Long Overdue

I just wanted to let the world know that I'll be starting my personal campaign to play and finish a handful of stuff that's been cooking far too long on the back burner.  Some of them I have watched played (a personal favorite activity of mine, by the way), some I haven't touched, and some I feel just deserve to get some play time.

Resident Evil 4
Bioshock 2
Okami
TMNT (upon Juniper's recommendation - HAHA!)
Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2
Super Metroid

That's my potential batting order as well.  As highly acclaimed as it is, I feel bad putting Super Metroid so near the bottom, but the Metroid franchise has always been tough for me, and I'll probably be using a guide anyways.  Any suggestions?  I'll be kicking of RE4 as soon as I publish this post.

This also might be a trend that I hope continues on the blog.  3N3MY and I were chatting the other day, and a potential idea we tossed up was a retro review section.  Either playing something from yesteryear and giving it another look by witholding nostalgia, or maybe taking the super critical eyes of the current game industry and holding the old stuff up to the same standard. Thoughts, questions, concerns?

Your prayers are appreciated in my endeavor.

Kevin Butler

This is the new ad campaign for the PS3 and I think it's awesome. I've long been a fan of Sony's VP of almost everything, but kicking off a new campaign by bringing Kevin out of retirement was highly enjoyable to me.

You really should be following this guy on Twitter as well.

Are there any other gaming mascots that stand out to you?

Man Cave, but I hate that term.

Since my Lady Friend and I started looking for a house she's been a very big proponent of me having my own Man Cave. I don't know why, but she's been pushing for it more than me because it's not a priority for me. But since I'm in a house and have the space I'm certainly not going to complain at her willingness to let me do basically whatever the hell I want with the space.

Anyways, I have a house with a basement that isn't finished, but is somewhere between finished and just a normal basement.

I just wanted to gloat that over the next couple months I'm going to be getting the basement in order so that I can black out the walls and build a screen for my new HD projector and get me a nice comfy couch down there with a kicking surround sound system, my mini fridge from college....and a foot rest.

My project will be aided by the always helpful Silent.

I just wanted to take a second and get you all jealousy about me playing pretty much the greatest way possible. Alone and in the dark on an 8 foot screen.

I'll probably post some before and after pictures and it won't be called a "Man Cave" because that's overused and not funny.

I think I'll call it, "Man, I'm Gonna Own Your Candy-Ass Cavern". Much more fitting for the pwnage that will happen down there.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review

95/100
5/5
95%
A

Strengths
Story/Atmosphere/World
Music/Ambience
Characters/Voice Acting
Protagonist
Choices/Non-linear
Side Quests/Rewards
Length/Replayability

Opportunities
Boss Fights
Graphical Glitches/Mouths

***minor spoiler alert***
First of all, let me state that I haven’t finished the game but I have about 15+ hours into it and unless the game drastically alters course or the ending (there are multiple endings according to one achievement) then I highly doubt I will change my review.

This game delivers on almost every level that I can think of when it comes to rating video games. The summer doldrums are now officially over for me and I’m kind of shocked that I almost didn’t purchase this game. This was $45 (Steam pre-order cost) well spent and I’m very glad I bought this on an impulse as a “secondary” purchase. This game is definitely a pleasant surprise and much better than the second game in the series. It’s a worthy prequel to the first Deus Ex and I hope some great DLC is released for it.

Also, you do not need to have played the first game to play this one. There are references to the universe but very little connection. This is a prequel and occurs before the first Deus Ex.

