Knights of the Old Republic - Finally got around to beating it. Re-picked it up sometime last week, then spent 30 hours in the following week beating the remainder of the planets (I was on my first planet after Dantooine). If I didn't have other games I wanted to play, I'd replay it at least once, if not twice, to get the full scope of how deep the game is. As it stands, I loved it. Some flaws, but with a game of this scope, that was bound to happen. Highly recommended if you enjoy RPGs. A-

Fable - I originally borrowed the game from a friend some months ago and got a number of hours into it, but eventually had to get it back. I bought it used on a whim for $10 last week sometime, so I'm playing that now. Plotwise, I just opened up the path in the Graveyard to save my mom. Questwise, I'm trying to save some hostages from bandits in Greatwood. Very good game so far. Definitely the best combat system I've seen for an RPG. (you hear that KotoR?) A-

Ninja Gaiden - I'm playing it in whenever I don't feel like playing Fable. Quality gameplay, even if the story is a bit simple. A

Mario Kart Double Dash - Some friends and I played this for about an hour last night. I beat the campaign/single player mode ages ago, but I still play it regularly, because my friends love playing it. How else will I keep my skillz up to continue dominating? P.S. Baby park is the shit. B+

Halo - As always. It's difficult to go a week without at least one or two games with some friends. For example, just the other night, my friend had a party and after everyone left, there was just four of us left, so we played a handful of games and then left. A+

Medievil 2 Total War. The last one consumed way to much of my time and this one is going the same. The pinnacle of the RTS genre there isn't a single fault to it.

How is this for spreading the love?

Currently playing:

Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (XBOX 360)
Guitar Hero 2 (PS2)
Psychaunats (Xbox)
The Warriors (Xbox) <---- found it at Target for $9
Simpsons Road Rage (Gameboy Advance) <---- just bought a fancier GBA (my old one was crap)
Clue/Risk/Battleship (GBA)

Dead or Alive Xtreme 2: I thought I'd weigh in with an update on this one as I'm about 15+ hours into the game now. It's definitely better than the critics are saying, but I can't shake the feeling that Team Ninja took one step forward and two back with this sequel.

I'm enjoying the jet skiing a lot more than I did originally. It takes a bit to get used to the physics of it, but once you do it's decent - it's no Wave Race, but good. The graphics are fantastic... it truly makes you feel like you're on a tropical island, and you can almost smell the tropical breeze. The extra events are a nice addition, but the center of attention is still volleyball and jet skiing. The updated casino is also a positive, and they added more to do there (including poker). It can be very addicting trying to earn money to collect all the suits and items.

On the hardcore sucky side of things, they removed the 2 player feature... you can only play multiplayer on XBL. I can't tell you how mad that made me as my wife liked to play the 1 on 1 volleyball games in DOA1... now we can't. As a matter of fact, you can only do a vacation, or XBL... meaning you can't just jump into a jet ski race or volleyball match with any players you want. You have to do a 14 day vacation and then the computer decides what race you do, or who you face in volleyball.

Continuing on the sucky side of things... some of the mini games are just horrible... the water slide is the most broken thing I've seen in a game in a long time. It took me 3 days just to get through the 30 second course without falling off. The other ones like tug of war or "butt battle" are pretty much useless and nothing more than a mildly intesting thing to try once or twice.

Lastly, they changed the volleyball mechanics and I'm not a fan of it... in DOAX1 the matches could last a long time and be pretty exciting. In this one, a point rarely lasts more than a few volleys... it's still fun, but I can't figure out why they tinkered with a good thing and made it just a hair less fun?

The bottom line is that I'd only recommend it to the hardcore DOA fans (none of you here). I like the game, and it definitely holds my attention, but ultimately it is frustrating because with just a few relatively minor tweaks it could have been SO much better. Oh, and the game desperately makes me want to play a next gen Wave Race... any chance Nintendo will put out WR for the 360???

