Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth -- All in One.

I never could justify owning an original Game Boy. I didn't jump in until the Game Boy Advance. In doing so I missed just a handful of games. The Mario Land series, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Metroid 2, and some Castlevania games. I've since rectified Link's Awakening and now Wii Ware has allowed me to sort of rectify Castlevania: The Adventure. Castlevania: The Adventure was originally released in 1989 for the Game Boy. The Rebirth version of the game has some rather drastic changes. Beyond the great looking updated graphics which now of course feature color, and the newly arranged best of series music approach, they've changed the core mechanics of the gameplay as well as added an extra stage. The original game featured four stages to Rebirth's five. The original game didn't have any of the series' trademark stairs and it didn't feature any of the sub-weapons. You also couldn't mess with the momentum of your jumps as you now can in Rebirth. Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth plays like a classic Castlevania of old, they've brought the game more in line with the traditional games. So you're left with a great looking game with one of the best soundtracks I've heard in a while. The controls are spot on for older Castlevania games. The gameplay might frustrate some who aren't used to how Castlevania used to be before Symphony of the Night. The game offers up some fun bosses. There are hidden paths leading to optional mid-bosses in every main stage which extends the replay value a far bit should you be interested. Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth, like Contra Rebirth and Gradius Rebirth before it, has been developed by M2. They've really established themselves as the team to beat with any updated retro game. They're the ones who created the Fantasy Zone sequel on the original System-16 arcade hardware for SEGA some twenty-one years after the SEGA Master System original. M2 has done another great job in Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth. I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with the game. I feel I should point out that the game can be completed in less than hour. It's meant to be played in one sitting. I'm giving Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth an 8.5.

Dragon Age: Origins -- Final Opinion.

I have fully completed Dragon Age: Origins. I say fully as I've earned the eleven-hundred Gamerpoints available for the main game as well as the download expansions The Warden's Keep and The Stone Prisoner. That amounts to completing all seven origin stories, witnessing all four endings, recruiting all possible allies, and getting all three class types to level twenty. That might not sound like a whole lot, but it took me eighty-five hours plus to achieve. It's safe to say I really enjoyed Dragon Age, but will you? That depends on a few factors. Dragon Age is a BioWare game. So if you've played a BioWare game, then you should know exactly what that is, because in all honesty, BioWare only makes one game. I can't speak for their PC efforts of old, but if you've played a game from Knights of the Old Republic onward through Jade Empire and Mass Effect, then you know exactly what you're in for with Dragon Age. The same pausing action battle system, only this time further fleshed out with options, abilities, and AI macros. Dragon Age provides a large amount of diversity in its character progressions. For example, you're able to play a rogue as either the typical backstabbing assassin type or you could play the rogue as a ranger or any mix and matched combination in between. Would you rather your warrior be a Templar with some champion mixed in? Or would your rather the warrior be a pure berserker? You're able to shape the playable characters to be what you want them to be within their classes. The game features a robust macro system similar to that used in Final Fantasy XII. You're able to preset their actions along the lines of having your mage heal another party member when their health drops below thirty percent for example. While the battles can be chaotic, they're really about the management of everything going on. Just like every other BioWare game. Another factor in your possible enjoyment of Dragon Age comes in your love and or tolerance for fantasy. Dragon Age is a world of dragons, elves, sorcery, dwarves, and every other fantasy cliche. If you hate wizards and trolls and everything else fantasy, then Dragon Age isn't going to win you over. No matter how good the story is. And like most BioWare titles, the story and characters are very well done. Dragon Age offers up a wealth of lore to sink yourself into should you be so inclined. There isn't anything original about it. It's standard fantasy through and through. The main story however is well handled. It's more about the politics of everything rather than defeating the Darkspawn hordes. The characters are great, although they are still the standard BioWare archetypes. They do have enough twists to surprise you from time to time however. And the character interaction within the party is often truly funny and always great. Still though, I'd have to say that BioWare really needs to start shaking things up with the character archetypes. How many times can we play through their games with the same basic characters? Graphically Dragon Age looks rather good in game. It's in the cutscenes where the game looks a little less than stellar. And surprisingly it's the cutscenes they decided to use to show off the game. Musically the game has a stirring fantasy cinematic score that somehow remains rather subdued. For most of the game the music is low and out of the way of the ambiance of the sounds of the city and the like. It's good stuff when it soars, otherwise you're not hearing much of it. The voice work is great all the way around. Professional voice actors from top to bottom. The game features Simon Templeman as the villain, who provides probably the best voice ever heard in video games as Kain from the Blood Omen series. I really enjoyed Dragon Age, as I have Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic before it. BioWare has made their one game again. Their standard battle system and great characters and story are all in place. I happened to enjoy the traditional fantasy overlay. Others have not. It'll all depend on your tastes for setting, and your previous opinion of their battle systems and storytelling style. I'm giving Dragon Age: Origins a 9.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is the latest Zelda game for the Nintendo DSi, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. The game is the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Hopefully the game won't carry over the faults of Phantom Hourglass. Mainly I'm hoping they don't repeat the disaster of the central dungeon you had to repeat over and over. The game has replaced the sailboat with a train, so there won't be a proper overworld yet again. I'm at least hoping this time around there will be something a little more eventful and interesting going on in the overworld. I'm also hoping that the mandatory stylus controls will be a little more on target this time around with fewer instances of failure. I'm also hoping that the dungeons and puzzles are a step up from those of Phantom Hourglass. Some challenge would be nice. I have played the game up through the first full dungeon and boss. From the time I've spent with it so far I can say that the graphics seem improved. While they're still slightly barren Nintendo DS 3D they come off as cleaner than those of Phantom Hourglass. The music seems of better quality as well. Again it appears to be offering a clearer sound, although that might be a product of the DSi's improved speakers. I'm also liking the pairing of Link and Zelda through the adventure. It's providing an interesting dynamic and at least initially offering up a very interesting and feisty Zelda. As always we'll see how it turns out in the end.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Silent Hill: Shattered Memories through three of its five endings. The game provides a major twist your first time through that actually provides some weight, and the story is stronger the second time through the game because of it. However the story doesn't really ever approach being good. It probably would have had there been no connections to Silent Hill, however flimsy. In fact, the whole of the game is pretty much just messing with the Silent Hill fan, playing off their experiences and expectations. Normally that can be great, and it's even been used within the Silent Hill series. Just see the opening sequences of Silent Hill 2 and it's long walk without combat for an example of playing against expectations effectively. Overall the story ultimately fails for me. I will say that Shattered Memories' UFO ending is well worth the effort though. The puzzles are another area in which Climax failed. There are only a handful of real puzzles in the game. They're too few and far between. Most of them aren't even puzzles. They're just finding the key to the door and they all involve the Wii Remote. Need to open the back door to a ranger station, just use the Wii Remote to open the first aid kit on the wall. A first aid kit that happens to have a glowing white arrow pointing down over it in case you didn't notice it in the fifteen square foot room. Everything in the game you can interact with has a glowing white arrow pointing to it. You can see them from a great distance away. So there isn't any exploration at all really. You're just walking from one telegraphed hotspot to the next. It's not like you could explore anyway. This version of Silent Hill is beyond linear. You're literally corralled through the entire game. I found this version of Silent Hill to be boring and ugly. I'm not talking about the graphic capabilities of the Wii here, I'm talking about the aesthetic design of the town. It is just so utterly devoid of anything of interest or note. It's so boring and plain as to be criminal. So you have very few real puzzles and no exploration at all through the supposed exploration segments. The chase sequences can't be summed up in one word. You need a few words. And those words are shitty. They are awful. They are hideous. They are an exercise in tedium. And the biggest offense is they aren't scary. They are as poorly handled as could be. Initially you're just running from point A to point B, occasionally picking up a flare to ward off the pursuing creature. Later you're running from point A to point B through a looping maze. You just run and avoid the creatures while picking paths until you find the right way through. It's made worse by crappy controls. Especially in the Wii Remote waggle needed to shake off the creatures. The control is just unresponsive and unpredictable. Every Silent Hill game in the series has been scary. The first three had this omnipresent sense of fear and dread. The other entries at least had their moments. Shattered Memories has nothing. I understand horror is highly subjective, but it was so bad that I didn't even get the sense they were even trying to scare me. I went through an entire game of Silent Hill without the slightest inkling of fear, or tension, or creepiness. And that in my opinion is criminal. As I stated in my initial impression the graphics for the game are awful. Nothing looks good. We're talking a step or two above House of the Dead levels, but without that game's charm. The voice work isn't awful, but it isn't exactly good either. It doesn't sound professional. It sounds like they are voiced by team members. The music is from Akira Yamaoka and is up to his usual Silent Hill standards. Although it's probably his most ambient score. It's very subdued. And as I've already mentioned, the story and puzzles failed. The chase sequences outright suck. I have a feeling this might be the final nail in the coffin of Silent Hill. And if this is what it's come to, then good riddance. I'm giving Silent Hill: Shattered Memories a 5.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories -- Initial Impression.

