Hello to everyone who still bothers to read my incredibly infrequent and choppy blogs, lol. I just wanted to make a quick update about my most anticipated game of 2013, which is the new fighting game from NetherRealm Studios titled Injustice: Gods Among Us. I've mentioned the game with detail in a couple past blogs so I won't spend much time covering old ground, and instead I'll just delve into the newest information we've received recently. The game is shaping up to be an awesome experience for any fans of either fighting games in general or DC Comics characters. Enjoy.

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NEWEST CONFIRMED CHARACTERS

Initially, NRS showed off an early build of the game with 24 character slots on the screen. They stated that the final number might be different, but now it has been confirmed that the full game will indeed contain 24 characters with more to be added through DLC. The most recently announced characters can be seen here:

Doomsday - Trailer
Raven - Trailer
Black Adam - Trailer
Killer Frost - Picture
Ares - Picture

The confirmed, full roster is below:

Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
The Flash
The Joker
Harley Quinn
Solomon Grundy
Hawkgirl
Green Arrow
Catwoman
Deathstroke
Bane
Lex Luthor
Shazam (Captain Marvel)
Black Adam
Ares
Killer Frost
Green Lantern
Sinestro
Doomsday
Raven
Aquaman
Cyborg
Nightwing

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DLC SEASON PASS ANNOUNCED

It was revealed a short while ago that a season pass will be available for the game on the release date (April 16). This pass will be $14.99 and include 4 DLC characters for the price of 3, as well as bonus Flashpoint costumes for Aquaman, Deathstroke, and Wonder Woman. Based on the full-body versions of the shadowy character renders that were shown, there is a very good chance that Martian Manhunter will be the first DLC character revealed.

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DEMO RELEASE DATE AND OTHER RANDOM NEWS

It was revealed today by Ed Boon from NRS on his Twitter account that there will be a demo released on April 2nd. It will include Batman, Wonder Woman, and Lex Luthor playable in the Gotham City arena. S.T.A.R. Labs challenge missions were also recently shown in several videos, and it was confirmed that there will be 240 missions in total (10 per character). Some will be mini-games and others will be fights with unique twists, such as a battle where Two-Face stands in the background and flips his coin to decide who he will randomly shoot, or a battle between Raven and her father, Trigon, who is not a fighter in any other mode of the game. Each event will have 3 optional objectives to complete, such as taking no damage in a fight or winning without blocking. Earning stars for completing these objectives and the events themselves will earn XP and other rewards like alternate costumes.

Currently, the full selection of pre-order bonus offers are these:

Gamestop - Red Son Pack including 20 extra S.T.A.R. Labs missions and 3 bonus costumes
Walmart - Arkham City Pack including 3 bonus costumes, and a free copy of MK vs DC Universe
Best Buy/Amazon EU - Blackest Night Pack including 1 bonus costume and a bonus Zombies Mode
Amazon - $10 promotional credit and a free digital comic for Kindle

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That does it for now. I've still been rather busy with college and my activity here has been low, as usual. But I refuse to leave this site entirely because I've spent too mcuh time in my life here to give up now, lol...eventually I might even rank up to level 64 after being on 63 now for like over a year. I've been playing Tomb Raider and it's a fun game, though it can't match the Uncharted series in my mind. I would estimate that I'm probably a little less than halfway through the story, so I can't judge it with all fairness yet, and I haven't touched the multiplayer portion of the game (don't plan to until I beat the campaign). I also haven't yet played my free copy of Quantum Conundrum, but I will eventually.

Thanks for reading, please comment, and God bless.

Where do I even begin? I guess I should start by addressing the elephant in the room, which is the fact that I haven't posted a blog in like 5 months. There's a variety of reasons for that and I can explain a few in a moment when I give some updates regarding what I've been doing lately, but the biggest reason is simply that I haven't used this site much recently. My favorite unions are pretty much dead and many of my friends are either gone or almost completely inactive. I stick around to talk to a few people and check in on a few boards from time to time, but I've been spending far more time on deviantART. If you wish to contact me there, leave your ID in a comment for this blog and I can add you as a friend. You can still always send me a PM here however, because I do drop in at least once or twice every day if I can. Anyway, here are just a few general updates to get you up to speed on what's been happening with me:

1. Played through and got a Platinum in Assassin's Creed 3, and it's definitely my GOTY for 2012. For some reason there are a ton of people bashing the game, but I don't understand why. The story is deep, the action is intense, the combat is satisfying, the maps are huge, and overall the experience could be summed up by just calling it "epic". A few glitches and some frustrating optional objectives keep the game from being perfect, but I would still give it around a 9/10.

2. Played through and beat Assassin's Creed 2 very recently. My dad played through AC1, and afterwards when I said he should play my copy of AC3 next, he said that he wanted to play through the series in order and so he bought the PSN version of the AC2 Deluxe Edition. I took advantage of the opportunity and downloaded it to my system as well. Previously I had been wary of playing the middle three AC games because of some content I didn't care for, but in the end it turned out to be minor stuff like several of my friends had told me, though right off the bat it was clear that AC2 had more F-bombs than AC1 or AC3, lol. Overall I give AC2 about an 8.5/10 and for many of the same reasons I gave a similar score to AC3. Both games feel rather different and they're both good in their own ways. I'm looking forward to playing AC:Brotherhood next.

3. I started attending a couple community college clas$es early in January. I'm taking English Comp and College Algebra. Since I had been previously homeschooled all my life, it was a big leap for me, but so far it's going okay. I surprisingly have a lot of work for just these two clas$es that I attend for just two days every week though, lol. I'm glad my parents haven't made me get a job yet so that I can focus exclusively on doing well with school for a while. I need to get A's in both these clas$es and in a few others to allow me to stand a chance at getting into the program I was eyeing, namely either Radiography or Radiation Therapy.

Hmm...I had actually expected to type more in the updates section, but I can't come up with anything. I guess I'll move on to the next section of this blog.

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INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US - THE NEWEST INFO

As you might remember, I made up a blog a while ago detailing almost all the info I could gather about the upcoming fighting game, Injustice: Gods Among Us. It's being developed by NetherRealm Studios, which is the same team that brought you the reboot of the Mortal Kombat franchise not too long ago. Injustice will feature over-the-top action with famous DC heroes and villains, and unlike with the MK series, the developers are foregoing blood and gore and are aiming for a T rating. Below I will list all the new info I can think of that's been released since when I made that first blog about the game. I hope you enjoy.

NEW TRAILERS:

Story Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l27-3NJqpiA
Lex Luthor Reveal Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4-PpUxBwQE
Deathstroke Reveal Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVDqpsXAgLI

CONFIRMED CHARACTERS:

Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
The Flash
Solomon Grundy
The Joker
Harley Quinn
Catwoman
Cyborg
Nightwing
Green Arrow
Deathstroke
Lex Luthor
Bane
Green Lantern

TEASED/RUMORED CHARACTERS:

Raven (shown in a fight stance in a screenshot of the game)
Hawkgirl (shown briefly in the story trailer as part of a cutscene)
Black Adam (hinted at by Ed Boon from NRS on Twitter)
Shazam/Captain Marvel
Aquaman (unofficially confirmed by a website's preview of the game)
Ares
Doomsday
Zatanna
Martian Manhunter
Captain Cold
Swamp Thing

UPCOMING INFO:

Since Ed Boon has previously stated that not all characters in the game will be playable, people still must be skeptical when they see teased characters. Hawkgirl and Raven are pretty much locked in for being in the game because they've both been spotted in the game, but that doesn't necessarily make them playable. According to the Injustice Facebook page, a new video will be releasing today (Monday the 4th) and it will include gameplay from a character that hasn't been revealed yet if I'm not mistaken, so definitely keep an eye out for that.

PRE-ORDER BONUSES:

Currently only two pre-order bonuses are available. If you order the game from Gamestop, you will get the Red Son DLC Pack. It will include 20 additional story missions and three alternate costumes (one for Superman, one for Wonder Woman, and one for Solomon Grundy). It will follow the story of what would have happened had Superman's rocket ship crash-landed in the Soviet Union instead of Kansas. The other pre-order bonus, which was just revealed a couple days ago, is from Walmart. If you order from them, you will get the Arkham City Costumes DLC Pack, which includes the Arkham City versions of Batman, The Joker, and Catwoman. And even though it is not technically a pre-order bonus, you can get the New 52 Costumes DLC Pack by purchasing either the Battle Edition ($150) or the Collector's Edition ($99) of the game. My advice is to wait a little longer to make sure that no other stores such as Best Buy will announce any better offers. When MK was released, I heard that a bonus offer was announced one week before the game's release date.

NEW GAMEPLAY INFORMATION:

It has been announced that Injustice will feature an online practice mode, allowing two players to connect with each other to sharpen their skills or just mess around and have fun. A new feature of being able to tag specific moves in the pause menu and have them displayed permanently on the screen during a fight has also been revealed, and some mini-games will occur during the course of the game's story mode to break up the repetition of fight, cutscene, fight, cutscene, etc. The story itself will be slightly longer than what was in MK. Another big reveal is that players will have the option of using two different control setups, including the original d-pad method used in MK games or the d-pad method used in other fighting games like Street Fighter.

CLOSING THOUGHTS:

I'm pretty psyched for this game, if you can't tell, haha. The premise of Superman losing control and becoming sort of a dictator after The Joker attacks Metropolis in a major way is very interesting, and I'm sure it will be cool to see how the heroes and villains react to this and form alliances of their own. Having Kevin Conroy as Batman will be awesome, and I'm really excited to see some more alternate costumes for all the characters. Generally speaking, they can give a lot of replay value to games like this, for me at least. I'm keeping my hopes up that Raven will be playable and possibly revealed soon in a trailer of her own, and I'll definitely be pre-ordering the game once I make sure of where I want to buy it.

Thanks for reading, God bless, and please comment.

Science

"Let me explain the problem science has with religion." The atheist professor of philosophy pauses and then asks one of his new students to stand.

'You're a Christian, aren't you, son?'

'Yes sir,' the student says.

'So you believe in God?'

'Absolutely '

'Is God good?'

'Sure! God's good.'

'Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?'

'Yes'

'Are you good or evil?'

'The Bible says I'm evil.'

The professor grins knowingly. 'Aha! The Bible!' He considers for a moment. 'Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?'

'Yes sir, I would.'

'So you're good...!'

'I wouldn't say that.'

'But why not say that? You'd help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn't.'

The student does not answer, so the professor continues. 'He doesn't, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Can you answer that one?'

The student remains silent. 'No, you can't, can you?' the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax. 'Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?'

'Er...yes,' the student says.

'Is Satan good?'

The student doesn't hesitate on this one...'No.'

'Then where does Satan come from?'

The student falters. 'From God.'

'That's right. God made Satan, didn't he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Evil's everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything, correct?'

'Yes.'

'So who created evil?' The professor continued, 'If God created everything,then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.'

Again, the student has no answer. 'Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?'

The student squirms on his feet. 'Yes.'

'So who created them?'

The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. 'Who created them?' There is still no answer. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace. The room is mesmerized. 'Tell me,' he continues onto another student. 'Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?'

The student's voice betrays him and cracks. 'Yes, professor, I do.'

The old man stops pacing. 'Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?'

'No sir. I've never seen Him.'

'Then tell us if you've ever heard your Jesus?'

'No, sir, I have not.'

'Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?'

'No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't.'

'Yet you still believe in him?'

'Yes.'

'According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn't exist... What do you say to that, son?'

'Nothing,' the student replies.. 'I only have my faith.'

'Yes, faith,' the professor repeats. 'And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith.'

The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of His own. 'Professor, is there such thing as heat? '

'Yes.'

'And is there such a thing as cold?'

'Yes, son, there's cold too.'

'No sir, there isn't.'

The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain. 'You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can hit down to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.'

Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere, sounding like a hammer.

'What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?'

'Yes,' the professor replies without hesitation. 'What is night if it isn't darkness?'

'You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?'

The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him. This will be a good semester. 'So what point are you making, young man?'

'Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed.'

The professor's face cannot hide his surprise this time. 'Flawed? Can you explain how?'

'You are working on the premise of duality,' the student explains. 'You argue that there is life and then there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it. Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?'

'If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do.'

'Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?'

The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.

'Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?'

The room is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided. 'To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean.' The student looks around the room. 'Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor's brain?' The class breaks out into laughter. 'Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's brain, felt the professor's brain, touched or smelt the professor's brain? No one appears to have done so... So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir. So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?'

Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable. Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. 'I guess you'll have to take them on faith.'

'Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life,' the student continues. 'Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?' Now uncertain, the professor responds, 'Of course there is. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.'

To this the student replied, 'Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.'

The professor sat down.


The student was Albert Einstein.

Albert Einstein wrote a book titled 'God vs. Science' in 1921.....

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My comment? EINSTEIN PWNAGE! Anyway, kudos if you read through the entire thing. It's always annoying when smug professors try to embarrass their students like this, so it's nice to see the tables turned, whether you agree with Einstein or not. Leave a comment if you wish, and God bless.

