March 31st, 2008 Tengaport
Since my gaming hours have been limited lately, I’ve been trying to keep myself focused on a minimal amount of games at a time. With that said, I’m nearing the 30 hour mark in Mass Effect on the 360. I completed an initial play through and am now on my second time around working on the side missions and test ‘alternate’ choices.
I don’t know why Bioshock got the wagon of focus over it’s ‘moral choices’ as opposed to Mass Effect. The choice to harvest the little sisters in Bioshockfeels so insignificant when compared to the choices I was forced to make in Mass Effect. Not to mention the fact that the choices you make in Mass Effect do more than shape a 30 second cutscene at the end of the game.
Back on topic though, Mass Effect is a fantastic sci-fi romp. I almost gave up on the game at first due to it’s sloppy controls and clunky-at-times feeling gameplay, but I am glad I stuck it out. The story that unfolds, the worlds you visit, the characters you meet and the choices you make add up to gaming-time extremely well spent. I should also mention that I’ve always had this thing for moon-buggies, so getting to cruise planets in the Mako gave this game a few extra brownie points.
When I watch a good sci-fi movie I get caught up in it. If it’s really good I crave more from the movie, more backstory, character profiles, whatever – just more. Mass Effect offers that good sci-fi experience, and allows you to explore the universe until your hearts content. Even after the 30 hour mark I have not run out of new information to digest.
For my next time through the game (yep, planning on going a third round) I’m going to put my current character to rest and start from scratch with a different class. Looking forward to see how differently things play out then.
On the PSP I’ve finally put down Patapon and picked God of War back up. Either I’ve completely forgotten how to play the game or the difficulty has ramped up through the roof. I am repeatedly getting my ass handed to me and find myself shutting the game off in utter frustration.
After borking a quick-time action with the nubbin on a boss battle I almost smashed my PSP to smithereens. Instead I just turned off the game and went over to my DS to calm my nerves.
Back in my DS currently is Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. I’ve probably said this before, but I’m fully embracing the fact now that Days of Ruin is nowhere near as good as Dual Strike is. If I am going to recommend an Advance Wars title to someone it will be Dual Strike. There is just so much more personality and variety in Dual Strike than there is in Days of Ruin. Days of Ruin isn’t bad, but it’s so stripped down and just lacks the pizazz of previous AW games. The menus are blah, the characters suck and the story is agonizing. Dual Strike may have a higher learning curve with the abilities, but once you get a grasp on it the game is just superior in all aspects.
It pains me to call out Days of Ruin like this, but the simple fact is I do not enjoy it as much as prior AW games. Hopefully they’ll fix it up for next time.
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March 27th, 2008 Tengaport
Is there such a thing as ’side-grading’? A process that is neither up nor down-grading? If so thats exactly how I feel about picking up a new SD1000 point and shoot from Canon.
While it does boast some new features over my SD900, I don’t feel I’m being completely honest saying it’s an upgrade.
Regardless of that fact, it is quite a stellar little camera. So far I have been extremely pleased with my initial tests, and for the price you just can’t beat it. Not to mention the size of this thing, it’s puny!
Had it not been for our upcoming Grand Cayman trip I probably would’ve stuck it out with the SD900 a bit longer, but I wanted to have a camera that can come swimming. While the SD1000 itself isn’t waterproof, the underwater housing I am going to borrow from my brother definitely is 
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March 24th, 2008 Tengaport
After around 18 hours with Mass Effect I found myself facing the toughest decision in the game – choosing between Ashely and Liara. Up until this point I was faced with making life and death calls for my crew as well as decisions that would shape the fate of the galaxy – though none of them were as difficult as choosing which love interested I would continue to pursue.
After some serious debate, and weighing the pros & cons I decided to share my bunk with Ahsley. She might have been a bit of a hard-ass at the start, but after getting to know her, and her background her tough exterior started to make sense. And once she turned to calling me Skipper instead of Commander I started to see her softer side.
I felt terrible for hurting Liara’s feelings and for leading her on. I was hoping I could romance both Ashely and Liara without them finding out about each other, so imagine my surprise when the cornered me and asked me to choose (does that always happen in the game?). Liara was very sweet and sincere, and while Asari mating rituals have ‘been known to change lives’ I was nervous about human/alien relations.
