Gears of War 2 = MIA Dave
So, you might've noticed I haven't put anything here in the last week. Well, you can thank Gears of War 2 for that. I've been playing it nonstop online, because, uh, it's amazing. For as many faults it has, the game has twice as many positive changes over the first game.The matchmaking is slow sometimes, but nowhere near as painful as the lobby system of the first game. Also, the glitching seems to be gone (for now, at least) and the new maps are really balanced. Plus, flamethrower!
Really, it's an amazing game. Even Horde is good, which I thought was really going to suck. And taking pictures is awesome! See me getting curb stomped above? Awesome.
Fallout 3 not the gaming hotness it was hyped to be
I've been playing Fallout 3 a lot lately, much like everyone else I know and converse with on a daily basis. While I was smitten with the game during the outset, a few annoying problems have stacked up to make me, well ... kind of mad. In no particular order, they are:
- Why can't I hit the B button to back out of conversation? How could you forget that?
- Stop trying to make me take the subway! I want to see the world and these stupid blocked paths really piss me off.
- Why would you make the main storyline quest about 7 hours long? Then, after that, why would you END THE GAME?
- Once I hotkey a weapon, why can't I know what is in that slot until I either replace it, or actually pull it out? This makes hotkeying things useless.
- Level cap at 20? Come on, you created an open-ended game that encourages free choice and moral consequences, yet you make it so that I have to pre-plan my character's perk route and level-by-level trait points allocation? This is Bush League, Bethesda!
- No more getting your health back while you wait? Eh ...
I'm sure there are others that aren't springing to mind as I stare at my computer screen, but it's very much not Oblivion. The prospect of DLC excites me and I'm sure I'll get all of the achievements I possibly can, but, overall, I'm just killing time until Gears of War 2 now. It's such a shame, too, because I was sure Fallout 3 was going to be my Game of the Year. I guess that will just have to go to Metal Gear Solid 4.
Castle Crashers has locked onto my heart
Oh man, did you know Castle Crashers is available for download on XBLA? You need to get on that. 1200 points is steep, I know, but the gameplay is so damn good. I managed to get an hour in with Ben and my boss today, and with only one dropped game, we managed to plow through a bit of it. I think my level is 9 right now. Actually, I'm going to get back to playing it right now.
Dead Rising on Wii = LOL
Okay, first of all, there isn't any AI with the Hitman character models and they're repeated a HELL of a lot more than in Dead Rising (I love Hitman, played through them all and enjoyed the level here, so I know what the deal is), but this is still funny. When my colleague Chris brought it up in the work chat, I found it to be quite comical. Comical enough to post here, I guess.
Quick bio:Hi! I'm David Hinkle, Contributing Editor for Joystiq, former Lead of DS Fanboy and Wii Fanboy and co-host on the Xbox 360 Fancast. Basically, I write about games, talk about games and play games -- all the time.
This place is mainly a dumping ground for random thoughts, but you can also find links to all of my reviews and my contact info. Email me by clicking on this link.
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