I'm always a little fearful about doing blogs such as this. First of all, there's always the chance that I'll miss some obscure scrap of information which will nag at my mind later on and remind me of how the blog didn't even accomplish its own purpose. On the other hand, even if I do collect all the info on this game and make it all into a great read, I'm sure that new info will roll up right around the corner and make this thing quickly obsolete. But for the sake of the fact that I simply want to write this, I'm ignoring these worries and am about to present you with a total and complete preview for Injustice: Gods Among Us. This will be a one-stop-shop where you can read everything there is to (currently) know about the upcoming fighting game from NetherRealm Studios, the people who made Mortal Kombat. Enjoy.

Note: Gamespot's ridiculous site glitches have messed up most of the text a bit, so it might be bigger than usual. >_>

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The Premise -

Unfortunately, there isn't much known about the plot of the game just yet. All we have confirmed is that a variety of superheroes will be beating the daylights out of each other in some very iconic DC arenas. However, I did happen to read a product description from a website which states that the battle will be fought between Superman and his allies against Batman and his rebels. I'm not quite sure what would cause Batman to rebel against ol' Supes, but presuming that his forces are going to be the bad guys in this scenario, I expect the plot will have to be pretty deep to explain it all. I look forward to seeing how NR could turn an iron-willed hero such as Batman against his usual allies without resorting to something cheesy and stereotypical, such as mind control or "THE RAGE ARGARGAFLASHAFLAS!!1!1" from Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. But then again...I could be totally wrong, and Superman and his forces could be the bad ones, though that would still require just about the same amount of explanation. OR I suppose it's also possible that neither side is obviously good nor evil, which I personally think would be the best option.

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The Characters -

Confirmed characters so far include Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Solomon Grundy, Harley Quinn, Nightwing, Cyborg, and Catwoman. The full roster is going to include about 20 characters as far as we know, with a very high chance for DLC additions in the future. In one way or another, Ed Boon (Creative Director at NR) has hinted at the inclusion of both Joker and Hal Jordan's Green Lantern. For the former, he was actually asked about it in an interview, and heavily implied that Joker will be in. For the latter, his hint was more subtle...he posted a picture on a social network of a Green Lantern doll, haha. It's not much to go on, but given the fact that I'm sure he knows that his fans are wanting him to give more Injustice info, it could very well be a sign.

All characters in the game are going to be split into two categories, which are "Gadget" and "Power". These terms are used loosely though, and I predict that we'll probably see a third category pop up for "Agility" at some point, because it's difficult to lump characters such as The Flash into either category. Gadget-based characters like Batman will interact differently with the environments than power-based characters will. For example, let's say there's a car in a particular arena. Superman will be able to pick up the car and smash it on top of his opponent, whereas a character like Batman would be able to grab his opponent and slam his/her head into the car instead. More agile characters like Nightwing are able to vault off of the car to attack or gain a better position in the battle. Each character will also have the ability to activate a super-attack after they build up enough of their attack bar.

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The Presentation -

Mortal Kombat games are known for their excessive violence and gore, their heavy amounts of bloodshed, and their gruesome fatalities. So predictably, some of the very first questions that NR received about Injustice were things like "Will there be fatalities? How bloody is it?". Ed Boon quickly silenced these folks as best as he could by confirming that there won't be any fatalities in Injustice, nor will there be any excessive, bloody gore. Instead, NR is working to make this game more about over-the-top blockbuster action and cinematic quality. They're also working to make the game very easy for fighting game newbs to pick up and play, and still have a good time with their favorite DC characters. Attacks are based on just three buttons for high, middle, and low moves, and there is one character specific button which activates the special ability of whatever character you're using. This is good news for those of us who can't dive deep enough into any fighting game to learn the best combos and the perfect timing necessary to take advantage of every little quirk in the system. However, NR is also working to make the game deep enough to satisfy the more hardcore fighting fans as well, albeit with a slightly less complicated formula than other titles.

In terms of visuals, the developers are providing their own tweaks to each character's appearance and outfits. Batman, for example, reminds me of a more armored version of Christian Bale's Batman in the Christopher Nolan films, though based on what I've heard, he should be easier to understand if he ever says "You'll be in a padded cell forever". And given what NR did in terms of providing alternate outfit options to characters in their latest Mortal Kombat game, I think we can definitely expect to see alternate costumes available for the heroes and villains of Injustice. But to be brutally honest now, I just hope that Warner Bros wouldn't allow them to make any overly-slutty outfits for the female characters, because unfortunately NR has that habit. Fingers crossed about that.

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The Footage -

Enough with the talking for now, I'm going to show you all some clips of the game, and in some cases I'll point out where we could find possible hints from NR. The interviews aren't really in order of date, so...yeah, just make do, haha.

Announcement Trailer
Nightwing and Cyborg Reveal Trailer
Superman Vs The Flash Gameplay
Batman, Superman, The Flash, and Solomon Grundy Super-Moves
Interview 1
Interview 2

Now, for the info about the vids that you might not know. Firstly, Batman's super-move is no longer the lame one that you can see in the video showcasing those moves. His updated move can be seen at about the 0:37 second mark of the Nightwing and Cyborg trailer. Nextly, in the first interview at about 6:20, you can hear Ed Boon questioned about the inclusion of the Joker. He pretty much confirms that he will be in the game. And finally, in the second interview at about the 0:55 second mark, the guy from NR begins talking about the characters in the game and when he starts to list them, he very slightly stumbles at the end when he begins to say "A..." and then cuts himself short. Some people take this as a slip that he was about to reveal a character beginning with "A" such as Aquaman, but honestly I think it's a long stretch to say that.

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Final Thoughts -

I've never really been a big fan of fighting games. I enjoyed the cartoony nature of Mortal Kombat Trilogy on my PS1 back in the day, and also the occasional round of Street Fighter 2, but other than that, the genre was largely off my radar. MK Vs DC didn't really change that, although I enjoyed it. I'm really anxious for Injustice: Gods Among Us, though, and mainly I think it's because NR is finally moving away from the old formula of their MK games and making something fresh, and it just happens to be almost exactly the game that I would choose to make if I was them. We still have quite a while to go before release day, given that NR has only given us a window of the year 2013, but I expect that it should at least arrive in the first half of the year. Until then, I'll be revisiting MK Vs DC to quench my desires and keeping an eye out for any new announcements.

I hope you're enjoyed the read and perhaps found something helpful. And if not...well I appreciate the fact that you still read it, and I hope you appreciate all the effort I put into it, including the fact that I had to fight against the awful glitches of this site all the way through. Thanks for reading, please comment, and God bless.

So lately I've been avoiding writing any blogs. Mostly it's because Gamespot's site "updates" and glitches are ticking me off, but it's also because I didn't many notable things to say. But now I do, and so here I am. For starters, I'll admit that I didn't pay very close attention to E3 this year. I tuned in every so often to see what was happening, but nothing too interesting caught my eye. Dishonored looks to be off my radar now after seeing the gameplay footage and being a little underwhelmed, and I also confirmed that The Last of Us is also not going to be my sort of game. I didn't happen to see Sly 4 at all, so I can't comment on that. However, I have a few games that I do want to talk about right now, so here they are:

Assassin's Creed 3

You excited for AC3? A lot of people are, but until recently, I wasn't one of them. I played the original Assassin's Creed and had fun with it, though as most people admit, it was a repetitive game. I skipped the other games in the series simply because I didn't like some of the content that was included. But now, after seeing the brand new setting and new mechanics of AC3, I'm all over it. I'm going to withhold a pre-order at least until I get more ESRB info on the game's content, but as of now I definitely want this game. Connor seems like a very interesting new assassin, and everything simply looks so fluid and expansive in terms of content and exploration. I'm not quite sure how historically accurate the game will be, but by the looks of it I think it will capture the feeling of the time period and the emotion of both sides in the battle. Can't wait for more info on this one.

TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pUhraVG7Ow

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Injustice: Gods Among Us

This is yet another game that has me very excited, despite the extremely limited info that we have on it. I passed on buying the latest Mortal Kombat game because I'm not really a fan of such gruesome violence to the extent that several more modern MK games offer, but you can't deny that the combat mechanics and reception of the games themselves are solid. Injustice is being developed by Netherrealm Studios, but they're stated that it will be its own unique game and won't necessarily have the features that were in Mortal Kombat. When Ed Boon's team handled MK vs DC Universe a few years ago, the result was a fun and rather simple game. Hopefully this one will be better able to offer diversity and more robust fighting mechanics, as well as a large roster of DC heroes and villains.

TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMkTQSbE6Bc

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Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes

So...Lego characters are going to have actual dialogue in a Lego video game? Sounds good to me. I got Lego Batman as a gift last Christmas, and I enjoy playing it every now and then, but I find it to be a bit too linear and limited to have much lasting value. Hopefully with larger environments, more characters, a better story and actual talking, LB2: DC Super Heroes will fix those issues and deliver the sprawling Lego DC game we all would like it to be. With a large focus on Batman, of course.

TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLWvimLUlAc

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Need for Speed: Most Wanted

I'm really on the fence about this one. I really liked the original Most Wanted, with its incredily cheesy story and open world police pursuits. It seems as if the open world pursuits are back at least, but not the story. From what I saw at E3, it looks like Hot Pursuit with open world racing and chasing instead of events taking place on tracks. Do we all really need to pay $60 for that, especially when all the actual gameplay seems so similar to a game we all got in 2010? It feels a little bit like trying to decide whether or not to get the latest yearly sports game in Madden or FIFA or some other series. Do the improvements warrant the price tag? Time will tell, but I will at least be watching this one as well.

TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Imb_hTVmw

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Well that's pretty much it for me. I'll give a few more update notes below before closing out this blog...

1 - Finished the complete series of the 90's TV show Birds of Prey. It's a live-action show about The Huntress, daughter of Batman and Catwoman, and how she works with Oracle and a young girl named Dinah to protect the city of New Gotham. Overall I'd give it a 6.5/10. Some episodes were good, and some just seemed extremely lame. The main villain of the series is Harley Quinn, though her only major role is in the very last two-part episode.

2 - Watched Justice League: Doom. Seemed very predictable, and the amount of jumping between characters in fight scenes seemed to lesson the action in my opinion. I'd give it about a 7/10, and that's mainly because I'm such a fan of Kevin Conroy, lol.

3 - Finished watching the complete Justice League and Justice League Unlimited series'. Unlimited was slightly better, but they were both excellent and well worth watching. I give a 9.3/10 to them both as a whole.

4 - I've now beaten the Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC for Batman: Arkham City 5 times. I really enjoy how it's just the right length if you want a taste of Batman in a story format, and though I was disappointed at the lack of free-roaming ability for Robin even within just the Steel Mill, it's still worth the $10 price and a lot of fun. Just hearing a moody Batman talking to himself in his head is a memorable experience. For me, anyway.

Thanks for reading, please comment, and God bless.

I don't want to do this, but it seems as if Gamespot has taken its self-destructive habits to an all-new low. As I said before, the site essentially ruined its forums by splitting them away from the Gamefaqs community, however I was able to cope with it by limiting the amount of forums I visited through using my "favorite boards" tab to access shared forums just like before. But now it appears that I can no longer do even that, because topics in the forums I frequently visit are labeled as "read only" and I am instructed by Gamespot to leave the site and go use Gamefaqs if I want to make posts. I assume that I don't need to rant about how irritated I am. So as it stands, I will likely not be using any of the forums I visit on a regular basis. This applies to everything...so I want to say that I'm very sorry about this to all my good friends from several forums where I have been active for very long periods of time. You can certainly still contact me through PM messages as long as Gamespot can bring itself to keep that feature functional, but I just don't have much desire to use Gamefaqs at all. I checked out the site again for the first time in a while and found that I could change the skin of the pages to match the dark theme that I have here at Gamespot, which is very cool, but I still don't like the forums and the layout of the pages themselves. I will use the site if I really need access to forums I suppose, but for now, I plan to limit my activity to visiting just a few unions here at Gamespot, seeing as how I don't care for the Gamespot-only forums either. Man, this really sucks. I can hardly believe it's all happening on my favorite site.

Also, I want to point out that I am certainly not a fan of the new commenting system. Most of the "upgrades" are pointless, and there is no reason to "follow" conversations or receive emails about replies to your little comments. Seriously, this isn't supposed to be Twitter or Facebook. It's just...a fail. -_-

Thanks for reading, God bless, and please comment (if you can stand the new format).

My friend,

Back when I first joined you, I found you only because you were affiliated with TV.com, and so I gave you a visit. I liked you. You were fun, and you had nice forums with a decent community. I enjoyed chatting and debating with others about my favorite games, and maintaining my profile, and ranking up. You quickly became my favorite website and I visited you every day, like I still do now. But over time, I have noticed that you are no longer the same. You are still great, don't get me wrong...but you're different, and in some ways, I fear it is not for the better. You changed the layout of many webpages, for example. My profile page looks nothing like it did when I first joined. When I go to check my updates, I have to do it only through a certain button, because otherwise I will be redirected to Fuse. Why? When I see the symbol of a letter on the top right of my screen, I naturally assume I have mail, so I scroll over to it to see how many messages I have, only to find that I have zero messages, and instead have updates. Why do you taunt me like this? Why do you use the same symbol for updates as for mail? It's stupid, to put it bluntly.

