PixlBit

Shifting gears again this month. Now I've decided to focus on the best games of the years 2004-2006. I went through the Metacritic list and picked out what I liked.

First up was Half-Life 2 but I don't have a copy of that anymore and Orange Box has been delisted on Xbox, so boohoo, I'll have to wait to find a copy or get it online. Of course there's a few choices like OG Xbox version or Orange Box. The Orange Box is the more complete version, but I've played both and would want both at some point like I used to have. No luck at Game Junkies so far though (I try to avoid online purchases because it's a little too easy and tempting. I'd be broke in a week if I encouraged myself there). 

Next was Halo 2. It took forever to get the Master Chief Collection to listen to my request for only downloading the second game but eventually it was done. In the meantime I broke out an orginal copy of Burnout 3: Takedown I got at Goodwill for $5 a few weeks ago. What a find! I booted it up on my Halo Edition Xbox and played a few races. So good. It's still so fun. Only problem is that my Xbox tends to flicker occationally or even lose the picture entirely for a few seconds. I'll have to experiement with different power and AV cords to see if that fixes the problem (I'll have to ask reddit about that one too). 

I felt somewhat lonely on OG Xbox while my friend was on Xbox Series X, plus no achievements to get, so I returned to my Xbox Series S when Halo 2 was ready. I played through almost the whole campaign again. This is the Anniversary Edition within The Master Chief Collection. It looks fantastic, like it was made yesterday. I'm still so into it. I'm hoping to knock off as many achievements I don't have before I move on. 

Today I went to Game Junkies and used some of my credit for games on this current list, or related. I got Painkiller: Hell Wars (Xbox), Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (Xbox), and Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (PS2). Only Brothers in Arms is on my Metacritic list, but I had to get Painkiller again because I used to love that game both on Xbox and PC back in '05. Ratchet & Clank I have on the PS3 Collection, but I wanted an original copy again just because I love the series so much. Up Your Arsenal is on the Metacritic list, but I didn't find that one. Again, I can play it anyway on the PS3 collection I have. 

And oh yeah, I played some Wizardry remake again. I was messing around with playing with only two characters (one beefy, one new) when I was party wiped. The power leveling was great up until I was at the stairs to level 4, where I got killed. I really hated that and stopped playing for a while. Then I made a brand new party and am trying to eek out some fun from this game. I kind of enjoy the first four levels a lot because I know them by heart. After that it gets deadly and tense. At any moment you could land a tough encounter and have everything go wrong for you, like as if HAL from 2001 suddenly took over and decided to kill you off. I just want to have fun, darnit! I'm thinking of weird little games to play with Wiz like random proceedures.

My friend beat Werdna the other day. Good for him but he went through a lot of parties to get there. I haven't enough patience for it anymore. 

What cha playin'?