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What I’m Gaming Vol. 8

Welcome back to What I’m Gaming! At the beginning of every week, I post about the games I’ve played in the past seven days and give some quick thoughts and impressions about those games. To see past editions of this feature, click What I’m Gaming.

Games I Played

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

Since I’m working on clearing out my backlog, I decided to try and knock our some games that I can probably get through relatively quickly. This game stood out to me. I had attempted to start playing it before, but every time I tried to start it and get used to the controls (because they do require a short adjustment period), it seems my brother would call me to play and I’d put it down and forget about it.

The game is a bit stiff with its animations, but it’s actually not too bad when you really get into it. The combat system is pretty slow; then again, I don’t think combat has ever been too fluid in a Prince of Persia game. Correct me if I’m wrong. Anyhow, I just started this [again] over the weekend, and I’ve made it halfway through the game. A nice pickup for the price you’ll probably find this add nowadays – right around $9.99.

Prey

You know, there are people who actually like this game. I, however, am not one of those people. I think this game is weird and uninteresting. Not broken, mind you, since it actually plays okay, especially so when you consider it was a launch title. I initially got this game because it was one of the few games out and I wanted to try it. I played through the first two levels or so and decided it I didn’t like it and got rid of it.

Obviously, I’ve re-acquired it (for $2.99 at my local Gamestop) because I felt I needed to get all 1000 Gamerscore from it. The 70 GS I had in it just sat with me wrong. I actually had no intention of playing this game anytime soon, but then I received a random message last night asking if I wanted to boost it (right before I was putting Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands back in, no less) and decided to roll with it. They were good people with the exception of one guy who we booted, and we got a lot done. After we finish the multiplayer sometime this week, I guess I’ll give the campaign another run.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

It took me forever, but I finally completed this game. I got the full 1000 Gamerscore from it by collecting the rest of the Fantastic Coins and completing it on Fantastic difficulty, and now I never have to touch this game again. I’ve listed the game on Glyde.com so I can sell it and be rid of out. I really had to make myself finish this one – every time I loaded it up, it was met with a loud sigh from me.

NBA 2K11

As usual, I got in some online matches against my brother and worked on my My Player mode. Still trying to work towards that MVP. Unlike usual, I attempted some Crew and Team-Up games. I was unable to win any Crew games – people like to either use their maxed out My Players or lag pretty bad, and there aren’t very many people actually playing this mode. Which sucks. As for Team Up, there’s actually a pretty healthy community. If you can find a match that doesn’t lag tremendously, hope that you don’t have a ballhog on the team. But it really is a lot of fun to play sometimes. Just like real life, putting me and my bro on the same team is always a good idea.

Army of Two: the 40th Day

We really didn’t play this as long as we intended. We did some stuff in the real world and thought we’d play for a while when we got back (we being me and the wife), but we only ended up playing it for about 30-45 minutes. We added a few kills toward our “The Beast” achievement, but that was all.

Games I Bought

Well, I didn’t actually buy any games, but I did purchase the L. A. Noire Rockstar Pass. I plan on getting back to that game soon. Just been so busy with life and other games.

Other Gaming-Related News

Deus EX: Human Revolution releases August 23rd! And I plan to get it that day.

In other news, I won some cool stuff from K-Mart recently. I won 1600 Microsoft Points and a copy of Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy for PSP because I was able to answer some trivia questions. I can’t wait to try out the game – I’ve been interested in seeing how it played. As for the points, I wonder what I should spend them on…?

Conclusion

That wraps up my gaming report for this week. Now it’s your turn – what have you been playing this past week? What new games have you bought?

Let me know in the comments.

What I'm Gaming Vol. 7

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Games I Played

Brink

I finally started playing this game. With the release of the temporarily free DLC, I felt like it’d be a good time to play it a bit. It helps that a friend of mine was already online playing a public game when I got on.

I recall when the game was first announced and details came out, I was stoked for this game. A combo of the good parts of Team Fortress 2 and parkour style of Mirror’s Edge? Yes, please. However, the game released and I read reviews and watched gameplay videos, and my desire for it waned. But a GREAT deal came along at TRU (Toys R Us) where I could get this and FEAR 3 for a combined $50. So I got it.

