I decided for one of the first games I play on my new Wii I should trust a name that I know. Since Stephen Spielburg is pretty much a household game I decided I’d try Boom Blox. Boom Blox is essentially a series of puzzle games that involve. There are at least 8 or 9 different types of puzzle games included with each one having multiple variations. There is both a single player porting and a multiplayer portion to the game. The single player is basically just working through each type of puzzle with increasing difficulties to unlock the next set of puzzles. I’m having fun with the single player, but not as much fun as I’m having with the multiplayer.

The mutiplayer has both a competitive and a cooperative section. The competitive section puts you against 1 to 3 of your friends to see who can do the best solving the puzzles and in some cases attacking each others puzzles. The vs matches are mostly just play until someone wins and then pick a new one type rounds. The cooperative game types are laid out similar to the single player where beating easier puzzles unlocks the harder ones. My wife and I have been playing almost every night for over a week now on the co-op puzzles and we’ve been having a lot of fun. Some of the co-op puzzles you take turns on and other you have to work at the same time to finish puzzles as quick as possible.

Overall I’d highly recommend checking out Boom Blox. You may want to rent it because once you complete all the puzzles I don’t see a ton of replay value in the vs modes, but it is still well worth playing through once.

I’ve been playing Too Human for a few weeks now and I’m still really enjoying myself. It is a bit of a grind to get the higher level equipments, but I don’t mind because there is always a ton enemies that need killed. I can see why some people find it frustrating because of the camera and slow in-game menus, but I can ignore these because the actual game play is fun. Sure, better camera position (especially indoors) would be nice, but I don’t find it as big a deal as some people.

The game is based around combat, lots of combat, and that part is where the game excels. The combat controls are simple, but using them to make huge combos takes a lot of skill and practice. At first I had a lot of trouble with getting combos, but after a couple hours I really started to get the hang of it. Now, 24 hours of game time later, I can get combos over 100 if they send enough enemies my way.

The single player game is fun, but the co-op is even better. The co-op has more enemies and the enemies are more varied, but it also gives you better loot when you kill the enemies. Having finished the main story line ones I play the co-op pretty much all the time now even if I’m playing by myself.

The character creation process is really easy and you have 5 classes to choose from. I wish there was a little more variation in the skills between classes, but they are different enough that you can’t play exactly the same with all the classes and still survive. You really do need to focus on that classes strengths.

The achievements are a nice mix of difficulty. Some of them will take 30 or more hours of play time to get while others you can get very quickly. I’ve got about 40 of the 50 and I’m looking forward to getting the last 10.

If you like dungeon crawler games, and looking for better weapons and armor all the time this is a game for you. Personally I’m loving it and I think a lot of people would if they just give it a chance.

So a friend of mine recommended I try Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy for the Wii. So, I added it to my GameFly queue and I got it yesterday. I decided to check it out today at lunch. To put it simply it sucks. I like the idea of the game. You shoot down enemy planes and then you can attach their weapons to your plane for more fire power. I realize that Wii games will not look as great as stuff on the 360, but the graphics look like they were made for the original NES. Ignoring the graphics the game was just not fun to play. The controls are easy enough, but they make it virtually impossible to get through sections without dying. After 30 minutes I gave up and sent it back to GameFly.

I played some Big Beach Games on the Wii the last couple days. It is pretty fun. My wife likes the Frisbee Gold and Boccie Ball. I’m liking pretty much all of the games in it. Those two just have the easiest controls which is why she likes them I think.

We also got Wii Fit. I’m pretty happy since my Fit Age is 26 and I turn 30 next month. Still, it has some fun games. I’m more looking forward to what other games get released for the balance board.

I also tried out the Pure demo in Xbox Live Marketplace today. It is the first racing game since Full Auto that I think I can definitely win some races in. I really like the simple arcadey controls and how doing tricks fills up your special/turbo meter. It is nice that you can either pull bigger tricks or use the boost to go faster with the same meter.

Finally, I checked out this weeks Xbox Live Arcade games. Shred Nebula is not my kind of game. I don’t like how you control the ship. I just can’t get use to it. Pirates vs Ninjas Dodgeball was not that great either. From what I understand the full version has some other game modes that are suppose to be better, but the one int he trial stunk.

