Rock Band - A+++

Guitar Hero is dead!!! Rock Band killed it!!! If it wasn't for Mass Effect, I'd be playing this a whole lot more.

Mass Effect - A+++++++++++++++++++

About 20 hrs in. Only have done one story planet since the beginning. I can't get enough of the game. All I want to do is play and do everything the game has to offer. Combat is great. Very fast paced. Very GRAW like. Now, where the game really shines is the dialogue system. It's seriously amazing!!! Like a lot of people, I enjoyed KOTOR, but reading each line of dialogue and then hearing what you chose read back verbatim got kind of old. Not so in Mass Effect. You chose feelings(that's the best way to describe it). The top option in the wheel is the Paragon(good) path. The middle is nuetral. And the bottom is Renegade. Renegade would be comparable to the evil side in KOTOR but in Mass Effect you really aren't "evil." More like "get shit done at any cost." Like a rouge Jack Bauer. Renegade is how I'm playing through the game the first time and already I've made decisions that have killed individual people(usually by my hand) and whole colonies because.... well because I have a galaxy to save and I can't be bothered trying to save a few lives when billions of lives are at stake.

Took me about 40 hours to complete Mass Effect. I did most of the side missions but I dont think I explored all the planets although Ive been to 85% of them. If you were to do the main quest, I think it would probably last as long as doing Oblivion's main quest straight on. Its definately longer than KOTR. Level system wise, its the same as Oblivion where your npcs levels go up as you level. My only main gripe about the game is that theres not much to explore on the side mission planets where you use your moon racker to move around. Other than that I highly agree with Demandred.

A++. My best game of the year replacing Bioshock

Getting achievement points is pretty much a pain considering a good portion of it is asking you to complete the game twice and on many different levels

Madden 08 (360).
Same old same old, but god damn do I hate the increased number of fumbles. I had 5 in a row (all lost) and 6 overall in one game.

Just finished Mass Effect. 30 hrs. Loved every second. Best game on the 360. Period!!!

I can't figure if I will like ME or not. 95% of the time I'd agree with Demandred and Roid, but this just feels like it could be one of those games that fall into the 5% category.

Once I finish with Rock Band, NBA 2K8, and Tomb Raider, I'll give it a whirl and find out.

Why do you think you won't like Mass Effect Tony???

He doesn't like dialogue.

I didn't like KOTOR at all. I managed to play 6 (or so) hours into it, but just wasn't feeling it. I hated the combat (not real time) and the plot and amount of reading/talking was insane.

Then I tried Jade Empire. I made it further there... probably about 15 hours. The real time combat was a big improvement, but after 15 hours it wasn't enough to help me get through the boring plot. The combat got repetitive, even with being able to add people to your group.

My biggest problem with these 40 hour plot heavy games is that I have a touch of ADD. No matter how good the game is, I can't help but to be playing 3 games at once. So, when I put down a game like ME and then try to get back into it a few days later, I forget what was going on, who was doing what to who and why.

My guess going into M.E. is that the combat is really good, and I will enjoy it. I'll probably like the sci-fi space setting too (so much more than something like J.E.). But, I worry that it's going to require a lot of attention for 40 straight hours. I don't know if I have that in me.

If you skip the sidequests and just follow purely with the main mission, you should be able to complete the game in around 20 hrs which is probably the same amount of time to complete just Oblivion's main quest if that helps. Im leaning on the side that you wont like it as much as the users here judging by your thoughts and gaming methods. It is very heavy on dialogue and requires some pre-strategy buffers/turn switches before combat. You may not like that part.

The combat in Mass Effect is a real-time. It's pretty much GRAW/Gears lite. Play as the Soldier class on Normal and you pretty much will never have to micromanage what your teammates are doing. Playing as the other classes and you might have. I really, really enjoyed the combat portions of the game. However, where this game really shines is the dialogue system. Tony, playing Mass Effect is almost like watching a very good movie. When you pick what to say, you will never know what is going to be said. You're in the dark about everything unlike KOTOR in which whatever you picked was what was said. Totally different situation here. In fact, when I was playing I wasn't rushing throught the dialogue to get to the combat, I was rushing throught the combat to get to the dialogue. It's that good Tony. There are choices you have to make that make a REAL impact on the game. As for the length, I did just about everything and finshed in 30hrs. If you just wanted to do the main story, I'm guessing it could be done in 13-15 hrs. The length of the game is totally up to you.

I finally made it through Tomb Raider Anniversary (Xbox 360)! I've got to complete a few tasks for some extra achievement points, but that shouldn't take long.

