6/9 Weekend Recap

Got a lot done this weekend:

• Lego Indiana Jones. Finished all 3 movies, got a heap o' Points - basically, did the bare minimum. It has some annoying camera problems, and there are a few puzzles that got me a bit stuck, but overall I thought it was a hell of a lot of fun, and I definitely liked it more than the Star Wars games. There's a tremendous amount of replay value to be had, of course, and I will be going back eventually.
• Ninja Gaiden 2. I rented this from Gamefly. Got a few levels in - actually, no. Finished Level 1 and made it to the Level 2 boss and realized that I didn't really care anymore. The camera is dreadful and the combat gets very repetitive.
  
• GRID. Also a Gamefly rental; haven't decided yet whether I'm going to keep it or not. I adored DIRT but maybe I just like the off-road stuff better for this series - this franchise is rooted in off-road racing and this game kinda feels a bit forced, like it was a corporate decision to expand brand awareness by putting this (still beautiful) racing engine into big cities. Will need to spend some more time with it.
  
• Hot Shots: Open Tee 2 (PSP). Bought this straight away from Gamefly; it's great. I miss the advanced swing option that I've been getting used to on the PS3, and it's still maybe a little too Japanese (or, maybe I'm just not familiar enough with the franchise to get what everything means), but it's addictive and certainly this is the most time I've spent with my PSP since I bought it.
• Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus (PS1, played on PS3). I really just wanted to see if it actually worked on my PS3, and I ended up getting sucked back into it; I'm pretty impressed with how many of the secrets I remembered. It definitely could use an HD makeover, but you can see how sumptuous it would have appeared 10 years ago. The cutscene humor hasn't aged very well - indeed, the writing in general is pretty juvenile, and what I was able to ignore 10 years ago seems pretty grating now - but the actual game itself is still very charming. And brutally difficult - I totally forgot how hard these games are. I'm glad I opted for this one, instead of the first one - the Quicksave ability is an absolute necessity.

My Gamefly queue should now be open enough for me to get a copy of MGS4; I'm even kinda getting excited, which is patently ridiculous.