Recent Pickups: Version 7

The last one says Version 5, but if you'll remember, I shoved a recent pickups into one of my recent posts making this version 7.



I hit up one of my local Gametag Stores today, and got a good amount of games in the Three for $10 deals. I got 8 PS2 games, and One Gamecube Game (Super Monkey Ball)

I recently realized that I didn't have a lot of Racing games for my PS2. I like Racing games, but haven't been in the mood for them for years, but a 3 for $10 I got:

Gran Turismo 4-

Yes, I had actually put off getting this game until now. Why? Well, aside from my recent lack of interest in racing games for a while, it was one of those games that I knew wasn't going anywhere. Twenty years from now, you will be able to walk into a store that sells old games, and find tons of copies of GT4. For games like GT4, I tend to put off getting while focusing on the games I know won't be easy to find in one year let alone twenty.

Burnout 3: Takedown-

I've been meaning to get a burnout game for years. The only one I've really played was from a demo disk, and that was Burnout 2. I know the games are fast fun arcade racers, but again, I haven't been very focused on collecting racing games lately. For some reason, I haven't put a lot of time into a racing game for years. That's going to change though.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2-

This is another one that I've been meaning to get my hands on for years. I haven't played it since around the time I was in high school when my friend rented it for a weekend. It's a pretty fun game, and I remember all the reviews at the time saying the PS2 version was superior to both the Xbox and Gamecube versions. I'm not sure how much better it was than either. It could be something small that they sensationalized, but the PS2 version is supposedly the best in some way.

Jet X2O-

This game got average reviews, but I've still always wanted to give it a try. Sometimes you need the over the top racing action that doesn't deal with cars. I'm assuming it's a similar formula to SSX, but with Jet Skis. Chances are the reviews were probably a little harsh on it. We'll see though. Maybe they were right, or maybe the over-saturation of extreme over-the-top racers around the time it hit led to reviewers being harsher than needed. I'll have to boot it up and see.

Here's a Playstation Underground feature on the game I uploaded to youtube:

Ace Combat: The Unsung War/The Belkan War-

I've actually been meaning to get another Ace combat game for years. I played a little bit of AC4, but the only game in the series I actually own is Ace Combat 2. Finding both of these games for a mere $3 each means I can now catch up on the series.

Destroy All Humans-

I have a demo of this game, and I wasn't too interested in it at the time I played it, but I've decided to give the Destroy All Human series an honest change. When i played the demo, I think I was distracted at the time by other games, so I didn't give it a fair shot.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas-

Why do I not already own this you ask, well, read my description for GT4 and apply it here. I knew that I was going to eventually pick the game up, but I wasn't in a rush, because it's one of the best selling games on the PS2, and wasn't going anywhere. I've borrowed it from my friends before, and put many hours into it previously, and while GTA4 may hve prettier graphics, San Andreas is still vastly superior to GTA4. In fact, GTA4 was hugely overrated, and took huge steps back from a gameplay standpoint. Instead of expanding the gameplay refinements made in San Andreas, it instead played like an HD version of GTAIII. Gone was the RPG-like stat leveling, gone was dual stick aim (until they patched it later, but the game came out with the inferior lock-on system of GTAIII as opposed to San Andreas which had a lock on system, but allowed for dual stick aim while holding the lock-on button), and instead we get a game that was more intent on pushing some lame ass narrative than pushing anything even remotely resembling gameplay innovation. Oh, they threw in Online multiplyer finally, but that doesn't excuse the lack of vision shown in the single player mode.