Happy Monday morning, GS!

Not much for you today just a few little notes a questions.

- 15 hours into New Vegas and I still don't see what everyone was so pissed about. I will agree that the story is lacking a little but I feel that's due to the fact that there was no huge prologue with you as a child becoming attached to your father. This game just kinda drops you in with no backstory or anything. Just a thought.

- I'm in the market for a laptop. My current desktop is going on 6 years old so its time for something new. I see quite a few of you are constantly buying computers and the such online to huge discounts. Can anyone suggest some websites that you or someone you know has shopped at for good deals on computers.

- My internet has been shaky at best over the last few days and its amazingly pathetic how much my life is tied to internet access. My computer was useless. No Xbox Live. No Netflix. Thank god it appears to be working today. I don't ask for much during my "vacation" but I do need my internet. This is the only time of the year when I get to game uninterupted during the day... don't take that from me.

That's it! So, what did people specifically not like about New Vegas? AND Where can I get a good deal on a new laptop?

Hope you had a great weekend!

Laughlyn

Just a few thoughts to drop before the weekend.

- I was cruising around on Xbox Live Marketplace in the games on demand section and notcied that if you buy UFC 2010 you still need to pay the $10 to pay online as a seperate transaction. That's really weak.

- If MS is convinced that this is a way to make serious revenue and possibly combat used game sales then their prices need to be a little more competitive. I'm totally open to buying games on demand but don't rip me off to do it.

- I've given almost 10 hours now to Fallout: New Vegas and I don't see what everyone was so pissed about. I'm sure the technical glitches at this point aren't as bad as at launch but all the other complaints seem odd to me. Of course, its not as good as Fallout 3, not a whole lot of games will be but it has the same feel and I like the new setting.

- I'm ready to go back to work. I'm two weeks into my five weeks of paid vacation and I'm already about to go nuts. You think sitting around all day on the couch playing video games is sweet? It's not. I feel very useless.

- I need to get back into Black Ops. I'm almost willing to call it the best multiplayer shooter I've ever played. It's great.

That's it. Have a happy weekend!

What's everyone playing this weekend?

Laughlyn

'Tis the time of the year when people spend an inordinate amount of time either looking back at the year that has passed or forward to the year yet to come.

So, far be it for me to go against popular trends... afterall, I spent a lot of my childhood jumping off of bridges that everyone else had jumped off first so away we go.

I mostly want to take this time to discuss trends that I saw in 2010 that I want continued or things that I saw starting to slip that I want reversed.

1. No two developers/one franchise for games in 2011.

It's hard to argue with the old Infinity Ward/Treyarch combo for the CoD franchise but lets be honest, those days are over. Just because it worked for them doesn't mean that every publisher should start subbing out the work on their hit franchises so that they can turn around and pump out a new iteration every single year.

We saw what happened when Bethesda subbed out the development duties to Obsidian. The game didn't turn out nearly as good as it might have had Bethesda kept the development duties themselves.

Now, I understand that Bethesda has a lot on its plate and that the only way they were going to get a new Fallout this year was to sub out the work but where is it written that we HAVE to get a Fallout game every year? It took forever for Fallout 3 to come out and after all those years it suddenly became an annual franchise?

We all know it was about money and that's fine if the game is just as good as the original (you know what I mean) developer but it wasn't and the whole thing just screams of a sloppy cashgrab. Cashgrabs are fine as long as they're not too obvious.

2. A new direction for the Rock Band/Guitar Hero genre.

I have a living room full of plastic instruments. I still have yet to buy the keyboard but that will come soon enough. The question is what's next? Guitar Hero has sunk to all kinds of lows with their almost monthly releases of horrendous compilations of artists. Don't get me wrong, I like Van Halen well enough but the idea of giving them their own game seemed a little short sighted.

I thought Rock Band: The Beatles was about as masterful of a stroke as possible until they followed it up with Green Day.

If you're going to just give me single band editions of the game then make sure the artists are of the same caliber as the Beatles.

With the Rock Band franchise recently being sold by Viacom for the price of a ham sandwich I would like to see the two titans of the genre just merge. Seriously, is anyone out there a strict Rock Band fan that hates Guitar Hero? What is this system wars? They're the same thing... just combine them.

