Weekend Recap: the holiday that wasn't

If all had gone according to plan, this post wouldn't exist.  The plan was to leave Thursday morning to go up to my dad's house for Thanksgiving, and to eventually return to the apartment on Saturday night, and Sunday would be a day of holiday decorating and football.  Instead, my wife had the flu and I had a nagging head cold, and we stayed home.  And so I played a lot of video games. 

In list form, in descending order of time played:

• finished Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• got a few hours into Gran Turismo 5
• kept dabbling in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
• went and bought Burnout Paradise on the PC thanks to yet another ridiculous Steam sale and got back into it very, very quickly
• Train Conductor 1/2 on the iPhone is insanely addictive
• played 2 games of NBA JAM HD with my brother, for old time's sake
  
• and some Pinball FX2 with the wife.

I will give AssBro a more thorough examination later, once I've had a bit more coffee.  But I can say, now, that I think it's the best game in the franchise, and it will most likely wind up at #3 in my Top 10 of 2010. 

As for GT5; I'll be the first person to admit that what I know about cars could be inscribed on the rim of a shot glass with a dull Sharpie.  But I really love driving games, strangely enough, and while I tend to prefer crazy, insanely fast stuff like Burnout, I have been known to get sucked into a Forza game for hours and hours.  (I do have an aversion to NASCAR, though, which is probably similar to my aversion to country music and the tea party movement.)  I needed to see what GT5 was all about for several reasons:

1. I haven't played a game on my PS3 since I finished FF13;
2. The last time I played a GT game was on my friend's PS1;
3. I am a graphics whore (which reminds me, at some point I need to talk about this fascinating article, which I got from the lovely and talented Caro), and if there's one thing that the GT franchise is famous for, it's graphics; 
4. I loved the hell out of Forza 3, and felt obligated to see if GT5 was better; and
5. After 5 years of development and endless delays, the curiosity was killing me.

After 2 hours of playtime, here's what I can say about GT5.

1. It's prettier than Forza 3, generally.  I've read lots of people who have been complaining about how horrible some of the cars look; to my eyes, it looks great.  It's worth finishing a race in last place just so that you can watch the pretty, pretty replays, which are utterly convincing and gorgeous.  Some people complain that it's bland; I've only been on a few tracks, and driven a handful of cars, so I can't quite speak to that.  One could maybe argue that it's a little sterile, or perhaps a little too pristine.  
2. Is it as fun as Forza 3, though?  Not sure.  It's certainly more accessible than I was expecting it to be, but that's relative - when you're buying a new (or used) car, the game doesn't tell you what the car's Top Speed is.  When you're like me and know nothing of horsepower and weight and acceleration, not giving out a car's Top Speed is basically a slap in the dick, and I ended up losing a ton of races because I had unwittingly bought the wrong car.
3. Further to that last point, the game doesn't really dole out new cars and rewards the way Forza does.  I'm still only in the beginner tier of races in the career and at least half of the events I'm looking at require vehicles that I don't have, and I'll have to retry events I've already won just to earn enough coin to afford an applicable vehicle - a vehicle that I'll probably only drive once or twice until I get something better.  Seems odd.
4. I haven't raced online, but the fact that the game's single-player campaign was so horribly fucked up because too many people were crushing the game's servers is absolutely unforgivable, especially for a game of this magnitude.  And if the game's developer is telling you to pull your PS3 offline so that you can play single-player without running into problems, that's just absurd.  PlayStation fanboys love talking shit about Xbox Live and how you have to pay for it when PSN is free, but file this under "You Get What You Pay For" as Exhibit 375. 

I remain intrigued, though, and there's so much content that it's sure to get me through the winter.  Although I may pull out Forza 3 again, just to compare/contrast.  My gut reaction right now, though, is that Forza feels more generous and accessible; GT5 feels more authoritative and legitimate. 

I was really looking forward to NBA JAM HD, and when my brother came over we finally got to try it out.  My brother had a Sega Genesis as a kid and we played NBA JAM endlessly.  The new game basically feels like the old game, which is great.  The problem is that it's really meant to be played with someone sitting next to you on the couch, and my brother lives in DC (and doesn't own an Xbox).  So, while it's tremendous fun in the right conditions, it seems pointless on its own.  I felt a little sad sending it back to Gamefly, but it is what it is.

AssBro final thoughts will go up either later today or tomorrow.

uh-oh

It wasn't exactly a New Year's Resolution, but my intention for 2010 was to stop spending so much money on music. Not that I was going to suddenly start stealing it - I was just going to be a little less brash and recklessly impulsive. And so far, I'm actually doing OK - I'm definitely on pace to spend less money on music this year than last year.

The problem, of course, is that those reckless impulses don't just die; and now that I've got a bitchin' computer and a Steam account that I can actually start paying attention to, I'm falling into the same patterns. To wit: Steam had a gigantic sale on a bunch of Codemasters racing games - 4 of which I'd already played on the 360 - and I bought 'em anyway. Shit, I ended up buying the GTA4 - Episodes from Liberty City pack, which I also own on the 360, and that wasn't on sale.

