Well worth the wait

Well I picked up Bioshock yesterday during my lunch break, grabbing the last copy at the local Target. It sat in my car during the last couple of hours of work and after I got home I couldn't play it until after the wife and kids settled in. I finally got started around 9:30pm. I didn't stop playing until about 2am.

First of all, this must be said: Stop bitching about the issue with the aspect ratio. I'm playing on a 32in widescreen and you know what? The game is freaking beautiful. For all of the snobby jerkasses that are saying that they won't play it until it's fixed, we don't need you anyway. So just shut up stupid and enjoy the ride.

I started up and flew through the parts that were in the demo (although there were a couple of changed in the item placement between the final and demo versions of the game). After ther part where the demo ends I left my "safe zone" and had no idea what to expect.

The pacing of the game is fantastic, there's never a dull moment. Even the most common enemy is a challenge and, at times, it can be overwhelming but who doesn't love a challenging shooter that needs some thought in how to kill your enemies.

Now, with this game, you can't talk about enemies needing thought without bringing up the Big Daddys. They won't attack you unless they are provoked or you try to harm the Little Sisters, a gruesome little girl with a very large needle that hold they key to you progressing through the game.

I've beaten four Big Daddys so far (and saved the girls, not harvest. That'll be the next run through) and each one requires more or less the same strategy: run backwards and keep jamming on the first aid button. On average it takes like 5 to 10 minutes to take one down but it's always a great fight.

Pick up the game. It's almost a shoe in for game of the year.

And Two Worlds actually did come out this week. Surprise, surprise.

Waiting

I don't want to be here today. I was supposed to have off but I'm covering for someone that covered for me on Saturday. But you know what's making me want to leave even more?

I'm picking up Bioshock after work.

Originally I wasn't that into the game. When I heard there was no multiplayer I figured I was done with it. As a rule i generally don't buy single player shooters because i tend to get bored by them. But after playing the demo I was hooked.

5 pm can't come fast enough...

ROCK!!!

The achievements for Guitar Hero III have been unvieled. There are a a couple of doozy's (play through with a standard controller? Yikes) so this should be a fun time.

YA TAAA!!!!

NBC released a new promo ad for the second series of Heroes. They've been airing season 1 for the past few weeks to catch people up and the new promo showed up last night. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:



Now this seems to confirm a couple of things:

- Peter didn't die, which we all assumed anyway (and got a haircut)
- Nathan didn't die
- Parkman didn't die (which I'm glad of that. I really liked him. I hope he winds up adopting Molly)
- Claire and her Mr. Bennett (HRG or Noah) are at least still in contact.

Since I saw the clip above I've been looking for more trailers. Here's another one:



More observations:

- Nikki/Jessica are still one?
- New boyfriend for Claire (I hope they bring Zack back. He was good for her character)
- Little teaser of Sylar. In a recent interview he says when he shows back up someone is going to die. My money's on Mrs. Petrelli. She's a biatch.

Ok ok, one last clip:



- WTF!!! Nathan looks like Osama! He's definatley been holed up somewhere
- There was a little clip of Molly so she's back
- Was that the Joan of Arcadia chick? It was either her or Layla from Sky High

Ok, I'm starting to get worked into a frenzy. Just like last season...

September 22nd starts a really good entertainment week:

Saturday 9/22 - New seasons of The Batman and Legion of Super Heroes
Monday 9/24 - Heroes
Tuesday 9/25 - Halo 3 and a new show called Reaper which looks pretty interesting.

I should have taken a vacation week...

Call of Duty 4 beta registration tonight!!!!

Set your alarms people! The CoD 4 beta registation starts tonight at 5pm PST! Some of us that join the beta may even be playing tonight! Even though we all know the registration website will suffer a crash at the time of sign un up, Good Luck!!

An Assault Rifle and a Slurpee...

I live in a quiet South Jersey town. Not much goes on here and the closest EB or Gamestop is about 25 minutes away where I have my Halo 3 pre-ordered. So imagine my surprise when I saw that the local 7-11 is taking pre-orders for Halo 3!

You basically pay for the game in full and pick it up at 12:00am on 9/25. 7-11 is exactly one minute from my house so (taking traffic lights into consideration) I can be playing H3 by 12:03 am.

