Dead Space is another one of those ‘perfect’ games for me. I’m such a sucker for space-thrillers when it comes to movies, and survival horrors when it comes to games and Dead Space appears to be a great combination of the two.

Maybe it was because I was playing the game alone & with the lights out, but Dead Space creeped me the hell out. I was honestly scared as I walked around the dark and foreboding spaceship. The game immediately jumped into a very Alien-esque vibe, as I felt completely unarmed and unmatched for the monsters that lurked about. The sci-fi design and the sounds made the environments absolutely terrifying. As I walked down vacant corridors my heart raced in anticipation of what may come. I was no super-space marine here. The developers did a great job of making me feel I was literally fighting for my life.

I can’t recall the last time I actually ran from enemies in a game, let alone ran from them praying that the door was going to shut behind me. That is exactly what I found myself doing in Dead Space. My ammo was depleted, and my odds of survival were slim so I made several mad dashes to try and save my skin. Speaking of skin, the game does an stupendous job with it’s menus and HUD to keep you immersed. Kudos and hats off on an excellent job. Your suit displays your vital stats, your weapon displays your ammo count - my only complaint is not knowing immediately how much ammo I have left in reserves (aside from what’s already in the chamber). Perhaps there is a visual clue there that I haven’t picked up upon yet though.

I loved every minute I’ve spent with Dead Space so far, only stopping last night because I couldn’t take the stress anymore. The game reminded me of what first drew me into Resident Evil way back when. I’ve got high hopes for the remainder of this game, can’t wait to play some more.

I’m ashamed to admit it, but I had one of my not-so-best gaming moments this past weekend during some public matches of Gears of War 2. It was the first time while playingGOW 2 that I frustratingly threw my controller, got up off the couch and abandoned my team (along with the game for the rest of the evening). Gears inconsistencies coupled with disconnections and round after round ofglitchers just got he best of me, and I completely gave in to the dark side.

When the playing field is level, I don’t care whether I win or lose - I’m playing to have fun. When the playing field is distorted (as it can be at times with Gears) each ridiculous death I suffer raises my blood pressure higher and higher. This past Friday as my shotgun missed point blank targets, my lancer had the stopping power of aNerf gun, and my chainsaw revved with the ferocity of a Play School toy I finally reached my breaking point. I began a downward spiral of getting decimated round after round. It was as if I left for a war forgetting to bring bullets along with my guns. Blasting away at my opponents did little to their health and even less to my score as I ended round after round with zero points. Despite my screen showing fountains of blood flying off my targets as I emptied clip after clip my shots simply just did not register to the game’s score keeper as if he was turning a blind eye to my best efforts.

As much as I love Gears of War I want to strangle the game for it’s network code. GOW1 was a blight to play on-line at times, but Epic seemingly fixed those issues with GOW2. Now it appears that they’ve only masked those issues, and after nightly, lengthy play time with the game that mask is starting to fall off.

Match to match I have no idea what to expect from Gears of War 2. Will I be firing blanks during the round, or will I actually be able to damage my on-screen opponents? More often than not my attempts to keep my head attached to my body prove to be futile as theWMD’s my enemies posses lay waste to my pee shooter. Sure, time after time I have the drop on them. I sneak up from behind, jam my shotgun into their backs and pulled the trigger repeatedly. This normally tried-and-true tactic is no match for their bullet dodging abilities and their Mike Tyson-like melee as they drop me to the ground in a supremeWTF moment. I change up my tactics to try and avoid repeating that scene. I keep my enemies at a distance only to see clip after clip of lancer fire do nothing to stop them as they run right up and obliterate me with the same one two punch shotgun melee.

This scenario repeated itself more times then I could bare that fate-full evening, until I reached my breaking point which caused the controller to fly from my hands.

While I know it’s “only a game” my anger boiled down to the simple fact that: I really like Gears of War, I want to keep playing it - but I am not having fun, and why do I want to play a game that is not fun?

After reading a post on Goozex.com yesterday about a pseudo-illicit way of obtaining the Resident Evil 5 demo (currently only available in Japan) I decided to give it a shot.

I downloaded the necessary files, burned a DVR and dropped it into my 360. Thanks to my crappy DVD burner however, the disc just sputtered in the drive and the demo never magically appeared in my game library.

Attempt #2 involved a cheapo CDR I found lying around the house, and viola! there now on my TV was the RE5 demo in all it’s glory (or is it gory?).

