Halo 3 Journal

This is the Big One. Worth: $50
based on Halo 3 retail: Sep. 2007 on 360

25 Sep: buy the game, blow through 8 missions in 6 hours.
26 Sep: finish the last two missions in two hours. Explore multiplayer maps, try out the Forge and Saved Films.
27 Sep: explore MP maps w/ the GamerGal. Discover the true meaning of "getting hammered".

Everything I'm reading about this game goes on about the graphics, the sound, and the gameplay. This was all nailed in H2 and does not deserve further comment. Yes, there are lots of new toys, but they all do the same things as the old toys (except one).

Single-player Campaign (on Normal).
The campaign is a let-down. The unique story started in the previous games finishes without any twists or surprises. You can guess what happens. You'll be right. Strike One. It's also outrageously short. If you start at breakfast, you'll be done by dinner. Strike Two. The final scene is totally derivative and shapeless. Once you know what to do it'll take four minutes without any challenge. Strike Three.

What Bungie has done is they've left the door open for other developers to move to the front of the line. For example, I liked the Gears of War campaign better than the Halo 3 campaign. It was just more interesting, even though there's practically no vehicles. Gears2 has a chance to be the greatest FPS campaign ever, if only because Bungie dropped the ball. Mercenaries 2 is another contender.

The user reviews I'm reading are mixed, with many people expressing disappointment. The users that love the game all have terrible spelling or type L1k3 hAck3r5. Meaning, they're the jackasses who taunt, curse, and generally ruin the online experience for those of us with some manners.

UPDATE October 22:
Single-Player (on Hard)
Much better on Hard. The sense of accomplishment returns, as well as the need to use some of the goodies. You can't just cruise through the game with the Assault Rifle. Certain baddies are more or less vulnerable to certain weapons, and this difficulty level forces you to figure it out. This makes the game feel deeper and more worthwhile simply because it takes longer. I got killed a lot more, but the game resets you quickly back at the checkpoint. Some of the checkpoints are pretty far apart, leading to that frustrating "I just did this" feeling, but hey, nothing's perfect.

I didn't use much of the Equipment, simply because I can't figure it out, the icons are meaningless. I have to drop and re-pick-up things to figure out what are. Why not just write the goddamn name for me? The portable cover was handy, but the other stuff seems totally superfluous. The Turrets are useless, and the Bubble Shields just make the baddies bum-rush inside and beat the crap out of me. For Power Drain, Flare, Regenerate, and the rest: by the time I remember to use them I've either: (a) won or (b) died.

Co-Op.
Totally awesome. Opens up a lot of tactical opportunities and lets you play a lot more recklessly. This is the game of choice when I have Arth or Angus over to visit.

Multiplayer.
So far I've just toured the maps to get my bearings. I've found:

Gorgeous, easy-to-grok maps. Forge games could be an entire new class of MP gaming. The save films are incredible. The Multiplayer side is obviously where 90% of Bungie's effort went. I guess it makes sense, because I've read that a lot of hard-core H2 MP players never did the single-player campaign at all! Bungie, of course, knows this and has put their effort into what will make the masses happy. Sometimes it sucks to not be part of the masses.

Multiplayer is where the one truly new toy comes into play: the Big Hammer. I got my ass kicked by the GamerGal when she was wielding this monster. She's _never_ played Halo, but she was whompin' my sorry butt from here to Calcutta. I see this weapon being a great leveler because anyone can be an ass-kicker with this sum'bitch. But, it could also be a huge turn-off because in the hands of a good player it will truly DOMINATE. All of us regular shitheads will have such a miserable experience that we'll just quit and go play MoH: Airborne or Stranglehold.

--- this post is being updated all this month ---

Marathon Durandal on 360

No wonder Halo is so comfy. Worth: $10
based on retail game, Xbox Live Arcade

Bloodthirsty aliens, devastated spaceships, self-aware AI constructs, and guns, lots of guns. Sound familiar? If it sounds like Halo it's because I'm describing Halo's ancestor, Marathon.

