I’m a huge fan of the original Just Cause. It was one of the first games that I achieved a 1000 gamerscore in. It had great scenery and physics, but I’ll admit the character models could have been better. A quick trip through the demo of the sequel and my expectations were met. This is a true sequel to Just Cause (and not a Dead to Rights-style sequel. Seriously…try to play D2R2). Same awesome gameplay in a prettier, more explosive package.

The graphics are a gigantic leap over the original, with the presentation spewing high production value all over the place. I would actually prefer to purchase this game if the funds permit. C&C 4 will be released around that time and I’ve already got my pre-order secured. Hell, I even wanted to purchase Bad Company 2 and that didn’t happen. I think it’s interesting that the PC version will require Vista-Win7, though most hardcore gamers will have already upgraded. Especially enthusiasts looking to run cutting edge graphics.

In the end, even the 30 minute demo proved Avalance Studios is more than a one-hit wonder.

Well, that depends. I know from what I’ve seen the Ghostbusters game only appealed to those that grew up on the movies. While The Force Unleashed is flawed, the Star Wars feel to it is comforting to me. I am, after all, a Star Wars fan.

While the original game was a fun experience with an incredible story, this DLC perhaps does things better. I found the main game to have repetitious design for both levels and enemies. Fortunately and surprisingly, this DLC looks to be from a totally different game. They offer three new missions: Jedi Temple, Tattooine, and Hoth. Also available are different costumes which are highly-detailed and accurate representations of popular characters from the universe. By the way, all of this is included in the Ultimate Sith Edition which I purchased (I used Gamestop’s current extra 50% trade-in value to get a discount with my regular edition).

The Jedi Temple starts off pretty epic so I don’t really want to spoil it. The mission is story-driven and does add some new game-play elements. The Tatooine mission is incredibly epic. A recreation of Jabba’s palace and the surrounding area. You definitely feel like you’re playing Return of the Jedi, complete with music, sound, and characters. The story is based on an alternate universe where the apprentice joins the dark side. The third DLC mission is the Hoth battle. Another alternate-universe story, the level is filled with AT-AT’s battling snowspeeders, Wampa’s, and Rebel pilots. Getting to explore the Rebel’s hidden base will take you back to the Empire Strikes Back. And each mission features great light-saber duels.

I think the price of admission is definitely worth it. But the design of the DLC has brought something else up: It would be great if Lucasarts would recreate a game for every movie with this engine. Jabba’s palace especially really felt like being in RotJ and the graphics, character models, and sound effects were spot-on. And for a minor spoiler ahead, even getting dropped into the Rancor pit and smashing the gate on the Rancor’s head really makes the idea of playing through the original games a possibility. It would be similar to how Relic is making Company of Heroes a sort of WWII simulation.

I guess the only thing that could top that idea would be included space battles. I miss the days of X-Wing and would love that to be brought back into this newer franchise.

After Super Mario World there really wasn’t a good side-scrolling Mario game. We had Yoshi’s Island, Paper Mario, and Yoshi’s Story, but these weren’t classic Mario games. Yeah, a few of the 3D games have been good, but nothing like the classics. Finally Nintendo released New Super Mario Bros. DS which did a great job of bringing all that back…but I wanted something on my TV. Now we’ve got NSMB Wii and it’s awesome.

As awesome as it is, let me go over a few things it could have: A real world-map. NSMB DS and Wii do the Mario 3 style of sub maps of an over-world. Super Mario World had the huge over-world that was fun to explore. On top of that, it had crazy hidden levels to find, and other super extra-secret stuff like Star Worlds. The DS game didn’t have these mysterious places, and so far I’m not seeing it in the Wii game. Hopefully there will be some crazy secret places hidden throughout.

Other than that, Assassin’s Creed 2 started getting awesome with all the different things that you can do. After trying a bit of all the different things, I kind of fell back into boredom with it. I still love the story though, and I’m sure I know in my mind I won’t complete it since I’m going to different forums and reading the spoilers.

There’s not really much in gaming coming out for the rest of the year that I’m crazy about, so for the holidays I’ll probably focus on Modern Warfare 2 and NSMB Wii. Due to being a longtime GameFly member, I got a good deal on Bad Company, so I’d like to complete it before the sequel next year. If time permits, I’d also like to play through the GoW Collection on PS3 to snag the trophies. The games are good enough for multiple play-throughs.

The funniest thing last week was between Penny-Arcade and Kotaku. Giant Bomb did a review of the new Tony Hawk, Kotaku posts it and advises they haven’t got their copy yet. Penny-Arcade slams them for waiting for their review copies instead of buying it like everyone else. Kotaku then defends themselves by saying they are waiting for the copy they ordered.

