I was pretty stoked to hear a new Driver game was coming out...say what you will, but I actually enjoyed the last two that released (sure, it played like crap, and there was absolutely no logic, considering you're an undercover cop...but still, being Michael Madsen is one of gaming's greatest moments :D. Also, Parallel Lines had its share of great moments as well). Anyway, the screenshots look great, licensed cars are as sweet as it sounds, and it's Driver...you know it's all about the Hollywood style car chases and ball-breaking realism of rules of the road.

But, one thing sticks out to me: the concept of the new game. Basically (and taken straight out of Steam's description): SHIFT As Tanner recovers from a terrible crash, he realizes he has acquired a new ability that enables him to instantly change vehicles and take control: SHIFT. Experience unprecedented intensity, diversity, and freedom; shift into a faster car, deploy civilian vehicles to destroy your enemies, and even take control of your opponents' car to force their demise! :|

So you're telling me that someone thought it was a good idea to implement Tanner now being a disembodied will of command, who can possess vehicles Christine-style, and still uphold the law with this kind of gimmick? :lol: I mean, I would've just settled for a Knight Rider game. I'm not one to judge a game before it releases (because I have eaten my words before...like the iPad bashing I did a long time ago :oops:.) but even a Sci-Fi geek like me thinks this is a stupid concept. I kid you not...I had to read the description about four times, make sure I was sober, and read it another four times to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

For the benefit of the doubt, this would've worked in any other game, but this is Driver we're talking about...a game known for its semi-realism, gritty crime story, and dedicated undercover cop Tanner :|. I always enjoy fiction in my games, but this is just too much. Unless somewhere in the story, Tanner gets whacked, finds out he's a ghost and has the newfound ability to turn ordinary cars into superheroes, well...I'll go and play a Transformers videogame. I've always loved the Diver series, and the later sequels were always a guilty pleasure of mine. But warping into cars isn't exactly what I had in mind when I'm craving a game starring police officers and awesome vehicles.

I finished Infamous 2, and I doubt I'll be going back to it (there's still one more speck of the second city I need to take over, but seriously...it's one of those "whack some random enemy and wait for the yellow ! to appear" that I've been searching for over an hour, and nothing :|. I pretty much just given up, because all this stress isn't worth the silver trophy). Anyway, I'd like to go ahead and call this one ass-backwards game. You unlock the most useful moves so late in the game that it doesn't even matter anymore (I sure could've used the rockets when I faced my first 30 something teleporting bosses :roll: Oh, and let's not forget the lightning tether, which turns Cole into Spiderman...another move I could've used early on as well :|. Even the most epic powerful move is rendered pretty useless, since you literally find it at the end of the game and hardly have time to get any fun out of it).

Other than that, it was a great game. Managed to get 60% of the Trophies unlocked (even on Hard mode, the game isn't that difficult, just cheap with the thousands of repeated boss encounters) and with all the improvements and such, I still prefer the original over the sequel. I'd even go as far as to say that without the constant bombardment of said enemies, I'm afraid the game wouldn't have lasted that long (in other words, I think it's there to artificially lenghten the game). Don't get me wrong though, this is one improved game, just with a lot (and I mean, a LOT) of very odd choices placed in the game. Going back to my statement about unlocking moves being totally useless, let me elaborate: these would've been more useful if say...I beat the game then decided to go back and do side missions, but I did them as soon as they unlocked, so there's not much to do if you stick with this plan. With boss battles, you've faced them at least a dozen times before you finally unlock something to level the playing field (then can't fight the urge to bang your head on the desk as to why it wasn't implemented sooner), but the biggest irony is that if you kept up with the game, most of the things you unlocked were already present in the first game (and didn't take so friggin' long to acquire) which..well, kind of defeats the main hook about Cole traveling to a new city to get stronger (seriously...the Rockets were one of the earlier moves I unlocked in the first game...why is it that when I'm a third of the way through is when I finally "unlock" it?) :|.

But it does have its share of completely breathtaking moments as well. One of my personal favorite moments has to be when a lightning storm breaks out and you're surrounded by enemies...it stuck out the most because I truly felt godly at that moment. I mean, all I had to do was press L2 no matter where I was, and I'd recharge (and went nuts with the arsenal). Then there's those god-awful boss battles, for what they're worth, look like something straight out of a Marvel comic: buildings crumble, roads burst open, cars and people go flying in the chaos...and if they weren't so atrocious, I'd appreciate the attention to detail a lot more. But then there's those repeated moments to mindnumbing too...first thing that comes to mind is powering up cities: not only was hopping from one transformer, grinding rails to the next one completely annoying in the first one, this time they're so far away and so many that the same frustration is actually amplifed in this one (typical charge a transformer, survive an onslaught of enemies, fire a Tesla missile halfway across the map, run to the next tranformer, and repeat about three times).