Once they're one entity I think they should, instead of releasing single band editions (which I'm for as long as they're GREAT bands) I think they should release musical genre editions of the game. Think of how cool a punk edition of Rock Band would be? And if the new company wants to cash in on instruments then release a bundle with the game and a set of plastic punk instruements. Scratched up guitars and drum kits? It might not sell but at least it would follow the current marketing plan. After Punk Band? Why not Funk Band? Soul Band? Just a thought.

3. More character driven narratives in story.

The two best games I played this past year were Heavy Rain and Red Dead: Redemption.

Now, I know a lot of people will have things to say about Heavy Rain so I won't go too much into that but you get what I'm hinting at. Heavy Rain was more story than game and at least for me it was a welcome refresher when compared to games with all game and no story.

I'll spend more time talking about Red Dead: Redemption in this instance.

The reason why I loved RD:R was because it took the Rockstar formula but gave me a character I really cared about. Personally, I never really cared about the nameless guy from GTA3, Tommy Versetti from GTA: VC, whatever his name was from GTA: SA and while I saw the trend starting with Niko Belick in GTAIV I just couldn't relate to them.

Niko was the first main character in a Rockstar open world game that I noticed they tried to make somewhat remorseful for his actions. Everyone prior to him was trying to build a crime empire while he was more along the lines of someone caught up in a series of circumstances. While this might not be much different than John Marsden's presentation in RD:R but I see it completely different.

I genuinely wanted John to succeed. I wanted him to get his life back and be with his family. He was brilliantly written, acted and fleshed out as a character. It was refreshing to see a character in what is essentially GTA: Old West to be someone I related to and cared about. I hope Rockstar continues this trend in the future.

4. A return to gaming and a move away from the constant flood of peripherals.

I like the Wii. I like what it does. It was very successful so a few years ago Microsoft and Sony had to either crap or get off the pot with motion controls. At the time they green lit Move and Kinect they had no idea the motion control market was going to dry up like it has.

It's not their fault. They committed to something years ago and because of R&D and various other costs they couldn't turn back once they'd made the committment.

Now it's 2011 and while Microsoft and Sony will be glad to tout their sales numbers of their new peripherals part of me wonders if when they're alone in the dark at night if they believe all the cost and expense of bringing these things to market was worth it in the long run. Something tells me they might regret it.

Don't get me wrong, I think Kinect and Move are both cool pieces of technology but I'm not sure of their lasting power. Sony and Microsoft are going to do everything they can to jam these things down out throat despite what appears to be a small amount of market saturation even before they hit the shelves.

Now that they're out lets get back to your existing audience. One of the constant problems in business is the idea of bringing in new customers while keeping your old ones and if MS and Sony continue on this path I'm afraid the average "core" gamer might start to feel neglected if they haven't already.

5. No talk about the next gen of consoles.

I love my consoles. They've finally all hit their strides and now is not the time to be looking forward. Don't kill the golden geese now that they're all rolling along at their own pace.

It's hard to stay focused on doing the best job for your current product when you're already looking ahead to what's next. Now I understand someone, somewhere is currently working in a basement somewhere on whatever is next for all of the console makers but lets not start talking about it. I love this current gen and I'll be damned if it dies before it really hits maturity for the sake of what's new.

Don't turn this generation of consoles into DVD's. Don't give me something I love, got used to and invested heavily in just to turn around and give me something I didn't necessarily want or have the means to get for myself just because you have this new technology that you want to start making money off of. Blu Ray is cool, but was there a huge groundswell of people pissed about DVD's? VHS lasted from the time I was a little kid until I was in college. DVD's lasted from college until my late 20's. That sucks right? Don't do it to us gamers.

Just my two cents on what I'd like to see in 2011. Overall, I think 2010 was one of the best years for the industry and I think its best to just keep chugging along our current path than to competely switching things up for the sake of what's new.

The industry evolves every year and there were some evolutions that I liked and others I didn't. Hopefully we'll keep moving along toward an even better 2011 than 2010.

Laughlyn

New Years Resolution time!

No, I'm not going to bore you with my list of personal resolutions for the new year. Instead, I'm going to give you my list of gaming related resolutions for 2011.

1. Reconnect with the gaming community at large.

By nature I am not a loner. I am about as social as a person that exists in this world. I love people. I love being around people. I love gaming. The problem is that for the most part I only game alone. I occassionally play some online multiplayer but hardly ever with people that I know.

I have made quite a few "friends" here on GS that I haven't gamed with and that's a shame. I will do better in 2011.

