2 more days till Dead Rising gets released and 2 weeks later Saints Row. Finally the game of the year contenders have arrived other than Oblivion

Dead Rising's demo was a little disappointing. But it was really short, though.

Reviews are good, not RE4 level or anything but actually better then I expected, I was really thinking the game would end up very shitty and repetitive, but it sounds pretty damn good.

XBL Arcade games

Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting: I've been looking forward to Street Fighter since it was announced and I have to say, they did a half decent job. The single player arcade is hard. Like really hard. So hard that it took me over an hour to beat the game on the easiest difficulty. Let's just say the AI is insanely cheap. However, where the game really shines is the online portion. It's top notch. B

Cloning Clyde: Cute, fun little distraction for an hour. B-

Galaga: Same as the arcade version. No multiplayer is inexcusible. C

Frogger: Same as the arcade with updated graphics. Multiplayer is cool addition. C+

Xbox 360 games

Prey: Cool little game with some niffty little twists(portals and gravity). However, it's way to freaking short and the multiplayer is complete shit. C+

MotoGP 06: Lets just say I played it once for 20 minutes and mailed it right back. F

Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2: The best RTS game I've ever played on a console. The controls are tight and the online multiplayer is great. The single player campaigns aren't bad either. B+

Prey (Xbox 360) - As Demandred said, it is short.... I completed Prey in less than a day. It also suffers from the same fate as Doom 3 and Quake IV - it's too repetitive. The metal space ship corridors get boring after a few hours, and the plot is non-existent for most of the game. The very first level in the bar is by far the best level of the game, and it was kind of downhill from there. Another knock was that the weaponary was really boring and could have been so much better. Still, it wasn't horrible, and it did have it's moments... In the end it was worth playing through despite the problems. I give it a C+/B-...

Dead Rising Demo (Xbox 360) - I really liked the demo... really, really liked it. The sheer number of weapons and ways to kill zombies was very impressive. I personally loved killing zombies with the bowling ball, katana, skateboard, shopping cart, golf club, and guitar. Some great interactive items... like grabbing a frying pan, heating it up on the burner and then burning a zombies face with it. Another fun hobby was grabbing the masks from the toy store and putting them on the zombies head. And lastly it was also fun to throw CDs at them and watch them bounce harmlessly off. There is an impressive amount of action on screen, and I thought the game looked very promising. The demo exceeded my already high expectations.

But at least you completed the game unlike Doom,Quake and Half Life. I give it a B/B- simply because it doesnt give me motion sickness and yes like I mentioned the bar was only in briefly. Cant wait for Dead Rising and Saints Row though

I completed Doom 3 and Quake 4... but you're right about Half-Life 2 - I'll probably never clear that one as it bores me to tears.

I can't believe that Prey doesn't give you motion sickness! It's one of the only games that nearly made me sick from all the quick gravity switching back and forth.

I checked everywhere for Dead Rising today, but nobody has it in stock yet. I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow... I may head out a midnight and check if any of the 24 hour stores are selling it.

Thankfully I reserved my copy for Dead Rising few weeks back at Gamespot. If they dont have it in stock, Ill go Dead Rising on them

I gotted Dead Rising today! So far it looks groovy and I can tell there is a lot to do other than just hack and slash zombies (which isn't a bad thing). I'll reserve a final grade for later, but so far, so good!

I've been playing Need for Speed: Most Wanted non-stop recently.

I only played Dead Rising for two hours and Im quite hooked. Its definately better than RE but the only problems I have with the game is that the makers got too lazy with the side characters and put straight text dialogue instead of voicing them. Not that its bad but if they are going to provide text only, the fonts shouldnt be as small as the text Im typing out and it scrolls way too fast for my taste to rebrief the whole mission, oh and the save mode really really sucks since you are limited to one save per game. Other than that there areover 3 dozen ways to kill a zombie and Ill reserve my grade till I play the game fully. Its not as exiciting as Oblivion but its the second best Xbox 360 game so far

It's really easy to mess up in Dead Rising and have to start over.

Yup because of the 72 hour helicopter lift off. Thats one bad thing about it is it doesnt allow multiple saves and the freaking text is way too small to read. Other than that, its a really fun game to play

Best games so far I played that was released in 06

1. Oblivion A+ (9.8/10)
2. Dead Rising A+(9.5/10), its main flaw is the crappy save system
3. Hitman Blood Money B+(8.5/10), the game could have been longer and could have used alot longer missions. I loved the interface alot
4.LOTR:Middle Earth B(7.5/10)typical strategy game that gets redundant after awhile but still enjoyable to play
5.Prey B-(6.7/10) Weeeee motion sickness is gone, I liked the beginning scene but after that it gets extremely redundant when you enter the dark cooridors
6.Outfit D(4.0/10) Boring. I stopped playing it after 2 hrs
7.Dynasty Empire 5 (NA) 30mins into it I gave up on trying to figure out the commands so I stoping playing it

I still like Dead Rising, but apparently there are some super frustrating things about the end. Also the infinity mode that you unlock after clearing isn't as cool as it sounds as it is extremely tough. My brother cleared it and was telling me about it. I won't spoil any of it for those playing it, but I was thinking it sounded like more of a pain in the ass, instead of fun.

Still... all in all it's an inventive orginal game and has a TON going for it. Personally, I love it so far, I'd give it an A, but will have to see this ending stuff before I can put a final stamp of approval on my grade... it could drop to a B+/A- if it really bites.