Let me first say that I’ve been playing quite a bit of Gears of War and Left 4 Dead, so settling in on RE5’s controls wasn’t easy. The game has the grit of an Unreal Engine shooter, so I half expected it to control the same way. I’m no stranger to Resident Evil, but it has been while since I played RE4 so everything felt a bit stiff and clunky.

I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before everything sinks in, unfortunately that cheapo CDR I burned the demo onto just couldn’t keep up with the 360 and I kept getting dirty disc errors within the first few minutes of playing.

I tried a few times to push on further with the demo before eventually giving up and jumping back into Gears. I may try to burn a new copy tonight and give it another go as I’m extremely anxious to put the demo through it’s paces. I know a US version of the demo is imminent, but I don’t think it’s happening for a few weeks yet.

Resident Evil 5 is one of my MUST have games for 2009. Though I originally started with the series when Resident Evil 2 came out, I’ve been a huge fan ever since.

I have so many fond memories of RE including sitting in my old bedroom late at night with the lights out, headphones on and zombies around every corner. Even many years later when my wife and I first started dating, we tackled the Resident Evil remake and Resident Evil Zero on the Gamecube together. Sadly, she never quite got interested in Resident Evil 4 but I’m hoping co-op play in RE5 will bring her back into the fold.

In all my years of gaming I don’t think theres ever been a time where I’ve been quite as overloaded with the amount of quality games available. While I am currently making good progress on my ‘pile of shame’ I have to throw my hands up in the air when I think of all the games I still have yet to buy. With more and more games that I’m eager to play being released every week I wonder if I’ll ever find the time to get to all of them.

There’s a good chance the next generation will be upon us before I finally take to the rooftops in Mirrors Edge, or scream where no one can hear me in Dead Space. Even with a generous average of 3hrs a day to play I still doubt I’ll ever be able to make it through all of the games on my want list.

Don’t get me wrong, I certainly am not complaining - I am just overwhelmed at the sheer amount of gaming there is to be done. My current want list just seems to keep growing and growing:

* Fallout 3 (360)
* Mirrors Edge (360)
* Dead Space (360)
* Farcry 2 (360)
* Prince of Persia (360)
* Legendary (360)
* The Force Unleashed (360)
* Silent Hill (360)
* Uncharted (PS3)
* Ratchet & Clank (PS3)
* Resistance 2 (PS3)

It’s not looking good, especially when the first 1/4 of 2009 has Skate 2, Killzone 2, and Resident Evil 5 to name a few.

How is everyone coping with this onslaught of games? Is your pile of shame reaching new heights, or is your want list now running off the page (or both)?

Like the rest of the world, as soon as I fired up my 360 last night I downloaded the new dashboard. I was figuring the interwebs were going to be tangled by the time I tried, but the install was fast and smooth.

After a brief intro I dove straight in and started creating my Avatar. Not a very true-to-life resemblance, but I’ll tweak it when I get more time. After fooling around with avatar creating, I started to check out the new dash itself.

The thing is light years faster than the old blades, and snappier than a feisty turtle (not sure what that means). It’s going to take a little settling in to figure out where things are, and what new stuff the dash has to offer - but thankfully the guide button still brings up a bit of familiarity. I was surprised they didn’t change the look of the notifications however to match the NXE style.

I fumbled around with the party system for a few minutes, but I am truly going to have to RTFM on both it and the new dash. Once we were all in a party I wasn’t sure what the advantage was aside from having open chat. It was a comedy show to listen to however as a some of us in the party were playing Gears, others were customizing their avatars, and others still were exploring what the NXE had in store.

One side benefit to the party chat was being able to play ranked Gears of War without having to hear the other team (YOU NEED TO ADD A QUICK MUTE FUNCTION TO THAT GAME EPIC!!!!!!).

First impressions of the new dashboard are all good. Nothing seemed broken or worse off as I flipped my way through the tiles last night, and still having the mini guide makes settling in much easier.

I would like to take a moment to say goodbye to the Blades - they have served us well over the years, and while I can’t say they will be missed - I did appreciate their efforts.

As I write this I’m fighting a war with my eyelids to stay open. Last night’s Advance War battle raged on way past my bedtime. I had bested one of the three opposing forces on the map, but the two remaining CO’s refused to give up any ground. After the 10th time I said, “one last turn” my wife finally forced me to retire from the battle for the evening and call it a night. Judging by my exhausted state, I probably should’ve listened to her the first time she told me to put the game down.

That’s the thing with Advance Wars, once you’re in the thick of it - it’s nearly impossible to put down. That’s just where I’m finding myself again after a bit of a hiatus from Advance Wars: Days of Ruin.