2. Give more love to the other consoles.

Half the time I completely forget that I have all three consoles in my house right now. Now, I've played the PS3 and Wii but not in a manner that really uses the investment that I've made. I will pay more attention to PS3 exclusives and possibly sacrifice a multi-platform game in order to play a PS3 exclusive.

3. Expand my gaming horizons.

I did pretty well this year in branching out into other gaming genres this year. I played arcade racers, puzzle games and even downloadable games this year. I hardly ever got burned by these choices and hope to continue this same trend in 2011.

4. Talk about gaming in a positive light in front of non-gamers.

Its easy to just fall into the trap of being the stereotypical gamer when others aren't around. Its not always on us but there are times when I find myself having exceptionally "expected" conversations and points of views when it comes to gaming.

We are here to stay people. The only problem is that like most prejudices the only real weapon we have as far as educating the ignorant is time and a willingness to accept unfair judgements past upon us until we can overcome what people think about us. Get out there and be a positive ambassador for gaming when out in public. Be a good public face.

Any gaming resolutions from you guys? Want to play different games? Want to play online more? Want to get another console? Let me know!

Take care and happy gaming,

Laughlyn

So, it's 11:54pm here in Charleston and let me just give you a quick little update on what's going on in my house.

1) I'm killing time while I wait for my cinnamon roll dough to proof while the girlfriend is finishing wrapping all the gifts.

2) Just playing NFS: Hot Pursuit. Fun game but I just don't understand why and arcade racer has to handle like complete dog****. Driving is more of an act of sorcery than hand-eye coordination.

3) Dead Space is really starting to piss me off. I don't know where all these developers started thinking that the best way to introduce a new IP is to make the story make no sense whatsoever. Mass Effect? Dead Space? Assassin's Creed? I don't want to play part of the way through the first episode of the new franchise and already be aware that none of my questions will be answered.

Looking forward to really getting my game on after all this holiday hullabaloo dies down.

So what should I play next? The WoW expansion? Give Oblivion another go? Crackdown 2? Final Fantasy XIII? New Vegas?

Laughlyn

I have a grand total of 8 days left of work between today and my birthday in February, all of it paid, by the way. So like last year I'm basically going to spend my month of paid vacation hibernating in my house.

Now don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm going to be sleeping, eating and gaming all day. Wait, come to think of it... that's exactly what I'll be doing with the additional task of making all sorts of sasauges, bacons and ice cream. I've decided to not just play games this year. I'm actually going to hone my craft while on break. How productive am I?

With all this gaming time on my hands I'm looking into finding some LONG and involved games. So far my list includes, Fallout: New Vegas, Final Fantasy XIII and maybe going back to Oblivion and giving that another go. Anyone have any suggestions for games that are huge timesinks? Hell, maybe I'll even get back into WoW with the new expansion.

On the more recent gaming front, I finished Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. While I loved the actual game part, the story is really starting to wear on me. It's really starting to turn into Lost in that each episode asks more questions than it answers. Hey, Ubisoft, your story is becoming exceptionally bogged down and convoluted. You better start with the answering or I'm going to check out.

I've also picked up Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. It's been fun. Nothing too involved. I don't pour hours into it at a time but I'm having a good time with it. I spend more time online than in the single player.

I've also picked up Dead Space and so far so good. The parts where it takes out of the basic gameplay mechanics are a bit of a pain in the ass but I am enjoying it, especially considering how much it cost me.

I hope everyone is doing well and that you're enjoying whatever you're playing! Give me suggestions for games to spend my break on!

Laughlyn

So it's Thanksgiving and I'm off for the week! The girlfriend and I will be heading home to Maryland to visit my parents on Tuesday so let me get this out now or she's going to have a nightmare of a car ride.

- I finished Medal of Honor and like I said in my last blog there's just something about it. I liked it. Didn't love it. The campaign seemed a little more believable than the MW plots and while the multiplayer isn't as deep and somewhat flawed I still enjoyed it strictly for the "Combat Mission" gamemode. I don't see myself holding on to this one for much longer.

- Still haven't replayed Fable 3. The way the whole thing ended really pissed me off. Don't know if I'm going to get back to this one.

