I got a chance to try out the Madden NFL 10 demo today. I like how they have slowed the game down and made it a little more playable. I’m interested to see how it plays having 2 people on the same team playing 2 on the other. I plan to have some frines over to try that out this weekend. The one issue I did have with the demo was that once you start the game there is no way I could find to see the controls. So, once a player had the ball I did not know which button dives, which one charges, etc. Same on issue Defense, I could not figure out what button jumped for an interception and which one dives for a tackle. I’m planning to try it more over the next few days, but this could be the first Madden game I play for many years.

I decided after seeing the trailer for Let’s Tap to give it a try. I like the idea of playing a game just by tapping since I tend to tap on my desk all the time. I might as well trying it in game format. I got the game from GameFly yesterday and I sent it back this morning. It was at my house less than 24 hours. I tried 3 separate times play it and I just cannot. No matter how lightly I tap it keeps registering a “Hard” tap which makes many of the games unplayable. I tried every box I could find in my house; shoe box, kleenex box, cereal box, and even a diaper box. All of them I had the same issue. The game has a setting for the tap strength which I adjusted as far as the slider goes but it did not help enough to make a difference. The game has 5 different mini games and I can’t beat the first level of any of them. Gaming is suppose to be fun and fighting with the core controls of the game is not. So, after a third try today I gave up and sent it back to GameFly. It is a shame too because it looked like some of the mini games, especially the rhythm game, could be really fun.

After having a lot of trouble with the final boss fight in X-Men Origins: Wolverine I found that a lot of people are having trouble with the majority of the boss fights. So, I’ve compiled a list of hints, tips, and strategies for facing the various boss and heavy units.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Boss Fight Hints, Tips, and Strategies

I finally got around to playing X-Men Origins: Wolverine after really enjoying the demo. I started off thoroughly enjoying the game. However, by the end fight I pretty much hate it. Probably that is my frustration with the final boss fight coming through so I’ll start with the good stuff.

This might be the first X-Men game I’ve played where I actually felt like Wolverine was not toned down to useless. The game is brutal. You can complete shred people to pieces. The story follows the same plot as the movie for the most part, but with a lot of back story added. I enjoyed the game’s plot and setting variety. Graphically it looks good and the watching Wolverine heal from the inside out never got old. The game is actually much longer than I expected for a movie based game. I was about half way through when I thought it was about over. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there was a lot more to play.

The game alternates between button mashing and pattern recognition fights with few puzzle/platform elements thrown in. For most of the generic people attacking you can pretty much button mash or find a couple combos you like and just repeat them over and over to kill enemies. For the bosses you just need to dodge for a few minutes until you figure out their attack pattern and then exploit the weakness in it. Between these two main parts of the game there are a few puzzle and jumping platforms that I found really annoying. The button mashing and boss fights are fun because you’re making Wolverine tear guys apart, but the puzzle/platforming completely break the flow of the game. You have to stop fighting and time jumps correctly. Then, if you don’t you have to start that puzzle whole section over again.

Up until the final boss fight I was enjoying the game for the most part. There were a few moments that were annoying. Like the sequence in the spillway where you have to outrun a wave but you camera does not show you where you are going. Then I got to Deadpool. It took me a few minutes to finally figure out his attack pattern and start to exploit it with block combos and special attacks. After you lower his health all the way down the first time he teleports to the top of the nuclear power plant and start the fight all over again. However, you can keep the the same pattern and take Deadpool’s health down pretty quick. After taking the health down the second time Deadpool teleports away and starts to shoot sections of the wall out from under your feet. Most of the time you can jump out of the way and land one section over. However, if you lunge at him during that part it knocks you off the edge and you have to start the fight over. Also, after the first couple laser shots enough pieces of the wall are missing that you have to jump over holes to get to Deadpool. Of you don’t then he just keeps shooting you until you die. But, if you do try to jump he shoots the ground out from under you as you land and you fall to your death. After over a dozen tries at fighting Deadpool I gave up, put the game back in the envelope and sent it back to GameFly. It is not fun enough to keep trying.