Likes
Story/Atmosphere/World: The story gets you going from the start, drawing you into the world with the societal war revolving around human augmentation, very akin to the gay marriage debate going on today in the U.S. Some people believe human augmentation is the next step in human evolution while others believe it should be outlawed and is a violation of human biology. What the game lacks in graphics (and I think it looks good but it’s no Crysis 2) it makes up for in atmosphere. The world is fleshed out but not to the point where you feel distracted from your missions. The world will make you think of Shadowrun, the table top game, not the video game. I really enjoyed the gold/black feel to everything. It’s original and done well but not overdone to the point where there aren’t other colors in the game. There is a central city hub where you branch off of into apartment buildings or the Sarif building or a L.I.M.B. clinic to do side quests or parts of the main mission.
Music/Ambience: The music is pretty cool and really draws you into the cyberpunk world. It will make you want to go watch Blade Runner again, or go out and buy for those of us who aren’t smart enough to already own it in our movie collection. The soundtrack is eerie at times and really helps flesh out the world and the gold/black atmosphere.
Characters/Voice Acting: The voice-acting is well done and the characters are memorable, so much so that Adam Jensen gets his own special mention as I have a new favorite protagonist in my list of video game heroes (mentioned below). The mouth movement is seriously lacking and detracts from the great voice-acting. Your boss has a familiar voice that I can’t quite place but I swear he’s a well-known actor.
Protagonist: Adam Jensen smokes 5 packs a day. Normally, this gravelly voice would feel overdone and get annoying… but I really enjoyed it in this game and it helped flesh out the kind of character he was. He’s a hardcore ex-cop that you don’t want to mess with and even when he’s speaking “nice” lines of dialogue, he’s no push-over. I am now a fan of Adam Jensen and he could easily kick the crap out of a lot of other protagonists, with the help of his augmentations of course.
Choices/Non-linear: Surrounded by linear shooters, this game really gives you choices. So far, I haven’t killed a single soul, other than the few bosses I’ve faced and I love that! I made my way through a police station early on in the game and since I completely suck at stealth, I ended up having to take out every officer with my tranquilizer rifle, stun gun, and take-downs. Needless to say, I later found out from watching an IGN Easter egg video on youtube that I could have talked my way into the police station! I love it! The amount of choices in the game is fantastic and very reminiscent of the first game.
Side Quests/Rewards/Augmentations: The game rewards you for exploring and finding the different paths, whatever they may be. Little XP rewards pop up all the time and the majority of your XP will come not from killing/incapacitating your enemies but from everything else. XP let’s you “level up” which earns you a praxis point that you can stick into your augmentations. There are enough of them that you will not run out of augmentations to upgrade. I have upgraded my inventory, cloaking system, silent walking, targeting system so I can track enemies, etc., etc. I also decided to upgrade my dermal armor to help out in boss fights (see below) which are difficult for characters choosing a stealth path through the game. There are a decent amount of side quests but you won’t be able to complete all of them. I did not level up any of my hacking, mostly because I refused to as I wanted to save that for a second play-through. Take-downs require an energy cell, which seemed annoying at first, but makes sense because your arms are both augmented arms… and it also limits you from being over-powered. You can also sell gear and other stuff you find, like ammo, and then spend your money at L.I.M.B. clinics to purchase additional Praxis points for more upgrades.
Length/Replayability: I am 15 hours in and not sure when the game ends. I have explored a lot of areas and taken my time doing side quests so I haven’t hurried through. I thought it ended at one point but it was a boss fight. I love getting my money’s worth so for me, the length is great and the game also encourages you to replay it using another option, such as running and gunning as opposed to the (horrible) stealth and non-violence I am using this play through. I have held back from starting a second game but the game almost encourages you, if not pushes you to start a second game. It tempts you with computers you can’t hack because you have leveled your cloaking augmentation instead of your hacking. It’s great and I will 100% play through this game again at some point.

Opportunities
Boss Fights: These occurred exactly like other reviews said. If you went with the stealth option, you didn’t have your armor or reflexes upgrade and the boss fights were harder. I decided after the last boss fight to upgrade my dermal armor specifically for these boss fights. I had also upgraded most of the stealth upgrades you could with gear I had scavenged for credits to purchase more Praxis kits. This is a small complain but a complain none-the-less. I did find one boss, who looked exactly like Rihanna the pop singer, was susceptible to my stun gun so I would stun her and then pump her full of bullets. I also found I could quick save in the middle of the boss fights which helped a lot. Also note that these boss fights are fast and furious so if you die, which will happen a lot for stealth characters, you don’t feel like you’ve wasted a ton of time. I really wish the choices from the rest of the game carried over into the boss fights.
Graphical Glitches/Mouths: I’ve noticed some graphical errors, small glitches, and have had to reload a couple times. But I have two saves, there is an autosave, and a quicksave feature so I’ve never had a problem reloading and fixing whatever glitch there is. None of the glitches have been game breakers so these could all be patched out.