- I picked up Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and let me tell you, it's great. If you love the franchise this game is its pinnacle achievement so far. Don't buy into the BS that this is just an expansion. The campaign is long and as always with an AC title there is soooooo much to freaking do that while only being 45% of the way through the campaign I have easily sunk 30 hours or so into it. Expansion, my ass.

I've only played one match in the multiplayer (the campaign is that good) but it seems great. Unlike most games where you just run around like a lunatic killing people at will you are truly rewarded for blending in and killing people while they least suspect it. It's great and I can't wait to get more into it once I'm through with the campaign.

That's it for me today. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving! What are your plans? Gaming? Family? Booze?

Laughlyn

As we all know the fall gaming season is upon us. Most of us have had at least one game come out in the not to distant past that we were really looking forward to. Personally, I had two as of this writing, the Medal of Honor reboot(?) and Fable 3.

The whole idea of a non-Infinity Ward FPS set in a modern setting really appealed to me. Knowing that the campaign was going to be more or less the same as any Modern Warfare game I really set my sights on the multi-player.

Ask anybody with an internet connection and they'll tell you that DICE developed multiplayer games have a completely different feel than MW so I wanted to give it a shot.

The very first day I had it... the servers were broken. No bueno. The second day? Same deal. Ok, now I'm getting pissed.

After a few days eventually the multiplayer came around and I dove in. It took a little while to get used to the new feel of a DICE game but once I did I really started to enjoy it.

The simplified class system is refreshing and honestly gives me a sense that results are more based on skill than on equipment. At a certain point in MW the higher level players are so overpowered with gear that it really detracts from the fun for people who just started the game or aren't as dedicated.

I really took to the Combat Mission gametype. The matches last longer and actually force players to act together... at least as much as an FPS can.

The only thing I wish they had done was allowed me to customize the look of my actual in game character for multiplayer. The Rainbow Six games do this and I just always thought it was a cool idea that I never understood why more games didn't include it. If having a beard is a choice then why can't the rest of my look be?

Even despite having these great things to say about Medal of Honor I feel kinda let down by it. I know the servers were only screwed up for two days but that really made me upset and as someone who holds a hell of a grudge for nothing this is one thing that I can't forgive. Say what you will about IW but their servers absolutely work from the word go.

I'm just not drawn to this game. I don't sink hours at a time into it. I play about 30 mins to an hour a night but never sitting down on my day off and blowing the whole day on it like I had with the Modern Warfare series.

Now, lets get to some real disappointment... with some qualifiers. I'm about to discuss why I was let down by Fable 3. Needless to say there will be spoilers all over the place. So much so that I won't even bother pointing them out. I'm just going to write my thought process in italics. If you don't want to know anything about Fable 3 then don't read the italics.

I won't lie. I LOVED Fable 2. It was as close to a next-gen, old-school Zelda game that has ever been made. Simplified combat. Big world. Stuff like that. In addition to all that the good/evil choice, the real estate, the relationships, the way the world changed over time, and most importantly, the dog, just really made me love it. That's right. I loved the dog.

Fable 3 really hit home for me because its a game that if ever there was a target demographic for this game, I was it. It's a fantasy game with a political twist. Holy crap! I'm a fantasy nerd with a political science degree! This is perfect.

Oh, wait. No, it's not.

All of Peter Molyneaux's hype leading up to the game was basically this idea of instead of becoming king of the land at the end of the game, why not make it in the middle of the game this way you can actually spend time ruling over the kingdom that you just rescued?

The first part of the game (rescuing the kingdom) is very Fable-esque. Just like the last one, I was thrilled. However what really blew my hair back was the idea of being king! I couldn't wait.

Let me just say that being king sucked. You made a series of 5 or so decisions, went on two quests, fought the last boss (which was supposed to be impossible to beat) and then went about your day living with your decisions as to how you ruled.

How the king portion basically breaks down is this. Your first order of business is to decide on the taxes for the kingdom. For every gold piece in the kingdoms treasury you save a life of a citizen. If you raise taxes and make the people miserable you save their lives. If you refuse to pay for social services, they hate you but you save money to save their lives.

You basically have to decide to save and raise money in order to save the kingdom from this unstoppable force. I was a benevolent ruler, gave everyone what they wanted and was 1.5 million gold in the red when the final battle occured. How'd it go? I beat it easily by myself and then when the game continued every single NPC that once lived in Albion is now dead.

