Year in consumables: 2006 games

Promises, promises…

You know, I said I’d have this posted by March first, but things got out of hand at work this week due to Daylight Savings Time. You know about that, right? Well, work got in the way of proper sleep, television viewing — ‘cept Lost and Heroes — and blogging.

So, I won’t bore you with the details of that, but instead bore you with the third and final installment of my 2006 Year in Consumables series. You can read the music and movie posts in the archives.

By my count, I have rocked se7en games on the 360 this year. Okay, it was really ten, but demos of Contra and the tarted up Pac-Man from the XBL Arcade and Hexic HD do not count. I even wrote some reviews — really more like impressions I guess — of four of them. The knowledge that this post would be pending, and general laziness, had me waiting on the other three.

Anyway, I’m going to go ahead and dispense with picking a top five and just rank what I done played:

1. Gears of War
2. Splinter Cell: Double Agent
3. Tomb Raider: Legend
4. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
5. Kameo: Elements of Power <... Continue reading »

Kameo: Elements of Power

As Ed noted earlier this evening after his post within a comment on my Perfect Dark Zero review, Mook is now in the Xbox 360 fold. Well, if there was a game made for him — besides Katamari Damacy of course — then this one is it.

Kameo: Elements of Power is actually the game I have enjoyed the most to date. So, the indictment of Mook may also be one of myself. D’oh! Well, at least this game is about a cute little elf girl instead of a King and his package.

Kameo is an adventure game where you must travel throughout your kingdom in the middle of an Elf (and other odds races) v. Troll war where the Trolls are trying to take over your kingdom after having served the man for so long. Really, what’s wrong with that anyway? The Elves and others live all high and mighty in their floating kingdom while the Trolls suffer as laborers and such. Well, Kameo’s sister sells her out and sides with the Trolls and that’s where the adventure begins.

The basic premise is as you travel throughout the kingdom you rescue different members of your family along with Elemental creatures you can transform into to help you succeed further in the quest. Th... Continue reading »

Perfect Dark Zero

When the first wave of Xbox 360 games, the launch titles, were announced, it was pretty much assumed that this game was going to be the 360’s Halo. The game was hyped up as the one that would sell the system and I remember Microsoft used this game as their feature in that overhyped and ultimately empty MTV special that aired just before the 2005 E3.

I haven’t played any of the previous games in the Perfect Dark series, so I can’t base this *review* of Perfect Dark Zero (PDZ) on anything other than this game. I suppose in terms of gameplay, I can compare it to Halo somewhat, so here goes…

I made it thru the training level and then the first level before I decided it wasn’t worth it. I say it wasn’t worth it not because of the game, but because the achievements just weren’t going to come. If you don’t know of what I speak, with the 360 generation of games Microsoft has added an achievements/gamer score feature. Each game should hand out 1000 points total and the developers/publishers have total control on how they are divied out. This feature is very similar to the system Bungie setup for Halo 2 where you scored points a... Continue reading »

No Perfect Circle

A circle is 360 degrees. The Xbox 360 has a ring of light. A ring is also a circle, unless it is a boxing ring. The Xbox 360 has made me want to hit things, so I guess that works too. A circle may be perfect, but so far my experience with the 360 has been anything but perfect.

I took delivery of the Xbox 360 almost a month ago and so ended a four month quest to obtain the sacred ivory gaming crack. I cataloged that adventure in a previous post titled A Tale of Two 360’s. That was only half the story. Okay, really it was like 2/3 of the story because it was so frickin long. Here’s the rest. Maybe…

So, if you remember, there was much excitement upon delivery. I went straight to Best Buy following Aria’s Christening apres-ski. I loaded up with Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (GRAW), Kameo: Elements of Power and Perfect Dark Zero (PDZ). I also grabbed an S-Video cable because my Wega doesn’t have RGB component inputs and, by virtue of connecting to a Wega, I am not yet rocking an HD set. On the recommendation of Ed, I also picked up the Play & Charge Kit. So, after trolling the HD section, I got the heck out of there before I made an impulse buy.

I got home, popped open the box, trashed my old Xbox and ... Continue reading »