Favorite Games

Just over a week ago, I posted about my currently favorite movies. Now it's time to post about my favorite current-gen games.

First of all, I should say that I have the Xbox 360 and the PS3. I don't have a Wii, but I've played my brother's Wii enough to know what's good on it. Of the three systems, I prefer the Xbox overall, although the PS3 is a close second. The Wii, well...it does have it's problems, but it also has its advantages. The fact that it's currently the only fully backward compatible machine is a big one for me; being a collector with limited space, the more games one machine can play, the better.

For a while, Gears Of War 1 and 2 were my favorite games this generation. More than anything else, I enjoyed the wham-bam action and the...CHAINSAW BAYONET! The first game popularized cover-to-cover gameplay, and the sequel vastly improved it. While the first game didn't have much of a story, it was just plain fun. The second game deepened the story more than I thought they would, and it was epic. The main reason I like these games however, is because of all the horde nights I've had with friends of mine.

Lately however, I've discovered a new favorite game this generation...Mass Effect 1 and 2. These massive shooter/rpg games involve gathering a team to save the galaxy. Throughout the games you make tonnes of choices a well. You can choose to save people or let them die, you can choose to kill people or let them live. If you finish Mass Effect 1, you can load your file into Mass Effect 2; people who survived the first game will appear in the second, and nearly every choice you made in the first affects the second one way or another. Sure, Mass Effect 1 does have it's problems, but the good far outweighs the bad. In fact, I personally enjoyed all the exploration missions; many complain that it had too much exploring. Either way, Mass Effect 2 fixes everything that was wrong with the first, and improved on everything that worked as well. It doesn't hurt that Mass Effect 2 is probably the best looking Xbox 360 game to date.

But so far I've only talked about Xbox 360 games, what about PS3 games? So far, Uncharted 2 is my favorite PS3 game. With an Indiana Jones like storyline, a rather impressive story, and a strong cast of characters. The game is perfectly paced, has tons of gameplay variety, and an enjoyable online multiplayer component. Uncharted 2 is also one of the best looking games so far this generation, and truly shows the power of the PS3.

Another current favorite is the Metal Gear Solid franchise. I first played The Twin Snakes(Metal Gear Solid 1 remake) for the Gamecube shortly after it released. My next MGS game was Metal Gear Solid 4, exclusive to the PS3. Since then, I've also played MGS2, MGS3, and MGS: Portable Ops (PSP). Most of these games are more movie than they are gameplay, especially MGS2 and MGS4, but the movie is very well produced, and the gameplay's pretty fun too.

Well, those are the biggest game on this list, but others I vastly enjoyed include Modern Warfare 1 and 2, Little Big Planet, Ratchet and Clank Future (all three), Halo 3 and ODST, and Left 4 Dead. And this completes my list of favorites this generation, so far. Yeah...I like shooting games.