Ok, so I have been a Burnout fan since I first played Burnout 3: Take-down on the original XBOX about 6 years ago. When Burnout Revenge came out for the XBOX 360, I was all over that title too. My wife Stephanie and I really like the split screen, multiplayer modes and it is one of the few XBOX 360 games we both enjoy. When Burnout Paradise came out, while it looked impressive, the lack of split screen multiplayer really turned me off. Furthermore when I played the demo, I found the open-world concept felt a little too loose. As someone who has played games since the days of the Atari 2600, I have become accustomed to the constraints of typical racing sims and arcade racers. It is level after level of racing with menus that delineate each race and create a clear progression of skill, ability and achievement. Burnout Paradise's open world, "do whatever you want" framework had left me a bit bewildered and without direction.

My opinion has begun to change and I am starting to see why Gamespot gave this game such high marks. A few days ago I went on Steam and found that Burnout Paradise: The Complete Box had gone on sale for $7.49. I couldn't really argue with this low price so I decided to give the game a second look. After playing for less then an hour last night I am very satisfied with my purchase. Though the game has a very open feel to it, I found that driving all over the city was a lot of fun and took me back to my days as a child playing with Matchbox and Hotwheels cars. I could go where I wanted whenever I wanted and there was always something fun to do.

Races and events are available at all the intersections of streets and you can even earn points and bonuses while not in events. There are other NPC racers who show up on the streets and you have to chase them down and take them down in order to gain their car. You even get to have your picture taken at the end of each event and applied to your virtual drivers license.

I don't know if my wife would enjoy this game as much as I have because there seems to be much more emphasis on racing than on rampage events (which is what she likes) so I haven't yet decided whether I want to buy a second copy and a new video card for her computer. I on the other hand have found another title that I can add to my list of favorites. As a big fan of the Burnout and Flatout games I would say that so far, Burnout Paradise is stacking up to be one of the best!

Ok, So I have had a Wii for almost two years and during that time I have only owned a couple of Wii games. Sure I have rented a few but compared to my XBOX 360 and my PC, the Wii doesn't get a whole lot of use. I bought it because I thought it would finally be the game console that would bring my family together. What I found is that the games were a bit too challenging for a three year old but yet not engaging enough for myself or my wife. The Wii Sports game that came with the Wii was a lot of fun and we do occasionally play it but we haven't really spent a lot of time playing other games. Also we have found that the popularity of the Wii has kept the potentially good games consistently out of our budget. Good XBOX 360 games often hit the bargain bin within a few months but the Wii games that are worth having never seem to make it there. Fortunately I have been able to purchase Boom Blox which is a favorite rental for under $30.00 at Blockbuster and yesterday I purchased Wii Music for about the same price from Amazon.com.

Boom Blox and Wii Music aside, the real reason I am writing this is to express my interest and excitement for a game coming this June called The Conduit by High Voltage Software and published under the Sega brand. The reason I am excited by The Conduit is that it will be the first truly hard-core game designed and implemented on the Wii. Sure, some might argue that Metroid Prime or Resident Evil 4 are hard-core but without the intense internet-based multi-player I would argue that these games are good but that aren't "hard-core". When I watched the interview from GDC 2009 http://gdc.gamespot.com/video/6206890/ I was amazed. Finally someone has come up with a game that really takes the serious FPS player into consideration. They allow for all sorts of control customization and HUD control. They have weapons that look and react in a very solid way. They have some good looking bad guys and a reasonably well thought out plot. I will say that the game pulls a lot from title such as Half-Life, Halo and Lost Planet and other infestation/alien invasion games but that doesn't really matter. The thing that matters to me is that the Wii is finally getting games that are more Mario Kart or Dance Dance Revolution or even Wii Sports. You can use the motion sensing technology for more than just silly kid stuff. In the video, the developer talk about using the nunchuk to toss grenades! I can't wait to give this a try.

Now the one thing I am worried about with regard to The Conduit is the multi-player implementation. One of the best and worst things to happen to XBOX Live! is the voice communications. I like to be able to talk to my friends and discuss tactics and even do some trash-talking. It is my understanding that The Conduit will have the capability to support voice communications using the Wii Speak accessory. I am not really keen on the idea of using a "speak-phone" to talk in game. I often play with my friends after my wife and daughter go to bed and with the mike up close to my mouth I don't have to shout to be head. I also use a stereo headset to listed to the voice and game sound. This way I can play with being too intrusive. I really don't relish the idea of having to talk to a mike that is designed to be mounted like the sensor bar. I hope that Nintendo is able to come up with some kind of headset to allow a more individualize communication **** I know that Nintendo really wants people to play in the same room, but get with the program and let folks like me who have friends all across the globe play together!