Final ThoughtsGo out and buy this game when you get a chance. I highly recommend it. It’s definitely worth the money. It’s a great blend of shooter and RPG with all the choices thrown in. If you like Elder Scrolls, shooters in general, Mass Effect, Crysis then go check this game out.

By the way, I can’t wait to shoot someone in the head on my second play-through. :)

Quality

In the age of the Red Rings of Death, it's easy to forget how quality in electronics is not like it used to be. I'm sure we all have our stories about how something survived abuse whether a flood or a suplexed body (my old NES). It wasn't until I found my old Rumble Pack that I remembered the abuse my old systems suffered.

My old dog ate it. It still works!

Cataloging Games

This week's "3 Best" post got me really thinking about my old games. I just came back up from my basement with a giant Tupperware container that contains every past-generation game that I have ever owned, minus 20+ NES games that were stolen from me in college. Anyway, the point of this post is to see if anyone knows of any good websites or methods to catalog games. I know that www.1up.com has, or at least use to have the ability to list every console and game you owned. It also gave you an estimated value of your collection. I haven't logged into my account in years but was curious if there were any better alternatives out there. I'd like it to be something that is easily accessible by the public, including you guys.

It's a little side project I think I'm gonna start just. Only problem is that my free time doesn't really exist and when it does, I usually try to take advantage of it by gaming.

Bought a PS3

I am now the proud owner of a used PS3 and Killzone 3 and Gran Turismo. Getting shipped tomorrow. And yes, I will be selling my 360 to offset the cost.

Not quite sure yet if I just joined the Dark Side or the Light Side...

Weekly Top 3 - Boss Battles

As clearly stated in the title for this post, this week's top 3 is going to be boss battles.  These could include, but are not limited to, final boss fights, antagonist confrontation moments, mid-game humps or challenges to overcome, or maybe even the toughest thing you've overcome in a videogame. (It would also be appreciated if you are mentioning any bossess or moments that are particularly good spoilers to story or gameplay, mention that before describing the event.)

For me, in no particular order.

Ganon - Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (SNES) - This may be an uncreative choice for me, but it's a big one.  My copy of LttP was given to me by a cousin (I think) so all the files were already beaten.  As a young kind, I love exploring the world, but going to places where the puzzles were already beaten, or the NPC's shared dialogue from the tail end of conversations that I didn't have with them, was... unfulfilling.  I started my own file, and to my surprise the puzzles were really tough, even when I knew what the end result was going to be.  In some cases, the game got harder, because I knew that a particular portion would be easier if I just had that one item, but in reality I wouldn't be getting that item until another 6 dungeons.  My expectations were there, but misplaced...  Finally getting to Ganon, finding out how that giant hole in top of the pyramid got there, and rocking him out with my silver arrows... a very gratifying beat down.

The Maw - Halo Combat Evolved (XBOX) - I really liked the ending of Halo.  Maybe it was because it's still one of my favorite co-op games to play to this day.  Maybe it was because it was the first thing I got for my xbox.  Maybe it's because I'm a fanboy. Whatever the reason is, I like it.  The ending to the first part of the original Halo saga was a good one.  With frustrating puzzle like combat, lots of explosions, an annoying enemy always letting me know how smart he was, and an epic conclusion with a giant race through an enormous ship before everything explodes in oblivion.  I'm really looking forward to doing this again when the Anniversary collection releases. 

