Since I can’t actually play Borderlands right now I wrote up my review of the new DLC, The Zombie Island of Dr Ned, on my lunch break.  I’ve played through Zombie Island almost two complete times since it released last Tuesday, and I’ve really enjoyed it.  The second time was on Playthrough 2 so it was much more challenging, but also more fun.

You can find me review here.

If you are not familiar with The Zombie Island of Dr Ned here is the trailer Gearbox released.

I know things have been quiet around here.  I’ve been playing more Borderlands mostly, but I also started Assassins Creed 2. Plus, I played through the Torchlight demo again. Lots of gaming over the long weekend and not a lot of blogging. I’ll try to update more next week.

Since Borderlands (my review) got its first DLC last Tuesday I’ve played through the new sections almost two complete times. I should have time tomorrow to put in a full review, but considering it is roughly 6 hours of game play per play though you can guess that I’m enjoying it.

I never played  the first Assassins Creed because I hear it got really repetitive. I decided to check out Assassins Creed 2 when all the early previews said those issues from the first were resolved. I’m pretty early in the game still, but so far I like it.  It is going to be a huge time sink for me (not that I mind) because there are tons of optional missions but I’m a completionist and I want to do them all.  I’m going to hold off on a full review until I’m much further into the game.

I also played through the Torchlight demo again (initial impressions) as an Alchemist to try some of the other spells he has available. I’m plan to buy Torchlight in a couple weeks and play it over the holidays when I’ve got larger chunks of free time.  Until then I might jump into the demo a time or two just to goof around when I have nothing else to do on my lunch break.

I don’t generally send Christmas cards, but I may start this year because Valve has some really fun Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, and Left 4 Dead 2 holiday cards. The only thing holding me back is that a box of 10 is $16. Seems a little steep to me but then I don’t have any idea how much a box of Christmas cards normally costs. They are on the Steam store (TF2, L4D, & L4D2).

Team Fortress 2 Holiday Cards

Left 4 Dead Holiday Cards

Left 4 Dead 2 Holiday Cards

I’ve been following Dark Void for since I first heard about it because I’m a fan of SciFi games and shooters. So, combining those two things and adding a vertical element with a jet jack sounds pretty interesting. Obviously things like how the game controls and AI will be important in a shooter where you have to defend not only form enemies on the ground but ones above or below you. Capcom released this Dark Voids: The Watchers trailer today.

Capcom has the release date as January 19th, 2010. Here is their press released info about Dark Voids and the original trailer. Sounds pretty fun to me but I’m interested in what everyone else thinks on this one.

Dark Void is a sci-fi action-adventure game that combines an adrenaline-fuelled blend of aerial and ground-pounding combat. Set in a parallel universe called “The Void,” players take on the role of Will, a pilot dropped into incredible circumstances within the mysterious Void. This unlikely hero soon finds himself swept into a desperate struggle for survival, joining forces with a rebel human group called The Survivors. Trapped in the Void, these resistance fighters are battling to hold off a mysterious alien race that plans to threaten Earth.

Dark Void’s unique combination of jetpack-booster aerial dog fighting and third-person combat creates a thrilling new gameplay dynamic to the third-person shooter experience. Taking 3D action to a whole new level, Dark Void’s unique vertical combat system allows players to dangle from thousand foot drops as they take cover and hurl enemies to their doom, bringing a whole new sense of tension and thrill to the player. Will is also equipped with a powerful rocket pack which allows for fierce in-air combat, hurtling through the Void at blistering speeds while shooting down anything that gets in his path.

Features
• Sci-Fi action/adventure combines aerial and on-foot combat for a totally unique third-person shooter experience
• Will’s jetpack delives total freedom of movement allowing players to race against UFOs in high-speed chases and rain death from above onto unsuspecting otherworldly foes
• Speed and scale unmatched by any other action title: send Will zipping through tight corridors and then out into immense canyons and futuristic geoscapes
• Gravity-defying vertical combat system, where moving up is the only way to bring your enemies down
• Seemless transition between jetpack flight, ship-to-ship dog fighting and third-person shoot-‘em-up action all exists within the same level – not broken up into different “areas”
• Unique grip system that allows the players to scale walls by jumping from surface to surface and hijack UFO’s while in mid-air
• Huge bosses that require fast reflexes and aerial barnstorming manoeuvres to defeat
• Developed by Airtight Studios, a new group featuring team members from the Crimson Skies series of video games

Microsoft publicly released a beta for Microsoft Office 2010 Professional yesterday. Normally I’m not a fan of beta testing another company’s software for them,but since the Windows 7 Release Candidate runs so nicely on my home system I decided to give it a shot. I mostly use Office for Outlook, Word, Excel, and the occasionally Visio Viewer.  So, those are the only components I installed.  Word and Excel both are pretty similar to their version from Office 2007, but with little tweaks. Maybe I’m missing it but I’m not seeing anything major that is different.  I’ve used both for some work today and they functioned fine and I did not have any trouble finding the tools I need.  Outlook has a few more changes than the other components, but so far I’m liking updates.  A lot of the ones I’ve tries seem like they can save time in doing common tasks.  However, the one things that really surprised me is that Outlook seems to be running a bit faster than the older version.  Outlook tends to be a resource hog because I have a large amount of emails that I don’t archive. The first time Outlook started it took a few minutes because it was going through its first start-up steps, but every time since then it seems quite snappy.