One last note.... it took me 10 hours to earn my first achievement. They're damn near impossible to get, so don't get this game if you want easy points. With that being said, I have since learned a casino cheat that makes it a little easier, so perhaps with that you could rack up some points a little quicker.

Final grade:
B for the hardcore DOA fans....
C for the non-fans

Need For Speed Carbon - It's just Need For Speed Most Wanted at night. Wayyy too similar to the last version. While I liked NFS:MW a lot, I expected NFSC to be a little more updated considering there's been a years since MW. Typical EA... adequate game, but it feels like they're not even trying at times. Oh, and the acting is atrocious, but funny. C+(ish) at this point.

Call of Duty
Call of Duty - United Offensive
Call of Duty II

Quite easily the best first person shooters I've ever played.

You really need to get out more!

Viva Pinata (Xbox 360) - My wife just digs this game... I've watched her playing it here and there, and it does look fun. The pinatas are imaginative and fun, and she is quite addicted to the game. Only downside is that it means I can't play my 360 as much. Anyhow, she grades it an A.

Guitar Hero 2- Just plain out fun. Can't wait for this on 360.

Yeah I'm really looking forward to Guitar Hero 2 and DDR Universe for the 360 in '07.

Completely forgot about DDR...07 is looking real good.

Dead Rising - XBOX 360

wow do i love this game.

Since I didnt keep one of the Wii's I had, I just ended up buying Zelda for GC today. There goes any chance of me buying a Wii for awhile, thats all I really wanted to play.

That's still my favorite 360 game. The more I played it, the more I liked it. I haven't played it in a bit... I'll have to get back to it one of these days.

Going back to PS2 for a couple of days and playing Socom 4.

Socom IV: Combined Assault isn't bad, necessarily, but other than an additional map or two (and I'm just talking about online, I rarely ever play the story mode), the game is exactly the same as Socom III. Not a single improvement.

Went back to play 2 oldies that I've been meaning to play forever:

Psychonauts (Xbox) - I took advantage of the fact that this one was just added to the BC list for the Xbox 360. The game has a lot of personality, humor, and originality in the presentation. However, at its core it feels like a routine platformer (with a few RPG elements), and has a lot of moments that you're wandering around saying "WTF am I supposed to do next?!?!". Still, it held my attention for a few hours, and that's not something a lot of last gen games are doing for me. Overall the warped sense of humor wins out... shaping up to be a B at this point, although to be fair I probably would have liked it a whole lot more if I played it back when it was released.

Warriors (Xbox) - Actually had to dust off the old Xbox for this one (it's not BC). Rockstar did a good job at capturing the mood of the movie, but the game looks like hell and is fairly boring so far. I run around and steal a car radio or two, spray paint a bunch of "W"'s all over hell, and beat up the ocassional rival gang member(s). It's fairly linear, and there is some squad based commands that you have to learn. For some reason I was expecting a more free roaming type game. It's very bleh, and I doubt I'll make it much further. My early grade: C-

Even the Xbox games are starting to look like hell to me, and I didn't ever think I'd say that. Damn this new generation and its fancy graphics! I'm completely spoiled now.

Resistance: Fall of Man: Any shooter that has co-op mode automatically gets an extra point to its overall score. Aside from that, it's a good shooter. Some cool weapons (havent beaten it, therefore haven't gotten all of it) but aside from that it's kind of a standard shooter so far. Though the spot in which I left the game is starting to get really cool, with tons of bad guys on the screen at the same time to make it feel like a big war, so we'll see where the grade finally ends up.

Graphics, decent.

Gameplay, good.

Story, who cares it's a first person shooter.

Overall so far: Insomniac delivers another solid game. 8.5 is my current score.

I tried a couple of games (Fight Night: Round 3, Call of Duty 3, Viva Pinata) and wasn't really impressed (although I do want to play Viva Pinata again, I only returned it because I wanted to rent Bully). I rented Bully and I think I'm about 40% finished. It's a really good game. GTA in a school setting, and it's so fun. Trying to hide from the guys when you're late for class, getting into random fights with nerds or jocks, etc. I'm liking it.