Andrew Ryan - Bioshock (XB360) - This one isn't much of a boss fight, but it was awesome.  I spent a good chunk of time in Bioshock looking for as many tape recorders as I could.  Not for any achievement or the corresponding achievement points, but because they added a depth to the world and story that I couldn't get enough of.  Bioshock already felt a little bit voyeuristic, digging into a world that you were never really a part of, and finding these tape recorders added to the thrill.  They gave you personal testimony and witness to the results and rubble you were rummaging through, and when you finally meet the character you've been hunting down... catharsis.  Andrew Ryan's was particularly good, and it makes you rethink everything you've done in the game so far.  Kindly play this game if you get the chance, would you?

Alright everyone else, it's your turn.  Go!

PS3 Version of new Counter Strike gets all PC-y

You may have stumbled across this article on Kotaku already and while I'm a little tired of all things Valve, because of it's endlessly annoying fanbase, this is neat news.

With the release of Portal 2 on PS3 (due to Sony's more open source PSN) you can see Valve's desire to meld PC and Steam with PS3 and I really find that exciting. You could run a limited version of Steam on your PS3 and even do the coop campaign with a PC player over Steam. Nothing outstandingly groundbreaking, but it is another step towards a potential one console/rig/system future that people keep saying will eventually happen.

What's neat about the new Counter Strike is that, on PS3, you'll have not only cross-platform play AND cross-platform skill based matchmaking, but the PS3 will also have built in mouse and keyboard support.

As all gamers know the "Master Race" has the far superior control scheme and it's a really great addition to the console. Not only does the cross-platform play allow for a much much much larger pool of players (especially for a Valve Counter Strike game) to play with, but the mouse and keyboard support will actually allow console players to be every bit as good as their PC Brethren. If there's one thing Shadowrun on 360/PC taught us it's that cross-platform is cool, but PC player will own your ass with the better controls.

So basically this game has taken a giant leap forward as a future purchase for me. I would have liked to given it a try because I've always really wanted to give PC gaming a really good run, but the initial start up costs of a new rig are too much and I don't want to jump into an old Valve PC game and get owned for being a noob.

Thoughts? Do you guys think these are good things or should they remain separate like they've always been?

CoD: A Love/Hate Story

With MW3 right around the corner, I've been doing a lot of thinking, probably more than I should, on the Call of Duty series and the love and hate it draws from so many people. As I was ranting to 3N3MY earlier this week, I decided to focus more of my thoughts on exactly why I won't be purchasing MW3, at least at launch. It is a game I am interested in picking up at a later date just to play the 5 hour story. I know it will feel like a Michael Bay/John Woo movie but will still be fun... just not worth $60 at launch for if I'm not interested in the MP.

PROS
1. CoD is a smooth shooter with great controls, on consoles and PC, that rewards you with XP, unlocks, ribbons, badges, everything. From the name customization in MW2 to the gun customization in Blops, CoD offers the players a lot and draws them in.

2. DLC - if it's a game you enjoy and you want to keep playing, there is definitely a lot of DLC. I would argue it's priced high for a couple maps but there are plenty of people who have paid for it.

3. Safe Bet - You know the next CoD will be a good shooter and a safe bet. If you liked the last one, you will enjoy the next one. They won't deviate from their formula very far.

CONS
1. As much as I love say, Diablo, Starcraft, Battlefield, Elder Scrolls, or Mass Effect, I would hate to see one released once a year for several years in a row. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. It gets old and stale. I love pizza but if I eat pizza every day for several days in a row, I really start to not enjoy pizza.

2. Same Engine - This could be a pro as the engine runs smooth and has since the first MW but isn't it time for a change?

3. Too Little, Too Late - Blops did a lot to address the complaints regarding MW2 but for me, it felt like too little, too late. Blops was fun but as I tracked the hours I put into the CoD series, they fell drastically with each series. I put 200+ hours into MW2 and only around 70 into Blops.

4. Bobby Kotick - EA has made some questionable moves of late but they still have nothing on this guy's mouth. :D

The main reason I won't purchase MW3 this fall is... I'm a hardcore Battlefield fan. I really love the teamplay and camaraderie the Battlefield series encourages. And to be honest, as much as I bash the CoD series now, I would probably be purchasing it if it wasn't for the countless hours I'll sink into Battlefield 3. Not to mention Elder Scrolls: Skryim comes out 3 days after MW3.

