I've recently dusted off my Wii for the opportunity to play the Resident Evil + Buddhism game that is Cursed Mountain. Following that, I have begun to dabble in No More Heroes, a game that I have heard nothing but great things about. Well, it's alright. So far, I've completed one major assassination. It's fun at times, but I feel like something is missing; some meat. If only I could understand what it is missing; I can't quite but my finger on it.

House of the Dead: Overkill arrived in the mail (thanks, Goozex) the other day, and Maura and I just blitzed through the first two chapters (I believe there is about seven total) together. Now THAT is a fun, and adult, Wii title. While I have yet to play Madworld (another mature Wii title that I have heard great things of), I'm not bustling to do so. At least, not while I have House of the Dead: Overkill. If this Wii-lovin' continues, I may have to dust off my copy of Endless Ocean.

On the PC side, I picked up Borderlands again today, just to join three others in a pick-up co-op match. I enjoyed it, and got to see the end of the Isle of Dr. Zed, the DLC that I purchased last month. I've avoided buying the second round, mostly because I hear that it's filled with arena fights. That being said, I hear the third round of DLC is coming soon, and I already hear that it is filled with more content than the second DLC, and includes a level raise.

As I mentioned in my last writing, I had a sick addiction to the Baldur's Gate series. Now that its spiritual successor is out, I'm finding myself addicted to that too.

I'm playing as a two-weapon wielding city elf fighter. I've nailed two members of my party, and am THIS close to completing the game. The only thing that is stopping me is the impending release of a new batch of Downloadable Content for $5 that will add another quest to complete. After all, I don't want to complete the game just to utilize an older save once the DLC comes out, now do I?

Random screen shots of my character looking badass, confronting demons, or getting lucky with the ladies

Also, wtf is up with the weird blocky textures on the windows?

I know, I'm late to the party.

I'm a sucker for the underdog. I love rooting for the dark horse. So naturally, I wanted to love Red Steel. Hell, I would have settled for liking the game. Unfortunately, with a shallow plot reminiscent of an arcade shooter, deplorable graphics, and a fair control scheme, I am still left wanting.

The story centers around Japanese gangs, and their acquirement of your character's girlfriend. Chasing after the Wiimote fodder through shops, car garages, hangers, and finally, Tokyo got old really quickly. Ultimately, the writing is entirely forgetable.

The graphics make this game more difficult than it has to be. Beginning with enemies that you have to squint at the TV to see if they're at a distance, to just muddy-looking textures and a bland color palate make this game difficult to look at, much less play.

The controls - specifically with the Wiimote - left me dizzy. There should be some calibration setting that allows you to adjust how quickly your pointing at the side of the screen rotates the camera. I spent too much time fighting the camera, between attempting to turn around and simply aiming at an enemy at the side of my screen.

Overall, this game isn't necessarily BAD, but it simply isn't good either. Rent it at best, but avoid even the bargain bin while there are so many better shooters (Metroid Prime, Conduit) out there.

Random blog:

When we bought our house, we noticed that the wood trim was rotting in many places. Well, as of today, our rotted wood has been replaced, and all of the wood has been covered in aluminum. It cost us an arm and a leg, but it'll help keep out the elements AND make bi-annual painting unnecessary. The guys that we got to do the work are awesome: not only have they come back to fix the minor mistakes that my anal-retentive wife and I noticed, but they also fixed a door frame that was not a part of our contract, AND they're coming back to re-caulk between the chimney and the siding (we were getting yellowjacket nests in there this past summer).

Poor Maura, I've been playing the **** out of Dragon Age: Origins. Being the spiritual successor to a game that I spent an entire summer vacation playing (Baldur's Gate and its sequel), this hardly surprises me. I have already purchased and completed the add-on DLC for an extra $5, I'm awaiting the second batch of DLC to get released, and I can't wait for the expansion pack coming out in March.

I have this Monday off, as its Martin Luther King Jr. Day. My school is 99% African-American, and so they are given this time off for celebration and reflection. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this extra time, but I'm sure it will involve playing with my girls and logging more time with Dragon Age: Origins.

