Split/Second

Date played: April 30th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 145 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

After playing some Ridge Racer 3D, I got the urge to pop in Split/Second.  I played through about five events, including a crazy race that had me avoiding explosive barrels that were being dropped by a giant 18 wheeler truck.

Yep, shit blows up in this game.

I also unlocked two new tracks for quick play.  This is great news because the last time I played this in split screen, we ran out of tracks to play very quickly and had to replay previous tracks.  I also got stumped on a time trial event using a little pickup truck.  It took precise driving, no braking and about fifteen attempts before I got it.

The problem with this event is that the truck has low acceleration so hitting a wall pretty much means I won't get first place.  I then played some more events and got stuck on another time trial later on.  Clearly, these time trials are the toughest events to get first place in.  They do help to learn the tracks and power plays.  I love this game, I just wish there was people to play it online with (and that PSN was working for that matter).

Soul Calibur IV

This is one killer pirate!

Date played: April 30th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 30 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played SCIV against my girlfriend for a little while.  She doesn't really know how to play but since I'm not very good, it doesn't seem to make a big difference.  She beat me handsomely with Kilik and a few times with Voldo.

She's a button masher but it works against someone like me who is trying to learn the moves but doesn't actually know them.  I did beat her most of the time but it was closer than I thought it would be.

Oh yeah and Cervantes is one bad ass motherfucker.

Ridge Racer 3D

Date played: April 30th
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 20 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

Cute girls never know when to shut up

FINALLY!  I played three races to unlock faster cars, after about five hours of playing.  The faster cars (category 3) are definitely more fun to play and I can instantly feel the speed difference.  Other than that, the announcer is still as annoying as ever and I haven't figured out a way to turn her off.

Also, I saw a vehicle in category 3 that reminded me of Split/Second which I promptly played right after Ridge Racer.

LittleBigPlanet 2

Date played: April 30th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 60 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played a few levels of LBP 2 with my girlfriend today.  We are making our way through story mode and are in a world where it's all about vegetation.  One thing that always pisses us off is that you never know if you have the sticker to put on those special panels to open up new areas.  Sometimes you have it already, sometimes it's inside the level you're in and sometimes it's in a later level.  Pretty frustrating mechanic.

Giant flaming carnivorous plant of death

One level that stood out was a minigame.  Basically, We had to control two copies of our sackmen at the same time to navigate two mazes.  It was a really cool concept that took my girlfriend a while to grasp but we got through it eventually.  Oh yeah, we also destroyed a giant flaming carnivorous plant.  Good times.

Unfortunately, we still can't play online due to PSN being down.

Halo Reach

Date played: April 29th
Platform: Xbox 360
Time played: 40 minutes
Session fun rating: 7/10

I had an itch for some competitive online shooting and unfortunately, PSN is still down after a full week so I couldn't play Black Ops or possibly try Crysis 2's multiplayer so I went back to my 360.  It's been a long time since I even turned it on. In fact, I think the last time was January 29th when I played a bit of Scott Pilgrim.

Part of a healthy breakfast online match

I played two matches of Big Team Battle.  The first was capture the flag on Spire.  I was rusty as hell.  I forgot some of the controls (I zoomed in on a guy instead of punching him in the face) and it took me a bit to get back into it.  The second match was Team Deathmatch on Paradiso.  I did better on this map but I think the other team was very bad so that helped.  I had some good fights mostly while using the DMR.  That thing is one of the most fun default weapons in first person shooter history.  It's accurate, easy to use and balanced.

Until PSN is back up, I guess I might spend more time on my 360.... Oh yeah and I dug out my trusty Tritton AX720's to listen to the racist and homophobic children of Xbox Live.

Flower

Date played: April 28th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 20 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

I'll be honest, the only reason I decided to replay Flower for a few minutes is because it's one of the only games I have that I can play with one hand.  Now, don't go and think I was masturbating with the other hand, the actual reason is because my daughter is sick and I had to hold her for pretty much the whole day.  I needed a small break while still being able to hold a child.  Sad I know.