This entry is a bit late as I've been messing around with Silent Hill: Shattered Dreams for a couple of days. This is the first Silent Hill game for the Wii and it has been published by Konami with development by Climax Studios. This is Climax's second trip into Silent Hill following the very play it safe Silent Hill: Origins for the PlayStation Portable. Shattered Memories however could be classified as anything but play it safe. Shattered Memories is a rather bold re-imagining of the original Silent Hill, and even that description seems to be stretching it. We've all seen games with warnings about extreme violence and gore. Shattered Memories is the first game I've seen with a psychology warning. A warning about how the game plays you as much as you play it. What this really amounts to is the game will unfold differently based on your choices and actions. So far from what I've seen the game is wholly original except for character names being used here and there. Harry, Cybil, Lisa, Dahlia and the like all show up in name, but they're so far removed from the originals in design and purpose that they might have been better served without the Silent Hill connections. I'm sure you've all heard about the other major bold design decision made by Climax, the removal of combat. There isn't any combat in the game. Instead of combat, we have chase sequences where you have to run a gauntlet to escape. The rest of the game features the standard exploration and puzzle elements. From the time I've spent with the game so far I can say it's an ugly game graphically. There isn't anything that comes off as good in that regard. The controls are functional for exploration and puzzle solving. They get in the way for the chase sequences. The story is slow going. There are definately some interesting moments here and there, but I need to see where it goes. I understand that horror is entirely subjective, but Shattered Memories hasn't even remotely approached being scary as of yet. I'm really hoping the story and the puzzles can pull this game out of the fire because I'm not sure the other aspects will save it at this point.

Dragon Age: Origins -- Initial Impression.

I was actively avoiding starting anything the last few days with the hope of picking up The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and starting it right away. Finding a copy of the game proved tougher than I expected with a poorly handled release from Nintendo. So I ended up ordering the game online. Now I'm free to start something else, and so I have. Next up for me is Dragon Age: Origins for the Xbox 360, developed by BioWare's Edmonton team and published by Electronic Arts. Dragon Age: Origins has been a long time coming. It was first announced at E3 in 2004. The game has been described by BioWare as a spiritual successor to their Baldur's Gate series. The manual goes as far as to say "Dragon Age: Origins is a modern re-imagination of an epic party-based fantasy role-playing game, dense with story and tactical combat." It'll be interesting to see BioWare's take on that in a year where From Software has essentially done the very same thing with Demon's Souls on the Japanese dungeon crawler side of things. I think that most everyone agrees that the Dragon Age: Origins advertising campaign wasn't very compelling. The game seems to have sold on BioWare's name alone. It seems BioWare fans are getting exactly what they wanted. My main experience with BioWare has come in the form of Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. I'm simply expecting that same basic combat style with Dragon Age's high fantasy setting overlaid. I do have to say that Electronic Arts sure does make it easy for one to hate them. I bought the collector's edition of Dragon Age: Origins so I was entitled to some free download content. The hoops you have to jump through to access said content almost made me start something else. After jumping through said hoops it's safe to say I went in to Dragon Age: Origins actively annoyed. You would think that wouldn't bode well for my initial impressions. I have to say I came away from my initial playing actually impressed. I've played through the origin story for my character, an elven mage. Graphically the game seems solid and clean. The graphics are nowhere near impressive but I found myself initially pleased with their cleanness. At least initially in the elven mage story the music comes off as subdued. The voice work on the other hand seems strong. I'm not sure what to make of the combat system as I've not explored it thoroughly enough to get a strong sense of it either way. What I did get an impression of, at least initially, is the strong sense of gray in the choices when dealing with characters. I was impressed with the twists and turns of the elven mage's origin story. I also found myself rather interested in the moral questions being presented by the elven mage's origin story. The game seems to have a very rich and rather dark lore as a foundation. Of course we'll have to see how the game plays itself out. But initially I have to say I'm surprisingly intrigued by Dragon Age: Origins.

Left 4 Dead 2 -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Left 4 Dead 2 with the full one-thousand points. Left 4 Dead 2 is surprisingly a real mixed bag. For the most part it's an entirely superior game to the original. The graphics are about the same level as the previous game. That's to say they look decent and are fully functional but they're not top of the line. The sound quality is the same. Great voice work, great infected sounds, great weapon sounds and the same great musical cues only this time reworked with a southern flair. The control is identical to the last game. No problems there. The new special infected are great. They all work well within the game. They did a really good job differentiating between the campaigns this time around. They've gone a long way to make each campaign feel unique, especially in the crescendos and the finales. From Dark Carnival's rock concert finale to The Parish's mad dash across the bridge to Hard Rain's finale in hurricane level weather. The campaigns are truly distinct. The game offers up plenty of variety in its online modes as well. Campaign, versus, survival, and scavenge all offer up interesting things to do. They really handled that side of things well. They didn't do a very good job in a couple of other areas though. One of those is minor. And that's this group of survivors is less interesting than the original group. They're just not as funny or endearing to me. As I said, that's a minor complaint at best. The other thing they didn't handle that well is more of a major complaint though. The game is incredibly unbalanced. When playing at the expert difficulty level with four living players the game is nearly broken in how it just eternally throws numerous special infected at you with an essentially never ending horde. While I'm sure the campaigns are technically possible to complete at that setting there just isn't a single ounce of fun to be had doing so. At the normal and advanced difficulties the game is the same fun it ever was. Expert used to be fun, it's not anymore. The balance issue really mars what should have been an entirely superior sequel. I'm giving Left 4 Dead 2 an 8.5. I'm hoping for a patch that adjusts the balance issues before the inevitable download content packs arrive.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii -- Final Opinion.

I have fully completed New Super Mario Bros. Wii as a single player game. That means I completed every level. I found every secret exit. I found all of the star medals hidden in the stages. I completed the bonus world nine stages and collected those star medals. Although not flawless, I do have to say I thoroughly enjoyed New Super Mario Bros. Wii and I come away with another serious Game of the Year contender. The developers of New Super Mario Bros. Wii have seemingly combed the entirety of the Mario series history and cherry picked the absolute best moments for each of the titles and included them in the new game. The game just never stops with the nods to previous titles, be it enemies, stages, music, or gameplay concepts that haven't been seen in ages. Stuff you just never expected to see again. Barrels and conveyer belts from Donkey Kong? Airships with the guys throwing wrenches at you? Bowser's floating clown face propeller thing? Fortresses and castles and ghost houses? Switch palace blocks and P blocks and those damned biting things you had to use the boot to walk on in Super Mario Bros. 3? And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii is like a great walk through Mario nostalgia. Aesthetically the game looks amazing. The character and world designs are perfect all around. As far as the graphics are concerned on a technical level, they suffer from the system's lack of high definition output. On an HD TV you'll see an abundance of jagged lines on the player characters. But at least Nintendo is finally outputting in a true widescreen format. New Super Mario Bros. Wii will fill your widescreen TV entirely. Musically the game is rather impressive. It's great to hear new mixes of so many older classic themes. Especially in the underground levels, as well as the ghost houses, fortresses, castles, and airships. The level designs are wonderful and are just filled top to bottom with true platform greatness. The numerous boss battles are fun and about as inventive as can be while staying true to the series' established concepts. The controls initially felt kind of floaty to me but you'll quickly adjust to them and be pulling off all of the needed precision in no time. The game does include a fair bit of waggle, and said waggle will kill you from time to time. That's easily the biggest blemish on this nearly perfect title. The difficulty is balanced with the gamer in mind more so than the casual focus Nintendo has been on this generation. The much talked about Super Guide system makes its debut with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Gamers are up in arms about the end of video games because of this new system. It allows players struggling with the game to have the game finish a level for you. If you've died eight times in a level a green block with an exclamation point will appear. Hitting the block will have Luigi appear and show you how to finish the level and you'll be taken back to the world map. The Super Guide will not show you how to get the star medals and it won't show you the secret exits. I never used the Super Guide, and that's the bottom line on the guide. You don't have to use it, so don't. Does it offend you that it exists? It exists to help a new player to continue to play and grow and become a gamer. How the hell could that bother you? I was hoping for a return to classic Nintendo and it's good to be able to say that Nintendo delivered with New Super Mario Bros. Wii in more ways than I could have hoped for. New Super Mario Bros. Wii for me is a brilliant nostalgia trip that I'm giving a 9.5. I think I'd go so far as to call it the best Mario title on the Wii.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -- Final Opinion.

I had no choice but to play more than a few games at once given this holiday's plethora of titles and as a result I've taken far more time to work through games. I've finally completed Modern Warfare 2 with the full one-thousand points. Modern Warfare 2 is a strange bird for me as technically it's rather impressive but overall I'd have to say I didn't really enjoy it. Graphically the game is gorgeous. It's really impressive looking down to the smallest detail. And they nailed the details. From the way blood and brain matter splatters to how the environment takes damage to how the enemies move. Everything is great and moving at a solid sixty frames per second. The sound is equally as well handled. The voice work is top notch. The pop of the weaponry and the whizzing of bullets all sound lush and spot on. The controls are also rather perfect. No complaints there. If everything seems so great then why didn't I enjoy it? Here comes the hard part because some of these might be considered intangibles or even irrelevant by a lot of people. I had issues with the pacing, the story, the controversy, and the manufactured difficulty. Like Uncharted 2 before it Modern Warfare 2 hits the ground running and attempts to keep the pace of a runaway freight train going down a mountain. Having to constantly feel like you need to save the entire world right this second for hours on end has a dulling effect. It backfires. I don't get more excited, it doesn't become more intense. I grow bored and or annoyed. Modern Warfare 2 doesn't let up at all really from start to finish. The story doesn't help things much as it's so freaking ludicrous and silly that Kojima himself couldn't have done better. I don't wish to spoil it even though I find it to be insulting. You've probably heard about the No Russian mission. In my initial impression I said I got the feeling that they were out to push buttons. Having seen the story through numerous times now for the full thousand, I still come away with the sense that that's what they were going for. And it goes beyond the No Russian mission. Later on in the game you'll be fighting in Washington DC and the score is soaring and you're obviously supposed to feel this massive wave of patriotism. I do understand that in storytelling and musical scoring that manipulation of emotions is the goal. The problem is you want to feel moved, you don't want to feel manipulated. And that's what I felt. I felt manipulated in the most heavy-handed way imaginable. This current generation has really nailed the online aspect, and we've come to amazing graphical and gameplay highs. It's got me thinking that the final frontier of gaming we still need to crack is artificial intelligence and the problem of manufactured difficulty. Just ramping up the difficulty by dialing up the AI's accuracy and field of vision and rate of fire and the like just doesn't cut it any more. I do understand that that's how games are made, but something needs to be done. There isn't a need for skill to finish these games on the hardest difficulties. It's more about patience and a willingness to suffer through it. I don't know how people can find it fun to have it so that when you peek out from behind cover just an inch an enemy from a hundred yards away instantly sees you and fires on you with exacting accuracy even though he's under fire from a vehicle and a few other AI. Somebody needs to figure it out, and the rest will follow. As I previously said, a lot of these criticisms won't matter to a lot of people, but to me they made all the difference in the world. I'm giving Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 a 7. I didn't enjoy it that much but at the same time I can see how a lot of people will call this their game of the year. It doesn't offend me in the slightest. It's not on the same level as someone calling Final Fantasy VII the greatest game of all time or anything like that.