I’m in the BC2 Beta, which is on the PS3… unfortunately. I seriously hate the DS3 for first-person shooters. Not only do you have to create a claw-like paw for maximum control, but your thumbs are also in an unnatural position placed upon a convex thumb-stick. I guess if you’re used to the Dual-Shock you get it, but if you got yourself familiar with the 360 pad, you’d understand how natural it is. I’m done with this rant. Moving on. Also note, I’ll make comparisons to the Call of duty franchise since it is the top played game, despite its lack of many available features in other games. In the end, maybe I should realize CoD is a simple and easily rewarding game which makes it attractive to the masses.

Simply, this game is great. It would definitely pull me away from any current Call of Duty. For a brief rundown, you have vehicles, destructible environments, and squads. I love squads, which have been a Battlefield staple for sometime, but strangely absent of any recent Call of Duty games. By being in a squad you have a chance to gain more points and order commands. Vehicles are also a nice addition to any game, as there is distance to be traveled – but by being in a squad you can respawn near them.

Unlocks are reminiscent of previous Battlefield titles. You unlock different weapons, attachments, and other upgrades. Not as extensive as Modern Warfare 2 (which I hope won’t be a problem), but in coordination with vehicles and destructible environments, there are still many variables here.

One known tactic across all objective based games – camp in a corner by the objective to destroy any offenders. Nothing wrong with it. It works, and rewards the player with easy kills from impatient players. But in BC2, if you happen to be camping in that spot, a simple explosion will destroy that section of the building – or the whole thing; now time to form a new strategy.

The game plays a little different that CoD as it is slower paced, which I prefer. Now, it’s no ArmA or OpFlash, but it’s definitely not arcadey. All in all, it feels like regular battlefield and any fan of the series will be appreciated of it. The graphics are amazing as well, and even the sound. As much as I dig MW2 surround sound, this is a tad more realistic.

I still have much more time to put into the beta. But from this alone I will get them game come March of next year.

I’ve spent pretty much most of the day playing Modern Warfare 2. As far a single-player, besides the spectacle that is the story telling and flashy graphics – it’s pretty boring. I didn’t care for CoD4 either. Maybe something to do with WWII weapons is just more fun for me? Either way, I’m maybe five or six missions in, and I feel I’m just going through the motions. Follow this waypoint and kill people along the way, then follow this waypoint and kill people along the way. It’s too fast to be enjoyable, and removes all suspension of belief as a military shooter when enemies just keep appearing. I don’t know…it’s just that it’s extremely popular and I don’t get it.

But that type of game-play translates well online. The whole Call of Duty online experience that started with CoD4 is back with some improvements. They are great improvements at that, nothing I can really complain about. So far, perks seem more of a preferred play style over being better than others. Hopefully it stays that way.

In the end, I still feel Call of Duty 5 is better. There’s something about the physical game-play and the atmosphere. I miss zombie mode as well. I hope the support is there too as the forums for WaW were awesome. You could level up your forum profile as you progress through the game. There was also a WaW iPhone app that allowed you to track your game stats. It really felt like there was a persistence to your Call of Duty 5 experience. Will IW be offering this? I’m not holding my breath.

Scribbleauts is a weird game in which it didn’t turn out like I thought it would, but at the same time, it’s fun because there’s so much you can do. You type in anything, and it will appear in the game world in which you use to complete the objective (getting starites). Some things don’t turn out like I thought, and somethings become better than I would have thought. Chad told me the other day that he had God and Satan appear, at which point they fought. While frustrated on a level, instead of giving up, I played around. I drew God and Satan and had them battle. After defeating Satan, God followed me around and helped clear the way for the rest of the level. Stuff like this is cool. So cool, that I’ve found playing it with someone is a blast. Someone else coming up with stuff, or just laughing together really adds to the fun.

My only problem is with the controls. I lose missions half the time because of this. It’s a huge damper on the game unfortunately. I’ll go tap on an item and my character will run to that direction instead, usually killing himself. It would have helped using the d-pad for controls and dragging the screen for camera movement. …and the camera never stays put. If these things are fixed, a sequel would be perfect.

I still have a ways to go in the game, and I’d like to post solutions on here because they are so damn funny.

So I got Halo 3: ODST from GameFly on release day, which is really cool. Unfortunately that required me to have that as the only game on my GameQ. I know. The game is alright. I wanted to buy it to get the ODST controller, but otherwise I would have not. The single-player is short, and only some levels are even fun. But these ’some’ levels are actually a lot of fun. I’m a fan of the Halo universe, so I was interested in the story. It wasn’t a progression to what Bungie has given us so far, but it did give insight into what was happening on earth. I still want a game that plays like the Halo shorts we’ve seen. Maybe Halo: Reach will do this? Are we far revamping the gameplay to be a tad more tactical? The music is incredible and really drives emotion into the game. I think the open-world city is a great idea, but could have been executed better. Everything looked the same and didn’t really stand out as unique.