Here's a great commentary on the subject of MW3 vs. BF3 if anyone is interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Bhc_XaY6U

Deus Ex Impressions

It's been quite some time since I've struggled to put a game down, shut it down, and lay my head down on my pillow in order to get some decent sleep so I can function at work the next day. Deus Ex, like the stealth style I am failing miserably at playing the game through with, came out of nowhere and shattered the summer slump for me. I can't remember the last game that sucked me in like this. This is a game that I wasn't planning on purchasing and sort of pre-ordered on a whim, a little reward to myself for the crazy audit that we had at work that just ended this month.

The original definitely brought some great ideas to video games in general, allowing you to shoot your way through levels, sneak around undetected, hack through different areas, and so on. Back at the time, this was a novel idea and it might sound a little old now. Human Revolution expands on this idea and though the levels are still linear, it gives you a variety of methods to travel through the levels, similar to Crysis 2 if no one is familiar with the other Deus Ex games.

The music is great and makes me want to go watch Blade Runner. The gold and black art style is ambient, artistic, and original. What the game lacks in the latest and greatest facial and body animations it more than makes up for in voice acting, art style, atmosphere, and world detail. The story quickly draws you in with questions and plot lines. You will find it very hard not to want every augmentation as they all sound incredible to have on Adam Jensen (who sounds like he smokes 5 packs a day, which doesn't come off as cheesy in this game, but really BA actually). I now can see enemies fields of vision, have an extra energy cell for takedowns, and can cloak myself. I want to upgrade my hacking and social interactions but don't think I'll have enough upgrade points...

I passed up Batman: Arkham Asylum only to play it later and realize what an awesome game I had missed. This game is along those lines but an even greater game that you don't want to miss. If you play shooters at all, you must play this game.

Before I carry on too long and turn this into a full review, I strongly suggest everyone play this game. Please do not comment below since I am not talking about a AAA title... thank you.

QUICK UPDATE: Made it to the first boss fight last night. A little brutal, since I focused on stealth upgrades. Made it through, because after a couple tries, the boss stopped chasing me and stood in the middle of the room and just shot at me. Not sure if this was a glitch or built into the game to compensate for failing to kill him several times. Either way, I took him down pretty easily from cover when he just stood there. It didn't ruin the game and allowed me to carry on with the story... but it would have been nice to see all the choices you're givencarry over into the boss fight as well. Not a dealbreaker but wanted to mention this since this was a big negative I saw in other reviews.

My brother is in town so hopefully I'll beat the game next week. :D

"Rise from your graves!"

The song from the first board of Altered Beast has been stuck in my head for the last 2 flipping days!

I'd be upset....if I didn't love it so.

Just thought I'd share.

A Weekly Top 3?

I've been trying to think of some way to make posts more regularly and came up with this: other sites have their own Top 10 lists or Top 7 or whatever where they just list their OWN favorites, but we could make it so one person each week comes up with the topic and everyone makes their own list. We've done this before, like with the "Best of this Generation", "Most Disappointing" etc. I just thought it would be cool to do one each week.

So here's my first one and it's pretty simple. List your Top 3 Favorite Guns of all time. First-person shooter or third-person shooter, either one. Go.

Here are mine (in no particular order):

1. Flak Cannon - Unreal series - basically a shotgun made even more devastating due to the secondary fire, which is essentially an exploding cannonball. Very satisfying to hit someone with one of these and just watch them explode into giblets.

2. Ripper - Dead Space/Dead Space 2 - a spinning sawblade that somehow remains attached to the handle of the weapon, great for carving up necromorphs. Also has a secondary fire that shoots a sawblade out at high speed for long distance slice 'n' dice. It pretty much got me through the first game on the hardest difficulty.

