Alrighty, guys, it's time for another gaming update. :P

First off, I rented Secret Service (360). It was an okay game, it did a good job keeping me focused on what my objectives were and why I was there overall. The controls worked, the guns handled nicely and some of the music was surprisingly good. Add that with a decent advancing plot and you've got a pretty good time. :D The graphics aren't the greatest and some sections tended to drag on a bit long, but I would still overall reccomend giving the game a shot if you're into FPSs.

For those of you conerned about achievements, there are no online achievements as there is no online of any kind. They are pretty varied, ranging from beating the game on the hardest difficulty without dying once to shooting every bust on one level. I didn't get them all (I didn't want to beat the game two or three times and then without dying? The only way to do that is to quit back to the dashboard. That would have taken a long time and I wanted to get it sent back for another game.) Aside from the achievement I just mentioned, the others are definitely obtainable with just a little patience.

Next, I bought Advance Wars Days of Ruin for $8 brand new. So far I am enjoying it as it's more Advance Wars goodness. I like the new style, the story is mostly interesting and I'm just getting the hang of some of the new unit types. I'm not very far into the story, but thus far the action hasn't stopped and it's been a fairly easy journey for someone who is not very skilled at Advance Wars. :P

The second rental I got was Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare. Wow, I was blown away. :D I wasn't expecting it to live up to the hype, but it did. The story was engaging, the plot twists got me excited for upcoming levels, graphics were great, sound and music were spot on and really put me into the action...the game was a blast. Mostly for achievements, I started the game on Veteran. I originally started on the second easiest, but partway through the first level I realized I wouldn't play through again on Veteran after beating it on this difficulty, as I'd know what happened and wouldn't justify my suffering then. :P

For those concerned about achievements, they are not that bad. Aside from beating every level on Veteran, the other achievements are very easy. I ended up with 1k/1k in about 12 hours. There are no online achievements.

I also bought a few more games since the last time I've blogged.

Ski-doo Snowmobile Challenge (360)

I had a lot of fun with this one. Extremely easy 1k/1k, fun game with lots of track variety and a decent split screen mode. Nobody was online, which is a shame, but I expected it. :P

Test Drive Off-Road Wide Open (PS2)

Another fun game. I really enjoy a good off road game and this did not disappoint. The vehicles were fun to drive, locations were creative and over the top and the upgraded versions of the vehicles looked awesome. :P The career was short, but dang it was fun. :D

Deus Ex: The Conspiracy (PS2)

So far the game has ben mostly amusing, I've only played it twice and it's starting to get boring. :P I haven't played it in a while though...perhaps I'll give it a chance in the future.

Perfect Dark Zero (360)

I don't think it was a good idea to play this so soon after Modern Warfare. Everything seems subpar, aside from weapon selection and music. Cutscenes are terrible, movement is slow and somewhat clunky and I am having a very boring time trudging through the campaign. I have stopped for now, but I'll most likely give it another chance in the future.

Anyone else excited about Conviction?! :D Gamespot's recent previews about the co-op mode and Last Stand mode only make me more excited. Also, the fact that the multiplayer modes have split screen is something I was hoping very much for. :D I've got two people in my house who would gladly do those modes with me and I cannot wait.

Hope you all are doing well and enjoying your own games! :D

EDIT:

I currently have three Blur beta keys if someone is interested. 360 only guys and you need to have Xbox LIVE Gold. I will PM you the code and the URL to the site to redeem it...from there you are given a code to download the beta.

The beta is a ton of fun and I'd recommend giving it a chance. :D From what I hear it closes April 4th. Keys will be given out on a first come first serve basis.

Yep, so I've decided against another blog title stating some boring facts and decided to go with a simple update thing. Why? I'm not sure, but hopefully I'll remember sometime.

First off, I Rented:

NPPL Championship Paintball 2009

I decided to Gamefly this, as I had no idea what to expect. When first started playing it, the controls really put me off. The controls were quite sluggish (Such as hold down B to go prone, takes a LEAST a full second...lots of times this made or broke a game), also, the jump, dive and slide commands were mapped to one button! This means you can't jump, slide or dive whenever you want, you need to be in predetermined areas for the command to allow you to do the action. Even worse, the aiming was very precise...but not in a good way. I'm all for a challenge, but there is a tiny dot in the middle of your crosshairs that is the true aiming pointer. If it's not literally spot on, you're next best bet is luck to hit the competitors. However, the game was still fun to play...at least after the first 20 rounds or so. You see, it's not so easy to run around, dive, pop out of cover and fire a few shots and then pop back, run, ect. Instead, it is much easier to simply camp behind a well covered spot and aim at your flag. If your teammates (Who rock by the way) take them out, good, if they all get taken out, the other team will try to get your flag and will run right into your shots every time.