That's it. It's complete and utter crap. I wanted a horrible ending where my subjects utopian lives were completely destroyed and the entire kingdom along with it because we didn't have enough money for an army. Instead, I go out BY MYSELF, kill this great evil and the entire kingdom remains intact just all the people are dead. What a bunch of crap.

I'm so angry I might not even play through again as evil just to see how the world is different at the end.

From what I've figured the only incentive to save my citizenry is just so that I can continue to do quests once I've defeated the great evil? What a jip.

Enough ranting for today. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood comes out Tuesday. Hopefully that will live up to they hype.

Anyone disappointed with something they bought recently? Come on, you New Vegas owners.... I know you have something to say. Let it fly!

Take care and happy gaming,

Laughlyn

After a long, miserable and generally gameless summer, the holliday release season is finally upon us. Well, at least to me it is.

Tuesday, I was blessed (I don't get very many) with a day off from work. What else happened on Tuesday? The Medal of Honor reboot came out.

Now, I'll be honest. If you gave me enough time I could probably name all of the first person shooters that I've ever played in my life. It's really not that many:. If you gave me a minute or two I could probably name all the FPS's that I've spent a lot of time (6+ hours) playing. In even less time I can name all the FPS's that I've given more than an hour of my life to the multi-player... the answer to this question is exactly two.

I bought Medal of Honor as a way of finding something to play but also expanding out beyond the Modern Warfare franchise. Now, it can be argued that MoH is nothing more than a MW clone thus making my reason for buying it moot. I didn't want a complete change of pace, I just wanted to see what non-Infinity Ward FPS's played like.

Given the success that DICE has had with their games I thought I'd give MoH a whirl.

So far, the single player has been especially taut and enjoyable. It feels like less of a Michael Bay movie than Modern Warfare. So far, I haven't ridden in on helicopter gunships to destroy a secret enemy base made from a converted prison. It's not as glamorous. It provides a great sense of empathy for the soldier out there fighting. I'm really enjoying it.

If I had written this column a few days ago most of my discussion of the multiplayer would look something like this:

"&&^#*@ this game! How can your &*(^^%^&# servers be this @$@!@!@#$-ing #%@#$-ed?"

Alas the server problems that I experienced the first two days are more or less gone but seriously though, shame on you EA. I heard this same thing happened with BF:BC2. How did you not learn your lesson? Say what you want about MW2 but at least their servers work from day one.

The last thing I want to mention about my MoH experience is one particular game mode in multiplayer. "Combat Mission" is an objective based game where killing is not the point. Team work is. This game mode is basically the advancing spawn point gameplay I remember from my brief time with Battlefield 2. I've never really cared for any type of multiplayer mode outside of the standard deathmatch, team deathmatch, and domination type games. This game mode alone will keep me coming back for a while.

Now that I'm finally enjoying a game lets already look ahead to what the rest of the month has on track for us.

Oct 19: Fallout: New Vegas - As much as I loved Fallout 3 and spent many hours invested in it. I'm going to wait on this one. I get the entire month of January off from work (completely paid) so I'll need something to pass the time and this will probably be it.

Oct 26: Fable III - Say what you will about Peter Molyneaux... god knows I have but my girl and I really enjoy the Fable franchise. In fact we enjoy it so much we even pre-ordered the collector's edition. Yeah, I'm pumped.

Nov 16: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - Very pumped for this one.

Dec 7: WoW: Cataclysm - Look, WoW is my guilty pleasure. I love it. Its what an MMO should be (at least until the Old Republic comes out). So this will probably be my last go 'round with WoW and I hope its good.

I hope everyone's enjoying the beginning of the happy time of the year! What are you looking forward to?

Take care and happy gaming!

Laughlyn

Oh joy. Oh rapture.

After years and years of meh downloadable content Harmonix has finally hit the jackpot with the full Bob Marley: Legend album.

This summer has been so awful that I've spent my usual gaming budget on upgrades to my gaming setup. Gone is my pathetic 20 gig hard drive and has been replaced by a 120 gig.

I've also spent the majority of my gaming budget adding points to my XBL account so that I can download content since the retail offerings are really lacking. The bad thing is that nothing on there seems to be interesting.

The new Castlevania was too slow. The new Dead Rising was just as clunky as the last.

Any suggestions for XBLA titles?

Also if anyone wants to jam out to some Bob Marley on Rock Band today just hit me up. I should be online most of the day.

Take care and happy gaming.

Laughlyn