Game Diary, Thursday's game play

Streak is sitting at 363 straight days. I extended tonight with a heavy dose of Arkadian Warriors. Actually Darth Slagus and myself finished the game and score ourselves 75 G's!! Arkadian warriors ranks up there with one of the best values for a XBLA game. I put a ton of hours into the game. Something like 10 different levels, but it felt like more. A huge selection of magic and weapons. A story line that is cheezy enough to make you laugh, but serious enough to make you want to finish it. Just a great game.

I also played some more Bully and 1 vs. 100. Starting this weekend, prizes will begin to roll out of 1 vs. 1oo. Yes I know they are still in Beta, but it clearly says Beta : Now with prizes, on the dashboard.

A year straight is now within my grasp, I still can't believe it. It sure doesn't feel like a year straight. I wonder what I have missed in the last year? Check back the next 2 days to see what I play to finish out my year. I am not going to lie to you...there will be some Fallout3 being played.

Thanks for reading

Game Diary, catch up edition.

We are back with another check up addition. The holidays wreak havoc upon my Diary schedule. Well folks we are in the home stretch. 361 straight days. 4 more for a full year. I am getting nervously excited.

A recent influx of new games has kept the drive alive. AlmoustFamous24 has generously donated a handful of games. Halo Wars and RockStar Table Tennis are new. Fellow contributor Darth Slagus lent me Ghostbusters, so needless to say my plate is full. I am making a new push on a few fronts. First I need to finish Fallout3 so I can shake this addiction. I am also pushing for the Sandbox badge over at 360voice.com. For this badge, I have Bully to work through. It has been ever so slowly, slipping G's out. Finally I am involved in a 2 week challenge also at 360voice.com. I am currently in first, by a few hundred G's. I am not letting my guard down, as this weekend will have me away from the Xbox for extended periods of time.

I had the unfortunate displeasure of renting Overlord, which I mention previously. I grew tired of it and Overlord sits on the shelf. I should just take it back. I should be posting every night for these last 4 nights until I reach a year straight.

Question for the readers, "Do I stop my streak at 365 days exactly, or do I push to just see how long it will last?" Drop a note in the comments and help me decide!!

Thanks for reading

Game Diary, Wednesday's game play

Quick one tonight. Streak lives on. Forged ahead in a little more Overlord. Finished the night up with Fallout3. Just about to launch Point Lookout. It should hold me over the long holiday weekend.

Thanks for reading

Game Diary, Tuesday's game play

Well Tuesday brought a new game to the table. Overlord, the first one, was rented and weakly played for about 30 minutes. A quick 30 G's kept me interested. It has a quirky funny dialogue that has me engaged for now. An interesting control scheme, is still giving me a little trouble. A particularly interesting health relationship with the minions you control. You can sacrifice them, for more health to you. A neat sort of risk and reward.

I found a strangely familiar destruction sequence, that reminded me an awful lot of Red Faction. Now Red Faction is supposed to be know for the physics tied to the destruction of the buildings in Red Faction. I tell you what, the physics that control the building destruction in Overlord, looked very very similar. Overlord is 2 years old. I just find it very strange. I did a quick search and could not find any connection with the games. They were developed by 2 different companies. With Code Masters and Triumph Studios handling Overlord and Volition with THQ handling Red Faction. I just find it odd. I will research more and report back if I find out why. Expect a full review later next week, after I log some more hours with the game.

I also played some Fallout 3, Arkadian Warriors, and 1 Vs. 100. Streak lives on at 353 straight days. We are getting close people!!

Thanks for reading.

Game Diary, catch up edition.

short catch up edition. First the streak lives on and we are currently sitting at 353 straight days. I have been playing a little more Red Faction, and have grown tired of it. So tired, I refuse to return it blockbuster. Fallout 3 has been consuming the majority of my time. Some new DLC was released and should hold me for the long haul. I will play Fallout3 until the year streak is obtained. I will sprinkle in some NBA2K9 and Tiger Woods 09 for some variety.
The diary should be back in full force tomorrow.

Thanks for reading

Game Diary, Tuesday's game play

Quick one tonight. I played some more of this Red Faction. Starting to grow tired of the game already. It is basically Saints Row on Mars. I am disappointed. Sure the destruction thing is a cool new tweak, but it can't carry the whole game. Same old song and dance, drive to yellow marker, complete mission, jack car, drive to new yellow marker. Yawn.

So I fell back on a classic. Yup, played more Fallout3. A new DLC was released today, so you know I had to get it. Not quite ready to play it though. Looks really good. Creepy, dark, and a mysterious stranger with an Ax????