I put up with these minor changes for a while, and also put up with the fact that many features failed to work correctly while they were being updated, sometimes for rather long periods of time. I wasn't happy about it, but since I care so much about you, I let it slide. But recently, you have decided to split with our good friend Gamefaqs. I never knew him very well, but I am sure he isn't happy about it. You decided to try to make your own forums and have them separate from the ones at Gamefaqs, and I just can't wrap my head around why you're doing it. Isn't it better to share and combine our communities? Why are you trying to isolate yourselves? I mean, I understand that Gamefaqs isn't exactly known for having a lot of polite members on its forums, but I still believe that a split is a very bad choice. Now people will have to visit two different forums just to ask a question, in order to ensure that they will get a good response. And if they don't like the split, like me, they will have to use complicated methods to access forums so that they will still be shared. And they won't be able to make new topics or post by using anything other than "Quick Reply".

Recently I have had to scale back my visits around your site to simply going in and out of a few unions, and checking in on a small grouping of forums that is in my favorites list. This really is a shame, because I used to really have fun browsing different forums for my entire collection of games, and seeing what I could find, and with whom I could start some gaming conversations. But still, I let it slide, and gave nary a complaint to you about it, because of how much I still like you. Recently however, you have hit me with yet another obstacle in the path of our continued comradery...your PM system is having regular sessions of glitching. First you took away many of the fun factors I enjoyed from your site in regards to forums and ease-of-use, and now you are attacking my inbox, the feature I probably use most of all? This I cannot overlook, and thus I am showing you this letter. For about a week now, my inbox has been hit with occasional glitches, rendering it useless for periods of time during the day. It doesn't seem to happen regularly, so I don't understand how it could be any sort of maintenance. But every now and then, it says "internal servor error 500", or something along that line, and I am unable to even view my messages, or open the mailbox at all. I have been forced into finding another website my friend uses and being active there now, just so that I can message her. How hard is it to keep a simple inbox from glicthing, my friend?

I want you to know that I still like you, and I am writing this because I care. I won't leave you, but I want you to really consider everything I have said. Your recent actions have put a strain on our relationship, and that makes me uncomfortable. I hope you will decide to pur forth an effort to return to being the same great site I came to know over six years ago. I don't want you to completely go back in time, because of course I do like and appreciate some of the ways you have improved yourself for me and all the other members here, but I find that many of the improvements have come at costs of which many people are unhappy that they must pay. If you wish to respond to this letter, I reccomend leaving a comment, because sending something to my mailbox...might not work.

Sincerely,
RedHawk4

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Ahem...yeah, so, that happened. I was bored. Anyways, I really have been noticing a lot of problems here at Gamespot lately, and it's been ticking me off. As I mentioned in the letter, the most recent one is the PM system glitching. How hard is it to keep a darn mailbox functional?! Yeesh. Using this site is beginning to feel more...like this.

On another topic, I haven't written a blog in quite a while. I've had nothing really inspire me to do so. I've been playing a lot of Battlefield 3, and trying to get all the kit unlocks and eventually reach the top rank. I think I'm up to 42 right now. I've also still been playing Batman: Arkham City, mostly just for fun and mostly just the combat challenge maps. I want to go ahead and congratulate my friend, supclayton, for getting all the DLC trophies for the game. Quite an accomplishment, and something I probably won't do because I would like to keep whatever sanity I have left, haha. And of course, I've still been playing Journey. If you're reading this and you haven't checked it out for yourself yet, you are missing out, my friend.

For my next blog, whenever that happens to be, I am considering making a list of all the games that I will likely add to my collection in the somewhat-near future, and describing what I know about each title so far. Sound good, or not? Spout off about it in a comment, if you please. I know I've done stuff like that before, so it could be rather familiar territory, and thus I may scrap the idea.

And now, for just a few other updates:

1 - I saw "The Hunger Games" a while ago. Never read the books before, and I had never even heard of the books before this movie was released, but after the previews and all the positive reviews and box office success, I decided to check it out. Oddly enough, my grandfather wanted to see it with me. It was a good movie, though it was much slower than I anticipated it to be. The pace and feel reminded me of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Overall the movie was good, and I would give it a 4/5 I suppose, if I were to rate it in someplace like Netflix.

2 - Finished watching the first season of "Justice League", the animated series. The first episodes were weird but did a good job of introducing the main characters, the next episodes were really good, and the episodes near the end of the season...were not so good. I got the first disc of the second season from Netlfix, but it arrived cracked and broken, and so I have to wait for a replacement. Can anybody who knows please tell me if I need to wait and watch all the seasons before I watch Justice League: Doom?

3 - I saw "Tintin" also, on DVD. Pretty good movie overall, and much of it actually reminded me of Uncharted 3, haha. Lots of action and a good (but predictable) story and villain. I was surprised at all the alcohol and drunkenness in what is obviously supposed to be a kids movie, though I suppose the message from it was good. I would rate the movie a 4/5 on Netflix as well.

4 - The first DLC pack for Modern Warfare 3 is finally arriving on PS3, after Activision made us wait all this time! Woohoo! Now I can officially announce that, just like the DLC packs for Modern Warfare 2, I...won't be buying it. >_> Just give me Black Ops 2, Activision.

Well, that does it for this blog. Not as exciting as my others, but hopefully you found it to be at least mildly amusing. Thanks for reading, please comment, and God bless.

In this blog, I want to talk to you all about a very special new downloadable game for the Playstation Network. Journey is the most recent game from ThatGameCompany, which many of you might recognize, as I do, from their previous PSN game, Flower; it was a very imaginative game that actually managed to make good use of the motion control in your Dualshock 3 controller, and the idea of freely directing the wind to blow around flower petals in beautiful environments was quite fun and relaxing. And so with the announcement of Journey, I was moderately excited for another similar experience. When Gamespot gave away beta keys, I jumped on the chance to take one, and while I had a good time with the beta, I had some mixed reactions. The developers still seemed to want to make motion control a part of this game, but tilting a controller to change the camera in a third-person adventure game is a lot different than it was in Flower, and it just didn't feel right. I was pleasantly surprised when the beta was patched and the developers added the ability to control the camera with the right analog stick as well, and I once again found myself interested.

Fast-forward to just a few days ago, when Journey was getting ready to release. I had largely forgotten about it and only remembered because of the ads I saw. I remembered having a fun time with the beta and since I was wanting a new game that could distract me from the constant action and intensity of Battlefield 3, I really thought about buying it. Then I saw the ad in the PSN Store that stated if I pre-order it, I could get an "exclusive" dynamic theme. Well, that tiny little extra pushed me over the edge (because I'm gullible I suppose), and I'm very glad that it did.

For starters, Journey costs $15 and is about a 2-3 hour game in terms of actual content and the amount of time you choose to spend exploring the levels as you play. So you could roughly say that it's about $5 per hour for this single-player experience, not counting the replay value. Call of Duty games are full titles with campaigns, multiplayer, and co-op...but if you strip it down to just the solo experience, it's still $60 for about 6-8 hours, and so it could be nearly $10 per hour if that's all you want to play. It's not the best comparison, but it's worth considering.

Now, to the actual meat of this game, and try to stick with me here. You play as a red-robed figure in the desert, with a dark face and skinny legs and no particular gender, though the figure does appear to be a little feminine. You have no name, and you begin the game sitting in the sand, gazing up at a shimmering mountain peak in the distance. The game gives you no narrative and only a basic instruction of the controls for the first few minutes, though it's very obvious that the mountain is your goal. And once you leave the top of the first sand hill, your quest begins. This is a very difficult thing for me to describe, because so much of the appeal of Journey is discovering it for yourself, in your own interpretation. Essentially the gameplay consists of you progressing through different areas of this mystical world, and as you try to forge a path into each new area, you'll need to likely do some light platforming. You'll also want to explore in order to find hidden glyphs, history messages (which convey a bit of the backstory about the quest and area), and other secret items. You can collect pieces of fabric which will increase the length of your character's scarf as well, and the longer your scarf happens to be, the more boost you can get by pressing the X button. This boost allows you to lift into the air and glide with your cloak, which allows you to reach new areas and also allows for faster travel. You'll need to recharge your scarf by collecting new fabric every time you use some of your supply, however, though there is a way to earn the ability to have a self-recharging scarf, if you're willing to put forth the time and effort exploring in order to get it.

There are two different ways that you can play Journey, and each offers its own feel. If you choose to play offline, you will travel alone, isolated in the environment and dependant only on yourself. ThatGameCompany has done a truly remarkable job at making you really relate to your character in these situations, and you might even start to feel a bit lonely out there by yourself after a while. I recommend to all newcomers that they play through Journey totally solo their first time, to genuinely experence this level of emotion. Afterwards, I recommend going back and playing while signed in online. You won't automatically be given a partner or anything like that. Instead, you will continue along the Journey exactly the same way you did before, but this time, you might eventually encounter another player. If you choose to do so, you can pair together on the trek, or you can separate and continue on alone. You can't see their PSN ID, you can't communicate in-game or with a headset, and the only way you can interact with them is by pressing circle to "chirp" a musical note. This is actually a very brilliant move by the developers, because this level of anonymous co-op fits in absolutely perfectly with the natural emotions of this game. When you meet another wanderer in the desert after plodding along alone for a while, what is your natural instinct? You'll probably want to walk beside them for a while, see what they do, and join them. This really does allow the players to choose whether or not they want to make a friend or help out somebody else, and it feels right. One other very interesting aspect of playing with a buddy is that when you get close together, almost to the point where you are touching, you cloaks will glow and both you you will recharge energy. Not only is this very helpful in terms of gameplay, but it does a wonderous job of giving you a metaphor about the power of having somebody else by your side.

When I first played Journey, I did it offline. I played through the main quest in about two and a half hours I'd say, and I enjoyed it a lot. The sense of isolation, the mystery, the relaxing pace, the beautiful art, the enchanting music...it all combined to be a very memorable experience, even though I was somewhat confused by the whole backstory and the ending. Overall I actually enjoyed it more than Flower, though both are very good games. Getting online to play the second time, I decided that I wanted to hunt for the hidden items and perhaps try to get a few of the trophies, even though there is no Platinum to work towards. It wasn't too long before I met my first partner, and at the beginning, he wanted to stay close to my side. I let him lead for a while, then he let me lead. When he saw that I pretty much didn't know where I was going because I was wandering around and trying to locate glyphs, he broke away for a bit. Then we joined up again, and then broke away. I wasn't too concerned about it, and continued along my way. Eventually I entered a stage near the end of a chapter in the quest, and I saw another person. They looked at me for a bit, and we chirped a few times. I turned around to check out an area for any secrets, and when I checked back, they were gone. Again, I wasn't too phased. I was just about to initiate the end-of-the-chapter cutscene when I see yet another new player floating down on my side. This player was different, for they were wearing a white robe.

Now, because I had browsed the forums for a while before going online, I knew what that meant:they were pretty much an expert at the game (I don't want to spoil how they got the cloak). I chirped a few times to show that I was excited to see them, because I was really hoping that they could help me find some glyphs so that I wouldn't have to aimlessly walk around for hours upon hours, not that I wouldn't have done it anyway. They stood still and chirped back at me a few times, and we traded a few short musical notes together. Then they began moving back away from me, and they glided up by some ruins on the edge of the wall in the area. I followed suit, and sure enough they were showing me where a glyph was hidden. I chirped out a "thank you" and collected it, and we initiated the cutscene together. Afterwards, we continued along the game side-by-side. I let them take the lead, and stuck right behind for the most part. They gracefully showed me the best path through each area, and lead me to every hidden item that could be found. They also stopped and waited for me if I got hung up behind, so that they could recharge my scarf for me. As we got into the final section of the quest, I was extremely grateful for all that they had shown me. After all, this person already knew all the in-game secrets, and had no reason to find them again other than to help me out, and I was a complete stranger they met in the desert! As we slowly plodded along near the final section, I was sticking very close, and we were almost hugging each other as we walked together.

Suddenly I saw them stop, and then sit down. I was surprised, and I also stopped to see what they were doing. After a few seconds, I witnessed my faithful and kind partner vanish before my eyes. I was stunned, left standing alone with the wind blasting in my face and rippling my cloak. Slowly and sadly, I resumed walking forward, pressing on to the finish on what was now a solitary trip. After a few more moments, the game displayed a message saying that I wasn't connected online anymore, and then after a a short bit, I got a message saying that I had been disconnected from PSN. Apparently, all that had happened was that my internet had gone out. After all, it was about 3:45 AM. But what really hit me was the level of emotion that I felt. I actually felt sad that I had lost my partner along the way, so close to the end, when we had shared such a great bond over thelength of the adventure. I realized that along the way I had made a friend, and now they had left me alone (or rather, my internet had caused them to leave me). What other game had ever replicated that deep level of care in me for a person I had never even met before? The answer is none. No other game ever has. Finising the game alone and seeing the final dramatic cutscenes by myself was fun, just like it was the first time when I had been offline, but it seemed...more empty. Bittersweet.

