Games Played: Saints Row (X360), Gears of War (X360), Gyruss (XBLA), 3D Mini Golf (XBLA), Puzzle Quest (DS), Puzzle Quest (PSP), Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (Xbox)
Games Bought: Trigger Heart Excelia (DC) [$59.99], Chromehounds (X360) [$20.00], Center Ring Boxing (Saturn) [$5.00], WWF In Your House (Saturn) [$5.00]
Been pretty lazy recently so here's a big catchup post.
Been playing a lot of Saints Row, it's like an even more buggy Grand Theft Auto but it still pretty good. Lots of side missions and some decent comedy (not so much satire).
Played some Gears last night with a friend on co-op.
Gyruss is GARBAGE on Live. They changed the graphics to make them more "effecty" and it ruins gameplay. And the famous score (Toccata & Fuge in D Minor) was remixed and techno-ey. No option for playing the undoctored original. You're way better off waiting for it on the Virtual Console. What a failure.
Showing posts with label weekend consumption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekend consumption. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Weekend of April 13th, 2007
Games Played: Boom Boom Rocket (XBLA), Puzzle Quest (PSP), Saints Row (X360), NBA Street: Homecourt (X360)
Movies Watched: Babel, Pursuit of Happiness
Babel was pretty solid, having seen 21 Grams, I think that it's very derivative of that, but it was a good work on its own. I don't see any Oscar nominations in it though.
Pursuit of Happiness was what I expected; you feel pretty good and lucky after watching it. Even jaded bastards like me have to be impacted on some level. Will Smith's kid wasn't nearly as obnoxious as I thought he'd be.
Saints Row is a mixed bag for me. I may work through it. It's got a large and pretty fun world to interact in; but the AI and controls are a total toss up. Sometimes it works great. Sometimes you want to throw the controller in fustration.
Puzzle Quest is as addictive as ever.
Movies Watched: Babel, Pursuit of Happiness
Babel was pretty solid, having seen 21 Grams, I think that it's very derivative of that, but it was a good work on its own. I don't see any Oscar nominations in it though.
Pursuit of Happiness was what I expected; you feel pretty good and lucky after watching it. Even jaded bastards like me have to be impacted on some level. Will Smith's kid wasn't nearly as obnoxious as I thought he'd be.
Saints Row is a mixed bag for me. I may work through it. It's got a large and pretty fun world to interact in; but the AI and controls are a total toss up. Sometimes it works great. Sometimes you want to throw the controller in fustration.
Puzzle Quest is as addictive as ever.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Weekend of April 6th, 2007
Games Played: Marvel Ultimate Alliance (X360), Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (X360), bit Generations: Dotstream (GBA)
Movies Watched: The Good Shepard, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (TV on DVD)
Worked towards achievements in MUA and DOAX2. I gave up on DOAX2 really fast. Man it takes awhile.
Dotstream is pretty amazing. Its a racing game from an overhead perspective that uses simple lines and blocks to create the action. The sound and music is quite good, capturing the best of the gameboy/NES days. It is also VERY hard.
The Good Shepard was quite long but a solid effort and served as an entertaining thriller but an excellent character study. The ending plot elements were a bit contrived and unnecessary but I guess most audiences need that kind of conflict to enjoy a movie.
Brisco is a huge amount of fun. The limited budget of the show is pretty evident in most scenes but the strength of the characters more than bears the weight of the show. They don't make TV like this anymore.
Movies Watched: The Good Shepard, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (TV on DVD)
Worked towards achievements in MUA and DOAX2. I gave up on DOAX2 really fast. Man it takes awhile.
Dotstream is pretty amazing. Its a racing game from an overhead perspective that uses simple lines and blocks to create the action. The sound and music is quite good, capturing the best of the gameboy/NES days. It is also VERY hard.
The Good Shepard was quite long but a solid effort and served as an entertaining thriller but an excellent character study. The ending plot elements were a bit contrived and unnecessary but I guess most audiences need that kind of conflict to enjoy a movie.
Brisco is a huge amount of fun. The limited budget of the show is pretty evident in most scenes but the strength of the characters more than bears the weight of the show. They don't make TV like this anymore.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Weekend of March 30st, 2007
Games Played: Phantasy Star Universe (X360), Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (X360), Jetpack: Refueled (XBLA), Gunpey (PSP), Star Control II [a.k.a. The Ur-Quan Masters] (PC)
Movies Watched: Children of Men, This Film is Not Yet Rated
Books Read: 100 Bullets Vol. 9, 100 Bullets Vol. 10
I finished up Phantasy Star Universe story mode. It was fun to play with all the content that was locked out of the network mode. The story fell pretty flat (though no one had high expectations for it) and the game suffered from huge design and AI control problems but the game is better than the sum of its parts. Enjoyable combat and lots of cool toys (weapons) to play with made it a great dungeon crawler. Maybe someday I'll go back to the network mode.
