I've been playing Rocketmen: Axis of Evil for the official GameSpot review. It came out today on 360 and will be emerging in a few short hours on PSN. I was surprised at just how easy most of the achievements have been. I finished the campaign in about 3 hours; I watched every cutscene. By the end I had unlocked 8 achievements and 135 points. After that I hit the multiplayer pretty hard.

The two achievements that I have yet to unlock only remain hidden from me due to online troubles (more on that in the review) and 17 martians who I have yet to find in the last level. I have pretty well played that level five or six times. The time limit isn't a problem for my fully maxed out character, neither are the nefarious scientists, but for some reason, no matter which directions I choose, I can't find the last 17 (out of a possible 300) martians I need to slay to unlock the Perfectionist achievement. Unfortunately, I don't think I can really afford to devote any more time looking for them as I have other pressing matters to attend to. Perhaps when I come back to the game later they will magically appear. Who knows?

Today was the day my first video review went up; thanks to the hard work of Vinny and Jim. It happened to coincide (by design) with the review I wrote for Lost: Via Domus. I played all three versions and by now I have successfully mined every available moment in the game. While I have no doubt what the game has to offer, I definitely have a few ideas of what it could have done better.

However short the game is for the people interested may vary. From when I first put the game in the tray until I unlocked the last of the achievements and imbedded secrets, I spent seven hours of my life to let you know the best part of the gameplay is the flashback sequences. They were really cool and fit the character well.

It wasn't really appropriate to discuss what the developers should have included in the review. Personally, I would have enjoyed playing Backgammon against Locke, challenging Hurley to table tennis, or making use of that gnarled chessboard I passed a bunch of times on the beach. I know I am playing armchair developer here, but the opportunity to interact with the characters from Lost could be a game in and of itself. Where is the Sun kidnapping mini game? How come you couldn't swim out to the Looking Glass? I don't know, but I will bet all the papaya's in my rucksack that it came down to time and resources.

Those would be pretty quirky experiences for a game, but--if done right--a lot of fun. Maybe Ubisoft can incorporate those ideas into the next inevitable game based upon the awesomeness of J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Jeffrey Lieber's zany show. Seriously, it's zany.

Short of (perhaps) reviewing Rocketmen, this week is back to focusing on our community development. I'd love to do more of the video and audio work, but that's the expertise of our awesome editors and producers. I've had a blast reviewing games lately and even dropping in on yesterday's webisode of On the Spot. That Lost-themed opening is the best yet. Who knew Greg Kasavin's move to LA gave him a So-Cal lisp? Keep up the great work!

If you are looking for an easy 1000 points and six hours of Lost, then rent or borrow Lost: Via Domus for the 360. This isn't an Avatar: TLA easy 1000, but it is far more satisfying than CSI was.

While my wife and I disagree about the levels of awesomeness contained in the new Indiana Jones trailer--and by association the movie itself--we both can agree the name of the film is L A M E.

Despite our debates, we will both happily go see the film on opening day (hopefully). The only difference is one of us is going in fully expecting a letdown on par with Transformers and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace.

Dude, that reminds me . . . The Transformers: the Movie totally ruled. I've had Wreck-Gar's Theme/Dare to Be Stupid running through my head since I woke up.

Weird Al FTW!

With the craziness that was GDC last week, I was able not only to write a preview, but also to get in a couple of reviews. Monday should see my review of N+ go up, while many have already checked out the review for Commanders: Attack of the Genos! Doing all of this writing in addition to my regular responsibilities has been very exciting and a welcome challenge. I don't have many opportunities to write like I did when I was an advertising agency copywriter. The writing of reviews and previews is a lot more fun than technical documents and MBA papers.

The plus side is I've been able to play some games I would ordinarily have passed on out of persenal preference. What the developers did with Commanders was really quite impressive. The game was a pretty hefty (larger than 50 MB; larger than 100 MB?) download. Due to the size, the final product had a lot of great audio. While my wife grew weary of the music quickly, I really found the explosions, gun fire, and general audio chaos to be quite impressive. Maybe one of these days I'll pull the game out and play it some more. While I don't want to spoil the surprise, I have to say N+ was an unexpectedly great time . . . even with the problems.

Finally, I unlocked the last achievement in Xevious. Doing so made me feel very Xevious. Some have balked at the amount of Xevious in the game, but I assure you it is overflowing with Xevious . . . ness. I remember Jeff heckling me a bit for not having downloaded the game. Ah, good times. Now I have harvested all 200 points and am debating whether to just uninstall it to make room for other games on my hard drive. It is a real debate because Xevious was one of the best arcade shooters of its time and it really hasn't gotten any worse in comparison to other games out ther. Yeah, you read that right.

This week should be things back to normal . . . of sorts.

Right now we don't really have a place to otherwise discuss this, but the keen developers behind GameSpot have put together an application for Facebook. We have named it GameSpot Challenge. It is a great application that not only allows you to rate games and to compare game ratings (by GameSpot and Facebook users), but also allows you to challenge your Facebook friends to a game session at a particular time and place. We included a few bonus features in there as well. See if you can find them!

Also, I just wated to note that enrollment for our Forza 2 Tournament is full.

:shock:

Within the 12 hours between when it opened and when I first checked the enrollment results, every player slot has been filled. If you aren't one of the people to make the tournament, be sure to get on a waitlist . . . because you never know when a slot will open.

EDIT: Jody just emailed and said even the waitlist is full. If you got in, I wish you the best. Chances are good some of those enrolled are die-hard Forza racers.

I have come to expect a lot of things from the City and County of San Francisco, but not anything for free.

As I walked out of the train staion today a trio of red-wigged young ladies were handing out sealed bottles of water. I admit I wanted some. Unfortunately, a dude wearing orange shoes and an Ubisoft satchel were left high and dry just like me. The ladies left the terminal without so much as a "Happy Valentine's Day."

So, off walked orange-shoe-guy and I to our respective places of employment, sans water.

Some of you faithful readers have been kind enough to send me positive feedback on my first professional GameSpot review. Honestly, it was a daunting, but rewarding task. You may have heard about a few review editors leaving as of late. Some of us are doubling down to carry the weight of our labor loss.

If you are interested, I anticipate another review of mine will be going up in the next day or so. Depending on how well I can juggle the rest of my work, I'd love to do more of these reviews. The process has certainly left me with newfound respect for my cohorts who do this in a fraction of the time it takes me.

This evening after I got home I fired up Team Fortress 2. Man, I had forgotten how fun that game can be. We should totally do a TF2 tournament sometime.

What do you think?

I'm pretty sure we could conceivably do both.

. . . but then there is this other game called CoD4 people have been talking about. Maybe we'll do a tournament for that too. Decisions, decisions.

Over the last week I've been playing a lot of Burnout Paradise. Recently, my daughter stopped to watch the visceral new crash mode (showtime). As she watched the cars hop, smash, and crash into one another, she noted, "Car says 'ouch!'"

That's when I knew she was picking up this wan't like the other racing games. This game is like deathmatch with cars. I checked the rating on the box: E10+

10+ >>>> 2.5

Now you know why I play Ratatouille and other family friendly games. I try to keep the violent or intense-action games for when my daughter is not watching.