Left 4 Dead 2 -- Initial Impression.

I have yet to actually play this game to form an initial opinion but this one is a no-brainer. I'm expecting nothing beyond more of the same. The game is developed and published by Valve. I'm going with the Xbox 360 version. The game is providing four new characters, five new campaigns, a bunch of new items and weapons, some new special infected, and a new online mode or two. I never played the original game offline. It was completely an online experience and I'll be doing the same thing with the sequel. All I'm really hoping for is a slight overhaul in the fairness of the game's AI director. Not that it goes easy on us and it doesn't pile on the special infected, just that it spawns less hordes out of closets and other already cleared rooms. My only real complaint with the original. We played the hell out of Left 4 Dead, and I fully expect to play the hell out of Left 4 Dead 2. Hours and hours of zombie killing fun to be had... and really, what's more fun than that?

New Super Mario Bros. Wii -- Initial Impression.

I have completed Phantasy Star Zero's offline playthrough on normal, but of course that's just the beginning. I have completed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's story and online co-op mode, but I'm going to play through the game a couple times yet so I can get the full one-thousand points. I still have Demon's Souls out as I'm hoping to ever work towards the platinum trophy there. Assassin's Creed 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii all arrived at my door today. I'm out of my mind starting another game, but I'm going to be doing just that. As as you've probably already gathered from this entry's title, it's going to be New Super Mario Bros. Wii. And as you should have also already gathered, the game is for the Wii, developed and published by Nintendo. New Super Mario Bros. Wii marks the return of a traditional 2D Mario title to a Nintendo console. It's been fourteen years since Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is the all-new follow-up to New Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo DS. What am I expecting from the game? I'm hoping for that old Nintendo magic. When I first saw the game revealed at E3 I was instantly excited. When they started selling it as a multiplayer title I still had a glimmer of hope. Then when it became known there wasn't going to be any online play to the title I lost hope and essentially forgot about the game. I sort of would check back in on the game from time to time over the months since E3. Then they started saying that it contained a full-on and proper single player experience, I instantly started anticipating the title again. And as the release date grew closer so too did my anticipation. That got me thinking about why. It seems part of me still wants that old time gaming experience of my youth. I'm not one of those games were better in my day retro morons by any means. I enjoy games now as much as I ever did as a kid. Pretty much everything about gaming is better these days. There is just an intangible something connected to this title for me. I've played through world one. From my time so far I can say that the game initially looks good. It's not wowing me by any means. Issues inherent to the Wii are present. But I can say that the game supports true wide screen. Which is awesome, and a little shocking, coming from Nintendo. The music is catchy, and filled with remixes of classic Mario tunes from all through the series and a heavy dose of the New Super Mario Bros style. In fact I'm greatly surprised at just how much they've gone back through the older games and pulled this or that. Things I never expected to see used again. From an interpretation of the Super Mario Bros. 3 athletic theme from the Akihabara Electric Circus arrangement to Kamek using magic to power up the bosses ala Yoshi's Island to an ordinary POW block to the return of the Koopa Kids. I sure never thought I'd see Bowser Jr and the Koopa Kids in the same game. All of this from just world one. I do have to say that Mario feels slightly floaty at this point. I'm sure it's just the matter of a small learning curve. New Super Mario Bros. Wii has been sold as a more difficult than average Mario title. It'll be interesting to see how that turns out. Initially it looks like Nintendo still might have a little bit of that old magic left in them.

Phantasy Star Zero -- Initial Impression.

Here we go again with another Phantasy Star title. I have spent more time with the Phantasy Star Online series than I have with any other series in video games. This time it's on the Nintendo DS in the form of the all new Phantasy Star Zero developed and published by SEGA. The challenge for SEGA is offering the full Phantasy Star Online experience within the confines of the Nintendo DS. Judging by my initial playtime I'd have to say that SEGA is more than up to said challenge. Given the state of the Nintendo DS' 3D capabilities I find the visuals to be rather impressive, especially in motion. The controls likewise seem about as good as can be expected when shrinking a title down to fit a handheld. What's actually most impressive though is the online aspect. We had no real issues connecting to each other and once on we stayed on for as long as we kept playing and all the while there wasn't a single hint of lag to be found. SEGA's fifteen years worth of online experience really shines through here. I played through the Japanese version of the game up until the final boss and decided to wait for the North American release. And what a wait it was too, almost an entire year. It'll be interesting to finally see what's going on with the story. A story which promises a rather decent and interesting connection to other titles within the Phantasy Star Online series. It's been a pretty good season so far, and it initially looks like we've got another winner on our hands.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare from Infinity Ward. I'm not the biggest fan of the Call of Duty series from what I've played thus far which arguably isn't much. I bought Call of Duty 2 as an Xbox 360 launch title and I've yet to actually get around to it. I fell for the hype with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The issue of spawning literally endless enemies until you cross some invisible line broke the game for me as it annoyed me that much. I skipped out on the online aspect entirely as a result. And of course, like Halo, the online aspect has become the heart of the title. It's because of this online aspect that I'm even here for Modern Warfare 2. The game offers the standard campaign, and all the traditional online modes and variants, but this time they've added a co-op mode. The co-op isn't an online enabled campaign unfortunately, but it's the next best thing. It's a series of challenges made up from campaign locations. I'm going to make it through the campaign hopefully, but I'll be spending most of my time playing online and going through the co-op. From the time I've spent with the game thus far I can say that it sure looks amazing. The controls function rather well. The story is just traditional military blather even though they're trying for something more controversial with the No Russian mission. I'll have to see it through before deciding but initially it seems like they're just out to push buttons. The spawning enemy issue in the campaign is still present but seems to be hidden better. The co-op and the online modes seem like they will make the purchase worth it. As always we'll have to see.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony with one-hundred percent completion and a total time of thirty hours and forty-nine minutes. That's considerably longer than the twenty-two and a half hours I spent with the previous expansion of The Lost and Damned. I have to say that I enjoyed the player character of Louis Lopez. His story is far less serious than those of Niko Bellic and Johnny Klebitz. In fact the whole of The Ballad of Gay Tony is far more out there and over the top. The game provides all of what you've come to expect from a Grand Theft Auto title and basks in the unrestrained outrageousness of it all. Beyond the gameplay, The Ballad of Gay Tony provides a satisfying conclusion to the events of Liberty City. You get the conclusion to the events surrounding the diamonds and questions are answered concerning characters like Bulgarin, Gracie, and Brucie. I've really liked this multiple character concept they've employed with Grand Theft Auto 4. I hope they continue this with Grand Theft Auto V. Like The Lost and Damned before it, The Ballad of Gay Tony is more focused than Grand Theft Auto IV's sprawling epic and is the better for it. I'm giving The Ballad of Gay Tony a 9. I've spent over a hundred and thirty hours in this version of Liberty City and have thoroughly enjoyed myself, but now it's time to move on. In a year or two, bring on Grand Theft Auto V and it's probable new setting.

Demon's Souls -- Final Opinion.

