Yes, please.

November can't come here soon enough...

REVIEW: Dead Space 2

Before I dive in, I want to take a moment to give some advice for new fathers. When your new baby is big enough to be out of a bassinet and into an actual crib, (around the 2 or 3 month mark) you should give your wife a break on the overnight feedings. What you do is whatever night you don't have to work the next day, take your infant, put her in one of those little bouncy chair things, and just rock her to sleep while you play video games until about 5 in the morning, stopping only to feed and change the baby. That way the Mom can get a solid night's sleep, you get some good gaming in, and you look like a hero. 

I give you this advice because that is how I played the first Dead Space game two years ago. It was one of those games that in the cold and darkness of a November night, and with surround sound speakers sitting behind you, really made you jump when startled by a man you once knew turned necromorph. As Isaac Clarke (an obvious nod to classic sci-fi writers), you were part of a team that tried to figure out what the hell happened on a wayward excavating vessel only to discover that things are no bueno in the worst kind of way.

Well, you're back and and so are the necromorphs. This time you wake up three years later in a space station type setting and there really is no moments of peace before the chaos. From the second you are able to control Isaac, you are evading people getting eaten, begging for help, and screaming for their mothers.

The first chapter of Dead Space 2 really sets a great tone for the game. You don't get any kind of weapon except a flashlight through most of the first 25 minutes or so. After you've evaded the initial chaos of the psycho ward you just escaped, you are now trying to traverse dark rooms and shadowy corridors in order to find something that you can use to fight back. The game does a great job in the beginning of giving the gamer a sense of anxiety as you hear things that may or not be there, you try to find your way to escape, not knowing what lurks around the next corner.

Uh....umad?

Your first encounter with the necromorphs, you won't even have a weapon. You acquire a kinetic ability to objects and have to use it to impale the first batch of baddies that come your way. Once you get the all familiar plasma cutter, then the strategy is conserving ammo and your med packs to survive. You'll always have your ability to kinetically throw objects at enemies and potentially kill them if you run out of ammo, but you will have to be very deliberate in which you can take down necromorphs; shoot off their limbs, then run up and curb stomp them to finish them off.

I got a great sense going through the first part of the game that reminded me of the first Alien movie: quiet, tense, and not sure where the next attack is coming from. Scaring people is more than just jumping from a dark corner; Dead Space 2 gets psychological on your ass. Throughout the game you are haunted by the memory of your dead girlfriend, who appears to you in the form of a vision trapped inside your mind, making you wonder if you are personally responsible for the terror that has befallen this settlement. There are also moments while you are traversing the living quarters of people that have gone crazy and lost it. Candles with alien writing, people crying out for their lives in the distance, later a mother holding her infected infant only to see them both explode; that is where the real fear resides and where Dead Space 2 can seriously creep you out when you're playing all by yourself in the middle of the night.

I'm so ronery. 

As the game progresses, the action becomes more fast paced. You go from the feeling of Alien to more like Aliens as the necromorphs begin to come at you in higher numbers, actually making you fire forward but be mindful of your blind sides as some of the different varieties of baddies flank you as you're fighting.

The scenery also changes up a bit, right at the right time. You will go from fighting in a cult-like church, to open room shopping area, to trash compactors in zero gravity and more. I was really impressed with the amount of different environments and varieties of weapons you're able to employ to dispatch enemies. As with the norm these days, you have someone there to guide you through the game, but you also have another voice of one of your fellow test subjects who is slowly descending into madness and foreshadowing what is next in store for you if you can't get through to the end of the game.

I don't have a lot of bones to pick with Dead Space 2. I do recommend that you play on a higher difficulty than casual. I played on Normal and got through the Single Player campaign in about 9-10 hours total. I then began a second play through (New Game plus) on casual to pick up some achievements (you pretty much have to go at least two playthroughs to get the majority of them) and that's probably going to finish up around 5 hours. At a higher difficulty, again, ammo is going to be at a premium, so don't just go firing blind. I also left myself in a few sticky situations where I had no health, no ammo, and bad guys surrounding me in opposite rooms. Be sure to use your stasis packs sparingly and only when you are in serious trouble. Higher difficulties will make the game more enjoyable for you. Beating the game once unlocks hard core mode which only allows you three save points in the entire game. I am not that glutton for punishment that I am going to try and beat the game on hard core (which you have to start from scratch; no New Game plus), even though doing so would unlock one of the coolest guns evar.

