With little time left before Christmas I had barely made any plans for family or friends. This is contributed by few factors: my new part time weekend work in addition to full time one and darn recession that is pushing me to rethink my spending.

The price of gas is definitely the only break I have had so far but I'm not even sure how long will that last. Since its winter I'm prone of using subway much more often then my car anyway.

I finally had some times to finaly finish and review PS3 version of Bioshock and Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Both games are respectably enjoyable but not without few quirks. At the moment I'm little over half a way with Prince of Persia and I'm very impressed by the job Ubisoft did.

The game really is giving me the adventurous feel that seems to be lost in last few years. We have way to many shooters and numerous alliterations of sports games. It wouldn't hurt to have more RPG's on the market. With the recent prices skyrocketing, few games are already at 64$ and it will only grow unless the economies improves, which I don't see happening for some time.

That being said, I'm being very picky with games I purchase and the only one that I'll be getting this Christmas is Persona 4.

Aside from that I'm having my eyes on new PS3 wireless keyboard that came out few days ago. I wasn't able to find it in local gaming stores around Toronto but I'm sure by holidays they should be available.

http://www.krunker.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/ps3-wireless-keyboard-2.jpg

From the recent game releases, I didn't had to much time to play but instead I spend more time on HOME then usual. That could be because more people are joining it and if I'm correct, open beta should be out today as well for everyone to jump in and have good time. (More chess games for me ).

That should be it, I'm more then anticipating the few days I'll have off work and spending it in close circle of friends and family. We have a great gaming year ahead of us and I wish everyone safe and happy holidays.

Awarding No More Heroes with Wii Game of the Year would send a message to publishers and developers:

Don't bother fine tuning a game to be all that it can be. Don't waste your time making every aspect of the game fun. Don't worry about tweaking the technical aspects to make it run smoothly. Just come up with an original, clever idea and not only will we buy it, we'll give it awards.

I love the style of No More Heroes. I love the over-the-top craziness of the combat system. I love the idea of having ten unique bosses with their own personalities.

Everything else is terrible.

The city is a complete waste of time. If the game had no roamable city but kept all the other gameplay elements intact, it would be a much stronger title. I feel like half the time I spend playing the game is wasted because of the pointless driving to and from places in the city. The funnest part is driving over trees and lightpoles with the bike, and that's sad.

The jobs are boring and tedious. I don't mind the idea of having jobs, but none of them are very fun. I understand that perhaps the point is that doing a real job isn't fun, so it shouldn't be fun in a game either, but seriously.... Why play a game if it's not fun?

The missions are all pretty much the same. Kill a bunch of guys in a relatively small area within a time limit. This would be okay for two or three of the mission types, but not all of them.

The bosses' personalities aren't developed well enough. The whole process of getting to the boss should reveal something about the boss, yet all we get is a series of tunnels and generic enemies for nearly every boss mission. Thought and creativity was put into the boss characters themselves, and that should be developed much more than it is.

These aspects can be ignored to enjoy the game, so I've heard, but they can't be ignored when deciding whether it deserves an award. I'd give it the Most Wasted Potential Award and send the message that we appreciate good ideas but only when they're executed well.

I actually have high hopes for No More Heroes 2. The foundation is already set, and perhaps the potential can be reached with more time to work on the details. My guess is that the first game was rushed out by the publisher, because there are so many aspects of it that seem incomplete, especially the city and boss missions.

Maybe NMH2 can win best Wii Game of 2009, but it would send a dangerous message if NMH were to win in 2008.