Hello one and all and thanks for being here for one of my blogs. Since last week I have managed to curb my Geometry Wars intake but I've also been playing a little Rock Band this week and have also become rather obsessed with Burnout Paradise. The Cagney update was great but the Bikes and Paradise Island updates look even better, I'm really hyped for those. Speaking of updates, the 360 version of Team Fortress 2 is set to get everything the PC version has and I that's reassuring to hear, I really thought I'd been left behind by getting the console version.

I have downloaded the Fable 2 Pub Games demo though and there's some good aspects and then there's some bad aspects. I think the best bit about the game is the creativity that has gone into the puzzles, although they all bear a resemblance to some kind of real life game the design has been very original and if the whole game was as good as the basic design it wouldn't be half bad. The ambiance and music in the game is very fitting and atmospheric as well. However it must be said that at the end of the day the third minigame, Spinner's Box is just a mystical slot machine and while some fun can be had there's only so much joy the A Button can bring you and coupled with my next point it's really not fun at all. At first I thought it was just me sucking but the odds are strongly in favour of the house and its rather easy to get into debt even when using your best strategy and judgement on the games, considering half the point of the game was so that you can earn gold to carry over to your Fable 2 character, the whole experience seems a bit pointless once your sitting at the Keystone table 500 Pays down. There's also the one unfortunate thing that seems to have managed to destroy the economy before the game has even started, a simple exploit in Fortunes Tower which has let people already earn millions. Judging by the simplicity of the programming oversight it looks like they just haven't tested the game properly, so while some people will walk into the realm of Fable 2 after hours of Pub Games with nothing, cheaters will be applauded with instant millions. Lionhead are still 'working on a patch' but there's not going to be any gold reset and many have already got an unfair headstart in the world of Fable 2.

I also downloaded the demo for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and it's feeling pretty good. The force mechanics come across without a hitch and the game looks just like it should, I only wish I could have got a chance to face tougher enemies as just facing the Stormtroopers and Imperial Saboteurs it did seem like a bit of a cakewalk.

In the news this week it seems Kratos has finally fulfilled his life long dream by becoming a golfer, unfortunately not everybody sees the funny side of Kratos appearing in Hot Shots, there has been anger on the various forums. And some games I really liking the look of at Leipzig this week are Guitar Hero: World Tour, Mirror's Edge and Warhammer: 40,000 Dawn of War 2 (finally, after all these years, Tyranids!), if you have any interest at all I advise you to check out some of the previews. A little closer to the present time I've been thinking of Picking up Soul Calibur IV but every time I consider it I keep thinking about re-buying SSBB, what's a gamer to do.

Anyway thanks for reading and a special thanks to everyone who commented on my birthday blog, I'll see what I can do about getting some of those pictures of the Tank Museum. Oh and my little brother might be getting me some Microsoft Points as a late birthday present so I'm hoping to download a few more Rock Band songs. I also should be getting that laptop soon which I'm really excited about. But now I must go and this week I'll leave you with TV Tropes Wiki's Lists of RPG Game Cliches.

-Gamer_152