Call me crazy, but I'm liking this Nintey-Nine Nights (Xbox 360) Game. It has a couple bizarre flaws - like no checkpoints. If you die at the end of a 45 minute long level, you start back at the beginning! However, the dying doesn't happen much now that I figured out how to play the game. It's a simplistic hack and slash, but the sheer volume of crap happening on screen at one time reminds me of Dead Rising in some weird way. Anyhow, it's shaping up to be a solid B and has been a lot of fun.

I revisted NBA Live 07, just to get my points out of the game, and after playing it a little more, I must say I don't quite hate it as much as I did a day or two ago (but that's not saying much). The gameplay still sucks majorly - it plays very clunky, slow, and the player animations are HORRIBLE (it appears there is missing frames of animations with player movements and the shots look incredibly awkward). The whole game feels VERY off and counterintuitive.

I shit you not... to do there new special "playmaker" moves you have to hold the LB button and then tap the RB button to get the playmaker control you want, then hold the LB button while you do a 360 rotation with the right thumb stick, all the while you're trying to move your player into position. That's how intuitive this game is... meaning, it isn't. It just doesn't feel natural. There is still no halftime show, no postgame show.

The only thing it has over 2K7 is a slick pre-game show (player introductions), a better All Star Weekend (dunk competition, 3 point competition, and all the festivities), and perhaps slightly better commentary (Marv and Steve do a pretty good job). However, a game like this lives and dies on the court, and this one firmly is in the "dies" category. I give this turd a D-

A friend brought over Lost Planet yesterday and I played it for a bit, and well... I was disappointed. The game is visually stunning. The details they've put into this game's environments is incredible. And I like how the game has a variety of creatures to run into. Plus, the little hook feature is nice, especially if you're falling off a cliff. But I really, really didn't like the controls and aiming system. Might take some getting used to, but it felt really weird. Next time I play, I'll check to see if that can be changed, though (since it can't once you're in the game). And I don't know, it just wasn't INCREDIBLE like I imagined. Just good.

I'vebeenplayingMGS3.Iplantoplaythroughtheseriesinchronicalorder,soMGS3,Portable Ops,MGS1andMGS2.ImightreplaytheAc!ds,Idunno.Ireallydon'tlikethemthatmuch.

AlsobeenplayingabitofWoWsincemybrothergavemeaBurningCrusadecode,butI'mnotlikingitallthatmuch.

Call of Duty 3 -- Wii

it took me a while to get used to the controls, but it's second nature now and super fun, especially when you have to use the wiimote and nunchuk together as a steering wheel and drive army jeeps.

i'm about 1/3 through the game and so far i'd give it a solid B+

The Outfit (Xbox 360) - The single player is a little repetitive and overall feels lackluster... although, I heard the multiplayer is better, but haven't tried that yet. It's not a bad game by any means, but just needs a little more something for the single player campaign. It'll likely earn a C grade when all is said and done.

i finally played a FF game in a long time since FF7 i think.

I played FF X-2, and i think its fun especially for the bargin i got it for 8 bucks..

My brother gave me his copy of Just Cause(xbox360) and now i know why, its another one of those GTA clones, only difrence is that you can do some cool stuns, the game is only okay so far.

Isayyougotcheated.IhaaaaattteeeFFX-2.Idon'tevenconsideritanFFtobehonest.

Anyway,thelastgameIplayedwasDonkeyKongCountryonmyhomebrewedPSP.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance for the Wii.

Not the best version, but I'm a sucker for anything Marvel.

Gears of War (360)

Not much I can add to what has already been said. Terrific game.

well usally the games for 8 bucks suck ass, but it decent for 8 bucks.

I was shocked to learn that FFX-2 selled over 5 million units...

Zelda: Twilight Princess

Jeez, I I felt like I havnt even scratched one bit of the surface and im already 5hrs into it. Graphics are kinda balls (so wish Wii had more of a graphical push so we could see a REAL next-gen Zelda) but the game is still immersive and fun, really digging it so far.

You actually played a game?!!?!?

I've been playing 2k6 alot and now Zelda.... thats about it.

Gonna start Lost Planet after im done with Zelda

Fuzion Frenzy 2 (Xbox 360) - Holy shit... this game has the all time worst character in a video game of all time. The DJ that guides you through the tournament is the Jar Jar Binks of games. It's like they put all the greatest minds in the world together to try to make the lamest, most stupidest character in a video game, and they succeeded. He almost singlehandedly destroys an otherwise decent game. I can not do justice to how bad this character looks, sounds, and acts.

