As some of you have noticed it has been a while since I’ve posted anything around these parts. Fallout 3 is to blame for that. Between the main game and the Broken Steel DLC my save game is around 60 hours currently. With the announcement that there are 2 more DLC packs coming plus I still have not played Operation Anchorage or The Pitt I can see my game easily getting up over 70 or 75 hours. However, I think I’m going to take a break until the release a Game of the Year edition with all of the DLC included to play the rest of the DLC. I normally would have waited to play Broken Steel, but since it included the ability to go from level 20 to 30 I just could not pass it up.

Overall I really enjoyed Fallout 3 and Broken Steel. I did mostly all of the side-quest first, found all the bobble heads, and schematics to build weapons. Then, I went and played the main story and the entire Broken Steel story without any other side quests in between. I’m glad I did it this way because the last 1/3 of the main game’s quests and the Broken Steel were a blast and I really enjoyed doing all of it without interruption. Plus, by that point I was leveled into the upper 20s, had some of the best weapons and armor in the game, and was virtually unstoppable. It made that last 10 to 15 hours of game play a riot as I was wrecking shop. After all that I went hunting for all of the Super Mutant Behemoths. The first ones I had run into earlier in the game were hard to take down but the last three when I was level 30 and shooting them with mini-nukes were just fun.

I’m not going to bother with a full lengthy review since Fallout 3 has been out so long, but I will say that if you have not played Fallout 3 that you should! There is a reason it was game of the year last year. One word of warning however, when you start playing Fallout 3 plan to not see the outside world for a couple weeks … maybe longer if you are the type of player who likes to search every square inch of a game. Also, if you decide to get the Broken Steel DLC keep your eyes out for Albino Scorpios. They are a real pain to deal with.

I’ve been meaning to post this for a few days but Fallout 3 keeps calling me. However, my tv is otherwise occupied currently so I’ve got a few minutes finally get this post finished. I saw the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine move and played the demo for the game on Xbox 360 this last weekend. I enjoyed both, but I think I am going to like the game better than the movie. The movie was pretty good and it was fun to see some Marvel characters that were not in the previous X-Men movies. Lots of action, but a good telling of Wolverine’s story.

While the movie is PG-13 the game is rated M (Mature), and it is a very heavy M. There is a lo of blood, gore, dismemberment, and vilence. But, it is the first Wolverine game where you really get a feel for what it is like to be Wolverine. The demo is not very long, but it had enough there to get a feel fo the controls and a level up a couple times. It looks really nice and the controls are strait forward but well balanced. After playing the demo I immediately went over to GameFly and put the game on the top of my Q.

I got a chance to check out the Bionic Commando multiplayer demo yesterday and I found it really disappointing. First, there is no tutorial of any kind which is really needed. The bionic arm controls are very unique to Bionic Command and even after playing for 30 minutes I still was not sure how to properly swing and climb with it. I think a tutorial or single player demo would have helped with this. The demo was also disappointing because it is for a single multiplayer map with 8 players in a free for all death match. So, no playing with your friends and they don’t even tell you what all game types the full game will have. Graphically the multiplayer does not look nearly as good as what the trailer shows for the single player game play. Also, the map design is really generic and unimpressive. It is just a could tall towers and a railing so you can swing around on (assuming you can figure out how to do that) on top of a building. The weapons were all generic as well…pistol, machine gun, sniper, shotgun, and grenade launcher. The one thing that I found pretty fun was that when you are in the air you can hit the Y button to drop on someone and kill them. Since you are suppose to be swinging around this could be a lot of fun to get kills by dropping on your enemies…assuming that I can ever figure out how to swing around effectively.

Add the Bionic Commando Multiplayer Demo to your Xbox 360 download queue

I tore myself away from Fallout 3 for a few hours today to checkout some new stuff on the Xbox Live Marketplace. I started things off with the new Load Runner on Xbox Live Arcade and was surprised by how much there is included for $15. It is a shame they accidentally priced it at $10 for a couple hours and now the community is up in arms about the pricing because for fans of action puzzlers there is a ton of depth in the new iteration of Load Runner. There are tons of game modes and levels as well as a level editor and that lets you download and play levels other people create. With the level editor and a growing community of people interested in playing Load Runner I think there will be tons of great new levels for a long time to come.