I have spent a bit more time with Journey since that story I just related occured. I have acquired that same white cloak for myself, and have found almost all the in-game secrets. I don't have all the trophies yet though, and I'm not sure if I'll go for them. On the surface, Journey feels more like a traditional video game than Flower did. But that is simply not the truth. Journey is a deep, beautiful, emotional adventure that rivals some of the better animated films out there which try to accomplish the same thing. The difference between Journey and one of those movies, though, is that you are directly involved in this quest, and other people can be as well. Journey isn't for everyone...if you don't like slow games, stay away from it. If you like to be entertained with pulse-pounding action when you play as opposed to being relaxed and letting yourself become emotionally immersed in a gaming experience, then by all means, pass on this one. But if you want to play a game that can pull at your heart, calm your mind, and dazzle you with beautiful sights and sounds, I strongly encourage you to check out this game. Part visual art, part musical art, part exploration game, one full quest. One full journey.

Thanks for reading and for enduring the length. Please comment and God bless.

Everyone enjoys a good single-player gaming experience, right? Well maybe not those who are addicted to MMOs. But the average console gamer certainly likes to be able to sit down on a couch/chair/bed/floor and immerse themselves in a game, without a companion there to annoyingly remind them that they're not in fact a character in the game world, but are indeed just a person sitting on a couch/chair/bed/floor and pressing buttons. But some games work well with two players. Some games can be just as immersive and just as fun when you have a friend tagging along with you, and it can provide a great way to spend time with those that you either like or tolerate. So without further rambling, here's my rundown of my favorite co-op games that I own:

#7 - LittleBigPlanet

This is an odd choice for the list, considering that I have not actually played LBP in co-op yet. However, the structure of the game means that I don't have to in order to judge how fun it could be. Solo play and co-op play are part of the same experience in LBP, meaning that you could play through the entire game by yourself, or you could also ask a friend to come along for th ride with you. Certain parts of levels are reserved for only two players, and they are completely optional and not required for you to be able to pass the finish line. They provide a good incentive for those people who played through the level alone to come back and retry it, this time with a LittleBigBuddy. So based on my experience with the game playing solo, I know that having another player there would be just as fun, if not more. If you're looking for a casual, easy-to-play co-op experience, LBP is a great choice.

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#6 - Golden Axe

I'm going to be quite honest...Golden Axe is a rather difficult game when you're playing solo, and in my opinion, it gets even harder when you decide to play it with a friend. However, if you both have the right attitude, it can be a lot of fun. The accidental hits on your partner, the lines like "hey you messed up my pattern!", and the increased difficulty of the enemies must all be taken in stride and with a mindset of fun. If you won't be able to stand your partner accidentaly killing you, you may want to avoid co-op here. But hacking and slashing your way through the waves of enemies and eventually teaming up to take down Death Bringer is a very cool experience, and one that should not be missed if you can rope a friend into the mix with you.

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#5 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2-3

Both MW2 and MW3 have an excellent variety of SpecOps missions to satisfy those who are not content with simply the campaign or with multiplayer. You can complete many of these missions alone, although most of the time, it's obvious that they were designed for two players, because of the fact that playing alone can be a real pain in the neck. The game certainly doesn't take it easy on you when you lack a partner, so before going for the record scores, get a buddy. I should also note that in MW3, there is Survival co-op, which pits you and a partner against infinite waves of enemies until you both bite the virtual dust. It's fun, but poorly designed because the difficulty on all the maps is set and not able to be adjusted. This means that some of the maps are always set to easy difficulty, and some are always set to insane difficulty, and you can't switch it. Still, if you want a good FPS co-op game that you can easily pick up and play with a friend, without worrying about following a story setup or anything like that, check out the MW games.

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#4 - Streets of Rage (Series)

The SOR series sort of falls into the same category as what I said about Golden Axe, except for the fact that you can play and enjoy all three SOR games, because unlike Golden Axe, the sequels aren't completely awful. Stll, you'll likely have to deal with your teammate causing you more grief than help, and you'll definitely have an easier time if you decide to play through the game by yourself. But flipping your partner in the air and setting them up for a flying kick attack is obviously unique to co-op play, and if you and a friend want to take on a greater challenge in SOR together, then there's no reason to consider not doing it. Battling to take out Mr. X before your friend does can be tons of fun.

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#3 - Battlefield 3

I actually just finished playing through all of the six BF3 co-op missions with a good friend of mine tonight, and I have to say that despite the ridiculously weak story that the developers tried to throw into the mode, the missions were very fun, although certain sections can be tedious if you and your buddy decide to try for all the PSN trophies that you can get. It's basically standard fare for an FPC co-op experience...you and your friend progress through the mission, listing to orders and completing the objectives. If your buddy goes down, you can revive him if you have the time. The missions have a nice variety between normal ground combat, a few vehicle sections (including one helicopter mission), some stealth gameplay, and some sniper gameplay. If you want some co-op war action with a friend, look no further. My biggest complaint is actually that the missions are rather short.

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#2 - Portal 2

This is clearly the most unique co-op experience on this list. Not only do you have to fully depend on your partner most of the time, but the entire setup of the mode seems to insist that you need to play it with a close friend, and not with a random player. In fact, the game seems to go to a great length to hide the matchmaking feature for co-op, and also gives you a warning when you go to use it, saying that playing with a friend is much more reasonable. And I absolutely agree. Playing with a random person would be more of a chore and excercise in patience than anything else, especially if you have to constantly lead the way in solving all the puzzles. If you have a good friend who will either join you online or join you in person, I highly recommend playing this game together. It combines great puzzles with a great story, great humor, and great sense of companionship.

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#1 - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

To begin with the top pick, I do own Uncharted 3. I simply feel that Uncharted 2 is better, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the difficulty in UC2's co-op mode is easier than the difficulty in UC3, even when it's ramped up to its fullest. Enemy types are simpler, easier to spot, and not as hard to bring down with actual team tactics. Also, there are much better options in UC2. For example, you can choose to set up a private match where you only play Survival, or only play Gold Rush, or only play Siege, etc. In UC3, you can't do this...you are only able to play a standard mode which mixes all three of those variations into arena battles. Both games have adventure co-op, but I only played through all the missions in UC2, because I essentially gave up on UC3 altogether after a short time had passed since completing the story mode. Adventure missions are fun and difficult, challenging players to work together and accomplish a certain goal. Arena co-op is generally where the meat is though, and playing with up to two other friends as you battle it out to stay alive and rack up kills is immensely fun, and really doesn't get old. As such, UC2 is my pick for the best co-op game in this list, and if you haven't ever tried it...you should. It's that simple.

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That does it for this blog, and I hope you have enjoyed the read. Before I end though, I'd like to make a few additional update notes...

1) I watched "Spirited Away" last night after my friend dylan417 recommended it very highly in his blog. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, and overall I would give it a 4/5 on Netflix based on its creativity and the fact that it's very hard not to fall in love with Chihiro as a character.

2) For all who read this blog and also own or are planning to buyBattlefield 3, you can go to www.actofvalor.com/bf3/ to catch a trailer for the upcoming movie and also collect 5 free dogtags that you can use in the game.

3) When I purchased my slim PS3 late last year, I also got a voucher code for 30 free days of Playstation Plus. I noticed that in the fine print on the card, it said I would automatically be given a regular subscription and charged for it after the free period had expired. And so rather than deal with all that hassle, I haven't ever used the code, and I still have it. It expires on the 30th of this month, so if anybody would like it, I will be willing to send it to you either through PSN or through a private message here at Gamespot. I'll give it to the first person who asks me. Just beware of this as well...if you buy something like DLC that is exclusive to PSN Plus users, it MIGHT vanish once you get rid of the membership after the free period expires. I would recommend only using the trial period to download free items that are exclusive to PSN Plus, or to purchase items that are available to both PSN Plus users and standard users.

Once again, thanks for reading and please comment. God bless you all.

The Hawk returns! And he's got reviews! Sort of, anyway. I recently acquired several new games, and I've got some insight into just a few of them here. Others, like Mini-Ninjas and IL-2 Sturmovik and Goldeneye: Reloaded haven't taken enough of my time yet for me to give an accurate summary of them. But here's my opinions about three titles you might want to look into. Two of them are worth the money, and one is worth avoiding. Enjoy.

The Sly Collection (PS3)

Unfortunately I never played any of the Sly Cooper games for a very long time. My brother rented them all along time ago when I was very young and I was simply content to watch him play through the games. Eventually though, I heard about the Sly Collection being released for the PS3, and I hunted around online until I could find a disc-copy of the game, which contains all three Sly Cooper titles remastered in HD (though it doesn't matter to me because I have an SDTV) and a few new mini-games that are based around the Playstation Move motion controller. I never played those mini-games, but I played and received a Platinum trophy in all of Sly's adventures. For starters, Sanzaru did a good job in porting Sly to the PS3, for the most part. Ocassionally I ran into glitches in the third game, such as the sound completely cutting out and making the game silent, though still allowing me to play that way. Or in the first game, the music during one of the boss fights was completely off cue, and that was a shame both because it was awesome, and because following the rhythm of the music was one of the keys to beating the boss in general. Aside from these minor gripes, I enjoyed being able to play the games on my PS3 and I salute Sanzaru for making the collection at all.

In regards to the actual gameplay and titles themselves, the first game is my favorite. Not only does it have the best and most original story, but the way levels are designed is unique in the series. Unlike in the sequels, you don't wander around a semi-open world and find waypoints to begin missions. Instead, yousimply enter and exit certain levels within a small "hub" of an area. During the missions, your main objective is to find the key at the end of the level, but along the way you can also collect clue bottles to acquire a code which you can use to unlock a vault in the level and obtain a new thieving move. In Sly 2, there is a substantially smaller amount of vaults to open and finding clue bottles is more of a pain than an enjoyable task...not to mention the fact that acquiring new moves from opening the vaults in Sly 2 makes no sense, unlike in Sly 1, though I don't want to explain due to possible minor spoilers. And in Sly 3, the clue bottles and vaults are totally absent, which is both good and bad based on how that game is set up.

Don't get me wrong though, all three games are great and worth experiencing, and the sequels introduced some nice varied gameplay elements, such as playing with new characters and pick-pocketing and heists. I wish I had played this series earlier and I find it a shame that I was able to blaze through all the games with a Platinum this fast, though I won't complain about getting the easy trophies I suppose. I recommend this series to anybody who enjoys a good stealth/action/platforming game that doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't contain any of the heavy violence, language, and gore that seems to be a staple of modern games in these genres.

Rating: 8.8

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inFamous: Festival of Blood (PSN)

Ugh, well, where to begin on this one. For starters, I am a huge fan of inFamous 1 and 2. The games had great action, great stories, and great gameplay. The emotion of the games was also very impressive, and the moral decisions can be mind-boggling. When I first saw FoB, I wasn't excited. It looked far too gruesome for my taste and it just didn't look like inFamous, but eventually I caved, and decided to buy it when I found out that I could purchase the DLC at Gamestop and thus use my gift card for it. Unfortunately, I made a bad decision. The game is indeed too gruesome and too "disturbed" for me, though that's only one peice of why I ultimately un-installed the game after completing it. The actual gameplay itself does not feel like inFamous. There's hardly any sense of progression, especially for those who have already completed INF2, as the game will set you off with basic beginner powers and make you earn the better ones in some weird, apparently random order if you act all vampirey. The new vampire powers themselves are lame and you'll likely be disappointed in them, but what should really disappoint you is that I was able to finish all the missions in this DLC in about two hours. The only thing left to do after that is roam around the perpetually dark city, bite random people, fight off ocassional vampires, and find a few hidden messages that require you to slowly walk around in "vampire sense" or whatever it's called, and scan for arrows which ultimately lead you to a final symbol that you get to scan, which leads you to listen to a mildly amusing and often repulsive story from Bloody Mary, the vampire leader. I only did two and got bored of it, so I listened to the rest online (there's ten in total).

There is some redeeming value in FoB. It was a treat to listen to some fresh dialogue between Cole and Zeke, and as always, it was quite humorous at times. Cole still acts like himself during combat too, and it was good to get back in "inFamous mode" when you see a group of enemies pop out of nowhere in front of you when you're trying to chase a target, and Cole pauses to say "Oh, come on!"...which is exactly what you, the player, will be thinking. I also enjoyed the ending of the DLC quite a lot because I just didn't see it coming, so I give Sucker Punch credit for that. In the end, after getting over my disappointment of paying $10 for a two hour experience, I realized that what I had just played did not really feel like inFamous. It felt like a half-hearted horror game with inFamous' characters. I recommend that you avoid this title, but if you do wind up buying it, be ready for a very short game unless you feel like free-roaming as a vampire version of Cole.

