GearWERKZ - the Other Half

I recently wrapped up my last 30-day rotation of gaming. I had a great time playing a few titles under this renewed effort to play fewer games in a more focused space. My new schema is not to play more than about 5 titles in a 30 day rotation. Over the last month's worth of gaming, I trudged through about half of the missions in the original Ghost Recon for the PC (played on the Acer Aspire Timeline 4810T), and about two dozen games in my San Jose Sharks dynasty in NHL 07 on the XBox 360. I had a blast.

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There are a few esrtwhile gamers who played Dragon Age: Origins. Alas, this is in my pile of games for the PC that I have yet to get around to. Bioware and EA have announced the sequel, Dragon Age II, and there will be some changes. Most importantly, gone will be the ability to select your own character, as you will be designated as a character named Hawke, much in the same vein that all of us were required to be Sheppard in Mass effect. My initial feeling about this is negative; I've even disliked the Bioware evolution from the Baldur's Gate lineage away from a party-based game to focus on a single character. Further shoe-horning gameplay into a single character of a specific name seems counter to the spirit of the Dungeons and Dragons license. Still, within Mass Effect you were given some options to make your Sheppard "your" Sheppard, and no two Sheppards are alike. We'll keep an eye on this one in the news column and see how it progresses. Release for Dragon Age: Origins II is slated for March of next year.

Source: 1up.com

I am not overly much a fan of games where you control one main character, but there is constantly another character on-screen that you pull off combo moves with. The additional character always seems like a distraction, and they tend to lend themselves to always getting in trouble and nearly killed, requiring your constant protection. But this game has a hoverboard, apparently, and Monkey is such a bad Leroy Brown that I have been intrigued about this title since its announcement. Under development by the same studio that brought us Heavenly Sword, this extra-character game might just have enough of a story and background world to make things interesting. Releases are planned for the XBox 360 and the Playstation 3. More news and the ability to play the game hands-on is expected at E3. Hit the link for a view of the latest trailer.

Source: GameInformer

Yes; I am such an old crusty gamer that I played the original Deus Ex. And now it is ten years hence or so and the third installment of the franchise is prepping to launch on the PC. I think there are some console relesases planned as well, but, hey...who cares about those? The Deus Ex franchise is a PC game at its core. Human Revolution promises to not make the same mistake as its predecessor, Invisible War, and get too diluted via design compromises made for the console versions. Eidos Montreal is handling the development of this title, and it promises a big world with multiple moral choices in the vein of Mass Effect. There is no question that the gameplay will be open on a significant scale, allowing players to pursue the missions they want in the ways they want when they want. Harkening back to the original, players can go in guns blazing (which admittedly typically worked out poorly in the original), sneak around, hack computer systems, or take various other paths to accomplishing thier mission. The game is pegged for a March 2011 release, and the link below has an interview with the game's director, Jean-Francois Dugan.

Source: GameSpot

There is a lot of gaming out there that I would like to get my hands on. Blur, Split Second, Red Dead Redemption...all are likely titles that I will probably wind up missing as my current window is too cluttered with serious things like work and getting married. Oh well, you have to sacrifice some things for the finer things in life. But in my spare time, I at least have some time to daydream about upcoming titles that might release when life is a little less...lifey.

I've never bought into all the hype that dictates that the only real Call of Duty are the ones done by Infinity Ward. Treyarch's last two installments in the franchise have been remarkable games of their own accord. I was a fan of Call of Duty 3 and enjoyed it just as much as any Infinity Ward titles. While I did not play World at War, every indication from various friends in the gaming world indicate that they enjoyed it immensely as well. With all of the politics out of the way, Treyarch has been given the nod as the premier Call of Duty studio working for their masters at Activision. I look forward to seeing how Treyarch does now that they are the starting player and Infinity Ward struggles to find its new identity.

OK. This series has been in production limbo so long that I am starting to get over my malaise at all of the hype, disappointment, excuses, and drama. With my inability and lack of time to play a lot of games, I now look forward to Gran Turismo 5 launching at a time when I am primed and ready for a new racer. My hopes are that the franchise gets back to its roots where tweaks and winning races are about more than just raw horsepower. They have a long way to go to catch the Forza franchise, which took these root beginnings of the Gran Turismo series and ran with them to a place where the Polyphony developers should have kept theirs.