If you have not seen it here is the Load Runner trailer:

After that I spent the rest of my lunch break playing the newly released Red Faction: Guerrilla demo. I’m new to the Red Faction series so I don’t know much of the back story or anything, but I really dig the graphical style and game play. They give you an objective and a time frame to complete it in, but other than that you can go about completing it any way you want. The first time through I worked my way slowly across the level picking off enemies as I came to them. The second time through I grabbed a big truck and just drove over anyone in my way until I got to the objective. Then I grabbed it and worked my way to the back to the extraction point smashing everything in my way. I love how all of the buildings can be destroyed without too much effort when you have a big enough weapon or vehicle. After you get to the extraction truck you then ride on the back and man the turret. That part of the level was a lot of fun too. You’re just blowing up everything that tries to get close enough to stop you. If I had more time I might have played it again to check out other methods for completing the level, but I did not have enough time right now so that will have to wait. I would really recommend trying out the demo. From the looks of it and the trailer the game has a huge open world with a ton of missions. It has been a long time since I played a demo more than one time through, but I can see myself playing the Red Faction: Guerrilla demo a few more times.

Follow this link to add it to your Xbox 360 Download Queue

Here is the trailer for anyone not familiar with Red Faction:

I finished off Halo Wars campaign last weekend. I really enjoyed the game yet for some reason I’ve not yet put my finger on I just did not feel like playing much of the multiplayer or skirmish modes. As a fan of the Halo universe as a whole (yes I read the books) I really like how Halo War’s story fills in some back info. I’m also a fan of Real Time Strategy games so it was really fun to play one with a Halo theme.

Ensemble really made the controls simple and basic but they worked. Especially the option to select all units of all the units on the screen with one button. Since that is what I generally want to do with my army anyway it was nice they made that easy. I also liked the D-Pad options to jump to the bases, leaders, and troops. The game has the standard Rock-Paper-Scissors of unit strengths, but with the technology levels to make units more powerful. One of the other great things about Halo Wars is the cut scenes. They are absolutely GORGEOUS. Other developers need to take note of them; if you are planning to put cut scenes into your upcoming game they need to looks this good.

There were two things disappointing about Halo Wars. First, there is no Covenant or Flood campaigns, but you can play as Covenant in the other game modes. I’d gladly pay to buy additional campaigns for these other classes are DLC. The other annoyance was that I complete the whole campaign and got only 9 of 50 achievements. Not even 1/5th of them. Guess they really wanted to push the other game modes by encouraging you to play them to get the achievements.

If you like Halo or RTS games I recommend checking out Halo Wars. It is a lot of fun and really nice looking.

I’ve been playing Crystal Defenders for weeks now and I finally got the last achievement. I have a few levels left to try and get perfect runs without loosing any lives, but I’m close. It has been a while since I got all the achievements for any game and it feels good to have them all for Crystal Defender. Especially since it was pretty challenging.

The last achievement I got was Four-Star Strategist: Accumulated a total score of 100,000 points. That one took me a lot of work since there are only 12 levels I had to get an average score of over 9000 per map.

As I’ve said before I’m always looking for ways to get more value out of my neglected Nintendo Wii. Really, Wii Fit is the only thing that gets regular use with my Wii. So, when I saw that Ubisoft was releasing Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout I knew I wanted to check out out since I already have a balance board.I have been pleasantly surprised with GGCW after being disappointed with most of the other Wii workout games besides Wii Fit. GGCW is mostly focused on Shape Boxing. There are other exercises like squats, leg lifts, jump rope, and others. The Shape Boxing activities don’t use the balance board, but most of the others do. The game also lets you decide if you want it to create a workout for you or if you just want to choose which activities to do.

