Video Game Review: Thief

I felt so great when I was finally able to finish Bioshock Infinite that I was eager to see what the free video game download on PlayStation Plus for the PlayStation 3 was for the month of February. There were two and the more interesting of them was Thief. I have a PlayStation 3 that I keep on my boat in the Bay Area and so I downloaded it one evening while I slept. My Internet connection on the boat is not very fast and so it took a bit longer than if I was at home or in the office.

Thief was created by Eidos Montreal and published by Square Enix. I asked the guys at work about the game and they all said it got bad reviews. That didn't deter me from playing and so I started playing one evening and couldn't stop for several hours. Instead of running around trying to kill people like you would with a first-person shooter, you are thief and try to sneak around without being noticed. It was very refreshing as I wasn't constantly trying to kill everything in sight. There are also a lot of puzzles to solve including picking various locks, looking for important items, and figuring out where to go next.

Unfortunately I get bored by video games rather easily and so the next night I went to play the game but it didn't hold my interest nearly as long. Instead of wanting to play through for several hours, I was good for about an hour and then decided to move onto other things. I still want to finish the game but the end of the month is coming quickly and I am afraid I may jump onto another game instead. We'll see how this week goes.

No Time for Video Games

I love this time of the year as I don't have to go back to California until after New Year's. Normally I find myself playing video games and hanging out with the family. This year I have not had time to play any video games because I have been spending so much time with the family. That is a good thing. I didn't even notice that PlayStation Network (PSN) nor XBox Live were down on Christmas. In fact it took one day for XBox Live and several days to get PSN back up. Hopefully that didn't ruin your Christmas as I am sure a lot of gamers out there wanted to play with their new toys.

Today is the start of an uninterrupted week of vacation. My wife has to work and so I am hanging out with my oldest son. He has a dentist appointment this morning and so I am going through e-mail and shovelling the new snow while I wait for him to come home. When he gets here we will head up skiing for a bit. I guess I could be playing video games right now but it feels weird playing games before noon. We'll see how I feel after skiing.

Don't Start Bioshock Infinite Unless You Have Time

Earlier this week, I downloaded a copy of Bioshock Infinite for my PS3. The artistic rendering of the characters made it seem interesting to me and so I started playing it. My oldest son had played earlier versions of the game and coached me through the first few minutes. He instructed me to spend time looking around and collecting items. It was good advice.

My son had to head back to his apartment at school and left me to play alone. It is a good thing I was playing at home on the TV in my bedroom. When my wife got tired she came in and told me to turn it off and go to bed. Had I been alone on the boat in the Bay Area, I would have kept playing all night long. When I did turn it off, I was half tempted to wait until my wife was fast asleep so I could keep playing. I knew better though because if she woke up and caught me sitting on the end of the bed playing a video game, I would be in serious trouble.

Bioshock Infinite is a great game for me. I like first person shooter games but have grown tired of the constant attention you have to pay to keep from getting killed. This game has a little bit of puzzle solving, a little bit of exploring, and a little bit of shooting. It all adds up to a fun game that I have enjoyed playing the last few nights. I think I am doing pretty good at not playing during the work day as that would be easy to do.

I downloaded the game to my PS3 from the PlayStation Network as it is free this month for PlayStation Plus members. This game alone makes it worth the annual fee for PlayStation Plus. I highly recommend it.

Correction

Wouldn't you know it, I was wrong. Yesterday I said that I couldn't log into the PlayStation Network from my new PlayStation 4. While that was correct earlier in the day, I finished my blog entry and gave it one last shot for the day. I was successfully able to log in and download some of the free PS4 launch games. The games are free to all PlayStation Plus members and since there is a free trial that comes with each new PS4, everyone should take advantage of the free games. Our favorite right now is Resogun. It is reminiscent of the old arcade-style games with much better graphics. I'd write more, but my son and I are having too much fun with our new toy.