The bottom line was I found myself more attracted to Ashley, so after deliberating for a bit that was where I choose to go. I tried to console Liara, but she wasn’t up for talking about it. I’m sure she’ll get over things just fine, after all she’s only 100+ something years old right now – in a few hundred more years she probably won’t even remember any of this.
On a side note – the fact that Fox News made such a spectacle of this game’s sex scenes is laughable. I mean c’mon, after 18 hours of gameplay and character development a 30 second sex scene showing less than you can see on network television is hardly a cause to jump on. It was quite a far cry from their claims of “full digital nudity and sex”. You saw a clip of a bare ass, and that was it. Fox News really needs to work on their fact checking… that is if they actually checked facts.
Back on topic, Mass Effect is pretty damn fantastic. It’s glitchy, has sloppy controls and questionable AI (hey jackass, stop shooting me in the back please) but the story and the dialog have been keeping a controller glued to my hands.
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March 24th, 2008 Tengaport
To be honest, this game was ok. I was hoping for some nostalgic Tomb Raider moments with Legend but they just weren’t there. The game isn’t bad by any stretch, it just didn’t feel or play like I would expect a current-gen Tomb Raider to handle. No biggie, I stuck with Lara until the end of this adventure but it was mostly for the easy achievement points. On the MEH scale I’d put Tomb Raider: Legend at around a 5 mehs out of 10
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March 24th, 2008 Tengaport
Today I’m saying goodbye to Chili Con Carnage. A fun yet mildly offensive PSP game. While I didn’t finish the game, I would still say it’s quite an underrated PSP gem. My only big complaint was the lack of strafing in the control scheme. I feel like I’m letting this one go a bit too early, but in all honestly I’m not sure if I’ll ever get back to it at this point.
Good times, adios Chili Con Carnage! You will be missed.
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March 21st, 2008 Tengaport
Here’s another one of my usual stops while at Walt Disney World, and one of the reasons I can’t pass up Disney’s Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios). The 50’s Prime Time Café welcomes you home to a typical, 50’s era, suburban kitchen. Your ‘cousins’ are always happy to see you provided you make sure to wash up before sitting at the table.
Knick-Knacks and fake windows/blinds set the theme while black and white televisions loop endless 50’s programming (including my personal favorite, What to Do on a Date). Just make sure to mind your manners and keep your elbows off the table.
Things can get quite loud at times with the staff really playing up their parts, so if you’re looking for a quiet meal you might want to stay away. Nobody likes to be called out for not finishing their vegetables, but if you clean you’re plate your cousins will make sure to make you proud.
The menu has ‘home cooked’ favorites such as meatloaf, fried chicken, pot roast and milk shakes. The dessert menu can be seen (and I do recommend you see it) via a Viewmaster. I don’t recall exactly what it is called, but the brownie sundae is always delicious.
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March 14th, 2008 Tengaport
Too many games, too little time.
I was all set to rush out to the store this week to pick up Condemned 2: Bloodshot for the Xbox 360. That was until it dawned on me that I’ve got a mountain of games at home already waiting to be played. As much as I am jumping out of my seat to play Condemned I just didn’t see the sense in adding to my backlog at the moment. I’m doing my best to limit myself to one new game (per system) but as you can see in the photo above I’m not doing a terribly good job.
On the DS I’m still commanding my army in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin and solving brain teasers with Professor Layton. The PSP has me in charge of my Patapon soldiers while Kratos waits for me to get him out of Hades and Silent Hill beckons me to return. On the 360 things are a little more complicated:
I just started playing Mass Effect – and while I think the controls are shit, I’m drawn in by the story, environments and damn fine voice work. It’s feel pretty epic, even though I’m only a few hours in.
Turok is a unfortunate Goozex request that I didn’t expect to get anytime soon. I liked the demo somewhat, and I’ll give it a honest try before re-Goozexing.
Call of Duty 4 has the #1 spot when it comes to multiplayer. I finished the campaign mode and had quite an enjoyable time doing so. There is still that damn Mile High Club achievement, but I’m not so confident it’s ever going to happen for me.
The Orange Box still has so much love to give, but I’m unfortunately not giving it the chance. I swore I would finish Half Life 2 this time around, but I haven’t made it very far at all yet. Portal was great, but has long been bested, and while I think Team Fortress 2 is fantastic I haven’t fired it up in some time.