Grab a seat, chill out.  Welcome to Flower!

Anyway, I played the first two levels and I really took my time.  I just love Flower.  It's relaxing, simple and easy to play.  While I won't satisfy my competitive and challenging gaming needs, Flower does fill a void that not many other games can fill.

Also, I'm still wondering why there aren't more games on PS3 that take advantage of the motion controls built into the controller.  Sure the motion controls aren't super precise like Wii Motion Plus or Playstation Move but they can still add some interesting control mechanics to other games.

Playing this also made me excited to play Journey again, the upcoming game from the same developer.

Crysis 2

Date played: April 27th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 120 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

Ok, I have to give a bit of context as to why I'm playing Crysis 2.  I've recently completed Portal 2 and I didn't really feel like going back to Resistance 2.  I was at the store browsing the games and I almost got Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions.  Then I looked at Killzone 3 but didn't feel like playing another super linear shooter like Call of Duty or Resistance 2.  Then it hit me.  Crysis 2 is on consoles.

Goofy looking suit, great game

The game is amazing so far.  The graphics are really spectacular (the framerate is not perfect though) and the presentation is great.  I've played about four levels I think and I'm impressed.  I'm not sure I understand the story too much but I don't care, I'm here for the action.  As crazy as this might sound, Crysis 2 actually feels a lot like Halo in a way.  It's got aliens, big jumps, open environments and vehicles.

Of course, there is also the nanosuit.  The nanosuit was a bit tough to use in the first game because you had to activate the powers individually and it was difficult to use two skills in sequence.  This is all addressed in the sequel where your powers can be activated at the touch of a button.

The shooting feels great and that's really the most important part of any first person shooter.  I can't wait to play some more.

Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition

Date played: April 27th
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 30 minutes
Session fun rating: 6/10

Well, I sucked today.  I don't know what it was, maybe it's because I was somewhat sick and tired....  I won against a spammy Zangief player.  He didn't really block and was always rushing me so I just kept my distance and used Yoga Fire and Yoga Blast to get him off me when he was too close.

Then I played against an Adon player and it was the first time I saw that character in action.  He's tricky, he has some weird long range kicks and has a lot of tricks that play with range.  He beat me but it was pretty close.

Oily motherfucker.

The next guy is where I got frustrated.  The guy was using Hakan, another new character to me.  That guy...wow.  He pissed me off.  He was sliding around like a mad man and had some devastating jumping combos.  Hakan is this wrestler type that covers his body in oil (ewww) to make his body slippery.  He then slides around the level and even slides the other character around his body.  While utterly disgusting, I have to admit it was effective and I couldn't find a good strategy to beat him in three matches.

Ghost Recon Shadow Wars

Date played: April 26th
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 35 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

Gruff men and high tech weaponry, sounds like Tom Clancy

This mission was pretty interesting.  My team of Ghosts is trying to access an underground facility of some kind for some reason (I don't really care for the story in this game....)  and has to clear out the area.  This is one of the first levels where there are definite branching routes which made things a bit more interesting.

The game also introduces switches to disable enemy turrets and doors that need to have one member stand in a specific spot to open it.  These sound like minor details but it did change how I approached the mission quite a bit.

Also, most of my characters now have a secondary weapon, usually grenades.  I'm not really used to it yet so I sometimes forget I even had grenades in the first place.  I've also started to use a special ability that allows a character to act twice in one turn.  It was very useful for this mission since I often had to send out one member to a remote area so I used the ability on them so that they could get back in the action quicker.  At the end of the mission, two suspicious men ran away and blocked the entrance I was going to use to reach...whatever I'm looking for.

Portal 2

Date played: April 25th and 26th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 240 minutes
Session fun rating: 10/10

I finished Portal 2.

I played a lot in two days and I got to play with gel that speeds you up, white gel that lets you make portals on it and vortex funnels that create paths.