This game blew my mind when I played it back in the 90's. You could aim up! Or down! You got to use weird alien guns, and some awesome human ones like dual-wielded sawed-off double-barreled shotguns. If our guys at D-Day had these shotguns the war would have been over by lunchtime.

Plus, it had a cool sci-fi space story. Granted, it's pretty obtuse, but these were simpler times when you'd read reams of text to help you comprehend the video mayhem around you. You were also willing to deal with unbelievably complicated maps like this:


It came from the past.
But how does it play now? To mangle a Buddhist saying, "Reality is perceived, not experienced." It's a matter of how old you are. If you never knew a world without VCRs, you're too young and it'll look like crap to you. If you're a crotchety old windbag like me, however, you'll be able to appreciate the huge milestone this game represented back in the day. The graphics have not aged well, but I like them for sentimental reasons. The gameplay has aged _very_ well, and it translates to the 360 controller with sublime perfection.

And created our future.
The Gamer Gal has watched me play a lot of Halo. She was watching me play Marathon and noticed many similarities, including the collection of alien races, the profusion of gun choices, and the variety of settings. Some of the dialogue is taken verbatim ("They're everywhere!"). The Fusion Pistol is the Plasma Pistol, complete with charged-up-big-blast. There are heavily-armored aliens with shoulder-mounted cannons called Hunters. Your armor is Mjolnir armor, like the Master Chief's. The first Halo's control room is a giant Marathon logo. "Durandal" and "Cortana" are names of famous swords from the time of Charlemagne. Lots of things like this.

Some things were obviously old-school, prompting the following from the Gamer Gal, "Wow, when was the last time we saw lava in one of your games?"

The connections are clear.
By the time I finished this game, I was a huge fan all over again. It's a great warm-up for me as I await Halo 3. A caveat: it's wayyy hard. Play it on Easy unless you've got nothing to do until your Dominatrix comes back from the cleaners.

God of War 2

Fix one, break one. Worth: $10
based on retail game, Playstation 2

First, the bad: the developers managed to avoid repeating GoW1's ridiculously non-fun platformer sequences, but they replaced it with an equally non-fun button-puzzle system. For any major action (like ripping someone's eye out) the player must press a randomized four-button sequence while Kratos gets to do the fun part: ripping someone's eye out. If this were the same button sequence every time I would have loved it. It would have just been a combo for "rip eye out". Because it's different every time, I'm torn from the game experience and forced to concentrate on the buttons on my controller. I press the buttons and Kratos does the ripping. Who's idea was this? How did this get off the whiteboard without being kiboshed as the counter-immersive train-wreck that it is? Why don't I get to do the ripping? I get to do everything else (slashing, jumping, running) because the controls for this are always the same. If it weren't for the good things about this game, I'd give it a Zero.

Speaking of the good things: the story, art direction, general gameplay, and music are all among the best I've ever played. The first fight is beyond epic. I was totally cranked (until the fakachta button-puzzles started) to feel like I was part of an expansive, mythology-changing story. The platformer sequences were much better, much more in line with my expectations from an action game (this isn't Tomb Raider, people).

As with all story-driven action games, there's no point in playing it twice. I can barely recommend this game, but it is worth it for the story and the cathartic gore-fests. Rent it or buy it cheap, grab a walkthrough, fly through it, then move on to a better game.

UPDATE: Sep 13, 2007
I've talked to some friends and game store guys about this game. When I go off about the button-puzzles they just give me blank stares like, "Gee, I thought those were cool." I still think they totally bit, but I may be the only one. If you've played this game, let me know what I'm missing here. They just felt so artificial, like "Look, you're playing a video game" instead of "Look, you're ripping someone's eye out!"

Stuntman, Forza, MotoGP, Burnout, NASCAR

All with Skid-King Quadra-Bubble braking systems. Worth: $0
based on 360 demo, August 2007

Man, I hate these games. Let's do the same mission/race over and over. Let's never make it. Let's delete the demo from my hard drive right now.

Time for a driving game throw-down.

