Trey Connell

I’ll first say that I haven’t played any of the Devil May Cry video games. I decided to get this game because I was trading in a ton of games and found Devil May Cry 4 used at my local GameStop.

You play Nero – a family member of the earlier games’ hero and devil hunter, Dante. Instead of a normal right arm, you’ve been blessed (cursed?) with a powerful demon arm that can do all sorts of cool and powerful stuff once you learn how to use it. The story is not all that earth shattering. Beautiful girl is captured by mean guy that wants to become like a God, and he uses her to bait you in. Now you have to try to work your way through levels of minions and bosses in order to rescue the damsel in distress. And when I say “bosses”, I can’t stress that enough. These guys are MASSIVE and can be a bit intimidating.

I’ve never really been a big fan of the “combo attack” games where you have to memorize an arcane series of button mashing and d-pad maneuvers in order to do some effective and cool.  I was pleasantly surprised with Devil May Cry 4. First, the graphics are awesome, and the imagery is very impressive – especially for far off scenes such as castles and mountains and forests and such. I found myself saying “whoooaa” a lot. I played through as a Human which gives you an easier time than playing through on the more advanced Devil Hunter level. In doing so, I found the game to be kind of a pushover, but that’s probably my own fault for choosing the easier course. The easier approach did free me up to concentrate more on mastering a few powerful combo moves.  I didn’t get caught up in trying to learn everything – it’s just too much, and my A.D.D. kicks in.

The only thing about this game that I really didn’t like was having to play back through several levels. Instead of new and interesting challenges you would sometimes have to backtrack through areas you already cleared in order to make your way to the next mission. That is ANNOYING. Also, towards the end of the game, it seemed as though the developer had run out of ideas and through a giant, time-consuming level in your way just to give you more to do before the final fight. In that mission, you basically have to make your way up various staircases and fight lots of demons just like you’ve defeated before. You even have to fight some of the mission bosses (or demons just like them) AGAIN.

Aside from some frustrating redundancy, the game is fantastic and well worth diving into.

I’ve been playing Fable 2 lately and finally married a woman and moved her into a house that I purchased in Bowerstone Market. I then found a new house in Old Bowerstone. When I purchased the new house, I moved my family into it at the same time. Of course, I now want to rent out the first house I purchased.

Much to my surprise (and irritation), I’m only given two options when examining the sign in front of my first home. I can change the budget or enter redecoration mode. I should be able to sell or rent the house as well, but those options are nowhere to be found.

Everything I’ve read indicates this is a glitch in the game and needs to be addressed, but I don’t see any mention of an upcoming path or a timeline for a fix. People have tried various things like divorcing their wife (or even killing her!) and nothing seems to work.

I’ve since bought other homes in order to rent them out, but I’d really like to start making some money on that first home.

I love the Achievements in Xbox 360 games.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m an “Achievement Whore”, but there’s something tingly about having that little achievement message flash up on-screen when you complete one.

I’ve been playing Left 4 Dead after my wife bought it for me for Christmas.  I’ve spent a fair amount of time playing co-op with some buddies of mine, and it feels like I’ve killed a million zombies so far.  One good run with the automatic machine gun and you think you’ve killed hundreds in about 30 seconds.  As I look at my progress in the game, I see that is very much not the case.

My total is 1,807.  In order to get the Zombie Genocide Achievement, you have to kill 53,595.  Holy crap – only 51,788 zombies to go. It’s a good thing I really love this game because that’s going to take a very, very long time.

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Back to Sin City we go in order to finally put an end to the terrorist threat that we left looming after the first Rainbow Six Vegas game. Vegas 2 largely delivers more of the same.  The game mechanics are basically identical, and the objective is still to seek out and destroy any terrorist threats through many areas of Las Vegas.

I bought this game mainly for the cooperative aspects.  You can play the campaign with a buddy and work through the various missions together.  You can also team up with multiple friends and hunt terrorist across the various maps.  The best thing about Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is that all the points you earn stay with you no matter where you earned them.  When playing with another person or persons, the kills they accumulate also earn you points.  This makes it possible to increase your character’s rank much more quickly.  Of course, increasing your rank allows you to unlock new weapons, clothing, armor, and other equipment along the way.

All in all, I love this game as much, if not more, than the first Rainbow Six Vegas.  The mechanics are great, the graphics are sweet, and there’s nothing like teaming up with multiple friends and kicking some terrorist ass.  I do think Ubisoft could have differentiated this game from its predecessor a bit more, but maybe they took a “If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it” mentality and decided to play it safe.

I’ve logged around 40 hours playing Fallout 3 so far – mainly just wandering around and running side missions.  I called myself paying special attention to shelves and desks and such in order to locate the 20 bobbleheads the can be found through the wasteland.  I’ve yet to see ONE.  Apparently I’m blind.  Or slow.  Or both…

So in case anyone else is out there feeling my pain, I found a very good post that shows you all the Fallout 3 bobblehead locations and gives you instructions for obtaining them.  You can check it out here.  Enjoy!