Anyhow, I was a BIG fan of FF1. This one tinkers with the formula a little, and in almost every area they changed the game, they made it worse. In the last game, the mini games were a mixed bag of GREAT ones and some realy stinkers. In this one, most of the games fall somewhere in the middle. There are not many complete stinkers, but not a whole lot of tremendous ones either. They changed the characters for the worse... gone are the semi-charming voices from #1, replaced by generic and boring one. And, the aforementioned DJ nearly kills the game altogether.

The other terrible addition is multiplier cards in the single player. You can lose every mini game, but play a well timed 6x multiplier card and beat everyone on a single mini-game. It can be VERY frustrating if you're kicking someone's ass and that happens.

The one added bonus over #1 is Xbox Live functionality... however, you can not bring a guest on your machine to play another. Only one player per machine, which absolutely sucks as I tried to get a 4 player game together with somebody else, but we could only play 2 players with 2 computer controlled players.

Overall, as a party game with 4 players in the same room playing ONLY the mini game frenzy (meaning the DJ isn't there as much and you're selecting each game), it is a good game. As a single player game it is even worse than the first (which wasn't good in that regard either). On XBL, the no guest thing really kills the potential.

Overall grade: C

This is the 2nd time in recent history that a HIGHLY anticpated sequel has let me down... DOAX2 was the other one. If Halo 3 lets me down, I'm going to cry. I can't take anymore disappointment!

Quake 4 (I picked it up for $15)

The single player mode is fairly fun but feels pretty easy even on the higher difficulty levels. I got the game a bit late in its run, so there aren't many people playing it online and thus I cannot say much about the multiplayer.

Good:
-Lighting
-Team interactions (having medics is kinda fun)
-Weapon upgrades

Bad
-load times are horrible and happen every time you die.
-the achievement system for this game needs a major overhall, playing through on higher difficulties should give you points for lower difficulties as well (Gears of War does)
-Some of the enemies are highly stupid and easily dispatched
-Vehicle levels suck

I popped in my copy of Quake IV again not too long ago. For a launch game, it wasn't bad, but it was a pretty poor PC port, I thought. The frame rate at times wasn't very smooth, and the whole thing felt very Doom 3'ish.

**spoiler ahead**

[spoil]
The other thing that kind of bothered me was I thought they dropped the ball on the single player when your character gets turned into a half-alien thingy (or whatever they were). I thought they could have done something different with that - give the character some more strength, added powers... something... ANYTHING. Instead, he handles and plays exactly the same way as before. Seemed kind of like some wasted potential there [/spoil]

I do remember the achievement points being kind of stupid, too. I don't think I ever got very many on that game.

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (360)

Yes, I'm a bit behind. I bought my 360 just last month. I'm trying to catch up with all of the games that are universally hailed as being must haves for the system.

I'm liking this alot. The story and presentation are solid. I just wish you had a bit more control over your squad. You can send the three of them to complete a task as a group but you can't split them up individually - or at least groups of two. I also have a problem with how cover is handled here. You have to walk up to a wall and keep pushing the analog stick forward until your guy takes cover. Most of the time it works but sometimes if the camera angle is a bit off he goes into and immediately comes out of cover. Playing Gears of War first just highlights how polished the controls of that game are. Taking cover and performing rolls and other evasive maneuvers just becomes second nature after about 15 minutes of play.

Wii Play.

....It came with a Wiimote, so that's a plus.

The rest of it...It's fun the first time you play some of the mini games, but subsequent attempts get less fun. I imagine it works better as a party game. A drunk party game.

I had to get my 1500 gamerscore points to win a butt load of free stuff from MS... so I played the following games in the last 24 hours:

NCAA March Madness 07 (Xbox 360) - Just like NBA Live 07 (which was suck-tacular). However, I did like the momentum aspect in which your team/crowd gets pumped up the better you play. Still, it sucks as a b-ball game, though. Got a cool 880 points out of it in about 3 hours. Grade: D

Superman Returns (Xbox 360) - I'm 75% through the game in 2.5 hours of play. It's so unbelievably repetitive that it feels like I played it for 8 hours. There are glimpses of a good game in here at times, but it's buried in massively crappy repetitive missions and graphics that only a blind person could enjoy. So far it netted me 340 easy gamerpoint, though. Grade: D+

NCAA Footbal 07 (Xbox 360) - I played a single game (20 minutes) and got 320 gamerpoints. Although, I must say that it did appear to be a pretty solid game. It's basically Madden 07 with a college theme, but all the play modes and features are here and it looks and plays well. Grade: B

So, thank you EA (who made all of the above games) for getting me 1,520 gamerpoints in under 1 day. You make ultra-shitty games, but you make the gamerpoints easy.