I've enjoyed lots of different racers/urban driving games. They all handled differently, naturally. But they at least handled like cars, not bars of soap on an ice rink. Stuntman, Forza, MotoGP, Burnout, and NASCAR don't have any sense of how cars handle or what makes for a fun experience. Definitely try a demo first because you will be disappointed. If gifted, I'd return it for a good driving game like Project Gotham Racing (whatever number), Colin McRae (whatever number), or Gran Turismo (whatever number).

Clearly, I could "put in the time" to get good at these games, but why? I'm already good at other driving games. Why do the developers feel they have to re-invent the wheel, as it were? Just use existing software. Off-the-shelf physics are already spot-on, and there would be more time to cook up an interesting experience.

Call Of Juarez

Yeah, that's why we invented automatics. Worth: $10
based on 360 demo, September 2007

It looks good and plays fair, but it's every FPS I've ever played except it's in the Old West. Dual-wielding the six-shooters looks cool, but I spent more time reloading than anything else. No wonder we invented better firearms.

The game felt very heavily scripted, so replay will be null. It also suffers from Random Character Fragility (RCF) where you can survive getting shot hundreds of times, but if you fall more than seven feet you're dead.

You had me at "Chainsaw"

GEARS OF WAR ONLINE CO-OP

Here's Wolf up front, brandishing his chainsaw. There's me in back, crapping my pants.

Wolf and I burst into the street, running for cover behind a burnt-out car. The Locusts open up with everything they've got including a "Troika" mounted heavy machine gun. Before I make it to cover, I get pumped full of lead and go down in a heap. Fortunately Wolf is right there to revive me by standing next to me and hitting "X". I'm alive again, but we're completely pinned down.

Wolf calls to me, "Help me push the car so we can get in close to that Troika!"

The two of us lean against the car and start shoving it down the street, bullets zinging overhead and pinging off the car. I had no idea you could move this car! Three regular Locust troopers shift position to try to get an angle on us.

While I'm pushing the car, I'm also blind-firing over the top of the vehicle, spraying bullets to keep the Locust soldiers ducking for cover. This helps reduce the amount of incoming fire. When we get close enough, I uncork a grenade, but it bounces off a pole and just explodes in the street. It's Wolf's turn. He makes a perfect throw: his grenade lands right in the gunner's position and blasts the shinola out of the sucka. Scratch one Troika.

New York minute: 2,000 bullets
The three remaining Locust soldiers vault over their cover, trying to get in close. Unfortunately for them, Wolf and I are locked and loaded. Between the two of us, we fire 120 bullets in three seconds. Both of us hit a perfect reload and are firing again one second later. This means that in seven seconds we fire 240 bullets (equiv. to a cyclic rate of over 2,000 bullets per minute!), and have taken down all three of the Locust coming at us.

"Nobody, I mean nobody, puts ketchup on a hot dog."

We get out from behind our car and move forward. Suddenly three more Locust troops run around a corner to ambush us. We duck behind a big concrete block. I shoot the head off one guy while Wolf riddles a second baddie. I'm reloading when I see Wolf leap over the concrete block and run straight at the last Locust trooper, revving his chainsaw to full speed. I leap over the block to follow because I know what's coming and I don't want to miss it. I'm only a few feet behind Wolf when he gets to the last Locust and literally saws the enemy in half from shoulder to crotch. Blood sprays _everywhere_ as the entire right side of the Locust's body comes off like a meat avalanche. I raise my arms and holler, "YEAH baby!"

Giving 'em the ol' Meat and Potatoes
Normally a mild-mannered office worker bee, Wolf has proven himself to be a ferociously effective fighter. As we progress through the game, we have him do all the specialty skill work (meaning he's Potatoes), while I run around distracting everyone (meaning I'm Meat). For example, we were trying to fight our way down a hallway when I saw a flanking path around the left side. I run around to the side and pop out on our enemy's flank. Before I can get to cover I almost get shot down. I duck behind cover just in time, blind-firing around the corner while my shields come back up. I'm not hitting anything, but my presence has unnerved the enemy soldiers such that they all break cover to try to get me, exposing themselves to Wolf's murderous barrage of grenades and bullets. I smugly watch them all get perforated and blasted to Kingdom Come, and then we move on.

The incompetent leading the unskilled.