After sending it back to GameFly earlier today I was talking with some friends who already played it and found out most of them never finished the game either. Some of them did not get through earlier boss fights. If you like Wolverine or nuttom-mashing stule games this one is pretty good. Just plan on either playing on Easy or not finishing.

Being a Peggle addict that I am when I saw the announcement today that PopCap was releasing a WoW themed Peggle that has 10 levels for free today I decided to waste my lunch break playing it. I’m not a WoW player but new, free Peggle levels is something I just had to try.

I played through all ten levels and they were pretty fun. A lot of the levels have movement on them making them a bit more difficult but really the levels are pretty easy. I think there were only 2 I had to play through more than once. I’ll go back later and see if I can clear the levels completely but for now I got my Peggle fix that had a interesting twist on their normal theme. It starts like the adventure mode of Peggle so you don’t get to choose your Master (or which special you want) but the levels are easy enough it does not matter.

If you have been interested in trying Peggle out but did not want to spend any money the Peggle WoW Edition is a great place to start because it is free and the levels give you a taste of what the full game offers. Just keep in mind that Peggle and Peggle Nights are not normally WoW themed like this.

You can get Peggle WoW Editon here

Despite the fact I tend not to like Guitar Hero games as much as Rock Band I decided to check out Guitar Hero Metallica anyway. I’m not a huge Metallica fan but they have more songs I like than Aerosmith. Plus, a couple friends of mine kept telling me how much fun it was. So, I decided to give it a try. While I did like playing some of the songs I just find the really hard solos annoying and then overall difficulty curve for the campaign seemed way off. I started off on Expert Guitar getting 5 stars and working my way through the song list. about 1/2 way through through I hit a wall. The difficulty seemed to jump from manageable on Expert getting 4 stars to where I had to drop down to Hard and was getting 3 stars. It was not like I was slowly getting worse scores either. Just one song was the cut off and it went from songs that I could play on Expect to so hard I was failing before 20% of the song. This reall turned me off. I went ahead and finished the campaign on Hard doing just the required songs, but then I sent it back to GameFly. There were some little improvements to the user interface but nothing major that I noticed from Guitar Hero World Tour. I have no plans to play Smash Hits.

I actually may not play any more Guitar Hero games not that I’ve got Frets on Fire X working on my PC. It has pretty much every good song from the past Guitar Hero games available to play but I can set it to use Rock Band 2’s theme and scoring. Sure, I’ll have to wait a few weeks or even months to play the newest songs from Guitar Hero 5 but I’m ok with that. The Guitar Hero experience is just not for me and there is no point in forcing myself to try and enjoy it when I don’t.

I’ve notice a lot of new players joining the Red Faction Guerrilla matches over the last few days and getting frustrated trying to get a hang of all the maps, weapons, and backpacks. So, I’ve put together some hints and tips for new players that I’ve picked up over the last few weeks.

You can check them out here:

Red Faction Guerrilla Multiplayer Tips and Hints

I’ve been playing and absolutely loving Red Faction: Guerrilla this week. I also started playing some Guitar Hero: Metallica but I’m only about 1/3 of the way through the guitar career. Hopefully you’ll be seeing a review (or rant) about it next week.

Today though I was checking out Droplitz and Scallywags. Droplitz was pretty fun but not as addicting as some other puzzle games on Xbox Live Arcade. Scallywags not that good. I’ve got longer reviews of both on XBLA Ratings.

Also, I see there is an add-on pack for Yosumin Live for $1 on Xbox Live Arcade that I want to check out … just as soon as I sit down and buy Yosumin Live. I loved the demo but just never went back to buy it. Maybe tomorrow or this weekend I’ll get a chance for that.

That title might be a bit misleading. I’m not starting my own podcast. I was on a podcast for the first time this last week. It was the AGErocks.com Podcast. We discussed video games and the events going on at AGErocks.com. You can go here to download and listen to the mp3 (59.2 MB).

Or I’ve embed it below.

With summer upon us I thought it would be a good time to take a look at 5 of the best games that just came out or are coming out this summer. I’ll give you a hint. I just reviewed one of them. To see all five you can check out the article here:

Top 5 Summer 2009 Xbox 360 Games