In short, I'm very mixed about the game: the story kept me glued to my chair for hours, but everything else surrounding it was pretty dull. During many moments of the game, I actually got sick of repeating every swear word known to man about a million times, that I ended up creating new vulgar words in four different languages. Yes...as someone who was pumped about this game and actually snuck out of work to pick up my copy...this moment was pretty bittersweet.

The thing about the media: they seem hellbent on controlling everything from movies, music, to even professional athletes (honestly...I could give a rat's ass about what Tiger Woods does with his luxury time...I pay attention to the guy when he's winning games :|). Although the ironic thing has to be when they praise something to godly status before it even comes out, and in turn are the very first people to burn it at the stake when it doesn't quite meet such high expectations. As such, as simple-minded as the media has proven themselves to be, their opinion also screams the loudest. In other words, many good things tend to be overshadowed because they focus on crap.

Yes...the media has always been a cult of highly opinionated fanatics who want to cram their thoughts down people's throats. I mean, at times, they even go as far as to convince the masses that one single product should be avoided because of one thing vaguely buried somewhere inside that's offensive. You know, as if the entire world is nothing but one-track minded puritans whose ears and eyes would bleed should we see anti-PC material somewhere in movies, music or games :roll:.

The one thing I love bringing up is Mass Effect...they made such a big deal about having sex with aliens, that by the time I got to that part, I wanted to call up Fox and plead them for what they were smoking, because the romance in the game is about as explicit as watching two teenagers kiss: some would say they make a good couple, while some will claim it's going to lead to underage sex :|. That, and whatever illicit thoughts they had from two computer generated characters making out followed by a black screen, I would really, really love the kind of drugs that make me see things that aren't there :D.

For whatever reason, the media sees fit to be the judge, jury and executioner of entertainment. They say "think of the children," but that's a job fit for a parent...not a group of people promoting a bland world (who I am convinced are still virgins) :|. Now, I'm not saying it's wrong to have a different opinion on things. I'm just saying when your opinion is not well thought out, much less obvious you have no idea about the material you're reviewing, it's not something I'd like being shouted in my face. I mean, I'm actually suprised the war on videogames is STILL raging on. When someone actually has to fight for the rights to what videogames can and cannot contain, it's just ridiculous on the media's part...if they really want to purify digital entertainment, they should tackle the porn industry, because I've heard of more kids watching porn on their computers than trying to smuggle in a violent videogame. And really...what's a more horrific experience on one's childhood? No, when people are trying to tackle something solely on popularity and trying to sift through finding the bad out of the good, they seem more like bullies with a serious case of prejudice than people who actually care about what we do with our lives.

I've been a Age of Conan subscriber for over two years...now, I think it's awesome that it adopted the free to play model because it means a more active community, and my cheapo friends can jump in the game with me (although I think I'll still be a subscriber...it's by far the cheapest MMO if you pay yearly, and subscribers get some pretty cool bonuses) but it does come at a cost: with no real account to lose, I'm looking foward to those obnoxious trolls who spew obscenities on global chat, the microtransactions that turns frustrated-yet-wealthy players into demigods, and one salty look on my face when I see the things I've worked so very hard to obtain in-game now available on the marketplace :|.

I figured the game couldn't be any more nerfed since a while back, the game just got easier: as long as you maintain your subscription, you get these offline levels every four days...basically, you can assign however many levels you've obtained into your character without actually doing anything (so far, I have 104 of these...I'm always tempted to unload it all and become another level 80, but I keep thinking about how I'll be missing out on the finer things, like earning each level usually gives me loot every now and then, money from fallen NPCs, and of course...pride 8)). Then there's the Veteran Rewards...same thing with the active subscription, but you earn in-game tokens you can spend on vendors (which I didn't mind this one...here you can purchase mounts and social activities, and getting a mount is pretty damn expensive....that, and I couldn't resist the "Increase Breast Size" social action :lol:.).