On my playlist, I have resolved to only focus on 5 games per 30-day rotation. Right now the first two games on the list are Galaga (Xbox 360 Arcade download) and NHL 07 (XBox 360). It looks right now like the two other games to join this first tour of duty will be Ghost Recon (PC) and Just Cause (PC). If I am lucky the fifth title will be Icewind Dale II. Maybe once I start clearing some of my backlog I'll actually be able to play something more up-to-date. Game on.

- Vr/Z..>>

On the verge of Spring, I am prepping to shift my flag. This, as far as I know, will be the final chapter of the nomadic phase of my life, which has lasted some 20 years. But I am still gaming. New place, new address, but the game remains the same. I knocked off Call of Duty 2 this past weekend, getting completely caught off guard when the credits started to roll. I had no idea that the map I was playing was the title's end-game. I guess that supports my feeling that the CoD series single-player campaigns devolve into bouts of complete chaos with no clear relation to the inter-chapter cut-scenes

At any rate, that means that I am up for a new game for my 360. I recently picked up Left for Dead 2 since I finally played through all of the primary content of Project Gotham Racing 3. On the short list are the following games:

1. Dante's Inferno
2. Tekken 6
3. Forza Motorsport 3
4. Halo 3 ODST

I'll hold off on presenting the watchlist for my April game purchases until I report out on which one of these I pick up. The plan for April is to pick up two more titles for my PS3. In the meantime, I am still trudging through the last few chapters of my first run-through of Borderlands, and I finally got around to popping in Need for Speed: Shift. I can already tell that it will be my new addiction.

The track record of this year's GameWatch Lists so far? I picked up Assassin's Creed II for the 360 (vice the PC version that I was originally tracking). I was tracking Bayonetta over the holidays and did wind up purchasing that title. I have elected to skip Dark Void (because it is not that good) and MAG (because it is not so great that it warrants stretching my pockets to buy it).

That's it for now from the GameWatch. Until next time...

- Vr/Z..>>

It is just over two weeks into the calendar year 2010, and I have made my first two game purchases. My choices were Darksiders and Bayonetta, cover art picture above. I have not had a chance to play either yet. What I have been doing is spending a copious amount of time in Borderlands. While this title got off to a rocky start, I have progressed far enough in that i actually care about my character, their stats and gear, and the story I am trying to get through. I can see re-playing this particular title through several times, just to level my characters in different ways. I also put some time into Battlefield Bad Company this weekend, and earlier this week pounded through the first few hours of the single-player campaign in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. So it has been predominantly shooters that I have been into most recently.

For April, which is my next target game purchase month, it looks like I will be looking for two more titles for the PS3. Right now my watchlist for that system consists of the following titles:

MAG

Dark Void

Max Payne 3

Gran Turismo 5

That's all that I have to jot in the journal tonight; gotta put some more time in on Borderlands.
- Vr/Zeux..>>

It's been as pretty calm week at the 'WERKz. I spent most of the week working from the Main Tower, my first significant stint on it since doing a clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium. This weekend I am working from my TabletPC, an HP Elitebook 2730p, where I have another instance of Windows 7 installed (Professional 64-bit).

I got home Monday from my long weekend of eating Turkey and kicked back into my technology riff by putting in a couple of hours in my boxing career in Fight Night Round 3 on the PS3. Still addictive after 3 years. More interesting in the realm of gaming for me this week was my first tryout of legacy gaming in Windows 7. Under Vista, I found the stability in older games nearly atrocious. I was pleasantly amazed to find that not to be the case under Windows 7, at least in the case of Ground Control, a title released in the spring of 2000, just as I was wrapping up grad school and heading home for 30 days of leave.

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Crap. I really need to get around to updating my contact info on my GameSpot account. I've really backed off of the new-game buying in 2009, and as we round the corner into 2010, I am going to tweak it up a notch. Right now, the plan is to allow myself 5 game-purchase windows. One per quarter, with an additional "holiday" window in the 4th quarter. So I now need to get back to actually paying attention to more than just the two or three triple-A titles that are releasing each month. Since I am also in the process of face-lifting the 'WERKz, I figure I'll also get back to posting periodic updates to what I am keeping my eyes on game-release wise here, in the Gamer Journal.

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time tonight to kick off this new section of the 'WERKz, so I am going to make it quick with a few links to some coverage of the games I am tracking. I'll get back to adding some commentary on these as time goes on:

PS3:

GameSpot - ModNation Racers Hands-On

GameSpot - Bayonetta Demo

GameSpot - Just Cause 2 Hands-On

PC:

GameSpot - Napoleon: Total War - First Look

Gamespot - Assassin's Creed II Hands-On

GameSpy - Square Enix Doing All Cinematics for Deus Ex 3