A few weeks ago, I picked up Saint's Row 2, due to the numerous, though somewhat underground, recommendations from my more trusted sites. If there is one thing that stands out about SR2, it is that the game is fun. It knows what it is, knows what it wants to do, and it goes about doing it in a very straightforward, no nonsense, almost in-your-face (haven't seen that term since the 90's, have you? Poochie's dead!) manner. Could it be better, maybe bigger, and with more radio stations? Of course. Better graphics? Sure. And does it do anything you haven't seen before? Nope. In fact, it felt like I was playing GTA III all over again. And that's where the problems begin...

Finished Gears of War 2 last night. Have to say I enjoyed it more than the first one. Very well done game, very polished. If you are an action title fan, or love shooters, you would do well to pick it up.

Played it on standard difficulty, and never got the feeling that getting killed was anyone's fault but my own, even when blasted by a Torque Bow from far far away. There were a few sections that took more than a few tries, but getting through them felt like an accomplishment rather than a relief.

SPOILER - I rather enjoyed the final "battle", if you can call it that. It was a great feeling to be basically invincible after level after level of watching Marcus explode into little bits. You just take a casual stroll, firing machine guns here and rocket volleys there, swatting the flies that buzz around you. While lacking a final boss fight, it felt as if the game was rewarding you for surviving everything it had thrown at you previously.

As for that missing boss, we are now set up nicely for Gears 3. Expect a more interesting story next time around, and your chance to take out the all-too-human looking queen. And what was daddy saying after the credits rolled?

Over 40? Need to remember what it was like playing RoboTron, Stargate, and the like? Then pop Gears of War 2 into your 360, and blast away! Much like the first game in the series, GoW 2 is old school, hard core video gaming at it's best. See the thing, shoot the thing. It's big, it's loud, it's intense, and it's fun. Oh, we could talk about how pretty she looks, or how her sounds envelop you, but those are just the top and bottom of the string bikini on this curvaceous nineteen year old of a game. Just, just, stop it! Stop looking for depth here, ok? Sure she's shallow. Sure the intricacies of the geo-economic meltdown escape her. But, come on, that's not what you are here for, now is it? That's right. Enjoy the big booms. Feel your weapon as it fires off again and again. Ahhhh. That's why she's here.

OK, so I'm a little late getting to the party for NCAA 09, but there is a legitimate reason: the last two years of this game sucked. I mean, annoyingly sucked. A combination of several little things, like how long it took to actually kick an extra point, combined with some major issues, including obvious cheating by the computer, made NCAA 07 and 08 impossible to play. Yes, I can hear you now: "But DibO, it was harder to run your wishbone option offense, and you just quit out of frustration, you big baby!" True, if has become a little more difficult, but not that much. No, the various gameplay issues, and amount of button presses to took to get tasks done, drove me away. And after reading various reviews and articles about the game, 09 didn't look like it was going to even make it in the door.

Ok, finally finished up most of the pre and post-main story quests, and it's time to take a look back at the highs and lows of Fable II.

The good
Loved the game world. It felt rich, and each town, if not each NPC, had it's own personality.
Combat was easy, and fun to learn. I tried to stay away from magic at the start, but learning how to use the spells together became the most interesting part of it. They really invited you to take advantage of all three styles.
The companionship that Bosco (my dog) provided along the way, while not the great endearing love that the devs might have wanted, was a welcome addition, and one the surprisingly grew on me as the game wore on. It was interesting how many times I stopped to let him catch up, even though there was no danger of losing him. A fun add-on, but the next guy that tries it is going to look like a copycat.
Loved the Zelda-esque quests that became available after the main quest line was completed. Just have to wonder where they were the rest of the time. Granted, they DID feel like they were ripped right out of Nintendo's series, but they were still fun.
The graphics worked for what they were going for, not unlike WoW. The machine is capable of more, but the colors were rich, and everything seemed like it fit in the game world.
Real estate.
Six women lesbian orgies.

Picked up the game yesterday, and spent a few hours in Albion. Here are some initial thoughts:

The Good

Love the graphical style, which is very similar to the original. The characters' feet aren't quite as big, but that's not a bad thing. The cities feel very fleshed out, and real, at least in a fantasy story way. It makes the world quite deep and rich, and you feel the NPCs carry on their lives when you are off slaying hobbes.

Combat works well. The one button per style thing flows pretty naturally, and, at least early on, you can kind of button mash if you don't want to keep using the same attack over and over. There is enough of it to know that it is a major part of the game, but it is spread out enough so that you almost welcome it when there is some.

Allowing everyone to dress up their character how they see fit is a huge bonus. My chick is already is hot pants, mid-calf boots, and an assassins coat. With her dark hair and makeup, she is not unpleasant to look at hour after hour. Funny thing here: the devs felt that it was a problem in F1 that everyone just got the same armor, and looked alike. But, as it is a single player game, how many people saw other players' characters? Same thing here, as when you multiplayer, you just look like a henchman. Still makes me think they designed a single player MMORPG.

With the looming release of Fable II, and all that Mr. Molyneux has promised from said game, I once again attempted to play through the original Fable. Twice had I brought and stated the game, only to be disappointed/get bored, and trade it in. This third time I took the path of no return, downloading the game on the 360.

So, is the third time a charm? It seems so. With about 3/4 of the main game finished, I have to say it has been more enjoyable than my previous attempts. Now, I might have finally gotten past a certain point this time, and the game opened up more, but I don't think so. Most likely it was an altering of expectations, combined with a desire to have a background headed into Fable II, that has finally made the game fun. Even knowing that the original failed to live up to it's lofty goals, a lot was expected out of Fable, and regardless of how good it itself was, it was going to ultimately be a let down. "Lost" is going to be the same way; after so much buildup, the answers and outcomes just can't make everyone happy. But, as we have discovered with Lost, it's not the destination, it's the journey. If you simply accept the game for what it is, and play your character as someone seeking to be a hero, however that may be (for that particular play-though), there is a lot of fun to be had.

Well, I finished the fight. The Halo 3 campaign is now complete. The flood is gone, the human and elites are friends, and Master Chief is sleeping in his warm and cozy cryo-bed. I wonder if some future event will cause Cortana to wake our hero up, so he can fight us to freedom once more? Floating alone out there in space, no one anywhere nearby…what are the odds?

Not being much of a FPS fan, I was surprised that I got into the game. The first attempt to play though it was after it came out, and it felt then like just another shooter. Move forward, kill whatever you see, rinse, repeat. Granted, nothing about that changed when I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago, but for some reason it was more fun this time. For one thing, I was playing it more slowly, not just rushing in, blasting, and inevitably getting killed over and over (though that did happen once or twice). Nothing like learning to take advantage of those sniper rifles and big boomers! Plus, having played through Bioshock and Half-Life 2 recently may have helped. Both of those games stepped outside the traditional FPS mold, Bioshock with its Plasmid powers, and HL2 because it is a fantastic game (play it!). Halo didn’t break any new ground, but it was fun enough, and short enough, to make me finish.