All in all, I won a copy of Fuzion Frenzy 2 (which I already have), a free T-shirt, 200 MS points, the Contra XBLA game, and most importantly - an Old Spice gamer picture! I knew my game playing would pay off one of these days!

Crackdown (Xbox 360) - Got this game today and played a little co-op... I'm really digging it the more I play it. Looks like it's going to be a LOT of fun. I see this game falling in the A- range when all is said and done, but I'm still really early so it could change.

Madden 07 (Xbox 360) - Definitely better than '06, as it has all the modes and things you'd expect. The create a player mode sucks ass (can't just pick the players stats, you have to play frustrating mini games to determine their abilities). There are a lot of small things I don't like (lack of any halftime or post game show, the radio announcer sucks, etc...), but it's a serviceable football game until something else comes along.

On tap: Marvel Ultimate Alliance - just bought it, but haven't tried it yet.

The Godfather -- Xbox 360

I've been playing this game non-stop lately. i'm friggin addicted to it! It's got it's flaws, but it's one of the funnest games i've played recently. I'd give it a solid B+

Last 5 games played

Lego Starwars. C+/B- Pretty fun game and quite humorous but after awhile some of the gameplay gets a little boring because of its simplicity. One thing I do like is that you get to unlock characters and useful skills with money you earn

Battle of Midway C Great graphics and nice engine but the problem is its a world war 2 similation game with hard to control engines and I somehow cant get into WW type games too much. Maybe the concept doesnt make that much of an interesting genre to play with

Ninety Nine Nights C+ aint too bad although I did hate having to restart a game 20 minutes behind if I die. The game would have been better if they gave more missions to the darkside characters who I found more interesting than the ones on the humanside. They sort of blew it on that aspect of things. Had it been based mainly on the trolls and goblins, it would have been a very interesting game

Splinter Cell Double Agent B Great graphics again and some of the scenary is great too. Stealth games are one of myh favorites but something again makes it feel too empty. Like I mentioned WW type of games are somwhat boring but maybe I should change it to military type games are somwhat boring. I normally would give the game a bad grade but since it doesnt take place in the military entirelyh, it deserves a few points. Theres some unevenness because I enjoy hijacking the boat cruise and the jail cell than I did being a mole in a terrorist group I work for. Tom Clancy games a little too hard to be enjoyable. I would say that the Hitman games are done better than Splinter Cell. Hitman Bloodmoney is a game you should pick up if you like DA

Crackdown B+ Addicting in the beginning but the game felt very short with alot of emphasis on fighting. I needed a GTA game to tie me over for while since the last one that really was enjoyble was Saints Row(Godfather was alright while Just Cause I still couldnt find myself enjoying and Scarface is dead on arrival). I guess it did its job but theres really no replay value and no character customization like Saints Row if I want to make my character to look like Mr T or Carrottop. Ill probably try a few round in co-op in the meantime till GTA:VCS hits the PS2

Okami B+ Havent spent alot of time playing it, I may raise or lower my grade but so far Im enjoying it even though I played it for just an hour and a half. Its another good reason to dust off the PS2 since the concept itself is quite original and plays somewhat like a roleplaying game with a few side missions.

Game: Dance Dance Revolution Universe (X360)

I've played it for only three hours, but that was enough time to get through each song on basic (2-4 feet) in the normal game mode, and complete the lesson mode to get a refresher course on dancing. I haven't played the quest mode or the challenge mode, so there's really nothing too new to report. One thing I have to say is that I prefer the old school songs (Captain Jack, Dam Darriram, Boom Boom Dollar) though I may just need more time to get familiar with these newer ones.

One thing, those backgrounds are seizure inducing. So many flashing colours and activity, at times it is kind of distracting. The mat the bundle comes with is fine, no real slippage, but I haven't tried any quicker songs that would require more frantic movement.

Look forward to playing more, when my legs recover.

Interesting. At least like you mentioned it has some old school songs, I just hope they dont have teeny bopper songs. My own tormented mind wants me to get the game. A good concept that they could come up with in the future is a guitar hero/ Dance Dance revolution package into one using both sockets to play both games at once