The credits have rolled on Demon's Souls, but I'm not sure if I'm finished yet. You see, I want that platinum trophy. I want it a lot. But the problem there is obtaining the platinum trophy on Demon's Souls would take roughly four complete playthroughs. As you know we're right in the middle of a very busy holiday season and I don't have the spare time. It took me around sixty-eight hours to complete the game the first time. I finished it at soul level ninety-three. Each successive playthrough and the game gets much tougher. It all tops off at soul level seven-hundred and twelve, to give you an idea of the potential commitment involved. Demon's Souls is something rather impressive. What's so impressive about it one might ask? It feels highly original. Which is all the more impressive considering it's essentially a 3D update of old PC dungeon crawlers like Dungeon Master: Skullkeep and Eye of the Beholder. Originality is a rare thing these days. One of the more original aspects of the game is its online mode. If you play the game online, you'll see other players roaming around the world in spirit form. You'll catch glimpses of others in their struggle. You'll be fighting a boss and see another spirit rolling out of the way of an attack from the very same boss. It was rather fascinating to see other players, most of them melee based, as I was playing a magic focused player. You could place an invitation on the ground to join a living player while in spirit form. And if you were going through the world in physical form you would be living in fear that another player would invade your game and attempt to kill you for your collected souls. You have the ability to create messages from word trees to be left on the ground anywhere you wished. You could create hints or warnings to help other players. These were often of great help when playing the game. Although some more unscrupulous players would leave false messages otherwise intended to cause the player harm which actually added to the original feel of everything. Another thing Demon's Souls succeeds at is providing a true sense of accomplishment. I've never felt a better sense of accomplishment in gaming. It does this by making you fight tooth and nail for every single step forward you make in the game. I know you might be thinking that doesn't sound very fun, but it is. It's great fun. You see, the game is entirely fair. Oh, it's tough, but it doesn't cheat. The game is entirely out to kill you and you'll have to learn how to deal with each creature decisively. Each and every encounter has to be met with strategy and skill. The story of Demon's Souls is sparse but at the same time it's exceedingly cool. The characters and story are smart. You're not sitting there through scene after scene of characters talking their heads off. You get a tidbit here and a tidbit there and you sort of piece it all together. The worlds themselves are wonderfully designed in both layout and aesthetic. It's as if each one becomes a character unto itself much the same way that the city of Rapture did in Bioshock. The look of Demon's Souls is amazing. While the graphics aren't taxing the PlayStation 3 at all they have such great art design that they're impressive. The game has a decidedly western approach to the art design while retaining some Japanese flourish. The voice work is very strong with European accents that fit the high fantasy setting perfectly. I thoroughly enjoyed Demon's Souls. It's actually my frontrunner for Game of the Year 2009. Of course there are potential contenders yet to be released and played. And as much as I enjoyed Demon's Souls it's not entirely perfect. The game's lock on system can be finicky to the point it will cause you some trouble from time to time. Trouble enough that I have to dock the game half of a point although I realize that the lock issue might only really show itself with magic users. Melee focused players might never encounter the issue. I'm giving Demon's Souls a 9.5. I'm probably going to fiddle with the new game plus aspect while awaiting next week's must play releases. My PlayStation 3's library is nowhere near as large as my Xbox 360's library, but the PlayStation 3 now has two extremely original and impressive offerings in Valkyria Chronicles and Demon's Souls. The kind of stand out experiences that would rank high in my personal best games of all time list.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is the conclusion to the Grand Theft Auto IV saga with Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony. For those who don't know, Grand Theft Auto IV's second downloadable expansion, The Ballad of Gay Tony, provides the third side to a major Grand Theft Auto IV mission and subplot. It all concerns some stolen diamonds and where they actually ended up. You saw Niko Bellic's perspective in Grand Theft Auto IV and Johnny Klebitz's in Lost and Damned. Now you'll get the final side of things from the perspective of Louis Lopez in The Ballad of Gay Tony. What am I expecting in my second return Grand Theft Auto IV's version of Liberty City? More of the exact same actually. I'm expecting about another twenty hours of sandbox mayhem. All of the chaos, the over the top missions, the man dates and mini-games, as well as a return of the base jumping from San Andreas. But more importantly I'm expecting a great story and some great new characters. I'm hoping the game provides a fitting conclusion to Grand Theft Auto IV. I'm also hoping that The Ballad of Gay Tony provides the same focused experience as Lost and Damned. From the time I've spent with the game so far it seems that they've lightened up a bit and The Ballad of Gay Tony has a bit of the far more over the top Vice City vibe. At least initially, I'm not very far in the actual main story. As with every Grand Theft Auto title I tend to avoid the story missions and work my way through the side activities. I've been going through the gang wars and have begun looking for the seagulls that make up Liberty City's hidden packages. We'll have to see how it all turns out of course. But this one is looking like a sure thing at this point.

Borderlands -- Final Opinion.

I'll be wrapping up Borderlands tonight. I have one more achievement to earn for the full one-thousand points. Borderlands is a fun time. But there isn't anything special about it. The graphics look great. I really liked the celshaded aesthetic. While the game actually looks great, it suffers from a case of everything looks the same. Borderlands needs some diversity in its locations. Everything is drab and dreary and brown. I'm generally not one of those people who complain about everything being brown and every game having a bald space marine. The problem comes from the celshading and the actual character design. They look great. The world itself looks great. I understand the logic of going for realism in western design. But there isn't any reason to go that route with Borderlands. Realism wasn't the objective as it's actively negated by the celshading. So why the drab and all too similar areas? This sort of issue carries over to everything about Borderlands. The story is just there. It's not that it's bad, it's just entirely irrelevant and they seemed to know it. The game is solely focused on shooting things and collecting loot. And even the much hyped millions of combinations loot system falls short. At the start of the game you're scrutinizing over every weapon and armor detail but it shortly becomes apparent that very little matters there either. When you have a game that's focused on loot and you lose interest in said loot quickly, you know that's a bad sign. The promised wild weaponry just never materialized in any significant manner. The game's humor seemed great initially but there again rapidly it becomes apparent that it's a one-trick-pony. One that they'll repeat over and over and over until I became actively annoyed by the voice work in the game. The planet of Pandora is populated by insane and rambling hillbillies and the attention whoring of the Claptrap robots quickly lost its charm. In co-op the game provides decent fun. I don't think I would have liked the game as much as I did had it merely been a solo experience. The net code and actual gameplay is great. I never noticed a single instance of lag. They did a decent job actually making the different classes play uniquely. The vehicle sections could definitely use some work. Vehicles that stick like glue to any bump in the way are not fun. And why include vehicles if you're just going to block the paths every quarter mile or so? I just don't get that design choice. I did enjoy my time with Borderlands, although it might not actually sound like it. But ultimately Borderlands is the definition a shallow game experience. It's like the old comment on Chinese food. It's good, but you never feel satisfied, and you're hungry again thirty minutes later. I'm giving Borderlands a 7. The engine and net code are great to the point where I'm actively looking forward to what they do with their Aliens game.

Borderlands -- Initial Impression.

My next game is going to be Borderlands for the Xbox 360. The game was developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games. Borderlands is a first person shooter and RPG hybrid. You have a game that plays like a traditional first person shooter with a class and skill based leveling system straight out of any western RPG. Gearbox Software isn't a stranger to the genre of first person shooters. They've had a long and somewhat storied carrier in the genre going back to the now infamous fully completed port of Half-Life for the Dreamcast that was never published. They ported Halo: Combat Evolved to the PC and also developed the Brothers in Arms series. Borderlands itself isn't without a little back story. It was delayed for roughly a year to receive a graphic overhaul going from a standard looking title to a celshaded and highly stylized title in the process. The game also reportedly received an overhaul in its newly added comic voice. From the time I've spent with the game I can say the delay was well worth it. The game looks good. The stylized visuals and humor come together well to produce an eye-pleasing and initially interesting world. There was a lot made of the game's loot system before the release. The game randomly creates its weaponry with the mathematical combinations numbering in the millions of unique weapons. In just the few hours I've spent with the game I've seen hundreds of item drops. Items come spewing out of killed creatures like candy from a pinãta. It seems the game will more than satisfy the inner loot-whore in anyone. The overall initial draw to Borderlands came from the game offering full four-player online co-op throughout the entirety of the campaign. The experience there initially seems great. No issues with lag or the like. With four players the game can get rather chaotic in the best sense of the word. We've essentially played through the tutorial up to the first boss and already the game has shown moments of chaos. It'll be interesting to see how the end game plays out when they're really throwing everything at you. I'm looking to see how the class diversity plays out. It initially seems well diversified. You do get the sense of playing tactically different from what everyone else is doing. And that's a good thing. I'm also looking to have the humor stay throughout the entire game. The controls initially come off well. They don't initially feel Halo perfect but they're definitely a step above merely workhorse. I had mentioned in a previous post that I thought maybe Borderlands might be the hidden gem this year. The real gem turned out to be Demon's Souls, but Borderlands is on track to being a great overall experience. As always, we'll have to wait for the flip side to be sure.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Uncharted 2: Among Thieves with the platinum trophy to show for it. That equates to playing through the game three times. Completing the hardest difficultly level, earning enough weapon specific kills, and finding all the hidden treasures. Uncharted 2 received an amazing amount of hype. Off the charts level hype I'd say. It was obvious it wasn't going to be all that so to speak, and it wasn't. What was it you might be asking? It was the standard better sequel to a really good game. It's God of War 2 to God of War or Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to Sonic the Hedgehog. Every aspect gets improved upon. The graphics and sound, the story, and the game tends to offer up more gameplay. All of that has happened with Uncharted 2. The graphics are improved in the ways that come with it being the second iteration of a series within a generation. As I've said in my initial opinion, they've shown some restraint and it has worked wonders for the visuals. They didn't overdose on new generation shiny this time around. The story and characters are on par with the original game. Which is to say they're very impressive and they remain the heart of what Uncharted does best. The voice acting is superb all the way around. The music remains up to Hollywood level action score standards. The game is slightly larger in the campaign and of course the online versus and co-op will add in some more value, such as they are. The gameplay itself remains mostly unchanged. I still have issues with headshots just not registering. On the harder difficulty when the game's cover system freaks out it's just as likely to get you killed as it is save you because it places you where you didn't intend for it to do so. Usually where you're exposed from another side to a different enemy. And in the Crushing difficultly you'll last less than two seconds when exposed. They've really gone for the seat of your pants thrill ride vibe of the adventure serial cliffhangers of the 1930's. I'd say they've crossed the line just a bit. It's not that the game places you into one impossible situation after another. It's the rate in which they do. It's to the point where it's no longer surprising. In fact, the surprise comes when it doesn't happen as you're just so used to the constant pacing of them early on. I really enjoyed my time with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the offline campaign at least. I'm giving the game an 8.5.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves -- Initial Impression.