Rating: 5.4

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Battlefield 3 (PS3)

Yeah, time for the big dog. I talked a bit about Modern Warfare 3 after it was released, and I believe I mentioned that I would also talk about BF3 after I got my hands on the game, and so here it is. I have played quite a lot of it so far, and I feel that I can confirm it to be better than MW3, in my opinion. Now, before you take that too far, let me elaborate. MW games, and the CoD series in general,are still the king of fast-paced FPS action and stellar campaigns. BF3 on the other hand, is only focused on tactical multiplayer. I haven't even touched the campaign, nor do I want to, at least not any time soon. I also haven't played co-op yet, but I do plan to jump into that sometime in the near future with a friend of mine, mainly for the trophies.

The multiplayer in BF3 is based around the same formula and feel that you remember from Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and that's mostly a good thing. Familiar modes like Rush and Conquest return, along with Squad Rush and Squad Deathmatch, and they are joined by new modes like Conquest Assault and Team Deathmatch. Maps are also designed like they were in BC2. The biggest changes come in the form of actual gameplay. Movement feels much more fluid thanks to some simple touches like watching your character swing his legs over an object as you vault over it, and the ability to go prone. Guns feel pretty much the same, and that's fine, though I feel that shotguns might be a bit overpowered and grenade launchers are certainly underpowered (unlike in CoD games, in which the exact opposite is the case). Knifing is one of my favorite things to do, even more than it was in BC2, because of the new kill animations that you can trigger from it. Unfortunately, getting knifed also results in much more rage because of this, lol. Vehicles are a bit of a weak point in BF3, and mostly it's because of how they're used. I hardly evertake them because it's generally a lot more efficient to just run-and-gun on most maps, and flying jets is a major pain unless you practice and make yourself look like an idiotquite a lot. Same with flying helicopters, and that makes no sense at all, because in BC2 the controls were easy to learn after just a bit of flying practice. Shouldn't those same controls be in BF3? Oh, no, it's a much better idea to change the entire setup so that we can confuse everybody, including the vets from past BF games. Gotta be fair.

The system of progression is great, rivaling even that of MW3. The urge to keep playing just a little more so that you can unlock a new gun or new equipment is certainly a factor, and it's made even better if you get the Back to Karkand DLC pack, which adds "assignments" to the mix. I'm also very pleased to say that I have had hardly any technical issues with BF3 in the form of disconnects or lag. Overall I would say that I have spent more time on BF3 than on MW3, and when I ponder why that is, the answer is simple...I have more fun with it. Both games are great, and if you disagree with me on this, I don't care. Really, I don't care. Because you're wrong and I'm right.

...just joking. It's because both games are great and both bring something great to the table. I wish that people didn't compare the two as much as they do (including you, EA -_-). If you have CoD games and you choose not to play BF games, I'll just make the comment that you're missing out on a great experience. If you play BF games and you won't touch CoD games, I'll say the same exact thing. I recommend them both. But if you can only pick one, choose MW3 for a great solo campaign and BF3 for great tactical multiplayer.

Rating: 8.3

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Now, in closing, some of you more alert people might notice that I gave MW3 a rating of 8.5 on this site, and I gave BF3 a rating of 8.0, and you might wonder why that is if I indeed think that BF3 is better. The answer is actually quite simple...MW3 has great multiplayer, co-op, and story. BF3 mostly just has great multiplayer, and most people state that they could take or leave the campaign or co-op modes. I also dislike the fact that the campaign in BF3 is riddled with F-bombs, which I find highly annoying, immature, and a little offensive. That's not the case in MW3 or CoD games in general, except for possible fleeting moments like the end of MW2, and so I applaud Activision for not stooping to that level of stupidity.

On a final note, it was recently leaked by the French Amazon.com that Black Ops 2 is supposedly in development as the next CoD game. To further this rumor, a leaked resume online has one guy claiming that he has experience from working on BO2. If this rumor is true, I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I play a heck of a lot of Black Ops, but mostly just in split-screen with the AI bots. If BO2 improves on Combat Training or offline split-screen in any way, I'll most likely buy the game for that feature alone, though I admit that the campaign in BO was fun to play, although not as good as any of the MW games.

Thanks for reading, and please comment. God bless you all.

Generally speaking, people will say that they want to see certain sequels or remakes of their favorite games made in these sorts of lists. That's true with me to a certain point, but I also feel that the gaming universe deserves some fresh titles that haven't been explored before. Anyway, here's my rundown of games I desperately want to see...

1 - A Modern Brawler

Imagine a game like Streets of Rage, back in the 90's. Very simple, and created a level of fun on an outdated system that is still superior to much of what we have today. Now, imagine a full-fledged modern game with modern graphics and animation, with the same formula. The result? Awesomeness. Personally I like to think of the Freeflow combat in Rocksteady's Batman games, but on a much larger scale, because the entire game would be devoted to it. Tons of additonal animations and characters could make the experience have a truly amazing replay value. Co-op multiplayer, which is very common in brawlers, would certainly be included along with leaderboards for each level of the game and support for drop-in-drop-out online co-op.

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2 - Hunting Simulation

Hunting games have largely been a genre that mainly stays on the PC. The majority of hunting titles that are released on console's come from the developer "Cabela's", and it would be a huge stretch to call any of those games "simulations". The best console hunting game available in my opinion is Deer Hunter on the PS2. It's a great game because it includes many wide-open maps, lots of hunting gear, a varied amount of animals to hunt, a trophy room to keep your best records,and local co-op (online as well, but it's dead now). The biggest problem with the game is that it is limited by its platform. The PS2 just doesn't allow the same kind of immersion or freedom of movement that a modern hunting game on the PS3 could include. Personally I see the possibilites being endless. First, newer consoles could offer the ability to have many more maps, and also make them larger. Guns could be a lot more realistic than in past hunting games, and things like wind and bullet trajectory should certainly be a factor if you ramp up the difficulty. Hunting dangerous game like bears or mountain lions should also carry risks. Online could consist of both co-op and comptetitive, with the latter being a tournament-like competition of several hunting trips in a row, where the hunter with the best animals when the entire competition is over will be declared the victor. And just for fun, there could also be a deathmatch kind of mode where hunters stalk and attack each other in the wide-open maps, using cover and strategy to get the drop on their opponents.

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3 - Euphoria in Sports Games

Perhaps I should actually say "Euphoria properly used in sports games". Euphoria is a physics engine that can generate animations on-the-fly, which means that there would not be any pre-canned animations. And that means that in a game like Madden, you would constantly see different types of tackles or blocks because none of it would be scripted. The level of possibilities and replay value to this is endless, but only if it is done correctly. NaturalMotion and 505 Games tried out the idea I just described in a game called Backbreaker, and it was a terrible disappointment. But I am confident that if Euphoria made its way into the hands of EA Sports or ESPN, we'd see some amazing games come as a result of it, given time to develop them.

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4 - First-Person Action Game

There are many games to choose from in the FPS genre, but when it comes to wanting a first-person view in your game without having a gun attached to that deal, the choices are slim. You're left with RPG games like the Elder Scrolls, zombie games,or games like Mirror's Edge, which ultimately don't have the replay value or appeal to last very long in your system. But if a developer ever wants to make an action title with a first-person view, andwith a heavy emphasis on stealth and/or melee combat, I'm going to pay very close attention. There actually isa game called Dishonored that's in development and looks to have many features I have always hoped for in a game like this, but I'm not sure if the game's very dark, bloody, and gritty tone is my sort of thing. Time will tell, when the game is finally released.

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5 - Console Flight Simulator

Is it possible? Yes. Has it been done yet? No. The reason for this is because most gamers who play on a console are probably the ones who want faster action in their gaming experiences, and the stereotype is that the people who would enjoy the slower gaming experience of something like a flight simulator would be content to play it on PC. Well, I don't believe that's entirely true. Sure, a console controller might not be able to give you as many options or as much realism as a keyboard and mouse, but that's why there are keyboards and mouse accessories that can be used with gaming consoles. Personally I would like to see this kind of gaming experience take a step into the console realm, and I would certainly be interested in purchasing if it did.

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Well, thanks for reading. This was basically just a short blog I wanted to write because I haven't blogged in such a long time. I have a nagging feeling that I am rehashing things that I have already said in blogs before, but whatever. At leat some of it is new. God bless and please comment.

The new year is upon us. With it comes resolutions, joy, disappointment, new games, and more doomsday predictions. Hm. Well regardless, this is my last blog for 2011, and I've actually been saving up some material for it. I've got reviews of a TV show I was never interested in until just very recently, and I've got a review for a very popular action movie that was just released. Enjoy.

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Teen Titans - TV Series

A long time ago, one of my best friends on Gamespot mentioned that she enjoyed watching the Teen Titans series on television, though she had never read any of the comics. Just hearing the title and seeing bits and pieces of the animation was enough for me to know that I wasn't interested. It seemed too childish for my Batman-loving mind to accept. A team of teen superheroes lead by Robin? Really? Just not very impressive to think about it. But later on, I read a blog from another good friend of mine here at Gamespot (a fellow Batman fan) and he also recommended the Titans. Now I just couldn't stand it...childish or not, I wanted to see what the "hype" was about. So I put a few copies of the show on hold from my local library, and eventually switched to getting the DVDs from Netflix, because the people who get discs from the library must use them as pucks when they play air hockey, based on their condition.

I have just finished watching the last few episodes of the final season today, and now I feel that I can accurately make a review of the whole series. First of all, in the beginning episode you are thrown directly into a battle with the Titans. The team is not explained, their powers are not explained, and you know nothing of the individual characters except for what you can see from their fighting and attitudes. Thankfully, each character is full of just that...character. If there's one thing the Teen Titans does well as a show, it's giving you a strong and varied cast. Robin, the serious and determined leader; Beast Boy, the joking little green shape-shifter; Starfire, the kind and powerful alien who can shoot "starbolts"; Raven, the brooding witch who controls dark energy; Cyborg, the half human and half robot powerhouse. Together they all have a chemistry that is supported by a fantastic team of voice actors and actresses. As the episodes move along, each person is developed very well and you understand more and more about them. Sometimes this is done through episodes that focus mainly on a certain one of the characters, and other times it is done through just watching how the Titans interact with one another. It did not take long for me to become very fond of each member of the team.

I wish I could say that the Titans were able to have a rogues gallery that was just as interesting as they are, but sadly that is not true. The Titans' main villain throughout the series, Slade, is the only genuinely remarkable foe with intriguing motives. All others are just very weak. Some appear for only brief cameos at first, and then later return for more meaningful roles in future seasons. It seems like this method might work, but it doesn't. You never feel any sort of emotion towards the villains (aside from Slade and Red X) except for wanting to say "Just shut up and fight, I already know you want to take over somewhere or destroy something". In addition to being lame, some villains were plain stupid. Control Freak was an interesting concept, but in one episode he zaps himself and the heroes into television sets and has the Titans fighting against the people and characters on TV. Umm...no. Just no. In another episode, which in my opinion is the worst of the series, we also see a villain called Mother Mae-Eye. I'm not even going to comment on this one, except I will say that if anybody saw me watching this episode, I'd be a little ashamed.

Another bad thing is that the writers of the show apparently thought it was a good idea to bring in more heroes into different episodes instead of the original Titans. In fact, in an interview on the second disc of the fifth and final season, one of them stated "We wanted to make the fifth season bigger and better, and the way to do that was naturally to bring in more heroes, more characters". I'm sorry, but that's just false. You have an incredibly strong cast when you put the original Titans together in an episode, and there's no reason to replace them like they did several times. If anything, you need to add more and better villains, not replace the good heroes that you already have. The best episodes were those that focused on the Titans, and the Titans alone.

My favorite episodes are as follows:

Stranded
Date with Destiny
Haunted
Go!
Apprentice (Part 1 and 2)

If there's something in common with all the episodes, it's that they each focus on certain issues with certain Titans. Stranded, my favorite of the series, deals with the best-friend relationship of Beast Boy and Cyborg and also the, eh, complicated relationship of Robin and Starfire, and it also throws in plenty of very good action sequences. Date with Destiny is just comical relief for the most part, and deals less with the Titans fighting a villain and more with the personal issues of Robin/Starfire. Haunted is a dark and awesome story involving Robin's personal battle against his nemesis Slade and against himself. Go! is a great origin story of the Titans (and yes, I almost screamed like a little fangirl at the 8 minute mark...almost ). Apprentice is a very good extended story of Robin and Slade, and how the two mesh together as enemies who are similar to one another in many ways.

In regards to the series being childish...well, yes and no. The writers said that they always intended the series to be for people between the ages of 9 and 14. However, they also said that they received lots of positive feedback from people both older and younger than those ages, so in reality it appealed to many audiences. And I personally think this is true as well. Yes, the idea of a team of teen superheroes seems weak, but as I have said before, the strength of the cast makes up for this problem by a huge margin. Some of the episodes I can definitely see little kids enjoying. Something like Date with Destiny for example, which was pretty mild and goofy in terms of action and violence. Other episodes, like the three-part finale to season four called "The End", were darker than any Batman cartoon episode I have ever seen, and that's saying something. Most other episodes fall between these two examples in terms of silliness or seriousness, which is another factor that helps the series. You never know what you're going to see.