IhatedBully.Everysinglethingaboutit.It'sretarded.

I'vebeenplayingSaint'sRowsinceIhavenothingbettertodo.I'mactually tryingthemissionsandI'mgoingtotrytocompletethegame.29%rightnow.

Ninety Nine Nights (Xbox 360) - Just picked this up today and started playing it. It looks ok so far... it's obviously a button masher, but it looks like there will be a lot of characters to choose from and the graphics look decent.

NBA LIVE 07 (Xbox 360) - One of the worst games I have played in recent memory. I picked it up on a whim and I can't even look at myself in the mirror anymore for making this horrid mistake. OMFG this game sucks donkey balls. REAL BIG HAIRY DONKEY BALLS. I'm certain a group of retarded monkey babies made this game. They had to be baby retarded monkeys as I'm certain adult non-retarded monkeys would draw up a better game using only their fecal matter... so they had to be baby retarded monkeys... there is no other explanation. I hate this game. Hate. Pure hate. What I'm trying to say is that NBA Live 07 is bad.

MX World Tour Featuring Jamie Little (Xbox) - This was $4.99 at Best Buy. I thought to myself "it has to be worth $5, right?". Well, kind of. Let's just say the Burger King Pocketbike Racer was a touch better than this, but this was mildly entertaining for 20 minutes.

Fantastic Four (Xbox) - This was $9.99 at Best Buy. I thought to myself "it has to be worth $10, and I hope one of the characters is a naked Jessica Alba". So far it's pretty boring, linear, and not really quite worth $10. Also, no naked Alba yet. I'm still holding out hope...

Viva Pinata (Xbox 360) - I actually started up a garden (using my wife's accumalated money, stats, etc...). What a fantastic game. I hope they make more like this. BTW, my wife is at level 97 and has done almost everything in the game. She just needs the Hippo and Lion to become residents and get their variants and romance awards and she'll be 100% complete with everything.

The Godfather (Xbox 360) - My wife bought this game (curse you Viva Pinata for introducing her to my sweet Xbox 360!!), but I played a little of it. GTA meets the Godfather... a little clunky with the fighting system and some of the graphics are last gen looking, but it looks like it could be fun.

NFL 2K5 (Xbox) - 170+ hours into this game and still playing it like mad 2 years later. It may be the greatest game ever made... I can't wait for the 2K7 version (even though it won't have the NFL license)!

Titan Quest(PC)- Graphics look like Diablo but the game could tie you down for at least 40 hours. Not really a rpg game but more like a hack and slash game and for people who really are into customizing their stats and obtaining unique items. At least its set in the world of roman mythology and not in the D&D world
Grade B


Marvel Alliance(360) - Pretty much similiar to the activision titles of the X-men and previous Marvel series. Its alright and the graphics actually look pretty good on the 360. Pretty typical stat,exp and level based game except you get to unlock certain super heros as you progress though the game
Grade B

Rayman's Raving Rabbids: 8.0 (Wii)

Fun mindless minigames


Marvel Ultimate Alliance: 8.5 (360)

Fun mindless action. AN improvement over legends cause casters are actually like... useful.


Wii Sports: 9.5 (Wii)

Lots and lots of fun.

NHL 2K7 (PS3)

I've just played friends so far, and It looks incredible on the PS3

8.5/10

Gears of War (360)

My Older bother just got back from Iraq and gets to stay for a Month. He bought Gears of War and We've been play that alot. We still havent beat the Final Bad Guy.

Anyway this game is Bad Ass, almost as good as Halo

9.5/10

Ultimate Alliance (PS3)

BJ has been playing this, I dont like it

5/10

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (Wii)

Havent done much with the Wii, but this game is really cool

8/10