• 26Oct 09

  Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Review - 9.5

  I blitzed my way right through Uncharted 2: Among Thieves this weekend. I've tossed up a review and I have to say this game is awesome. It's lived up to the high expectations set by the first game, and surpassed them. If you have a PS3 and don't have this game then you should just give up on being a gamer because you are doing it all wrong.

  Now, I realize that score is a match for what Gamespot already handed out, but I can honestly say it is completely 100% accurate. The game has a few faults, but they are extremely minor and bring the game down just a sneeze. Specifically, the final "boss" fight of the game is a huge bummer. Beyond that, just about everything is top notch gaming at it's best.

  • Posted Oct 26, 2009 10:30 pm PT
  • 1 Comment
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet
• 29Aug 09

  Batman carries me into the 10k club

  I finally broke the 10,000 point gamerscore mark today. I've had a 360 since a month after launch, and it took me all this time. Considering I own 124 games for the 360, it's pretty clear how little I actually play many of the games I buy. The collector mentality in me seems to rule over the gamer part of me.

  The game that finally pushed me over the edge is Batman: Arkham Asylum thanks to the Baneful Payback achievement. So far, I am having a blast with it. Batman games have a long history of sucking, all the way back to the NES days. I can't recall a single one that was worth being called even average. There was an old Gameboy Batman game that I liked quite a bit when I was really young, and I sure played the hell out of it. I had that game on farm and would play it over and over through to the end on long car trips. So at the time, I guess it was a great game to me.

  Back to Arkham Asylum. This game is fan-flippin-tastic. Someone finally realized that Batman is about a whole lot more than just beating up dudes, but beating up dudes should also be super fun. I haven't seen combat this fluid since Prince of Persia. It is super slick how the animations melt into one another, and how the counterattack mechanic works. If they had decided to make this game all about fighting, and used the current fighting mechanic for it, the game would still be quite a bit of fun.

  Fortunately, they covered the game with quite a bit of non-combat fun. I won't get into too many details or this post will be huge, but the Riddler puzzles have provided quite a few extra goals to chase after. The start of the game was very reminiscent of the beginning of Chronicles of Riddick. Having opening sequences that are not just cutscenes has always been a great way to get me interested very early. The cutscenes that are mixed in are also very well done, and move the story along at a great pace.

  If you aren't a Batman fan, but don't hate the guy, you should be trying out this game. You never know.. you might end up being a big fan by the time you get done.

  • Posted Aug 29, 2009 11:02 pm PT
  • 0 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet
• 23Aug 09

  Halo Wars - Just getting started

  I just finished up the third mission before putting it down for the morning. Not a whole lot going on so far. The missions I have played are tutorial in complexity. I pulled open a list of all available missions, and apparently there aren't all that many. Maybe the later ones are just really long and difficult? I sure hope so because if they aren't I'll have this game done in just a few days. That would be a big disappointment.

  This is my first real step into playing a console RTS since Starcraft 64 (blasphemy if there ever was), and I have to say I am impressed with the control setup. It's actually fairly quick to select units using the two bumper buttons and you can cycle through groups by using the d-pad to select bases or unit groups. I haven't figured out how to pick all units of one type yet, and I am starting to think that might not be possible. This bothers me a bit since charging in with a big group of a particular unit type is a pretty common RTS strategy.t

  I especially like the attack buttons. Hitting X tells your units to attack whatever enemy unit you have targeted, and it also serves as the "move to here" button if you are pointing at the ground. Hitting Y tells your units to attack with whatever their special ability is. My personal favorite special attack is the Warthog "run 'em over" attack. The vehicles charge toward infantry and literally run them over. That's always been fun to watch in the other Halo games, and it's especially satisfying here where you get to specifically command them to do it. I've not yet racked up that much time with the game and I can already say I use this "all the time".

  I'm going to spend more time with Halo Wars later tonight. Maybe try to knock out 1-2 more missions. After having read through 2.5 books so far, I am especially interested in the story line for this game. If the gameplay sucks, the story will probably keep me going through to the end. If anything, I really want to unlock all of the events on the Halo Timeline feature of the game. Good stuff!!

  My biggest grip so far is that it looks like some of the achievements require purchased DLC to complete. What's up with that?

  • Posted Aug 23, 2009 2:27 pm PT
  • 0 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet

See Previous Blog Posts »