Anyway, I've been with the game so long, I've got a laundry list of special features that don't quite hold their value considering the average joe can just simply buy what I've earned (not to mention simply waltzing into Rise of the Godslayer, the expansion, while I paid good money for it a long time ago :|). Anyway, I kind of like the idea that the game is free to play, and still giving the option for subscription (tells me that they're less desperate, and more open minded...better than being afraid of your favorite game suffering the fate of shutting down the servers). For what it's worth, I can dig it. Oh, by the way...being a longtime subscriber also got me access to the Secret World beta, which I have yet to see :|. You know, like a year ago :|.

Like many, I nearly pooped when I saw the rating for Infamous 2 (seriously...how does a game that was widely praised get a LOWER score for improving on an already near-perfect game?). Well, now I understand...I'm at the point in the game where every half hour I'm dropping the controller in my lap and bellowing "WHY!?" Let me tell you...when you fight a boss for the first time, it has that satisfactory feeling that you just kicked its ass and saved the day. Well, Sucker Punch must've wanted that same feeling throughout the game, because you'll be facing against the same "bosses" throughout the game :|. Let me tell you, they are not fun to fight regularly. Yes, it was cool that such an imposing beast took me all my skills and agility to finally put down, but that doesn't quite mean I'd beg to see it again at the most inopportune times.

Let's just say that there's a certain side mission that has me literally eating my own controller: someone must've thought it was either funny or epic to have me take on a helicopter, a huge ass boss that takes me forever to down, and that annoying burrowing thing I've seen in the game at least 20 times already (and yes...20 times I hated fighting this thing) all at once :|. Point is, I lasted maybe 15 seconds...I'm either being shot up by the chopper, or taken down by that teleporting beast while the big guy launches green bombs at me (which I seriously think that's a cheap move...that thing lasts way too long :?)while I'm down :cry:.

Oh yes, I've raged many times when I popped in the game today...I actually agree with the reviewer when he states that it's not fun having to fight these things so many times. Aside from that, the story did keep me glued to my monitor, and unlocking new moves is a blast as always (even though I had to :roll: when I unlocked the "ice shield." You know, the same ability I had in the first Infamous without even the slightest difference in looks?) especially when there's so many to unlock (I do commend the game in giving so many options for each power...I mean, literally anyone would have a favorite towards each one, because they all play out differently). Anyway, that's my major gripe with the game: recycled bosses that are more exhausting than fun. It doesn't sound like much, but when these things slow an ordinary mission down to a crawl (especially in this case, where if I die, I'm forced to repeat this ridiculous guantlet of sadism :evil:.)l, then I do agree that it's worth a deduction in score (maybe not a brutal 7.5, but I'll agree with a 8.5). Although I do have to wonder how many other boss battles in this game will have a dramatic introduction, then I'll have to face another 15 times from then on :roll:. Quote me on it: if I'm at one point going to take on a triple threat of recycled boss battles, I hang up the controller for this game :|.

Well, I finished F.E.A.R. 3 and had a blast doing so. It's still not as great as the first game was, but a lot better than 2 was, despite the akward level up features I've mentioned before. But the greatest thing has to be when you finish the game: when the credits roll, the closing song is none other than Danzig's song, Mother 8). Anyway, what was most disappointing was the lack of destruction...in the first FEAR, pea shooters like the pistol ripped chunks off walls...so color me suprised when I have an assault rifle, a weapon that doesn't fail in exploding heads and missing limbs, causes cute little holes in the wall :|. Oh there's still widespread destruction, but it's all scripted, so it's not the same. Anyway, it's a great game despite my doubts before launch (and I'm willing to look past some really akward moments to get my enjoyment) to say that this game is pretty much for fans only. I mean, for the sake of finishing up the story, it's not as horrible as I'd thought it would be. Would I look foward to a F.E.4.R.? Of course...mostly because all the loose ends are pretty much tied up, so they'd have to start fresh anyway...that, and the 1337 5p34k would make for another killer title-pun :lol:. Word of advice though: I want my FEAR slow-paced and atmospheric...this action stuff is too cliche nowdays :roll:.