I don't want to spoil anything but the puzzles were amazing, not too easy, not too hard.  The characters were fantastic and hilarious and the story was really good.  It's hard to talk about the ending without spoiling it but it was one of the best endings I've ever played.  Oh yeah and it ties into the coop campaign too which was a surprise to me.

Actually, Portal 2 is easily one of the best games I've played in a loooooooooong time.  Let's just say that I think this is Valve's best game yet and that I hope we get to see more of the portal gun in the future.

SPAAAAAAACE

There was also a cool song at the end, just like Portal 1.  The song wasn't as catchy as the first one but it was still very entertaining and had a great melody.

Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition

Date played: April 25th
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 30 minutes
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played a few online matches with nothing special to report.  I won some, I lost some, all is well.

The surprise of the day came at the end of my session where I played against a Juri.  Me and the other person were very evenly matched.  He won the first two (by a cunt hair) and I won the last one.  It was extremely satisfying to play against someone who doesn't spam Lite moves and is not much better or much worse than me.

Juri has this thing where she taunts the other player if she is hit while taunting, she launches a strong counter attack.  I had to abuse my teleport and long reach to even make a dent.  It doesn't seem like she has a lot of HP though so when I could throw in a few strong hits, it took out a good chunk of her health bar.  I really enjoyed playing against this person, it was refreshing to play someone with good sportsmanship.  Oh yeah, I think his name was "Dont_Spam" or something like that.  Word brother.

Purple laser eye of death

Also, Juri has a really cool Ultra move.

Krazy Kart Racing

Date played: April 25th
Platform: Android - Samsung Galaxy S
Time played: 10 minutes
Session fun rating: 3/10

This game is pretty damn good for a mobile phone game but it's pretty bad compared to games like Mario Kart and Modnation Racers.  The reason I even played this is because I was trying to distract my crying 11 month old daughter.  :-)

The graphics are pretty good and the game runs at 60 FPS.  Impressive.

So I played through a simple four race championship and won even when I placed 3rd and 4th in two of the races.  This game features Konami characters so I naturally gravitated towards Goemon, a blue haired kid that holds a precious piece of my childhood.  I don't know if different characters have different stats but I don't think it would matter anyway as the gameplay is very shallow.

This is a typical cell phone racing game that controls by tilting.  There is a button for brakes on screen (I never used it) and a button to use items.  This is basically shitty Mario Kart.  It's a great distraction for a mobile game though.

Pilotwings Resort

Date played: April 24th
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 30 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

I popped in Pilotwings while watching hockey on TV.  It seems like I'm using my 3DS a lot for short play sessions and it's been very effective at getting to play a game quickly and still have fun without being shallow like most games on my phone or something.

Go Go Gadget Mii!

I played 6 missions in the silver tier.  I am going for three stars on all missions so far so I did have to replay a few missions before getting a good enough score.  I also tried out two cool new devices.  The jet and the squirrel suit.

The jet is just like the plane but much faster and a bit tougher to control.  The mission was pretty simple but the speed made it a bit more difficult than the rest.  The squirrel suit is fucking cool too.  The mission starts you off at very high altitude and you have to free fall to the goal.  You can gain distance by gliding and gain speed by diving.  It was actually really fun and I hope there is more of this funny contraption in future missions.

There was also a cool mission where I had to follow a car on the ground and pop balloons that were coming out of it with my little plane.  It was a nice change of pace.

By finishing the silver tier, I unlocked new things to collect in free flight and the gold tier.  Let's see if this game gets too frustrating for me to keep going for three stars on every mission!

Portal 2

Date played: April 24th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 40 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

I FOUND IT!

I played more of the single player game and I think I am somewhere in chapter 7.  I solved more cool puzzles and discovered a little bit more about Aperture and Glados.

There is one thing that happened that I thought was just amazing.  The last time I played, I was stuck at a puzzle that I messed around with for about 10-15 minutes without solving it.  I stopped playing and when I restarted the puzzle today, I solved it in about 20 seconds.

