No wonder I got no reply to my Live message...

Lego Indy is a lot of fun too. Just try the demo if you don't believe me.

If you ever message me and get no reply... it's her. She ignores all messages.

I'd get her a separate gamertag, but then I'd lose all those achievement points that she gets me. So, instead I choose to live with the confusion.

I'm being told that Lego Batman is without a doubt better than Lego Indiana Jones. She says there is more variety to the levels, you get to play as both heroes and villains in the single player campaign, and the Gotham setting is also a lot more fun than the Indy setting.

From what I've watched and played of both (not a lot), I'd agree with that assessment.

Also, Lego Indy is soon to be a pack in with the 360, as I have been told. If that's true, you'll be able to find Lego Indy on Ebay for a nickle if you wait for that to happen (just like Forza and the Marvel game).

Lost Planet: I finally understand why people disliked the game so much. Its redeeming qualities aren't all that redeeming to begin with. Got to 6 stages and finally quit. C

Kameo: Shocked by how much i enjoyed this game. B+

Blue Dragon: Fixed every problem Lost Odyssey had but introduced more and far more troubling ones. Game gets a B- from me and makes me question the health of every Japanese person out there who stood in line to buy this. But who am i to criticize. I still finished it in 50 hours.

I always felt that Kameo was one of the more underrated games on the 360. It was one of the launch games I enjoyed the most. RARE gets shit on way too much in general lately... they've really made some decent games in the last few years, but it just feels like they're on the wrong platform and have had a lot of trouble connecting with the Xbox userbase.

Lost Planet remains the most disappointing game I have ever played on the 360. Being it was from Capcom (makers of my fav 360 game, Dead Rising) and received a lot of good hype, I expected big things. I played a couple levels and quit... I had zero desire to play anymore of it. It just completely blew.

Issue with Lost Planet was this entire mission based thing that happened for the sake of happening. No continuity at all per say cept by a loosely put together story line ... they tried to take the route of Mech Assault and failed miserably. And then the whole timer thing .. uggh .... the fact that your inaction results in death is the worst idea in video gaming.

Kameo was awesome for 2 very simple reason.

- Creativity: The use of multiple characters depending on situations made the game very creative and on top of that, allowed for some great settings and unique fighting styles.
- Music: Excellent music that actually made you feel like everything somehow rided on your success.

The game could have been much more if they'd improved a few things but the entire concept and everything was pulled off well. For one thing, some of the latter characters became pretty much useless as once Thermite shows up, why bother using anyone else unless you needed the skills of another character. Hope there could be a Kameo 2 one day.

In other news, just started Ninety Nine Nights (bought it for 5 bucks). from the 2 stages i've played, it may just become the biggest guilty pleasure.

I played almost all the day through Saint's Row 2. So far, it seems to be about 20% bigger and longer than the last Saint's Row which was quite sort by itself. Is it better than GTA 4? No way but its still a very good game and they have some great features that the last GTA 4 doesnt have or excluded. By comparison, here are the few things how SR2 stacks up with GTA4 single player.

Pros:
Better and more diverse weapons than GTA. You get cool weapons like samurai swords, chainsaws, machine guns and a flamethrower. Some you have to unlock through side quests

Customizable characters. I was able to create a 1970s anchormanish character completely with a groovy voice. I mean if you want to create Mr. T, Ali G, and Borat, all the tools are provided

Earning cash is rewarding because you get to spend every dollar buying property to gives you some perks.

