Got a review up.

Bioshock was a different experience for me. I was expecting a first person shooter with a fantastical underwater world. What I got as that, with a lot of blood, gore, and creepiness on top of it. For sure, the world of Rapture was immersing and unbelievable. I can't say I've seen the concept of an underwater city done in quite the same way in any other game or movie. It made me curious to see what the city was like before it broke down. Before the people went crazy with gene splicing. When families were taking their children to Arcadia for a day trip or catching a show at the local theater.

I got tired of the combat rather quickly. After awhile it was very repetitive. I learned what combination of plasmid and weapon worked best on most enemies and it never failed me. I tolerated it so I could move on to the next plot point, and continue to see this wondrous world they've created.

So now I'm sort of unsure if I want to play the sequel. From the review here on Gamespot, it sounds like it's a lot of the same in terms of combat, but the story isn't quite as good. And since that was the main reason for me finishing the first game, I'm not sure I could tolerate the rest of it.

So after Bioshock I popped in Mass Effect and got that game started. It comes highly recommended by a friend. So far I'm reminded a lot of Star Wars: KOTOR where more of the game is played in the dialog trees than in the battlefield. But after playing a game with not so enjoyable combat, maybe that's a good thing.

Last night I finished the story line of Assassin't Creed 2. From beginning to end, it was an awesome game, and I'l be putting up a review soon to describe how awesome it was. In one run through, I managed over 900 of the achievement points, so now I just have to run through and collect a bunch of feathers, plus a couple of the combat related achievements. I'm hopeful that that won't take as much time as the first AC game's flags did. I only have 59 feathers left to collect, so I think I'll be fine.

Actually, I will discuss the end of the game briefly since I don't want to spoil it in the review. If you haven't finished the game though, you may want to skip past the next paragraph or two.

So at the end, we pretty much learn that Ezio was just a device that these beings were using to reach out to Desmond. They knew he would be using the animus to look at his past, and that's how they warned him. The world has ended before, it's ending again, and we're not going to be around to save you this time. It got me thinking. I had read that the "present" time in Assassin's Creed was leading up to December 21st, 2012, where supposedly the ancient Mayans predicted the world would end. Now, that's not true, but this is a fictional game, so roll with it. It seems to me that these beings are warning Desmond about the world ending on that date. What's he going to do about it? Who knows? But then I read that Ubisoft may be delaying the release of AC III until 2012, and it made me think they were going to catch up in real time with the game time, which is kind of cool.

I also saw the entirety of Subject 16s video, and it's got me a little confused. It's Adam and Eve, but it's not the Adam and Eve we're familiar with. These people are in an advanced structure, and appear to be naked, though their skin looks mechanical, so maybe it's some sort of body suit? And what were they doing running up that building? Looking forward to some answers from this in the next games.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is due out soon, and it's going to cover Rome with Ezio, That should be fun. I'm wary about the multiplayer, but there's supposed to be a fairly significant single player campaign as well. From what I know, this game will not further the Desmond storyline, but just be more from Ezio. Looking forward to it!

Up next in the games list is Bioshock. I'm borrowing it, and the time required to beat it isn't as hefty as some of the other games I have, such as Dragon Age and Oblivion. I've got to get my hands on Mass Effect somewhere too. Can't wait to enter the world of Rapture!

I started playing Assassin's Creed II the other day. Sweet fancy Moses is it a sweet game. So sweet that I couldn't wait until I finished it to start talking about it. I knew it was going to be better than the first one. I've known that since before I owned the Xbox. But it is really grabbing my by the collar and not letting go. The graphics are beautiful, the cities are amazing, and the game play is one hundred times more smooth and believable than the first game.

The story is a huge plus. I feel like the character of Ezio actually has personality and a purpose to everything he is doing. He's not just a nameless assassin (okay, I guess Altair had a name, but whatever) doing missions. He's got motivation, and every mission has a purpose. I'm not just doing the same three missions over and over again like I was in AC I.

I just learned how to assassinate a guy while hiding in a pile of hay. How awesome is that? You hide, the guard stands near the hay, and you reach out, kill him, and drag him into the hay pile, no one the wiser. I love doing things the stealthier or more roguish way. Instead of just beating up guards in my way, I hire some thieves or mercenaries to distract them, or better yet, I hire some prostitutes to REALLY distract them while I waltz in, take the treasure and leave without ever being seen. As Altair, the only choice was to fight most of the time. Why would an assassin want to bring so much attention to himself?