In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed watching all the seasons. Teen Titans met and exceeded my expectations. To be honest, when I tried to watch an episode of Batman: The Animated Series that I had on my DVR, I found it to be...well, a little boring, believe it or not. I ended up wanting to watch more Teen Titans instead. My advice is to give the show a chance if you never have before. If you stick with it and make it to the second season, you'll find there is a whole lot to like. I already bought the video game for the Playstation 2 and the movie, Trouble in Tokyo, with an Amazon gift card I had received for Christmas. Both are in the mail, and I eargerly await them, because I have no more episodes to watch, lol.

RATING: 9/10

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SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS - MOVIE

For anybody who enjoyed the first Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey Jr., I will tell you up fron that you will enjoy this sequel just as much, if not more. We have the same level of action, but intensified, streamlined, and improved. We have the same level of wit and intellect, but focused, more engaging, and easier to follow. And we also have a villain that is ten times more interesting than Lord Blackburn.

Die-hard fans of the famous detective may not enjoy these movies because of how different they are from the books, and how Holmes was made into more of a Batman-like detective who can also hold his own in a street brawl, but for casual fans and lovers of action flicks, this movie is everything you would want. Holmes finds himself face-to-face with Professor James Moriarty in a film that will have you enjoying every scene from beginning to end. I had a tiny bit of trouble following the plot in the first movie, and the same applies to A Game of Shadows, but rest assured that you will be able to keep up with all that is going on as much as is necessary at any given time.

You don't have to be a fan of Sherlock Holmes, you just have to enjoy a good action movie. Personally I was very pleased with the first, and am even more pleased with this sequel, which is normally a rarity for movies. If you have the opportunity, see this one in theatres, to get the full effect. If not, get it on DVD when it is available, because it is worth your time.

RATING: 8/10

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Whew. That does it for this blog. Wrote it in one sitting as well, just like all my others. I hope you enjoyed it and that perhaps I was able to sway your opinion about either of these excellent features. Comments would be greatly appreciated, and have a very Happy New Year. God bless. 2012, here we come...

I've never liked saying "Happy Holidays". The political correctness of it just irks me. If you celebrate Christmas, then say "Merry Christmas". If you celebrate Hanukkah, then say "Happy Hanukkah". Same goes for any other holidays in any other systems of belief. Stop worrying about other peoples' "feelings", because if they somehow get upset by you wishing them a merry or happy day, it's their problem, and not yours.

Anyway, uh...that was just a mini-rant for no real reason. I don't have much to say in this blog except for what is in the title. I wish you all a wonderful time and a very Happy New Year as well. To my friends who own Arkham City, do not forget to pay Calendar Man a visit at some point.

I will probably have another blog up before the beginning of 2012, or at least I hope so. I know I have been neglecting to post up any blogs for almost a month now, and it's the same reason as before. No material. But I have a few things to talk about coming up, including a movie review and a review of a very good TV series I am almost finished with, so you can look forward to that. In fact, you can even hold your breath if you want, though I don't recommend it.

Thanks for reading. God bless you all.

Thanksgiving has come and gone for us in the United States, and I hope you all had a terrific time. I had a good meal with my family and it was nice to see some of my relatives again. Now that Thanksgiving is over and we have passed through the mad rush of attention that Black Friday received this year, we're about to hit Cyber Monday, a day where all the people who didn't want to face the onslaught of crowds at the stores can still hope to get a decent deal online. As I was browsing Gamestop's relatively impressive deals (Battlefield 3 for $40 is an example), I realized just how far we have come in the video game industry, both in terms of quality gameplay and in terms of graphics. Sure, you can look in any generation of games and still find awesome experiences, but only in modern titles can you really get a rush of realism and depth that can at times be truly staggering. Having said this...there are also times when things you want to be great just fail. Times when you overhype something so much it can't possibily live up to your expectations. And that's what this blog is about. The times in my "gaming life" when I was seriously disappointed with a game that I honestly thought would be amazing, or should be amazing, for one reason or another. Enjoy.

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5 - Mirror's Edge

The concept was great, the execution was not. Mirror's Edge was one of those games that should have been great, but in the end, it was just mediocre because of some very poor design decisions. First of all, the melee combat in the game was very fun, but not used enough at all. Sections where you can really experiment with tactics and different ways to take out enemies were too few and far between, and as a result of this, the parts where you did get to use it were frustrating because you didn't have any skills developed. Free-running in the game was fine, and just took getting accustomed to, but it was broken up by very tedious areas where you needed to figure out a semi-puzzle to advance, sometimes as you were being chased. It broke the flow and didn't feel right. Overall I found the game to be more of a chore than anything, and not much fun was to be had. I only played through it ocne and never bothered with the time trial mode.

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4 - Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Glitches)

Bad Company 2 is an amazing game. The scale of battles is grand and it truly feels like a modern war, with vehicles everywhere and large teams and epic battles. Getting a squad together, especially with mics,is one of the best gaming experiences you will find. However, one glaring problem always exists. Glitches. These come in the form of bugs that take away your stats and gear for a short period, forcing you to play with level one equipment or not play at all, and in the form of disconnects. Lag is usually not an issue, but whenever I attempt to play BC2 nowadays, I get booted out of almost every game I take part in before it finishes because I was "disconnected". Seriously, EA? It doesn't happen in CoD games unless the host quits or some other rare problem occurs, and it doesn't happen in practically any other online game I own, except for...you guessed it...Battlefield 1943. Which is also the same combo of EA/DICE. They may make good gameplay, but they sure as heck can't fix bugs. There was even a common issue with BC2's co-op mode, "Onslaught", which caused all my bullets and even my knife to deal 0% damage to enemies, while still letting them riddle me with bullets and kill me. Sloppy support for a great game, EA.

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3 - Goldeneye: Rogue Agent

After playing and thoroughly enjoying James Bond 007: Nightfire (to which I gave a 10/10 score), I was really looking forward to another great James Bond game with some addictive multiplayer and a fun campaign. Everything or Nothing, while decent, was not as interesting to me because of the fact that it was in 3rd-person. Same deal with From Russia with Love. Rogue Agent, however, was a return to the FPS genre and promised that you'd feel like ruthless villain who was out to take over the world. Pretty cool, right? No. Because in the end, the game's story had you working as a henchman for Goldfinger almost all the way through, doing his bidding and his dirty work, and you never, ever felt like the awesome villain with super eye-powers that you wanted to be. It didn't help that enemy AI was cheap, level design was poor and simplistic, and all your objectives generally consisted of "do this one thing and kill the 500 enemies that constantly get in your way". The game's boss fights were also ridiculously hard, and even on Easy difficulty and while using cheat codes, I still had trouble! It was such a shame that this game turned out to be awful. I remember buying it on the day it was released for $53, and in less than like two weeks, it was down to about $30. What a joke. Multiplayer was also totally lame, because there were no AI bots like in previous games. The only good thing about my experience with the game was the theme music that plays on the main menu. It's actually great, and makes you think that the game will be great too, when you begin it. Too bad it's a disappointment.

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2 - Current-Gen Madden Games

Sure, the Madden series has always been somewhat frustrating. Mostly because of the canned animation and sometimes poor AI, and also of course the randomness of injuries or fumbles or dropped passes. But overall, it's still the best football series on the market, and in my opinion it always has been. The sad part is, the PS2 was when Madden hit its peak, and then once it moved to the current generation of consoles, it dropped in terms of quality. I remember being so excited when I got Madden 09 for the PS3 one Christmas. "Finally I can play a better version of Madden, the one everyone else is playing!", I thought to myself. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. Controls in modern Madden games to this day are still too touchy and too jerky, and there is no precision like there was in the past. The ability to make custom playbooks only just came to PS3/360 versions of Madden when it was added in the 2012 version, despite the fact that it had always been in the PS2 editions. Mini-games were changed, default playbooks were altered, camera angles were switched...the whole experience just felt messed up, and it is a darn shame. Having played the demo for both Madden 2011 and for Madden 2012, I can say that it's a lot better now than it was back in Madden 09. However...still not as good as it used to be.

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1 - Backbreaker

Man...I still feel really badly about this one. I overhyped the heck out of Backbreaker, because of how sick and tired I was of Madden always having the same problems. Here was a game that promised to have no canned tackling or blocking animations, a heavy focus on custom team creation (something I always loved in Madden), a very cool mini-game called Tackle Alley, and an "in-your-face" 3rd-person perspective. It seemed very fresh and very cool. I got the game on day one, after researching all the info I could squeeze out of Gamespot's forums and the official forums for NaturalMotion, and I put it in the system with glee. I gave the game the best benefit of the doubt that I could, but after a while, it became apparent that something was...off. Sure, the tackling looked cool and the fact that it wasn't canned meant that anything could happen at any time. But players also had the tendency to fall down at the slightest touch, drop passes all the time, fail at blocks, run poor receiving routes, and the list just goes on. The single patch that was released fixed a few minor gripes with the game that people complained about on the forums, but other than that, the game was just a broken mess, and like the Gamespot reviewer said, it had a sloppy foundation. The best part of the game, as it turns out, is Tackle Alley. And the lack of options for that mode makes it kind of a drag on its own. Backbreaker taught me a valuable lesson though: never overhype.

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Thanks for reading, please comment, and God bless. Also, what are your biggest gaming disappointments?

I recently purchased both UC3 and MW3, as you might remember from my last blog, and I thought that it would be a good idea to post my opinions on each of them. It's quite long, and originally it had images, but I had to cut them out due to character limit restraints. Anyway...here's my two-cents.

Modern Warfare 3 - Campaign

Almost nobody buys CoD games for the campaign. They're short, full of set-pieces, and don't include things like perks of ranking up. So because of that, people prefer multiplayer. However, I always found the campaigns of the MW games to be very fun. The thrill of sniping a terrorist and then rapelling off a building as it is blown to pieces above you is great fun, and stuff like that happens constantly in CoD campaigns. MW3 is no different, as it is a direct continuation of the story from MW2. It's awesome to see familiar faces such as Captain Price and Soap, and they still have a critical role in the story's events. The setting of MW3 is rather simple: World War 3 has begun, and you need to stop it by stopping the source.

Gameplay is very fun and fast, and just like in MW2 and MW1, I died. A lot. In every mission. On Normal difficulty. Sometimes the deaths were cheap and caused me to yell at the game, and other times it was just my own stupidity. Overall though, I think the firefights were designed better in MW3 than in any other CoD game's campaign. You don't feel like you're facing infinitely respawning enemies, however you still have that sense of "I need to keep pushing forward", which prevents you from sitting back and camping like a coward.

The set-pieces do not disappoint either. Explosions and buildings collapsing narrow escapes are all par for the course, and though it's all kind of old by now, it's still not stale. Which, I suppose, is why Activision still milks the series for all it's worth, as they should. They should also rub it in EA's face, because......no, sorry, I won't go there this time. Anyway, I'm sure people will be talking about the climactic ending that's in MW3 and every CoD game. Was it the best ever? In my opinion, no. I believe that MW2 was a bit more dramatic and exciting, because you honestly didn't know what was going to happen. In MW3, I felt like I did. It was still exciting, still pulse-pounding, still edge-of-your-seat kind of action, but the sense of drama was naturally lacking a little due to this being the (likely) end of the MW series.

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Uncharted 3 - Campaign

Uncharted is a series driven my telling great, cinematic tales of adventure and treasure hunting. I never played the first game in the series (I know, I know) but I did play UC2, and I found it to be extremely good. The voice acting, story, gameplay, variety, and cinematics were all excellent and deserving of the praise the game received. I expected just about the same from UC3. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out. My best explanation for this is that Naugthy Dog tried to do too much. The cutscenes in UC3 are often far longer than in UC2, and they interrupt gameplay to the point where you eventually just set down the controller and put your head in your hands to watch something that you wish you were playing. And when this happens, the game often prompts you to press a button or two during a cutscene to make Drake counter and enemy or do something else, which makes you scramble for the controller in hopes that you get to make something happen on the flashing screen again.

Much of UC3's actual gameplay just feels dated. Platforming is another example of how Naughty Dog tried too hard, because half of the time when you climb something, it breaks and Drake almost falls in dramatic fashion, or he does indeed fall, and gets up with a cheesy joke or line of dialogue. This is cool once or twice, when it is unexpected. Not cool when it happens three times in just about every story chapter. Shooting sequences often feel forced as well, because of the story. Somehow the friendly AI is worse in UC3 than it was in UC2, and more often than not, you just wish they'd go away. The difficulty is also drastically spiked in UC3. On Normal mode, I died in pretty much every single firefight I got into at least once. Drake can seeminglyonly take to or three shots before the screen goes black and white and you need to duck behind cover for almost ten seconds to heal, and with bullet-sponge enemies and brain-dead friendly AI, the odds are always stacked against you.

There are certain times during the UC3 story where it actually feels really fun and unique. The problem is that these instances are too few, and too far between. Most of your time is spent climbing or dying in firefights or watching long cutscenes. Puzzles also make their return, and I honestly thought that after mastering Portal 2, I'd be able to handle them easily. Well, uh, no. They're much harder than in UC2, and I actually took so long on one puzzle that the game offered to show me the solution, which I took advantage of because I just couldn't do it myself. Not fun.