A very solid game with some standout levels, but it certainly was a freakin' long game and very puzzle laden... I pretty much had to print off a gamefaqs guide for every level and follow it step by step.

Legend was tighter, more focused, less repetitive, less puzzle heavy, and more intuitive (rarely did I have to visit gamefaqs for answers....). But, Anniversary was still very good, and nobody could complain about it being short with no replayability.

It also has some pretty cool/unique features, like the unlockable commentary track for each level. It's pretty cool to go through a level and hear the developer talk about it... hope more games do something like this!

It was definitely worth the $40, and my final grade is a B/B+.

Witcher(pc) - the spec requirements seems way too high for the type of graphics and animation that the Witcher produces. It seems like the same way with NWN2 and they dont look as good as the best 360 games. With that aside, Im enjoying the game quite a bit although Im more comfortable with the free roaming that Oblivion and Mass Effect produces instead of being confined to two area maps. Anyhow the game seems very long and there have been a drought of good rpgs to come out. Its pretty much made for the serious rpger but not so much the casual one. The dialogue too somewhat is cheesy but I did think that they intended to make it that way unlike Two Worlds that was unintentional.
9.1/10

Played a few more games.

Kane and Lynch - C
I agree with pretty much everything Jeff said in his video review of this game that got him fired. The shooting is piss poor, the cover system is completely broken, there are no characters to root for, enemy and teammate AI is pathetic. I did enjoy the first half of the game when you are robbing banks, kinapping people in night clubs, and breaking people out of prison. However, the second half of the game is goes off in a weird tangent. One second you are breaking dudes out of the joint and the next your in Chile fighting some civil war. Game never recovered after that. The multiplayer is interesting but suffers from the same exact problems the single player does. It would be a decent rental for the weekend.

Blacksite: Area 51 - B
Pretty solid/mediocore FPS. Nothing else much to say. It doesn't do anything great but it doesn't do anything bad. It's just there. Another decent weekend rental.

Viva Pinata: Party Animals - D
Well... at least it's better than Fusion Frenzy 2. Then again, I'm not in the demographic the game was made for so youngsters might like this.

College Hoops 2K8 - B-
Same as every year. It's good... in fact, I think it actually plays better than NBA 2K8.

I finally got a DS.

Had to go to 4 different stores to get one, its sold out in many places... even Best Buy...

I got the last one which was a nice polar white, I got a 2 games + 1 free for 85 bucks... Super Mario and Legend of Zelda + Pokemon...

So far, the mario game has sent me way back and just shows how groundbreaking Mario was and is still is.

new super Mario and so far its been loads of fun...

will get a case for it Tomorrow but I think the three games will entertain me till after New Years at least..

Played through a few levels of Kane & Lynch today, and it's pretty much shit.

Should have read Demandred and my review for Kane & Lynch. It would have saved you $4 on renting which would have went to better games

I don't pay for game rentals (Blockbuster employee), but yeah, it could have saved one of my free rentals and more importantly, time.

BTW, has anyone tried Timeshift? That's another one I was interested in.

I don't know, I'm trying to find games to rent. I know everyone's raving about Mass Effect but knowing that I'm an impatient gamer and I'm not a fan of RPG, is it still worth it?

If nothing else, I'll just rent Halo 3 and COD4 for the rest of break so I can play online with you guys.

You seem to like FPS so I think you would probably enjoy COD4 especially with online play. Mass Effect itself has third person action to it. I loved the game alot but then again Im speaking as a big time RPG player so my perception is biased. I think for your taste you should read Baba's input on it for both Assasins Creed and Mass Effect. He found both games to be flawed because of some repetativeness but overall they both have great graphics and excellent gameplay if you can withstand some repetative action

I like third-person shooters too, and Mass Effect seems a little less RPG than a normal RPG would (I think). I don't know, I might try it.

I was disappointed in what I played through of Assassin's Creed. Don't really want to finish it.

COD4 and Halo 3 both kicked ass. My roommate had it so I played them both online, but never went through the story mode for either so that's something to do when I'm not online. I definitely wanna join in on some KJ games so I'll try to get 'em.

From what I have played of rpgs, the combat fights arent any more or less than the regular rpgs I have played in the past. It is more action oriented but there are times you have to switch weapons and skills for your squad in between battles. It is very dialogue driven too and if you have tried games like Knights of the Old Republic, its pretty much the same deal.

Well, all three (Mass Effect, Halo 3 and COD4) were checked out, so I ended up renting Conan. Hopefully it's a few good hours of fun.

Awful, awful, awful.

I went back and played some more Kane & Lynch and while it's definitely a disappointment, it's got some decent levels (I liked the nightclub and the jailbreak).