I got into the Star Trek Online beta this week through subscribing to Fileplanet. I keep telling myself that I should cancel this subscription every year, but the entries into MMO betas keep me coming back all the time. Plus, the faster download speeds for mods and patches are really nice. Anyhow, I can't say much about the game yet, as I'm sure it's still under a NDA, but I'm really looking forward to trying out the ship-to-ship combat. I'm a little apprehensive though, as Cryptic studios doesn't have the greatest record for MMOs. Granted, City of Heroes/Villains was fantastic, but Champions Online really fell flat to me. Add on to that the fact that this game doesn't seem like it's been under development with Cryptic very long, and I'm worried that they're going to kill an absolutely gem of a potential IP, ala Turbine with Dungeons & Dragons Online.

Inspired by the recent article in PC Gamer, I decided to redo their list to coincide with my tastes. Because I own so many freaking PC Games, I will be stopping by to edit and re-edit this blog after some pondering and second-guessing.

This blog is also known as the "I'm too lazy to think of something original and fun to write" blog.

1. Baldur's Gate 2
2. Baldur's Gate
3. Planetside
4. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
5. Bioshock
6. Far Cry
7. The Witcher
8. Half-Life 2
9. F.E.A.R.
10. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
11. Dragon Age: Origins
12. Hellgate: London
13. Borderlands
14. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
15. Command & Conquer
16. Crysis Warhead
17. Crysis
18. Far Cry
19. Half-Life
20. Tron 2.0
21. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
22. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
23. The Lord of the Rings Online
24. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
25. Star Wars Republic Commando
26. Star Wars Jedi Knight II
27. Team Fortress 2
28. Max Payne
29. Half-Life 2: Episode 2
30. Everquest II
31. Evil Genius
32. Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault
33. Mirror's Edge
34. Resident Evil
35. City of Heroes
36. Deus Ex
37. Portal
38. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
39. Doom 3
40. Splinter Cell
41. SiN Episodes: Emergence
42. Dead Space
43. Mirror's Edge
44. Command & Conquer: Tiberium Sun
45. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People
46. Battlefield 2142
47. Plants vs. Zombies
48. Left 4 Dead
49. Freelancer
50. Half-Life 2: Episode 1
51. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
52. Starship Troopers
53. The Bard's Tale
54. Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
55. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
56. Heavy Gear 2
57. Demigod
58. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
59. Delta Force: Black Hawk Down
60. SiN
61. Call of Duty 5: World at War
62. Battlefield 2
63. Call of Duty
64. The Simpsons: Hit & Run
65. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
66. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
67. Serious Sam II
68. Guild Wars
69. Age of Mythology
70. Sid Meier's Pirates!
71. Sacred
72. Diablo
73. Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars
74. Star Wars Jedi Knight
75. Star Wars Galaxies
76. Star Wars Dark Forces
77. Audiosurf
78. Star Wars Jedi Academy
79. Quake 4
80. Prey
81. Diablo 2
82. Quake II
83. Icewind Dale II
84. Gothic 2
85. Giants: Citizen Kabuto
86. Starcraft
87. Counter Strike- Condition Zero
88. Counter Strike
89. Red Alert
90. BloodRayne
91. BloodRayne 2
92. Neverwinter Nights
93. Icewind Dale
94. Enclave
95. Pariah
96. Dungeon Runners
97. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
98. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
99. Project: Snowblind
100. Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor
101. Gothic
102. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
103. America's Army
104. Everquest
105. Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

spam. spam spam spam. That's how I would sum up the last Eastern level (against the Japanese); full of grenade spam. It seems like I couldn't stay in cover for more than four seconds before I saw at least one grenade indicator on my screen. Of course, leaving cover would have meant an instant gun-down by the enemy forces.

Aside from the very-difficult last two levels (last western against Germany and last eastern against Japan), most of this game is pretty even... evenly mediocre.
The little bits of polish that Treyarch decided to add (hi, Jack Bauer, I mean, Sgt.) were nice, but the Medal of Honor series simply did this game better with its iteration several years ago.

I never touched the multiplayer, as I usually stick to multiplayer-only games for that kind of fun. Therefore, this score should only reflect the single player campaign.

LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_fBhciqzSY

First, depression sucks. A family member is suffering from it, and it seems to suck all happiness out of the season. Now on to the happiness...