Oblivion was picked back up so I could work on some achievements. I made my way through some of the fighter's guild content. I finished up the Defense of Bruma quest line, but it seems to have died and I can't move the main story along. I need to do some more research to figure out what I'm missing. Also, the Thieves Guild questline seems dead too. I should be kicking it off after meeting with an NPC and two others. One of those two never shows up and eventually the other NPCs just leave. Hopefully that's not permanently bugged otherwise Shivering Isles may get left behind...
Gunpey on PSP is fantastic in its presentation but horrible in its control. You simply need to move faster than the dpad can let you do. Or I'm not that good at it yet. The DS version has a horrible presentation but its control is very precise. It's obviously geared towards the touch screen even though this first came out on the WonderSwan. Regardless, Gunpey is more Lumines in presentation than Lumines II is and will appeal to that gamer sentimentality.
Jetpack: Refueled is pretty awesome. Enough for me to buy it after playing the demo anyway. It has action that scratches that twitch itch. The achievements are pretty well designed with some that will be pretty hard to get. As of Sunday I think I was #257 on the high score list but for some reason I can't stay alive through the first 10 levels to get that achievement. The retro mode seems really hard too.
I can't say enough good things about Star Control II. I play it probably once a year. I'll maybe post more about it as time goes on.
Children of Men was pretty fantastic; particularly with the art direction. Very subversive, but clearly stated, in its political commentary. However, it didn't quite have the meaty sci-fi core that it seemed to have been billed with so that might put people off. And the main plot didn't really seem to drive the movie so much as the fantastic "sets" and action sequences did. I don't quite understand why the movie made the top of so many critical lists (especially in light of some of the other unbelievable movies of last year), but I can't help but recommend it.
With 100 Bullets, I skipped ahead from Vol. 5. Interestingly enough, I'm not lost at all. The story seems to be unraveling at a snail's pace. But, the art and the "post-crime noir" storytelling comes off as solidly as it had in previous volumes. I will probably finish this series.
Movies Watched: Children of Men, This Film is Not Yet Rated
Books Read: 100 Bullets Vol. 9, 100 Bullets Vol. 10
I finished up Phantasy Star Universe story mode. It was fun to play with all the content that was locked out of the network mode. The story fell pretty flat (though no one had high expectations for it) and the game suffered from huge design and AI control problems but the game is better than the sum of its parts. Enjoyable combat and lots of cool toys (weapons) to play with made it a great dungeon crawler. Maybe someday I'll go back to the network mode.
Oblivion was picked back up so I could work on some achievements. I made my way through some of the fighter's guild content. I finished up the Defense of Bruma quest line, but it seems to have died and I can't move the main story along. I need to do some more research to figure out what I'm missing. Also, the Thieves Guild questline seems dead too. I should be kicking it off after meeting with an NPC and two others. One of those two never shows up and eventually the other NPCs just leave. Hopefully that's not permanently bugged otherwise Shivering Isles may get left behind...
Gunpey on PSP is fantastic in its presentation but horrible in its control. You simply need to move faster than the dpad can let you do. Or I'm not that good at it yet. The DS version has a horrible presentation but its control is very precise. It's obviously geared towards the touch screen even though this first came out on the WonderSwan. Regardless, Gunpey is more Lumines in presentation than Lumines II is and will appeal to that gamer sentimentality.
Jetpack: Refueled is pretty awesome. Enough for me to buy it after playing the demo anyway. It has action that scratches that twitch itch. The achievements are pretty well designed with some that will be pretty hard to get. As of Sunday I think I was #257 on the high score list but for some reason I can't stay alive through the first 10 levels to get that achievement. The retro mode seems really hard too.
I can't say enough good things about Star Control II. I play it probably once a year. I'll maybe post more about it as time goes on.
Children of Men was pretty fantastic; particularly with the art direction. Very subversive, but clearly stated, in its political commentary. However, it didn't quite have the meaty sci-fi core that it seemed to have been billed with so that might put people off. And the main plot didn't really seem to drive the movie so much as the fantastic "sets" and action sequences did. I don't quite understand why the movie made the top of so many critical lists (especially in light of some of the other unbelievable movies of last year), but I can't help but recommend it.
With 100 Bullets, I skipped ahead from Vol. 5. Interestingly enough, I'm not lost at all. The story seems to be unraveling at a snail's pace. But, the art and the "post-crime noir" storytelling comes off as solidly as it had in previous volumes. I will probably finish this series.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)