The Good

• More Intense Workout – I like Wii Fit, but it is not really a very intense workout. I find Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout to be a much more intense workout. I rarely ever break a sweat with WiiFit, but 10 minutes into GGCW I’m already sweating.
• Custom and Created Workouts – I like that when you start the game after completing the training it asks you if you want have it setup an exercise regiment for you for that day or if you want to just choose your own activities. If you choose to have it create a workout program for you it then asks how long and how intense of a workout you want. It is a really nice setup and makes it easier to fit a workout into my schedule.
• Balance Board Optional – I actually like that the balance board is optional for the exercises that support it. With past games that had optional balance board support when you chose to use it then wiimotes then are not really used. However, in GGCW it balances the use of the balance board and wiimotes really well. For the shape boxing exercises the balance board is not used because you are moving around but for most of the other activities is can be used.
• Shape Boxing – I am actually really liking Shape Boxing. I can’t really put my finger on why, but it feels good to get a complete an expert combo of hits as you progress through the levels.
• Non-Shape Boxing Exercise – Shape boxing is the core of GGCW, but the other activities are really good too. They start up slowly but progresses at a nice pace. Also, they are a nice mix of working out all of the different muscle groups.

The Bad

• Lack of Music Variety – For many of the shape boxing exercises you get to pick the song you want to play while you exercise. However, they all have a very similar sound and beat to them. I’m glad I can choose which one I want, but I would really like more variety in the songs.
• Jump rope – Maybe it is just me but I can’t get the jump rope exercise to work. All you have to do is jump in place and swing your arms, while holding 2 wiimotes, like you are jumping rope. Yet, no matter what I do it does not register correctly and my character jumps the rope once and then gets tangled up. I’ve tried various speeds and arm circle sizes and it just will not work for me. I just skip that activity now it it comes up.

Conclusion
I’m really enjoying using Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout about every other day alternating with Wii Fit. If I did it every day I think I would quickly get tired of Shape Boxing, but so far that has not happened with doing it a few days a week. If you’re looking for a Wii exercise game that has a more intense cardio workout than Wii Fit then I would recommend checking trying GGCW. Especially if you don’t have a balance board since all of the exercises can be done just fine without one.

I know I’ve been quiet around here lately, but I’ve been busy with XBLA & XNA Ratings as well as playing a little of a lot of games. This last week I’ve played Crystal Defenders, Peggle, Gears of War 2 (Horde mode is so addicting), Rock Band 2, Halo Wars, and Gold’s Gym on the Wii. Once I spend some more time with Hao Wars and Gold’s Gym I’ll get posts up about them, but apparently I’m a little gaming ADD right now. I’ll get it under control and get back to some regular posts next week.

In the meantime I’m giving away a copy of Uno Rush on XBLA Ratings. There are a couple days left in the contest so you still have time to enter. Good Luck!

I’ve been playing Crystal Defenders for the last week or so and I’m loving it. Yes, it is another tower defense game, but it is pretty different from the ones I normally play. Every level requires a different strategy. In most tower defense games you find a strategy and you stick with it for every map and level. In Crystal Defenders you will loose quickly with that strategy. There are 3 different grouping of maps and each group has 4 levels. All 12 of these levels requires different strategies and units to win. I’m about 2/3 of the way through the maps and the fun and challenge for me has been finding a strategy that works and then trying to improve it complete a level perfectly. On some of the maps I played through well over a dozen times before I worked out a strategy that works well. If you like tower defense games you should check out Crystal Defenders. It is a very different type of tower defense game that is very challenging but very rewarding at the same time.

If you’re interested in Crystal Defenders Square Enix has a great site with a lot of information about the characters.

I got a chance today to try out the XNA Community Game NextWar: The Quest for Earth. It is a tower defense style game which I find highly addicting. It has a unique graphical style that I’m not sure I like yet, but the overall mechanics work great. If you’re into Tower Defense games I would recommend checking it out. I’m quickly getting addicted because there is a nice variety in tower types and each has an easy to remember upgrade path.

Here is the trailer if you’re interested:
<a href=”http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:650da6b8-a6bd-4157-9b92-795d12483ff2&showPlaylist=true&from=shared” target=”_new” title=”NextWar: The Quest for Earth”>Video: NextWar: The Quest for Earth</a>