I think it's great that a game can throw me off like that for a pretty long period and then after a mental break, I find that the solution was just sitting in my face the whole time.  It creates an "Eureka!" moment and is immensely satisfying.

So far, this is the best game I've played this year.

Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition

Date played: April 23rd
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 60 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

Dhalsim casts Yoga Flame.  It's super effective!

Well, I did pretty good today.  I beat a decent Ryu a few matches in a row, I got destroyed by a high ranked Dan and got frustrated at a Guile spammer.

Guile is cool and all but in other games, he had to charge his moves for a second or so before he could Flash Kick or Sonic Boom.  With Lite controls, many Guile players just spam Sonic Boom and if you get closer, they just Flash Kick.  Even after a well timed teleport from my part, I still got owned by Flash Kick.  Oh!  I also discovered how useful Yoga Flame is against Blanka.  Stupid green electric jumping beastman.

I actually won more than I lost this time so I feel pretty good about my skills right now but I still need to improve a lot against certain types of characters.  Also, I'm not sure why but one guy had set up 30 second 1 round matches.  I've never played anything more boring.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Date played: April 23rd
Platform: DS
Time played: 30 minutes
Session fun rating: 6/10

New Djinn!

My 3DS was sitting next to me while I was waiting for the intermission to end in the NHL playoff game I was watching so I decided to pop Golden Sun in to pass the time.

I went through a part of the dungeon that leads to the village of Passaj.  There was a new mechanic introduced where some of the blocks in the environment can be lifted by a whirlwind spell.  Oh yeah and I got a new earth Djinn.  Yay!

It allowed for a few new puzzles that were pretty interesting.  The fights have become boring though as regular enemies are too weak to make things fun.  I expect to enjoy myself again once tougher enemies and bosses show up.

You Don't Know Jack

Winnar!

Date played: April 23rd
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 20 minutes
Session fun rating: 5/10

I just played a quick game of You Don't Know Jack with my girlfriend.

I won.

That is all.

Portal 2

Date played: April 22nd
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 150 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

Whoa, MAJOR plot twist!  I will not spoil the game but let it be known that I was shocked at the turn of events.  The game is really starting to open up now as the areas are MUCH bigger than the little test chambers and I found myself using the zoom function to place portals.

Before all that, there were some cool levels where I was trying to sabotage Glados's turret factory.  The solution was pretty clever actually.

Also, a new character was introduced and he's been pretty funny so far.  I am starting to see the history of Aperture Science and it's been very interesting.  Oh yeah and now there are puzzles that involve a "bouncy" gel that really complicates things.  Once again, the more tired I was, the tougher the puzzles were.  I got stuck on one that involves blue bouncy gel and an exit that seems to be just a little bit too far away.

Bouncy gel!

I'll figure it out, I just need to rest my brain.  It seems like I either think with portals (win) or I don't (lose) depending on my state of mind.  Unfortunately, PSN is still down so I wasn't able to play more coop yet.

LittleBigPlanet 2

Date played: April 22nd
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 60 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

More coop with my girlfriend this morning.  We got through the "sci-fi" world by beating a boss in flying bee mounts.  The bees are really cool and fun to use as it feels like a side-scrolling shooter similar to Defender.  We had to transport sackbots with our bees and we had to navigate dangerous tunnels.

The story is getting worse and worse as it develops.  I don't like the voice actors, the characters or the plot.  Neither does my girlfriend BTW.  There was another awesome level where we controlled giant caterpillars from a top-down perspective.  They control well and the level was so much fun that we played it three times in a row!

Caterpillars!!!

Portal 2

Date played: April 21st
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 45 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

Turrets, cute but deadly

More single player puzzles.  More gadgets.  More brain-numbing.  I was tired so I think it's why I got stuck at a room with a bunch of lasers and reflective cubes.

Turrets were also introduced and it turns out that light bridges can make great shields against bullets.  I LOVE this game but I need my brain to be refreshed before I play again and solve this puzzle.

Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition

My weapon

Date played: April 20th, 21st and 22nd
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 40 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

This game is great for playing while watching Netflix or TV.  I can play a quick match or just mess around with my StreetPass figurines.  I am getting better now that I have assigned new move to my Lite touch pad shortcuts.  I beat a Ibuki player multiple times in a row.  I think he was really new though, he wasn't doing focus attacks and was not blocking much.  I also had some close fights with a Blanka and a Cammy.

Guile is still causing me problems.  I think it's because people who use Lite controls don't have to charge their Flash Kicks and Sonic Booms.  Anyway, I had some close fights with the guy but he won 2/3 matches.

I also played against a good Rose player who beat me and I beat the same guy when he used Seth.  Oh yeah and I tried Ken again but wasn't very successful, I prefer to have good range.

Portal 2

Date played: April 19th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 150 minutes
Session fun rating: 10/10

Portal 2 is simply amazing.  I had been waiting for it for a while and I just LOVED the first Portal.  I don't want to spoil it so I'll keep this post short but let's just say that Portal 2 is already much better than the first game.

I played about 90 minutes of the single player game.  The opening sequence is fantastic.  There is another sequence involving a robot/AI that is just breathtaking but I don't want to spoil it for anyone.  Suffice is to say, the puzzles are clever, the story is great, the environments look very different than the first game and the addition of new mechanics adds a lot to the game.  I have already had to deal with reflective cubes, lasers, light bridges and jump pads.

I also played some co-op with a friend of mine and that was interesting to say the least.  I had the tall skinny orange robot and she had the small chubby blue robot.  It turns out that coordinating four portals is no small feat.  Also, I am definitely not trustworthy as I have killed my partner intentionally on multiple occasions.  This actually prompted some funny retorts from the AI in charge of our training.

I'm the dude on the left

I should also add that I want Steam on every PS3 game now.  It was faster than the XMB and chatting was easy, even with a controller.

Resistance 2

Date played: April 16th and 17th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 120 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

Well, I went through a giant mothership, blew it up, landed in Ohio (or was it Idaho?), killed some Chimera that came out of eggs and battled three giant Chimera with rockets.

This looks a LOT like the level I played on the Mothership

Honestly, I love this game.  It feels a little bit too much like trial and error but I don't really mind.  Shit, I love Super Meat Boy and that is nothing but trial and error.  I'm probably not going to play Resistance 2 for a bit as I have Portal 2 now waiting for me to jump into.  Still, I intend to finish Resistance once I have downtime again.

Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars

Date played: April 16th and 17th
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 60 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

I love turned based games.  Civilization, Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, etc.  My first was actually a very unknown title for PS1, Kartia.  I thought it was a JRPG like Final Fantasy or Earthbound but it turned into my first crush on a turn based strategy RPG.  It had cool anime, nice music and a weird thing where people would use magic cards to make tea and such.  It had a very simple rock-paper-scissors kind of gameplay but it got me hooked on the genre.

My first strategy RPG love.

Here I am, more than ten years later, playing Ghost Recon Shadow Wars.  I am still being introduced to characters.  I played two missions, the first was a mission about taking out mobile SAM turrets.  I failed the last time I tried.  This time I took my time and waited for my team to move together and succeeded handsomely.

The next mission I was introduced to a spy type character and an engineer type character.  The spy is really cool as she can attack without provoking return fire.  The engineer has a very strong turret that can be dropped on the field.  He seems powerful but defensive.  The mission was simple as it was more a tutorial than a real mission.

The next mission was the first where I had to choose 4 out of my 6 ghosts to defend a building.  I chose the engineer for his turret, the medic to keep everyone alive, the gunner to hold down the building and the sniper for damage.  It was a cool mission because I had to kind of hole up in this little building and defend it from four fronts.

Ridge Racer 3D

Date played: April 16th
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 20 minutes
Session fun rating: 7/10

My favorite car so far.

