God of War (PS2)

I picked up God of War a while back when the hype train for the third iteration was building. It took a little while for me to beat it since I would play in short bursts, maybe one or two save points, whenever I could fit it in. Released way back in 2005 there isn’t much new to add to the discussion about it. I had a great time playing it and recommend it to anyone looking for an action game fix. Once it was over I really wanted more…

God of War II (PS2)

The PS2 didn’t even have time to cool down before I put in God of War II, I booted it immediately after the credits of the first came to a close. That being said I’m not very far in it yet since I’m still playing with the schedule that I used with the original. It’s great to be able to see the improvements made over the first game without having to wait through the actual development cycle. So far everything feels pretty epic. It’s probably going to be at least a month or so before I work my way all the way through.

Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II (PC)

Speaking of finishing games. I bought Dawn of War II on Steam and much to my surprise finished the campaign mode. I have to say I really enjoy breaking away from the normal RTS staple of base building. My favorite part of the game is the length of the missions. Most of the missions can be finished in fifteen minutes or so, some much faster if you push it. As usual though I haven’t had too much time to play multiplayer. I did get in a few games though and it was pretty fun. Once I’ve finished off some of these other games maybe I’ll dedicate more time to that.

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor (PC)

I was real excited for Tales of Valor to come out. I bought it on release day and waited through crap download speeds from Steam to get it. To be honest, I wish I had waited. It wasn’t until I reached the end of the first story arch, I was just getting into it starting to enjoy myself and just like that it was over. So, I started up the next chapter, I guess it could be called. I’m not sure how long it was but, before I know it, it was over. Ever since then I’ve been dreading going back to the game. There is one chapter left and I really just get it over with. Anyway, this one is a definite wait till the price drops release unless, your really into multiplayer CoH, which I’m not.

So, the Quake Live open beta has started today. Looks like today is not a good day to play.

My queue spot actually got higher as I was cropping this image and putting up this post – guess I’ll be playing Battlefield Heroes tonight.

As part of my Valentines Days gifts I recieved God of War, God of War II and Killzone. That’s right three old school PS2 games. With the God of War and Killzone sequals getting so much coverage, now seems like the perfect time for me to catch up on some more games that I’ve never played. Also, it’s nice to get three games and know that it won’t hit the wallet as much as say three new 360 titles. Thank you PS2 for helping us through these hard economic times.

So far, I’ve only put a little time into Killzone, since I’m going to work through each title before starting the next. Killzone, came out back in 2004 right around the time Halo 2 came out, in fact I think it was the same week. Since, I didn’t own a PS2 back then I didn’t really pay much attention. I do remember a fair amount of hype surrounding the game, can’t remember what the hype was about but, I do remember that the game didn’t quite live up to it in some reviewers eyes.

I’m only around thirty minutes into the game so it’s not fair to start judging it yet so we’ll have to wait and see how it goes. Maybe I’ll post a follow up after I make it through a couple of chapters. For now though it’s time to get back and fight off the invading Helghast forces.

It’s about time! I finally got a Quake Live beta invite. I got it earlier today so, I setup my account and installed the browser plug-in. Since, I was knee deep in work I left myself logged into the site and let the it cache around 280 megs of data. The data files are stored in C:Documents and Settings<profile name>Application Dataid Softwarequakelive.

Anyway, I had a chance to play through the ‘tutorial’ level during lunch. It started out very easy until, I had around 15 kills then the bot AI decided that to put up a fight. After that point, it was a hard fought game with the bot Crash closing the gap to 17-11. I also played a couple of short practice round on a few different maps. Practice rounds are easily setup with bots which will allow new comers to learn the map. Short games are nice too, ten minutes or ten frags – I could get used to that. I don’t think we’ll see too many short games during the beta but, we’ll see.

Replaying the tutorial level I found Crash remembered our previous battle and brought the fight right at the start of the match. After that all was left was to ruin my perfect standings in the game and join a live free for all match. It started off pretty going with my establishing a nice path around the map pretty quickly. At least that’s what I thought until some one who had obviously been playing Quake 3 since it was originally released. Going from zero to 15 in just a few minutes. Of course, part of his killing spree was hanging out sniping people with the rail gun – until I realized he was up there and ended that.

I’ve only seen one piece of advertising in the game so far and it’s an ad for a boxing match. I’m not sure it speaks to the demographic of the typical Quake player but, I’m no ad wizard so who knows.