Well before I ramble too much, It's time to go to bed. I just wanted to share that I am excited about The Conduit and I will be eagerly awaiting release day to get my hands on a copy. I will post more here when I do so you can get my opinion of exactly how the game plays and how the communication works.

Thanks for reading and good night.

DaddyBurrito

Well this past week I celebrated my 38th birthday and as a treat to myself I purchased a used Sony Playstation Portable game system. It was used because I couldn't justify spending $169 on a new PSP 3000. The $119 I did spend seemed more reasonable for a portable gaming system. When I got it home and connected it up to my wireless network I was very pleased. It connected right away and when I browsed to the Playstation Network I found a bunch of game demos and downloadable content. I was a bit dissappointed a few days later when I purchased my first UMD game only to find out that the UMD drive in PSP #1 didn't work. Fortunately I had purchased my PSP from Gamestop and when I took it back they promptly replaced it with one that worked perfectly.

Since my initial purchase I have spent a fair amount of time reading articles and blog posts relating to the PSP. It would appear that the PSP has been getting far less attention recently that it should. The Nintendo DS seems to be stealing the portable gaming spotlight and I am not exactly sure why. When I considered my purchase I looked at the DS and it's library of games and what I found was that on a whole the games were not of a ****that appealed to me. If I was 12 years old then maybe the DS would be my game system of choice but as a mature gamer the DS just isn't attractive to me. The PSP has more games that appeal to my ****of gaming. These games include the Syphon Filter series of third person shooters as well as some of the best racing titles available on a portable game system. The PSP also includes a much more sophisticated control system for these types of games. While a touch screen and stylus are neat (for a Palm Pilot maybe) they don't do a thing for racing games or shooters. The analog controller along with a d-pad and 6 additional buttons make the PSP far superior for controls and game options.

Don't get me started on the screens... The PSP has a beautiful wide screen display that looks so clear and beautiful that I find myself playing for hours (even at home where my PC and console systems are). The DS's screens, through there are two, are smaller and just don't look that great to me.

I could go on and on as to why I really like the PSP but there is one area that I am a bit dissappointed and is really why I am writing this. When I look at the upcomming games list I don't see very many PSP titles. Sure Resistance is coming next month (and that should be a blockbuster based on the quality of the demo I have already played) but the bulk of the upcoming titles for the portable gamer are for the DS. I want to send out this plea to all the game developers out there to take more time to consider development for the PSP. The potential is out there to build some really fantastic games on this platform. It has the power, the display, the controls, the UMD drive, the WiFi and many other good elements that make this system the one true powerhouse for portable gaming!

Last night while checking my e-mail I discovered a new message from Gamespot regarding a program they have just started called Gamer's Instinct. Based on the information they provided I understand that this new program is a way for Gamespot to collect valuable market research data from gamers while giving gamers an opportunity to earn cash. My wife is always picking on me regarding the fact that I spend far too much money on my gaming habbit.Whenever there is an opportunity for me to do something that can fuel my habbit without taking from our regular budget she is all for it.

I registered with Gamer's Instinct (http://gamespot.gamersinstinct.com/) this morning. It took about 10 minutes to wade through several pages of demographic questions. The questions are pretty basic and deal with the systems and types of games played and other basic information. Now that I am registered I have started earning credits. The program indicates that for every 1000 credits earned the credits can be redeamed for $50 in cash! I already have 50 credits just for registering and am chomping at the bit to find out what I need to do to earn more. As more information is made available to me I will discuss it here. If you are interested in the program go to the site I list above and check it out.

In my last post I mentioned that I am playing games on a 1.5Ghz Celeron with an Intel 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset. The system is actually a Gateway laptop with 2GB of RAM, Windows XP Home Edition and a 60GB hard drive. It's not optimal for gaming but with the latest Intel display drivers installed it works with a number of games. Here's a list of what I have tried so far:

Anarchy Online

Battlefield 1942 (Road to Rome, Secret Weapons of WWII, Vietnam and many other user mods)

Conquest

Ghost Recon

Halo: Combat Evolved

Lord of the Rings: Online (pay to play and I don't anymore)

NeverWinter Nights (Diamond Collection)

Real War

Red Alert: A Path Beyond

Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds

Unreal Tournament 2003 & 2004

WarSow

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

These are just what I have tried. What I would be interested in knowing is what older games you have tried. I am most interested in those that can still be purchased easily in a store. There are a lot of older PCs out there and sometimes games are overlooked because, like movies, they are coming out on a very frequent basis. If I find others I will post a comment with details on my findings. The key is that many older PCs lack support for Textures and Lighting and this support is necessary for many new games.

