No help, but your post was so detailed!

DiRT: B+

A very good racing game. Graphics are really good and the damage to the cars is outstanding. Multiplayer sucks because you never really race against opponets on screen... you race their time. Pretty cool game if you like racers.

Yea, I kinda do that with games or anything I like in general when reviewing, describing, etc them. Just wait until I get farther into Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Wii).

It had been a few weeks since I bought a new game, and I was going through withdrawl, so I bought Dirt today. I feel much better now.

DiRT is fantastic so far. The best racer on the 360. The diversity of races, tracks, and vehicles is amazing. I love the physics, vehicle handling, and damage modeling.

Also, I didn't mind the multiplayer as much as Demandred. With Rally races, I don't know how you'd have all 100 people on the same course at the same time. I kind of like racing without the others on screen as it elimiates worrying about dirty racers who bump you off course. Plus, it has a nifty voting feature where in between races everybody gets to vote on the next one.

So far, DiRT is shaping up to be a solid A.

Rayman Raving Rabbits - This one is mostly being played by my wife, but I have to jump in and save the day on the rare ocassion when a mini game gets too hard for her and it requires a man's extraordinary video game skills. It's definitely a Wii-type game... disposable without much below the surface, but mildly entertaining. It reminds me of a cross between Fuzion Frenzy, WarioWare, and Mario Party. The humor is good and the story mode (which utilizes the minigames) is intriguing, but a little too repetitive. It does support the Vision camera for Eye Toy type control, but I have to imagine this a game that would be better with the Wii-mote as it was designed with that in mind. C+

As for Dirt - I've just about completed it and would highly recommend it to anyone with a PS3 or 360. Very cool racing game.

Ninja Gaiden is so far the best game this year hands down Ive played this year. Im sure the grade will change once Lair,Assasins Creed,GTA, Mass Effect and Bioshock gets released. The graphics look real good and better than most of the games Ive seen on the 360. I cant make up my mind which one has better graphics between Gears of War and Ninja Gaiden. Im absolutely addicted to the game
9.8/10 A

Why would your grade change because new titles are released? Or do you mean your ranking of "best game this year hands down" will change?

Best Game hands down is subject to change till the fall season. Besides there really hasnt been that many games Ive played and enjoyed. So far only Crackdown, Overlord, Command & Conquer are the games I enjoyed this year

I've been tackling the N64 games now... some games hold up well (Wave Race 64, Blast Corps, NBA Jam) and others don't (Perfect Dark, Goldeneye and any sports titles like Madden and NBA Live).

Time is not kind to these first generation 3D systems. Everything is blocky and murky. I think the 2D systems (NES and SNES) actually hold up better.

I was in Wal-Mart today and picked up some games from the bargain bin.

SSX On Tour (XBox)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (XBox)
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (XBox)
Rockstar Presents Table Tennis (X360)
Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins (PSP)

Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins is kinda fun. I've never played this series before and it's kinda like a Mario game.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Wii)

I've played enough of this now to type a half dozen paragraphs on it, so here it goes. If you like Harry Potter, this is really a must buy (though I will say there are some better games out there you may want to spend 50 bucks on, but at least get this when it's marked down to 29/39, whatever the drop is). This Potter game follows the movie (haven't seen it, but I can tell it does) much, much better than the past games. Especially GOF >.<It>.<. You have to raise the nunchuck and Wiimote in the air to list an object, and must keep them raised to levitate the object and if you move them higher, the object goes higher, and if you move them to the right, the object goes to the right, etc. But that isn't too bad, the bad thing is getting actually using the spell. Half the time it takes multiple attempts to cast it correctly. I think they could have made this spell WAY easier to use. But it doesn't kill the game, since you never have to use the spell THAT much or within a time limit situation. And unlike past games where you assign spells to the control thing, like X is a certain spell and Y is another. Now you can just twist, turn, swing, etc the Wiimote in the correct manner to cast the spells. So you can cast different spells without having to re-assign a certain spell. It's a nice change, and makes the game quicker paced. Overall the controls are solid, with Wengardium Leviosa being a pain at times.

Well, I didnt even mention the castle design >.< The Stairs finally are just like the stairs in the movies, and not just a spiral from top to bottom. And there are...many, many paintings just like in the movies, and a good 1/4 of them move, so that's a nice touch. And the castle itself is just massive in scale. I still can't find, say the library. I can, but it takes time if I don't use the map. Ok, now the map. The map is great, and easy. Just open it, click on a room or person, and footsteps will lead you to them/it. The map in POA was a JOKE!! This is finally done right.

The graphics are solid, and they scanned many of the actors faces to give them a more realistic appearance, and it works. None of the other games did this. The voice overs are kinda meh. They sound like the characters (they got 22 cast members to do voice overs), but it's lifeless most of the time.

Now dueling. There arent many duels in the game, maybe 5 total. I STRONGLY recommend to stay away from anyone, and to run from side to side when fighting. If you do not, and just stand there and cast spells, you will die pretty quick, unless you keep usiing Pretego (sp?) to deflect them back over and over, but this doesnt work all the time since deflected spells often miss and you are open to attack. So just keep on the move, and cast when the time is right. The battle before the Dumbledore/Voldemort battle is quite fun. You team with Sirius to battle Lucious and Bellatrix. The Dumbledore/Voldemort battle is bad though. You play as Dumbledore and are still only given the common spells used in the game. And the beginning is boring because you just go around the Fountain casting spells at Voldemort and vice versa. Do enough damage, and he gets on the fountain. He charges? (you cant hit him, he absorbs the spells) and casts every spell he absorbed back at you. You then just deflect all of them back at him. He never deflects them back.... It's pretty meh, and shows the deveopers put everything into creating Hogwarts and very little into most everything else. But this is good, because it finally feels like the Potter Universe.