NBA2K9 got a spin as well. Still trying to get the Bulls the championship. The games knows they are not suppose to have it.

The streak lives on.

Thanks for reading.

Red Faction : Guerrilla

In place of the game diary, you get this post.

Want to know the best game you missed so far this year? Read on suckers. While you busy re-hashing old 80's movie into a semi playable video game, the good people over at THQ and Volition bring you a great re-make of a 90's video game. Originally released on the Ps2 Red Faction pops on the 360. But what is it? I was thinking the same thing until I read about 15 different blogs and magazine articles on how everyone was going to over look this game. I got tired of reading it, so I rented it.

At first glance of the cover, your thinking a Russian game. Wrong. Your probably thinking FPS, wrong again. RFG maroons you on Mars. That is where the Red comes in......you team up with you brother to fight the government within a small Faction. I have yet to see how guerrilla's tie in. Mars is presented to you in a open world, highly destructible, environment. What I was first surprised at was the vehicles. They are awesome. Some fun is to be had, by blazing wildly across Mars, and jump a huge crater to land your mining 6-wheeler squarely in a government building. Total destruction, for the building at least.

With Volition at the developing helm, you get a good taste of Saints Row in this game. These open world games are starting to get repetitive. Get in car. Drive to mission. Play mission. Drive to something else. While RFG does have this aspect, the destructible environment over shadows any similarities you will find in other sandbox type games. Oh, and you will find similarities. This should not scare you away.

A wide array of weapons, vehicles, and NPC's keep the action flowing. That bad ass sledge hammer you see in the title plays a pretty big part in the game. It is fun smashing down a huge building, then turning around and smashing someone's head in. Good times. I played about 2 hours of the main campaign and liked what I saw. If I had to compare this game to some others, I would lump it into a category of the following : Bully, Saints Row, GTA, Assassins Creed. I hope the missions do not get repetitive. The first "level" had me destroy a few key government buildings, rescue a few hostages, and 3 mission type scenarios. All very fun, but could get old very quickly. Time will tell. I usually do not like to post any comments until logging some serious hours, but tonight's game play was really fun, and I needed a break from the diary. If your concerned the streak lives on at 345 straight days.

So the blogs and magazines are about 65% right on this one. Definatley a great game to rent, but not something you will be kicking yourself over missing. Keep in mind, I have not played any of the online modes, but those are usually not deal breakers for me. The G's have been trickling out at 10 per level. It would appear you can achieve 500 G's from the single player and 500 G's for completely ridiculous online play. Seriously? When will they just give up on the online G's?

Thanks for reading

Game Diary, Thursday's game play

Streak lives on. Thursday's game play was almost identical to Wednesday's. I caught some more crab while playing Alaskan Storm. I also scored another 20 G's by making some considerable progress on Fallout3. DLC The Pitt is awesome. Just stunning graphics, and a wild story that will have you making a very big moral choice about half way through. No 1 vs 100 tonight, I was tempted, but passed.

Thanks for reading

Game Diary, Wednesday's game play

With the return of Live service, I found myself in yet another 1 vs 100 beta. I finally cracked a million points with my career score. That has got to get me some attention and possibly a seat in the mob? I hope so. I got some first hand comments about the new Ghostbusters game. Sounds frustratlingly fun. Sounds like it is shaping up to be a rental.

I pulled in a few hundred pods of crab in Deadliest Catch as well. That game is fun in small doses.

I finished up the night with some Fallout3. I located all 100 steel ingots for 20 G's!! It took about a hour, and yes I used a walk through.

341 straight. This is getting interesting.

Thanks for reading.

Game Diary, Tuesday's game play

With the Xbox Live service being down Tuesday, it was a free streak day on 360Voice.com. So did I take the day off as well? Heck no, I played some Arkadian Warriors. I was able to level my Character up to a 13. Darth Slagus and myself have been co-oping through the main campaign together. It has been very enjoyable for a Arcade game. In the past I usually would throw in a reference to Gauntlet here, but instead I am going to start comparing this game to Castle Crashers. It really is more of a hack and slash game than a RPG.

No 1 vs. 100 tonight and with Live service out, I actually flipped on the TV. I caught a few minutes of a Discovery channel program featuring crab fishermen. I thought to myself, can't I play this instead? Sure enough I popped in Alaskan Storm, Deadliest Catch. I am right at the point in this game that the controls become second nature. No more awkward button pushes just to see what they do. I know what they do, crab beware. I finished up the first fishing season, and scored 15 G's. To bad they don't count towards a challenge. They do count towards my "Great Outdoors" and "Tv Games" badges.