It has been a week since my XBOX 360 died.I was upset when the folks at 1-800-4MY-XBOX told me that it was the video card that died and that the extended 3 year warranty Microsoft added to the XBOX 360 did not cover my problem. If I had had the red-ring-of-death then I would be covered but this repair has cost me $99.95. I made the call to report the problem on Saturday, November 10th, received 2 prepaid shipping cartons on Thursday, November 15th and shipped my box out on Friday, November 16th.

I guess I should have expected that something would go wrong with my 360. I have had it since 8AM on launch day and it has seen a fair amount of play time. Almost everyone I know who owns a 360 has had to send the system in for repair. I also found it very amusing that the clerk at the UPS store smiled when he saw my wife coming in with the prepaid box. He said "XBOX 360 prepaid?" before my wife had put the box on the counter. When my wife asked if they see a lot of these boxes he said yes that he has seen a significant amount.

Microsoft tells me that I will get a full year of additional warranty coverage when my repaired XBOX 360 returns. I wonder if the box will be the same or if I will recieve a new system. If a new system arrives will it be one of the new HDMI core systems? I hope so but I am not getting my hopes too high. In the mean time I have spent extra time playing games on my Nintendo Wii and my PC. Unfortunately I am not able to play the latest games on my PC as it is only a 1.5Ghz Celeron and it has an integrated Intel 915M video adapter. I have copies of Halo 2 and Fury for PC and both will not run. I have religated myself to playing Battlefield 1942, Unreal Tournament 2004 and Anarchy Online. All of these games are certainly enjoyable but I long to get back on the 360 and play Halo 3, The Orange Box, and Call of Duty 4 again.

On the Wii I have been playing Resident Evil Wii Edition and Spider Man: Friend or Foe. I have really enjoyed the Wii for it's single-player and local multi-player games, I just wish that there were more multi-player online enabled games. Why can't my friends who have an internet connection join me in playing Spider Man? What about Call of Duty 3? What about all the games that should be online multi-player? Why does Nintendo think that online play isn't important? The Wii is great and when they finally add online multi-player to the system it will be incredible.

Hello everyone. Many of you have known me as GhostRiderTGAC or DaddyBurrito over the years. I have written for XBOX Team Rochester, The GhostRider's Zone and most recently for DeadlyTECH.com. As of the past summer my family and I have made a dramatic cross-country move from Rochester, NY to Scottsdale, AZ. My participation in DeadlyTECH.com unfortunately has come to an end due to differences in opinion. I wish RTEGOnline, MonsterB0x, and GoddfreyTGAC well over there but now I am feeling a bit homeless. IcemanXBTR has welcommed me back to XBOX Team Rochester and I let him know that I appreciate it and will be working with him when possible. My aspirations however are for something a bit greater.

I have established relationships with a number of publishers for the purposes of game review and I include contacts from Microsoft Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks, EIDOS, Southpeak Studios and a number of other places. My reviews and articles have appeared both online and in print publications. It would be nice to go full time as a game reviewer and industry commentator however I also enjoy my job supporting the IT infrastructure at the United States Naval Recruitment District of Phoenix. I have decided that my contributions would be most effective for the time being if done via the blog provided at GameSpot.

I have always found GameSpot to be a wonderful source for gaming information and as such I would like to add my voice to this marvelous resource. Of course I am in no way affiliated with GameSpot other than to say I am a member and am going to be using the blog provided by GameSpot to share my game reviews and commentary. I appreciate feedback and would like to encourage vigouros discussion of the topics I approach. If you have questions or comments or you disagree with me, please give voice to your views. The internet is a great place for people the world over to share in intelligent discourse so let's get this conversation started.

Well it has been a long time since my last post. Since then I have traded off quite a few games and replaced my XBOX with an XBOX 360 Premium. I was one of the lucky folks who had their system on launch day last year (11/22/05) and since then my system has gotten a fair amount of use. Of course I am a husband, father and home-owner so when I say fair amount I would say that my system typically sees about 6-8 hours of use per week. Sometimes more, sometimes less but it is certainly rare that I don't turn my system on at least once per day to check my messages, or see if there are new downloads available in the Marketplace.

Last week the new Spring 2006 Dashboard update came down to my system and it has made it even more convenient. I really like the new bookmark feature in DVD playback. I also like the background downloads. It so nice to set your downloads up and then go and do something else. I mean this should have been a part of the original build as the system certainly has enough horse-power to handle the multitasking. I also wish that the new personal gamerpic feature allowed you to take existing digital images and reformat them for use with the gamerpic. As of right now the only way to import something customized is to do it via the XBOX Vision camera which doesn't become available until September.