I completely forgot about Ace Combat 6. I really need to jump back into the cockpit and take to the skies. I’ll probably play through the campaign and then trade it away. I’m not sure if the new co-op missions are out, and while the two included on the disc were fun I don’t think I’ll be putting any more money into this game.
I’m angry at Lego Star Wars right now, and it’s not even the game’s fault. I was working through the game last weekend during some heavy rain and high winds. During which time our power kept cutting out on us. Like a fool, each time the power would come back on I fired up the game and tried to pick up the pieces. And 3 times while my character was loaded with lego studs the power cut out again. After that I called it quits and even though our power is back I have yet to try again.
Not sure what to say really about Burnout Paradise. I wish I enjoyed it more than I do, but the truth is I just can’t get into it. Sure I can admire the open world, but it’s not the Burnout Experience I was looking for. I miss the neck and neck races and the constant takedowns, but it’s just not the same in Paradise City. This one is first up on the chopping block for me…
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March 12th, 2008 Tengaport
Just came across this mini surge via Engadget This handy little guy would allow me to ditch my DS and PSP chargers while on the go, even when not traveling with a laptop. For $25 you can count me in for one as soon as it’s released.
I always travel with a powerstrip anyway, but this takes the cake!
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=400738#
Will have to keep an eye out for it.
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March 3rd, 2008 Tengaport
I was thinking this morning on my way in to work that while I do have a ‘currently playing’ list here I rarely ever comment on it. Usually I’ll post a bit about a game when I get it or trade it away, but never report on it while it’s currently spinning. Well, today that is going to change – here is my first Currently Playing Update for March 2008:
Xbox 360
I recently finished Tomb Raider: Legend. I was hoping to maybe relive some nostalgic Tomb Raiding moments, but the game sadly didn’t offer too many. The game itself wasn’t so great and while it wasn’t terrible by any means, towards the end I felt as if I was just going through the motions. While the new ‘next-gen’ Tomb Raider is looking somewhat interesting, I’m much more drawn to Uncharted on the PS3.
I was skeptical that a game with a ninja but no throwing stars could be any good. Well, N+ is just such a game, and despite the fact that your ninja doesn’t even have a sword it still manages to be a fun – yet frustrating at times experience. Fun and Failure both definitely start with F, and N+ offers you extra helpings of both as you traverse the games many levels. The object is simple – open the door, get as many gold coins as you can and get out. Doing all of this requires you to make tremendous leaps of faith, avoiding mines, sadistic shocking robots and crack-shot turrets.
Co-op is a blast, though sadly you’ll have to take advantage of the ’self destruct’ feature many, many times…
Lastly on the 360 is Call of Duty 4. This has replaced Halo as my go-to shoot em up. I can’t put my finger on it, but I enjoy the dynamic of COD4 much more than the circle strafing of Halo. Perhaps it is just because COD4 is new to me, and Halo is… well, Halo.
PSP
Pata! Pata! Pata! Pon! Finally got my hands on Patapon and I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit. I am surprised at the level of grinding the game requires. It doesn’t feel extraordinarily tedious, but I’ve been playing the hunting levels (the easy ones) over and over again in order to raise funds to build up my army. I feel like the game has a lot in store still, but after around 5 hours of playtime I’m still hunting. I’m really digging the game though, so hopefully I’ll have a strong army to take into battle soon.
DS
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin briefly took a back seat to Professor Layton and The Curious Village. Unfortunately, AW: Days of Ruin just doesn’t hold up to previous versions of the game. While I don’t mind the art change, the developers sadly stripped away too much of the game’s personality along with it. The new characters are meaningless to me, and while the core Advance Wars mechanics are intact, all the bells and whistles are gone. It’s still a good game, but if I had to pick between Days of Ruin and Dual Strike it’d be Dual Strike by a long shot.
Professor Layton is pretty fantastic. I enjoy good brain teasers, and the Professor has quite a few to offer. Some are extremely easy to solve, but others will give your noodle quite a workout. I haven’t been paying too much attention to the story in the game and have just been hunting out puzzles, but this is impeding my progress quite a bit. So now I’m taking the time to actually listen to what the villagers are saying before tackling their puzzles. It’s a great game, and much more of a workout for your brain than say Brain Age.
That wraps up the weekly ‘currently playing’ update. Next week will finally see the release of God of War on the PSP, so sadly my Patapon army will have to take a back seat for a bit. Perhaps Kratos can teach the little Patapons a thing or two about war and lesson my need for the constant hunting missions.
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