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Modern Warfare 3 - Multiplayer

This is why most people buy CoD games. If you have a short attention span, you'll probably like the quick pace and frenzied action. More tactical players who like large, open warfare need not apply. For the most part, MW3 delivers what people wanted. However, I find myself somewhat disappointed by the experience. I didn't care for MW1's multiplayer because I found it to be too plain and simple. MW2 was awesome because of the variety of options, killstreaks, and perks you had. Black Ops was the same, though different in its own way. MW3 feels like one step forward and two steps back though. Maps feel very...well, it's hard to describe. The best word is "flat", I guess. Very simple, very direct, no gimmicks. This is good from a techncal perspective, because the maps don't have many cheap bottlenecks or hiding spots, but it's bad from an aesthetic perspective. Everything seems rather bland and unattractive. What happened to maps like Sub Base or Highrise? I miss maps with layouts like that, as these new ones are (so far) just not doing it for me.

Guns all seem to feel overpowered this time, to tell the truth, but in reality it's because overall player health has been reduced from what it was in Black Ops. This is good, because now it makes more of the guns a threat, and there are not as many people running around with the same weapon (coughsFamascoughs). Killstreaks are much better than in BO, and in fact, they aren't even killstreaks now. Instead they are pointstreaks, which is a great idea because it encourages people to play for their team's objective and not for their own K/D ratio. There is also the new Support setup for pointstreaks, which focuses on giving you rewards that support your team, and the streak doesn't end if you die. This is very good, because having your streak cut short by a camping thug or lagging enemy was always one of the most annoying parts of CoD multiplayer.

In the end, MW3 multiplayer is hit or miss. I like it, but MW2 was better, and BO was also better. I REALLY miss Combat Training or playing split-screen with AI bots, and if those features were in the game I'm almost positive I would be able to immerse myself in it a lot more, like I did with BO.

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Uncharted 3 - Multiplayer

Multiplayer in the Uncharted series is supposed to be tacked on to the solo experience. It's supposed to be like a bonus thing to do when you want to mess around in the game, or if you grow tired of playing other, better multiplayer-focused games. For these reasons, I think it isn't good that UC3's multiplayer might be the best part of the game. Naughty Dog said they wanted UC3 to be the PS3's best multiplayer game. That's, eh...well let's be honest, that's a dumb thing to hope for. New additions to the formula established in UC2 are welcome. The ability to sprint is very nice and useful, and kickbacks are fun, though you'll likely only get to useone of them per match. The problem with these new additions is that they take away from the simplicity that made UC2's multiplayer great. I don't want to customize a character with a bunch of pre-set outfits or accessories and I don't want to equipfour loadouts and I don't want to buy any dumb one-match-only boosters. Just let me pick a character and jump into a match with my rifle and pistol like everyone else. That was simple, and that was more fun.

Like I already implied when I said it might be the best part of the game, UC3's multiplayer is not bad at all. It's fun and it's a nice change of pace from typical FPS multiplayer games that are out there now. It's kind of like an alternative to them, the samething that Assassin's Creed tried to be with its multiplayer. The only issue is...UC2 is still better. And thus, that fact makes it hard to want to pick up and play UC3 instead.

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Modern Warfare 3 - SpecOps Survival

I haven't yet tried the SpecOps mission mode, so I can't comment on that, but I have tried Survival several times on several different (easy difficulty) maps. In short, it's what I expected. Very fun, especially when you're playing with somebody else, but it just isn't as fun as Combat Training was in Black Ops. Is it as good as Zombies? Well, it's certainly not as deep. Zombies was filled with depth and secrets and unique gameplay elements, whereas Survival is throwing you into a bunch of enemies with a few different supply depots scattered on the map, and calling it a day. It's fun and when played with friends, can add some good replay value and a nice break from the hectic multiplayer. I just wish it had more features, and didn't feel so unpolished. The fact that it is two-player only is also a bummer.

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Uncharted 3 - Co-Op

Playing co-op was my favorite part of UC2. I liked it more than the story and more than multiplayer. And while co-op missions were fun, the real meat was playing flat out survival. It's a blast to team up with a friend or friends to see if you can make it, and you really have to really on each other to get through all ten waves. In UC3, the magic is just gone. Yeah, the addition of a pool of 15 lives for the team is a good idea, but that's about it. Everything else is almost the same, which isn't bad I guess, but again, it lost the simplicity of UC2. I admit that I haven't played much of it yet, so I won't let myself be too harsh about it. And for what little I did play, I had absolutely horrific teammates, so that makes it even harder to judge.

One bad thing that I can be sure of is that they changed the format for co-op from what is was in UC2. It used to be that before a match started, you chose the map and the game type via a voting system if matchmaking or direct selection if a custom match. But now, you only vote or select the map. The objectives you're playing will change during the game with each new wave of enemies. One wave might be Survival, another might be Siege, and another might be Gold Rush. This, in my opinion, is a terrible idea. What if I just want to play Survival? I can't now? That's bullcrap.

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I hope you enjoyed the rather lengthy blog. To sum everything up, MW3 is the better of the two games. That's right...I said it. However, each game is still great and still worth a buy, despite all the trashing that I did of each in this blog. Remember, I trashed them for not being as good as they could be, not because they are bad. Thanks for reading and please comment. God bless you all.

Blog #75 here is going to be pretty short, as I don't have much to say. But I just wanted to announce that today I went over to my local Gamestop and picked up Modern Warfare 3, and...wait for it...a new 320GB slim PS3! Now, instead of playing in the living room all the time, I can further isolate myself and play inside my bedroom! What joy! And in reality, it wasn't just the system. I picked up the Uncharted 3 bundle, which comes with the 320GB system, controller, USB cord, power cords, and a copy of Uncharted 3. Total cost is $300, which is the exact same price as a regular 320GB PS3. So basically, I get Uncharted 3 for free. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

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I haven't played either game yet. Basically I just hooked up the system, connected it online, and re-downloaded a few of my previously-purchased items from the PSN Store. I also received a code for 30 free days of PSN Plus, but since it automatically turns it into a paid subscription after the trial is over (I despise that), I don't think I'll use it. Maybe I will though, I'm not sure yet.

I do have a question for the brilliant minds on my friends list. When I was looking at the list for content and games that I have downloaded in the past, I can see several games (such as Battlefield 1943) that I only have the demo for. This is because in order to get the full game, you download the demo and then if you like it, you purchase a "full game unlock" from within that demo. Here's the problem...I don't have the full game unlock on my download list. Does this mean that ifI re-download the demo to this system, I'll still have to pay $10 to buy the unlock for the full game again? If so, that really stinks, and I doubt I'l do it. If anybody can help me out on ths issue, I'd appreciate it. Also, when transferring save data from one system to another, I assume that a flash drive (USB) is all I need, right?

That's it for this blog. Thanks for reading and please comment.

A note to all who might be wondering why I have not blogged lately: I've just not had it in me. No inspiration means no good blogs, so instead of writing pointless drivel, I simply refrained from writing anything. Soon I hope I can get the spark back and start up again, especially with MW3 right around the corner. This blog here will consist of different sections, and will be devoted to the epic clash of the Call of Duty series and the Battlefield series. I have played several games from each, and I will do my best to weigh in on this battle of the digital titans. I hope you enjoy.

1 - Call of Duty: Gameplay
2 - Battlefield: Gameplay
3 - Battlefield: Marketing
4 - Call of Duty: Marketing
5 - Call of Duty: Community
6 - Battlefield: Community
7 - The Epic Clash
8 - My Own Opinion

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1 - Running and Gunning (CoD)

To begin, I want to talk a bit about the typical gameplay you get in a CoD game. Let's pretend, for now, that you're a total noob to the series. At the beginning of a match, you will be spawned next to your teammates on one side of the map. The enemies will spawn on the other side. When the American or Russian announcer dude tells you to "take no prisoners" or that you're to go "weapons free", you will all start running towards the other team. When you get close enough, you will start shooting, and they will start shooting at you. Some of you will die, and others will live, so they can die shortly later. Action is fast-paced and if you stand still for more than 3 seconds, you obviously are either camping or you have no idea how to play this game the best way. I always think of the CoD gameplay experience like a skirmish, and not an actual war. Yeah, there's killstreaks and yes, they bring in fancy vehicles sometimes. But overall, with the small maps and weaponry that's clearly suited for CQC, you never feel like part of a real "team" if you're playing team-based modes. More like a small squadron where each person does what they want to do.

So far it may seem like I'm bashing the way CoD games play, but I'm really not. In reality I like the games, quite a bit. The fast action always demands your full attention and quick reflexes, and gameplay is usually silky smooth unless you have a terrible connection, or the host does. Tons of customization and the sometimes-annoying lure of more XP and higher ranks will keep you coming back for more in the long run, insuring a high level of replayability.

2 - Plan Your Attack (BF)

Now let's jump over to the BF side of things, and like before, we'll pretend that you have never played a BF game. When you go into a match, you'll be asked to pick from and customize one of severel different kits (I can't call them cla$$es). These vary from assault, medic, recon, etc. Once this is done, you can then select where you want to spawn on the map. If you're team controls certain areas, you can spawn there, or if you're in a squad, you can spawn behind one of them. When your boots are on the ground, you'll have the choice of either hanging back and being a fricken' sniper, or running into the battle to help your team capture an area, or getting in a tank, or getting in a jeep, or getting in a plane, or getting in a helicopter, or...you get it. Battlefield maps are huge, much larger than any map in CoD multiplayer, and there are plenty of ways to get around. Most of the time, game modes revolve around either capturing flags or destroying/defending objectives. Both of the gameplay types demand teamwork and planned attacks or defenses. When you get a good team or squad together, it can be some of the best online gaming you'll ever encounter. When you get on a bad team, however, it's not. Playing with a bunch of people who never go for the objective can be infuriating when you're trying to win, and there's nothing you can do about it. You can't even yell at them on a mic, because you can only communicate with people in your squad.

Battlefield 1943 was my first online FPS game if I recall, and it blew me away. I still consider it to be the best game for its price on the PS3, no question about it, and it can definitely contend with other big-budget games out there. Bad Company 2 was an awesome game to play with friends, and I've spent quite some time doing just that. My biggest issue with BF games is that both my friends and I were plagued by horrid connection troubles in the past, and still are to this date. I get disconnected from nearly every match I join in BC2 before it ends, which leads me to not want to play the game at all now, and that's a real shame. One of my friends also told me not long ago that he can't even play BF1943 anymore because of connection issues.

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3 - Childish Cheap Shots (BF)

With Battlefield 3 only having been just released a short while ago, and MW3 still due up in a few days, we as the fans have had plenty of chances to see how each company was pitching their game. For starters, there was EA. They knew they had a huge competitor to beat in CoD, and they decided to go about trying to dethrone them from their spot as FPS King. To do this, they resorted to a method that in my opinion, just oozes with "EAness". They began taking cheap shots at CoD games. They started advertising BF games as "Above and Beyond the Call", and released pictures that showed tanks running over RC cars (which were in CoD: Black Ops). Several statements were released by big-wigs in the EA corporation saying how they were going to take CoD "out of the category" in a few years and how they would otherwise be beating them to a pulp. One other thing to mention...a while back, EA promised that all copies of BF3 for the PS3 would have Battlefield 1943 included on the disc, for free. Upon BF3's release, this was nowhere to be found. People complained, and eventually on Twitter (like it's not a big enough deal for an official announcement), EA said that instead of giving PS3 players free copies of BF1943, they would be giving them access to DLC one week in advance. Oh, yay! Intstead of a free game, we get to give EA more of our money sooner rather than later! Thanks for telling us this before the game was released, EA! >_>

4 - How to Properly Deal with Children (CoD)

Activision eventually decided to respond to these clowns, and instead of joining into the fray and trying to trash EA and the BF series (which they certainly could have done, because there's plenty of material to use), they did what was absolutely the right thing to do. They called for a verbal cease-fire, saying that even rival companies should be supportive when one of them has a great idea, because it means that it will push video games in the future to be better and better. EA...well, they mocked this. As a result, Activision then made another correct move. They ignored them. They went right on ahead with advertising MW3, and one higher-up even said that if he ever saw an EA employee he would thank the guy, because EA has done a better job advertising CoD games than he ever could have. Well done, Activision, well done.

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5 - You ***** *******ing *****er! (CoD)

The CoD online community of players has not earned itself an excellent reputation over the years. If you can get through a match without hearing a stream of profanity, you might want to check the disc again, because I don't think it's actually a CoD game. Well either that, or you got really lucky. If you met maybe 4/5 people on the street after hearing the way they talk in these games, you'd likely want to punch their lights out, or have them arrested, or both. When you're not actually playing the games, however, and you're doing something else such as browsing CoD forums, the players are surprisingly nice, most of the time. Sarcastic and critical and looking for a chance to jump down your throat if you say something that's wrong in the slightest...but other than that, nice. I also notice that CoD players are generally more accepting of BF players who decide to "switch teams" and jump on the CoD bandwagon.

