Game-stravaganza weekend.

Kind of spent the entire weekend gaming and doing chores. Have some first impressions and semi-reviews and assorted mumbo jumbo. Thanks to Farley for the lending of the games.

1) Gears of War is/was pretty awesome fun. Amanda proved her skill with third person tactical shooters - at least providing very useful assistance in fire fights. She delights in "brokeback squad" humor though - chasing my character around with amourous intent.

2) Crackdown is fun but sort of a one trick pony. Basically a cyberpunk superhero game you control a cybernetic super cop who - after finding numerous hidden power ups - is literally able to leap tall buildings and whomp the living hell out of the gang menace that plagues the city. It looks pretty neat and it's great fun to leap from rooftop to rooftop - think Spiderman without the webslinging - and just wandering and blasting stuff. After awhile I kind of wished that there was something else to do. I'll play a bit more and see if anything worthwhile happens.

3) Just Cause is a sandbox game set in Robert Rodriguez-esque world. Some island run by a junta. El Presidente is not friendly towards Uncle Sam. CIA wants to support local rebels in order to have someone in command who understands our goals in the region. CIA sends you in. It's not all sand and surf. That's the long and short of Just Cause. The player character looks and sounds like a cheap knock-off of Antonio Banderas and moves around kind of weird - like his mariachi pants are riding up. Other than that the game seems like it's going to be right up my alley. I like being thought of as a liberator and freedom fighter.

The island the game takes place on is massive, huge massive. Maybe it's just first impressions but it took me quite some time to get to the capitol city - I eventually borrowed a Cesna and just parachuted into the city. The game looks great but is almost too vibrant - the colors are just super saturated and kind of put the zap on my eyes. I'm used to grey and muted colors of destroyed cities and smooth greens of MLB outfields so when confronted with crazy jungle and beach and sunlight it takes some getting used to.

4) MLB2K6 is my new addiction. I - quite unexpectedly - have started down the path of baseball videogaming. I haven't really ever played any sports games so it's a new experience and am very slowly learning the controls. So far it turns out I can pitch and clobber foul balls deep left. I started a season yesterday playing the Rangers. I like the Rangers - they were the first MLB baseball team I ever saw play. Of course I start the season playing Boston. Bastards. Did okay the first game - won 3-2 in OT. Second game went fine - actually awesome. Young HR w/bases loaded awesomeness in the fifth. It was magic. Led 6-3 and then in the 7th the entire game went to shit. My idiot clod third baseman got an error - the ball bounced off his foot and into the outfield. The Sox demolished my defense. My relief pitcher went noodle armed. The 7th and 8th innings were shameful. The 9th was fine. Pitching was great no problem. Couldn't get on base though and ended the game 11-6. If I had a hat I would have thrown it in the dirt and jumped up and down on it. I'll play game three tonight and see if I can't prevent another wholesale slaughter.


And that's all the news for now.

Gears of War (2006)

Despite the fact that I'm about to rent my third copy of this from Blockbuster - the first two have been scratched - and have only gotten a few hours of play in I have to say that Gears of War is a pretty cool game.

It's a futuristic third-person shooter that pits massive gravelly-voiced dudes against The Locust - warriors that look like Draks from Enemy Mine and sound like pissed off daemonic Helghast from Killzone. The combat is possibly some of the best and well programmed third person combat I've played. Gone is the ridiculous "jump" button - seriously who jumps? Vaulting, steepling, hauling ass yes but jumping? It's pretty much just an action button that allows you to take cover and do perform various actions. Cover is essential as is not staying in one place too long. The firefights in Gears of War are intense when they really get going - trying to take down heavy gun emplacements are kind of a nightmare. The Locust are real bastards to kill due to heavy armor and pure meanness. I have actually gotten into drawn out gun battles with Locust only to finish the fight in close combat.

The game looks amazing, sounds amazing, plays well, and still can't manage to have competent squad AI. These guys love running into machine gun fire, charging balls out deep into enemy territory. Sure you can revive them but they are often in such an inconvenient spot that it's easier just to take on the Locust hordes on your own and then patch up your buddies later. There is a bare bones amount of squad control and the squad is successful at drawing attention away from you - allowing you to sneak up on emplacements and better firing positions. I just hope that some day squad AI will be better than cannon fodder/buller magnet.

Gears of War is definitely worth playing and is the first game I'm actually considering playing online because it's that fun. Just expect to die. A lot. Fortunately there are many checkpoints to make life easier. Now if only Blockbuster had a copy I could play.