I just played three or four races between periods of the Montreal-Boston NHL game.  I really like this game in a disposable kind of way.  My relationship with Ridge Racer is similar to the slutty girl I can always call when I need some booty.  Reliable, available, easy, non-committal and fun but ultimately, shallow.

I've also started using the quad-nitrous option which gives me more flexibility when boosting.  I'm not sure if I like it yet.  Either way, I'm loving my time with RR, I just wish it would get on with it and give me faster cars.

Soul Calibur IV

Maxi, you so sexay

Date played: April 16th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 10 minutes
Session fun rating: 4/10

I felt like playing a fighting game on console so I decided to give Soul Calibur's online play a try.  It turns out that either there is no one playing this or the matchmaking is broken.  It took multiple attempts before I got into a real game then I wasn't able to find a second one after that.

The match I played was against Maxi, the nunchuk wielding weirdo.  I, of course, played Astaroth.  The other guy beat me but it was actually really close the whole match.  Astaroth has more range than people expect.  I wish I could have played more but it was not to be.

Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition

Lag sucks.

Date played: April 15th
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 40 minutes
Session fun rating: 7/10

More online matches, more lag.  I'm not sure if I'm playing with people that are far away or if I was just unlucky but most of my games today were laggy and difficult to play.

I did win a few rounds against a Bison player but I'm struggling a bit overall.  Most of my matches are really close but I seem to choke at the last minute.

Either way, I have nothing else to add, still love this game!

Civilization V

Date played: April 15th
Platform: PC
Time played: 240 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

GIANT DEATH ROBOT!  FUCK YEAH!

Fuck, fuck, FUCK!   Fuuuuuuuuuuuck!

This game is like fucking crack. I spent a solid four hours straight until like 2:30 in the morning which meant I was extremely tired for work this morning.  I will not get caught doing this again.....probably.  On the bright side, I won my game as the Siam.  It was a cultural victory which means I've accumulated enough culture to max out five policies and I built the corresponding wonder.  While this makes me sound very peaceful, I actually got into a giant war with the Romans and the Mongols.

Basically, when I got powerful enough, I started pumping out a lot of units and improving city defense.  I had lots of skirmishes with the Romans until I decided to screw my political standing and start using nukes.  I slowly took over the continent I was on until there was only one city-state left.

There is also a new unit that is very strong, versatile and just plain awesome.  The cherry on top?  They are called Giant Death Robots.  Fuck yeah.  I used these guys to finish off the other civs.
I think next time I play I will build a smaller, more focused empire.  I'm thinking scientific victory or something.  Either way, I am going to have to catch up on sleep this weekend.

Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition

Do I need one of these giant batteries?

Date played: April 14th
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 20 minutes
Session fun rating: 6/10

I just played a few matches online and then my battery died.  I got beat by a sliver of health against a Blanka player.  Then as I was about to win against someone else (I forget their character) and while I was delivering the final blow with an Ultra combo, the guy disconnected.  Honorless prick.

The last match I was doing well against a Cammy and had won the first round when my battery died.  I also spent some time unlocking figurines and optimizing my StreetPass team.  We'll see how well that works.

Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition

Date played: April 13th
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 40 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

I have to start with a little disclaimer....  The NHL playoffs started last night.  That means I probably won't really play console games as much.  It's also the reason I played Street Fighter as it's easy to pick up and play a few matches during intermission.

My new nemesis

I also managed to play online against my friend.  Before talking about the matches we had, I have to spend some time to complain about how shitty communication between people is on this system.  I have this guy on my friends list right?  There is absolutely no way to send him a message of any kind.  I cannot invite him to a match from the game, I can't even let him know that I want to play.  When I saw he was online and playing SF, I had to go into the internet match section and try the "Friends Lobby" option to see if he had created a lobby and was waiting for me to join.

This is pretty much 1998 or something.  I hope this is something that Nintendo will fix in a firmware update as this is ridiculous.

I also had a little update from our StreetPass figurine fights.  I only won one of the five little matchups but that's because I had not set my figurines as I wanted yet.  I have a much better setup today so we'll see who wins tonight.