6 - Batlefeeld wil dstroy cod 4evr, noobz (BF)

Uhh...yeah, some of them seriously talk like that. During normal games, you don't hear much from the BF community, because like I mentioned earlier, you can only hear your squad. There are no lobbies to trash-talk in, either. But when you jump on the internet, you will instantly find out just how mature they really are. Most of them spend time bashing/trolling CoD games or CoD players, complaining about glitches, bragging about their l33t strategies, etc. This is not always the case, but if you go into the BF3 forums, you'll probably get a taste of what I mean. Also, go look up some of the gameplay videos of CoD on Youtube. See all the dislikes? I doubt they're from CoD fans. See the comments that are like the title of this section of the blog? I rest my case.

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7 - FIGHT!

Now here's where it gets interesting. MW3 will be released on November 8, meaning that BF3 will have a slight advantage because it was out earlier. Those gamers who can't wait for their fix of war-based death and destruction might just pick it up because it's there, and because it's popular, when they otherwise would have waited for MW3. This shouldn't happen much, but it's possible. If pre-orders are any indication, though, MW3 is going to obliterate BF3. This makes me a happy hawk, because I just love knowing that EA is eating all those words they threw around about CoD. That being said, BF3 is not doing badly at all right now. People are enjoying the game, despite the somewhat varying responses to the beta. Initial server issues resulted in some "lulz" for me, because I saw it coming from the time I knew that "EA" and "DICE" would be on the cover of the game, but these issues are supposedly going to be fixed soon, if they haven't been already. The game is receiving good reviews all around from what I have seen, though some are stating that the campaign mode is lame and disappointing. We shall see if the same is true for MW3, but I doubt it.

8 - What you REALLY Want to Know

That's right...my opinion, lol. For starters, I don't hate either series. I like them both, a lot. Each provides a different perspective on the military FPS genre, and they're wildly different, which makes it great that we as consumers can choose between them. Battlefield games are bigger, slower, more tactical, and more team-oriented. Call of Duty games are smaller, faster, and in-your-face action. In all honesty, choosing which one is better is not really an option. You just have to choose which one fits the way you like to play FPS games. And if you like both, more power to you. On the direct issue of BF3 VS MW3, I'm siding with MW3 for now. I have my pre-order set, and I'm going to go pick it up on the 8th at Gamestop when it releases. The line should be short that day, right? Eh, anyway, BF3 is still certainly on my list. Being that I had so many dang glitches and connection issues in past BF games, I am very cautious about dishing out $60 for another one, and then not being able to enjoy it. However, I think I will get it after I pick up the other major games on my list.

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So, that wraps up the blog. Kudos to you if you read through it all, and thanks for enduring the length. Which game are you more excited for? Which game will win this battle, not just in terms of sales, but in terms of pleasing its fans? Please comment. God bless you all.

Wow, I have not blogged in such a long time I think I might have forgotten how to do it. Or not. We'll see. Anyway, as some of you might know, I am a very big Batman fan. It was more of a recent thing for me, as I did not grow up reading the comics or watching the TV shows or movies. In reality, what happened was that I purchased Batman: Arkham Asylum for the PS3. This was because I saw some gameplay footage of the FreeFlow combat, and I was extremely impressed. Ever since I was little I enjoyed beat-em-up games such as Streets of Rage, and I always wanted a modern take on the genre, and so the combat challenge rooms in B:AA really appealed to me. As for the rest of the game...meh, I didn't care one way or the other. It didn't seem to be my taste, in that it appeared to be too dark and brooding. I always preferred my games to be of the, eh...more cheerful variety. But with the promise of endless combat challenges on my mind, I bought Arkham Asylum on day one, to also get the Scarecrow Challenge Map. When I first put the game in, I immediately went to the challenge mode menu, only to be disappointed that one single combat map was available. I played it, and was not very enthused, because there were not enough enemies. To unlock the other events, I knew I had to play the story. So reluctantly, I began my journey into Arkham.

By the time I was finished beating thugs, thwarting villains, solving riddles, exploring the island, and so much more, it was clear to me that this was one of the best games I had ever played. I had not expected it, did not predict it, and barely even wanted to do it...but playing through Arkham Asylum turned me into a Batman fan. A big one. And it also became clear to me that B:AA was not a game to be enjoyed only by Batman fans, because I myself was not one until I finished it. Now that I had my feet wet in the Batman universe, I wanted more, and so I began watching Batman: The Animated Series. I watched the Nolan Batman films, Batman Beyond, the Schumacher films ( ), and more. I now have a Batman poster on my wall, BTAS set to record on my DVR despite the fact that I have seen every episode and own the entire collection on DVD, and an Arkham Asylum sticker on the side of my bed. Yeah, that's right.

Right now, I assume you're waiting for me to talk about Arkham City. You inevitably thought that I would, based on the title of the blog and the fact that it's about Batman. Well, you're absolutely correct. The sequel to Arkham Asylum is only 4 days away, and I am expecting it to be one of the greatest games ever, period, if not the greatest game ever. That's a bold statement, I know. But if you have played Arkham Asylum, you know that it's justified. If you haven't...trust me, and allow me to explain further about the potential Game of The Year that is B:AC (spoiler free).

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STORY

Batman: Arkham City will take place sometime after the events of B:AA. Quincy Sharp, the former warden of Arkham Asylum, has become the mayor of Gotham City. He has declared that the asylum is now unfit to hold inmates, and his solution for this problem is to section off an area of the slums in Gotham and toss all the crazies, thugs, and villains inside of it. The only rule is that they can't try to escape. Finally, he puts Professor Hugo Strange (who knows Batman's true identity) in charge of the place. Batman, being the clever fellow that he is, senses trouble. He decides to enter the city and sort things out for himself, but quickly becomes entangled in a mess of schemes and plots from what feels like his entire rogues gallary, including Joker, Two-Face, Penguin, Riddler, Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, and more.

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GAMEPLAY

Basic gameplay looks to remain the same as Arkham Asylum in terms of what you'll be doing most of the time. Gliding, fighting, being stealthy, solving riddles, completing missions, and more. The kicker? Everything...is...better. Soaring around the city is easy with the new grapnel-while-gliding mechanic and the dive-boosting feature, fighting has been overhauled with a ton of new moves and counters and combos, the riddles have been amped up a lot, the gadgets have been improved and added upon (smoke bombs FTW), and I could just go on and on. You will feel like Batman in this game, and if you know Batman, then you know it will be amazing. A "New Game+" feature also makes its way into the game, meaning that when you're finished with it on Normal or Hard difficulty, you can replay the game with New Game+, and keep all of your upgrades and gadgets right from the beginning. The catch is that enemy AI is ramped up to even out the challenge.

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PLAYABLE CHARACTERS

In Arkham Asylum, you got to play as Batman, and Batman alone, unless you owned a PS3 like myself and were able to download and play as the Joker for free. He had some cool combat and stealth gameplay, but in the end, I'm glad he was free. He didn't add much to the overall experience. In Arkham City, Rocksteady has raised the bar dramatically. Not only will we be playing as Batman in the story, but we will also be able to play as Catwoman (some rumors have been circulating that this is only if you buy the game new and receive an unlock code for her, but I believe that the code does not unlock her as a character, it only unlocks more content for her to be used in). Rocksteady did not stop there, however. If you pre-ordered your copy of the game from Best Buy (in North America), you will receive an unlock code to play as Robin in the challenge maps of the game as well. He is not the childish version of Robin you might know from TV/comics, but instead is a gritty, teenage butt-kicker with a bo staff. I have my Best Buy pre-order in place, so I will be getting him on day one. All other players can download him when he releases as DLC in November for $6.99. Speaking of DLC releasing in November for $6.99, guess who else is dropping by Arkham City? Nightwing. For that same price, you can download the Bat's first sidekick, Dick Grayson, and use his acroBATic skills and kali sticks to dish out the pain to an endless amount of thugs. At this point, Rocksteady should be done, right? Not quite. Each character in the game, from Batman to Nightwing, will have multiple character skins/outfits to choose from. Batman's skins will be DLC in December, at least one of Catwoman's skins can be unlocked (I think), and the extra skins for Robin and Nightwing come bundled when you download the characters.

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REVIEWS

So far, we have gotten a number of critic reviews (or at least heard the scores of said reviews) for Arkham City. The scores so far, if I remember correctly, are as follows:

92/100
92/100
97/100
10/10
10/10
10/10

If those numbers didn't impress...well, read them again. Or get glasses. Because I can't remember the last time a game has received so much praise from critics. The last time something similar occured was with Portal 2 I suppose, but even that game did not receive this much love. One reviewer said that Arkham City was "the gold-standard" of video games, and that all future games should be judged by it. Another said that Arkham City is not only the best superhero game ever, it is possibly the best video game ever. If you ask me, developers ofgames like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 should be scared. Well...maybe not. But they should note that their games just might be overshadowed by B:AC. I mean, with reviews this good, how could either of them beat out B:AC for GOTY? Seriously, how?

^Harley doesn't know, and apparently neither does Batman

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MY OWN OPINION

By now, you should know. Arkham City will pwn everything in its path and leave a trail of happy, smiling, addicted Batman fanboy-gamers in its wake. If you have not pre-ordered B:AC, I pity you, because it's probably too late. Even so, buy the game after it is released, and by it new so that you get the unlock code and so that Rocksteady gets the credit they richly deserve. Everything is at risk, everything is at stake, and everything is BETTER. My gaming time will be consumed with AC in the near future, and the only gaming diversion I will have is possibly playing some Black Ops split-screen with family. Other than that I will be living in Arkham City, and I suggest you do the same. This blog didn't even scratch the surface as to why this game will be awesome, as there are soooo many other reasons I could have mentioned.

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Thanks for reading, God bless, and please comment. Also, I just want to say it again...but this game.

Awesome B:AC Gameplay Trailer

Awesome Random Video ( )

As I was playing Black Ops the other night, both alone and against randoms, something came to mind that I hadn't really thought of before: I have quite a lot of friends on Gamespot, but I have hardly played any games with them! So with that being said, I present the matchmaking blog. Here I will list the games that I own that would support the ability for my internet comrades andme to battle it out with or against each other via the PS3.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops

Come on now, admit it...you've played Black Ops at some point. Well at least, most of you have. I can tell because I can see your ranks and playercards in the menu of the game. And as fun as it is teaming up with you or shooting you repeatedly in Combat Training, I always have the nagging thought that it's only your nametag, and not actually you. Weird right? Anyway, to remedy this, I suggest we get online together at some point. We could either make a party and jump into an online match against the other savages, or if you'd like something a little more mild, we could even try Zombies (though don't depend on me for much help unless we're in Five, and even then, you still shouldn't). And finally, based on what I can tell from the menu in Combat Training, it looks like I can even invite friends into those matches as well. Personally I think that would be quite awesome, to battle it out with a friend against the AI bots online.

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Battlefield: Bad Company 2

The game isn't called "Bad Company" for nothing...EA/DICE made this game, and thus it's filled with a ridiculous amount of online glitches, exploits, disconnects, and sometimes lag. Despite this, it can be pretty fun to play with friends. If you want to team up with me for some matches of Rush, Squad Rush, or Conquest (preferrably on the Heavy Metal map), I'm up for it. Also, if you happen to have the co-op expansion pack for the game, which is now only $5 in the PSN Store I believe, I'm up for that as well.

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Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

Do you have the need? The need for speed? Personally I haven't had it for a decent while, because I haven't played this game in a decent while. Still, it's very fun online, and there usually aren't too many instances of lag or other problems. I played with a friend of mine who lives in Germany in an online match, and there was no lag at all, so that's something. If you want to team up for a few matches of Hot Pursuit or simply Race mode, I'm there. And if you want to get super-competitive, we could alsodo Interceptor mode.

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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Another game I haven't played in a while. I'm still up for some co-op (either objective or survival) or online TDM if anybody else is though.

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NBA JAM

I, eh...I highly doubt that any of you own NBA Jam on the PS3, but if you do, I wouldn't be opposed to a few matches together. I only played online like once or twice, and when I did there was an annoying bit of lag that was messing with both me and my opponent. Perhaps it isn't always the case, but we'd just have to try and see for ourselves.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

I haven't played this game in ages. Ever since I heard that online had become hacked on a widespread level, my interest severely dwindled, and since I had BO and BC2 to occupy me, I wasn't too concerned about finishing my first prestige. However, if any of you want to team up for some SpecOps or even try some TDM Express, I'm up for it.

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Section 8: Prejudice

This is a downloadable-only title on PSN for $15. If you happen to have picked it up, or plan to get it in the future, let me know. I could really use a buddy for co-op Swarm matches and teaming up online would be cool as well.

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Battlefield 1943

Not much to say about this one. If you don't own BF1943, you've been missing out on one of the best FPS games of this console generation. It's $10 in the PSN Store now, and you can also get it for free in a bundle with Battlefield 3 (when that game is released). If you already own the game though, tell me, and we can get into a squad together and jump into a few matches.

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That pretty much does it. If you see anything you might want to play, let me know via a PM here on Gamespot, a comment on this blog, or a message through PSN. Afterwards we can work out a time to get online together. Thanks for reading and God bless!