The AI is usually dead-on with accuracy too (on Pro difficulty anyway), the flipside is that your teammates are equally matched if not better and they will usually get the jump on the opposing AI and win the match fairly easy. Each match only takes about 30 seconds to complete because of how quickly everyone is out. I don't know what I was hoping from this game, but I grew tired of the repetition very quickly. I did not beat the campaign mode before deciding it was time to send this one back. It wasn't a bad game overall, just very boring. :P

Next up, I Acquired:

Hotel Dusk Room 215

I know a lot of you guys have already played this one. I have put off getting this for a good long while for no apparent reason. Tonight however (A few hours ago) my bro brought it home for me. He had bought it brand new for $5 at Target! I am very excited to give it a try, but so far I have only opened it. Maybe after this blog I'll give it a shot. :D Any early tips I might want to know that you guys might be kind enough to share? :D

Lately I've been Playing:

Burnout Paradise

I started out slow in Paradise City and was easily overwhelmed with the freedom and everything to find and all the events to do. I gave the game a break while I played Left 4 Dead and beat Assassin's Creed (As well as a few Gamefly rentals). I instealled the game to my HDD recently because it was next in my 'to play' queue. Now I am officially immersed in the city. Collecting the cars, finding the billboards, crash areas, superjumps, not to mention the event themselves and the smooth online modes. Paradise is not disappointing. Minor note, I love the wide variety of music in the game! That is influenced by my favorite Burnout 2 Point of Impact song (Pass Me By) being included in the playlist. Also, the cIassical music additions sure make for a unique action-to-music experience! :D

So that's about sums it up for Gaming Update #1. Can't wait to do Hotel Dusk and my next Gamefly rental is undetermined...I think I'll try and rent something for a sibling this time. Paradise and Hotel Dusk are going to have my attention for a while and I'd hate to leave a rental just sitting around.

*insert some cliche goodbye here*

EDIT: How could I forget?! I beat Assassin's Creed! Guess I'll need to remember to add games I've beaten to my next gaming update. :P

Hey everyone! How are you all doing? It's been ages since my last blog, how could I let it happen? Don't answer that. Anyway, first things first. Here is what I got for Christmas!

Burnout Paradise (360)

Left 4 Dead (360)

Assassin's Creed (360)

Guitar Hero 5 (360)

4000 Microsoft Points Card

Bioshock 2 Big Daddy Action Figure

Assorted gum/food items.

Overall I have had a ton of fun with everything so far. I've spent a lot of time on Left 4 Dead, I'm alsmot done with Assassin's Creed, I bought Trials HD, Sonic and Knuckles, Sonic 3 and the extra Crash Course Left 4 Dead campaign with my points card and the Bioshock figure is pretty sweet. :D

From Gamefly, I have rented:

Rogue Warrior :: Not as bad as a lot of people say it is, took me about six hours to beat it on the hardest difficulty on my first playthrough. No it wasn't spectacular, no I'm not going to buy it, and no it isn't worth $60 (in my opinion) if you are looking to buy it. However, it was actually quite a bit of fun. Any questions about the game? Ask away.

Sonic Unleashed :: Thanks a lot Gamefly, when I received the game, it was cracked and scratched in one area. My 360 couldn't even read the game. Sent it back for:

Velvet Assassin :: I had high hopes for this game. For the most part, it lived up to my expectations, but a few problems kept rearing their ugly faces throughout the campaign. I'm not talking like once or twice either, it was like at least once or twice per level. These problems really ruined the flow of the game and if they were not there, it would have been a superb game! Music was great, levels and story were interesting, I had a lot of fun even with those dang problems. First playthrough, hardest difficulty, took me about 14 hours to beat, if anyone is interested.

So as I type this, I am not feeling very well. Yesterday I felt like throwing up everytime I moved. It was terrible. No games, no computer, even if I moved in my sleep it would wake me up and I'd need to be leaning over my puke bucket. Today I don't feel great, but so far I've been able to keep a piece of pie down and no sick stomache since about 1:15PM. :D

Well, that's enough for this update. I'm sure I'll blog again sometime soon, maybe with my impressions of my next Gamefly rental. (Some 360 Paintball game...might even be in the mailbox now!). Thanks for reading!

1. I am paranoid when it comes to handling raw meats. :P I try to make sure everything is cleaned up and disinfected afterwards...it's a curse!

2. As much as I love the Star Fox series, I have yet to play Star Fox 64!

3. I hate to drive in real life, but I love racing/driving games.

4. I am still straining my brain trying to figure out which genre (Of video games) is my favorite! Perhaps I just don't have one. :P

5. I love chocolate. Ice cream, candy, whatever. If it's chocolate, chances are I'll like it.

6. My least favorite food is green beans. Ever since I can remember, I have hated them. Even puked once after eating them! Even to this very day I can't stand to eat them. Sometimes even the smell of a freshly baked green bean casserole is enough to make me queazy....

7. Many of the games I own are not beaten.

8. A fear of mine is getting stabbed in the eye, I don't know why.

9. I love riding small vehicles such as ATVs or snowmobiles!

10. I chew gum more often than I brush my teeth. :P

Alright, I do not know who has been tagged yet, so I will tag:

@Aberinkulas (Because you're never busy. /sarcasm)

@Last_One_Left (Because you seem like an interesting person!)

and finally

@dragon_king64 (Because I want to know what you've been up to lately.)