This game is kinda fun. I didn’t realize the entire game was just a series of objectives, but I like how it makes certain classes essential and allows you to play with bots (I like it when games have bots – you don’t have to rely on having others to play with/against you). I didn’t care for the default controls, but I found a scheme a little more to my liking. Overall, and strikingly mediocre game. Good for the right price.

Dead Space: Ignition

This game is not what you think it is. This is quite thoroughly a puzzle game, with a brief Dead Space narrative. Al the cut scenes are drawn in a comic book style of art, but you can tell they didn’t try for a top artist. The campaign is brief, branching four routes (based on choices you make), and has three different types of puzzles to complete. None of them are hard, but they can be frustrating if you don’t know what you’re doing (or, if you realize you messed up, you might have to wait until time runs out to retry).

Alas, I finally completed this game. All 200 Gamerscore now belong to me. It didn’t take too long, and I’m glad to have it out of the way. Oh, and apparently, I unlocked two costumes for Isaac in the retail release of Dead Space 2, which I’ve yet to start.

Army of Two: the 40th Day

Me and the wife continued playing this game, completing the DLC and obtaining all those achievements (well, I didn’t get one of them – it glitches for my profile), along with a few we were missing from the original campaign. Now, we’re working toward our “The Beast” achievement that requires you to kill 6,666 people in the campaign. Once that’s done, we’ll get the “Full Arsenal” achievement and move on to the multiplayer.

Halo: Reach

I still haven’t finished the campaign. I know, I know. I promise I’ll get to it eventually. In the meantime, though, I was able to enjoy the multiplayer a bit. I feel like I’m starting to get my groove back – my kill/death ratio has been improving lately.

Halo 3

Yeah, I took it back to 2007 with this one. I jumped on to play some Lone Wolves to try and obtain the “Mongoose Mowdown” achievement, but I was utterly unsuccessful. That and the Vidmaster one are the only achievements I have left, but I can’t seem to get the Mowdown. As soon as you get on one (assuming you actually get a map that has them), everyone will stop and target you, thus thwarting your plans. Ugh. I’ll try again soon.

FEAR Files

A friend of mine finally got this game, so we worked on the [few] multiplayer achievements that are in this game. Still a few left, but they require a third person to get them. When his brother gets a copy, then we’ll knock those out.

FEAR

In case you were wondering, yes, it is sequels week. Only this time, I only played to help the aforementioned friend work on his “MP 1000” achievement. We did about 25 matches, he unlocked “MP 100”, and we stopped.

Gyromancer

I didn’t get to spend as much time as I wanted to with this game this week, but I know I’ll put in more work on it soon. I don’t know why, but I really like this game a lot. I’m trying to get all the medals on each level I play before I move to the next one, so I might be replaying my current dungeon for a while.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

I’ve nearly completed this game. I’m only missing 5 of the Fantastic Four coins, and I have two levels left before I complete the game on Fantastic difficulty. Once I do those two things, I will have this game maxed out and be ready to sell it to whoever will buy it. I’ll be so relieved when it’s done.

NBA 2K11

Didn’t really get to play with my brother this week, so I decided to work on some other things in this game. For one, I attempted to win a crew game several times, but I was not able to. It took forever to find a game, and when we did, our opponents either used souped up My Players or it lagged ridiculously hard. Ugh.

I did spend some time with my own My Player, though. I played a few games into the new season, padding my stats. I hope I’m able to take home the MVP this time.

Games I Bought

Once again, nothing. This will change soon, though – Deus Ex: Human Revolution is right around the corner. I’ve already completed one game, with a second game inching closer. I should easily be able to complete a third by August 23rd (when it releases).

Conclusion

That wraps up my gaming report for this week. Now it’s your turn – what have you been playing this past week? What new games have you bought?

Let me know in the comments.

What I’m Gaming Vol. 7

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Games I Played

Brink

Dead Space: Ignition

Army of Two: the 40th Day

Halo: Reach

Halo 3

FEAR Files

FEAR

Gyromancer

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

NBA 2K11

I did spend some time with my own My Player, though. I played a few games into the new season, padding my stats. I hope I’m able to take home the MVP this time.

Games I Bought

Conclusion

That wraps up my gaming report for this week. Now it’s your turn – what have you been playing this past week? What new games have you bought?