Overall a good night for no live service. At time of this writing (11:00pm) service was still not back. 340 straight. We are under a month.

Thanks for reading.

Game Diary, Monday's game play

The weekend came and went way too fast. The streak was preserved and we now sit at 338 straight days. This post will focus on Monday's game play. I was able to sneak in some Fallout3. Enjoying a waste ridden Pittsburgh, collecting some billets, and hack some raiders to pieces with my new axe. It was great. I also got sucked into yet another beta session of 1 vs. 100.

More importantly I was finally able to finish up Wolverine : Origins. This wolverine game is a solid game. I would rate it a high 7 or low 8 if I would officially review the game. The single player campaign was ton of fun to play through. The controls were awesome. A few wolverine moves really stood out. A few stand out moments really make this movie game stand out. I can confidently say that this one of the best comic book character, Hollywood movie, tie in games out there right now. I highly suggest giving this game a spin. I have not played the DLC that was recently released, not sure if is worth it or not. There was some "bonus" stages that consisted of 1 on 1 match up against another AI wolverine. Not sure what the purpose really was of these arena stages. They were boring. Games at least worth a rental.

Check back tomorrow as I push farther into The Pitt.

Thanks for reading.

Game Diary, Thursday's game play

I stayed up way too late playing Fallout 3. Finally got my character to level 30 while maintaining a "good" status. 30 G's Yooooo!!! Now I just need to get him evil and score another 30 G's. I finished the first DLC. I played it before so nothing new to me. Just some more shooting.

Side note, have you examined the selection of video game magazines at your local bookstore lately? I discovered this horrible magazine tonight while browsing. It was basically a review of the summer games based on movies? What a specific, stereotypically sub par, genre to focus your periodical on. Especially when over 90% of what is in the magazine could be found on the Internet. Worse of all, right on the cover plastered big and bright, "Brought to you by the editors of The Official Xbox Magazine." Like that was suppose to add some credibility to it? Ugh. I did pick up a sweet little UK publication called Games TM. I picked it up mostly for the Bioshock 2 story and a awesome interview with the developers of Fallout 3.

Thanks for reading

Game Diary, Wednesday's game play

Short and sweet today. Not much gaming, just some Fallout3. I also got sucked in to yet another 1 VS 100 beta. Why can't I stay away from those?
Keeps the streak alive!!

Thanks for reading.

Game Diary, catch up edition.

Sorry for the diary outage, I was on another vacation. This time I stayed home and played video games, lots of them. So the streak is safe and on going at 332 straight.
I rented a few new titles Wolverine : Origins, and Terminator : Salvation. Both titles play off the Hollywood movie releases. One succeeded the other failed, as a video game at least. Play Wolverine if you get the chance, pass on Terminator not worth the 5 hours it takes to complete the game.

I made a ton of progress with Fallout3 and started the first of the 3 DLC's tonight. I am inching ever so closer to the new stuff. With the new DLC already installed I keep stumbling upon new places and faces. I just can't get enough of this game.

The usual suspects also found their way into my console. I played some NBA2k9, Pacman, Ms. Pacman, Madden, RockBand2, Forza2, and Arkadian Warriors. Darth Slagus and myself got to co-op Arkadian Warriors and the game just loses something online. The camera angle is a little limited, I guess that must be it. Still worth the few bucks for the download. I should mention that I also participated in a few more Beta rounds of 1 vs. 100. It is a great idea, and pretty fun. A great chance to relax and play with a party of friends. I will probably play one or two more rounds but really wait for the series to go live. I want some prizes for my efforts!!!

Check back tomorrow as I finish up Wolverine, and push deeper into Fallout3.

Thanks for reading.

Game Diary, Wednesday's game play

The streak lives on. Short post today. Fallout3 and Arkadian Warriors were the flavor of choice for today. Expect a review of Arkadian Warriors shortly. 327 straight days and counting.

Game Diary, Tuesday's game play.

Well Tuesday was another big announcement day from the E3 conference. With Nintendo and Sony headlining the podiums today, a lot was announced and you can find all the latest information on the usual places like Kotaku, GameLife, and the offical website. I found myself watching too much of Steve Wiebe's attempt at reclaiming the Donkey Kong world record. Spoiler...he failed. Such a sad story.

