Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC)

I’ve only spent about two hours with the Batman so far. Since, I’ve already played through the game once on the 360 I decided that this run through would be on the hardest difficulty. It’s very strange playing the game without a controller but, I’m getting used to it. It’s not a terribly long game so I’m hoping to actually get through it in a reasonable amount of time.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Beta/Demo (PC/360)

This past week EA released a PC beta and a 360 demo of “BFBC2″. Both versions are basically the same thing, having a single multi-player map and game mode. That hasn’t stopped me from sinking in a handful of hours with each and having a good bit of fun. I’ve never really followed the Battlefield series very closely, only playing a little of Battlefield 1942 quite a while ago. Anyway, I’ve been enjoying myself enough that I’m actually considering picking up the first game as well as pre-ordering from Steam. Playing on the 360 is fun and all but it just can’t match the quality of my PC.

Team Fortress 2 (PC)

I know two people that combined have about 700 hours of Team Fortress 2 play time. 700 hours! Hard to believe that I’ve only played just over 25 hours. I’ve been spending much more time with it lately, trying to unlock some of the Soldiers weapons. It took a bit of time but I did finally unlocked the Direct Hit, the rocket launcher with a faster firing rate but smaller splash damage. Why did I want it? That comes from my desire for a faster firing rocket, I’ve always been a fan of the Quake games so that may be where that comes from. Now, I just need to spend some time getting used to the new way of playing.

Anyway, that’s really it for this month, still working my way through some old games and not working my way through new ones.

Torchlight (PC)

I’m still slowly grinding my way through the gound below Torchlight. I had a bit of a setback when they released the Steamworks update since I needed to start over to get the new achievements.

Street Fighter IV (PC)

Just picked up Street Fighter today as part of the Steam holiday sale. $9.99 is just too good to pass up. Now I just need to get my PS3 controller working.

inFAMOUS (PS3)

I’ve managed to squeeze in a bit of inFAMOUS here and there. I’m not sure how far I am through the game though. Still enjoying it – it’s the only PS3 game I have at the moment so that’s good.

Happy New Year.

*Twenty Ten Update* The PC port is so good it’s just as cheap when you get to Seth as the 360 version.

[Insert the sound of a clicking mouse here.] I always have Diablo 2 installed and ready to go at a moments notice. Like many others I have a strange love for it’s click-y loot-fest. The problem is the game hasn’t aged very well and I say that as a fan of retro games. It’s main problem is that it’s forced to run in one resolution. Sure, there are ways around that but, then you can’t play on Battle.net. Well, now Torchlight is here to take care of that Diablo itch and it does so perfectly. I’ve been slowly working my way down into the depths below Torchlight, steadily clicking on a never ending stream of monsters and picking up their multicolored loot. The story is a bit slim but, that’s not really what the release was about as far as I can tell. It seems to be more of a vehicle to get Runic Games and the IP out into the public. Oh, and if it sells well of course it helps raise funds for the online version. Which I can’t wait for, I miss Mythos, that was a good time. Word on the street is that it will be back playable soon thanks to it’s new owners. Wonder if it will still be any good.

Borderlands (PC)

The fun of Borderlands seems to be falling through geometry and getting stuck. Alright, well that’s not exactly true, playing with friends is the best part of, even if most the time I have been under leveled. That’s alright though, I’ll take my over powered weapons and self back into my game and wipe up all the people who get in my way. I haven’t exactly finished the game yet even though I’ve seen the credits roll. Great game, it could have been truly awesome too, hopefully the sequel will fix the few small things I consider issues, most of which are cosmetic and non-game breaking (so far). Maybe once I’ve finally made it all the way through the story I’ll come back as say some more.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 (PC)

I had a chance to try Modern Warfare 2 a few days after it came out and what should have been a quick session, ended about five hours later when the credits rolled. I can’t really tell you much about the game, just that it was almost always “on”. The amount of crazy stuff that was going down was mind boggling. I don’t remember the first one being quite so insane. I think what I need to do is going and actually pick up a copy instead of looting a friends, then play through both games back to back. Then maybe I’ll have the story gaps filled in. That and I’ll get to play some multi-player, I love Modern Warfare’s so I’m betting this will be just as good.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360)

The day after I played through Modern Warfare 2 I decided it was time that I finally when back and actually finished playing Modern Warfare. As it turned out, I only had like 20 minutes of game play left. So, I wrapped that up and that’s all I have to say about that.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (360)

I had a $25 gift card for Best Buy so I picked up a copy. I’ve only played for a little while and probably won’t be finishing it any time soon.