Let me know in the comments.

What I'm Gaming Vol. 6

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Sorry for this being a day late, but I’ve been a bit preoccupied. What can I say? Life happens. Moving on…

Games I Played

Iron Man 2

I received this game from Gamefly about two weeks ago, but I hadn’t touched it until Sunday. I was trying it out and seeing if it was any good, and I realized right as I completed the first level that it was not. This game has one of the things I despise most in a game: bad controls. They are very confusing, and you do a lot of flying in this game – all of it awkward. I tried to take the game out before the Headquarters screen loaded after completion of the first level, but it was too late.

Achievement Unlocked.

This, for once, made me very sad. I did NOT want to continue playing this game, but now I’m forced to (by my need to at least try and max out every game I play). I’ll have to deal with the terrible controls and sub-mediocre gameplay. And a screen that’s little covered in HUDs. Yeah, there’s something in every corner, and sometimes at the top middle, too. Word of advice – do NOT play this game.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

I finally decided to pick this game back up, after a several month hiatus. I figured I’d work on maxing this game out so I can get rid of it, since it definitely won’t get played again.

For those who haven’t seen or played this game, it tried to take advantage of the X-Men: Legends formula that was so popular at the time, with four player co-op and upgradeable characters. Problem being, it’s based off of the movie and the Fantastic Four just aren’t as awesome as the X-Men. And it graphically looks cheap. This game is definitely mediocre at best, but I’ve only got two more achievements and they’re within sight, so I plan on finishing it.

Army of Two: The 40th Day

Alright – me and the wife played this game TO DEATH this past weekend. We were halfway through the game when we started and ended up seeing all three endings and completed every difficulty along the way. We’ve taken care of most of the achievements for the original game, and are looking forward to playing through the DLC this coming weekend and getting those achievements as well. By the time we finish, all we’ll have left is the multiplayer. Once you are able to get used to the enemies blending until the backgrounds, the game is actually pretty fun.

NBA 2K11

I finally won the NBA Championship in the My Player mode. After becoming the [rookie] Finals MVP, I proceeded to the off-season, where I was given the option to choose among available teams. My choices were to return to the Spurs or join either the Thunder or Heat. As a PG, I decided to go with the Heat. They had three All Stars to dish to and I thought that with a SG like Wade, Coach would stop moving me there. I was wrong. LeBron doesn’t roll to the basket and Coach still plays me at the 2. Heh.

And as usual, I played against my bro. I’ve found his weakness: The Golden State Warriors. Monta Ellis is like kryptonite to Kobe.

Games I Bought

I’m still sticking to my guns and holding out until I complete at least three games. So no new purchases yet.

Conclusion

That wraps up my gaming report for this week. Now it’s your turn – what have you been playing this past week? What new games have you bought?

Let me know in the comments.

What I’m Gaming Vol. 6

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Sorry for this being a day late, but I’ve been a bit preoccupied. What can I say? Life happens. Moving on…

Games I Played

Iron Man 2

Achievement Unlocked.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

I finally decided to pick this game back up, after a several month hiatus. I figured I’d work on maxing this game out so I can get rid of it, since it definitely won’t get played again.

Army of Two: The 40th Day

NBA 2K11

And as usual, I played against my bro. I’ve found his weakness: The Golden State Warriors. Monta Ellis is like kryptonite to Kobe.

Games I Bought

I’m still sticking to my guns and holding out until I complete at least three games. So no new purchases yet.

Conclusion

That wraps up my gaming report for this week. Now it’s your turn – what have you been playing this past week? What new games have you bought?

Let me know in the comments.

What I’m Gaming Vol. 4

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Didn’t have as much time as usual this past week to play as I’d like, but I did get in at least a couple of games.

Games I Played

Looks like a Bejeweled RPG to me

Gyromancer

This is yet another game I bought because it was on sale, but never played until recently. If you’re noticing a trend with me, you’re right. If it looks interesting and it’s cheap enough, then I usually buy it and get around to playing it later.

