December 30, 2008
Prince of Persia impressions . . .
December 29, 2008
Holiday weekend notes . . .
December 10, 2008
Update
November 25, 2008
Belated weekend notes . . .
November 19, 2008
Mirror's Edge updated impressions
NXE
November 18, 2008
Zombie overload
Weekend notes . . .
November 13, 2008
Mirror's Edge quick impressions
November 11, 2008
Gears of War 2 impressions
November 10, 2008
Weekend Notes
for first, or tied for last. It is great to look forward to Sunday's again.
- I played some of the CoD: World at War beta and it was fun. Mostly because it is a carbon copy of CoD 4 with a WWII setting. Seriously, in my first match I felt right at home and even managed a 7 kill streak to call in the dogs (their version of the helicopter for Modern Warfare).
On one hand, I like it because it feels like CoD 4, which is my favorite multiplayer game, but on the other hand, it is SO much like CoD 4 it doesn't feel new or fresh. This game was not on my must buy list and the beta isn't changing my mind, but I can see myself picking it up one day. Sucks that I'll be way behind in the rankings by then and will be getting owned. That's how I felt after doing Prestige in CoD 4 the first time and losing all my weapons and upgrades (my Red Dot scope!!!) and feeling at a complete disadvantage to all the other players that had
these perks. Oh well.
- Since I pre-ordered Left 4 Dead I received early access to the demo. Wow. This game is a total blast. It is fast paced and filled with tension and dread. I managed to play through one of the sections with Gabe and it played great. I can't wait for this one. The control scheme was a bit odd at first but I adjusted fast enough.
Graphically the game gets the job done but it won't blow anyone away visually. It relies more on its smoothness and the huge amount of characters the game can render at one time (when those zombie swarms decide to rush you, wow, it can get crazy!). This should be a total blast with 3 friends.
- Lastly, I spent a good amount of time with Gears of War 2 which I picked up on Friday. Story mode only. I'll write my thoughts on a separate post.
November 06, 2008
Michael Crichton R.I.P
November 04, 2008
Gaming notes
October 27, 2008
Weekend notes
October 24, 2008
Far Cry 2 impressions
October 23, 2008
And here . . . we . . . go!
October 22, 2008
Resistance 2 Beta
October 20, 2008
Dead Space Impressions
October 17, 2008
Resistance 2 Beta
October 13, 2008
An easy way to ruin your Sunday: Be a football fan.
October 08, 2008
Hell's Highway Impressions
October 07, 2008
Dead Space
September 30, 2008
Star Wars: Force Unleashed thoughts . . .
September 16, 2008
Weekend notes . . .
- Once the Dolphins game was 31-3, it was quickly turned off in favor of Rock Band 2. I played a few sets (it was me, Jeanette, and my buddy) and it was loads of fun. We took turns alternating between instruments and it was a blast. Not much has changed as far as gameplay goes (I am using all the original instruments too), but the song selection is great!
- I have been playing a TON of Castle Crashers and I love it! Jeanette is also addicted and we've been playing it every chance we get. Leveling up your characters and finding new weapons and animal orbs is a blast, especially when playing co-op. As soon as it is patched I expect to be able to play with Gabe online.
- Condemned 2 is pretty cool. I'm playing it in short sessions. Playing at night with the lights off greatly enhances the experience, so I don't play during the day.
I am having a technical issue though. I really want to play the game with my headphones, but ever since I got Comcast installed for some reason I am getting interferance from the optical cable of the 360 (I have the 360 connected to a toslink switcher, which I then have connected to my DAC and headphone amp so that I can switch between the 360 and PS3 when I want to use my cans). I must be getting interference from the cable signal since I have to run the 360 optical cable behind my TV stand, because I get no intererance when using the headphones with my PS3 since it is located in the same shelf as the headphone amp so the optical cable for the PS3 does not need to run along the back where all the other many (many) cables are. I have to get this fixed because playing Condemned with the lights off and a good pair of headphones greatly enhances the game.
September 10, 2008
Random notes
September 03, 2008
More Madden
August 26, 2008
Weekend
I also beat Braid. I think. I found all the puzzle pieces and I got the achievement for completing the game. But it doesn't really "end" per say as far as I can tell. Anyway, the game was quite the experience. I highly recommend it.
I also played some CoD4 multiplayer this weekend. Wow, whenever I stop playing for a while I get absolutely massacred when I get back in. I must have stunk it up for about 10 games before I even started performing decent again. This is still my favorite competitive multiplayer game that I have played.
I checked out the Head Coach demo that is in the PS Store and played around with that for a bit. I like the interface and it seems to be insanely deep (as far as I can tell from the demo). Unfortunately, when I was going to play the week 1 game, the game got stuck in a perpetual load screen. It was loading the game and it did not appear to actually be "stuck" because it kept changing all the facts that were on the screen, but I must have waiting for about 5 minutes for the game to load and nothing. I just turned it off and went to bed. So, all I did basically was get a feel for the menus.
I also tried the Star Wars: Force Unleashed demo (PS3). Everything I have seem on this game to date has been very impressive and the demo continued that trend. Ever since I first played Psi-Ops in the Xbox I dreamed of a Star Wars game being made in that same style. Well, this game is it. I'm a big fan of games that give the player a feeling of empowerment and lets them wreck havoc and this game lets you do just that. The visuals are slick and the control scheme seems solid. I was still in the learning stages so I never felt totally comfortable toggling between all my abilities, but this game has a lot of potential. I'm going to download the 360 version and see which I prefer.
Lastly, after playing through the demo twice, I decided to buy Bionic Commando Rearmed (360). Grin really did a bang-up job with this title. Every little detail about it screams quality. They did not do a half-assed port, you can tell this project was a labor of love for the developer. I have fond memories of the original NES game, but nothing detailed. I remember really enjoying the game, but everything is a haze. So far I am really enjoying Rearmed. It has that great old school vibe and the controls feel great to me. Many are complaining that the controls on the 360 version suck because of the terrible d-pad, and I agree that the d-pad sucks, but I am playing the game with the analog stick and having no problems. The game even supports analog controls (tilt the stick slightly and your character shuffles forward slowly).
The play mechanics remain mainly unchanged, just tweaked here and there. It takes some getting used to though. Your character can't jump after all, and in a side-scrolling platformer not being able to jump just feels wrong on so many levels. That is actually why it took me two play-throughs to buy the game. My first time through was a mixed bag of "Oh yeah, I remember this. Cool" and "Holy $#*@, why can't I &#$% jump! I hate you!". Once you accept the fact that you won't be jumping around and feel comfortable with all the grappling techniques (the advanced tutorial is essential), the game really opens up. And the game is a lot deeper than you initially think. You get many new weapons and items later on so that there is always something fresh to mix things up.
For $10, this game is a crazy bargain. Another recommendation from me. This has been a great month for Live Arcade games. And we still have Castle Crashers to look forward to. Sweet.
I also played Madden (of course) and will put some thoughts up shortly.