Over all a fun day playing so far. I’m headed off to try some more stuff in Wii Fit and probably some Too Human.

Well, I picked up a Wii today. The wife and I have been playing it all day and now her arms are tired. 🙂

Not much else to report yet, but WiiPlay and WiiSport are pretty fun.

I started playing Too Human last weekend and while I’m enjoying the Single Player the Co-op is what makes this game so great. The co-op mode with a friend is the most fun I’ve had playing my 360 in months. And, I’ve been having fun playing other games. The demo really doesn’t do this game justice since there is no co-op in the demo. Playing single player requires you to go slower and take care not to get killed. In co-op you have a lot of options on strategies you can use together to work through enemies faster.

Also, I found while playing co-op there area of of little things about the game that can easily be missed if you don’t carefully read the whole manual. Even then there are things that are not explained very well. So, here are a few tips and tricks that I’ve picked up over the last few days:

– When you’re using a ballistic weapon (pistols, rifle, or cannon) you can target missiles/bombs in the air by double-tapping the right stick in any direction. After you shoot down the first inbound missile you can keep shooting and double-tap the right thumb stick again and it will target the next item in the air. So, in later levels, where you can shoot for quite a while without reloading, you can shoot down a lot of missiles in a row without stopping. Unlike targeting enemies on the ground you do not need to stop shooting to switch airborne targets.

– The game does a terrible job explaining how to use/activate Charms. You need to equip the Charm to activate the quest (that is the line that says something like kill 100 enemies) and then you also need to hit x and fill in all of the rune slots on the charm. Once both of these things are done the Charm is activated and the effects will being to happen.

– The Trolls do not stop trying to lean when you are in their back. After you knock off their shoulder armor roll behind them and it will show an ‘A’ button in the upper right corner. Hit A and then when they lean you lean the opposite way. They will then lean the other way. Push the opposite way again and once they are pretty much standing strait push up on the right stick and smack it in the head to kill them.

– Don’t forget to use your battle cries, spiders, and ruiners. I find that depending on the class I’m playing as Itend to use one or two, but not all three. When I would remember to use them all it makes killing the enemies a lot easier.

Anyone else checked out GamerDNA.com. I finally spent a little time over there and it is really cool. You give info about how you like to play and they give you back games and players that fit your style.

Here are a few of the results for me after I took their quizzes:

I rented Civilization Revolution from GameFly and I’m completely addicted to it. I’ve not played a Civ game in years, but I had forgotten how long the matches are. Some of the rounds I’ve played on the harder difficulties have taken 3 or 4 hours depending on what type of victory I’m going for. The only issue I have with CivRev is that I tend to loose track of time while playing. I guess that is not the games fault, but my own. I’ll get to the point where I should save and go do something else, but instead I just keep telling myself “just one more turn.”

Since Civilization Revolution is on the console and not the PC they have taken out a lot of the micro-managing from previous games. Personally I like it this way. Makes they game a little less taxing, but in easier difficulty settings you’re pretty much going to dominate.

Civilization Revolution has some pretty fun graphics, but the music gets a little tiring. Personally, I tend to ignore it, but if I notice it after a couple hours I turn on the radio.
There is a really fun set of achievements ranging from pretty easy to really difficult. They will take quite a while because you have to win at least once match with each race and for each victory type.

If you;ve not tried the CivRev demo yet I would definitely recommend trying it out, but be warned that you’ll loosehours of your live playing.

To celebrate the launch of XBLA Ratings I’m giving away 1600 Marketplace Points and a 1 Month Xbox Live Subscription Card. If you’re interested in them check out the details here.

Well, I’ve been working on a side project I thought I’d share withe everyone. It is not done yet, but it is getting there.

XBLA Ratings

I found myself frustrated a while back with the lack of Xbox Live Arcade reviews that talk about if the game is fun or not. To me XBLA games are not about the graphics, sound quality, achievements, etc. Yes, those things factor in, but really I just want to know if I spend $5 of $10 on a game if it will be fun. If it worth the cost of a movie ticket or a lunch out? So, since I could not find any sites that rate Arcade titles by how fun they are I figured I’d make one.

Like I said it is not done yet, but it is getting there. Feel free to post a quick rating of your favorite (or least favorite) games and let everyone else know how fun they are.