CONFLICT GLOBAL TERROR: JUNGLE PRISON
Death and taxes, but we mostly get death.
Featuring: Angus as Foley and Gypsy 6 as Jones.

My name is Jones. I'm a demolition expert in a super-elite... soldier, thingy. My partner Foley and I are fighting our way out of a Spanish prison (or is it Brazilian?)

Attempt 1:
We're in a garage. Foley is upstairs scoring headshot after headshot while I cover the garage door. Enemies are trying to come in and get Foley, but they can't get past me. I pile up 5 or 6 baddies by the time Foley runs out of targets and comes downstairs. Now we must shoot our way across the prison compound. We're fighting a bunch of troops when we hear something. Something loud. Something clanking. It's a tank. Foley pokes his head around a corner to see where it is. His head never comes back. I crawl forward to heal him, and the tank runs me over, crushing me like a bug. Mission failed.

Shoulder-to-shoulder bullet-blasting action.

Attempt 2:
Repeat up to the tank. We clear out the tank's supporting troops and wait for the tank to go clanking past. It goes around the other side of a small building. Foley and I break cover. Foley runs into a nearby hut to grab some ammo while I set up an Anti-Tank mine. Foley comes running back to me, his arms full of grenades, guns, and ammo. I barely have time to say "Look out for the - " when he steps on the mine, blowing us both to kingdom come. Mission failed.

Attempt 3:
Repeat up to the tank. We kill the troopers and use the Anti-Tank mine to blow up the tank (instead of ourselves). We ease our way down a long path until we come under sniper fire. Foley goes down, but I see the sniper. Being a demolitions guy, I'm highly skilled in the subtle arts of killing. So I haul out my RPG and blast the sniper completely out of his tower. Then I heal Foley. We sneak our way into a cave, encountering two enemies on the way. Foley uses a silenced pistol and scores two head shots. This is why he's the sniper. We come out of the caves, round a corner and are instantly pinned down by heavy machine-gun fire. We're also being assaulted by regular troopers. Foley is trying to get a shot at the machine-gunner while I'm taking care of the ground troops. He goes down. I crawl over and heal him. We try to move up, but we don't use any tactics. I go down. Foley crawls over to me and heals me. A minute later he goes down. I'm on my way to him when I get ambushed by three enemy troops. Mission failed.

Attempt 4:
Repeat >> upstairs, troops, tank, sniper, cave, machine-gun nest. This time we decide to throw some smoke grenades before we assault the machine-gun nest. But we don't coordinate timing or placement, so the smoke isn't concentrated enough to provide real cover. I manage to get up fairly close, hiding behind some logs. I think I'm in cover from the MG nest, but apparently I'm not. I go down. Foley somehow gets to me and revives me. I decide to throw some frags, I mean why not, nothing else is working. Only now do I discover I have an arm like Peyton Manning. The MG nest is about 30 yards away. My grenade flies at least 100 yards past it. It's like having a grenade launcher for an arm. I try again and get lucky. The grenade flies into the nest and blows up the machine-gunner. Foley and I jump into the now-unoccipied MG nest and get our bearings. We're only a third of the way to our objective. At this rate, we'll need 13 attempts to finish this one mission. Sure enough, a couple minutes later we both get wiped out by a wave of attacking infantry and a second MG nest. Mission Failed.

Attempt 5: Repeat >>.... The first MG nest gets us again. We're getting worse.

Here's the entire four-man team, but we're trying it with only two. Predictably, we're getting our butts kicked.

Attempt 6: Repeat >>.... We get past the first MG nest, only to get pinned down again by the second MG nest that killed us back in attempt 4. Foley is slaughtering the incoming infantry, "pedestrians" as we're calling them now. I chuck 6 or 7 smoke grenades all over the field and bum-rush the second MG nest. I emerge from the smoke only a few yards from the side of the nest. I run around to the back and sucker-punch the machine-gunner to death. Foley comes forward while I scout the path ahead. There's a big roadblock. Time for some C4. While I'm sticking the explosives to the roadblock, I hear a tank coming. I get the C4 set. I back up and click my detonator, destroying the roadblock. Unfortunately I also blow myself into little Jones-chunklets because I didn't back up far enough. Foley comes forward to heal me and the tank blows him to smithereens. Mission Failed.