I'm such a goddamned whore. And I still haven't even really touched Dragon Age. (Although it must be noted - even though I've only played it for about an hour, it is soooo much better than the 360 port.)

And the thing is, I still spent the most time this weekend on Final Fantasy 13.

Speaking of which - I'm done with Chapter 11!

The 2010 Lust List

2009 may have been so-so, but 2010 is going to be balls-out AMAZING. In order to help me keep track of all the craziness, here's a quick list of what I'm looking forward to.

Bold = must-have
Italics = curious / definite rental
Normal = possible rental

JANUARY

• Darksiders (360)
• Bayonetta (360)
• Matt Hazard: Blood Bath & Beyond (PS3)
• Serious Sam HD (360)
• Dark Void (360)
• Mass Effect 2 (360)

FEBRUARY

• Heavy Rain (PS3)
• Blur (360)
• Aliens v. Predator (360)
• Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)
• White Knight Chronicles (PS3)
• Bioshock 2 (360)
• Dante's Inferno (360)
• Splinter Cell Conviction (360)
• Lost Planet 2 (360)
• Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (360)
• Dead to Rights Retribution (360)
  

MARCH

• Final Fantasy XIII (360/PS3)
  
• God Of War 3 (PS3)
• Just Cause 2 (360)
• Ninety-Nine Nights 2 (360)

After that, release dates get hazy, but:

• Red Dead Redemption
• Split Second
• Mafia 2
• Blur
• Max Payne 3
• Alan Wake
• Alpha Protocol
• Super Mario Galaxy 2
• Fallout: New Vegas
• APB
• Crackdown 2
• Batman:AA 2
• Singularity
• Dead Rising 2
• Yakuza 3

2010 looks amazing. And expensive.

Mass Effect; PS2 Price Cut

I was insanely busy last week and so I wasn't as on top of the news coming out of GDC as I wanted to be, but GDC isn't really a news-generating event as much as it is a conference for game developers (I think that's why they call it "Game Developers Conference"). That said, there were a few companies touting their wares, and while most gamers are probably foaming at the mouth over Modern Warfare 2, the games I was most excited to hear about were Bioware's Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2.

I'm not even sure there was any specific ME2 news, other than some leaked shakycam footage and the revelation that it will feature faster loading times (which (in my opinion) has been the only really consistent problem in Bioware's console RPG catalog - KOTOR and Jade Empire were annoying in that regard as well). But Mass Effect was part of 2007's holy trinity of awesome (alongside Bioshock and Portal)*, and I sunk around 50 hours over two (2!) playthroughs, and the thought of a new and improved sequel started getting me giddy...

...and now I'm sorta playing it again, for the third time. I've not really been able to really sit down and dig in, though, since I've been busy; I raced through the first planet and am kinda speeding through the first visit to the Citadel, and I'm even skimming through conversations. I don't have any particular agenda this time, either, except to keep the story fresh in my mind and hopefully hit level 60.

My original write-ups on my old GS blog (#1, #2, #3, #4) are pretty badly written, but they provide some context.

---------------------

Sony announced yesterday that they were dropping the PS2's price point to $99, and lemme tell you - I'm sorta considering it. There's a handful of PS2 games that I'm kinda bummed I never got to play - FFX, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, the first two God of War games, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few others - and $99 for access to the PS2's gargantuan library is pretty tempting, I must admit.

* I still can't quite believe that Mass Effect, Bioshock and Portal all came out in the six-month period. And to think that Super Mario Galaxy was also in that mix? Jesus Christ. I defy anyone to say that there was a better year in gaming than 2007.

Goodbye 2008

Some random ramblings as I fill in the idle hours at work on the last day of the year:

Was listening to the Giant Bomb "Game of the Year" podcast on the way into work this morning, and it suddenly hit me - I played (and liked) every game they talked about. In years past, there would always be a few titles that would be totally alien to me, and I felt like I missing out; missing Super Mario Galaxy in 2007 would be a good example of that. But not this year - this year I was on top of everything.

I think I may have completed my Best Games of 2008 entry a bit prematurely - I've been playing the hell out of Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts over the last week or so, and I'm pretty sure I love it. It could be argued that 2008 was really the break-out year for user-generated content, what with Little Big Planet and Spore (oh, yeah, I downloaded Spore because Steam had that stupid holiday sale), but BK:N&B really does it right, in that it gives you some sort of focus and a specific task. Spore's creature creator is certainly a fun toy to play with, but ultimately the design of your creature doesn't necessarily have any practical, tangible result (at least not in my somewhat limited experience with it); and on the other hand, Little Big Planet lets you do so much that it's a bit overwhelming - I've barely even touched the tutorials, because I have no idea what I'd want to create. Nuts & Bolts, on the other hand, does a fantastic job of giving you a specific goal, and giving you the tools to achieve it. Whether you build something totally from scratch or if you simply opt to tweak stuff you already have (which is my preferred method right now), it is immensely satisfying to complete a challenge entirely because of your own ingenuity.

