PC gaming
I had to surrender the borrowed PC I mentioned early, which means I didn't get to play Witcher 2 after all the trouble I went through in order to run it. On a positive side of things, it has given me the prod and I finally completed Dragon Age: Origins. I consider this game to be one of the best role-playing games ever - it definitely jumped into my personal top ten.
In my version of the tale, Alim, my elf mage, romanced Morrigan, but finally fell in love with Leliana. He has seen the leave of both Morrigan (no agreement for forbidden ritual) and Alistair (disagreement over recruiting Loghaine). Anora became queen, Loghaine redeemed himself by slaying the archdeamon. Alim sided with Mages in Broken Circle, managed to save Connor from his Deamon, helped Witherfang and werewolves (convinced elf lord to end his life), protected Andraste's Ashes and killed the cultists, sided with Lord Harrowmont in Orzammar and destroyed Anvil of Souls, allowing the Golem to rest in peace. In general, my hero was a good man, but sadly lost his best friend and first girlfriend on the way to repelling the Blight. Fortunately, he lived to tell the tale, received well-deserved respect and went on to travel with his redhead love. All in all, excellent bitter-sweet ending, although I am still sad about how the Alistair's story arch ended.
PS3 gaming
First of all, I finished Batman Arkham Asylum - it turned out to be a rock-solid game, although I don't think it would be that much fun to play on keyboard and mouse (similar to my impressions from Mirror's Edge). I was indifferent to incoming sequel, but after comleting the first part and seeing two brilliant trailers (check them, seriously - one is here, the other here), I am now impatient to play it.
I bought and started playing Grand Theft Auto IV, but it has to convince me yet. I mean main character is interesting, the city is pretty and large and graphics are quite fine, but the story is disjointed, framerate is chugging when there's a lot happening (police, fires, lots of cars) and resolution is mere 720p. I am continuing to play the game, I am doing my best to like it and not to nitpick, but I quite frankly don't understand why it sits on the top of Metacritic PS3 all time best list - it's just yet another GTA with slightly better graphics and slightly less obnoxious protagonist.
I also restarted Dragon Age: Origins, right after the aforementioned PC was taken away from me. Why, I hear you ask? For one, its story can change so much on different playthroughs that I wanted to give it another go. Secondly, I was curious how it would play on PS3 - turns out of strategic top view and changed user interface result in a completely different game experience. Additionally, it looks really nice on my huge tv, so I guess the addicition isn't over just yet. The fact that I am so eager to replay Dragon Age: Origins right after having finished it speaks volumes of its quality.
I have revisited Flower and sweet Buddha, what a lovely game it is. It deserves all the praise it got and then some more. When winter comes in Poland and it's dark, cold and snowing outside, the fact of having a huge window into warm grasslands full of floating petals is warming my heart. Right now, in rainy Polish summer, I just enjoyed how beautiful it all looks, especially the level where player can paint the grass with their petals. It is a brilliant game and I will absolutely buy Journey when it comes out, no doubts about it.
Other highlights include Limbo, the game that was one of the first things I wrote about on this blog. I think it is somewhat symbolic - the beginning of my blogging in 2006 coinciding with announcement of this game and now its downfall in 2011 highlighted by the game finally being released on a system I own. As for Limbo itself, it is absolutely great - beautiful, eerie, unsettling, stylish and with some really smart gameplay. Obligatory game to have, no matter what hardware you play it on (note: Limbo is also available on Steam). Oh, and by the way, I completed it, only using walktrough two times.
Other than that, I played Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (geez, what a long name), Little Big Planet with my girlfriend (this game is absolutely brilliant, charming, funny, sweet and uplifting), quite a lot of Mortal Kombat demo with a friend (when this game gets cheaper, I am so buying it). I have Virtua Fighter 5 queued (my brother comes visiting, if you get my point), Red Dead Redemption on my radar, thanks to this extremely cool trailer, as well as Mass Effect 2 (Bioware RPG, I want more!). The only problem is I don't have time to play them all!
