I knew after seeing this years CES coverage that I was going to get an Android tablet. There are a lot of times that need to quickly check my email or want to look up a web site while on the couch and getting out a is overkill. For a task that will only take a couple minutes I don’t want to wait for a laptop to boot up.  Sure, I could get a really fast laptop with a SSD in it but I don’t need that powerful of a laptop for anything else.  So, a tablet is a fit for my current situation.  So, after reading up on all the upcoming tablets I decided to get the Motorola Xoom. I thought about waiting for Asus’ Transformer with the optional keyboard, but I just don’t see using the keyboard that often.  While the extra battery life it adds with the keyboard seems nice I already have a laptop that I don’t want to use. Plus the USA release date on the Transformer had not been set when I picked up my Xoom.

I’ve never had an Android device before but I love it.  Both the device and Android as a whole.  I’ve been using the Xoom for a couple weeks now and while it is not perfect it is great.  It fits my needs and does so well.  Because it is still fairly new there are only a limited number of tablet formatted apps available but more and getting added daily, and I’ve not had an issue finding ones that fit what I need so far.  Sure, there are a ton more apps on the iPad, but then I’m stuck with an iPad and its very locked down platform.  No thanks.

It is kind of funny to me that I don’t play more games on the Xoom.  I fully expected to be gaming on it more, but I actually find myself using it more as a tool for getting tasks done and keeping up to date in emails than as a gaming platform.  Sure, I’m gaming on it, but more than that I’ve got a useful calendar and to do list that is always handy.

Half the fun so far has been customizing everything to be exactly how I want it … that day. I’ve gone though a ton of layouts, wallpapers, and widgets so far and I’m looking forward to doing it more.  I’m getting to the point where I have most of the setup how I like it but I doubt I ever quit tweaking things. Plus with new widgets and apps getting optimized for Android tablets there is always something new to play with.

I know you all hate me (I got the messages) but I got in the Gears of War 3 on Friday and have been really enjoying it. I’ve got my hands-on impressions up on VGrevolution at http://www.vgrevolution.com/2011/04/gears-ow-war-3-beta-impressions/ I’m not going to rehash it so head over there and check it out.

I never played the original Crysis because I did not play PC games much at the time it came out and my PC probably would not have been able to handle it. Since Crysis 2 came out for the Xbox 360 I figured I’d give it a try.  I played the multiplayer demo for Crysis 2 when it his Xbox Live and while it was pretty fun I was more interested in the single player. I have played some more of the multiplayer and it is well done.  It just happens to be a little to fast paced for my taste.  I’m old, I can’t help it.  The multiplayer game modes are fun the party system is one of the best since Halo.  I also like the really deep customization options.  There is a slant for players who hare higher ranked to dominate since they can have better weapons but I was still able to hold my own ok most of the time.  If the pace of the game was just a little slower I’d definitely be playing regularly.

After the disaster that was Homefront I was wanting a solid, fun campaign that I could not complete in one sitting. The Crysis 2 campaign delivered that an more. First off, it is gorgeous. Even my wife walking through the room stopped to watch and commented on how great it looks.  The campaign took me around 12 hours to complete and I was not really looking for collectibles as I was going. I had a blast with the game play. Then guns feel good and the levels are pretty large.  What I really liked is that because of the armor abilities you can approach each mission however you want.  You can go stealth or guns blazing or some combinations of the two.  There were levels where I did not kill a single enemy and instead sneak through the level Sam Fisher style.  Other times I’d rip a heavy machine gun off a turret and go into an area with my extra armor on and taking on all the enemies at once.  I had so much fun doing this that I even went back and played some of the missions a second time just to try different tactics.  My favorite was probably going back to the level which was designed for stealth and instead climbed a tower and sniped every single enemy on the level. Other developers should take note of this because the way levels were created to allow for any play style was really fun.

I would highly recommend at least renting Crysis 2 and playing through the campaign.  The story takes a while to start making sense but the game play is so fun that I just did not care.   If you enjoy a fast paced multiplayer shooter then be sure to check out that part of the of the game too because it is really well made as well.

It was not long before Dragon Age II released that I played through Dragon Age: Origins and the Awakenings DLC. I’m glad that I essentially played them back to back because the little things that carry over from the first game to the second were more noticeable.  All the reference to things I did in DA:O would have been long forgotten if I had played it when it first released.  With them fresh in mind though it Dragon Age II’s story a lot better.  Which is good because compared the the Origins’ story the story in DA2 is not as good.  It is not that I did not enjoy it, I did, but DA:O has a truly epic story and DA2 is just a pretty good story. Don’t let that scare you off playing it though because the game is still a blast.