Regarding Spore - yeah, I am a whore. Steam's holiday sale was as good a reason as any to dip my toe into the Spore experience. I've only gotten a little bit into the 2nd evolutionary stage - the one where you emerge from the slime and start walking around - so there's not a tremendous amount for me to discuss. My computer is getting a bit old, too, so I start to get some serious frame rate hitches every once in a while, which is a drag. It's an interesting enough diversion, at any rate; I've yet to see if it really holds together as a game.

I played an awful lot of Fallout 3 over the break, as well; that game continues to astound and amaze. The stories in that game are top-notch, probably second only to GTA4 this year. My only real problem with that game is the engine; talking to NPCs is still just a little bit weird enough to pull me out of the experience, and it was the same thing in Oblivion. I'm about halfway to level 15 right now, though, and I think I might hold off for a bit until some of the DLC arrives and they lift the level cap.

Speaking of RPGs, I've also been playing Chrono Trigger before I go to bed lately. It's a pretty solid game, and I can see why people love it. (I'm a little lost at the moment, though; I kinda rushed through the dialogue at the end of this one section and so now I'm not entirely sure where I'm supposed to be or what I'm supposed to be doing, and there's no real way (short of a walkthrough) of solving that problem.) But I'm starting to have a problem with calling these sorts of games "role-playing games." Fallout is a role-playing game; you inhabit your character and you can make choices and design your skillset and really play the way you want to play and have the experience you want to experience. However, in Chrono Trigger - and, indeed, in every JRPG I've ever played - all you do is level up and give your dude new and better gear. There's no real choice involved; the story is linear and your little dude will play the same way at the end of the game as he will in the beginning. We need some new sort of nomenclature.

My wife and I hosted 2 parties this December - my birthday, and Christmas - and Rock Band 2 was featured prominently at both. Goddamn that game is fun. I love watching people figure out how to play the drums almost as much as I love actually playing them; at first they're overwhelmed with all the information that's hurtling towards them at breakneck speeds, but then they figure out how to translate all that arcane symbology into recongizable rhythm, and then the whole concept opens up for them like a flower. It's really quite something to see.

Finally, I did the math, and barring some gaming tonight before the ball drops, I will have accumulated 12,060 Points in 2008. I will make no predictions about my point-whoring desires for 2009, other than I'd like to cross 50,000 in a cool way. I crossed 30K by playing Call of Duty 4 on a hard difficulty level, and I crossed 40K by playing the guitar on expert difficulty in Rock Band 2. Maybe I'll cross 50K by doing something awesome in Brutal Legend?

Oh great

Spore is available on Steam.

FUCK.

Back To The Apocalypse

I find it hard to believe that it's really December 19. The year was already moving pretty fast, and now I look up and see that Christmas is next fucking week. What the hell happened?

In any event, the release calendar madness has finally slowed down, and now I find myself with a bunch of titles that I finally have some time to enjoy.

First and foremost, I'm getting back into Fallout 3. I had put it down a few weeks ago for some reason, and when I heard about the forthcoming packages of DLC - one of which would raise the level cap and make the endgame a bit more productive - I felt like my time with the game would be better spent with all that stuff intact, instead of playing it now, finishing it, and then coming back later. (I had originally meant to talk about this very thing in relation to this particular article from MTV Multiplayer.) And I guess there's a part of me that still does feel that way; I'd like to be able to seamlessly incorporate this new DLC into my Fallout experience. That said, last night I found myself with an empty apartment and a lot of options, and I found myself missing the Fallout experience.

Goddamn, that game is awesome. I believe I said in my 2008 wrap-up that I thought I might be a little intimidated by it; it's such a huge world and there's so much to do and I still haven't totally figured out how good or evil I want to be, even though I'm level 10 and have put in a considerable amount of hours into it already. I put it in last night and it only took me about 30 seconds to remember how it worked and I was immediately hooked, again. I'm trying to stay away from the main quest, and as a result I've found a ton of other things to see and explore. I used to do this thing in Oblivion - if I was walking towards my targeted location, and another random, undiscovered location started to appear in my map, I'd always feel compelled to stray away just far enough to see what it was that I'd found, and I find myself doing the same thing here in Fallout. And it's really incredible to see what Bethesda has crammed in there. I'm currently on a side mission that's taken me to some pretty awesome locations, and the level of detail in every room is just staggering, and it boggles my mind to think that if I had only made a left turn in Rivet City instead of a right, I would never have seen any of it. And the thing of it is, I'm already well aware that there's a ton of stuff that I've already missed because I went one way and not the other. Absolutely incredible.