I started out with just Call of Duty 2 on launch day and then around the first of this year I purchased Perfect Dark Zero limited edition (the one in the metal box). I also purchased Marble Blast Ultra and then more recently Uno (which was purchased using the 500 points I received free from Verizon - thank you very much). I really enjoy all the demos and games I have so far as in addition I still have Ghost Recon 2, Halo 2, Crimson Skies, and Forza which work. Everything else I have liquidated however with the most recent back compatibility list update I am seriously considering re-purchasing Doom 3 (I loved that game). Also I just purchased Burnout Revenge which my wife and I have been playing. This game is so good; from the growl of the engines when the game boots to the explosive good time you have crashing other cars. Whoever dreamed up this game was a genius. It's just a blast and I love it!

Well that is all I have time for right now. Hopefully I will be able to post more soon!

Well a lot has happened since I got the box replaced. First of all the replacement box runs great. All of my discs play perfectly and there is no hesitation. I have also added a few games over the past couple of weeks. The latest in the Hunter series, Ghost Recon (gotta play it before I can get into GR2), Gladius, LoTR: The Two Towers (like the use of movie cut scenes!), and I also got the XBOX Music Mixer so I can do some nice slide shows (my wife and I are expecting a baby in March). I also finally sprung for a headset so I can talk on Live! and how awesome is that? I am used to Roger Wilco on the PC which works but not as well as communicator. I do admit that communicator isn't perfect in that I can't understand half of the players in big team battles but I image that is because they are jacking into the game from a great distance. So far all of my local friends sound like I am talking to them on the telephone and this is a big help. I have been playing Halo 2 alot and trying to bring up my stats. Mostly I have been in Big Team Battles and am just on the verge of making it to level 4. Since I didn't start playing XBOX games until a couple of weeks ago I think my skills have improved quickly. I am so used to playing with keyboard and mouse on games such as Battlefield 1942 that moving to the XBOX controller has definitely been an adjustment. Now if I can only get Metastat and Danero to get themselves boxes (I think they will do it any day now) then game nights will be awesome (especially when the baby is born). Iceman183 and I were playing yesterday and having a blast. I told him that we could play again this afternoon and I am hoping to catch Dragunfyre and SabreRattler online as well. Iceman183 said he would call Tiger Nation to see if he could jump in too so we might have enough for a really good clan battle.

Well my birthday is next Tuesday and I am hoping to pick up either some extra cash or EB gift cards so I can apply towards the PSP that I reserved for myself. I am not totally convinced that the PSP will be the be all, end all that it's hyped to be but even if it isn't the best game unit it will be great when Sony releases the movie converter so you can download movies to it. I record a lot of programs via my WinTV and it will be great to be able to download them onto the PSP so I can watch them anywhere. I also don't have an MP3 player (other than a portable CD) so that will be a handy feature as well. That doesn't mean I am not looking forward to the great games that are out and will be coming out. I am hoping (that is unless it is already available and I don't know it) that GTA series will be available. I don't have a PS2 so it would be nice if the game ports to the PSP so I can play it. I am also hoping that my brother in law gets one so I can play head to head with him.

Well I guess that is all for now. I will be adding more to my reviews of the games I own and when I get the PSP I will make sure to put up my comments about the thing.

I have signed up for a free 2-month trial of XBOX Live! which came with Halo 2 which I purchased over the weekend. I went to play online and my pre-owned XBOX kept telling me that the disc was dirty or damaged. This problem has been dogging this system since I bought it. At first it was not so bad but the more I play the more it seems to cause problems. Cut scenes and videos hesitate and occasionally there are sound and in-game video problems. Van Helsing seems to be the most reliable with Brute Force coming in second. Unreal Championship and Halo 2 seem to be the worst at evoking problems. Fortunately I purchased an extended warranty for the box so hopefully EB Games will take good care of me.

I did get further in Van Helsing. I beat Igor for the second time and opened the portal to Castle Dracula. For those of you reading this who might be playing this game keep in mind that to kill the werewolf, or Dracula the pistols seem to work very well as you can fire very rapidly. The werewolf was a real challenge for me as it seems that staying close to him is the best way to kill him. If you get too far away from him he has a high-speed charging attack that almost always causes me a great deal of damage. For one his charge damages me and then I have a hard time getting far enough away from him so as to evade his very long swipe attacks. I find if you maintain a reasonable distance and then continuously circle him keeping the distance constant that I was able to keep firing rapidly until he went down.

Unfortunately Van Helsing as well as my other saved games will most likely be lost when I resolve my system problems but that's OK better early in my ownership then not.

Well Thursday I leave for Las Vegas and the Consumer Electronics Show. I am certain I will have lot's of great information to share when I return!