So, it’s been around about a week since I embarked upon my epic quest to finish all 40 games sat on my shelf before I buy another… In this article, read about my early progress and how I’ve rapidly become bogged down by one of the longest and most challenging games on the 360 already!

After coming upon Hunted around six months ago, I hoped that I would be reviewing a game with oodles of the rich RPG history that Bethesda are renowned for; with a welcome splash of hack and slash fantasy thrown in for good measure.

So, what does one do when a second stack of unfinished and unplayed games reaches the full height of a shelf and there is literally no room for a third? Naturally, one sets oneself the challenge of finishing them all before buying another… Duh!

The challenge is simple. Play through all forty xbox 360 games at least once, finishing them on the hardest (unlocked) difficulty level and picking up all reasonably easy achievements in the process.

RPG’s have been around for decades, featuring on just about every console since the ZX Spectrum. Early examples were often very basic (in appearance) text adventures such as ‘The Hobbit’ or ‘Lords of Midnight’ although as hardware moved on, so did the RPG genre. I still remember the first time I played ‘Eye of the Beholder’ on a friends dads Amiga once and being totally blown away by both its graphics and ambitious, complex gameplay. RPG’s have moved on a lot since then, but not always in the right direction for hardcore fans of the genre, so does Dragon Age II stay true to it’s roots, or pander to EA’s army of casual fans?

Being a closet fan of most of the DC and Marvel Comic Characters of the late 80′s, 90′s and 00′s, I had high hopes for a super hero/villain game when the original iNFamous turned up on the PlayStation3 2 years ago. Unfortunatley, for all the things it did right, I have never felt so underpowered for a Hero who in all rights should have been a juggernaut of a character. Enter iNFamous 2 …

Good things always come to an end (and to those who wait.) My XBOX/PS3 setup ran happily using Onkyo’s 2008 low-mid price powerhouse (the 606) for over 18 months, but with failing mainboard components and aging processing capabilities, I’ve had to look at a successor. Will Onkyo’s brand spanking new 609 live up to expectations, or will offerings from Yamaha, Pioneer, Denon and others win my hard earned cash?

What are you playing this week ?
 
Alex, Matt and Stu all opted for LA Noire on the Xbox 360 but Stu had a nightmare with the console overheating and exchanged it for the PS3 Version. We’ve had a little L4D2 and Black Ops mixed in there but with nothing new out till Friday and a couple of reviews on the go, we are all trying to finish off Rockstar’s Post War Detective Drama. Matt is frothing at the mouth for some RPG action after his Dragon Age 2 fix wore off but neither Divinity II or Daggerdale have filled the gap.

Dungeons and Dragons has had quite a chequered past when it comes to video gaming, the frequent ruleset changes and amendments make it quite difficult for many players (and developers) to adapt to in a digital medium. Veteran players also found the various implementations clunky at best and it wasn’t until the introduction of Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale and most recently Neverwinter Nights (and their various expansions) that the vast majority of gamers accepted the concept as mainstream.