I'm a little late with this initial impression. I've been messing with the game for the past two days. I'm roughly around level ten in the campaign and I've spent a few hours each night in the online mode. It was probably best I didn't post an initial impression straight away as the game's online aspect had thoroughly pissed me off with just how shitty it was. Especially considering review after review praised the so-called addictive multiplayer. I will say that the co-op aspect offers some basic fun. And basic is the word for it. There just isn't much there. You and two other players progress through waves of enemies, and that's about it. The enemies come pouring out of nowhere half the time. It's all incredibly mindless and simplistic. The versus modes come off far worse though. Just bad design choices all around. Especially in a system that gives a true advantage to players with higher levels over those just starting out. Nothing about versus feels right. I've found it to be goddamned awful. Although in all honesty, half of that just might be how awful the online experience is on the PlayStation 3 from a system standpoint alone. Thankfully we're not buying Uncharted 2 for its multiplayer, right? The campaign of Uncharted 2 lets me know there are a few improvements over the original Uncharted. The graphics look better. Not so much in just the natural improvements that come with a sequel to a game within the same console generation. The graphics are better, but they've improved the aesthetics in subtle ways that make a major difference for me. Gone are the overly shiny wet rocks and the like that looked severely unnatural in the original. They've greatly improved the visuals for me by merely exercising some restraint. I can say from the time I've spent with the game thus far that the story and characters and voice acting are all on the same level or better than the original. And those are at the heart of what made Uncharted the good game it is. The game initially comes off as witty and charming. The character banter is smart and a pleasure to listen to. We'll have to see if they can maintain it. I get the feeling they can. We'll also have to see if the game crosses the line of going too far with the one impossible situation after another aspect. They're really laying that on thick. And we'll have to see if I can wrap this one up before Borderlands.

Halo 3: ODST -- Final Opinion.

I'm not entirely done with ODST yet, as I have to help some people earn some achievements. I have however earned the full one-thousand and pretty much have done everything there is to do with Halo 3: ODST. The offline campaign is great for the most part. The flashbacks and the current missions are great. They're classic Halo experiences all around. Each one seems to focus on a different Halo aspect which really showcases why Halo is so fun. The hub world that holds them together though left me a little flat. It's a slightly confusing mess of a city with little to do but fight random Covenant patrols and scour around for the collectable audio logs that make up the second half of the game's story. Graphically the game looks great, aging Halo 3 engine or not. The sound design lives up to Bungie's standard of excellence. The controls are Halo perfect. And the new stamina system changes up the gameplay just enough to make it its own thing while remaining Halo. The Firefight mode proved itself to be great fun and offered up its own challenges. Firefight mode is a commitment every time out though, assuming you're going for the achievement tied to the level. Each level will take you an hour and a half to two hours to complete and there are eight of them. We also went through the co-op campaign on Legendary which provided a few more hours of play. And surprisingly, we spent a lot of time playing the Halo 3 multiplayer disc trying for achievements there that were connected to ODST. As I've stated in my previous entry on ODST, there was a certain segment of gamers bitching about ODST being a mere expansion and not worth the full retail price. Those people are just as asinine as the Left 4 Dead group, as ODST provides hours and hours of entertainment. It's definitely worthy of its full price status. I more than got my money's worth and I'm giving Halo 3: ODST an 8.5.

Demon's Souls -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is the PlayStation 3 exclusive action RPG Demon's Souls. From Software developed Demon's Souls and Atlus has published it in North America. Being a fan of From Software because of the great games Otogi and Otogi 2, I was aware of Demon's Souls before its Asian release. I came so close to pulling the trigger on importing the title more times than I can count but I held off in hopes of a western release to be able to make use of the game's online co-op. But that probably proved for naught anyway. More on that later. Demon's Souls is here, in deluxe edition form no less, and it seems to be receiving the biggest push Atlus has ever given a game they've published. Building off the near feeding frenzy that took place over the import. Demon's Souls is being described as a mean game. One that takes no prisoners and won't hold your hand and doesn't care. I'm not sure it's that at all really. I've spent nearly ten hours with the game so far and I've had a blast. For me, it comes off with a bit of a more involved Zelda shield and sword combat system with the overall oppressive feeling present in a Silent Hill title all wrapped up in a high fantasy setting. It's a game of pressing your luck. Do I go around that corner or turn back now? It's likely whatever is growling around that corner has a great chance of killing you. In fact, in Demon's Souls, you're going to spend most of your time dead. You'll lose your physical form and have to proceed in spirit form. I can say that the game is gorgeous in its art style. It's not exactly pushing the PlayStation 3 in any way but it's easy on the eyes. The control seems solid. Surprisingly, the story is interesting. I'm really enjoying the feel of this game. Demon's Souls might end up being one of those games where the sum is greater than its parts. I had stated in a previous entry that Borderlands might prove to be the hidden gem of the season. Well, now I have it say it's probably going to be Demon's Souls. We'll see if the game can maintain its potential Game of the Year trajectory. But for now, it's looking great.

Another General Update.

Updates are slow because things are moving slow. We haven't finished Halo 3: ODST. Well, we've all completed the offline campaign. Neo, Magus, and myself all have six of the eight Firefight achievements. We still need the Vidmaster achievements. And we all need to go through the co-op campaign on Legendary difficulty. We still need to go back to Halo 3 itself for two of those Vidmaster achievements. This last Tuesday saw the release of Crash Course, the download content expansion to Left 4 Dead. We've spent a few nights there chasing achievements. That has slowed us down considerably. Crash Course is decent fun in and of itself. Too bad it had to be marred by strange server issues allowing you to walk through solid objects and doorways leading to portals of oblivion. It's also a shame that the achievements are glitched out considerably. We'll have to wait on a title update to finish those off. As I'm writing this it has just crossed over to Monday. Demon's Souls arrives tomorrow with its major campaign and some level of co-op play. Demon's Souls is apparently a game where one could easily sink a hundred hours or more. The question becomes when to start it. If we're going to be polishing off Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST, will there be time for Demon's Souls? Especially with Uncharted 2 arriving a week later. Neo and Magus are both raring to go with Uncharted 2 which offers multiple offline playthroughs for trophies, a couple of online co-op modes, and a couple of online versus modes. And Borderlands arrives a week after Uncharted 2. Borderlands might shape up to be the hidden gem of the season and is offering an enormous world and four-player online co-op for the entire experience. Are we going to have to delay starting games? Are we going to attempt to juggle everything? Are we going to be able to play any single player games at all? Are we going to all go insane? Has Magus already gone insane? The Magic 8-Ball says... "Count on it"

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for the Nintendo DS with a total time of twenty-five hours. Bowser's Inside Story is easily the best of the Mario & Luigi titles. Just about everything about it works exceedingly well. The graphics are great. Colorful and clean and classic Nintendo in style. The music is provided by returning series composer Yoko Shimomura of Legend of Mana and Kingdom Hearts fame. The music is upbeat and fits the story perfectly. The gameplay is the best of the series. The battle system remains fresh throughout the entire game. The mechanics of switching between Boswer and Mario and Luigi is great. It provides a great structure for puzzles and moving around the world. It also helps keep things fresh as the story has you switching back and forth between them so things never seem to get stale. The story is played entirely for laughs. And there are plenty of them. Beyond the pratfalls and cowardice of Luigi you'll have Bowser showing far more character than he's ever had before. When Bowser is interacting with series favorite Fawful or his minions it's just comedy gold. I found the pacing of this title far better than the previous game. This one I didn't want to end. It's the best Nintendo DS game I've played this year. It has that old Nintendo charm in spades. And these days that's a rare thing. I'm giving Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story a 9.5.

Scribblenauts -- Final Opinion.

As I previously stated in my initial impression 5th Cell had the lofty goal of truly divergent gameplay for Scribblenauts. In the end, for me, I don't believe they reached their goal. There are two ways to play Scribblenauts. One is just solving each puzzle. The other is the challenge mode, where you're tasked with solving each puzzle three times. It records the words you used each time you solved the puzzle and prohibits you from using them again. It's trying to foster creativity. But the problem is, I found myself just replicating what I had done before. Need to fly up to the Starite? Well, I'd just use wings, then a jet pack, then Pegasus. Need to get the Starite out of the water? Well, I'd just find myself continually using a snorkel, SCUBA, and a diving bell. Need to pull something? You'll fall back on a rope, chain, tether, lasso, or leash again and again. So for every burst of seemingly genius the game exhibits, I found myself just going with what works time and again. There are some other issues like items just not behaving in the game as they should in the real world. The controls will cause you to have to restart levels time and again. The touch controls failed me constantly and proved to be frustrating at times. The graphics are charming but sparse in nature. The music is really just there for me. Overall Scribblenauts is a fun but flawed game that will occasionally give you tiny bursts of brilliance. It's something that's great for pick up and play to kill fifteen minutes with. I'm giving Scribblenauts a 7.5.

Halo 3: ODST -- A Rather Late Initial Impression.