Anyway, this game was created by Pop Cap and published by Square-Enix. The reason I’m mentioning this is because it shows distinctive traits from each company. Pop Cap generally makes casual and puzzle games, and Square-Enix has long been known for its RPGs. Well, this game is both. Kind of a mix between Magic (the art style), Bejeweled (the puzzle part) and RPG elements (Square-Enix’s contribution). It actually works out well – the gameplay can be rather addicting, once you get the hang of it.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

This was a game that I picked up really cheap a few months ago. I wanted it when it released, but I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be worth the full purchase price – and I was right. I have actually already beaten the story once on Hard, but a friend and I decided to give Extreme a go. We got past a very frustrating part (where you protect the limo), then called it quits.

I can only take so much frustration at a time.

F.E.A.R.

Once again, I was helping a friend work on finishing his multiplayer achievements. We’ve completed all of them except for two, but those might take a while. If you’re wondering, those two are the “MP 100” and “MP 1000” achievements for playing 100 and 1000 multiplayer games, respectively.

I keep putting it off, but I really need to get back to playing that campaign. I need to finish my Extreme playthrough for the campaign and the Instant Action maps, and then I can clean up all the easier ones.

Crysis 2

Ever since my initial outing with the multiplayer in Crysis 2, I’ve been wanting to play it more and more. I like shooters in general, but I tend to prefer more sci-fi style FPS because for me, it’s more fun. I like to at least have a chance to retaliate if I’m getting shot from the back or the side, you know? Oh, and the powers are fun.

I’m gradually getting better as I’m learning the maps and understanding how to locate people that are using camo (because they’re ALWAYS using camo), and leveling up so I can better compete with them. It’s not without its faults – the online is a bit laggy (but definitely not unplayable) and higher level players have a significant advantage over you, but it’s still good fun to me.

Tales of Vesperia

I’ve finally reached the final dungeon, but I’m not ready to finish it just yet. I’m going to spend some time farming a significant amount of GRADE so when I finish, I can start my second playthrough with all of the skills and abilities and everything I had from my initial playthrough. Getting all those titles on the second run is going to be just lovely.

NBA 2K11

I didn’t get to play this one as much as I’d have liked. My brother had work to attend to, so we only got a few games in. Me and Michael Jordan are eagerly awaiting his return.

Games I Bought

Well, this is the second week in a row I haven’t bought anything. I’m really trying to concentrate on completing the mountain of games that I already own, instead of just adding more to it.
I did, however, receive Iron Man 2 from Gamefly the other day. Haven’t started playing it yet, though.

Conclusion

That about wraps up my gaming report for this week. Now it’s your turn – what have you been playing this past week? What new games have you bought?

Let me know in the comments, and if you like this post, share it.

What I'm Gaming Vol. 4

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Didn’t have as much time as usual this past week to play as I’d like, but I did get in at least a couple of games.

Games I Played

Looks like a Bejeweled RPG to me

Gyromancer

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

I can only take so much frustration at a time.

F.E.A.R.

Crysis 2

Tales of Vesperia

NBA 2K11

I didn’t get to play this one as much as I’d have liked. My brother had work to attend to, so we only got a few games in. Me and Michael Jordan are eagerly awaiting his return.

Games I Bought

Conclusion

That about wraps up my gaming report for this week. Now it’s your turn – what have you been playing this past week? What new games have you bought?

Let me know in the comments, and if you like this post, share it.

What I’m Gaming Vol. 3

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Welcome back to What I’m Gaming Vol. 3! I was able to play a lot of different games this week – I’ve been trying to whittle down my massive game collection before it takes over my room. Quite a few Xbox Live Arcade titles on the menu this week, with just a few retail games sprinkled in for good measure.

Games I Played

Crysis 2

Let’s start with a big retail title, shall we?

I remember when the original Crysis released on PC a few years ago. I don’t play games on my PC, nor will I anytime soon (if ever), but I was envious of that game. I may not have to be soon, though. It was literally a great looking game and looked like a blast, too.

Fast forward to the release of Crysis 2. As with many titles I want, I didn’t buy it right away. But Amazon had it as the Deal of the Day for $40 brand new, I couldn’t resist. I had just over $30 credit from doing surveys on Amazon Mechanical Turk, so the game only cost me around $10. Now, at that price, this game is an astronomical deal.

