Another fairly brief 1,000. My gaming time definitely spiked during this last stretch, thanks in no small part to Gears of War 2 and Fallout 3. So, today's Friday, I got both games last Friday. By Saturday night, I had put in 20 hours on Gears 2, and by today, I have put in almost 50 hours on Fallout 3. This is not to mention the hours of DS I've been playing lately. I think it's fair to say that this has been The week with the most gaming in all my life! And I recently got quite a few games from Gamefly, including Silent Hill: Homecoming, which I'm really looking forward to! So, about that 42,000, here's the rundown:
Days since 41,000: 10 days
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (50 points) - Really starts off amazing, but kinda drops off after you no longer get to be Vader, imo. I don't like the combat too much, and I really hate games with an uncontrollable and unending supply of enemies. I like to explore, and I hate that hindrance. That being said, I borrowed this from my neighbors and I will hopefully get a chance to finish it off.
Portal: Still Alive (25 new points (200 total)) - Portal became my second ever 100% gamerscore XBLA game! Huzzah! Portal has great replay value, mostly for trying to get fewest portals or footsteps, or lowest time on the challenge maps, and to get lowest time on the main game. Time is measure in some odd point system, so all I know is my best time in the game is just under 300,000 points, which is about 45 minutes. Beat that!
Gears of War 2 (470 points) - Gears 2 is much better than the first, everybody's been saying it, and it's true. Unfortunately, Gears 2 also has a lot more bugs (and I'm not talking about the locust variety). The game can glitch out pretty bad, often causing certain parts to be not passable. I haven't played the multiplayer, since that's not really my thing, but I did get through the sp on hardcore on co-op, and it lasts a lot longer than the Gears 1 sp, so I'm working on it on Insane now.
Rock Band 2 (0 new points (470 total)) - Haven't been playing too much Rock Band lately, mostly because of the horrible list of releases last week. This week, however, they released the Colours and Shapes album from the Foo Fighters, and it's really good, but they charged $20 for it. Bastards.
Fallout 3 (600 points) - Fallout 3 is all about big pros and big cons. Pros: great graphics, no load screens in any individual map, including the massive outdoor one, tons of good voice acting, long life, tons of stuff to explore, really cool weapons and visual design. Cons: The usual Bethesda glitchiness (got used to it from Oblivion), the story really falls apart at a certain point, no exploration after the main quest has been completed (seriously, Bethesda, wtf?), and the new level up system sucks. At least Fallout 3 has only frozen on me a couple times, major improvement from Oblivion. Bethesda did, however, keep as much stuff as physically possible exactly the same as it was in Oblivion, I assume to cut costs. Even the sound when you pick up a key is exactly the same byte as from Oblivion, and even Morrowind! If only they'd kept the level up system the same. In their past games, you would practice a skill to level that skill up, giving you the ability to max out your skills, and incentive for using them. Level up your main skills 10 times, and you get a level up of your character, where you can improve your stats. However, Fallout 3 uses a more traditional rpg level system, where you gain some weird thing called "experience points" and can only improve your skills through a distribution system trans level. Besides all the negatives, though, it really is a great game. It definitely takes some time to get into, as it can be very difficult early on after you get outside, but once you're established, you'll love it.
Current gamerscore stands at: 42,152
Current world gamerscore rank: 17,594