A delayed delivery, a day of playing, a day without electricity, and another day of playing and I'm finally delivering a late initial impression. Halo 3: ODST was developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios. ODST, which stands for Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, is a game that takes place during the end of Halo 2 into the events of Halo 3. ODST uses the Halo 3 engine, but it's not your typical Halo game. They've made some major changes. Gone are the regenerative shields and the dual wielding of weapons. You can only heal from med packs. Gone is the sense of invincibility that playing as Master Chief affords. The story of ODST changes things up as well. The linear level progression of the Halo series is gone from ODST. The narrative comes in the form of playable flashbacks that are found throughout a hub world. The solo campaign represents roughly a quarter of the overall package. There is an online cooperative campaign. There is another online mode that goes by the name of Firefight. This mode borrows heavily from Gears of War 2's Horde mode and Call of Duty's online modes. Up to four players online face wave after wave of enemies, only with the added Halo touch. Halo's skulls randomize the conditions of each round. Five waves make up a round. Three rounds make a set. After a set you'll have experience a bonus round where you'll have a greater chance of earning extra lives to enable you to keep the game going. And the final quarter of the ODST package is the entire Halo 3 versus online multiplayer, including all of the extra downloadable maps. There is a lot of bang for the buck with this one. Which is interesting to me as there is a rather vocal group claiming ODST is not worth the asking price. I'm roughly half way through the solo campaign. We've yet to play the campaign online. I've dabbled in the Halo 3 multiplayer. We've just recently seriously started playing the Firefight mode. I've played enough to say that ODST is a full game. Well justified in its full price entry fee. Does it live up to the Halo legacy or have Bungie finally taken a misstep? That question is more up in the air than I was expecting it to be at this point. But as always, time will tell.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story -- Initial Impression.

This wasn't the initial impression I intended for today. With it being the release date of Halo 3: ODST and all. Because of some mechanical issues the UPS plane carrying my copy was delayed to the point of I'll be getting the game tomorrow. And with Scribblenauts being rather pick up and play in spurts instead of a concentrated effort, I've decided to start Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. The game was developed by Alpha Dream Corporation and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. Alpha Dream are responsible for the previous two titles in the Mario & Luigi series as well as a couple of Japanese only Hamtaro titles and Tomato Adventure. The Mario & Luigi games are a series of RPGs that feature menu driven battle sequences based on action and timing and decidedly comic stories and presentation. I've barely messed around with Bowser's Inside Story but I can tell that the comic nature of the series is at the forefront of this particular title. I've already laughed out loud a few times and I'm not even through the tutorial. The game seems to initially have great graphics and a strong sound design. With arguably the clearest voice sound samples on the system. The gameplay seems to be right in line with the series. Instead of controlling Mario and Luigi along with Baby Mario and Baby Luigi from the last title, this time Bowser takes the place of the babies. They've also changed the mechanic in that Mario and Luigi are on the bottom screen with Bowser on the top screen. And you're able to switch between them on the fly. The puzzles and obstacles are based around this switching between the top and bottom screens to help each side advance. Bowser's Inside Story is off to a strong start that I really hope maintains throughout the entire game. And I'm hoping the game is a tad more balanced and has better pacing as the last game of the series tended to drag through to the end. As always the answer is on the other side...

Scribblenauts -- Initial Impression.

Before Halo ODST next week we have Scribblenauts on the Nintendo DS. Scribblenauts is developed by 5th Cell and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Scribblenauts is a puzzle game wherein you're out to obtain a Starite on each level. You go about doing that by summoning anything and everything into the world by writing out the word. So if for example there is a Starite in a tree one could write the word axe and an axe would appear. The main character of Maxwell could then pick up the axe and chop down the tree and grab the Starite. That's just one solution, and the core of what 5th Cell is aiming for with Scribblenauts. They're after divergent gameplay. They want everyone to solve the puzzle differently. And they want the gameplay to be different every time. And they're after the unexpected. They're trying to go as far from the standard linear single solution gameplay as they can possibly get. It's a lofty goal for sure. From my time spent with the game thus far it seems they may be on to something. But they're possibly on to something while featuring problematic control. Like Muramasa: The Demon Blade before it, Scribblenauts was the darling of E3. Muramasa lived up to the hype, will Scribblenauts? We'll have to see how this one shapes up and if it can maintain its freshness.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade -- Final Opinion.

That took a little longer than expected. It didn't help that I snuck in the Xbox Live versions of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and Sonic & Knuckles in there while playing Muramasa. I've fully completed Muramasa with all one-hundred and eight swords and all six endings viewed. In my initial impression I stated how I wouldn't be surprised if Muramasa ended up being the best looking Wii title ever produced. Having completed the game I still feel that way. The game is as gorgeous as we're ever going to see on the system. I can't stress how good the game looks and how much better it looks in motion as the backgrounds just come alive with animation. The music is amazing in its updated traditional Japanese style and as in titles like Yakuza 2 and Shenmue 2, the Japanese voice work just brings with it a sense of place that's unparalled. The story is very traditional Japanese folkore. The aspect I was most worried about going in to Muramasa based on the general opinion of Princess Crown and Odin Sphere was the battle system. I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised as it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable battle systems I've experienced. It really clicked with me. Some people have complained that there isn't a skill progression in the characters. That never bothered me for a second. The characters start with every move they'll have available throughout the entire game. You'll level up your character's stats and that will allow for you to use stronger swords. Each sword comes with its own special art, essentially a magic attack. It's a very 16-bit feeling system of run, jump, and magic. Only updated with combos and deflecting enemy projectiles. The battle system is chaotic and fun. The game features some of the most fun I've had with boss battles in a long while. There wasn't a bad one in the bunch. I thoroughly enjoyed Muramasa and I'm truly interested to see what Vanillaware does next. I'm giving Muramasa: The Demon Blade a 9. Oh and one more thing, SEGA... take a look at this game, and show it up with a Shinobi title, please. Pretty please?

Muramasa: The Demon Blade -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is Muramasa: The Demon Blade for the Wii. The game is developed by Vanillaware and published by Ignition Entertainment. This will be my first Vanillaware offering as I decided not to import Princess Crown for the Saturn nor did I hop on board for their western releases of Odin Sphere and GrimGrimorie. If you've ever played a Japanese RPG before chances are you've seen the name Muramasa, as well as the name Masamune. And chances are they've been the names of swords. Both Muramasa and Masamune were real life sword smiths in Japan. While Masamune is widely considered Japan's greatest sword smith, Muramasa has the far more interesting legend. It seems the real life Muramasa was not only a great sword smith, he was also a little bit mad. As in insane. The long story short of it is that Muramasa's madness found its way into every sword he ever created in the form of a bloodlust that compelled the sword's wielder towards murder or suicide. Muramasa: The Demon Blade is an action RPG with two playable characters who both are equipped with numerous Muramasa blades. I've spent a little over an hour with Muramasa and I can easily tell you that the game is just gorgeous. It's filled with amazing 2D art. I wouldn't be surprised if Muramasa ends up being the best looking Wii title ever produced. There is a ton of animation as the backgrounds appear full of motion. The wind blows through the wheat fields in backgrounds filled with amazing layers of parallax scrolling. I'm just a tad put off initially from the lack of a jump button as you jump by pressing up. It's always nice to play an action RPG though, my favorite genre. You're slashing through enemies and bosses. The battles have a distinct start and stop to them. Beginning with an exclamation point alert and ending with a performance recap. You're collecting items and earning experience. You're talking to villagers and buying from shops. There is also a system of forging new blades with a total of one-hundred and eight to collect. My initial impression is pretty good. I'm sure the game will stay gorgeous, but we'll need to see how the story and gameplay shape up.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune -- Revisited.

With Batman: Arkham Asylum ending sooner than I'd have liked, I was faced with a week that needed to be filled. Instead of doing the smart thing and getting through a game from the backlog, I decided to play through Uncharted: Drake's Fortune again. There were a few reasons behind this choice. First of all, Uncharted came out in November of 2007 and I had originally gotten around to it in late January 2008. That's well before I had imported my DualShock 3 from Japan. Uncharted supported rumble before it was available. And it was strikingly weird having played it without. And this was also well before Naughty Dog had patched Uncharted with trophy support. So the achievement / trophy devil was perched on my shoulder urging me to go ahead. The other reason is the Saga of Magus' PlayStation 3. We've all been subject to Magus' journey towards PlayStation 3 ownership the last few months. He finally got one, a PS3 Slim. After exchanging his initial dud of a PS3 Slim (I told you it was a saga), he would be starting Uncharted. And of course Uncharted would be fucked by PS3 firmware 3.0 (again, a saga). With Magus playing Uncharted, and the game being a favorite of Neo's, there would be a lot of conversation regarding Uncharted. And it would be a good refresher in preparation of Uncharted 2 next month. So it was as good a time as any to replay it. I've completed Uncharted: Drake's Fortune with a platinum trophy to show for it. Essentially having played the game four times through at this point. Nothing has changed from my original late January 2008 opinion of the game. I capped off that final opinion with "It's all well done, if not very original. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a good solid game. Nothing more, nothing less. I'm giving it a rather solid 8." And that's how I feel about it today. Now, what to do while I await the arrival of Muramasa: The Demon Blade...

Batman: Arkham Asylum -- Final Opinion.