I played it initially for a few levels, but at the time, I was suffering a bit from shooter fatigue, so I didn’t go too far. Now that I’ve recovered, I jumped right in to the multiplayer, and right into ass whoopings. It’s got a perk and leveling system that’s basically a high tech version of Call of Duty, of course, customized to fit Crysis 2, so it didn’t feel too foreign to me (but I need to admit, I don’t play much Call of Duty to begin with). After a short time, I adjusted my controls and, aside from the advantageous unlocks and map knowledge of veteran players, I think I did alright. We played the Crash Site game mode, with is basically like Crazy King in Halo. I enjoyed it and I’ll definitely be back for more – and not just because of the ridiculous achievements.

HALF MINUTE HERO: Super Mega Neo Climax

When this game released two weeks ago on XBLA, I was initially unimpressed. But because of it’s Super Long But Awesome title and the innuendos that come with it, I decided to dig a little deeper.

Turns out, this title is a port of the original PSP game that came out a few years ago. It got a Wind Waker style makeover along the way. I had read the original graphics were still available, if you prefer pixelated sprites polluting your HDTV, but after taking a look, a passed and reverted back to the updated visuals.

The game’s premise is so simple, it’s almost disgusting. But it works. I played through the first few “stories” (each one requires you to save the world in 30 seconds or less) and it was actually pretty fun, once you get the hang of it. Even if you don’t like RPGs, you should at least check out the trial. If you like the trial, you’ll love the game. And with every part only 30 seconds long, even the parts you don’t like will pass very quickly.

Unbound Saga

I’ve had this game just sitting on my harddrive, collecting digital dust after purchasing it during a weekly sale a few months ago. I felt like trying something new, and I didn’t know what to expect going in. It’s pretty easy to describe. Think of it as a modernized, co-op version of Comix Zone. I didn’t care much for its predecessor, but I was able to enjoy Unbound Saga for several levels, despite being terribly bad at beat’em up games.

It’s available for 800 Microsoft Points, but I don’t know if I’d pay that much for it, still. If you see it go on sale, though, definitely consider picking it up.

Crazy Taxi

When the now-defunct Dreamcast was still King, I was in love with this series, and I started right here. With the original. I remember playing the living hell out of this game (and its sequels), trying to beat my previous scores. And I was good.

Unfortunately, not all things are like a fine wine. That is to say, not all things get better with age. And my nimble thumbs and blazing reaction time were not subjected to the positive side of advancing age. I’m not old, but I’m definitely not as skilled in certain genres (racing and fighting, in particular) as I once was. And with this game, it shows. I spent a few hours frustrating myself because I couldn’t help but think of how good I USED to be, and how terrible I am now.

But don’t let my gripes deter you from playing this game – it’s still fantastic. The premise is extremely simple: You’re a taxi, and you need to pick up customers (only one at a time in the original, unfortunately) and get them to where they want to go as insanely and recklessly fast as you can, and collect the most fare (money) possible before you run out of time. If you’re thinking about getting this game, I’d recommend the Dreamcast Collection, since it can be had for $20 or less, and also includes Sonic Adventure, Space Channel 5: Part 2, and Sega Bass Fishing. The last two are kinda thrown in, but if you buy just the first two, you’re paying the same price anyway, so why not?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Reshelled

If you read what I mentioned above in my Unbound Saga section, you’ll notice I said I suck at beat’em ups. This game takes full advantage of my shortcomings. I’ll contend that I am pretty bad at it (and the previous game, TMNT 1989 Arcade, too) but I really feel like this is a poor game.

I won’t outright say that it’s bad, and some people may even enjoy it, but it just feels really cheap to me. For example, the third level you ride through a sewer on a little board. Enemies spawn everywhere and there are little red things in the water that prick your foot if you touch them, causing an animation where you grab your foot and scream “My toes! My toes!”, all while enemies and other pricklies are still able to damage you and send you into even more animations. Oh, and there happens to be an achievement for not getting hit by any of the traps. Yeah. Once I finish this game (as in, the achievements), it’s gone.

X-Men Arcade

If I’m gonna play a beat’em up, this is how it should be done. Short and sweet, not too cheap, and most importantly, fun. This game is very short, but has held up surprising well over time. It’s not nearly as stressful as other similar games because you really can’t lose, and you actually feel powerful when you utilize the Mutant Powers.

Oh, and let’s not forget the six player online co-op. Just like the coin-op machines you remember.