There is a multiplayer component to Dead Space 2 but I never really bothered to get into it much. I played a few rounds and it seemed very Aliens v. Predator to me (not a knock against AvP). Its something to play to say you've played but its something that will neither add nor significantly detract from the overall experience. If you don't want to buy a game that is about 20 hours total of gameplay (considering the number of playthroughs), that's fine, but you definitely need to play it. Its fun, terrifying, and visually stunning. With this, the original, and last year's Dante's Inferno, Visceral Games is becoming one of those studios that I've totally bought into. You should too.

TL;DR - A fantastic ride.

Stop Your Grinnin' and Drop Your Linen...

...because shit is about to get real around here.

Living in the midwest is a treasure on its own right. You get to be considered a "flyover state". You're a red state! And when it snows heavily, people are asking me if I've made my peace with God since we are in the midst of the end times.

As of today, schools in my area has been closed 5 times. Today will be six, and probably tomorrow will be seven. The University of Kansas cancelled classes in consecutive days for like only the second time in 30 years.

People are totally freaking out around here. The good news is I don't have to go anywhere. The fridge is stocked, I have some work I brought home to finish, and have plenty of time to type up some stuff I had meant to post for awhile. As long as this stuff doesn't turn into ice, I won't have to worry about this:

Battlefield Bad Company 2 -- 'Arica'

Quite possibly, the best fan-song for a video game I've heard in a long time.



Lyrics:

I hear a gunshot echo in the night
It's quiet here on Nelson Bay when wookies get their camp on
I take him out with my 4x Noob sight But he'll be back
To piss me off as soon as he can respawn

I see a camping asshole in our base
Waiting to steal our chopper so he can fly around and rape us
I take my engineer kit in my hand and say
Hurry Boys! The Hind is after you!

Chorus:
Gonna take more than Black Ops to drive me away from you
Ain't nothing that a million C4 Whores could ever do
Let's bring the pain down in Arica
While we're at it let's tear them a new one on Port Valdez Too

Gonna squad up and play some rush tonight
Hoping to find a lobby that isn't mostly full of douchebags
C4 on the UAV ain't right, If that's their plan
We'll raid their base and steal the driver's dog tags
Better fall back 'cause victory's in sight
Hurry Boys! The Tank is after you!

Chorus

Dark Tower - Old School Reminiscing

This is just a random bit of verbal spewage. I've pretty much been playing games since man first figured out how to connect a controller to a TV. Ok, that dates me a bit. But seriously, I used to play Pong at my grandparent's apartment clubhouse.

Anyway, I was chatting with a friend of mine about the good old days, we'd play games like the Bard's Tale series (Not that joke of a game released in 2005 that sullied the franchise's good name), Gold Box Games like Pool of Radiance, and the like. We'd literally play 24+ hours straight. Good times!

It got me thinking about other computerized gaming and one item that's oft overlooked is Dark Tower, yeah, the board game. Man I can't tell you how many hours I spent playing this as a kid. We were die hard about this game. We'd listen carefully while our opponent played for clues as to if they received a Wizard, or a Sword, or the much needed Keys to the Dark Tower its self. I still to this day can remember the sound effects to this game, the music that plays at the Bazaar is still imprinted in my brain.

At its core though this was one of the more innovative board gaming interfaces of the day, not to mention a crap ton of fun. If you know what I'm talking about you can actually play a single player Flash version of the game HERE. May Dragons fall on your Sword.

Sorry for the random spewage, but felt like reminiscing.

Twas 10 Days After Christmas...

...and all full of fail.

Yeah that's an Unreal Tournament 3 faceplate. Recognize.

It was March of 2006 when I first got her. It was really a momentous occasion. Xbox 360 Pro Model.  I had already purchased a few games, got a wired controller off eBay. For a time I was happy.

Then over Thanksgiving in 2007 I started getting disc read errors playing Mass Effect. I had a brown out and suffered through my first dreaded Red Ring of Death. Though the console still kind of worked, you had to turn it off, wait a bit, turn it back on and pray. Eventually it got to a point where this became to tedious a nightly ritual so I decided to have it sent off for repairs.