2006 released games ratings:
1. Dead Rising - A
2. Fight Night Round 3 - A
3. Oblivion - A-
4. Rockstar's Table Tennis - A-
5. Prey B-
6. Rumble Roses XX - B-
7. Full Auto C+
8. Top Spin 2 - C-

Dead Rising is so much fun, I still give it a strong A but it could have been better if they fix the little features as save and the text font being way too small and scrolls out way too fast. The escort missions are sometimes a pain because the npc AI is so bad with the pathfinding.Other than that this is the best zombie game there is and it even blows out the RE series out of the water. I mean Im almost near the end of the game with 85% done (Im on case 8 currently with one more case to go) but theres still a few missions I have to go back to because I didnt complete them in time. What I like about the game is all the unlockables you get for killing pyschos and zombies. Its extremely open ended like Sims and Oblivion. Hows the game for you so far Tony?

Hitman Contracts for the PS2. (got it for my birthday) Reminds me of how inferior consoles are for games that require aiming, after playing Hitman: Blood Money on my PC.

I'm at the exact same place you are (last case file on #8... the butcher). However, my brother has gone through the game 3 times, and without spoiling too much of anything, let's just say the game gets a lot more frustrating from here on out and we are both a little ways from being truly done.

Also, there are 6 different endings.... if you want the "true ending" you have to complete all the case files, visit Isabella once before 10am and once after 10am (on the last day), and be at the helipad at 12pm (the 72 hour point). The true ending unlocks infinity mode, so make sure you visit Izzy at the required times and get to the helipad if you want that mode. That also unlocks the overtime mode...

Anyhow, it truly is one of the best games I've played so far. I really don't mind the save system that much once I got used to it, and adds a bit of realism. The text is small, but on a large HDTV it isn't too bad... I'm actually more upset that they didn't use voice actors to round out those parts.

The replayability is through the roof since you get to keep your same level and all your stats and skills when you start over. I'm currently level 17 and am looking forward to going back to day 1 with all my skills. I can't wait to get a little better at hand to hand... at the high levels you can start to rip out the zombie's spines with your bare hands.

OXM UK gave Saints Row 8.0

GTA: SA got a 9.6

Im guessing it's not the next GTA. They actually gave True Crime: NY an 8 aswell and True Crime: LA an 8.2, so yeah no wonder THQ hasnt been hyping the shit out of the game.

#1. OXM UK reviewed a preview version

#2. 8.0 is not bad.

#3. A single score is not indicitive of what everyone will give the game

#4. GTA:SA got several scores in the 70-80 range, and the NYT even gave it a 60 (which goes along with point #3).

#5. I've never seen anybody point to a single 8.0 score as proof that a game is crap. Makes you look like you have fanboy leanings, kill. Why not play the game yourself and/or wait for more reviews to come out (on the final build) to make a call on this game for sure?

Ummm, im comparing it to what similar games got in their magazine, GTA might've gotten some 7's and 6's but OXM UK gave it a 9.6, while Saints got a similar score to True Crime, shouldnt it of scored similar to GTA if it was just as good?

I mean for a game thats supposedly the next GTA according to some that got the demo, I think it should be getting 9's & 10's across the board especially in a mag that gave shitty GTA rip offs 8's. The anticipation for this game seems lukewarm, THQ hasnt really been pumping it alot, Dead Rising has gotten much more hype, something seems kinda off if you ask me.

Hell I think Dead Rising will actually end up selling better.

Saints Row has online play so that should give it a big edge over Dr3ver and True Crimes. The problem True Crimes suffers from is too much redundancy. I finished the first True Crimes in less than 10 hours and while I bought the True Crimes 2, there was something lacking in the game that I stopped playing after 3 hours. All the cities and streets look the same unlike the GTA series, the pedetrians too only fit about 5 different modes where GTA is more diverse

Well, I don't know if Saint's Row is better than GTA. And if I had to put money on it, I'd probably bet that I'll still prefer the GTA series in the end. In order for Saint's Row to be better, it would have to rank in as one of my top 5 games of all time (GTA is probably my 2nd favorite series ever). Keep in mind that I'm a diehard GTA fan myself, and it will take a lot to sway me over.

However, judging from the demo, I don't see how this game can be less than a 9.0, unless they really screw up something later on in the game (not included in the demo), or if it just doesn't hold up after hours and hours of gameplay like GTA does. All I'm saying is that the UK OXM isn't exactly my first source for video game reviews, and their 8.0 rating of True Crime just shows how little they can be trusting (although to be fair, it wasn't THAT horrible of a game).

Oh, and Dead Rising should easily sell more for the August monthly total as it will have been out for about 20 days, while Saint's Row will be out for 3 days. I also anticipate that I'll like DR more between the two. Either way, it looks like I'll have two fantastic games to play in August... which is somewhat of a shocker as it is usually an incredibly slow month.

After Saint's Row, I guess the next game for the 360 would be Gears of War although Im not really that big of a fan of shooters so much, not sure what else is going to be released in fall thats good for the 360. From there its back to the PS2 in fall for Scarface,Destroy all humans 2, Yakuza and Bully. I only wish that they were either released in the new gen consoles like PS3 or 360. Bioshock is looking great for early 2007

Splinter Cell: Double Agent is coming out in late October and NBA 2k7 is coming out late September.