No more dwelling in the past

What can I say... I liked it. I liked it alot.

At first, I had a hard time swallowing it. A shooter that wasn't sci-fi, and wasn't a war before the 90's. Intriguing. A modern day combat shooter.

And initially, this led to a little bit of struggle enjoying the game. I'm not too big a fan of the war, neither am I a fan of desert combat. So I played it for it's multiplayer.

But one day, I found myself extremely bored, and I realized, I hadn't given the single player a try, so I did, and I found it quite enjoyable. The story is interesting, and scary at times due to the realism (the bomb scene was genius). But the gameplay, the AI, the open level combat, and somewhat tactical approach was fantastically pulled off.

In short, I loved this game.

I have only one real beef with the game... the lack of multiple local players going online with you, in Halo 3 fashion. It's not that big of a deal... I just wish I could.

What I thought was the most crushing aspect of the game (it's real world setting... well pretty much) proved to actually be it's defining aspect. And now I'm dissapointed COD5 is going back to WWII...

The Dark Knight

Now there is a reason why I put that up there. I didn't actually ever listen to the audio in this game. I used Ninja Gaiden to fill a void, and so, through the wonder of Custom soundtracks, and my imagination, I turned the game into The Dark Knight, the video game.

Now let me tell you, if you leave the soundtrack on, even through the cutscenes, it goes, perfectly. It compels you to move on, while at the same time, making you feel as if you were Batman, in his younger days. It's quite an interesting experience.

Now while I was playing this, I would have given in a 4... maybe.

But as it stands, Ninja Gaiden II is just another button masher. Not nearly as fun as the ridiculous Devil May Cry series, and also, a little too hard, difficulty wise. It's certainly not for beginners. I had very little trouble with it, but it was annoying.

All in all, it's not deserving of more than a little fun with the Dark Knight soundtrack.

Shut your eyes, Marion. Don't look at it, no matter what happens.

I will admit that this game brings together two of my childhood loves. Legos, the building blocks that brought out my creativity as a child, and Indiana Jones, who kept my brave when I was scared. I also must say, that I love Lego Star Wars. I thought it was spectacular! Very creative, very engaging, and ultimately just plain fun for everyone!

Now, I thought to myself, "This has everything going for it! Indy, lego, and the Lego Star wars engine!

However, as much as I hate to have fell pray to this, I did... We didn't just have one Indiana Jones dissapointment this year, we have this second one as well.

The game just can't even touch Lego Star wars. It tries, it really does, but in the end, there's nothing really too fun about this installment. Sure you get to use a real gun, and fight with Indy's rock hard, badass knuckles, in epic fisticuff struggles... but it doesn't feel the same. And also, this is a movie that requires alot of talking, and I'm quite sorry to say, the body language and murmering just won't cut it.

It's acceptable, but ultimately, passable. Do yourself a favor, and don't get too excited about Lego Batman either.

What a load...

Let me explain how much disdain I have for this complete load of crap.

But let me start by telling you, this game could have been great. Hell, if they would have spent more time on the controls, and a little more attention to the story, this game could have been a reinvigoration for the entire series. It was in development long enough to be!

But this game is unmitigated crap. It doesn't even deserve to be looked at, and in fact, I hope it never will. I hope, thanks to the crappy camera, horrific controls, and sub par scripting, this game will never be remembered again, to show the developers, you can have cool ideas (like making the game similar to a television series), if you make sure the gameplay is flawless and fun. Hell... it didn't even need to be flawless, Advent Rising wasn't and it was still fun!

So please, don't even grace this game with a glance, let it fall into it's inevitable shovelware status.

The, fucking, end.

Pinch me, I'm dreaming...

There's this age old question we gamers have scratched our noggins for generations now.

"How do I get my *insert loved one here * to play video games?"

I've had moderate success with a great many things: DDR, Co-op first person shooters, Horror games, the Wii, Guitar Hero. The closest, of course, being Guitar Hero, but Harmonics just didn't get it right. That is of course until the series' spiritual successor comes along to save many a party and date with it's spectacular focus on CO-op play, and all around fun, to some great music!

Now I could talk about the amazing character customization system, the beautiful online play, the simply delicious track listing, or some of the coolest periperhals this side of video gaming galaxy (sorry Nintendo Zapper). But I'm going to make this easy: Food, water, basic cable, health insurance, so on, go without them as long as you can until you have enough for Rock Band. You won't be disappointed. Neither will all the friends you'll be making within 24 hours of purchasing the game.