New DLC is coming for Fallout 3!  In January, Bethesda will release Operation: Anchorage.  This DLC will put you into the battle for Anchorage, Alaska for liberation from the Chinese Communist invaders.  In February, you’ll be able to explore a new Raider town named Pitt located in post-apocolyptic Pittsburgh.

The third wave of DLC for Fallout 3 is the one I’m most looking forward to.  In Broken Steel, you’ll be joining the Brotherhood of Steel and continue the original adventure by eliminating the remains of the Enclave from the Capital Wasteland.

My question is whether players can continue the side missions they failed to complete during the first run-through of the game.  I’ve heard from many people that they didn’t realize they wouldn’t be able to continue exploring the Capitol Wasteland once they beat the main quest in Fallout 3.  I guess you can always go back to a save game, but that seems a bit hokey to me.

Source: Bethesda Softworks

To all of you who are trying to beat all 50 waves on Horde in Gears of War 2, I have one piece of advice – use the Mansion map.  Run out front and grab the boomshot and then haul butt inside to the top of the stairs.  Get a buddy and each of you post up.  Start killing everything coming through the front door.  A few brutes will show up in the side doors but not enough to worry about, and you can kill them easily.

Once you kill a mauler, find time to grab his shield and plant it in the front door.  Hell, plant two shields if you can pull it off.  Kill everything coming in the side doors and then watch as all the Locusts line up outside the front door.  Grab the Torque Bow or Sniper in the center of the floor upstairs and gear up for some target practice!

It took three of us to finally make it through all 50 waves, and we used those shields religiously.

Happy Stomping!

For those of you who don’t know, the image URL for your newly created avatar on Xbox Live is http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/<gamer tag here>/avatar-body.png

As an example, my avatar is located at http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/C0ntr0lledCha0s/avatar-body.png

Xbox Live NXE Update includes Netflix Streaming

Microsoft launched the New Xbox Experience (NXE) on Xbox Live last night.  The update includes a totally revamped interface, avatars (think Nintendo Miis), Netflix integration, Xbox Live community parties, and new games.

I’m most excited about the Netflix integration.  After updating my Xbox 360, I went to the Netflix area and retrieved my activation code.  Then I simply had to enter my code on netflix.com to active my Xbox 360.  As I added movies and television shows to my Instant queue, I watched them show up in the available titles on my Xbox 360.

I haven’t had a chance to watch a full movie yet, but I did watch about 15 minutes of “Gone Baby Gone”.  The movie only took about 45 seconds to buffer and then start playing, and the picture quality was excellent on my 52 inch Samsung LCD.  So far, this is looking like a fantastic update that’s going to let me watch all kinds of movies without waiting on snail mail to delivery the discs to my house.

Anyone who knows me also knows I’m not a huge fan of Microsoft, but they did one helluva job with this update.  Where I used to only use my Xbox 360 for gaming, I can see I’ll be spending a lot more time in the dashboard checking out other things to see and do.  Kudos to the Xbox Live team for a job well done!

The same buddy who sent the Fallout 3 plot discussion to me also sent me this handy map detailing all the locations in the wasteland.

Fallout 3 Wasteland Map

A buddy of mine has been playing Fallout 3 (as have I when I get the time), and he ran across this post regarding the plot. It’s pretty darn funny.

So, I’ve been playing Fallout 3 like an insane 12 year old. I can’t quit playing it. I’m level 18 and only done maybe 13 quest…I have spent to much time playing…However, I’ve been reading the post and appearently the ending leaves something to be desired. I’m not a ***Spoiler*** freak so I don’t give a damn if I find out what’s going to happen before I do it. If you are don’t read the rest of this note. I thought it was funny and wanted to share.

Continue reading…

Whether you love it, hate it, or just roll your eyes in sheer annoyance, Guitar Hero has become a huge phenomenon. Inspiring karaoke-like nightclub themes and even satirical commentary from shows such as South Park (Episode: Guitar Queer-o), GH has made its mark. Some call it fake music and others think it takes just as must talent to master as a real guitar. Regardless of whether it will be remembered in musical history, most admit that it’s incredibly entertaining and just downright fun.

I like to compare it to the Nintendo Wii. Most of the time I feel extremely silly, but hey – it’s fun to be a kid sometimes! I’ve had no pictures of myself made while playing since I’m assuming that would look plain ridiculous. I can imagine what my 6’2″, 225 lb frame looks
like holding this little guitar controller made of plastic with colored buttons for frets. I also consider myself a relatively cool guy and seeing myself like that may just shatter every bit of positive self image that I possess.

I first started playing Guitar Hero when I borrowed the controller and Guitar Hero II from my brother-in-law. The songs were awesome. The guitar was fun to play. And the animations on the screen are just funny to watch. As soon as Guitar Hero III came out, I went to the store and purchased it. I made sure to buy the wireless controller because, well, wireless is good right??

So far I’m enjoying the game, but I do find myself speeding through some songs just to see what’s coming up. I guess the reality is I’m just not digging the tracks like I did in the previous game. Maybe that means I don’t appreciate the “Legends of Rock”, but they just aren’t as much fun to play. The sad part is that I want to go purchase Guitar Hero II, but now the stores have ramped it back up to $50 or $60! No thank you – not paying full price for an old game.