F.E.A.R

I just played this a little with a friend, continuing to help him with the multiplayer achievements. We’re almost done with them. Now, I just need to get back into the campaign for this game. I was working on my playthrough on Extreme and I was nearly halfway through.

F.E.A.R. 2

I saw another friend online boosting experience points toward the “Five Star General” achievement, so I joined in briefly. I only stayed in for about an hour, though. I guess I’m just not the booster I used to be. I’ll get it eventually, but I won’t be working on it five hours at a time.

Schizoid

Me and the significant other continued our co-op campaign for a few short sessions over the weekend, but we were a bit disappointed to see the “new mechanics” introduced in certain levels to be based almost entirely on luck, rather than skill. Still a great game, but I can’t say I’m enjoying those levels.

Tales of Vesperia

When I said this game will be in here for a while, I meant it. I’m playing this game almost every day, working towards the end. I’ve only got a few more hours before I finally beat the story once, but I still need to complete nearly two and a half more playthroughs in order to fully max the game out. I fully intend to do that since I’ve always loved truly completing my RPGs.

NBA 2K11

Another weekly entry. I’m always playing this with my bro. My win-loss was 5-4 tonight, with three wins and one loss having double digit margins of victory. All I really do is play with him online, but maybe I should spend some time finishing up the My Player mode?

The King of Fighters XII

My chart is almost full. I say another few days of working at it and “The King of Fighters” achievement should unlock and I can get rid of this disgraceful game. At least it has a high True
Achievement ratio, though.

Games I Bought

Hard to believe, but a week went by without me purchasing anything. No games, no DLC, nothing. Maybe if I have more weeks like this, I can actually reduce my current to-play list?

Conclusion

That about wraps up my gaming report for this week. Now it’s your turn – what have you been playing this past week? What new games have you bought?

Let me know in the comments.

What I'm Gaming Vol. 3

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Games I Played

Crysis 2

Let’s start with a big retail title, shall we?

HALF MINUTE HERO: Super Mega Neo Climax

When this game released two weeks ago on XBLA, I was initially unimpressed. But because of it’s Super Long But Awesome title and the innuendos that come with it, I decided to dig a little deeper.

Unbound Saga

It’s available for 800 Microsoft Points, but I don’t know if I’d pay that much for it, still. If you see it go on sale, though, definitely consider picking it up.

Crazy Taxi

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Reshelled

X-Men Arcade

Oh, and let’s not forget the six player online co-op. Just like the coin-op machines you remember.

F.E.A.R

F.E.A.R. 2

Schizoid

Tales of Vesperia

NBA 2K11

The King of Fighters XII

Games I Bought

Hard to believe, but a week went by without me purchasing anything. No games, no DLC, nothing. Maybe if I have more weeks like this, I can actually reduce my current to-play list?

Conclusion

That about wraps up my gaming report for this week. Now it’s your turn – what have you been playing this past week? What new games have you bought?

Let me know in the comments.

What I’m Gaming Vol. 2

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Hey everyone, Happy 4th of July! I hope you all have a great day today and are able to kick back, relax, and enjoy the free time. Just try not to do anything too wild.

Anyway, it’s Monday. And with Monday, that means the second edition of What I’m Gaming. Read on to see what I’ve been gaming this week.

Games I’ve Played

Gears of War 2

It seems to happen every big holiday – that’s right, a Gears of War 2 EXP event. This time, it is for Independence Day and it’s 21x EXP through tonight. I’ve yet to obtain the “Veteran Gear” achievement in this game (for those that don’t know, you have to reach level 100 in online play and win a match in each of the Snowblind Map Pack maps), so I decided to give it a shot.

It needs to be said that I do not like the multiplayer in Gears of War games. It’s glitchy, it’s third-person (I greatly prefer first person), it’s got everyone trying to bridge for host, it doesn’t want me to play it (more on this in a future article), yet it wants me to spend my life on it to get the online achievements. That said, I do want to have 100% completion in this game, so I need to be able to finish this achievement off. I’ve passed on a lot of other EXP events, so I at least needed to spend a few hours on this game.

And that’s all I could take. I played enough to level up nearly 3 levels. I went from 57 to [almost] 60, so I’ve still got a long way to go. I just can’t take this game except for in small doses. I can honestly say I am not looking forward to Gears of War 3.

