GRAW 2

Picked up GRAW 2 the day it came out. So far it is what I expected. A polished version of last year's game.

I'm almost done with the single-player campaign and it has been a fun time. I have noticed a significant improvement in your team-mates' A.I. Mostly, they don't get in the way as much. They do a really great job of positioning themselves around cover wherever you may send them. About the only thing I wish you could do is send them to location in the prone position or in "stealth" mode. There have been times when I've approached an area while prone - otherwise I would have been spotted by an enemy - and I've wanted to bring my teammates up behind me, or to a cover area next to me, but they will just run up to it, alerting the enemy. If I recall, in the original Ghost Recon game, your teammates would mimic whatever stance you were in. I believe there was also an option when giving them commands to move to have them move very slowly and quietly. They would take a lot longer to get there, but it was a sure way to make sure they don't blow your cover. I wish they would bring that back.

Graphically the game is gorgeous. Not much has changed at a glance, but the lighting and particle effects are simply gorgeous. I will say this though, I am tired of Mexico. I really hope the next game in the series goes back to the mostly forested environments of the original. And let camouflage play a much bigger role.

I've only played one multiplayer session, a cop-op campaign game with Powerpuff and our friend Avalon. Much like the previous game, co-op is a blast. It was also quite difficult, in a good way. I can't wait to devote more time to the multiplayer aspects.

PS Network

Sony definitely needs to spice up their PS Network. Sure, it is free, but it is still way behind what Microsoft is offering, especially in ease of use and convenience.

Last night (Friday) was a perfect example of how much enjoyment a solid online functionality and great community connectivity can bring. I set up a co-op game of GRAW with Powerpuff and my other friend, Avalon. Setting everything up was a snap. Inviting them to the game was as easy as hitting the guide button to access my friend's list and pressing X to invite them. I was able to access Powerpuff's gamercard and view his achievements to easily determine which co-op missions he was missing to get the co-op achievement. We played, we won, it was awesome!

Powerpuff had to go, so Avalon and I popped in Rainbow Six for some terrorist hunt action. We saw that great pop-up notice that our other friend AcidicSavior was online, so we invited him. Avalon invited another friend, and in about 2 minutes we had a full 4 person co-op game ready to go. Next thing I know, Powerpuff is back and wants to play. Since terrorist hunt is limited to 4 players, I switched it over to
Team-Sharpshooter and sent the invite. Then Avalon's friend invited another friend, someone else invited another friend and in about 5 minutes, our lobby was at its maximum of 14 players and we were ready for some 7 on 7 death matching.

Of course, my crappy DSL connection was not able to handle the bandwidth that was required to host such a large room and that first game was a lag-fest. But someone else was able to host, invites were easily sent again, and we had an absolute blast that night. It is so much more enjoyable to play in a lobby full of people you know (or at least, people that know people you know). You don't have to worry about
playing with cheap players, or cursing 12 year olds, or rascist assholes.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Microsoft did a fantastic job with the 360 and its entire online interface and ease of use. That aspect alone is enough to make me chose the 360 version of a game over its PS3 counterpart. There is ZERO chance of me deciding on picking up GRAW 2 for the PS3, even if it is technically superior to the 360 version (which I doubt), because I already have a bunch of friends just
waiting for that game to come out to play on Live.

The PS3 still has a long way to go in this regard.

Resistance

I have yet to purchase a PS3 game (and don't plan on buying one anytime soon, unless The Show is solid), but a buddy of mine let me borrow Resistance and I've been playing that for about a week now.

Since I have also been playing CoD3 for a long time (in instalments), when I initially fired up Resistance I was completely unimpressed. It just seemed like more of the same and I began to wonder if I had overdosed on First-Person Shooters.

Now that I'm about 75% in (I'm comepletely guessing here), I've actually enjoyed the game quite a bit. It is a lot of fun. It has enough of a twist to the normal WWII formula to make it seem fresh. The story is intruiging and the game plays extremely fast.

It doesn't offer any huge leaps forward for the genre, but I am enjoying it a lot more than CoD3.

Graphically this game doesn't showcase anything that you wouldn't expect the 360 to handle, but it is not a bad looking game by any stretch of the imagination. If I had one negative it would be that the game looks a little "soft" and the color palette is a bit drab, but I'm assuming that is an artistic choice.

Definitely not a Halo-killer (or even a Gears of War killer) but a solid, fun title and probably the only game still worth owning in the PS3's line-up.

Wow

This guy is both very talented . . . and has alot of time on his hands.