I must say, Q4 has been the best quarter for gamers in a long time. There has been a platter full of games released that flat out rock. Orange Box, Crysis, Call of Duty 4, Assassins Creed, Gears of War for PC. I mean that is an awesome release of games just in the pasttwo weeks. And we gotMass Effect, Kane & Lynch and Universe at War coming out this week and the next!

I went ahead and got Orange Box, Crysis and CoD:4.

Orange Box: The best pack of games ever. Ep. 2 is a bit short but awesome, Team Fortress is an awesome art-deco blood-splattering joy, and Portal is a straight up addiction :D. And for some odd reason, I've become addicted to Peggle, such a hilarious game.

Crysis is a beauty. Went ahead and got a 8800GT and it is just stunning on maximum settings. I am also on a mod team for it, and this game is very easy to work on and wonderful for our application. Now if I could only conjure up enough cash to see it in Vista, would be awesome.

CoD:4 has a rocking multiplayer, and a great single player story. Thankfully they went off the WWII road and made a modern one, though if you were to be blindfolded without knowing what the game was and starting playing it, you can tell it's still CoD by the elements in game.

Hopefully I'll be getting Assassin's Creed, I've been tortured by friends saying it's awesome.

But back to my point, for a time this year it seemed like there wasn't a lot of games coming out that were very pleasing. But the last two Q's of this year, and Q4 in particular have been just stunning. I got so many games to play, I find myself stuck in a mind freeze trying to figure out which one to start up :D.

So has anyone gotten joy out of the games released lately? :D

I_B/Aaron

2004. EA games finally got tired of 2K making a great game. Though Madden 2005 was good, NFL 2K5 was the best. So EA had to flex their muscle and ruin it all by settling with a 5-year deal with NFL Players Inc. Now EA...though getting a bit better... can shell out a game that really has no intuitive or innovative change from the previous year.

So I wonder, when are they going to take all the sports games over? I'm sure EA sits around sometimes and wants it all, but you need market competition to make people WANT the games. Since the next-gen Maddens started, I've never gotten that excited. All three have been pretty much the same, with 08 finally bringing back somedepth.

Last year I got NBA Live 07, played it for 2 minutes, and took at back for 2K7. The games are just stripped beyond belief. Can EA be bothered to make a good sports game? A good sports *simulation* game? I hope they get on the ball and take a page from 2K's book, which I've heard has started with NHL 08, but I still can't be bothered with some of the games. Even Tiger Woods, NASCAR, and NCAA08 feel lacking of way too much depth in gameplay.

I just can't help but think they will take all the sports games over, and just shell out re-wrapped renditions of the last years when it comes to gameplay and features. EA's exclusive NFL license ends in 2009, and if some NFLPA reps see what APF 2K8 brought back, I would hope they would return it to 2K sports, and re-light the competitive spark.

I_B/Aaron

Well, looks like my gaming slump might be coming to an end. WIC has a lot in a game that I can live with. Good balanced single player, competitive multiplayer, and stats above it all! I beta tested WIC a while back and was pretty amazed at how well the game was layed out, multiplayer is very fast paced and exciting, I'm amazed I am even keeping up with the pace and getting decent points at the same time!

Anyone of you out there playing WIC online? If so what's your multiplayer name? I'm on there as Sir_Frylock, look me up to see if I'm playing :D

My slump is over!

I_B/Aaron

Not sure why, but after I got Bioshock/Madden and played it for a handful of days, I got up the next morning not knowing what to play. It seems that I jump around with games a lot, I have over a dozen games shortcutted on my quickbar, but I have no will to play any of them. Why would this be? The craziest thing is that I have been playing Star Wars Galaxies more than any game in the past week....SWG!? What is wrong with me?:roll:

I guess it's just one of those gaming slumps everyone probably goes through every couple months or so. Just seems when I get any extra time on the computer, I really don't feel like playing the games I have. Or even any Xbox360 games I have. The last games that got me to play for hours and hours and so on...was WoW, TES:Oblivion, and Battlefield 2. But nowadays it's hard to want to play them again. Maybe deep down I remember that I've already accomplished myself on the games, and it would just be the same second time round.

Oh well, something will come up soon.

I_B/Aaron

Well, a couple of games I've been looking forward to (if you read my first blog) have come out in the past couple weeks...going to speak my mind of first impressions before I review them 8)

Madden 08: A big jump from the previous next gen console releases. Franchise mode is the biggest up for it, I can finally draft my own fantasy teams, even if it takes 10 drafts to get it right :D. But a couple things are bugging me.

1. Fumbles and Interceptions - They can be out of this world amounts at times. Playing a quick game I racked up 7 fumbles and 5 interceptions, whether or not player weapons were on. Gets a bit frustrating. But I confess, it also seems a lot easier for the player to intercept the ball also.

2. Lack of pocket: The QB's pocket collapses very quickly, or just never forms. I almost have less than a second to get that ball out, but it gives no time for the recievers to even run routes. A from left to right on my line, their ratings are in the high 80's...and they have no chance.

But none of these are gonna run me away from it, game rocks other then that. Superstar IMO has been made harder for all the good reasons, makes it better to progress him.

BioShock: This game is phenomenal. This is the first FPS since Half Life 2 that has caught my eye. Very good concept of a utopia-like underwater city gone wrong. Game is very clean and polished. Graphics, sound and voice acting is great. The Big Daddies sure aren't what I thought they were when I read about it a year or so ago, I though I was going to be one of them :D. But here's some things that are bugging me.

1. No penatly for death: just seems a bit bland that if you die, you keep everything you have, and just come back in from a vita-chamber with no reprecussions. At least it could make you load back to your last save, or take a bit of items from you.

2. Sound problems: At least for me, it seems that the sound muffles out after a while. Say I shoot the machine gun, it will sound like I'm hearing it through a wall. Just seems like it dampens the loud soundsl like gunfire and explosions, and it effects other sounds too.

These two games overall are awesome, goodgroup of games for me to cycle through playing for a while, many hours of playtime for me to endulge into!

If anyone else has these two, what do you think so far?

I_B

Lately I've been in a gaming slump. I went through the WoW phase, and lately have been sitting down in front of my computer or on my couch wondering what game I want to play, or what I'm looking forward to playing?

These are the games I'm looking forward to in the next 3-6 months, trying to cover games in the genres I play.

Sports:
Madden 08: I hate to give up on APF so soon, but I want to play a franchise mode, I really love managing teams. Let's just hope it has good content for what I'm looking for.

FPS:
BioShock: The System Shock series was great, and Bioshock's previews on here and in magazines are looking great also, I really can't wait to play it.

Half Life - Episode 2: It has been delayed, which is kind of a bummer since I really was looking forward to it after Ep.1's preview, but it's coming close!

RTS:
World in Conflict: I started playing the beta recently, and the I love how this game has been layed out. A definate lean towards teamwork, and with the stats system they have implimented to it really makes it worth playing online. Took the right chapter out of the Battlefield series for that one.

RPG/MMO:
Pirates of the Burning Sea: I have always wanted to see an MMO that was a sailing, yar-har, swashbuckling, salty-sea game after playing Sid Meier's: Pirates!. I applied for the beta a long time ago, and really have been waiting for it to get back on the track after really hearing nothing about it. But I still have this game lurking in the back of my mind.

Way down the road:

Fallout 3: The Fallout series just plain old rules. Many hours I have sat in front of my computer playing all three releases. When I heard that this was official, I was just estatic. Graphics technology has taken a big step since the last games, and it is going to look and play great.

So after these I ask you all, what game or games are you all looking forward to?

I_B/Aaron