Leveling Down

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkYuK3AKrxc]
The sequence in the Transformers movie that changed our generation forever…

Guitar Hero: World Tour – Had to start playing it last night since Stan Bush’s “The Touch” just hit the marketplace as a free downloadable song. It’s actually a pretty good song to play with the guitar. Of course playing it with plastic instruments is not quite the same as tearing through Decepticons as Optimus Prime, but it does give me some good memories of the Transformers movie. Now if only we could also get “Dare” from the Transformers movie and Karate Kid’s “You’re the Best Around” – I’d be all set with the ’80s.

Sins of a Solar Empire – Starting to play more advanced scenarios lately. The longest game I played so far was a 4 hour FFA with 3 AI on normal difficulty. That one certainly took a while but it was pretty enjoyable. I even ended up allying with one of the AI to finish off the other AI. But as soon as it was down to just the two of us, the AI broke off all relations and I had to kill him to win. I’m probably going to try 3v3 with the AIs next, but I’m scared that’s going to be like a six hour game.

Conan – Just finished it, but now I have to go through on the hardest difficulty as well as do any of the menial Achievements if I want to get the 1000. I’m practically ready to move on to the next game, but I’ve always gotten all of the single player Achievements I could in games I own so I don’t think I should set a precendent with this one.

Bionic Commando: Rearmed – Ended up getting it due to its $5 sale price this week. I’m sort of excited to play it, but I’m also a little worried that it may be harder than I remember. After all, even with all the fond memories I have of the NES version, games back then were a lot tougher and less forgiving. I’ll probably start it up this weekend.

 
One of the few positives about Conan is its gory combat system

I just beat this game for the first time last night, so I decided to write up a review on the game now. I’m still on the fence if I’m going to try for the full 1000 or not, as it has a lot of annoyances. To a degree, I can see why it’s a budget title but for those curious about whether or not this budget title is worth a shot, check out my review.

Good
- inexpensive
- if you’re a fan of Conan, you get to play him
- gore-filled combat

Bad
- lack of polish
- bland and repetitive
- terribly designed end-game boss

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Sins of a Solar Empire may seem daunting, but its core premise is easy to grasp: colonize worlds, defend them, and conquer the entire star system.

These last few days, in between my bouts with Conan I’ve been playing a different game I had in my backlog: Sins of a Solar Empire. Sins of a Solar Empire is one of the few PC games to be released last year to rave reviews, as it’s a game that’s like Civilization, but in real time and in space. I’m not the biggest fan of space/sci-fi type games, and when I first started playing it, I wasn’t too impressed. But after only a couple of hours, my wife was already calling me to bed and I realized that perhaps there is some sort of addictive quality to this game if I don’t even realize two hours have already gone by without my knowing! Read on for my impressions of the game some are calling the 2008 PC game of the year.

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Remember this guy? Hint: He’s German.

Punch Out!
Punch Out Wii was in my mailbox when I got back from my trip this weekend. I proceeded to take down the first 8 fighters, but it was definitely more difficult than the original. Most of the characters are retreads, but due to nostalgia I think that’s a good thing. I like how little changes were made to their patterns, making them different (I lost to Great Tiger 3 times). The game also changes things up by forcing you to dodge in certain directions for certain punches. This isn’t 1986 anymore. I’m really looking forward to the “Title Defense” mode, which is basically an advanced mode after you finish the main game. I picked it up for $40 at Amazon on preorder, so I’m super happy with my purchase.

Broken Sword
I spent all my travel time this weekend playing Broken Sword exclusively. I brought Chinatown Wars but never felt compelled to put it in. I think I enjoy the challenge of solving puzzles more than the more simplistic gameplay in GTA. Even though the action is completely linear, the story is compelling enough that you want to keep playing.

Dead Space
Working my way through the campaign slowly but surely. Now that I’m used to the game’s scare tactics I’m making my way through pretty quickly. There are some scripted sequences that break up the gameplay and I love jumping around in outer space. It’s not as addicting as Bioshock was for me, but I’m definitely glad I gave this game a try.