Even with the overall story being less grand the moment to moment quests were great.   Some of them were really funny and the dialog between characters in my party was even better.  I would find myself just walking around Kirkwall listening to my teammates pick on each other.  And, even after 30 hours I don’t recall hearing them say the same thing twice.  As the story progressed and their friendships and rivalries grew the corresponding dialog adjusts as well.  Listening to Isabela pick on Aveline at the beginning and then slowly become more friendly to her while Aveline slowly let her insults bother her less was amazing.  The characters grew with the story in a way I’ve never experienced before in a game.

The graphics and animations were noticeably better in Dragon Age II.  It is not a huge jump but still one that was nice to see.  I also liked the new skill tree setup.  Grouping the skills into categories made it a lot easier to have different characters who focused on one or two areas of expertise. However, I did not really like that they took away the option to change your party’s armor.  You can still give them new weapons and accessories, but only your own character can change armor.  The rest of your part just gets armor upgrades you find or buy.  This puts more of the focus on the combat and quests, but since my Mage could not sue any of the Rouge or Warrior equipment it was a shame that I could not pass it on to my party.

The combat is more streamlined in DA2.  In DA:O you pretty much spend each fight pausing combat, assigning everyone their next attack, start up the fighting and then pause and repeat. In DA2 I only ever had to pause the combat if I needed to give someone a health potion or later in the game to access some of the additional spells I unlocked after I filled up my main 6 spell slots. The rest of my party did a good job using their abilities and spells appropriately which let me just focus on my spell casting.  It was fun to just watch all the combat unfold instead of pause, attack once and repeat.

Overall, I highly recommend playing Dragon Age II.  It is a great game and one that should not be missed.  Personally, I’m thinking it is about time I play through again with a Rouge character…unless some DLC gets announced in the next few days.

I’ve been playing Full House Poker for almost two weeks now and I’m thoroughly hooked. I was able to get a review copy for XBLA Ratings (full review here) and I was not really expecting much from a poker game. I was pleasantly surprised with how much fun the Texas Heat game show portion is.  It plays really quick since it only lasts 30 minutes, but since playing well gets you better rewards people actually play mostly like it was for real money.  The leveling mechanic is pretty nicely done too since you get XP for playing you can tell how much a person plays more than how good they are based off their level. I do have some tips for leveling up quicker for those wanting to get ranked up higher. I’m looking forward to playing a lot more with my friends and taking all their chips.

Homefront released this week. Actually, 2 days ago. I’ve already finished the campaign. No, I did not spend all night playing either.  It was something like 5 hours long and that was with a lot of dying on a few missions.  That is pretty short.  I would not mind the length really if it was not for the fact the story was one of the big selling points of the game.  It was written by the guy behind Red Dawn so I was expecting something a bit longer.  Still, the story is the one good thing about the campaign, and even it was not told that well.   Between missions there are cut scenes telling what happened next because of the actions of the characters who the who the story follows, but right in the middle of the scene a giant “Press A to Skip” button comes up. So much for being immersed in the story.  Gamers are smart. We know how to skip a cut scene.  If you really need to tell us how to skip a cut scene then put it in the corner out of the way and make it small.

Even without the giant cut scene skip info the campaign is hard to get immersed in. The graphics are nothing special and the controls are pretty standard. Unfortunately the shooting is not very good. The guns require you to be extremely accurate to hit enemies.  This would be fine for sniping but when I’m using an assault rifle from 10 feet away I should not need to hit the middle of someone’s chest or head with half a clip to down them. Especially when the enemies are able to kill me with just a couple bullets.  I would not mind the low health or high damage per bullet if it was done evenly.

Even just walking around feels off.  You move slowly like you are walking through molasses and sprinting feels like a slow jog. They give you a large section of cities and suburbs to play in but don’t bother trying to flank enemies unless your team mates tell you to.  The game blocks off every where it does not want you to go with fences and broken cars so that you have to go down the very linear path they want you to.  It is really frustrating to have a while wide area out around you and not be able to use any of it tactically.  Some areas seem like you should be able to access them by jumping a low fence or crawling through a broken wall but the game has invisible walls in place to make sure you do not.  This is doubly frustrating because the objective markers are often not very clear.  When the objective is not currently visible you pretty much have no way of knowing which way to go other than to just wait for your team to eventually advance and follow them.  Try going off ahead of them to get a head start and most likely you will find yourself waiting for them to open a door or move an obstacle.  That is assuming you can even figure out the right path to take.

The AI is pretty weak throughout the campaign for both the enemies and your group or rebels. Everyone pretty much just stands in place and keeps shooting until their clip is empty and then goes into cover to reload.  Even though everyone else in the game can use cover there is no cover mechanic for the actual player.  You can crouch and go prone, but no using cover other than just getting behind it.  And, you better get behind it because the enemies pretty much shoot at you and only you.  Either that or your friends are bullet proof.