I recently got to the part where I get to have my own villa and upgrade it and pimp it out. At first, that seems like an odd thing to put in the game. Like a mini game of the Sims within Assassin's Creed. But I really like it. I like buying new armor, even just changing the color of my clothes because it makes your character more personalized. You feel more like you're affecting the world you're in, and not just existing in it.

Okay. Enough gushing. I'm the one late to the party, so most of you are probably just shaking your heads at me. If you haven't played it, do yourself a favor and do so. I would say to play the first one before you do, but at this point, well, there is no point. You want some background? Go read the wiki entry.

In current gaming news, I'm getting really excited about Rock Band 3. And all it took was the addition of keyboards. I actually play piano, so getting to play an instrument I really know how to play is going to be some good fun I think. And there are a lot of other awesome things about Rock Band 3 that sound really cool. If you haven't read any of the articles, interviews, or videos about Rock Band, and you're at all interested, I would check it out. I fell in love with Guitar Hero at a Best Buy one lazy afternoon. I spent the next few months obsessing about it before just going out and buying it. I imagine I'll feel the same about Rock Band 3. Cannot. Wait.

I beat it. Made it all the way to the end and beat up on the last boss and then sat back and enjoyed the ending cinematics. It wasn't easy. I had to retry the ending battle a few time before hitting all the right paradigm changes, but eventually the world was saved. Well at least one of them. I won't say any more if people don't want to be spoiled. You can read my review up hereif you like.

I will eventually go back and 5-star every mission and get the rest of the achievements, but I put 45 hours into it already so I'm going to give it a rest. I recently got Dragon Age Origins in the mail, and even though I was going to start Assassin's Creed 2, I couldn't wait to play Dragon Age, so I popped it in and played through the opening sequence for a Dwarf Commoner. It was fun. A lot more traditional in terms of role playing games. I can't decide if I want to just keep going with it, or play AC 2 like I was planning to do. Both are great games, to be sure, so maybe I'll just play them both.

I also got some other games in the mail from my sister yesterday. Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition. And a game called Legendary. Legendary is an FPS where you're fighting werewolves and gryphons or something. I had never heard of it, but the scores for it aren't that great. Should be fun for an afternoon though. And it's always fun to review bad games. Maybe it will be so bad, it's good.

Not much else to report on the gaming front. I am really enjoying playing all of these different games, as opposed to being beholden to World of Warcraft. Still playing WoW occasionally though because we're very close to beating Icecrown and the Lich King, which for many people, is the end of that game.

I just put up my Gears of War review, here. It seems like the expectation is that that shooters don't have the same time commitments that other games, such as RPGs, have. And that's probably for the best. What they do have are different levels of difficulty, so that if you like the game you can go back and play a harder version of it. I don't really ever feel the need to do that though, and I think I know why.

I play games for the stories more than I play them for the challenge. This doesn't mean I only enjoy simple, non challenging games. But it does mean that a good story will drive me to play a game more so than good game play will. But even games with excellent stories only need to be played once for me to feel like I've completed the game. Once I've completed the story, I don't often feel like going back and doing anything else. There are always exceptions of course. Assassin's Creed was just plain fun to play, so I went back and did all of the achievements.

With Gears done, I've had my fill of shooters for awhile. I'm still playing Final Fantasy (now in chapter 12), and I expect to finish it in the next week or two. Judging by my statement above, I'll probably be done with Final Fantasy XIII for awhile after I beat it, but I do think I enjoy the game play enough to eventually go back and try to max out my characters and go for the additional in game missions they have. That leaves me with a couple choices for what's next. I do have Assassin's Creed 2 that I'm looking forward to, as well as Bioshock. Fallout 3 is also on the docket, but I'd like to do something without and RPG element to it before I get into that game.

As I play each of these games and finish them, I'm posting reviews about them. I started wondering the other day about the usefulness of posting reviews on games that were released years ago. Most people have already played them, or made the decision not to, based on whatever criteria they trust. So why review old games? I supposed in the end, I do it mostly for myself because I like to write, and I like video games, so I'm joining the two passions. It could be that someone will find it useful, but even if that's not the case, it's enough for me just to know I've put it out there.

I just posted my review for Black Site: Area 51. As a disclaimer, I played the game because I know one of the people who worked on it, and I wanted to play his game. I believe it was one of the last games released by Midway: Austin before the place was closed down. My friend is okay though. He's moved on to better (*cough*Halo:Reach*cough*) things. Even he said that Black Site wasn't a very good game. They were rushed to put the game out, and so a lot of the game seems unpolished and buggy.

