Hey everyone:D!

I've recently acquired a few new games, some for Christmas and some bought in the aftermath that is the Boxing Day sales and have now aquired many a gem.

First off I got Red Dead Redemption, Assassin's Creed 2 and Gran Turismo 5 for Christmas. Red Dead is impressive, the sheer scale of the world and depth to each character, as well as great voice acting and suberb graphics, not to mention the online, story and gameplay make this a title not to miss, even if I missed it for quite a while. Assassin's Creed 2 is good, however I prefered the first one for two reasons. 1: It was a completely new game mechanic to me so it had me hooked and every second of it was fun, so AC2 is more of the same for me. 2: I liked how the first one wove a plot around history, this one didn't seem to get that right. I finished it last night and wasn't even remotely captivated by the ending, unlike the first one which not only had climaxed the game well, but the historical part as well. Leonardo DaVinci was a nice addition to the game though, and I would like to see more of this real history in future AC titles. Gran Turismo 5.....epic. I'm a car person so this game has the most replay value out of the three for me, 1000+ cars, realistic handling, beautiful cars (Well, the premium ones are, the standard are a bit lacluster.) and a suprisingly inspired soundtrack make this one of the best games I've played for a long while.

I picked up a couple of things off the PSN store with a $30 PSN card as well. First off Fat Princess. This is a great, solid game in any sense of the word. It's strategic, yet simplistic and reminds me of the old RTS days, trying to work out military tactics. You can rush, horde resources, play defensive, offensive and anything inbetween. The maps show truely great level design and the humour is well done. This is a title not to be missed, and there is a free demo avaliable that lets you play online or solo on a single map for unlimited time. The second game I picked up off the store is Braid. This is perfect. First off kudos to the sound, the music is truely inspired and makes the whole gameplay experience that much more immersive. The gameplay itself is rather simple, but it's how its implimented that makes this game outstanding. The puzzles are clever in a good way and once you've solved them all an explination for the game is held that may leave you confused, or (Like me.) up late contemplating its meaning. This is the best game I've played to date and is an easy 10/10. If you haven't checked this title out you've got to, it's perfect. Also I would like to note that in the debate on if gaming is art, this is. Art can be taken many ways by different people and is meant to leave you with something, and Braid, once completed,does that. I could surely rant about how this game is a masterpiece on so many levels for days but I'll move on.

I picked up another game called BlazBlue Calamity Trigger with an arcade stick for $39 (Transfers to about US$25, not on the financial market but comparing the price of games.). It's a very Japenese fighter (EG. It doesn't say 'Round 1', but instead 'Rebel 1' (???), and intro's each fight with 'The wheel of fate is turning' (?).), but so far I'm really enjoying it. The story's are portrain in an anime like fashion,which is done well and so is thefighting. The hardware (Arcade stick.) issolid, however the analoge stick only allows for slight movement, which is probablyfor the purpose of micro but seems strange at first.The online's good with no lag which I commend.It's not Street Fighter, but it still holds its own and is worth checking out if you can get the arcade stick bundle, which is great value. Whereas SFIV has a similar bundle for $270 (......yeah, that's ridiculous.).

So yeah, that's my gaming loot:P! Happy gaming (I know I will be:D!):D!

Crunk_Dog.