In a way, I'm amazed my 3DS library is building up nicely...even more suprising is that I actually enjoy these games! :o So far I have Street Fighter IV, Dead or Alive, Legend of Zelda, and Resident Evil Mercenaries (as well as Castlevania: Order of Ecclessia...a game I've always wanted to play, but never had a DS around :P). I'm at the point where I can crank up the 3D and marathon my games without watching the room spin around my head when I look up :lol:. I guess the most unorthodox game I have in my collection has to be Zelda...I mean, the only game in the series I have ever played was the one on the NES, and never been a fan of the series. I decided to pick up the game because it was THE game that was damn near sold out every store I went, so I picked it up when I saw a copy lying around (and knowing I just ruined some hardcore Zelda fan's day :twisted:.)...kind of ironic then, that it's the game I refuse to put down :shock:. I've always said that I refuse to be suckered into the 3D gimmick, but these games are just too unreal without it. I mean, coming from someone who doesn't give two s***s about 3D TVs and never cared much for the silver screen movies getting the 3D treatment, that's pretty bold.

Aside from that, I've been popping in Dead or Alive once in a while for the Street Pass content (on certain days, pop in the game and you can download alternate outfits for some characters) which I always seem to miss by a couple days :|. Anyway, I've said it before, and I'm saying it again: we need FPS on the 3DS...now! Just for the sake of seeing how it turns out :D.

I'm pretty suprised the game scored so well, given how god-awful the screens I've seen looked. Anyway, it's another game that suffers from COD syndrome, this time in single player mode. What am I smoking? No seriously...at first I was disappointed that awesome moves like the butterfly kick and slide kick wasn't in the game, replaced by the cliched knife melee attack...well, after an hour or so, I finally realized that you unlock features the more you do certain things in the game (number of headshots, melee attacks, grenade kills, killing 10 enemies in a row without getting hit) and get awarded points to rank up :?. If it sounds stupid, it is :|. With a tense, supernatural game like this, having to rack up points to increase your ammo or reflex meter makes it feel too arcadey (even more so than FEAR 2 was).

Anyway, it's a great game nonetheless...sadly none of the fear factor that made the original a classic is present (although I did get suprised a few times) and having a ghost brother constantly talking to you and appear in cutscenes throughout the game doesn't help either (more of like an evil Casper than a creepy shooter). Still, not bad for a game that I expected would've been a complete disaster. Doesn't quite touch the original FEAR, but I think it could've been a whole lot worse :P.

I've come back from one, and I already need another one :|. I was hoping when I get home, my neighbors would've spontaneously dropped dead, I get a raise at work, and just chill out on my last day without work at the bar...nope. The owner of the resturant decides to pay a visit the day I come back, I'm too exhausted from the trip to actually put effort in my work, and had to attend a graduation for a co-worker...and I was the only one at the resturant who showed up :|. I mean, forget all the other people saying on Facebook they'd be there...oh no, I'm the lone wolf drowning in jail bait, the only white guy in the entire place, and when the ceremony was over, I was the lone wolf again, since the only people supporting her was her friends and family. You know, people I never met in my life. And all I got was a lousy hug :cry:.

Still, North Carolina was awesome. I had a serious case of jungle fever the whole trip (never have I seen so many gorgeous black women in one area :o). The only utterly terrible part was getting there, and coming home..I s*** you not, EVERY SINGLE flight got delayed :|. And when I'm catching three planes, being confined for 16 hours is the epitome of misery. To top it off, those morons went as far as to lose my luggage (had to wait a day to get it delivered, because they shipped it to the wrong state :|) In short, US Airways can seriously blow me :|. Aside from that, great trip.

My drinking buddy is on a month long vacation as of now, so that means I have to hit up the bar alone for a while. On the plus side, without him running the store, I'll probably end up saving money since I really don't talk to the other employees over there. Still, it's good to be home. I get to fire up my computer, sleep in my boxers once again, and can wake up as late as I want to because there's nothing to look foward to when I'm doing absolutely nothing on my days off :lol:.

I'm about 8 hours away from leaving my house and waiting at the airport, and I refuse to sleep (seriously...at a combined flight time of 12 hours, I'll have plenty of sleep) not to mention having to transfer between three different airports by the time I finally get there :|. I guess what's worse is that I've been busy the whole time, and didn't have any moment to get a Father's Day gift :|. You know, the guy I'm visiting? I'm thinking of maybe taking him out to dinner of of these days, or just sending him a late gift (part of the reason why is that I was also broke...now I have a ton of money at the most inopportune time :?). Anyway, that's 10 whole days of meeting my stepmother, two bros, and drinking beer with the guys 8). I met them last year in Indiana where I met everyone whose last name was Jones and they're all good people (I must've got a thousand shocked faces when they saw me for the first time...heavy metal t-shirt, torn jeans and a shaved head...and also the most humble guy around with perfect manners :D). Anyway, I'm about to have some last couple hours with Infamous 2 before I take a shower and get ready.