Schizoid

I admit, I’ve had this game for a while. It was on sale on XBLA who knows how long ago, but I never got around to checking out what it was all about. I’ve never been much of a trial person – I like to kind of just dive in and hope it’s good.

Buying Schizoid was a good decision.

The concept of the game is very simple. There’s a blue guy, and there’s an orange guy (no, these aren’t portals). If you have the blue guy, you can kill the blue creatures. Likewise with the orange. The goal is to clear all the blue and orange creatures on screen, preferably without dying.

Me and my girlfriend dove into the co-op (after the game I outline next pissed me off) and after dying a few times, we were much better. It was really pretty mindless fun – the kind where if you lose a few times, you don’t get mad. It just inspires to you play better and keep trying. Completing this game will be very challenging, but I’ll be giving it a shot, for sure.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

I don’t know what to say. I heard that this is a very solid game with good co-op, but that’s not what I experienced. We were only in the first level, but actually experienced two game-breaking glitches that caused us to move on to play Schizoid (although that part wasn’t a bad thing – see above).

I was playing as Lara and I was killed by a rotating flame. When I respawned, I appeared on the other side of a gate that I wasn’t supposed to be at yet. I had no way of returning to my partner, so we had to reload the game. The second glitch was just as frustrating, if not more. While trying to work our way back to the flamethrower puzzle, there is a small chasm that you have to cross. Lara has a grappling hook/rope tool where she can swing across by latching onto a golden ring. She would then help her partner across. Well, the game refused to acknowledge the ring (even though this is how the game instructed us to cross!) and we could not continue.

That’s when I turned it off. It’ll be a while before I try to play this game again.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

After last week’s Sonic 4 fiasco, I decided to go back and play the previous entry to make sure that I wasn’t being too critical of the newer game. I played one level (picture above, actually) and stopped. I don’t particularly like the level that follows.

Anyway, Sonic in this game was a fast as I remembered, and ensured that my perspective was not skewed by time.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot

I still have not played through the campaign in this game, but I’m finally almost done with the entire multiplayer. I was able to have a friend assist me with unlocking my “Serial Killer” achievement, where you have to get 1000 kills in the multiplayer. I also made progress towards the “SKX” achievement, where you have to kill 9 people that unlocked “Serial Killer”. It was definitely a good day of work, and it didn’t take long.

It might be a while before I finally get into the campaign in this game – “horror” games are games I need to be in the mood to play, and usually it needs to be at night. I’ll get there, though – but not before I complete the multiplayer.

Tales of Vesperia

I continued my journey in Tales of Vesperia and uncovered some interesting plot points. Right now, I’d say I’m around two-thirds through the story segment of the game. You’ll be seeing this game a lot in What I’m Gaming.

Killzone 2

I played about half a level. I wasn’t really in the mood to play it and I was tired. Just a quick fix, I guess.

NBA 2K11

Another game that will probably be a weekly entry for the foreseeable future. I love this game, but Kobe’s dunk rating is way too high for his age and current ability, and my brother knows how to abuse the [nearly] unstoppable dropstep dunk. Ugh.

The King of Fighters XII

Continued working on filling out my spreadsheet for this game. I’m done with my initial playthroughs with each character. Now I just have to go back fill in all of the blanks. Too bad there are a lot of blanks…

Oh, and Mature sucks in this game. Bad.

Games I Bought

No retail games this week. I did purchase three XBLA titles, though. Those titles were Tetris Splash, Hardwood Hearts, and Puzzle Bobble Live. All three of these titles were purchased for my girlfriend to play. I will probably end up never touching any of the three, myself.

I did end up getting HALF MINUTE HERO: Super Mega Neo Climax for myself, although I haven’t had the chance to start it.

Other Gaming-Related News

Not much here. I re-downloaded several games and DLC that I either deleted in anger or frustration (Prince of Persia Classic, anyone?) or because I needed to conserve space. Now that I’ve moved into a bigger HDD, these things aren’t a big concern anymore.

Conclusion

That about wraps up my gaming report for this week. Now it’s your turn – what have you been playing this past week? What new games have you bought?

Let me know in the comments.