I have completed the main game of Batman: Arkham Asylum. I found all two-hundred and forty of the Riddler's challenges and collected everything there was to collect. I made it through the predator challenges, the ones based on stealth, with ease. However I wasn't able to make it through the combat challenges. The game's combat system is fine for what's required in the main game. When you're trying for the combat challenges it becomes quite apparent how awful the combat system actually is. And I'm talking the hand to hand stuff here. Not the stealth based takedowns and gadgets side of things. That side of things is perfect and as fun as can be. Why is the combat system awful? The game's combat flows much like a dance pretty much as it does in Assassin's Creed. And Batman's combat is truly a sight to behold. Batman leaps around agile as can be blocking and countering and just being about as badass as one can be. When it works. And therein lies the issue. Batman's hand to hand combo dance fails far too often. It just doesn't do what it's supposed to be doing. And the more I attempted the combat challenges the more annoyed I became with it. Assassin's Creed never once failed me. If you're going to go for such an autopilot heavy combat system, then you had better make sure it freaking works all the damn time. Maybe it's an issue of Batman being so close to true greatness that each flaw glares all the more for it. That's sort of the same issue I have with the characterization of the Joker. He's awesome. Just all around awesome. That is, until the end. Here is a wonderfully written and acted Joker who pulls off some Emperor Palpatine level string pulling in a plot to trap Batman within Arkham. He pulls it all off flawlessly and then for some unfathomable reason he just plan turns outright retarded in the final battle. I found it almost character breaking in its stupidity. And it's on the concept and character side of the final battle that this is an issue. And for many it probably isn't even an issue. The plot of Batman is generic comic book stuff. But the actual writing and characters, the Joker's end notwithstanding, are all extremely well represented. The voice acting is just top notch all the way around. From the lowest Joker henchman to the generic Arkham guard all the way up through the major characters. The graphics in the game are great. When I stopped to look at them. As I spent most of my time in the game's detective mode, which allows for thermal imaging and the like. And that mode is actually far less impressive as it tends to reveal the level geometry and uses less texturing. So unless I actually remembered to stop and turn it off and then looked around each room, I was missing most of the graphic power in the game. I really enjoyed the Riddler's collection aspect of the game. I think it's one of the best implementations ever devised in a video game and it made collecting every last item a joy. I also really enjoyed the Super Metroid find a new tool to progress style gameplay involved in the collection aspect. I did thoroughly enjoy my time spent in the main game. I think Batman: Arkham Asylum will make quite a few Game of the Year lists for 2009. It just won't make mine, but it is a must own title. I'm giving Batman: Arkham Asylum an 8.

Batman: Arkham Asylum -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me is Batman: Arkham Asylum, developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. Batman will likely be one of the last titles published by Eidos Interactive as they're now known by the name Square-Enix Europe. I've gone with the PlayStation 3 version of the game for two reasons. First, I'm looking to bolster my PlayStation 3 library. Second, the playable Joker challenge maps are the only real exclusive for the title. If Shadow Complex was a great send-off to the summer season Batman looks to be just as impressive a kick-off to the holiday season. Some of you might be saying holiday season? Batman marks the point where it essentially becomes a game a week or two for me through Thanksgiving and thus marks the start of the holiday season. From my time with Batman so far it appears to be a wonderful blending of ideas. At the core you have a 3D brawler coupled with the Batman aesthetic and all of his wonderful toys. You also have an experience system that allows for upgrading of items and abilities that provides sort of a Metroidvania sense of progression through the game. The game is also story intensive and actually pulls off the Batman world far better than any Batman game before it. It doesn't hurt that the three main characters are voiced by their counterparts from Batman: The Animated Series, which many, including myself would consider to be the best thing Batman ever created. A word of warning to the completionist out there, Arkham Asylum will drive you insane with its two-hundred and forty collectables. Which is rather fitting as they are all tied to the Riddler. They're just collectables, but how they're handled and presented just might be the coolest means yet. Batman: Arkham Asylum early on is showing signs of potential Game of the Year candidacy. Let's see how it shapes up on the other side...

Shadow Complex -- Final Opinion.

I have completed Shadow Complex numerous times and have earned the full two-hundred Gamerpoints. I have to say that Shadow Complex lived up to the hype and delivered a grand finale to Microsoft's Summer of Arcade II. Chair Entertainment and Epic Games have brought about a nearly perfect title. The only real flaw happens to come in the gameplay with the 3D aiming. It's not as dependable as it needed to be. It becomes far more noticeable on the harder difficulties. You'll die numerous times on the harder difficulties because it just wouldn't cover the target you needed it to cover. Another complaint, but not really a flaw, is in just how much they borrowed from the games that inspired Shadow Complex. They just blatantly steal from Super Metroid and Metal Gear Solid, and they throw in some G. I. Joe in there as well. I don't think I've ever seen anything as blatant. The graphics are great for an Xbox Live title. They're expanding the boundaries on what one would have thought possible for a download title. The music works very well, and there are some unique choices in the score. The voice work is top notch all around. The game's story is actually good in a quite goofy way and it doesn't get in the way. I found the game to be surprisingly cinematic. One of the aspects that I was surprised that I enjoyed were the bosses. In the fact that none of them are telegraphed with a boss door as they are in Castlevania. You just happen upon all of them without warning. I'm also really impressed with how they used achievement like pop-ups to inform you of your running totals towards the achievements. And that they took it a step further and started showing you the progress of the people on your friends list who were playing the game. You'd do a melee kill and you'd get a pop-up saying that ZBo had this many melee kills and that you had that many melee kills. The pop-ups inspired some friendly competition and they provided an interesting look at how others played the game. Overall Shadow Complex was a very satisfying conclusion to the summer season for me. I'm giving Shadow Complex a 9.

Shadow Complex -- Initial Impression.

Next up for me along with a return to regular updates is Shadow Complex for the Xbox 360. Shadow Complex is the final game of Microsoft's Summer of Arcade II and as such has a lot to live up to if you subscribe to the theory of saving the best for last. Shadow Complex is a predominantly 2D action game with 3D graphics that borrows heavily from the gameplay of Super Metroid and the aesthetics of Metal Gear Solid. The game was designed by Chair Entertainment with support from Epic Games and it uses the Unreal Engine. The game also comes with a degree of controversy as it has been written to some extent by Orsan Scott Card of Ender's Game fame. For some people he's a noted homophobe and religious zealot. I don't know what to make of the controversy as of yet. But I can say that Shadow Complex's initial couple of hours are great fun. And it really does owe everything to Super Metroid and Metal Gear Solid at this point. I'm a little iffy on the control so far though. It does have some instances where it fails. Normally in heavy combat. I've been pleasantly surprised by the level of the combat. And the situations are far more varied and interesting than I ever was expecting. So far Shadow Complex seems to be living up to the hype. Let's see if it can maintain its momentum...

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad -- All-in-One.

At just a couple hours shy of fifty hours I have completed Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad for the Xbox 360 with the full one-thousand Gamerpoints. The total time to complete the game should give you an idea that there is actually a real game here. I went in to the game expecting a title that caters to Japanese perversion, and make no mistake about it as it is that, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a skill based hack and slash game at the core. The game was developed by Tamsoft of Battle Arena Toshinden fame. The game was published by D3 Publishers who are best known for their Simple series. A line of budget titles that range in quality from surprisingly decent to broken tech demo and failed student project levels. On the surface Onechanbara is a mess. It's exceedingly ugly. The graphics come off as decent original Xbox, not even good original Xbox. The story is batshit insane in its ludicrousness. The voice work is proof that even supposedly superior Japanese voice work can truly suck. The level design is uninspired and bland. Everything would be a real mess, if it weren't for the actual gameplay. There is something that's just satisfying about slicing through hordes of zombies. Now I realize that even the gameplay isn't going to click for everyone. It's truly skill based, and the game does nothing to help you. It just throws you in and lets you figure it all out. That alone will break it for a lot of people. Something did click for me with the combat though and I was able to find something beyond the chicks in bikinis being drenched in blood as they slice through wave after wave of zombies. I would say Onechanbara is worth the gamble of checking out to see if it clicks for you. I'm giving Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad a 7.

Another Freaking General Update: Because I'm Lazy.

Every summer is the same thing. Planning on tackling the large backlog of games. Meandering around playing this and that instead of doggedly playing the games you should be playing. This summer seems to have been worse than any I can remember. I didn't get anything done. Well, that's not true. I've put in hundreds of hours into Sacred 2 and have all but one last achievement. Too bad that'll have to wait as I've snapped and can't play another second of Sacred 2 for the foreseeable future. I'll get that last achievement someday, so I tell myself. Magus is psyching himself up for a purchase of a PlayStation 3, finally. And what a long process this has been. The guy has three games for the system already, wants a few more already out, and shows interest in some future titles as well as wanting some PlayStation Network titles, especially some original PlayStation titles he needs to finally round up. And he's waiting on the Sony press conference from Cologne, Germany in hopes of an announcement of the rumored Slim PlayStation 3 or a price cut in the US in time for Demon's Souls and Uncharted 2. What else has been going on? Well, Microsoft's Summer of Arcade II is definitely a major cause in why I haven't accomplished much in the way of clearing the backlog. I've purchased four of the five titles thus far. I enjoyed the hell out of 'Splosion Man in both the single and multiplayer games. I've messed around with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled. Waiting to hook up with Riddel to play through it online. Most of us bought Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 but we haven't even begun messing around with that one. Trials HD came out today and I'm already really enjoying the game. And next Wednesday I'll be getting Shadow Complex. I purchased Fat Princess for the PlayStation 3 and enjoyed what I've played of it but the connection issues made me put it aside. Now that the patch is out, I'll have to get back to it, but will most likely wait for Magus and Neo to get the game before truly getting around to it. I've also been playing Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad for the Xbox 360. You know the one, it started out as a Japanese PlayStation 2 title in the Simple Series of budget priced titles. It's a hack and slash with chicks in bikinis and zombies and showers of gore. I've been lazy but I'll write that one up in an all-in-one as there is some level of game there. More than most reviewers gave it credit for easily. Let's see, what else is going on? Oh yeah, Batman. Most of us had dismissed the title when it slipped from June to late August. We were interested but it now just was in the wrong spot. Bad timing and all that. Then the demo came out and it pretty much changed everyone's mind on the subject. So this holiday season will once again kick off in late August with Batman: Arkham Asylum. I'll be picking up the PlayStation 3 version, for the exclusive Joker maps, and it's time to expand the system's library a bit. After Batman, it's a game a week through November. And my backlog remains untouched. Joy. Maybe I should just stop pretending to care because one obviously can't win, especially with committing to online gaming over single player experiences this year.

Wii Sports Resort -- The Legend of Zelda.