Attempt 7: Repeat >>.... The first MG nest gets us again.

Attempt 8: Repeat >>..... We get all the way up to the roadblock. I stand away from the C4 and destroy the roadblock. As the tank rolls forward to get us I pull out my RPG. As the tank comes into my sights I let fly, and again blow myself into little Jones-chunklets because the rocket hits a small tree only a few feet away from my face. Foley, bless his heart, is trying to revive me when the tank again blows him to smithereens. Mission Failed.

Attempt 9: Repeat >>...... Roadblock. C4. Boom. This time I immediately set another C4 charge in the road and run back to the MG nest with Foley. The tank comes around the corner, and I click the detonator. The tank and it's supporting troops vanish in a cloud of fire and dust. Instant junkyard. Foley and I move past the burning tank and move up the road. There's no cover, so we're low-crawling the whole way. Foley is shooting enemies' brains out while I try not to get hung up on branches and rocks. We come to a two-story building that's oozing bad guys. Foley and I pile up 15 or 20 bad guys before we run out of ammo and get wiped out. Mission Failed.

Attempt 10: Repeat >>.... Two-story building. Foley and I throw a double helping of smoke grenades and assault the building. We take a lot of damage, but we inflict much more. We take the building and health up. We're close, we just need to fight our way through a tunnel and we'll be at our objective. The tunnel is easy, the objective is not. Lots of bad guys. Foley and I fill the air with frag grenades, willy-pete grenades, smoke grenades, rifle fire, curses, and blood. We take the objective area. Then we hear something. We can't tell what it is until something blots out the sun. It's a helicopter. A huge, armored helicopter, bristling with rocket-pods and machine-guns. We're out of RPG ammo. In fact, we're out of rifle ammo too. All we've got are pistols and foul language. We last for approximately 8 seconds. Mission Failed.

Attempt 11: Coming soon.

--------------------------
If this sounds frustrating, it kind of is. But it's still surprisingly fun. Something about the comaraderie of playing this with Angus makes it very entertaining. We really suck at it. Attempts 4 and onward were on "Easy". Also, the above description is ABBREVIATED. There's actually another MG nest in this mission I've just skipped over.

What we really need is more guys. This game can do up to four player co-op over Live. Each of us would have a distict (but overlapping) role. In addition to Foley and Jones there's Connors (heavy-weapons guy) and Bradley (team leader, scout). It's hard to "get tactical" with only two guys.

Perfect Dark Zero

Slick, but you need a graduate degree to figure it out. Worth: $10
based on the retail 360 game: May 2007

Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just... oh, it's a gun.

I bought this out of deperation. I didn't think the demo was that great, and sadly, neither is the game.

Arnold Ninjaneggar
The first five missions were really slow, but I was trying to be sneaky. By mission six I realized that despite being a "spy" game about stealth, it's really just a mindless shooter with overly complicated weapons. It became more fun once I stopped sneaking around everyone and starting machine-gunning everyone.

Where's The Cliff Notes
Everything's more complicated than it needs to be. There's a lot of story, filled with intrigue and betrayal. Too bad it doesn't make any sense. I honestly couldn't tell you what's going on. It reminds me of Black. Sometimes I fail a mission and I have no idea why, none.

Click Help To Fire Your Weapon
Simliar to Gears of War, PDZ lets you take cover. You stand in front of a crate (or wall, or whatever) and press A. The game shifts from 1st-person to 3rd-person and you can swivel the camera around to find a target. Then you pull the left trigger to lean out from cover, take aim, then pull the right trigger to fire. If it sounds awkward, that's because it is. I know it's the same buttons as Gears, but it's poorly executed here.

Like all 360 shooters, PDZ has online Co-Op. I haven't tried it yet, but I could see it being more fun than playing alone ('natch). Strangely enough, most of the Achievements are wrapped up in Versus Multiplayer, which I haven't tried yet.