It makes me think about being in the gaming industry. As a life long gamer, it's something I think about. It's been said that if you love what you do then you'll never work a day in your life. I love gaming, so I wish I was doing something with games for a living. At one point in my life I had the idea I could be a composer for video game music, inspired as I was by the wonderful music of Final Fantasy. That didn't pan out, and I took the less risky path of getting a business and accounting degree in college.

From what I can tell though, working in the gaming industry is tough. You're ruled by deadlines, and it seems like you're almost always working overtime. Even before your game has a release date, you're being pushed to get it done and out the door, because until it is, the company is not making any money on it. Coming from a person who works in an industry where overtime is seen as lost profit, I have to wonder why gaming companies don't better pace and schedule their releases to avoid the stress and panic of 60-80 hour weeks. But then again, for the people working in those industries, if they love it, maybe they don't notice.

Back to actual games, I did get in a healthy amount of Final Fantasy XIII last weekend before the marathon finale of LOST. I'm still in Chapter 11, and I've ran over the entire freaking planet. After awhile, I was getting tired of running back and forth from C'ieth stone to C'ieth stone trying to complete missions to make my characters buff enough to move on with the story. Then I found the Chocobos and all was made right with the world. It's such an iconic part of Final Fantasy, and it brought a smile to my face to finally be able to ride one. Not to mention that it made getting around a heck of a lot easier.

Then I made it to Oerba, the destination of Chapter 11. I found a robot and got him all repaired, and to my great delight, he gave me stuff. Stuff that I could sell. And for the first time in over 30 hours of playing, I actually have money. Gil is a funny thing. In most of the other Final Fantasy games, you usually have enough money from fighting random battles to buy whatever it is you need in the next town. In FFXIII though, gils is a rare commodity. It's tempered by the fact that you don't have much to spend it on, unless you want to upgrade your weapons. But upgrading hasn't been a necessary part of the game to advance to this point yet. And upgrading is expensive. From what I hear, after you beat the game and are going for the various achievements, the longest grind in the game is for money to be able to get all of your weapons upgraded. I'm tempted to just hold on to my gil for now, and not spend it until I beat the game.

After spending some time building up the characters, I'm ready to head full steam into the end of the game though. I feel like I've got a good handle on the paradigm system. I've been sticking to a party of Lightning, Hope, and Fang to get me through most boss fights. That combination seems to have the best of all classes. I just wish I had Sazh in there to haste everyone up each time. Haste is the best buff ever.

After finishing Assassin's Creed, I booted up Final Fantasy XIII again. I'm currently roaming the lower world of Gran Pulse slaying monsters and trying to get my characters advanced enough to continue on with the main story line. It looks like I don't have to worry about the achievements for now since you can do almost all of them after you've beaten the game. That's sort of refreshing as I can play the game at my own pace instead of hovering over FAQs to make sure I get everything the first time through. Hoping to get some more time on this game over the weekend so I can put it on my cleared games list. Especially since I have some other gems to look forward to.

Last weekend I went and saw my brother in law graduate, and while I was their snagged copies of Assassin's Creed 2 and Bioshock from him, both of which I'm looking forward to. I've only read the instruction manual for Bioshock, and I'm already excited to play it. I'm pretty lucky in the quality of games I've been able to borrow from family. It's especially nice when you're budget doesn't really allow for even sporadic purchases of used games.

So now I just have to pick out which game to play next after I finish the latest Final Fantasy. I think I'm going to hold off on Assassin's creed since I just finished the first one, and since I'm currently wrapped up in an RPG, something simpler and more action packed might fit the bill. That leaves me with Area 51: Blacksite, Half Life 2, or Gears of War. Heck, I could probably finish a couple of those without too much trouble. Shooters tend to not have the time requirements of other games. I expect to put over 60 hours into Final Fantasy. Blacksite can most likely be finished in 10 hours or less if I don't stress about achievements.

Speaking of which, I think I've come to the decision that I will only work for achievements on games that are really fun to play. No sense killing myself for achievements on a game I don't enjoy. That being the case, I'll probably play Blacksite next just to get through the campaign. I think I mentioned before that I have it mostly because a family member worked on it, and I want to see what he worked on, even though he admits it's not as good as it could have been. Then I might tackle Gears of War before jumping into Fallout or Bioshock. So many options!

And of course, on top of all that, my guild in WoW has finally reached Arthas in Icecrown. More gaming than you can shake a stick at. Well, I mean you could, but why would you want to shake a stick at your games? That's just silly.