3. M6D Pistol - Halo - does this really even need a description? Great from any distance, high-powered, no recoil. Some people call it unbalanced. I just call it awesome.

Astro A40's

First off all, huge apology for my complete lack of participation (I blame Huber) and thanks for not booting me off. But I'm back and raring to share some views.

So i've recently bought myself a pair of Astro A40's Wireless gaming headset. If you're unfamiliar with Astro Gaming stuff, definitely work checking out. Pretty much top of the line headsets used by all the 1337 MLG gamers. Reason for purchase was a combination of my girlfriend moving in and me wanting to upgrade my sound system. The cost to upgrade my "true" 5.1 system would of been extortionate to get the same definition and clarity as a decent headset so opted for a that over a complete 5.1 system overhaul.

There's pretty much 3 big players in the gaming headset market, Astro, Turtle Beach and Tritton. All the review websites raved about the Astro A40's over and above the other 2 competitor equivalent models so my decision was made for me.

Ordered on the Thursday, arrived on the Friday. Best packaging I've ever had for an electronic product. The build quality is excellent and there's some really nice design touches which really help justify it's hefty price tag.

I'm not going to go into the specific details of set up etc, but it was fairly straight forward. One unit plugs into your optical output on the 360 and the other unit (wireless) plugs into your 360 pad and the headset.

The sound quality is staggering, I didn't expect it to be as good as it is. The surround sound is spot on. I'm not quite sure how all the tech works behind it considering it only has 2 speakers but it really does re create the surround sound effect as well if not better than my true 5.1 system. The clarity and subtle sounds you hear is incredible. I've only really tested it a handful of times and mostly with Gears of War 2, I really want to give Bad Company 2 a blast with them on as in my opinion it has by far the best sound engineering in any game. You can expect me to update this once tested further.

Liked

5.1 surround is incredible for a headset

Multiplatform compatible

Comfortable

Great build quality

Dislike

Cost

It's wireless but there's still a lot of wires.

MaxConsole - Sony: Cross-Game Chat Not Possible

MaxConsole - Sony: Cross-Game Chat Not Possible

I'm sorry about reposting a link to another blog but this is just too ridiculous not to comment on. After 5 years (fact check?) they finally are admitting that it's just not physically possible. Seriously, why did it take them so long to do this? The other part about it is that supposedly the PS3 is this ultra-powerful machine with something like 82-cores (fact check?) yet it doesn't have enough RAM to support something as simple as cross-game chat. Now, I may not be the expert witness in a trial when it comes to PS3's hardware specs, but wouldn't you think they could find a way, even if it's just software related?

rant away

Deus Ex - Gaming Challenge

I have Deus Ex pre-ordered (and pre-loaded) on my PC ready to release Tuesday. I'm normally not patient enough to stealth my way through games unless the game/class/level is specifically (forcing you to) built around stealth of some kind, i.e. Assassin's Creed or the Rogue class in WoW (yes, I'm back into WoW... it's been a slow gaming summer!).

So I thought I would give myself a little challenge since Deus Ex gives you so many options. If it's anything like the first two and anything like they are claiming, it will have so many options to make it through a level, I'm going to try and beat the game without killing anyone (bosses not included). There is a Pacifist achievement for this on Steam

Pacifist

Complete Deus Ex: Human Revolution without anyone dying by your hand. (Boss fights do not count.)

I LOVE to run and gun so this will be a little challenge for me. Just thought I would throw that out there. The only thing that will change this for me is if the game sucks but it already has some good word of mouth and a great review from PC gamer that came out so we'll see... I'll throw up a review once it's complete.

What's the first game you ever played?

Can you even remember? Was it at an arcade or a friends house? Was it on an ancient PC? If you can't remember the game then what was the system?

I remember playing games at a very young age so there's no way in hell I'm going to remember the first game I played, but the first gaming system I ever touched was the Atari 2600 that came out 6 years before I was born.

It was an unusual system in that it had a lot of different controllers. I had a set that looked like this one with the traditional controller and the ones with the wheel and we had another one with a number bad and yet another one that was used solely for a baseball game!

