The Gaming Agenda - February 2014

January was a pretty successful month for me, gaming-wise. I made it through all four of the titles I'd intended to finish through the month, and started a fifth that I'll hopefully be able to wrap up in this month. Now, as January disappears over the temporal horizon and February shuffles in to take its place, it's time for me to put together another Gaming Agenda blog - a sort of gaming 'to-do' list, laying out the games I want to play before the month is over. What with February being the shortest month, the list is a little shorter than last month's Gaming Agenda, but given the comparative length of the games involved I'd say it's also a much more ambitious list this time around. And speaking of games, here they are:

Final Fantasy VIII

I genuinely think I've played PS2 games that looked worse than Final Fantasy VIII

This is one of two games that I'm carrying over to February, having started it towards the end of January. So far I'm about six hours in and am just about to head off to Timber for Squall's first SeeD mission. It's been great fun getting re-acquainted with the game's mechanics, wrapping my head back around the sometimes confusing, but incredibly rewarding Junction system. Early thoughts boil down to Squall being a much bigger dick than I remember him being, and the game looking surprisingly good for a fifteen-year-old PS1 game. Seriously, those 3D character models hold up astoundingly well. My hope is that I'll be able to finish Final Fantasy VIII by the end of February - a pretty big ask, but by no means impossible. I'll be sure to keep you posted with my progress through the month.

Forza Motorsport 4

Driving fast cars hasn't got boring yet, probably because the game is still regularly giving me fast cars

Forza Motorsport 4 is the other game that I've brought through from January. I hadn't originally got any plans to play it, but seeing a friend tweeting about Gran Turismo 6 started the itch for some kind of racing simulator, and Forza 4 was the one within closest reach. The draw of levels, experience points and drip-fed rewards of new cars is keeping me engaged for now, but having just hit level 41 out of a possible 50, I'm not sure if the appeal will last once I hit the level cap. I was toying with the idea of pursuing the Bucket List Achievement, but as of right now I'm all but certain that I'll be putting the game down when I reach the end of its World Tour mode. I have about two-and-a-half seasons left to get through, and I'm pretty sure I can see those through before the end of February.

Rayman Origins

I don't think I've ever seen a 2D platformer that looks as good as Rayman Origins

By far the stand-out title from last month's edition of Letting Off Some Steam, this zany platformer earned its place on February's Gaming Agenda thanks to its gorgeous aesthetics, satisfying platforming, and retro throw-back style and structure. Its first half hour was a blast to play, and if I'm right in thinking that future worlds and levels will bring new power-ups and characters to experiment with, I'm sure the rest of the game will be just as rewarding to play through. The loose plan is to pick this up two weeks into February, when hopefully I'll be done with Forza 4, and divide my gaming time between this and Final Fantasy VIII through the back end of the month.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

I've got no idea who this guy is, but I'm looking forward to meeting him

The next part of my continued effort to beat every Zelda game I own will be attempting to tackle the most recent home console release in the series, the Wii-exclusive Skyward Sword. I picked up a brand new copy of the game last year in a sale for the very reasonable price of £10, and now that I have my very own Wii to play it on, I've decided to make it my next priority. I'm not really looking forward to the supposedly slow and dreary opening tutorial, but everything else I've seen and heard about the game has got me very excited to play through it. As with Final Fantasy VIII last month, I don't expect to finish this in February, but I would like to start it before the month is over and carry it through to March.

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So that's what I intend to play this month. It's not going to be easy getting through Final Fantasy VIII in the next twenty-seven days, much less getting through the remainder of Forza 4's World Tour and all of Rayman Origins alongside it, but I'm definitely going to give it a damn good try. Be sure to come back next week, when I'll be Letting Off Some Steam with a specifically first-person-shooty flavour to it. Thanks very much for reading, take care, and I'll see you around.

Dan

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Currently playing - Final Fantasy VIII (PS3)