I know it's about a year and a half late, but I finally got the game. It is one of the most immersing, beautiful, addicting, and involved of almost any other game to date. With so many different ways to play, it's impossible to see and do everything without putting years into it. With different races classes, good and evil, and ways of fighting, the combinations are endless. The voice work in the game is almost flawless, the only gripe I have is that only the face moves and there's no body language, which can take away from some of the more dramatic parts. The physical size of Oblivion is just awe inspiring, and with updates over Xbox Live, it just keeps getting better. The combat is simple, yet incredibly intuitive. If you're a melee fighter, you'll have to actually guard, which was a first for me. It's not one of the button mashers where you just swing, you have to block, parry , and thrust. One of my favorite aspects is the mini-games for persuading people and lock picking. While they seem simple, there are many intricacies in the way you do them, and it's more than just an annoying puzzle in the way. While all of this seems overwhelming, the game takes you by the hand for the first hour and shows you everything... Then it drops you into a massive world with endless things to do. You can spend 30 hours on all of the side quests alone and not even touch the main quest. Almost nothing is time or level sensitive meaning you can do just about everything at level 5 if you wanted to. Speaking of levels, the way the leveling system works is that when you level up, so do the enemies, making sure they are just the right amount of difficulty for your level. That can be taken 2 ways, you'll never be able to level up so hight that no enemy is a challenge, but, you'll never fight an enemy that's too much of a challenge. If you still haven't played it you have to. Right now. Stop reading this and get it.

Sooo.... I'v pretty much fallen in love with Cyanide & Happiness. It's one of the funniest comics I've ever read. Here's a good one:

http://www.explosm.net/comics/829/

And there's so much more. Sure half the jokes mmake fun of Jesus and it's incredibly twisted and it makes tons of creepy necrophelia jokes... Where was I going with this? Oh! Yeah... I think they're just plain ridiculously funny and you should check them out at Explosm.net

Is it imposible to make a great mech game? Now, games like Armored Core 4 and Chromehounds weren't bad, but they were definitely not great mech games. In Armored Core 4, you're cursed with levels so incredibly short that it ends before it really begins. With Chromehounds, you had at times obnoxiously slow mechs, a piss poor story, and fairly bland levels. I've loved Mech anime, like Mobile Suit Gundam, and when I see that, I wonder why I can't play that experience. I want to see a fast paced, enemy crammed, and good looking game. Is that so much to ask for?

I've been watching the constant flow of Nintendo Wii games and tons of them have been using the Wii-mote as nothing but a gimmick. The Wii has great potential, but if the the game makers just use it as a way to make crappy mini-games slightly more fun by pointing at things, the Wii is going to go under. Some games have made good use of the controls, like Legend of Zelda, and Dragon Ball Z 2 (What ever the weird Japanese sub-title is). However, the controls for the games tend to be way too sloppy, which makes for frustration and not a lot of fun. There is so much potential in being able to involve a gamer into a game, it's a shame it's wasted. The sword fighting in Red Steel was fun, but it was countered with poor shooting controls. Also, companies are just getting lazy with with the graphics. Games like Farcry on the Wii were so sloppy and disguting that it looked like a PS1 threw it up. Just because it's not HD doesn't mean graphics can't look good. There are some beautiful last gen games. The fate of the Wii is in the developers hands, and we can only hope that they wont crush it.

So... I've stated playing Armored Core 4 recently, and I have to say, it's one of the best mech games I've played. However, that's not saying much when compared to all the "wonderful" Gundam games. I have to say that I love using the boost almost constantley which gives the game a great feel The only problem is that the levels are so confining, not to mention way to short. Once you actually get into action and you're kicking ass, you finish the mission. Then you're like, "Well... I won... wish I could've kicked more ass... but I did beat it..." Something else to mention is that the game isn't all that difficult. My favorite strategy is to over boost right into their faces and use an energy sword...repeatedly...in the face... Anyways, my violent tendencies aside, I do overall enjoy the game and you can make it harder by doing the hard difficulty which at times seems like too much of a jump.