ciao.
Armaani.