I was initially let down by the departure Days of Ruin had taken from previous Advance Wars games. The change in art style and characters didn’t bother me nearly as much as the striped down, ‘back to basics’ gameplay. What I’ve realized with the loss of overpowering CO attacks and additional skills is that Days of Ruin is raw Advance Wars at it’s core.

Days of Ruin leans much more towards a methodical game of chess now as opposed to a simple bout of rock, paper, scissors. The rock, paper, scissor mechanics are still there, but you’ll need to pack more strategy than firepower now if you hope to walk off the battlefield victorious.

I still stand by my original review of this game (short version: horrible story, drab characters, lack of features when compared to Dual Strike…) but it is still one of the best games I have played on my DS. Once you get into the rhythm, Advance Wars is pure, gaming crack. Just look at me, I’m strung out right now, and all I can think about is ‘one more turn’.

With all the big releases I’ve been following now finally on store shelves the Hype Wagon seems to be packing up it’s effects and is rolling on. My question however is “where is it going?”

What are the next big, Triple-A titles for the Hype Wagon to hitch onto and work it’s magic? Will it be shilling new IPs, or is the wagon reserved in 2009 for games with 3s, 4s and even 5s following the name?

I must confess, that even after the release of both Little Big Planet and Gears of War 2 have liberated me from the wagon, I do feel a bit of a void not having that gigantic, eminent game to follow. I had been looking forward to both of those games for what feels like eons, and while I’m ecstatic to finally have them I’m already looking around for the next ‘big thing’.

There are plenty of games I am looking forward to in the coming year (Skate 2, Resident Evil 5, Bionic Commando…), but none of them have reached that ‘all consuming’ state of mind for me yet. Perhaps Bioshock 2 can take on the roll when more details of that game are released, or perhaps it will be something completely new and out of left field.

I suppose in the meantime I should enjoy my vacation from the Hype Wagon and focus solely on the slew of great games I’ve got in front of me. I suppose I had gotten used to the workings of the Hype Wagon, and now that it’s gone I kind miss it.

Anyone else?

Thanks to a struggling economy, my entire office (those that weren’t let go) was put on a four day work week. While it no doubt sucks, it did allow me to have an extended Gears of War 2 launch weekend. It all started Thursday evening, 11:00pm standing in line outside of Best Buy.

My buddy and I were probably 7th & 8th in a line which stretched around the corner of the building by the time they started letting groups into the store at midnight. Immediately after entering the store we were greeted with a ‘Gears of War’ table which had copies of the games, strategy guides, as well as some midnight launch goodies including a GOW2 shirt, trucker hat, golden hammerburst redemption codes, 1-month Xbox Live card, and pre-order bonus - the remote controlled tank (all destined for sale).

After filling up on the freebies, those of us with pre-orders were set to customer service, while those who hadn’t pre-ordered to game were allowed to pick up a copy off the table, hit the register and walk out the door. Basically, if you pre-ordered you had to wait in two lines, but if you didn’t you could get your ass out of the store ASAP and get home to play. I just found that a bit interesting.

Another interesting thing I saw was someone on the pre-order line holding up the works but also purchasing other items aside from his pre-order. This dude sat there trying up one of the two open registers buying stuff that he could have easily purchased during the day. Needless to say, those of us waiting on-line, anxious to get home and play, were not amused. From there it went from bad to worse as I ran into problems at the other register thereby tying up EVERYONE who pre-ordered the game.

After 25 failed minutes at register #2, register #1 was free and I was finally rung up and on my way.

That night, I ended up playing multiplayer until 4am. The bulk of my time was spent getting a feel for the game in Horde with some friends. The changes were subtle from the first Gears, but evident enough that it took a few rounds to ’sink in’. Once adjusted though, it was nothing but glorious

I’ll try not to come off as a fanboy here, but it is going to be difficult as I have nothing but praise for GOW2. It’s as if the game was custom built for me, as it takes queues from all my favorite gaming genres. It’s got the action of a shooter, the tension from a survival horror, and the ‘world on the brink’ intensity that brings a huge, stupid grin to my face.

In multiplayer, the changes have made the game much more enjoyable in my opinion. The original Gears of War multiplayer matches devolved into little more than shotgun brawls. So much so, that during a ranked matched my (random) teammate yelled at me to ‘PUT THE LANCER AWAY!!!’. While the original Gears was all roadie-run shotgun, my GOW2 multiplayer experience has been all about digging in for some epic firefights.

