Most of you who read my blog probably don't realize this, but I'm on MSN (or Windows Live now) Messenger all the time. If I'm not signed on, I'm not home or doing something REALLY important. When my MSN (or Internet) isn't working properly, I'm not any fun to be around. Well, yesterday I got a new router. I hooked it up with pretty much no problem. My MSN worked fine. Everything was awesome. Well, when I start up my computer today, for some reason MSN or my routers firewall or something decides it wants to annoy me and kick me off every 5 minutes. At this point, I'm not really getting angry or anything because I realize there are always issues you have to work out with this kind of stuff. So for the time, I just ignored it. That's where things really started to go downhill. After work, I go to sign on, and it gives me this bogus error message/code. I go into the help file, and the error isn't even listed. So fine, I'll just restart. That'll probably fix it, right? Actually, no. Then I get this Piece of **** message on startup that says "You may be a victim of software counterfeiting." So I double click on the crap in the system trey, and it tells me to buy another copy of XP! At this point I'm just furious. I know my copy of Windows is 100% "genuine." I just decide to ignore the thing and try MSN again. Through stupidity, I decide to try to reinstall MSN as I can sign on Web Messenger just fine from another computer on the same network. But when I attempt to install it, It says it couldn't install and gives me the "rollback." I try trillion. It manages to connect for 2 seconds but then instantly fails again. So in conclusion, I'm MSNless, frustrated, tired, and have some MS **** in my system trey. If this is how I get treated for truthfully purchasing XP, they can bet I'll steal Vista.

Chromehounds is still awesome! I can't think of much to say, so I'll let the game do the talking for itself. Here is a gameplay video from the main multiplayer mode. [video=Jn1gkjqv5bIKuzQ]

Chromehounds is pretty awesome. Not every game makes me play for 10 hours straight. Yes, I started playing at 3 in the afternoon, and stopped at 1 the next morning. I keep asking myself why this game is so good/addicting. I can't come up with a great answer. The single player is ok. There are six missions for every specific role type. This would be fine, but all the soldier missions, sniper missions, etc. are all in a row. As you may expect, setting up 6 sniper ambushes in a row can get a little repetitive. They should have forced you to break up the action a little more, but overall the single player is pretty fun and unlocks some cool parts for use on your multiplayer hound (mech).

[video=InY7xmOr5bIIuT4]
Gameplay from a couple sniper RT single player missions as well as a test of my multiplayer hound.

In Chromehounds, multiplayer is where it's at. The game has a "persistent world" war thing like Steel Battalion. But unlike SB: LOC, there appears to be no specific end of the war or change of maps. You just fight on the maps where the battles really are. The Idea is pretty cool, but I think it may run into problems when it forces you to play the same maps over and over again as the tide of war switches back and fourth. It could be cool, though, if at one point the factions switched positions, for example, from north and south to east and west.

The first thing you must do to be able to play online at all, is join a faction and squad. A squad is a group of up to 20 members that is supposed to work closely together. They make it very difficult to play with friends who aren't in your squad. That sucks, but the whole system works out pretty well. My main fear, which proved to be true at 1 am, is that even with 20 players in a squad, you're not going to be able to hop online anytime and get a quick game in. The squad system does have its benefits though. When you go into the online portion of Chromehounds, you are transported directly to the "squad lobby" where you and your squadmates can customize your hounds, test them, and talk over strategy.

This, however, is where the multiplayer (on the first day at least) kind of falls apart. In theory, a squad (or a unit within a squad) should have "Roletypes" (RTs) for each person to make a balanced, and tactically sound team. But right now, everyone is just trying to make the best mech with the biggest weapons they can. If people stick with the game, I'm sure this trend will die down, but if it stays like this, the game certainly won't be as much fun as it could have been. I am guilty of this myself. However, once I go through all the RTs in single player, I plan on sticking with one specific type for multiplayer. Hopefully other people will do the same.

But anyway, my initial impressions are very good. I think the last time I played a game for 10 hours (or more) straight was Steel Battalion: Line of Contact. I played continuously for 18 hours in the last day of Campaign mode. That was quite a night/morning

I've finally decided I'm going to get Chromehounds. For months I've thought "I'm not getting it" one week, then changed my mind the next, but with the help of many of my friends in the UK (the game is out there already), I've decided to go for it. Initially, the game had some server problems preventing only those lucky enough to get in the server to play, but Dewiz tells me those issues have been worked out (only this afternoon though) in preparation for the US release. Sega seems to be on the ball. A little more then Capcom at least. :) For those who may not know, Chromehounds is a strategy based mech game focusing on customisation of the hounds (mechs). At first, the game angered me as it contains blatant Steel Battalion rip-offs, but I think CH will implement many of those stolen elements better then SB did. I'm really hoping this turns out to be more then Mech Assault with Armored Core customization and Steel Battalion online elements thrown in. The initial CH reviews (from Europe and Japan) have been quite bad, but if there's one thing you can expect reviewers to always hate, it's mech games. VERY FEW mech games get the respect they deserve in reviews. And mech games with strategy get the most crap. So how can you expect it to get good reviews if that's what the game is supposed to be about? I should be getting the game tomorrow. Expect lots of videos, screenshots, impressions, and other crap from me. Part of me says the game will rock (the part that likes mech games and strategy), and another part says it'll suck (the part that hates MechAssault). I'll just have to wait and see I guess. EDIT: This just occurred to me: I can't do a blog without a new video! And since all my 360 games are boring by now, we're going old school (sorta. Old school for me :)). [video=JCYzwjKs5bIOuTY]

I've been playing Over G Fighters online quite a bit over the past few days. The game got an absolutely horrendous review on Gamespot, and for a good reason. Basically, everything about the single player absolutely sucks. The mission design, AI, dogfights (if you can even call them that), and destroying ground targets. Just about everything that makes up a good single player experience isn't there. After playing a bit of the single player, It came to "wow, this game sucks." I mean, really sucks. Like, not even worth the $5 I payed to rent it sucks. But then, I entered a multiplayer game. Most things that were unacceptably bad about the single player were gone. A few things (like the sense of speed, and the lack of extremely sim physics) were unchanged, but the game truly shows everything it has to offer in its multiplayer. At first, I just liked it because it wasn't as amazingly horrible as the single player. I went to SB.org, saw Tonberry_Killer say its like "Steel Battalion in the sky" and laughed hysterically. But as I play the game more and more, I can see that this was no waste of $5. Every time I play it, I slowly think more highly of the game. It's just so much damn fun to get with a good wingman and coordinate attacks on enemies. The main multiplayer mode consists of four teams with two pilots/planes each. The objective is to take out enemy aircraft, ground, and sea targets (near each teams base) to widdle down the other teams points. The last team standing wins. Defending your base as well as your 6 can prove to be a difficult task. In the center island of the map (there is only one map you can play on), there is a neutral base where you can land to refuel/rearm (fuel/missiles are extremely limited). However, landing is a somewhat difficult and time consuming task, so it's not overly easy to land there between shooting down enemies. The action itself can be pretty tame at times. You can easily go for several minutes without even seeing an enemy. But that's not a bad thing. It's just not all Ace Combat. Like in the greatest game of all time (Steel Battalion), it just allows time to maneuver yourself and your mates in the best position for an offencive or defencive. When the action really picks up is when missiles are being shot at you. One must attempt to out-maneuver, chaff, or, if in the right plane, outrun the incoming projectile. Your most common tactic will be to maneuver/chaff. But maneuvering is something planes in Over G Fighters are not great at (as it is a "sim"). Adding to the intensity of trying to avoid certain destruction, you can black out when pulling too many Gs. While your screen (from my experience) will never completely fade out, the "tunnel vision" most certainly makes the situation more hectic. [video=cCQ6kjb45b0IvD8] Getting hit by a missile, shooting down some people, then landing at the center neutral for repairs. So, in conclusion, Over G isn't a great game, but not as bad as Gamespot's review made it out to be. The game would be better if it had no single player component at all (To this day the game glitches every time I beat mission 2 preventing me from getting past it). I might consider getting it if it were $30, maybe $40. But there is no way I'm paying $60 for the game. Unfortunately, in the meantime, I'll probably wish I had my modern air combat fix. :( EDIT: I uploaded a 2nd Over G video here.

Just because I got the 360, that doesn't mean I'm done with the best game ever created! Here's a clip of the action from Steel Battalion: Line of Contact Wednesday. [video=dnE3wjr-5b0PvTY] Secondly, Dwraith and I finally got around to playing some coop in Perfect Dark Zero. First we shoot some dumb AI in the face, then rock out to the techno music in the fountain. [video=KnBgn2Co5b0PvTM] Lastly, I'd like to thank Dwraith for buying/sending me PDZ completely free. You're awesome!

I've been playing Ghost Recon, Perfect Dark, and Uno on my 360 lately. GRAW isn't as bad as I made it out to be in my last blog post. Playing with buddies is fun obviously, but I still don't think I'll be buying it. I'm a fan of the original Ghost Recons, but I didn't even like GR2. Ghost Recon 2 ruined the strategic elements of gameplay found in the first games. GRAW only waters down the formula further with a drone which marks enemy positions. I guess I'm not a big fan of the futuristic thing. As for Perfect Dark Zero, the game is pretty awesome. The coop is a blast, and the black ops multiplayer modes are fun/addicting. I thought the game was strange at first, but I'm definitely getting used to it. In what other game can you fight a 2020 biker gang? I've got a little footage from the 2nd mission. Basically, I go on a shotgun rampage. Awesome! [video=d3c3l2Gr5b0OvzA]

It is nearly impossible to get started in GRAW. It's a good thing I'm only renting it. A video of me attempting to get a game. [video=IX1gwjur5bwEvzA] How can I figure out I like it and want the stupidly overpriced map pack if I can't get a game to start with?

Yes, I finally got it. And yes, it really as cool as Microsoft makes it sound. I'm so satisfied in every aspect about how the dash and guide works. It's one the coolest things I've ever used . . . seriously. I'm up to an astounding 80 points at this point. I don't think I'm going to get into the whole point thing. I don't really think it would be worth it. The whole points system is pretty cool, although it can seem like MS is trying to rip you off (though how they make you buy points). I purchased Uno on the Arcade. Anyway, now you can see my gamer profile anytime. I don't have much to show for right now, but whatever! Now that I got the 360, I can think of no better time to show you a picture of my place of destruction. Behold! (need a wider angle lens, sorry) (click for larger view) I'll get back when get some good video, screenshots, etc. to show you. I know its really sad, but I played LOC today despite having the 360. :)

[video=cnZilGfx5bwPvzU] A portion of the action from Wednesday night on Steel Battalion: Line of Contact. Thanks to everyone who played! I've missed the past couple weeks, but you showed me LOC can still draw in a good sized crowd. Connections were generally great, and we got a good amount of 4v4's. Great games everyone! :) I should be getting the 360 within the next couple days. I'd like to thank Dwraith for sending me Perfect Dark Zero. You're awesome buddy!