As for multi-player, I’m still not a fan of Firefight. What’s the point? Maybe I just get easily bored with just killing the same A.I. enemies spawning into the same map. Now, I had fun with the map that included vehicles, but even in the end I had no desire to go back. I think that this has to do with the fact that I’m mainly a single-player gamer. I do play a lot of multi-player, but I require that progression that comes with single-player campaigns. This is why I like CoD, Frontlines, Syphon Filter: OS…and, well, that’s about all. Objective based Halo games are fun, but just straight-up deathmatch gets boring. Halo: Reach could be the ultimate Halo game. Give me the progression and customization found in the recent CoD games, mixed with the large-scale battles of the (older) Battlefield series.

Joystiq posted their TGS hands-on with Sqeenix’s SHMUP remake, Thexter Neo, with generally positive things to say. I’m a huge fan of the genre, and love the ability to play them on a portable, but what I questions is why make a game likes this on the PSN PSP only? I guess they have the TV cable for the PSP right? Might as well do that… Check out the video here.

FarCry 2 is now $20 on Steam. I’m tempted to do this. I played it on the 360 but found it to play like a usual bad PC port. Ugly, low res, etc. From what I played though, it was a ton of fun. Very open-ended and really how single-player FPS’s need to evolve. There was one from a few years back (04-05?) called Boiling Point, which seemed similar, just not as gripping. A head of its time really. The developer, Deep Shadows out of Russia, continues to develop and I hope they get recognition someday.

I must say this game is great! My brothers don’t think so. I’m not sure why because like I said this game is amazing! If your a fan of marvel….this is your game. If your a fan of punching….this is your game. IT revolves around the Civil War series Marvel introduced a couple years back.

The Govt wants superheroes to register their names. Some don’t like this and say it’s unconstitutional. Captain America leads the team of ‘I don’t think so’s and Iron man leads the team of ‘It’s the law’. So already you have 2 play throughs waiting for you.

Now I don’t want to go into a full on review, but I will list the things I like.

1.STORY!!!
2.alternate costumes (more for the geeks I guess)
3.trivia mini game
4.fusion powers
5.replay factor
6.sim room
7.Red Hulk

I could go on. If my brother or any of you that actually read this page want a real review I will give it. I just wanted to say that this game is amazing. I know the other BlueGamers don’t think so, but that is their loss.

GET IT!!

I used to like batman, but I honestly disliked the Bale movies even though I’m a huge Bale fan. So how did that fail? I don’t know. You would think Bale plus Batman would equal awesome in my mind, but I guess I genuinely dsliked the films without any bias. Because of the recent Batfilms, my excitment has surely wayned (get it?!?!?). But it was the Arkham Asylum demo that got me back in the seat. Or was it Mark Hamill?

I’m apparently 5% through, though I can tell this game should only get better. My only complaint thus far – and this could be because I’m still at the beginning, you know, with training wheels – is that mission completion is quite linear. Like, to satisfy a movie scene. You do it one way, and that’s it. But again, I hope this is just how the beginning plays.

But to sum it all up, this is a lot of fun. Contender for game of the year.

More to follow, so stay tuned.

126% at the time of this post. Thanks Kryopsis.

I’m a huge Metroid fan and enjoyed how the Castlevania series changed. These games are about large areas where you search for items to help you navigate. Shadow Complex, developed by Chair is an XBLA title set out to be the same thing. From what I’ve played, it totally mimics Metroid. I’d prefer hand-drawn 2D graphics, but this will pass. The 3D depth adds shooting enemies that are in the background. It is very fun and totally worth $15. I’d pay more, but don’t tell anyone I said that. The onlything I don’t dig here is the story. I think both metroid and CV have good story/atmospehere, but Shadow Complex lacks both. I’m just in a military instillation. No mystery or feeling of isolation. The game does a good job of keeping you in the dark though, and I never use the optional blue line to find my way. I could go without the the question marks that tell you where a secret is though…I’d prefer to have to figure it out myself. Since Super Metroid, the 2D Metroid games became a hand-holding affair, while Castlevania stayed true to making it impossible to figure shit out.

I’m still going through the game so impressions may change, but I think I’ve played enough to get it. Also, play on Hardcore. I still find that to be pretty easy.

Also, after two weeks of finally playing World at War, I’m up to level 43. I’m having a blast and just can’t wait for MW2.