Halo Wars
Still playin…

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Bionic Commando Rearmed is on sale for 400 MS Points ($5) this week for Gold members. I don’t usually buy Live Arcade games but at that price I had to get it. Shame the developer didn’t do as good a job with the actual retail game that was released this month, but at least the Live Arcade remake was awesome.

Also of note is that Target (instore only) has the following games for $37 each this week:
Street Fighter IV [360/PS3]
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.[360/PS3]
Guitar Hero: Metallica [360/PS3/Wii]

The new updates for the Sniper and the Spy have released recently, which include new weapons, gameplay changes, and Achievements for the two classes (the sniper gets a bow?!). Valve has not only made the game free to play for the public this Memorial Day weekend, but also put it on sale for $9.99. Just hop on Steam and give it a download if you’re curious.

Sadly, even though I own it, I still haven’t had a chance to get around to playing it yet, but if any of you do end up getting it, it’ll give me more of a reason to dive into it sooner since I’ll have someone else to play with.

Team Fortress 2 50% off this weekend only! [Steam]

Empire: Total War looks impressive, but there are definitely technical issues…

It feels somewhat weird for me to play the 360 these days since I switched over to the PC with Dawn of War II. Ever since then, I’ve been doing most of my gaming on the PC and I guess that’s a good thing since I do have a backlog there. And thankfully, it’s shorter than my 360 backlog. This week hasn’t been too eventful in gaming, but I can mention a few games:

Sins of a Solar Empire (PC) – I just started playing this game this past week, and it’s been the centerpiece for my gaming sessions these past few evenings. It’s pretty much Civilization in space but in real time, so it has enough going on that I’m enjoying it. I’ll put out some impressions on it next week.

Empire: Total War (PC) – With its recent price drop to $30 and it continuing to be in the top 10 PC game sales, I decided to check out the demo by downloading it off Steam. I guess the user reviews for the game is right. It is very buggy. It’s not just buggy, but very resource intensive. In any case, I’m not too big a fan of that period of war anyway. I guess I’ll skip out on this one.

Mother 3 (GBA) – Still playing this on my commute to work each day (when I’m not sleeping on the subway) and I continue to enjoy it. I’m almost halfway through and it’s just a nice simple RPG game that I can play without thinking too much. I’ll put out some detailed impressions soon.

Pure (360) – Ended up ordering it off Amazon when it went on sale for $20 this past week and I got it the next day. I haven’t had a chance to open it yet, but maybe I’ll end up playing it next after Conan since it seems mindless enough. People say it’s like the next version of SSX, which can’t be all that bad…

GTA: Chinatown Wars marks the first (and possibly the last) time the mature franchise hits the family-friendly DS market.

Fresh off the great success of GTAIV, Rockstar released another Grand Theft Auto game this past March. GTA: Chinatown Wars was the first GTA offering ever to hit Nintendo’s family friendly DS, and analysts predicted that people would buy it in droves. Unfortunately for Nintendo and Rockstar, the analysts were wrong, though the game has received high praise, the fact of the matter is, nobody is buying it (only a little over 100,000 copies have sold in 2 months which is way below expectations).

I wasn’t planning on picking up a copy, but a friend of mine lent me his. I’ve put a few hours in the game so figured I’d write up a quick retail impressions.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gMwrf61M7g]

When this game was originally released it sort of flew under the radar for me since I don’t pay too much attention to racing games. But Pure looks to be a very good title as it successfully combines offroad racing with an entertaining trick system, and seems forgiving enough that even Mario Kart fans may be able to enjoy it. I’m still on the fence about this purchase myself, as I haven’t even opened Burnout Paradise yet but this is a highly rated game.

Deal of the Day: Pure 360 $19.98 [Amazon]

 
From screenshots, Conan looks like it can be pretty enjoyable, but it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be…

I started playing Conan a while back but lately I’ve had a hard time finishing it. I’ll fire it up every once in a while and maybe get through a level and to be honest, it’s not a terrible game. But I think that’s sort of an issue for me these days – I seem to have less patience playing games that are simply mediocre or decent. Can I just play excellent or amazing games? Anyway, read on for my impressions on this game, and hopefully I will get around to finishing it at some point.

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