Cars are customizable and you can store multiple ones in garage

Side quests are more fun and awarding because you gain perks, advantages and states. Thats one thing GTA lacks was theres barely any sidequests and when there were it only rewards you cash. SR2 sidequests are great because they are more diverse

You get cooler vehicles because you get to fly jets, hijack huge boats and place them in a safe harbor

Gang affliation and you get your own posse

cons
Graphics still look the same as the first game. Its quited pixelized but then again its a sandbox game. GTA4's graphics look way better and is more detailed

Their selection of music still sucks. I know Im an 80s fan but their selection for that genre are too common and heard through radios millions of times. The great thing about the VC soundtrack was they used semi rare gems that were almost forgotten but were good music. The modern selection SR choosen was crap too. The DJs suck and were never funny. GTA wins that category by a mile

Character voice and acting would still go to GTA 4. The characters in GTA 4 are more likable while the good guys in SR2 are complete dicks

Game play seems too short compared with GTA 4. Im 95% through the main mission and have completed 50% of the side missions. Time wise, GTA 4 is twice as big in missions and the map is 1.5 times bigger

I'm through with 1 character in Ninety Nine Nights.

Straight up. Its one of my biggest guilty pleasures. I love everything about it, Graphics, gameplay and its total retardness.

I also like it's warcraft/alternative story approach.

- its like warcraft in that you end one character and then start with the next, in some ways moving the story along.
- in another cool twist, you also get to play 2 characters at different times who were part of the same mission, cept the other is leading and the decisions and parts of the maps you play are completely different, if you choose to, due to the characters personality. I loved that aspect when i got through the first and realized that the 2nd character was her brother who gains leadership instead and makes completely different choices.

Con?

One big huge problem with the game.
Each level is progressively harder. Save points at the end of levels. it discourages you to explore more as the last thing you want is to die and play an entire mission again. Mission can last about 35 minutes to an hour depending on how much you play in that level.

Soooo Lego Batman is out? Yay - I have to check that out as Lego Indy was a fun game.

How did you get SR2 early, Roid? I'm debating running out at midnight and getting it. Is it good enough to warrant a midnight run to get the game?

Ah, 99 Nights... I actually did like that game. It was a fun hack and slash with a good set of characters and a ton of enemies on the screen to whack away at. Definitely a guilty pleasure. I think I gave it a B.

The only thing that made me feel awkward about the game was that the couple female characters were wearing the sluttiest outfits (one had a pair of sweater kittens spilling out of her 'armor')... now, normally I have no problem with that, but these characters were supposed to be 13 years old. It was an odd choice in story/design. Then again, I believe it was made in Japan, so that would explain it.

I got it from a store called Gameplay. I believe they are releasing Fable 2 early this friday too. I never camp for games during midnight runs so Im probably the wrong person to ask. Its better than Saint's Row 1 though. I would probably rank the game somewhere in the same vicinity as Crackdown

I did pick up SR2 last night at midnight - I was the only person there for it.

I've only had a few hours to play it, but here's my very early impressions and how it stacks up to GTA IV:

- The character create is fantastically awesome, and some of the choices are hilarious.
- The level of customization in general is phenomenal.
- The graphics aren't as gritty or realistic as GTA IV, but it looks sharper and clearer overall. In many ways I actual prefer SR2 style to GTA IV as I think the less realistic vibe works for this type of games, and the fuzzy/graniness of GTAIV kind of bugged me. I did note a lot of screen tearing in SR2.
- Clearly GTA IV has the deeper more detailed environment, but SR2 is good in this area too.
- The few side missions I've done are really fun... like the Fuzz one where you pretend to be an officer and beat people silly for high crimes, such as littering. In general it appears the sidemissions and distractions will be miles ahead of anything in GTAIV.
- As Roid mentioned, the characters aren't that likable in SR2. They don't do a good job at making the bad guys have depth or be very likable, something GTA does MUCH better.
- I think this game is going to be more pure fun than GTA IV, but will clearly have less depth.

So, so far I'm really enjoying it!

NBA2K9 - PS3

After bitching with my machine to try and download the latest software, 1.10 whatever, it still won't download and stops at 4% (anyone know what could be wrong), I gave up and got the game going. I've only played one game so I can't really go into detail about what's different between last year and this year, but the visuals look great, especially in HD. The only thing I'm not the biggest fan of is being on defense. I gave up 124 points to the Cavaliers with the Celtics defense on a quarter setting of 8 minutes. I can't be that awful. I'll probably get the hang of it though. The game seems like it's going to be fun once again. They're the best when it comes to the NBA.