It's safe to say that at this point, for me, the Wii has been a disappointment overall. Sure, there is the great Zelda, and the return to form for Mario, and the Virtual Console has allowed for me to revisit and round up classic titles from yesteryear. But outside of a couple of Wii Ware titles and games like No More Heroes, and House of the Dead Overkill third party support hasn't exactly been stellar. Also it's gotten to the point where the spaces between the must have Nintendo developed titles are starting to get obscenely long. So now comes Wii Sports Resort. Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling Wii Sports Resort a must have Nintendo developed title. In fact, I referred to the original Wii Sports as a terrible tech demo and debated if the title should be considered a game or not. I'm not a fan of Nintendo's casual friendly philosophy. I'm not convinced they care about the so called core gamer despite their attempts to show they do at E3 this year. But see, at that E3, at a private showing, Miyamoto showed off some concept art for the next Legend of Zelda on the Wii. He also went on to say something along the lines of if you play Wii Sports Resort and pay attention to the swordplay and archery events you'd get a good idea how the next Legend of Zelda plays. That statement intrigued me enough, and I knew I'd need one eventually, that I went ahead and jumped into Wii Sports Resort. The big deal about Wii Sports Resort is that it comes bundled with Nintendo's new Wii Motion +. An add-on that attaches to the bottom of the Wii Remote and delivers 1:1 motion control. In other words, the Wii Remote will now be able to track itself exactly. So you'll have full on screen control. However you move, the game responds exactly. Ever since the reveal of the Wii's motion control the concept that most instantly grabbed everyone's attention was the idea of lightsaber battles. Now that concept is finally here. Wii Motion + works. The sword does move as you move the Wii Remote. Wii Sports Resort does show off the technology, but it never escapes the tech demo feeling. There is enough to get you excited that hopefully some developer out there is going to be able to deliver the real deal. It's the exact same way for Wii Sport Resort's archery event. The tech demo will impress you on that level while leaving you hopeful someone truly delivers. This slight next Zelda tease has me cautiously optimistic for the next Zelda title. As far as Wii Sports Resort is concerned, it's an even more glorified tech demo. I suppose if you're one of the fabled people who play the Wii every time their grandma comes over and you have all night sessions of Wii Sports then Wii Sports Resort will blow your mind. But if you're one of the more normal gamers who see the gimmick for what it is, Wii Sports Resort isn't going to be for you. But the potential for someone to do something great is here.

The Maw -- All In One.

I had so much fun with 'Splosion Man that I decided to play Twisted Pixel's first game, The Maw. While 'Splosion Man is a 2D platformer, The Maw is a 3D platformer with some puzzle elements. The premise of The Maw is that you're an alien who has been captured by some intergalactic science lab and or zoo. The ship you're on crashes, allowing for you to escape along with Maw, who comes off as pet like. He's essentially a one-eyed purple mouth. He'll eat almost anything. Each level plays out with you leading Maw around, feeding him enough creatures to make him grow. Once he's grown large enough he'll be able to eat larger creatures that will change his shape and enable special powers that will allow you to get through the puzzles of the level. Rinse and repeat through seven stages. Like 'Splosion Man, the characters in The Maw are charming. And that goes a long way to making the games more enjoyable. The Maw is sort of impressive as an Xbox Live Arcade title. I say sort of because of the existence of both Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie on the system. It's sort of unfair to make the comparison, but they're the same basic genre on the same platform. I enjoyed The Maw, it gets an 8.

'Splosion Man -- All In One.

I have completed the single player campaign of 'Splosion Man by Twisted Pixel Games for Xbox Live Arcade. I've found and collected all forty-seven cakes. I still need to go through the multiplayer campaign via online with Magus. 'Splosion Man is a simple to control action platform game. I mean, you just have the stick for character movement and a single button to explode. Exploding works as your jump as well as your attack. Twisted Pixel has come up with some of the most devious action gauntlets I've ever experienced. And most of them require exacting timing. Some people might be suckered by the demo which hides the more challenging aspects of what the game really offers. Make no mistake about it, 'Splosion Man is a game designed for core gamers. The challenging gameplay is great, but the game really shines in its humor and the main character itself. 'Splosion Man is a truly manic character. He's literally bouncing off the walls, in both personality and gameplay. Graphically 'Splosion Man is solid looking and offers a high quality level of animation. The sound design is really good. From the music and sound effects to the babble of the main character, everything just fits perfectly. 'Splosion Man is Twisted Pixel's second game. Their first was The Maw, also on Xbox Live Arcade. I was impressed with The Maw demo and always intended to grab it when it went on sale or I had the time. I'm impressed with 'Splosion Man enough to ensure that I'll be picking up The Maw. I'm looking forward to see what Twisted Pixel comes up with for their third game. I'm giving 'Splosion Man a 9.

General Update (Again)

Wow, I'm really kicking ass this summer. Okay, so maybe the joke isn't funny any more. I'm not making any headway at all with my backlog. I haven't actually updated in a while due to the fact my computer has been off for a week or more while I awaited the arrival of a replacement CPU fan. Now that I'm back online I'm able to update once again. Not that there's a lot to discuss. We're still rather lazily moving through Sacred 2, only now with online! I still need the final four achievements there. Having my PC offline allowed me to finally get to work on Phantasy Star II via Xbox Live, which I've now earned the full two-hundred points for. Yes, I played a nearly twenty year old game I've played seven times before just for two-hundred achievement points instead of tackling my backlog. We've also been playing Battlefield 1943, which has turned out to be a great experience for the entrance fee. It provides all of the chaos and visceral thrills of its full sized brethren at a quarter of the price. Xbox Live's Summer of Arcade starts this week, which means I'll have to be taking a serious look at the Xbox Live releases for the next month or so because I need more of a reason to avoid my backlog. Splosion Man is this week, with the sure thing of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 next week. Phantasy Star Universe continues to add new content at the worst possible times so we'll be likely to spend a couple days checking that out again this week. I really need to start a disc based game, but I sort of have no desire to and would have to force the issue. And that isn't always wise. It looks like I'll be continuing this slightly aimless drift for a while before the by necessity more structured approach to Fall begins at the end of next month.

General Update -- I've Been Busy, Really. (Again)

From a lack of updates one could assume I've been slacking off. That isn't really the case. I just haven't started anything substantial, as I probably should have done. I've actually been spread a little thin. I was playing Ghostbusters online which surprisingly turned out to be great fun. Only problem is that the achievements are severely glitched. A couple of them won't unlock for me when they should have, and another is entirely broken and not even possible because the final ghost that triggers it isn't showing up from being glitched as well. So until Terminal Reality and Atari address the situation with a patch, Ghostbusters online is on hold. Which is doubly bad for Magus as he just wants to play it for the fun of it. We're still slowly working through Sacred 2 for achievements. I'm chasing the one that you get for accessing the hardest difficulty level. That only amounts to having played through the campaign three full times. And we still have our online co-op run to go through. And within that I'm hoping to get the complete a campaign without dying achievement. And then that will leave the final achievement for me of completing the campaign with less than twenty percent of the map exposed. I'm also slowly, but surely, working my way through Phantasy Star II via Xbox Live Arcade. A few minutes here, a few minutes there. It's going to take a while, but I will get those achievements. I've also been further slowed by becoming involved in the 1 Vs. 100 beta, the trivia based game show on Xbox Live. This is another pleasant surprise. It's great fun and is going to really be something. I've also been messing around with Neves Plus for Wii Ware. It's a tangram based puzzle game. You know, figuring out how to fit the seven geometric shapes together just so as to form an image. And of course the eternal Phantasy Star Universe has been updated with a higher level cap and new content. New missions and new items to track down. So you can maybe see why I haven't started anything more substantial, and maybe why I'm not going to be starting anything any time soon. This upcoming week will see the long awaited Battlefield 1943 hit and that will further slow things down as it's sure to eat up more than a few hours. And that'll lead into Marvel Vs Capcom and beyond and then as with the last few years, the holiday season begins in late August and there is just no going back. So when am I going to knock out that ever growing backlog? I still hope to, but something has to give doesn't it?

Ghostbusters: The Video Game -- Final Opinion.

I've completed the single-player game of Ghostbusters twice over earning all of the offline based achievements. The production value of Ghostbusters is exceptionally impressive. The game looks and sounds and better yet feels like a Ghostbusters movie. And not a crappy one like Ghostbusters 2, but almost up there with the original. The graphics are great. The character models are impressive and detailed, especially the faces representing the characters from the movies. The environments follow the simple and clean approach that works wonderfully. The ghost designs feel right at home within the Ghostbusters universe. They have that slightly comic flair that is essential for them to feel as if they properly belong. The writing is as good as you're ever going to see in video games. The story and characters are perfect and smart. Everything just feels right and it continues to fire on all cylinders from start to finish. Much like The Simpsons game before it, it helps that the original writers were involved. It's their voice coming through loud and clear. It's not someone from a developer who may or may not even be a fan of the source material trying to mimic someone else's voice. It really shows. And I'd go so far as to say that Ghostbusters: The Video Game will most like walk away with the best writing in a video game for 2009. It's that good. Ghostbusters: The Video Game isn't perfect however. The gameplay isn't the deepest thing to ever grace a console. And Ghostbusters exhibits some of the worst moments of unfairness I've seen since Left 4 Dead. The stone angels sequence in particular is abysmal, especially on the professional difficulty. Overall the game is a must own title for any fan of the original movie. And I hope that the game is a massive success to the point of luring all of the celebrity talent back again for a second game as I'd like a go at another game flaws and all. I'm giving the Xbox 360 version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game a 8.