Back in the beginning of September I had a chance to finally sit down and play some of the Aion open beta. I had been kind of following the development and wanted to get in and play. Once the open beta started I set aside a few hours to see what the buzz was about. Overall, I wasn’t super impressed. Sure, the game looked nice but, it didn’t really grab me. Honestly, I already knew I wasn’t going to be buying the game since I don’t play MMO’s with monthly fees. It just wouldn’t make any sense when I already seem to struggle to find the time to play. Anyway, I managed to work my character up to level 12 or 13. During my play session I mostly saw the same old MMO-ish stuff “kill x of y” and “fetch” quests. Another thing that kind of disappointed me was the large wall of text at the opening of some of the quests, most people probably won’t even read it, other quests had a brief cut scene that didn’t seem all that great to me. I did have a fun time playing it just wasn’t enough to convince me to pay for the game and then the monthly fee. Maybe I’ll give it another shot once it goes free to play.

Scribblenauts (DS)

Scribblenuats has done something no other DS game has managed to do so far – convince Kris to pick it up and turn it on. I showed her the game one night and the next day she’s wandered into my office asking where the DS is. For me the game got old really fast, I probably won’t ever pick it up again, and Kris has since moved on to Peggle DS. So is Scribblenauts her gateway to gaming? Probably not, I think it just shows what a good concept the game was too bad it’s so boring. Oh, and Kris just unlocked Peggle Nights.

Plants vs Zombies (PC)
A friend of mine has been playing Plants vs. Zombies for quite a while now. Well, not as much playing now as tending to his Zen Garden. For some reason I had resisted picking it up from Steam. I’m not sure why, I just never bought it. Browsing through my RSS feeds while on a conference call the other day I read that PopCap had released a Flash version of the game. It was then that I realized this is the perfect work companion so, I immediately bought it through Steam. I finished my first run through adventure mode a few minutes ago.

The Witcher (PC)
Seeing the leaked video of The Witcher 2 made me want to jump back in and continue working my way through the game. It’s such a good action RPG, I really need to finish it up. I spent a couple of hours working my way through a few quests I had open. I’ve still got a way to go in the game but I’m working on it.

Persona 3 FES (PS2/PC)
The day before picking up Plants vs Zombies I found myself with some downtime at work and really wanted to play some Persona. However, I didn’t feel like dragging out the spare TV and setting it up in the office. I knew I should have bought that TV tuner card. So, I made an ISO out of my Persona 3 FES disc and started playing with the latest build of PCSX2. I didn’t even play too far in since I really wanted to continue the game I have already started but still too lazy to drag the TV into the office. Now I’ve got too saves and still have 100+ hours of RPG to go through…

Dominion (Tabletop)

I’ve been hearing about Dominion and never really knew what to think about it after all, the descriptions I heard were pretty odd. Well, I finally had a chance to sit down and play a couple of games and it was pretty fun. Fun enough in fact that we may even play it again.

Fallout 3 (PC)

I’ve got two quests left in the main game, the last story line quest and the one known as Nuka-Cola Challenge. I haven’t played in since I reached that point, the benefit to playing the game so far after release is that I know that the end of the game is not that great something the Broken Steal download-able content tries to take care of. Not playing is taking it’s toll on me though, I really just want to jump back in and run through the wastes some more. Hopefully, the add-ons will be released one Steam once the Game of the Year edition comes out.

Dawn of War Gold (PC)

Once, I put Fallout on hold I switched over to some real time strategy. Having already beaten the single player campaign in Dawn of War 2 I figured now was a good time to go back and see the beginning. It’s a great game, I didn’t even mind the base build and tech trees. Graphics wise everything holds up pretty well, even though I had to manually set the resolution to 1680×1050 and it didn’t stretch. I almost wish I had kept a bit more track of how long it took me to play through, it felt like the first campaign flew right by. I quickly moved on to the second campaign and unfortunately it didn’t quite grab me the way the first did. I think it’s because I wasn’t really expecting it to introduce a new faction and force me to flip between playing that faction and one of the others. I’ve put it on hold for a little bit…

PAX (RL)

OK, so PAX isn’t actually taking place in August and neither is this post so… It’s coming up this weekend and I’ll be taking the short trip up with a couple friends to see what all the buzz is about. Just what I need a bunch of new games that I may not get to play for months.

I swore I would finish up a couple of game – I did. But, what happened instead? Fallout 3 went on sale on Steam a couple of weeks ago, and I couldn’t pass it up. Now, I’m 48 hours into that and the few titles I was hoping to finish before starting something else haven’t been touched since. To make matters worse I also picked up Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 and it’s sequel Earned in Blood, when they were on sale, adding two more games to the pile. At this rate it’s looking like I’m never going to finish another game – ever – and as proof of this concept, I bought the Dawn of War: Platinum Edition pack this morning. Please, Steam/Valve stop making it so easy to buy games.