The games I played on it are nigh unplayable to me today as it was the Coleco that actually got me really into gaming.

Borderlands

I've restarted Borderlands with Silent and it's as awesome as ever.

In honor of restarting it and falling in love all over again I'm posting a hilarious video that we all love.

Unreal Engine

The Unreal Engine is pure garbage.

... that is all

Maybe his real name is Andrew Ryan?

Seriously, this can't be a good idea.

Seriously?

Matchmaker, Matchmaker...

Although I've been bad about posting with any sense of regularity, this is an issue that I've been mulling over for some time - Matchmaking.

What will you be buying before Christmas?

Lets face it. The months leading up to Christmas are taxing on any consumer, but especially so on gamers. There are a plethora of Triple A games coming out before Christmas and I want to know what you WILL be buying. Not what you're on the fence about.

The only game I'm absolutely purchasing before Christmas is Rage. I've got a huge hard on for id and this is their first proper game in seven years. People that play their games know that nobody does the execution of shooting mechanics better than id. Every game of theirs I've ever played or that Raven has ported has such an extremely specific feel for the guns that no other game maker has nailed.

All hail John Carmack!

A Tale of a Dude that Finally Prestiged.

So I've been playing a lot of Black Ops again lately and it's been wonderful to scratch that MP itch again! I love me some Bad Company 2, but the overall team aspect and terrible lobby system make playing it solo a pain at times. Especially when your team is playing TDM and not Rush.

Anyways, last night I finally got to level 51 which is when you can Prestige and start over. In the past I'd been a huge advocate of not doing this because since I'd put in all this time earning this stuff why would I want to throw it away? Since I play by myself I figured starting over wouldn't be a big deal and would, ultimately, make the game more fun because of the addicting crack that is ranking up.

I was right! I'm already drooling over getting to level 14 and unlocking my almighty Famas and then at level 20 the holiest of holies....the Galil.

Playing with the Enfield right now is pretty much balls on my chin, but I'm still holding up really well online. I've also been exclusively playing Pure TDM which uses no perks, killstreaks or gun add ons and it's actually gotten me nothing but better scores. I normally sit between 1.50 and 2.0 k/d ratios, but in Pure, without napalm and airstrike attacks every 15 seconds, I'm almost always above 2.0. My current stats are 26hrs logged online with a k/d of 1.54.

It's been strange to be in such a funk for so long in gaming and to have the dirtiest of words/games to be a breath of fresh air. Ultimately, playing CoD by myself can feel like spinning my wheels in the mud, but it's been a blast!

Battlefield 3 Alpha

This will now be the fifth time I've attempted to post this up. Blogger has a lot of problems it seems... or maybe it's just me. I was also interrupted several times over the past week or so.

So, I was invited into the Battlefield 3 Alpha (not quite sure how I pulled that off) and due to the NDA, I can't say too much. Not sure what I can reveal. Never played an alpha before. They let you fill out a survey and the build obviously has bugs... since it's an alpha build after all. One element I really seem to enjoy about Battlefield is that even when you are not having a great game, you still seem to have fun. You might have a pretty bad K/D ratio but can still have a blast. BC2 still stands out as an exceptional shooter when walls blow out around you and tank shells collapse buildings on top of you. Just amazing. Anyways, I can't say much about the alpha but prone is back in the battlefield series and it is welcomed back with open, loving arms. Also, I went out and pre-ordered Battlefield 3 from my local Gamestop along with Skyrim and Diablo 3 (now that the beta and eventual release is finally here) so take that as my alpha feedback.

Also, I saw this score for Deus Ex and thought it would be my gaming impulse purchase (ignore my recent Steam summer sale purchases *cough*). I'm definitely enjoying more of the game the more I see and the gold art style is kind of cool. Anyways, I preorded on Steam so we'll see what it's like... the first one is a classic, the second one was alright. We'll see how the third turns out.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/29/deus-ex-human-revolution-review-scores-94-and-an-editors-choice-award-in-pc-gamer/