Rock Band 2 continues to be a nightly source of amusement at my house; my wife has finally graduated to "Medium" difficulty on guitar, and we're getting back into Tour mode again. I made a brief mention of this in the 2008 Year In Music post on my other blog; there's 2 songs in particular that I found in the store that I've totally fallen in love with, and I ended up purchasing those songs in iTunes - Maximo Park's "Girls Who Play Guitars" and Silversun Pickups' "Lazy Eye." They're both fun as hell to play on drums, but they also just kick a lot of ass in general.

I made a special category in my 2008 Year in Games post so as to congratulate myself for not being a total whore and buying the Strongbad Games, even though I'm a big fan of the cartoon and an even bigger fan of point-and-click adventure games. Then, of course, it was announced just the other day that they were releasing all 5 adventures on Steam, and so OF COURSE I went and downloaded them immediately. Steam was acting a little weird last night, though, and I couldn't actually open Episode 1. But I did check out the tutorial in Episode 5, just to make sure I knew what I was getting into, and of course I'm totally fucking hooked.

I finally beat the single-player campaign in Little Big Planet, and then I started dabbling in user-created levels, most of which are kinda shitty. (It does sound strange to use the phrase "single-player campaign" for a game like LBP, but to borrow a phrase from Donald Rumsfeld, you use the nomenclature you have.) I'm not sure I'm ready to begin designing my own levels just yet; I may end up going back into the single-player to try and find all the stickers and objects that I didn't get the first time. I gotta say - even though the controls are awfully floaty and the back-middle-front aspect of it can get terribly screwed up, that game's charm is absolutely impossible to deny. I am fully on board the Sackboy bandwagon.

Finally, my DS is finally starting to come to life again. I've been getting into Chrono Trigger a little more, and I've also been enjoying the newest Castlevania game. I find it incredible that Konami has basically been making the same Castlevania game for a million years and yet it still ends up being pretty awesome every single time.

And so what are you playing this weekend?

The 2009 Lust List

I haven't even started my 2008 GOTY post and yet here I am working on a 2009 Lust List. Blame it on Prince of Persia, which arrives later this week (and which is already starting to get some decent reviews). And blame it on my own avoidance of World of Goo, which I finally Steam'd last night; it had been getting all sorts of fawning adulation for months and I could no longer ignore its siren call. And I can't very well hand Braid an indie award without at least trying WoG.

Nevertheless. We are in December of 2008, which means that 2009 is nearly upon us. And as such, it would behoove us to figure out how we're going to be spending our money (and/or divvying up our rental queue real estate). 2007 set an insanely high standard in terms of AAA titles, and while it could be argued that 2008 may not have exactly equalled it in that regard, it was no slouch. So, then: what can we reasonably expect from 2009?

Unfortunately, it's difficult for me, an industry outsider, to say. If one were to only peruse Gamestop's release calendars (as I did), one would never see such heavy hitters as Heavy Rain, Alan Wake, Brutal Legend, The Witcher, and Uncharted 2 (the last 2 being sort-of announced just this morning). 1UP is running a Games of 2009 feature this month, but they're only doing one game per day; I'm sure the other big sites will run similar features as well.

That said, I've done what I can, and what follows is a pretty good idea of what's happening for (at least) the first half of 2009.

JANUARY

• LOTR: Conquest (multi). I'm hedging my bets on this Battlefront-in-LOTR title, but you never know.
• Peggle (DS). Never mind that it's been on the PC since last year; it's Peggle on the DS!
  
• Star Ocean (PSP). Gamestop lists maybe 5 titles for the PSP coming out in 2009; this is one of two that I was curious about. If it turns out to be a strategy JRPG, though, it's off the list; I do not care for that particular subgenre one bit.

FEBRUARY

• Halo Wars (360). My appetite for strategy titles was born purely out of my intense (but brief) love affair with Civ Rev this past summer; Halo Wars is not Civ Rev. And I really don't care all that much about the Halo universe. But this looks to be a quality title, and it will probably be a cold winter.
• Killzone 2 (PS3). As far as I'm concerned, this is the most important PS3 title of the first half of 2009. Early reports from the Beta are very promising.
  
• Splinter Cell: Conviction (multi). I was unaware that this was back on track, but Gamestop lists it as coming out on 2/2/09, which seems awfully soon for a title so riddled with development problems. I am crossing my fingers but not expecting very much, which is kind of sad.
• Sonic - Ultimate Genesis Collection (multi). Self-explanatory. I've always been a Sega Genesis fanboy, and I probably already own too many of these games as XBLA releases to justify purchasing it, but, well, if you haven't figured out that I'm a total whore by now, you haven't been paying attention.
• Street Figher 4 (multi). I haven't bought a fighting game since... Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast. I am inexplicably excited for this one, though.
• Godfather 2 (multi). It's blasphemy that they're making yet another game out of the greatest movies ever made, but at least they're shooting high with this one. It remains to be seen how all the different elements of the game will play out, or if the game even needs the Godfather IP to be successful. I'm moderately intrigued, which makes me nauseous even just typing.
• DragonQuest 5 (DS)
• PuzzleQuest Galactrix (DS)
• Damnation (multi)
  