I loved Oblivion when it came out so it’s not too much of a surprise that I’m enjoying Fallout. It also helps that I’ve got a couple of friends playing at the same time, we’ve had a couple discussions which really highlight the many possible ways to play the game. Each of us have employed a different play style which has lead seeing the story progress differently. Ultimately, the main game story line leads to the same place (which is tweaked a bit with the addition of the Broken Steal add-on) but, it’s nice to see a few of the paths to get there.

I purchased the PC version of the game and just before starting it I looked around the internet hoping to find some sort of journal style add-on so I could have the game keep track of what was going on. The idea was to keep a log of sorts here on the site as I played through. I wasn’t able to find one unfortunately so, that never happened. Anyway, even as I’m closing in on the end of the main story line Bethesda has just released the fifth (and final?) add-on, Mothership Zeta. I really want to check that out but, I’m not really happy with having to buy the downloadable content from Games for Windows Live. It’s the “Microsoft Points” I just can’t stand the thought of using them. I’ve never even bought any add-ons from the 360 Live service. Hopefully, when the Game of the Year edition of Fallout 3 is released on Steam we’ll be giving access to the DLC either for free or through Steam itself at a discounted price. Of course, I’ve got a bunch of other games I should be playing before I even thing about starting on the DLC.

*update*

Forgot to mention, I also picked up Men of War last weekend.

God of War II (PS2)

Having to walk into the living room to use the PS2 has proved difficult over the last couple of weeks as I’m not much further in God of War II then when I last wrote about it. If I don’t get back to it soon I’m going to have to add it to the unfinished pile.

The Witcher (PC)

I’ve spent most of the month working my way through The Witcher. I had started playing a while back but, when I moved everything over to my new computer I had some issues with my save games. Which was kind of annoying but, I was able to catch back up to where I was in no time. The recently announced update brought the game to the front of my unfinished games list. This is one that I’m sure I’ll be able to squeeze in enough time over the next week or so to finish it up. I’ve just begun chapter 3, out of a total of five, and am still really enjoying the game. I’m glad that I decided to get back into this – it’s a great game.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS)

Atlus US has just released it’s first Shin Megami Tensei game onto the DS. I’ve spent a little bit of time with it and so far it’s been pretty good. In the beginning it feels kind of like The World Ends With You but that passes pretty quickly once the game gets moving. I haven’t really played enough to pass judgment on it yet but, I can say I fused a Jack Frost yesterday. I have a feeling it’s going to turn into a major grind game but, I’m going to try and stick it out.

So, now I’m a bit concerned, I have done anything to the system since last playing so I defragment the hard drive that all my Steam games reside on. Checking it this morning I find I still have the same problem – and then the game is deleted. I figure I can re-download it quickly enough but, might as well do it during work. Fast forward to lunch time and giving it another shot. Upon start up I still have the same stuttering intro movie. Once in game I again attempt a stealth kill with the same results as before. Now, I’m starting to get a little worried – have I fried my video card already? That couldn’t be it after all, everything else runs fine. Deciding it might be time to see what the Steam forums have to say. I quickly find a post labeled “SOLUTION to Freezing while killing” right on the top of the Assassin’s Creed forum which details what is going on. Apparently, when ever the player attempts a stealth kill (or counter or picks up a flag or saves) the game attempts a connection to Ubisoft servers. Yes, it appears that as part of the games DRM the game is phoning home in an attempt verify it’s legit. Only problem is something has been up with the servers the last few days and they haven’t been responding properly resulting in stuttering while the game tries to sort out whats going on.

Luckily, the fix is to simply add the IP addresses of the servers into the hosts file making them redirect to the localhost. Computer gaming and DRM at it’s finest – thanks Ubi!

According to Steam I currently own 76 games. Out of those games there are 22 titles that have a clear start and an end, which I have yet to finish. There are a couple I do want to get back to like, Beyond Good and Evil, Indigo Prophecy and definitely The Witcher. The others I want to finish at some point I’m just not in a rush to get back to them. On the PS2 side of things I really need to finish up ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, as well as Killzone. Then there are games I doubt I’ll ever actually finish, like Persona 3 (not to mention FES), Persona 4 and Devil Summoner 2. I just don’t have the time to give Atlus titles what they deserve. I feel a bit better about not working on Persona 4 that much more since I’ve caught a few random episodes of Giant Bomb’s Endurance Run.

I need to check out the Xbox 360 back catalog and see if there are some console exclusives that I want to go back and play. I say console exclusives because lately due to Steam, and buying a new computer, I’ve finally swung back around to being more of a PC gamer. Not that I ever stopped playing games on the PC it’s just that I find myself turning on my 360 less and less. Also, I have to figure by the time I pick up a PS3 it will probably have a OK library of exclusives as well. I’m thinking maybe I’ll do a full catalog of games I haven’t finished and start forcing my way through.

Oh, and I did pick up Mirror’s Edge… so the Steam game count is up to 77.