I received two games for Christmas

Metroid Prime Trilogy

New Super Mario Brothers Wii

three DVDs, and a bunch of cash. Now, the question is what to spend the cash on. So far, I'm thinking of picking up a few lower-priced games that interest me, such as Cursed Mountain, Call of Duty: World at War, and the like.

STEAM is also having a break-my-wallet sale, and I've picked up a few more games through that. I am proud to say that I've picked the low-hanging fruit; each game was $6 or less. So I now own

Deus Ex: Invisible War

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky

Space Siege

and with the cash I bought

Cursed Mountain

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Call of Duty: World at War

Kickass

Dawn of War II is a game that I hate playing on principle. While I loved the first Dawn of War, and its numerous expansions, the sequel's gameplay is such a departure from what I enjoyed that I am not seeing this game as a true sequal. No, it seems to be more "in the spirit of..." To those uninitiated, the first game is a RTS that focuses more on tactics, in that there are only two resources that need collecting, and combat success relies heavily on flanking/positioning and the use of cover. There are few pre-made squads, and your base has to churn out various forces for use on the battlefield. That being said, the use of all space marines, or all assault marines, is entirely up to you.


This second is more of a action-RPG with tactical elements. There are no resources to gather, and the game is all about positioning your pre-made squads to maximum combat effectiveness, and then plowing through the enemies to reach that level's goal. Item drops are fairly common, which function to power-up your sergeants (the leaders of each squad).

I'm a few missions from completing this game, and finding myself loving the inclusion of Games for Windows Live (yay for achievements on the PC), but hating the inclusion of STEAM (boo, I can't trade the game in).

Last note: do NOT buy this game for the single-player experience. You will find the game very lacking if you do.

Score: 6.5

Being in the middle of a gaming ADD attack, I am currently staring at a pile of half-finished or barely-begun games. While I try to make no value judgements about this current status, I cannot feel myself getting into gaming lately.

I began Mirror's Edge some months ago, and found myself really enjoying the new parkour game mechanics. The banter that I have heard - from blogs, reviews, and videos - that the combat elements needed to be thrown away, is completely spot-on. Those segments feel awkward; they stop the momentum of the game, both figuratively and literally. Anyhow, once I got to the section of the game where combat became unavoidable, I put the game down. I still don't know if I'll ever pick it up again.

Fallout 2 was a game that I jumped into with much enthusiasm, seeings as how I so thoroughly enjoyed the original. This second one just isn't grabbing me like the first one did. Yeah, there are improvements - like the party system - but there is a lack of "oomph" to the story. The beginning of the original game grabbed me quickly, yet this one just comes off as... retarded. You're attempting to save your primitive tribe? Contrasted with saving your Vault? It just comes off as very "me-too," as in the story is similar enough to be familiar, and yet dumb enough to kill what was special about the first one. I'm finding myself consulting a walkthrough so that I can plow through the main storyline of this game and experience all that I can before I play Fallout 3.

Dawn of War II is a game that I hate playing on principle. While I loved the first Dawn of War, and its numerous expansions, the sequal's gameplay is such a departure from what I enjoyed that I am not seeing this game as a true sequal. No, it seems to be more "in the spirit of..." To those uninitiated, the first game is a RTS that focuses more on tactics, while the second is more of a action-RPG with tactical elemens. I'm a few missions from completing this game, and finding myself loving the inclusion of Games for Windows Live (yay for achievements on the PC), but hating the inclusion of STEAM (boo, I can't trade the game in).

Starcraft is such a phenomenon that I can't help but try to play it. I mean, it's practically a national sport in Korea, and the second game is highly anticipated. But so far, it's boring. It's boring as hell. Normally, I can get past dated graphics, but combined with the stupid-ass story, I am finding it difficult to play. Combine this with a known flickering-screen bug (thanks, Xfire), and I can't even show off to the gaming world that I'm playing this game (finally)!

World of Goo is a great indie game, without being a great game. The basic mechanic is great, yet it got old quickly. Stack the goo balls, build a bridge, stack some more... I'm all for promoting independent games and their developers, but man.... this game was best played as a demo.

Maybe tomorrow I'll just start Dragon Age and fully engross myself into the game.