MARCH

• Chronicles of Riddick (multi). I loved the hell out of it on the Xbox and I will love it again.
• Resident Evil 5 (multi). I'm not entirely sure how excited I'm going to be for this one. I only ever played the first 20 minutes of RE4 on the Wii and fucking hated it, which makes me one of the only people on Earth to think so.
• MadWorld (Wii). I have been avoiding coverage of this title for some bizarre reason; everyone seems to think it's going to be totally insane. Maybe it's because it makes me think of No More Heroes, which I never got into.
• Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure (DS)
  
• Alpha Protocol (multi)
• Phantasy Star Portable (PSP)
• Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. (multi)
• Star Ocean: The Last Hope (360)
• Broken Sword (Wii)
  
• Scrabble (DS)

APRIL AND BEYOND

• Fuel (multi). I loved Codemaster's DiRT but was disappointed in GRiD. I saw some previews for this a little while ago and it looked absolutely insane.
• Ghostbusters (multi). I'm a little concerned by all the publishing drama it's gone through, and it's probably going to suck. But still. It's Ghostbusters. With (mostly) the original cast, writing their own lines. At the very least, it should be good for a few laughs.
• Heavy Rain (PS3). I have been told by those in the know that this is going to be 2009's GOTY.
  
• God of War 3 (PS3). I'm embarassed to admit that my first GoW game was the PSP title released earlier this year; I have to imagine that this title is going to be ridiculous.
  
• Alan Wake (360). If this game doesn't get released this year, I will probably stop caring about it.
  
• Final Fantasy XIII (multi). This will be my first FF game. Not sure which platform I'll play it on; if the Achievements are to be as esoteric and impossible as they were for FFXI, I'll play it on the PS3 (which is supposedly the lead development platform, anyway).
• Brutal Legend (multi). Oh please oh please oh please.
• The Conduit (Wii). Yet another Wii game that I'm strangely ambivilent about.
• The Agency (PS3)
• Just Cause 2 (multi)
• Bayonetta (multi)
• Dragon Age Origins (multi)
• Uncharted 2 (PS3)
• The Witcher (multi)
• Duke Nukem Forever (multi). A boy can dream.
  

Weekend Recap: pre-Thanksgiving 2008 edition

Last Tuesday I noted that, among other things, I was hoping to increase my Gamerscore by 10,000 points over my total at the end of 2007:

I started the year at 28788; I am currently at 37403. There's still 6 weeks left in the year, so I still have time to make it to an even 10,000 point swing.

I certainly made up a lot of ground over the last few days; by my calculation, I've gained 1075 Points in less than a week, which means I've only got 310 more to go.

At least 600 points came from Scene It: BOS, which doles out the points like they're going out of style. (My wife likes playing the Scene It games, which means I buy them as soon as they come out.) I like this new game a lot; it uses Avatars, which make them seem a little less pointless, everything's gotten a nice graphical make-over, and they seem to have a healthy obsession with Simon Pegg, which is OK with me. The only real problem with the game are the announcers, who are even more horrible than they were in the last game; I mean, they're FUCKING HORRIBLE. Thank God there's an option to mute them.

A few more achievements came from Fallout 3, but that game should not be played for points AT ALL. I was all set to name GTA4 as my Game of the Year, but I have to say that every hour I spend with Fallout 3 makes that decision a little less concrete. I'm about halfway to level 10, and I'm probably going to stay away from the main quest for a little while longer and work on some side stuff. There is so much to see in this game, and the level of detail is simply staggering. Perfect example: I was doing one of the very first sidequests in the game, which required me to go to this bombed out town and pick up some mines; while I was there, I decided to break into some houses and see what there was to loot. And each house that I broke into featured this little unspoken short story of each family's last moments - one house in particular had a pair of skeletons lying in bed holding each other, and it actually made me stop for a second and think about what I was actually seeing. What I love about Fallout 3 is this deeper notion of history; everything you're looting is stuff that belonged to a different time and place - and, well, it belonged to a human being who died. Not many games are able to convey that sense of a lived-in world very well - even Bioshock struggled with it at times.

What else, what else... oh, well, yeah. I caved and bought Tomb Raider: Underworld, mostly because Gamefly kept pushing it back and when I checked Sunday morning, it was slated to ship this coming Tuesday, which is bullshit. My initial reaction is pretty much par for the course: it's Legend with a gorgeous new coat of paint and a really shitty camera. I'm in the Mexico level (which is, I think, the third level if you don't count the prologue), and it's got a wierd non-linear progression which is actually a little annoying, to be honest - Tomb Raider games shouldn't be sandbox-y. I'm also missing the Croft Manor exploration level that's been a favorite feature of mine in the last 2 games, although considering that the very first thing you see in the game is the Manor exploding, it probably makes sense that it's missing. (Maybe it's unlocked after you finish the game?)