So far I’ve not had any issues with any of the Office Products and I’m curious to try it out with Microsoft’s Office Live Workplaces.  Should be a nice way to have commonly used documents available from any of my systems.

If you’re interested in trying Office 2010 you can get it here. Just keep in mind that it is Beta software and could crash at any time.

When Wool released on Xbox Live Indie Games this week I tried out the demo right away because the art looks really nice and I like action puzzle games.  In the game you play as a sheep dog who is responsible for corralling the sheep in the level safely.  There are white sheep, black sheep and some obstacles like water to take into consideration.  The goal is to herd a set number of sheep as quickly as possible to get the highest score.  To do this you can bark, walk or sprint. Each of these will get the sheep to move in different ways. Wool game has single player as well as 4 player local co-op and verses matches.

After playing through the demo, twice, I remembered a game called FLOCK! that released last April on Xbox Live Arcade. It is a similar style of game but where you play as an alien trying to abduct the farm animals. At the time I was really disappointed with FLOCK! because, while it has great graphics, the controls are very sloppy and loose.

Wool’s controls are smooth and work great, and while it is a similar game play concept, I find it to be a much better game. FLOCK! has two player co-op but no verses modes.  Really, there are only a few thing that FLOCK! has over Wool. First, is that it has 50 levels and Wool has 30.  Second, Wool does not have any achievements being an Indie Game.  Finally, Wool does not support co-op or verses over Xbox Live.

Yet, Flock costs $15 and Wool is just $1. Even ignoring that price difference I think Wool is a better game.  I have so much more fun playing it, and while achievements and Live co-op would be nice it is hard to fault them for that when you’re only paying a dollar.

I’m including trailers for both games below so you can see them in action.

Wool Trailer

FLOCK! Trailer

I got early access to the Bayonetta demo for the Xbox 360 today. I’m not really a fan of this style of combo driven fighting game (think Devil May Cry – which was not really my thing), but I can’t turn down the chance to try a game early.  I started the Bayonetta: First Climax demo and the first few minutes really impressed me.  Graphically the game looks really sweet and the game start with a very deep tutorial that lets you try all the different combos you want before getting into the game. It even has a whole list of the combos available off to the right that dynamically updates as you start attacking.  After spending like 5 minutes trying out various combos and getting a feel for the controls I started into the rest of the demo.

I chose to play it on the Normal difficulty at first since it was the default setting.  After about 2 minutes I was dead and looking at the continue screen.  Not being use to this type of game I am having a lot of trouble recognizing when I need to dodge and when it is safe to attack. Plus the initial camera angle is back and pretty wide so there is a lot going on across the screen to try and keep track of. So, I decided not to continue and to drop down to the Easy setting.  When I did I noticed there was a Very Easy difficulty there that is not available in the demo. Once I was on the Easy setting I had no trouble playing through the rest of the demo without dying, and mostly without even taking damage.

The demo is about 15 minutes long, on Easy, has a few different level types in it. I never did figure out how to actually do any of the combos that I practiced in the tutorial consistently.  The enemies were dying so quickly I just had to mash the attach and kick buttons to clear each section.  The moves are actually really fun watch because you play as this lady who has a gun in each and and then one on each boot. So, after punching or hitting an enemy you can end any combo by holding down the button and it will automatically wrap it up by shooting. As you progress through you also can pick up some giant weapons that defeated enemies drop. I personally liked the giant ax that swung very slowly but took out everyone in one wide arcing hit.

After playing through the demo and watching the included cut scenes and videos I still have no idea what the plot of the story is about. Although I’m not sure this is really the kind of game you play for the story. As great looking as the demo is I don’t play to play the full game.  It is not just not a genre I’m interested in, but if you like this style of game I am curious what you think of the Bayonetta demo.

I’ve been playing Borderlands 2 or 3 nights a week with a group of guys and really enjoying it.  I think we’re about 2/3 of the way through the story currently but I’m not 10o% sure on that.  I’ve been writing my review of Borderlands for a few days now and I finally got it put together.

Here is my review:  Borderlands – The Best Co-op Game of 2009

I realized yesterday that I had 55,542 Gamerscore points so I needed just 13 more to hit hit an even 55,555. I can’t remember the last time I had a Gamerscore ending a “5” or “0”. However, after a little discussion on Twitter I had a couple people point out that The Orange Box has a 13 point achievement.  Since I have The Orange Box, and I never got around to getting all 99 of the achievements for it, I checked and I did not have the Vorticough achievement that is worth 13 points.

So, a little exploring and about an hour later I picked up this:

Vorticough
Discover the hidden singing vortigaunt cave in chapter Water Hazard.

And now I have a nice round Gamerscore of 55,555.

I’m sure it will not last long but it is fun to see right now.

I finally finished off the campaign on Sol Survivor this afternoon.  I was late to the Community Gaming Session so I decided I would try to complete the last level (again).  Fortunately, after trying it a few times I found a strategy that worked well and completed all 30 waves without loosing a single life. Next I’ll probably play through again on hard.  If anyone is interested in playing any co-op or verses matches feel free to hit me up. If you curious about Sol Survivor I would high recommend trying the demo or check out my full review.