We Got The Bot
You can play a Multiplayer game against Bots that are at least as tough as real human opponents. I got my ass totally kicked, but this made me a better in-game fighter. This may account for why I got to like the Single-Player Campaign later in my playing time. It's an interesting concept, I get to "practice" my fighting without having to worry about failing a mission every time I die.

50 ways to crash your Monte

MIDNIGHT CLUB: ATLANTA


I've got my Monte Carlo floored, smoking my way through downtown Atlanta. I'm flying down a wide boulevard with Arth hot on my tail. I'm sweaving around the road like a three-day drunk to keep him from passing or drafting me. To no avail: Arth hits me with a powerup and I turn into a block of ice. A giant, 4,000 pound block of ice. Skidding straight for a gas station at 120 mph.

This was one of the Zen video game moments where time slows down. I can't stop, I can't steer, and even if I could, Arth iis right there to smash me into the approaching station of death. The fact that he's tailgating me gives a nice symmetry to what happens next.

Just before the ice cube wears off, I slide into a gas pump. The explosion slams my car into the station's roof, but it also blows Arth back into the street. Both of our vehicles are wrecked, and we spend the next few minutes clearing out the rest of the gas pumps by simply running over them.

Special thanks to Angus for being the first to harness the dark power of gas stations.

Halo 3 Beta

It's just H2 with fresh makeup and more guns.
based on the H3 Beta: June 2007 on 360

If hype were air we'd suffocate because Bungie's got all of it. Are they really that good? Well, yeah, actually they are.

When it comes to shooters, this studio has been a true innovator. They expanded multiplayer and were the first with dual-wielding. They brought us practical grenades, vehicles, and melee attacks. They hire fantastic creative talent to write great stories and design gorgeous worlds for us to demolish.

The multiplayer we saw in H3 Beta _feels_ exactly like H2. This is good because Bungie nailed the gameplay and controller layout in H2. It's also bad because it raises the question: why didn't they just do an expansion for H2 a year and a half ago? Yes, H3 has smoother this, more detailed that, and new shiny toys, but the H3 Beta was H2 with fresh makeup and more guns.

What is Bungie holding back? We know about the Equipment, the fightable Scarab, and the online 4-person Co-Op. We assume we'll play as the MC and the Arbiter. Any other playable characters? Do we meet the Forerunner? Who (and what) is The Gravemind? My guess is that whatever Bungie hasn't told us will be worth the price of the game by itself.

UPDATE (9/19/07): Man, that "Believe" ad is really lame. Six days to go.

UPDATE (9/22/07): The "Cinema Paradiso" video shows me what these magnificent bastards have been doing for three years. Video replays in full 3-D, real-time in-match level editing with the Forge (yes, I remember the original Forge, nice touch Bungie). Plus: Flamethrowers! I hadn't realized how much I missed flamethrowers until I played Marathon on 360. Three days to go.

UPDATE (9/27/07): Well, the game is out and I've already finished. It turns out that Bungie wasn't holding back anything significant. Overall, I'm disappointed.

The Gamer Gal vs. Gypsy 6

...and a bag of chips.

My fiancee* and I have practically no crossover to the games we like. We get along well despite this huge handicap, because when we watch the other one play, we spot things for each other. "Hmm, when you grapple that 14th flag pole, the ledge shifts to the right." or "After you saw that guy in half, I notice a glint in the lower right corner." When the going gets real tough, we'll look up walkthroughs for each other to minimize spoilers. It's sweet, actually.

Her favorites include:
+ Final Fantasy
+ Hitman
+ Tomb Raider

These are excellent franchises, but I'd never play them because they're too slow and not cathartic enough. She likes puzzles, complex relationships, sneaking around, and doesn't mind re-doing missions over and over. I like blasting, smashing, crashing, and moving on.
-----------------------------------
* aka "The Gamer Gal" (not her gamertag).

DiRT

Looks good, handles like a dream. Worth: $25
based on the 360 demo: June 2007

This racer plays well and sounds terrific. I had a blast playing Colin McRae 04 and I'm looking forward to this title coming down to $25 so I can powerslide my way to video glory.