Back to the 360. The streak continues, as I log heavy hours of Fallout3. I am on the verge of getting some more G's. Those will have to wait until tomorrow, as I have a new challenge over at 360voice kicking off. I am working hard at trying to reach that DLC by this weekend. I have a wide open weekend with no plans what so ever. That should allow for some big G's and a effortless attempt at continuing the streak.

Unfortunately Fallout3 was all I got to tonight. Look for a little wider variety tomorrow as I start squeezing G's from my existing library of games. Big question should I rent a few games for this weekend? There is another 1 vs. 100 beta I would like to play.

Thanks for reading.

Game Diary, Monday's game play

Back again with the game diary. Tuesday was an exciting day in the world of Xbox360. With E3 kicking off, there was a ton of big reveals at the Microsoft conference. One of them was the new Beta testing happening tonight of a new XBLA game called 1 vs. 100.

I had to rush home and set a reminder? for the game. I got in some Guitar Hero : Aerosmith and Fallout3 before the Beta kicked off. It was kind of neat. A group of 4 of us were private chatting and just kind of hanging in the dashboard, when 1 by 1 we all got an invite to play. The first game kept our party together, but we got separated for the remainder of the night. Not sure if that was on purpose or a technical glitch. Either way the game was a ton of fun. The "live" host did an adequate job. No complaints. Super simple controls and pretty detailed stat tracking will keep players coming back. Another beta test this Saturday. Then we sit and wait for go live. Should be soon as the game appeared polished. Pretty slick how they force fed us commercials during "break" time.

I will definitely play again once they actually start handing out prizes or G's at least. Short one today....it's late!!!

Stay tuned for details on E3, especially news of L4D2 due out in November.

Thanks for reading.

Game Diary, Weekend Edition

Well, well, well....after a few emails exchanges my streak has been restored. The powers that be over at 360voice.com have decided to re-instate my streak. So we are currently resting at 324 straight days of gaming. 41 more days for a year straight. So with that being said what did I play over the weekend?

No new games to report. I finally completed CSI. Got the full 1000 G's. Probably never play that game again. Do not take that the wrong way. If you can find this game for $19.99 or cheaper it is totally worth it. There is no other game on the market like it. Basically it is a computer game on the Xbox 360. It would work better with a mouse, but the controller gets you through the game. If you do pick it up, I suggest playing at least the first 3 cases. After that you will be hooked. Plus there are only 2 more cases to complete after that anyway.

Friday night was reserved for band practice. Rock band 2 was heavily used, but still no G's. Very stubborn game. That got me in the mood for Guitar Hero : Aerosmith. I failed "Walk this Way" 10 times so that got me 10 G's. Almost finished the hard level for Aerosmith. Only 3 more songs to go.

Spent some time in DC as well. Nearing a point where I feel comfortable playing the DLC. My character is now a level 10 and well stocked for any fight. By next weekend I should be seeing the Pitt.

Keeping it short, just really excited to be back on the streak wagon. I promise no more hiccups here on out. I see no obstacles in the next upcoming month. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for reading.

Game Diary.......

Today brings the return of the daily game diary and tragic news. It appears the streak was lost on the homeward bound leg of my recent vacation. Even though I did log in and play 2 Uno games, one online and one off. I appealed my case to the powers that be over at 360voice.com, but to no avail my streak was killed at 319 straight days.

So this brings to a close the daily game diary, thank you for reading along, as the journey was fun. The vacation presented a rare opportunity to score over 2,650 G's in the week and over 1100 G's in one day. It also gave me a chance to visit some unique used video game stores and score 3 new titles.

So stay tuned this weekend for vacation re-caps, new used game reviews, and more exciting news from the world of Xbox 360.

One last note, I finally dropped the $9 bucks and got this Netflix all the kids have been talking about. It is worth every cent. I recently had a chance to screen King of Kong, it is a must see for any video game player. Great story.

Thanks for reading.

Game Diary, Wednesday's game play

Here it is the day I have been waiting for. Today I leave for vacation. Gasp!! What about the streak you ask? Well I squeezed in a little morning gaming and actually knocked out 10 G's from Galaga Legions. Great game by the way.

In the afternoon I took a small break from packing and played a little TMNT classic arcade. That game is just not fun unless your co-oping. Great graphics and all the familiar sounds are there, just something about the foot clan that makes you need a partner. So that was all the gaming I had time for today.

For the next 16 hours I will be driving across this wonderful country. Will I be able to get a game in tomorrow and keep the streak alive? Check back to find out!! 315 straight.

Thanks for reading.