Played a tiny little bit of Left 4 Dead; that game is awesome and I need to give it another go.

Oh yeah, also played a bit of A Kingdom For Keflings, which I think I really only downloaded to be eligible for some stupid contest. It's basically a super-lite strategy game, with Avatar support; it's actually a decent time-suck, although I'm not sure how much time I'm going to spend with it. I'll probably finish one game and then go back to Civ Rev for my strategy needs.

Fully well-rounded

My wife and I have absolutely no patience when it comes to gift-giving; it's incredibly rare that we can actually hold out until the actual day to exchange gifts. Our 4th wedding anniversary is in a little over a week and being that my wife is currently in a cast recovering from foot surgery, this meant that I was actually tasked with not only buying her a gift, but buying myself a gift as well (at her request, and on her dime). And so, last night, I bought her a 32gb iPod Touch, and she bought me a Playstation 3.

The PS3 is going to serve mainly as a Blu-Ray player, which is just fine with me; ever since the format war ended, I knew I was going to get a Blu-Ray player at some point, and so why not the PS3. I did feel compelled to get some games for it, though, because, well, it can do that, and so I picked up Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Ratchet & Clank and spent roughly 10-20 minutes with both.

Uncharted certainly looks really nice, and it plays like a masculine Tomb Raider, which is just fine. And R&C has moments of near-Pixar-like beauty, although I'm not sure it's anything the 360 can't handle.

It is exceedingly weird to now own all 5 major gaming devices (not counting my cellphone, which I play Scrabble and Solitaire on during my commutes and my PC, which I haven't used in a gaming capacity since I stopped playing WoW). I had been an Xbox loyalist - and rather proudly at that - for a very long time. I suppose I kinda still am, to be honest - the 360 still has the most compelling lineup and I am an Achievement whore, and that shit goes a long way when it comes to considering cross-platform purchases. But it is nice to be able to know that I can finally experience all that this generation has to offer.

And hey - I'll give the PS3 a fair shot, now that I have it. I'll admit that I've been a hater since before it launched, and I maintain that there isn't really anything in the PS3 catalog that's screaming for a purchase right now; in fact, there's really not all that much that I'm thinking about renting, either, except for Resistance and maybe Motorstorm. I will probably end up checking out MGS4, but I've hated that franchise for years and nothing I've seen of this new game has done anything to change my opinion that MGS is fantastically overrated. OK, and I am looking forward to LittleBigPlanet. Still, though, that's not really much of anything to get terribly excited about, and unless there's a terribly compelling reason not to, any cross-platform games are gonna be bought for the 360; that's where my friends are, that's where my Achievements are, that's what I'm used to.

Timing is everything

Good news: the second half of my package arrived today, and because it arrived a day late, Circuit City refunded me $38 in shipping.

More good news: Trading in Super Smash Bros. and Mario Party 8 helped me completely pay off my GTA4 preorder.

Even better news: Picked up the Wii component cables, and WOW do they make a big difference. It still doesn't look anything like what I've gotten used to on the 360, but at least it looks respectable. Okami, specifically, looks 100x better. Zelda, on the other hand, still kinda looks washed out and last-gen.

There is no bad news; only bad timing. I've now got a pretty respectable Wii library:

• Super Mario Galaxy (which is, indeed, wonderful - more later)
  
• Super Paper Mario (which is also really good)
• Zelda Twilight Princess (which is, well, Zelda)
• Resident Evil 4 (which I'm not sure when I'm going to get to)
• Okami (see RE4)
• Wii Play (which I'm not going to get to until my wife fully recovers from foot surgery and can stand on both feet)

Sure, it's not every AAA Wii title, but for a brand-new Wii owner it's certainly got some legs. The problem, of course, is knowing what to commit to with so many options available. I dabbled in Paper Mario and Zelda, but I knew that as soon as Galaxy arrived, that would be my main preoccupation, and so far that seems to be the case. Galaxy is wonderfully unique and inventive, and the praise and fuss was definitely deserved.

Of course... then I saw that IGN posted the first video review of GTA4.

Fuuuuck. It looks goooooooood.

It was bad enough just wanting it without really seeing it in action; now it's just unfair. When I was at my local Gamestop earlier today, I asked what their numbers were for GTA4 preorders, because I was tempted to wait in line for the midnight release; they said they had 400 preorders, and the Gamestop further down the street had over 1000. So I guess that's out. I have to go to work on Tuesday anyway; I suppose I can wait until I get home from work.

So the Wii will have to waiit. And meanwhile, my new PSP is already getting neglected! I am such an idiot.