There are MANY unlockable material. Mostly trophies, but also about a dozen videos about the game/movie. They are very good. And the music in the one gallery one is AWESOME!!! But it's not on the Movie Soundtrack I wanted that one.

Potter fans will fall in love. Not for anyone else obviously. Not sure about the replay value yet. Im still unlocking the final videos, but after that, well, there's nothing left besides just walking around. Which is fun in itself because the Castle and Grounds are so huge (moreso the Castle.).

Grade: 8/10

Just bought NCAA Football 2008 and All Pro Football 2K8 today. NCAA is spot on as always, All Pro I'm going to have to spend some more time playing.

Tetris DS

All Pro Football 2K8 (Xbox 360) - I love APF2K8 so far, and it's great to have the 2K football back. The gameplay is similar to 2K5, so it's very solid. The presentation (commentary/halftime show/postgame show) all blow Madden out of the water. There are a tons of team create options and the number of former pro football players involved is impressive. The original stadiums are very unique, and rock. I played 3 online matches and all ran as smooth as if the player was sitting right next to you playing on the same console.

On the negative side, a lot of the commentary is re-used from 2K5. While everything is highly customizable, there is still some things that are not... for example you have to select your team name from a long list, and can't just name it whatever you want. There is no Crib, an awesome feature from 2K5. There is also no franchise mode and no minigames or anything else. The graphics won't blow you away and some of the looks on the player's faces are downright scary. It feels like an early generation game where they are 1 year away from making everything perfect and are missing a few options and need to polish a few areas.

However, the bottom line is that it's a lot of fun - if you liked 2K5 (I did), you'll probably love 2K8 (I do). I really don't miss the fact that it doesn't have the NFL license a bit.

Just finished up Resistance: Fall of Man for the PS3.

Once again Insomniac delivers a solid title to the Sony line up. Unfortunately it has been the only title as well.

The good: Solid, fun gameplay. A very hectic experience at times, running and gunning trying to avoid death. The last level in particular is like that, with waves and waves of badguys being thrown at you. Could be quite challenging at times, though not frustrating.

The setting I also like a lot. Get the real feeling that a massive war has been commencing for quite some time. Rubble, barricades, etc etc etc. It was also fun taking down some big bad machines all by yourself.

Some of the weapons in the game were cool. My most used was probably the bullseye, which you could stick someone with a marker, and then all the bullets fired would go directly to it. Was very helpful in many situations. bullseye someone, go behind cover, and then just shoot in the air and kill them while decently covered. The best weapon was probably the Hailstorm. I didn't use it too much, bu that's because it was so powerful, and had very few rounds in it. What you could do with this gun is shoot out a clip (which takes 50 of its ammunition) and it would act like a sentry gun and shoot everything near it. Came in very handy with waves of badguys coming at you.

Also, any game that adds co-op to it gets a + in my book.

The bad: You don't save, the game saves for you, and some of the checkpoints where they save were too far back. I remember dying a couple of times and having to go a bit back and thinking it was BS. Most of the checkpoints were fine, though.

The needle grenades. You threw them, and they shot needles in every direction. They were cool, however I wish the needles didn't disappear.

The loading times could get long, but you don't get many loads that close together.

One shot kills not that common. I'd even have trouble getting it with a sniper rifle. though grenades if placed right, and bazooka shots did the trick, but that isn't what I want! I like my shooters to have a more realistic feel to them, where I can shoot someone in the head or heart and they would die instantly. Oh wells.

Overall: Just a very fun console FPS. Insomniac has yet to develop a game I haven't enjoyed. After playing through it, I can definitely tell you that there's going to be a sequel. I will buy it.

Final Grade: 8.5/10

NCAA is awesome so far. I really love the Campus Legend mode, and the improvements they made to recruiting in the Dynasty mode. I haven't really touched APF2K8 yet.

Sonic (Wii) - best Sonic game in years. It's actually closer in gameplay to NiGHTS than any previous Sonic game. Very satisfying, even if the controls are a bit fiddly at times.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (360).

I was really in the Potter mood last week so I rented this game. It is a solid, albeit easy game, with lots of exploration if you want to dally in such things. You could probably beat it in less than four hours if you don't partake in the side quests. It also is an easy 500 achievement points with the others attainable.

Graphics are not so great and their are some collission detection problems, which I always find in EA games....still, it was a fun game and had many of the scenes not found in the movie.

7.5/10

I actually had some time to play some 4 player RRR games not too long ago. It is a fun 4 player game.

As for the controls on the 360 - I would imagine it would be better on the Wii, but using the 360 controller wasn't bad. The shooting bunnies games operate a lot like any old FPS (except without camera control as it is on "rails"). The mini games generally have you press the left and right triggers back and forth as fast as possible to run, and some games mix in buttons and the sticks. It's like most any other party game... good fun in multiplayer, gets old fast in single player.

I can't imagine it's a deep game for either system, though.

I'm still playing - and still enjoying - All Pro Football 2K8. I completed my first season, and made my very own highlight reel:

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/thQ3sxPfUZQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed>

It's fun for an afternoon. I'd rather play it than WarioWare: Smooth Moves. But as far as party games on the Wii go, Mario Party 8 is the best. Seriously, it doesn't feel stale like MP3 - 7 did, I never really liked them but MP8 is fantasticly fun. I've owned it for almost two months and everytime I play it I have a very fun time.

Played a few hours of Resistance: Fall of Man and it kicks ass.

Is that X360?