After playing a little more, a couple notes on your points, Roid:

I like the music line up quite a bit. I also like that you can make your own custom radio station from the entire playlist... a very cool feature. One thing I don't like is they got rid of the talk radio... the conservative talk radio from SR1 was hilarious. In general there isn't as much humor on the stations as you'd find in GTA, and that's my only beef there.

You must be a fast player... I'm over 10 hours in and only finished one of the gangs. I haven't even touched the others yet, and haven't done a ton of the side missions yet. At my current rate, it should take me 30-40 hours to complete the game, which was only slightly under GTA IV. The replayability seems high - with the co-op and endless character possibilities.

Other than customization, I found the song selection rather weak. The alternative station on GTA 4 chose a better and more diverse selection and the electronic station on SR2 was already rehasing 2 songs from the GTA4 electronic station. Its true that SR2 tried to at least have a couple of different stations but then again they only have the same 6-7 songs playing in the same station. The humor I found in the SR2 falls flat because they are trying to hard to be like GTA4. I guess the stuff on GTA4 is more cleverly done and more hidden than SR2 .


The side missions are very cool like you mentioned Fuzz but also Septic Avenger and Fight Club. The rewards are great. When I was done with the game, it clocks me in to maybe around 30 hours. Thats with half of the side missions also done too. GTA 4 clocks in around 50+ hrs for me but I still havent completed the the Helicopter, racing, escort,car delivery,hitman and insurance fraud missions for SR2 either. I'll probably go back to completing them late this year because of the bombardment of games coming out (Dead Space, LBP, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Resistence 2, GOW2, Left 4 Dead). Fable 2 should arrive at the same store that I got SR2 early this friday

Im gonna come right out and say it: Saint's Row 2 is better and more fun that Grand Theft Auto 4!!! And you wanna know why..... freaking CO-OP baby!!!! I have said it before and I will say it again: co-op makes everything better.

I haven't tried the co-op yet, but I have to agree... I'm having a ton more fun with Saint's Row 2 than I did with GTA IV. It reminds me a lot of GTA Vice City with a ton more to do and a ton of customization. It's just flat out fun and I can spend hours with the customization options.

GTA IV is a great game, and much more epic and story driven than SR2, but to be honest, I prefer the shallow craziness that SR2 offers. I find myself running around causing mayhem (or streaking through the town) much more often than I did in GTA IV. In the end, I think SR out GTA'd GTA.

Also, in case anybody else doesn't know, and likes the customization stuff... I just discovered there are 3 more clothing stores hidden in the mall in the Nob Hill district that are not on the map (neither is the mall). They are 3 of the funnier/odd clothing stores.

I thought that you didn't like the sandbox games that were geared more toward mindless fun, and less toward meaty story? Saint's Row 2 definitely falls into the mindless fun category, and it's story is secondary, so if that's not your thing, then you probably won't like this.

However, I will say that the mindless fun is very good stuff. I've completely forgotten about doing the story missions myself, and have been doing all the secondary activities and random things.

Dead Space

Very atmospheric. An HUD style that i'm 100% sure will be copied by every game here on end (not to say they're completely original about it but man is it well put together. sadly no pausing during inventory and map checks is annoying. and ofcourse, specific save points. thank god they're closesly spaced)

Finished 2 chapters.

- Awesome HUD
- Awesome killing concept. Great that the shooter cannot rely on shooting the body or the headshots. Killing something quickly is totally based on selective dismemberment of each limb.
- upgrading. very cool way to do it.

The bad

- Complex control. there is a whole secondary control when you press LT. makes it annoying cause i can't remember what combo does what sometimes, ending up using my stasis and obviously, you can't heal while aiming now.
- lack of pause during inventory less bothersome now.


I urge you all to buy it, cept tony, whose simple mind won't be able to understand the complexities of the game.

Was playing Smash Bros. on the N64 last night. Still the best. Ever.