Wii'd: the followup

It's always something. I'd started to track my orders from about 15 minutes after I pulled the trigger yesterday morning, and by 3 in the afternoon I'd noticed that something was screwy; my bundle was being shipped in 2 boxes, and only one box had actually been picked up from the warehouse. By 7, my Wii was en route to the shipping facility, whereas my games were in no man's land; by 12:30 this afternoon, I'd already finished unpacking my Wii and getting it hooked up to the internet, and by 1:00 I'd finished my absurdly frustrating and confusing call with Circuit City's customer service, who informed me that they would absolutely consider refunding my shipping charges once I finally received the package.

But obviously, I can't leave well enough alone; of the 4 games I was waiting for (and obliged to purchase, for purposes of the bundle), only Mario Galaxy was worth caring about. So I ventured out to the local Gamestop and procured:

Zelda: Twilight Princess
Super Paper Mario
Resident Evil 4
Okami

First impressions: the Wii itself is a neat little device. Setup was surprisingly quick and painless. The controllers have a nice, appropriate weight to them - especially the remote, whose vibration is very well done. Coming from someone who's gotten very used to XBL over the last few years, the Wii's dashboard functionality is limited, but useful and well organized.

As for the games: before I went to Gamestop, I (of course) tried out Wii Sports, because that's what you're supposed to do when you have a Wii. I'd already played a little bit of it last Thanksgiving, but that doesn't really count - I was playing with my 10-year-old stepbrother, who is a Wii genius, and I was kinda drunk, and only really got about 15-20 minutes with it anyway. Today, on the other hand, left to my own devices (since Kath is laid up recovering from foot surgery), I actually broke a little bit of a sweat. Bowling was actually a lot more fun than I expected, especially since I hit around 115-120, which is what I generally bowl in real life.

I only spent between 15-30 minutes with the other 4 "real" games today; I just wanted to check them out, not wanting to commit to any in particular (especially with Galaxy supposedly on the way, and ESPECIALLY since the Wii is going to be collecting dust after Tuesday). Immediately I noticed that I've been spoiled rotten by my 360 and my HDTV; I've gotten very used to 1080p, and the Wii doesn't even come with component cables, so everything looks like crap. I'm gonna have to get some component cables tomorrow, because JESUS CHRIST everything looks like it has a shitty watercolor filter over it - and it's especially bad in the case of Okami, which features painting as an integral gameplay mechanic.

I also think I need to maybe reposition my sensor bar; right now it's on top of my TV, and when I sit on my couch I feel like I'm not getting accurate readings. When I stand up, it's fine. I don't want to have to play Zelda standing up.

Just checked my tracking details: no new updates since 7:48pm, when it "left origin". I'm going to assume that means that it'll arrive tomorrow. So, then: tomorrow afternoon, I go back to Gamestop, trade in Super Smash Bros and maybe Mario Party 8, get component cables and maybe fully pay off my GTA4 pre-order.

I gotta say: it's nice to be in this gen fully committed. It's financially irresponsible, perhaps, but it's also just nice to be able to fully understand what's happening in the scene right now. I suppose I'm not totally fully committed until I get a PS3, and I'm really only getting a PS3 for the Blu-Ray, but that's neither here nor there - I will be owning one at some point, and I can finally come out from the Xbox fanboy mentality. (Which suited me quite well, I should say - the 360 remains the best option out there right now, and I've yet to see anything to convince me otherwise.)

More tomorrow. (Well, today, technically speaking, as it's now 12:18am.)

I am a consumer whore: Vol. 2, Ep. 1

I've been trying to convince my friend Max to get an Xbox360 for the last year or so; he assures me that he really does want one, but he's trying to cut down his debt, and he's hoping to score it during the holidays. However, he blindsided me on Monday by telling me that he managed to score a Wii, thanks to wiialerts.com.

And so, of course, I had to check out the site and see what it was all about. I've wanted a Wii since launch but they've been impossible to find, and I've gotten used to not having one - especially since there are really only about 5-6 games I'm interested in playing. But, as I said, I felt compelled to check out the site. 15 minutes later, I signed up and set up some alerts; 30 minutes after that, I got my first text message.

Cutting to the chase, then: this morning I got a text message - Circuit City finally had bundles available, and for a pretty reasonable price. And so...

...

...I got one.

The bundle itself isn't necessarily top-notch, at least as far as the selection of games goes. I got:

• Super Smash Bros. Brawl
• Super Mario Galaxy
• Mario Party 8
• Wii Play (for the extra remote)

I will most likely trade in Brawl and Party for Zelda and maybe RE4 or Okami. I'll check 'em out, of course, but I don't really see myself giving a shit about either of those games.

Anyway. I'm glad I'm finally getting one, although I was truly ready to forgo the Wii altogether in lieu of scoring a PS3 later this summer.

And it's not like I'll be playing it very much once GTA4 drops next week.

I am such a goddamned whore.

(Wii friend codes are always appreciated; I'll post mine once I find out what it is.)

PSP'd!