I had heard horror stories of trying to talk to someone over the phone to request repair so I went exclusively through Xbox.com. I found that process to be relatively simple; all I had to do was register the console, request a repair, and done; a white box (coined "the coffin") was at my doorstep within a few days.
Funny story with that- the box you are sent is a plain white box with a shipping label, not very ubiquitous. When I went to my local UPS store to drop it off, the clerk without hesitation asked me if I was sending back a broken Xbox 360. Curious, I said I was and asked him how many of those boxes he sees. "Four or five A DAY". I was kind of taken back. This was just some simple UPS store in suburban Kansas City and a dude sees anywhere from 25-35 of these things coming back A WEEK? I was a little skeptical of his numbers but he would be validated about a year or so later.

After a fairly quick turnaround time in getting repaired, I was back up and running only this time when the disc drive spun a disc, it sounded like a jet engine. I tried to do all I could to ensure the machine was in an open area, well ventilated, and well protected from overheating. Other than the noise of the drive, I encountered no problems for the next few months...

...then another holiday happened. This time it was Fourth of July holiday in 2008 and I was in the middle of some Call of Duty 4. This time when the Red Ring occurred there was no mistaking. I got the freeze up in the middle of the game along with a checkered screen. Knew it the moment I saw it happen. Did the deed again with going through Xbox.com to request a coffin. Fast, simple, no problems; turnaround time was excellent. I go to pick my parcel up this time from the UPS distribution store and I had to wait a bit for them to find it. They had to sort through probably tens of white boxes to find mine. OFF ONE TRUCK. I then asked the guy there how many he sees go out, and without hesitation, he says "hundreds. Per day".

Well, for two and a half years I got no problems out of this run. I give a lot of credit for that to the fact that I run games off the hard drive almost exclusively. Doing that, at least in my mind, keeps the internal temperature of the console down a bit, thus no overheat and I am a happy camper. Every now and then a game will freeze and my heart will skip just a beat as I turn the console off and wait a few seconds and turn it back on. No problems.

Then it happened. About an hour ago tonight. I was in the middle of Call of Duty Black Ops (Activision conspiracy?) and just when we got started I froze. Very curious but ok, I turned off the unit, waited a few seconds then turned it back on. No problem there, got the opening Xbox 360 graphic, and there it stayed.

And stayed.

And stayed.

Frozen.

I started to get concerned here and turned off the console once again. Closed my eyes, turned it back on....and no screen. There it was. Three. Flashing. Red. Lights.

Self portrait. 

You go through the five stages of grief so fast in this instance. I was like "no no no. This isn't it. If I just wait and turn it back on it will be fine". Then I was pissed for a few seconds. Then I was like "ok what can I do to make this work, what trick is there? The console wasn't hot. There must be something I can do to fix this". Then I just sat there....I'm going to have to find a 250GB slim but they are sold out like everywhere. Fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck. Then finally, acceptance. Ok, The good news is I will have a slim Xbox that's kind of cool looking, yeah I'm out $300 bones but its only money, right? I mean it would have been better if this happened before Christmas but its cool, man.

Now the real dilemma is... how do I sneak this one past the wife?

TL;DR- Good night, Sweet Prince (2006-2011)

TL;DR Top Games of 2010

This was a good year for games, folks. It was kind of hard to put together a top list because there were a few REALLY good games, a lot of pretty good games, and even the disappointments weren't terrible, they just had a lot to live up to and didn't meet our lofty expectations. I was going to put together a top list for each individual contributor to the site, but (gasp!) I got lazy and decided to consolidate things into one big list. 

One thing that didn't surprise me is that between the contributors that submitted top tens to me is that there were about five games that were universal that we enjoyed, there were a few others that we all enjoyed that others either didn't get a chance to play or just missed out of our top ten. That is a pretty good thing considering there was a lot of lesser titles that came out that actually performed well. 