Bullets are flying everywhere, smoke grenades are detonating sending you flying on your ass, and rounds are lasting longer thanks to everyone keeping their heads down. You can say what you want about GOW2, but this is exactly the type of gameplay experience I am looking for.

Over the weekend I managed to make it through level 50 on Horde (on normal) and finish the campaign (on hardcore). Both experiences were simply awesome, and I’m looking forward to going through them again multiple times. Horde is an absolute blast to play with friends. While it may start out simple enough, things ramp up pretty quickly which is only exacerbated by you and teammates dwindling ammunition supply.

Working together trying to hold off an ever growing onslaught is as much fun as it is intense. Screaming intel back and forth such as “LEFT SIDE CLEAR!”, “BLOODMOUNT BEHIND YOU!!!!!” and the ever important “I’M DOWN!!!!” accentuates just how frantic the rounds can be. Horde is a great multiplayer addition for those times when you just prefer to ‘work together’.

In the original Gears, my friends list rarely ventured outside of Execution. While Execution made be the dominant game type in GOW2, it is certainly not going to be the only. Guardian. Submission, Wingman and even King of the Hill (sorry annex) were all on the playlist over the past four days - and the simple ability to change these on the fly without having to create new rooms each time is a joy. Not to mention the ability to add bots here and there to fill in the gaps when we have lopsided teams. Pretty much everything about the new multiplayer lobby is light years beyond what the original game offered.

Campaign mode is just as ‘bigger, better and more bad ass’ as multiplayer (Cliff B. is never going to live that down, is he?). I had two concurrent co-op campaigns running with friends and one of them via split screen with Ev. While I did end up playing one of them to completion on my own, I have to say this game is best when played with a buddy. The firefights are tremendous, and the game barely gives you time to breathe in between them. It doesn’t mix the variety up all that much, but as long as I have my finger on the R trigger, I’m happy.

The vehicle portions of the game did mix things up somewhat, but they were the low points of the campaign mode in my opinion - especially after multiple, ridiculous, trial-and-error deaths. The ‘final ride’ however sure was a helluva a trip.

There was plenty more to chew on story-wise this time around in Gears, but it still only amounts to an appetizer portion as opposed to a full meal. There is much more emotion involved this time around, and it was done extremely well without delving into campy. Then again. it may have only worked for me because I’ve bought into the characters. Those not willing to do so might not get the same from those particular story moments.

I think I’ll end my ‘wall of text’ here (has anyone even read all of this?), but that doesn’t mean I’m done yet. Expect plenty more GOW2 ramblings in future posts.

Been a while since I’ve run a ‘Currently Playing’ post so I thought I’d do a quick update.

On the Xbox 360 side of things I’m still spinning The Orange Box. I finally finished Half-Life 2, HL2 Episode 1 & HL2 Episode 2. Now I’m just doing a bit of ‘achievement whoring’ with the remaining achievements in the game.

Half-Life 2 was an awesome ride. For a 4 year old game it holds up solid and is more than worth your time & money if you haven’t already checked it out. In the end, the experience was much more satisfying to me than a typical FPS though I’m not entirely sure what about HL2 set it apart. Perhaps the strong supporting characters and the lack of traditional cut scenes that gave the story a bit more oomph. Or, perhaps it was the story itself. Whatever the case, it was a helluva ride… Count me in on day 1 for Half-Life 3.

On the PS3 side of things, Ev and I have been putting in several hours nightly with Little Big Planet. Our co-op sessions have me wondering if I would enjoy the game as much playing it solo. The level design in the game is exceptional at times, which has me wondering if the user created levels will be good enough to keep us interested when we run out of levels on the disc. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Who knew that a game so cute could be so frustrating though - there have been a couple of levels where I was just about read to throw my controller through our TV. Ev has much more patience than I do when it comes to platforming

Lastly, is the newest game to my ‘currently playing’ roster. It is Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII on the PSP. This was a recommendation from a buddy of mine, and since I’m always eager for more PSP games I figured I’d give it a shot. Now I have a confession to make, I have never played a Final Fantasy game before. I had some pretty bad pre-conceived notions about what Final Fantasy games were. I expected them to lean heavily into the ‘fantasy’ side with mythical creatures and settings, so I was surprised to see helicopters and a train during the opening cinematics of Crisis Core.

It certainly did the trick to rope me in, and while I’ve only gotten about 15 minutes into the game, I’m eager to see how it plays out.

So there you have it, my currently playing update for 11/4/08. Aside from Gears trumping The Orange Box at the end of the week I don’t expect this list to change all that much for the rest of the year.