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 »

Falling Away With You

Wouldn’t you say it is rather ironic that while I was writing my Summer wrap-ups last week it was feeling like Autumn and as I write my Autumn preview this week it has felt like Summer? I guess that’s how we roll here in New England.

Has the wacky weather been a contributing factor in the huge downturn in readers over the past few weeks here at OB1og as well? Certainly can’t be because I haven’t been posting like Ed or Jason. Of course, Ed isn’t posting for a good reason and then there is Jason not posting for a secret reason.

Is there something going around? No writing and no reading? Certainly no commenting on any of the three sites! I don’t know about BBn, but The Ed Zone’s daily traffic has been halved — still plenty of search hits for Lost and the local news ladies and weather girls — and that is still more than I get in half a week lately.

Well, whatever the reason, I am getting psyched up for Fall so whether or not you read my posts or check out my Flickr photos, I will keep putting content up. Of course, if I drop more pop culture refs or local news lady names like Ed, I’ll get more hits an... Continue reading »

Wii 4 Mii 2

After reading an e-mail from Ed last week on his decision to trade in his 360 and purchase Nintendo’s forthcoming Wii — pronounced “We” — system, I wanted to liken it to trading in your manhood for another kick at boyhood.

Which is actually not a bad first impression. When you think about it, what’s wrong with that? Who doesn’t want to relive portions of their childhood in some way or fashion these days as we push ever closer to 40 (it’s the new 30 don’t you know)?

I then gave it further thought (about 10 seconds) and decided I definitely had no issue with the decision. He made a careful, well thought out case in the e-mail and has posted something similar over on The Ed Zone. Of course, I may be willing to cut him more slack for this than I would, say… Mookie. I mean, if Mook concocted this same plan first, I would instead be questioning his manhood.

Don’t you worry though, that day is surely coming now that he has likely realized by now that his shiny new 360 has one single game — Kameo: Elements of Power — that targets his gaming tastes and that there are likely few games l... Continue reading »

Call of Duty 2

So, now that I am caught up with my movie *reviews* I can catch up on my Xbox 360 game *reviews.* Again, these aren’t reviews in the usual sense of the thing, they are just my observations or thoughts on the game. I guess you can still argue that makes for a review, but whatever.

You may remember that getting my Xbox 360 setup and running normally was a chore. It still isn’t quite right, but I can play games and Call of Duty 2 (CoD2) was the first one I finished. I played thru the campaign on the Hard (or Hardened) setting, which is the 3rd highest or just below Veteran (I did not play on Xbox Live at all). I did this on the advice of Ed who started his campaign on Veteran but found it impossible to finish the end of the Russian part of the campaign, which comprises the first three missions of the game.

The game was broken up into three sub-campaigns (if you will) where you play as a Russian, British or American soldier. Out of the three, I found the Russian campaign to be the most enjoyable of all of them. Probably just for the landscapes filled with snow. The Russian weapons were also pretty good overall, especially their sub-machine gun. That last are... Continue reading »

Mission:Impossible III

A few things come to mind as I start to write this one:

1. I am going backwards with my reviews, but I figured for completeness sake, I’d do it that way since the other one I am going to write about is V for Vendetta.
2. Ed is starting to get me in the habit of posting pictures with my posts. I hate the two posters out there because one has too much Tom Cruise and the other has his name too big, plus it’s just a wee bit ugly. However, I decided I needed a picture! Found this one that someone did up as a wallpaper. Works better.
3. I need to come up with some kind of format for my reviews, observations, thoughts or whatever I want to call them. Maybe I ought to tell you how I felt about it right up front and then get to the meat because I am always going to have spoilers. I’m not here to write up some fancy review that is going to dance around plot details in an effort to tell you what I think without telling you exactly why I think it. This is why I don’t read real film reviews. Of course, I’m not stupid enough to believe you would or would not actually go see or rent or buy a film based on what I think or feel about it eithe... Continue reading »