Hope I did this right. Thanks to JordanizPro for tagging me....I haven't blogged in a LONG time.

So I've been sick with what I suspect to be the swine flu for exactly eight days now. I'm feeling pretty good now but dang, sure was hard to find the motivation to do my schoolwork last week!

I finally bought a mic for my 360. I know I will use it a lot (When it gets here) and some of my friends were begging me to get one, so I'm pretty excited to go online when I can actually talk to my team and such. I also bought a 1600 Microsoft Points card, so I can download some Rock Band songs. (Joker and the Theif, Kryptonite, Renegade) Speaking of Rock Band, anyone here able to beat (This doesn't mean hit every note! :P) Green Grass and High Tides on Expert? I've been trying to practice that (Which is hard to do when you're working on a bunch of cool games) because it's the only song I can't beat on Expert, and I need to beat it to beat the Expert campaign and because when I do the Endless Setlist, I don't want to be on the hard difficulty just because I can't beat that one song. :P

Hope you all are feeling well and having fun with whatever you're doing! :D Till next time.

Hey everyone.

It seems everyday when I get on here, you guys have new blogs. I don't get the chance to reply to all of them and when I do, usually they have disappeared from the list of that same person has already blogged again! Now I'm not asking anyone to slow down, instead I'm just going to apologize for not being able to reply to every blog that all of my friends here make. I try to reply to them and will continue to do so, but if I miss yours please do not take it personally! :D

Oh and by the way you people keep me entertained pretty easily. :D So even if I don't have time to comment or have nothing meaningful to say, I usually read every blog before it disappears from the list. Just thought I'd say that because with my school now (long story there....okay maybe not that long, but boring) I have even less time to comment and even now I can't read them all, blah blah guilt started to kick in as I always get replies on MY blogs, which is an unfair trade. Hope you all have a good week. ;)

First of all, I can't believe I doubted the greatness of this game enough to go and rent it first. (After Portrait of Ruin and hearing so many great things about Dawn of Sorrow)

I'm going to give a basic pros and cons style list of what I do and don't like about the game so far.

Like:

Art style! Very similar to Portrait of Ruin, even down to the menus. That is not a bad thing at all.

Controls. Very smooth, easy to get the hang of and running through a level slaying enemies and using magnetic stuff without thinking about the controls is a good thing.

Save system from Portrait of Ruin is intact, easy difficulty is not. Now don't get me wrong, I had a ton of fun with Portrait of Ruin, but I am enjoying the slightly harder difficulty of OoE. Not hair-ripping hard, but not wishing you didn't have the advantage all the time.

I'm not too far into the game so you'll have to excuse my lack of things to comment on.

Dislike:

The game seems very linear. Like I mentioned above, I'm not terribly far into the game, but everywhere I have gone so far has been exact, with no thinking on my part.

That's about all I can come up with for now. I thought I had more stuff before writing this blog.

Anyway, before I make anymore of a fool out of myself I'll stop the blog here! :P I could say something like 'Peace Out' but I'm deciding not to because that's not my thing. BAH. I'll shut up and let you all resume your lives.

No need to comment folks! Just a quick update that I am leaving (With my family) today and will return sometime Monday (unless plans change). We are heading four hours away from where we are now to Steamboat Springs (Colorado) to watch someone's house and take care of their pets while they're gone.

Have a great weekend!

Hey everyone! I haven't blogged in what, months? But I am still here and trying to be as active as possible. Around the BradHummr house things are going well. I've been busy lately with family and stuff and in the summer my computer time goes down. :P I will continue to try and comment on your blogs.

As for gaming updates, I decided to splurge and I saved up and bought a year of Gamefly. So far I have rented:

Scores Baja International 1000 (360) Beat it with all the achievements in three days.

Ghostbusters DS (DS) Rented this for my younger bro, he got bored pretty quickly and it took me about five days to beat the game.

Red Faction Guerrilla (360) Currently rented out.

It was also my birthday on the 23rd (Of July) and apparently my family got some great deals on some games. I ended up getting nine 360 games! :D

The Orange Box

Sega Rally Revo

Namco Museum Virtual Arcade

Bioshock

Timeshift

Battlefield Bad Company (Beat the campaign on normal already. Waiting on mutliplayer but will go through on hard for the achievements)

Need for Speed Most Wanted

Baja Edge of Control

Dirt

I'm having a ton of fun with all of them so far. Hope you all are doing well and having fun!

Till next time, BradHummr

I'll make this quick, because I am quite busy at the moment and this wekeend.

Rock Band with guitar, drums and mic. (360) $50

Super NES with two controllers. $12

Army Men (GBC) Free

Super Mario Bros Comic collection. $.50

Soul Calibur 2 Promotional Standup. $.50

Turok 360 Demo. $.25

Playstation Demo Compilation Disc. $.25