So I was supposed to have done this last weekend, but I got an early invite to the Reach beta and that sort of took priority in my gaming time. But this weekend I managed to sit down and pull off the final achievements in the first Assassin's creed. Which mostly consisted of running from place to place to collect flags and kill templars. I had a guide, and an expectation of how long it would take me. It took much longer than that, and after a long session on Saturday without finishing, I was about ready to just forget about it.

But Sunday came around, and I realized I was a lot closer than I thought I was, and I knocked it out. My first 1000. Yay! I find it interesting that now that I've done all of that, I have no inclination to ever play the game again. I'm ready for the next one. I'm ready to go back and play though Final Fantasy XIII which I've been missing. I doubt I'll get 1000 on FF XIII, at least not in the near future. Perhaps gradually over the course of a few months, but from what I've read, it takes a lot of monster grinding and over 100 hours of game play to get 1000 on that game. So that kind of leads me to believe, I'd rather play a variety of games then I would worrying about getting all of the achievements for one.

My sister called me a day or two ago. She asked if I wanted to borrow Oblivion: Game of the Year edition before she sold it online. I said yes. She's also loaning me Ninja Gaiden 2. A game I know next to nothing about, but I wasn't about to turn down free games.

And this coming weekend I'll be seeing my brother-in-law, who will have Assassin's Creed 2 for me. But I think I'm going to try and finish a few other games before I jump into AC 2.

Lots of good gaming to come!

I was one of the lucky few (if you can call several thousand people 'few') to get an invite to the friends and family beta for Halo: Reach this weekend. The official beta starts today, and anyone who purchased Halo: ODST will be able to access it. I think Bungie expects there to be millions of people signing on today based on ODST sales. The beta runs through May 19th and is multiplayer only, with different games and maps to be added as it progresses. Since I had a head start, I'm going to layout my thoughts on the game, and what the multiplayer has to offer. First, as a disclaimer, I do not claim to be very good at Halo by any means. I enjoy the campaigns and the story more than the player versus player aspects. However, I do enjoy playing with friends and family, which I get to do with Halo. I also have it in my head that if I play it more, I'll get better at it, and enjoy it more.

Gameplay

There were two maps available, an outside map and an inside map. There were plenty of weapons to use, some classic ones from other Halo games, and some new ones to Reach. There are a wide variety of different types of games. Probably my favorite of which is called Headhunter. In this game, every time you kill someone a skull is created that you can pick up. You then take that skull to a designated (and roaming) area and you get a point for it. You can carry up to 10 skulls at a time. First person to 25 points wins. Oh, and if you mange to get 10 skulls into a zone at the same time, you get an automatic victory. Skullamanjaro. I manged to do this twice on Sunday. It was the highlight of my Halo career.

There are other games of capture the flag and classic Slayer where you win by getting the most kills. I've never been very good on these games, but I still manage to have fun, even if it's laughing at the variety of ways in which I die. If you've played Halo games before, then you've already go the gist of what it is to play. The most noticeable addition to this game are the armor abilities included. There are four. Sprinting, rocket packs, armor lock, and invisibility. In most games you can pick between any one of them each time you die. Out of all of them, I find the rocket pack to be the most beneficial. It gives you a much greater mobility around the map (good for collecting and dropping off skulls, or reaching flags quickly) but it makes you a pretty easy target while in the air. Armor lock is very cool, but it takes practice to know when to use it. It's basically an invulnerable shield that makes you immobile. The other abilities are pretty straight forward. You have a resource bar that counts down as you use the abilities so you can't use them continually, but it recharges quickly when not in use as well.

Graphics

I think the game looks great. The player models are detailed and you can customize your armor so you don't look like every other player out there. The maps are vibrant and easy to navigate, but hold plenty of secret areas where you'll find the best weapons. It looks great on my TV in 720p, but since I'm fairly new to HD gaming, I might just not have a good frame of reference. Speaking of frames, the frame rate is very smooth, and there was no lag to speak of. I'll be interested to see if this changes with the influx of people playing today.

Overall

Even though I've never been great at competitive first person shooters, (the one possible exception being Goldeneye for the N64) I found myself practically addicted to Halo: Reach. Each game played gave you credits towards a new rank and money to spend on cosmetic armor upgrades. Oddly enough, that was motivation enough to keep playing. The better you played, the more points you got. Sometimes I felt like I didn't receive as many points as I felt I deserved. Such as when I won the headhunter games with a Skullmanjaro. You get more points for doing individual tasks in each game (double and triple kills, headshots, etc.) than you do for actually winning.

