GearWERKZ - the Other Half

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