The actual matches we had were lots of fun.  My friend only plays Guile and I almost exclusively play Dhalsim.  I'm getting much better but I still have trouble pulling off the dragon punch motion with the joystick and the d-pad is too low on the 3DS for me to use comfortably.  That means I couldn't really do my teleports.  Either way, our matches were mostly very close.  The key with Dhalsim is to play the range game.  If I can keep Guile at bay, I can win.  If not, I lose.  Now that I have mapped teleport to one of the lite buttons, I should be able to win a bit more often.

I also played a few online matches, got destroyed by a Zangief and had a few close matches against a Cammy.  I can't wait to see how well my little figurines do with StreetPass.

Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition

Date played: April 12th
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 30 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

My friend bought this game and showed it to me.  I know Street Fighter, I love Street Fighter but I didn't think I wanted to play more Street Fighter.  It turns out it's a very very good version of the game.  It runs well, plays well and looks great.  I didn't play SSFIV on consoles but I did play a lot of plain old regular SFIV and I forgot how much I love the mechanics in this series.

The bottom screen makes ultra moves easy!

The 3D isn't a big deal at all here as it doesn't really add or detract from the experience.  The joystick on the 3DS works well for this game.  The biggest addition to the game for 3DS is the inclusion of four touch buttons in the lower screen that are basically shortcuts to special moves, super moves and ultra moves.  It makes it really easy to pull off the tougher moves that would be frustrating due to this being a handheld.

I played some matches online and was mildly successful.  The first match was extremely laggy and unplayable.  I lost but it was closer to a stop motion movie than a fighting game due to lag.  The second guy I played was a much more enjoyable experience.  There was almost no lag at all.

He was a Cammy user and I was using Dhalsim, my go-to character.  He won the first two matches but then I kind of got back into my groove and remembered some of the techniques I was using in SFIV to win.  I then won the third and fourth matches by keeping my distance and blocking better.  He won the last match and I decided that was enough for the night.

I also took a quick look at the figurine StreetPass feature and it looks really interesting.  I bought a bunch of figurines with my pedometer-won coins and set up a team.  Me and my friend will have our figures fight at work when we StreetPass each other!

Civilization V

Date played: April 12th
Platform: PC
Time played: 140 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

Oh my God make it stop!   PLEASE NO, ENOUGH!  I'll do anything, just don't hook me on Civ again!!  I want to LIVE damnit!  *sigh*

Back off mofo

Well, it seems I've fallen into the rabbit hole of Civilization again.  I actually brought my Civ up to the 1960's now after more than two solid hours of play.  I am focusing on a culture victory but it seems like I am simply not going to make it within the time limit.  I also ran into a lot of money problems for one of the first times ever.  I think it's because I built too many buildings and had too many military units being idle.

Either way, I started by invading one of the neighbouring city states, Rio de Janeiro (sorry Brazilians...) which I why I had so many leftover units, mostly Elephants.  To add insult to injury, I eventually built Cristo Redentor in the city!  Aside from that, I've been growing steadily and have decent relationships with most leaders.  The exception to this rule is Ghengis Khan from Mongolia.  That fucker has been up in my ass the whole game, trying to expand on my territory, denouncing my actions to other leaders and just generally being an ass.

He eventually declared war on me and while I wasn't prepared, I didn't lose any cities and once production on my tanks picked up steam, I was able to push him back.  I actually used two Great Artists to culture bomb one of their cities, grabbing four tiles from them in two turns.  I destroyed all attacking units and started attacking one of Khan's smaller cities when he begged for peace by offering gold, luxury items and trade routes.

Fuck off Khan.

Blur

Date played: April 11th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 60 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

I had to scratch my competitive online multiplayer itch and I didn't really feel like playing a shooter like CoD or Halo so I went back to one of my favorite games of last year, Blur.  Blur is a racing game that feels like a mix of Mario Kart or Wipeout and Project Gotham Racing.  Basically, Corvette's + