Well, playing Corruption at the moment and loving every minute of it so far. I'm only about 7 hours into it, but what I've played has been great.

The controls were easy to get used to and prove to be much more accurate and intuitive than the control schemes of the previous Metroid Prime installments. The motion controls are alsoquite enjoyable andsatisfying.

It seems to be much more epic than the previous Prime games, owing to the much more "open" nature of the level design. Not that the rooms are much larger in this game - it's just that there's less closed in rooms and corridors, and more open-air areas with alien vistas. That's another good thing about this game - the art direction is brilliant - particularly impressive is the first time you land on Bryyo. Other than that, it seems to play much like Prime and Echoes - and that's not a bad thing!

My only negative is that sometimes the loading can get a little irksome. Sometimes when you shoot a door, you can wait outside for a full ten seconds before it opens. This is especially annoying when you're trying to get from one place to another quickly...

So yeah, brilliant game. I have to juggle between playing this and studying for my exams that are coming up at the end of the month. Usually I get my study out of the way, then play Corruption as a sort of reward. It seems to be working so far - I've been getting a few solid hours of study in every day!

Well, finally finished Sonic and the Secret Rings... don't look at me like that, I couldn't play it very much because of Uni commitments :evil:.

The graphics are really pretty, well for the Wii anyway, and the sense of speed is amazing (It may not look very pretty in the screens, but you have to remember that your tearing past at a hundred kms an hour... use your imagination people!). It's great to see Sonic returning to his roots, and though you're on rails, it makes it feel as though the world is very expansive, unlike in other games which can feel claustrophobic. 

Anyway, the game itself is broken into worlds, about 7 in fact, and in these worlds you have to complete certain tasks. About three chapters in each world are story related, including the boss battle, but the majority are little tasks like "collect 90 rings", or "defeat 30 enemies". You have to complete a certain number of these tasks in order to access the next story chapter. You can complete only the tasks that you need to get to the next story chapter (like I did), or go completionist and complete all the tasks before you face-off in the final boss battle. Essentially, it plays like an arcade game.

In the various chapters of the world, you can either play for points or speed. To get heaps of points, you need to defeat enemies, collect rings, and make it through the level without being touched. You use these points to "level up" Sonic, giving him abilities like "jump dash" and "fire step" etc, and also just giving him a general speed/acceleration boost. So by the end of the game, you're tearing through the levels at breakneck speeds.

If you complete levels within a certain time, you recieve a medal. And I can tell you it is impossibly hard to collect all golds! Although I'm trying at the moment, it seems only possible to the most diehard/hardcore players.

Admittedly, there are few problems with the game, one of which is the mechanic of moving backwards. You have to lift and twist the wiimote so the top is facing you, like lifting weights. This feels as though it hasn't really been fine tuned, as you will find yourself dashing forward as you try to make Sonic reverse, which can cause all sorts of problems if there are enemies, spikes or edges in front of you. One problem that I also found was that when enemies spawn when you are running at top speed, you tend to run into them before you have time to react, because they appear right in front of your face. Or maybe I just have slow reflexes or something :?.

Overall, I'd say it was an excellent game with a few annoying problems that deserves more than the 6.9 it got over on IGN (I still don't understand that - the best 3D sonic game, but only 6.9 :?). At the very least, I got some good use out of my Wii. Anyway, better stop procrastinating and get on with writing my lab report which is due tomorrow :evil:.

Edit: Oh yeah, forgot to mention audio. Music is alright I guess, there are a few good tracks, but some others sound like rock music aimed at kids under 10 years old. It insults my age - especially the dino jungle one. The English voice acting is horrible, so I changed tha language to Japanese. More authentic and it sounds a lot better, although trying to dodge enemies/spikes and reading subtitles at the same time can be a bit difficult.

Man, haven't updated my blog in ages... My Wii's collecting dust... I wish Nintendo would hurry up with SMG, SPM and SSBB. Gonna go pick up Sonic and the Secret Rings tomorrow, so I should have some fun with that.

Rats. Went to EB a week or two ago and pre-ordered my Wii with a $50 deposit cause they match offers from other stores. I was hoping to match Toy's R Us offer of "preorder your Wii and get a free game". EB said that if I brought that ad in with my preorder on launch day, I could get a copy of Zelda TP for free. But no, Toys R Us had to change their deal so you have to buy $700AUD+ of stuff to get TP for free :evil:.

Ah well, looks like i'll have to fork out another $100AUD to get TP. Gonna go back to EB in a few weeks to preorder it, and pay off the rest of my Wii.

Man, I can't wait for Zelda. :)