I've read a lot of the feedback from other players. Some consistent complaints are that grenades are too powerful, and the run speed is too slow, which I can understand, though my lack of familiarity with the prior games means I don't have that reference. I will say this about the grenades. The sound effects when one explodes near you are crazy awesome. For a second after the grenade explodes, you can't hear anything, and then it all comes whooshing back. I like that kind of detail.

More than anything, playing these games has made me excited about playing the campaign when it comes out sometime in the fall. As for me getting better at the multiplayer... well, I'll let you know when that happens.

So when I got back into console gaming, I decided I needed to get a variety of games to start me off. As a majority of my decision to get an Xbox 360 was because of Final Fantasy XIII, that was obviously on top of the list. I reached out to some friends who had been gaming on the Xbox for years for advice on which games to get to start me off. Here's what I ended up with.

Final Fantasy XIII

As I mentioned this game was the catalyst for getting a next generation console to begin with. I've been a die hard Final Fantasy fan since Final Fantasy II on the SNES. Final Fantasy III (or VI depending how you look at it) is my favorite game of all time. Squaresoft, and subsequently Sware Enix has been the deciding factor in most of my console purchases since the beginning of my days as a gamer.

So far, I've enjoyed the game quite a bit. The graphics are amazing, but keep in mind, this is my first HD gaming rig, so I was bound to be awed by the graphics of any game I played. Still the visuals are very nice, the battle sequences are slick, and the plot and characters, while nothing new, are still compelling. If you've read any of the reviews, you know the game is very linear, no going off the beaten path, for the first 20-30 hours. I've recently gotten to the point where I have some more freedom, and it's a lot of fun.

The Orange Box

While I was at Gamestop picking up Final Fantasy, I saw this game sitting on the shelf for a mere $19.99 and knew instantly that I must get it. I have heard over and over again how much fun the game Portalis, ever since hearing Still Alive on Rock Band 2. On top of that, it came with Half-Life 2. I played the original Half-Life during my freshman year of college and loved it. Team Fortress 2 also comes in the package. I don't care about TF2, but the rest of the included stuff was enough to make up my mind.

Portal ended too soon, but it was so much fun. I've only just started Half-Life 2, but it brings back a lot of memories from playing the first one. Head crabs!

Halo: ODST

This was a gift from my cousin-in-law who works for Bungie. Coincidentally, I got my 360 the same weekend as my birthday, and when he heard I was getting the system, he sent the game to me as a present. I had played the first two Halo games at my brother-in-law's house, but now I finally owned one! The game is short, but amazingly fun. I'm not a huge fan of shooter games, but I really like Halo. The game gets me into the beta for the next Halo game too, so I'm looking forward to that!

Fallout 3

For the last three years, I've been playing World of Warcraft. That's a large part of the reason I never got a current gen console. But a lot of my friends in WoW talked about this game as being a lot of fun. So on their recommendation I got this game. I actually traded for it over a game trading website called Goozex. I've only played through the opening sequence in Vault 101, but I can already tell it's going to be a great game.

Gears of War

This was obtained through Goozex as well, and I've also not played anything but the opening tutorial. I heard a lot about this game and the sequel when they were released, and also had it recommended to me by several people. I'm not actually certain if I'll end up liking this game or not, but I'll wait until I've played it more to give a final verdict.

Assassin's Creed

I've only borrowed this game. I bought my 360 used from my brother-in-law and he loaned me this game, saying it was a must play, and that the sequel was even better. He didn't let me down. Assassin's Creed was so much fun , I stopped playing Final Fantasy for two weeks and just played this game. I've since beaten it, written a review, and have nearly gotten all of the achievements. I just need to go back into the game and do all of the collection quests.

Next month I'll be borrowing Assassin's Creed II and I cannot wait.

Area 51: Blacksite

Interesting choice, yeah? This is another one I borrowed and for personal reasons. The aforementioned cousin worked on this game when he was with Midway. It was his first game for a major console after getting out of school, so it's got some sentiment to it. I haven't played it much yet, but I do plan on just doing a single play through to see his name in the credits.

So that's what I'm working on currently. With Assassin's creed done, I'll probably go back to Final Fantasy and finish the game before trying to do some of the extra stuff. After playing through the rest of these, I've got my eyes on Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, Assassin's Creed 2, DragonAge: Origins and Oblivion. I've never been much for sports games, though I enjoy some racing games. There's also Halo: Reach, which I'll be in the multiplayer beta for on May 3rd.

All in all, I feel like I've picked a good time to get back to console gaming. Every weekend is a new adventure.