No if only they would have the Halo Slurpee cups in stock. I can't find one of them anywhere...

I really need to post more often...

Yeah, so I haven't been able to post a lot latley. I got moved to a different store where I don't have a chance to breathe most of the time so posting from my Q became a hassle and by the time I get home now I'm too tired to think.

In between work and home I was able to pick up Madden '08. Now I know I said I wasn't sure if I was going to get it but I caved in and got it anyway. I'm not dissapointed, the game is so much better than last year it's not even fair to compare them. The 60fps on the 360 really makes a big difference in terms of gameplay, it's silky smooth. It's funny how Madden is always better when there's competition, isn't it?

I've played through the Bioshock demo a few times now and I keep experimenting with ways to things. At first I wasn't too keen on the game but after actually experiencing it my mind is completley changed. And some of the secret achievements have been revealed which raise some questions...

1. Isn't Atlas the guy on the radio? Why do you have to defeat him?

2. Isn't Andrew Ryan the guy who created the city?

3. You get to be a Big Daddy?

I also didn't realize that you can save the Little Sisters. Interesting indeed...

Speaking of Bioshock, it seems Jackie Boy is in the news again concerning Bioshock. The self proclamed "video game violence expert" is going to be on an upcoming episode of the Dr. Phil show.

I've seen enough of the show to know that Dr. Phil is also a bit of a douche. The show's theme is going to be about RPG addiction so it's pretty much a guarantee that WoW and every other MMO will be lambasted. I love how all of the detractors focus on the negative and not the positive. There is social interaction, team skills, problem solving and a myriad of other helpful skills but I'm sure all they will talk about is hours spent in seclusion killing thousands of people and creatures.

I wish they had a call in segment, I'd be the first one on the line.

Now for a couple of quick hits:

Two Worlds is supposedly coming out this week. It's been delayed too often and with Bioshock coming this week I'm willing to bet it will be delayed again.

Is it just me or is Ecco The Dolphin really REALLY hard?

The "My Chemical Romance" tracks that were released are pretty nice. It's good to have some songs that aren't re-hashes from GH 1.

That's it for now. I'll post more soon.

Madden is actually good this year?

My vacation is done so I'm back, and with an interesting reveleation: Madden '08 for the 360 is actually pretty damn good this year. I was in EB yesterday picking up the Sims 2: Nightlife (I'll talk more about getting sucked into that again later) and, since they have the game in the store already (but not for sale), they had it up and running.

The first thing I noticed was the framerate. The only noticable choppyness I saw was the transition from gameplay to the playbook, a slight stutter but much improved over last year. The actual gameplay, however, is silky-smooth. The animations are more realistic and they really don't look so stiff anymore. The hits look like they have more impact and the facial expressions really add to the realism.

During my vacation I also go sucked into another money sink: The Sims 2. Now we've had the game since it came out and played it but then we got a new computer and I never re-installed it. I recently installed it again because of the serious lack of games latley (I've been so bored!) and not only am I playing it again but the wife and kids are really into it as well. Now I have to purchase all of the expansions. As I said, I just picked up Nightlife and I picked up the H & M Fashions stuff pack.

By the way, am I right in remembering that they are releasing an expansion and a "Stuff" pack each year? The Stuff packs seem kind of pointless but for the OCD (Like me I guess) that needs to have them all they are essential.

I also picked up Neverwinter Nights 2 which is really cool but I've experienced a problem with it: The sky is many technicolor lines, no actual sky to be found. I'm still looking for a fix for it but the game itself is really fun. I've been looking for a good RPG to play until the combo punch of Two Worlds and Blue Dragon comes out and this seems to do the job.

So I'm still not sure if I'm going to buy Madden this year. I've read the reviews and I actualy played the game and it is a giant leap over previous years, I'm just not sure if it's a purchase just yet. I may Gamefly it and keep it, we'll see.

VACATION!!!

It's vacation time in Ninjaland so I'll be off the grid for a couple of days. I'll have my Q but I don't know how good of a connection I'll have. I'll postwhen I can and I should be back online by Tuesday or Wednesday. Peace and Chickengrease.