Racers are inherently limited: you drive around, that's it. But I'm into cars enough to appreciate a good racer. With that said, I can't stand the NASCAR games, MotoGP, or anything with "Forza" on it. Too much realism is a bad thing. If I want real, I'll get in my real car. When I'm gaming, I want Project Gotham Racing, Midnight Club, and Colin McRae.

TimeShift

Been there, shot that. Worth: $5
based on the 360 demo: August 2007

The demo looks great, handles smoothly, and has cool time-warping gameplay. But I won't buy this game until it's in the Cheap-O Bin two years from now.

Maybe it's because I've been playing shooters since 1993, but these games are worthless to me: Pariah, Prey, Shadowrun, Call Of Juarez, Half-Life, Far Cry, Call of Duty (all), Project Snowblind, Perfect Dark Zero, Lost Planet, Battlefield, and Unreal Whatever. If you aren't a crusty old windbag like me, you'll think these are great because you didn't play them back when they were called Doom (1993), Marathon (1994), Quake (1996), Unreal (1998), and the original Medal Of Honor (1999).

Newer shooters that I've enjoyed all seem to offer something fresh and unique. This pile includes: Gears of War, Brute Force, Brothers In Arms, XIII, Ghost Recon, Conflict: OGT, Mercenaries, and of course Halo.

UPDATE (Sep 18, 2007): The GameStoreGuys talked me into giving CoD2 another look. I've realized what I disliked about this series is that you have to play like my buddy Arth. He's a kick-down-the-door kind of guy. I'm more of a sneak-around-and-snipe kind of guy. My experience with CoD is that it punishes you for playing like me and rewards you for playing like Arth. I'm giving CoD2 a try this week and I'll see how it goes playing like Arth instead of me.

From playing the CoD2 demo I can certainly vouch for a great-feeling and looking game. It's just that it has that damn CoD Infinite Spawn Closet which keeps pumping out the baddies until you move up and occupy their post. I'll write a full review once I finish the game.

BioShock

Stunning looks but no replay value. Worth: $25
based on the 360 demo: August 2007

All the mags and sites are giving this 11 out of 10, but I gotta say, based on the demo, this game looks good but not great. Replay is my biggest concern. The story is such a big part of this game that I doubt I'll play it twice (think Max Payne or God Of War). Plus, moving around in the world is pretty awkward. Maybe it'll feel better once I get used to it.

With that said, it looks and sounds incredible. I just sat there going "wowwww". My buddy Arth sat there going "wowwww". We both remember Pathways Into Darkness (from Bungie, pre-Marathon) so maybe our base expectation is lower than some younger gamers. Even so, I think BioShock is a graphics milestone.

UPDATE: September 28, 2007
I'm reading mixed user reviews. I'm assuming the really gushy ones are corporate plants from the publisher. I'm also assuming the flames are corporate plants from the publisher's competitors. The user reviews in-between though are still very mixed. Do not run out and buy this game until it costs less. I know the Mags and Sites gave it 11 out of 10, but this might be a game that appeals more to people in the business than regular gamers. Don't forget, professional reviewers and journalists aren't spending their own money. They get the games for free, and their editors are pre-disposed to favorable reviews, especially for games that have a lot of advertising behind them.

UPDATE: October 22, 2007
GameInformer can't say enough good things about this game. It sounds like you can have the story play out differently depending on what you do in the game, so replay may be better than I think. I don't know, it's hard for me to believe this game is that good. I played the demo once or twice, but it just didn't grab me. I've got it on my Xmas list, we'll see how it is if I play the real game.

Blazing Angels 2

Flight combat: fun yet boring. Worth: $10
based on the 360 demo: August 2007

Nothing is wrong with this game, but I have a problem with this entire genre. Flight combat can be a good _part_ of an action game, but on it's own it's too limited. Fly here, shoot that. Fly there, shoot this. Even Crimson Skies got boring after a while, and that game had way more imagination than BA2. Ask yourself how much fun Halo would be if you _only_ flew the Banshee.

Back In My Day: years ago Rebar and I played a Mac game called "Hellcats Over The Pacific" that totally sucked until we found some great cheat codes. Then we started bombing islands in half. Hundreds of bombs and rockets in the air at once. Great fun. We played it that way for months.