Before I reveal the site's top games of the year I wanted to highlight some of the games that let us down this year. Lord Bling did a good job of outlining a few of our letdowns but I wanted to highlight a few more that didn't float our boat:

• Modern Warfare 2.  If we existed last year, this would have been the game of the year, but the implosion of Infinity Ward, combined with overpriced map packs, and not doing anything about getting rid of hackers and exploiters really made the game unenjoyable into 2010. 
• "VIP" Code Bullshit. EA packaged codes to access multiplayer content in their new games, forcing those to buy used to pretty much pony up an extra $10 to access stuff that was already on the disc. 
• Crackdown 2. The first game was originally one that we all bought only because of the Halo 3 beta, but what we found was an enjoyable experience. Maybe we should have kept those low expectations going into the sequel. It very much seemed like Crackdown 1.1 with more orbs and no real story. Fell very flat.
• Star Wars Force Unleashed 2. Maybe we (by we I mean apparently mean just me) actually fooled ourselves that the first game was good enough that the next one would be worth investing. It really wasn't. There was nothing new, it was short and it wasn't very challenging. 
• Medal of Honor. One of the few games that actually improved the more one played, this was just a lot of hype that it was going to be the CoD killer. It couldn't even surpass EA's other military shooter of this year in Bad Company. The fact that one studio handled the Single Player and another handled the multiplayer just did not work. 
• Handhelds. Here's a spoiler: No hand held games made this year's top 10, which is really disappointing for that market. With the Nintendo 3DS and PSP2 supposedly on the horizon, maybe studios are waiting on developing good games for those platforms. There really wasn't any that were developed for these. 
• Destructoid. Usually a great site, some reviews were purely irresponsible and stupid for putting ridiculously low ratings for some under-performing games, while giving undeserving high ratings for over-hyped titles such as:
• Splinter Cell Conviction. We said so earlier this year. 

Here are a few games that had a good year but that just didn't quite make the cut:

• Alan Wake. An overtly Stephen King story in a video game. It was very inventive in its story telling. I had a review written but never posted. I'll post it here soon.
•  God of War clones. Games like Dante's Inferno, Castlevania, Nier were pretty solid titles that followed the whole hack and slash, mystical, mythical, quick-time-event formula pretty well. Most will be pretty affordable and enjoyable now or in the near future. 
• Racing Games. Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. Blur. Gran Turismo. Mod Nation Racers. Although none made our over all top ten, if you wanted anything from Arcade to Sim, you were well served by this year's crop of good racers. 

Now the Contributors of TL;DR present:

 TOP TEN GAMES OF 2010

10.  STARCRAFT 2: Wings of Liberty. 

This was the only PC game that made the list and it took over ten years to finally drop. Blizzard really didn't reinvent the wheel and they didn't have to. 

Even though this is technically just episode one of at least a three part series that will encapsulate the second Starcraft, this one improves upon what made the original great without screwing up. The single player gives a bit of choice in the story with some great tech upgrades, and the multiplayer provides a good mix of quick and campaign long games. While you may need to upgrade your PC just a bit from your 1998 Compaq that ran the first game, you won't have to wait another decade to enjoy the next installment of this saga. 

9. LIMBO.

This Xbox Live Arcade title is an inventive platformer that really entertained, scared, and challenged us. I really enjoyed its simplicity and while being delightfully disturbed. Presented in a chillingly beautiful black, white, gray, soft focus and clear, you are a boy in shadow with creepy glowing eyes traversing a sometimes dead silent landscape. Sometimes the puzzles don't really present themselves until you're wondering why you've died three times or so in the same place, then you need to figure out what you need to do to escape your predicament. Your eight legged freak friend is also your constant nemesis who will not cure your arachnophobia. 

8. BAYONETTA.

No, its not an over the top Devil May Cry ripoff, its its own over the top game with a ridiculously hot protagonist doing ridiculous moves in a beautifully orchestrated bloody romp. I actually had this and Vanquish at a tie on my top ten since they are both developed by Platinum Games, but Bayonetta was the longer, higher received game so it makes the list. 

One other thing about Bayonetta is that it can be painfully difficult to traverse. At some point I had to drop the difficulty down to Easy because some of the stages were ridiculous to try while you were down to next to no health and didn't have the points to buy more healing potions. 

7. HALO: REACH

Not a perfect or life altering game like the first few Halo games were. It also lacked Master Chief and any progression in the Halo Universe (spoiler: its actually a prequel).

What it was, ironically, was a fitting ending to Bungie's run in the game that made Xbox. Much more polished than Halo ODST, you were placed in an elite squad that is the first encounter with the Covenant on the Planet Reach. It was a great mix of face pace and slow and steady. 

Multiplayer provided a lot of variety from co-op firefight to a few game variants that provided balanced character classes that needed more skill than just one overleveled character dominating everyone. 

6. GOD OF WAR III

Kratos is back and kicking ass again. 

With great graphics from beginning to end, Kratos roid rages through Gods and whores. I kind of wish this game was called Gods and Whores, by the way. Who wouldn't buy it? 

5. ASSASSIN'S CREED: Brotherhood.

Picking up pretty much immediately where the last game left off, you are left to take care of business in Rome. 

Merely the fact that this game sticks to AC2's award winning blueprint is enough to make this one a top 10, but what really kicked ass is the implimentation of a whole new style of multiplayer. 

Not that stealth multiplayer is a new concept, Brotherhood adds a lot of suspense in who is trying to track you down while you are trying to kill a target yourself. The only knock on multiplayer is trying to get a party together in a game, otherwise Ubisoft delivered another great chapter in the Assassin's Creed universe. 

4. BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2

Probably the most complete military shooter of 2010. DICE really did a great job of blending a funny and challenging Single Player campaign (even taking a few shots at Call of Duty) along with a great multiplayer system that actually had some skill needed to take long shot kills (Bullet Drop: a novel concept video game developers)

Battlefield then released a Vietnam expansion last week that created only added to the multiplayer experience. You get through there and you can tell your friends that you were truly in the shit. (No offense to those who were actually IN the shit.)

3. CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS

Before this year, whenever you saw a Call of Duty title and "Treyarch" on the box, you either groaned or was in no hurry to make a purchase. I will totally admit, that most of us were dead wrong on this. While the Single Player campaign was both ridiculous and short, Multiplayer has actually become more enjoyable for me than Modern Warfare 2. Nevermind the fact that you are using red dot sights and scopes during the Cold War, or you are acutally using a crossbow with explosive tips, or can throw a tomahawk across a map to kill another human, Black Ops is not only a lot of fun, but with the Theater feature you can post all your bullshit kills onto Youtube for your title as internet tough guy of the world. 

2. MASS EFFECT 2

Probably the best Role Playing Game of the year, Bioware continues to improve upon its award winning space opera that surpasses the original. 

You return as Commander Shepard reincarnated and assembling your badass team to take on the Reapers who are pretty much going to destroy everything in your universe. 

Mass Effect 2 is a superior story with superior characters; each one unique in its backstory and each character is brought to life by remarkable voice acting. I found myself entertained to the maximum exploring each character's abilities and talents. The decisions you make in this game will impact not only how the game concludes, but will carry over into Mass Effect 3, as were the decisions you made in the first game carried over into ME2. 

(By the way, Mordin singing Gilbert and Sullivan and offering interspecies oral sex tips are pretty much one of the funnier and greatest moments in video game history.)

1. RED DEAD REDEMPTION

Though this is technically a sequel and one can argue that this is Grand Theft Horse, 

Red Dead offered a great mix of role playing, action and a great story about one man's journey of trying to find peace in the chaos and tumult of the old west. 

John Marston is one of those memorable characters that you really feel for as he goes through some crazy adventures through New Austin and Mexico.

If the main story wasn't good enough, Rockstar added things like Multiplayer Poker, and the Undead Nightmare DLC pack, which is its own alternate universe style Zombie story which is both entertaining and challenging. Red Dead Redemption claims the top spot after being no lower than second on everyone's top ten list. If you don't own it you really need to. 

____________________________________________________

Individual Top 10's:

 Miles

1. Mass Effect 2

2. Red Dead Redemption

3. Call of Duty: Black Ops

4. Battlefield: Bad Company 2

5. Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty

6. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

7. God of War 3

8. Limbo

9. Halo Reach

10. Platinum Games (Bayonetta/Vanquish)

NIN

1. Red Dead Redemption

2. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

3. Mass Effect 2

4. God of War 3

5. Halo Reach

6. Enslaved

7. Heavy Rain

8. Battlefield: Bad Company 2

9. Call of Duty: Black Ops

10. Need for Speed Hot Pursuit

DIRTY GMR

1. Red Dead Redemption

2. Call of Duty Black Ops

3. Mass Effect 2

4. Alan Wake

5. God of War 3

6. Fable 3

7. Bayonetta

8. Limbo

9. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

10. Singularity