So I couldn't contain myself any longer; on my lunch hour today, I went to the Best Buy over on 5th Avenue and bought:

• PSP slim
• 2gb memory stick
• Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
• God of War: Chains of Olympus
• MLB08
• GTA: Liberty City Stories
• GTA: Vice City Stories

Total: $400.13. It's burning a hole in my bag; all I want to do is rip open the box and start playing, but I know that as soon as I do, I'll start getting super-busy at work, and in any event, I didn't buy any sort of carrying case, and I don't really want to have it just sitting loose in my bag.

That said. This is a watershed moment: this is my first piece of Sony-manufactured gaming equipment that I've ever purchased. I played a lot of PS1 at my buddy Jongre's apartment back in my post-college years (mostly the Oddworld games, with some Crash Bandicoot here and there), but never owned one myself; I bought a Dreamcast instead of a PS2, and then bought an Xbox; I had a Gameboy and then a DS, which covered my handheld needs, and I'm still holding off on a PS3 until later this year.

The PSP, though... it's strange. I've wanted one ever since they announced it, but then the dead pixel thing happened when it launched and outraged everybody, and until recently there's been almost nothing worth playing on it. Plus, that horrendous "all i want for christmas is a psp" fake-commercial really turned me off - even now I've got that fucking song stuck in my head.

I've seen people playing it on the subway and I'm always curious to see it in action, and yet I never really get that good a look; display units at stores are generally useless, since they're (a) never turned on or (b) playing something I don't care about.

There are other games that I'm curious to check out...

• Lumines (although I've already got it on XBLA, and I'm not very good at it)
• the 3d Castlevania game
• Wipeout / Wipeout Pure
• flOw
• Jean D'arc
• Disgaea (or however you spell it)

...but I'm not, like, foaming at the mouth for any of them, and I'm sure I can track them down on GameFly.

If I have time tonight, I'll try to have a full rundown for tomorrow.

Glutton for punishment

It's been pouring here in NYC for the last 24 hours; yesterday it was fluffy snow, today it's cold rain. Ordinarily I wouldn't talk about the weather, except that, as this post's title would indicate, I am a glutton for punishment. Also, I am a consumer whore.

I had planned on renting Lost Odyssey and then buying my rented copy, as I do get a nifty little discount from Gamefly. However, even with newly-added shipping centers, Gamefly is still notoriously, jaw-droppingly, agonizingly slow, and even if they'd managed to send it out today, I wouldn't get it until Saturday at the earliest. This assumes that they'd actually send me a copy today; I checked my queue this morning, and instead of being sent off, it was simply listed as having a "Low" probability of being sent out. They changed their notations on product availability a few months ago, but I'm not fooled; "Low" means "not today, chump."

Additionally, I was interested in renting Professor Layton and the Curious Village since my DS has been boring me to death. (Side note: is it just me, or is it incredibly odd to anybody else that even though 2007 was one of the best years for gaming ever, the DS absolutely stunk up the joint?) This was putting me in a bit of a pickle; Prof. Layton is listed as available, so if I'd put it on my queue, I'd never get Lost Odyssey (since I only have a 2-at-a-time plan and they haven't yet received my return of Devil May Cry), and I would like to get The Club at some point next week.

This is all to say that I could not wait, and I ventured out into the rain during my lunch hour.

NYC has a lot of everything, except where I work (namely, east midtown); there used to be a Gamestop over on 6th Avenue, which closed down (and was still a pain in the ass for me to get to), and I can't ever expect to get over to the gigantic Toys R Us in Times Square (the one with the indoor ferris wheel) without wanting to strangle the hordes of tourists who have absolutely no self-awareness and frequently stop in the middle of the sidewalk, or an open doorway, or a stairwell, or what have you. This basically limits my work-day gaming excursions to what's on 5th Avenue (a still lengthy walk from my office) - a Best Buy, a new Circuit City, and a no-name (but very good) electronics store.

The electronics store has a game section and it's usually not very busy; however, it also has a shitty selection and is almost always untimely with new releases; they were my first stop and, as I expected, they had neither title.

The Best Buy used to make new game releases completely inaccessible; you'd have to flag a BB employee down, tell them what you wanted, and then go wait in the ever-expanding cashier line while they (hopefully) remembered what you wanted and then give it to whomever you ended up paying. That's changed and they now have everything on the shelf, but it's still a Best Buy - they don't treat videogames with nearly the shelfspace or the attention that they do with DVDs. They did happen to have Lost Odyssey, but they didn't have Professor Layton.

The Circuit City is brand-new, but their game section is fucking horrifying; the games are arranged on circular shelves that surround a 3-TV pod, and the 360, curiously enough, gets the least amount of shelf space. It hardly matters, though, because the shelves are beyond disorganized; it's as if someone started to alphabetize, and then said "fuck it" and just threw whatever they felt like into any available spot. After 20 minutes of going through each individual shelf, I did manage to find a copy of Prof. Layton - it was, as best as I can tell, with the "D"s.

So: success! But also frustration, and, worst of all, wet socks. I need galoshes.

Tomorrow: impressions.