The only flight game I really liked was called Red Baron (for Mac). It had a good sense of history because you play the entire war. You start with lousy 1914 planes doing reconaissance. By the end, you're in a Fokker Triplane or the tricky Sopwith Camel wiping out a sky full of opponents.

Stranglehold

Fun acrobatic gunplay, but potentially shallow. Worth: $15
based on the 360 demo: August 2007
update based on reviews in mags: October 2007

Here's Arth teaching his kids how to clean their rooms. Note the bloody pants, splintering tiles, and dueling pistols, all critical for success. Excellent form!

Based on Hard Boiled (my favorite John Woo movie) this demo captures the feel and psycho-violent world inhabited by Chow-Yun Fat's character, Detective Tequila. I've found three to six ways to complete each area in this demo.The gameplay is awesome, aiming is natural, and the atmospheric violence is captivating. The acrobatics are totally movie-land synthetic, but who cares? You're Chow-Yun Fat! Unstoppable killing machine!

My only hesitation about this game is that it may play out like Black did, where the guns were the star. When it comes to video mayhem, more guns is more, but eventually I'm ready for some storytelling and other gameplay elements (like vehicles). I'll wait for the reviews. I'm definitely buying this game, it's just a question of a little later, or a lot later.

UPDATE: Sep 28, 2007
I'm reading a lot of good user reviews for this game. Too many to just be corporate plants.

Update October 13
Nah, the mags are confirming what I thought. Really repetitive. Still sounds like fun, but only $15 worth.

MOH Airborne

Great FPS with innovative level design. Worth: $20
based on the 360 demo: August 2007

This is one of those demos I could play to death. Dropping into a battle-torn town is unlike anything I've experienced in a game. The FPS controls, weapons, grenades, and character movement are all right on. A huge return to the fray for this long-suffering franchise.

My buddy Boondock Wolf said he thought the enemy placement was too synthetic, which I agree with. It's a little like Call of Duty where 50 Germans come out of a closet. I prefer Halo or Brothers in Arms, where an area is being held by a finite number of bad guys and it's up to you to decide how to deal with them.

UPDATE: Sep 28, 2007.
The user reviews I'm reading all say this game is very short, and is "good" but not "great". I'm dropping my Worth Rating from $35 (based on the demo) to $20 (based on what I'm reading online). The few "great" reviews seem like corporate plants.

Two Worlds

Big RPG w/ online MP, looks, sounds, and plays like crap. Worth: $0
based on videos, and online user reviews: game released August 2007 for 360 and PC

On paper, this looks like an interesting game. Open-ended gameplay, online multiplayer with a co-op component. But, the videos looked bad and the user reviews are worse. I'll wait on this one.

9/13/07: UPDATE
I'm hearing more bad things about this game from the guys at my local game store. I'm not even waiting anymore, I've just given up. My original Worth Rating was $15, but not anymore.

10/26/07: UPDATE
Wow, GameInformer rips this game apart! The review finished with something like "If you've been a sinner all your life, play this game to find out what Hell will be like." This is is the worst major-game review I've ever read. South Peak Interactive has really screwed this one up.

11/10/07: UPDATE
See my new review based on the demo.

Total Crap

Games so worthless to me they don't even get a review. Worth: $0
Just my opinions. Don't agree? Start a blog, it's fun :)

based on demos:
- Spiderman, Friend or Foe
- Sega Rally
- Flatout UC
- Blue Dragon
+ MotoGP 2007
- Stuntman Ignition
- NASCAR 08
- Burnout (any)
- Dead To Rights
+ Ace Combat 6
- Call of Duty 1*

based on videos:
- Eternal Sonata

I'm leaving out obviously bad games like Driv3r, Obi-Wan, and Doom 3. I'll be updating this list periodically.

+ Empirically a good game, but I don't care for it. If you like the genre, you might like the game.

- Perhaps well-made, but disastrously boring. I have no idea what people like about these games. Being older, my days are already filled with tedium, I don't need it in my entertainment.

* CoD2 pending, I'm playing it now. It's better than I remember from the demo.