Sunday Roundup: 12/14/14

The better end of a Buy 2 Get 1 Free deal, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is a tactical thrid-person action game set in the sci-fi world of XCOM. Last year (or perhaps the year prior) I recieved XCOM: Enemy Unknown as a Christmas gift, but have actually yet to play it. Though this game is set in the same universe, it is a different gameplay experience with an emphasis on the action as opposed to the strategy.

First up for this Goodwill trip is Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer. You’re going to see a theme here. I was kind of on the fence about getting this one, since it’s on the original Xbox which I dont’ really collect for. But after a quick eBay search, I saw the selling price averages around $15, so I would be doing myself an injustice if I didn’t pick it up! It’s in perfect condition as well. If you’re curious, this is a spinoff title from the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise.

Manhunt 2 was riddled with censorship before it’s release. Pegged as one of the goriest, bloodiest, and most violent games ever made (at least that’s what the media made it out to be), developers Rockstar games had to go back and change a handful of scenes and mechanics to assure the game would receive an M-rating from the ESRB. It’s because of this I find it quite peculiar the game was even released on the Wii, one of the most family friendly consoles ever created.

The original headliner series for the PS3 comes to an end with Resistance 3. Review scores lean toward this game being the best in the entire series. Having played the first two games, I’m looking forward to what this one has to offer. Something I want to mention though, is just how AWESOME the box art for the game is. Simple, yet effective. More games need attractive art like this.

Man, this is just a Suda51 kind of month, with last week’s Killer is Dead and this week’s Shadows of the Damned! For added effect, I was thinking of picking up Lollipop Chainsaw as well, but since it was a bit on the pricier side while working with this Buy 2 Get 1 Free deal, I decided to opt out. This game also has Shinji Mikami, the legendary creator behind hits like the entire Resident Evil franchise, Devil May Cry, and even the new survival horror title The Evil Within.

There are very, very few games I am looking for on the original Xbox. Despite this, I ended up finding one of them at Goodwill in the form of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2X. An updated version of THPS2 released exclusively as an Xbox launch title, THPS2X featured all of the levels from the first two Tony Hawk games, as well as exclusive new levels, and even more bonus content! As a gamer and a kid who loved this series when it was first released, it was hard to not feel left out with all those people playing 2X on their huge Xboxes and enjoying all that new stuff.

I’m pretty positive someone just dumped their entire Xbox collection at this Goodwill, because they literally had 5 Tony Hawk games for the console, and literally every version of Guitar Hero sitting on the shelf. Obviously I picked up Tony Hawk over the music games. Interesting story about THPS3: it was the very first game I ever owned for the Nintendo GameCube, and was also the first Tony Hawk game I completely beat with every single character. Needless to say, I really enjoyed this one!

As the followup to one of my favorite games at the time, I was a bit disappointed with THPS4. My brother owned it on the PS2 and before he traded it in for something else (mistake number 1) I played with it for a few hours. It was largely the exact same as the previous 3 games, which was both good, and bad. By no means was this a bad game, it was just starting to feel stale. I think that’s why around this time the Tony Hawk series started to take a turn for the worst in terms of quality gameplay and sales.

I’m not sure if the owner of this collection which I so happily bought just forgot about Tony Hawk’s Underground and it’s sequel and just went straight for Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland, or if someone else beat me here and bought those games before I could get the chance. I think it’s kind of strange for someone who I would expect by the games here seems to love the franchise, to simply skip over two games. It’s especially weird to think when you consider, if this is all from the same person, they also bought Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer but skipped on two of the more unique THPS games. Anyway, with these 5 Xbox games I’ve literally doubled my original Xbox collection. Thanks Goodwill!