All of these frustrations and faults are really a shame because there are some awesome settings and set pieces throughout the campaign that could have been truly epic if the game just did not suck so much.  I did have a good time controlling the Goliath during those sequences. Of course shooting dozens of enemies with homing rockets fun in pretty much any game.  The only other times I really had fun was when I was sniping.  There are a few sections where you get to just sit back and pick off enemies with a sniper rifle and those were nice.

I have not played any multiplayer yet, but unless it is something really remarkable I would recommend skipping Homefront.  I guess if you wanted a few each achievements you could rent it and play through the campaign on a day or two, but I would say avoid Homefront if you were at all hoping for a good campaign.

I have almost caught up on my gaming backlog form last year and I wanted to splay something different. I enjoyed the demo when I played it at E3 last year so I decided to rent Vanquish. I’m glad I rented it for a could reasons.  First, it was really fun and different from most of the shooters I play.  Also though it was short.  I completed the campaign in under 6 hours. Each mission is broken into 10 or 15 minute segments that make it easy to play for a little while and then come back later.  The game is non-stop action for the whole campaign though. You are pretty much always surrounded by tons of enemies.

The combat is fun because you can sit back in cover and snipe if you want or you can use jets in your suit to charge right up to an enemy and melee them.  There are a nice mix of weapons as well.  There are the standard assault rifle, machine gun, shotty, sniper and rocket launcher but there us also a lock-on laser and energy gun.  Both of these are a blast to use as the can decimate a ton of small enemies at once. You get a constant stream weapons to pick up so you never really run low on ammo and can swap out guns regularly to try them all out.

The graphics and animations look great in Vanquish.  I would slide around and melee guys just to see the different attacks that each weapon did. It was good all the other parts of the game were fun because the story was ridiculous.  I never did figure out what was going on or why I was fighting but I did not really care.  It was fun to use all weapons and suit’s slide to take out as many enemies as fast as I could.

Vanquish is one of those game that makes for a great weekend rental. It is fun, fast, nice to look at and short.

I finally got around to playing Dragon Age: Origins and the Awaking expansion over the last few weeks.  Frankly, by now everyone should have heard that it is an awesome game.  What made it so enjoyable for me was the story.  Sure, killing lots of enemies as my Human Mage was fun, but really what I liked was that my choices in the story carried weight through the rest of the game. Characters I chose to help came back later for better or worse. The dialog was funny at points and I could get the info I needed either through fear or gentle persuasion. The lack of any kind of good/evil meter was a nice change from other RPGs I’ve played recently.  If one character was annoying I could be rude to them without having to worry about the rest of the game being labeled as a “bad” guy.

I thoroughly enjoyed both the main Origins game as well as the Awaking expansion, but there was one frustration for me in there.  Towards the end of Awaking  one of my side-quests glitched and would not let me complete it.  Because of this I could not save everyone at the end of the game and had to choose between a couple different options on what to do.  Ultimately it did not end up being that hard of a choice, but I was annoyed that a bug in the game forced it on me when I had worked to complete the challenges leading up to it.

Still, if you have not played Dragon Age you really should check it out.  The Ultimate Edition is out now with all the DLC and since you can carry over your story arc into Dragon Age II (which comes out next week) there is good reason to play it before starting the sequel.

I enjoyed the previous Lego Star Wars games as well as Lego Batman and Indian Jones so I figured the new Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars demo should be pretty fun. Either I’ve gotten dumber or the puzzles are less obvious this time around.  More than once I had to walk around looking for the next thing I needed to do. I don’t remember ever having that issue before.  I found it a little annoying since I was just wanting to run around and break everything while playing through a new Lego game.  The second level in the demo I found this especially true since you;re flying most of the time and you have to keep jumping between areas to get missiles for your ship.  I’ll probably still rent it when it release to play through it once, but I’m not sure I’ll want to get all 100% like I did in the past games.  Guess we’ll have to wait and see how it goes after release.

I picked up Stacking when it release last week and have been having a good time with the mix of adventure and puzzle genres. The actual story can be finished in about 5 hours without too much trouble, but going back and finding every solution for each challenge is taking much longer.  So far no cheating and using a guide though. I’m hoping to get 100% of everything complete without any help. We’ll see if that happens. I’ve got a full review on XBLA Ratings but really you should just check out the demo for yourself.  I know a lot of folks are waiting to get it on sale sometime, and I can’t really blame anyone since $15 is a bit steep for a game you can complete so quickly.   I think I like Double Fine’s Costume Quest a little more that Stacking, but both are great and have me looking forward to whatever they do next.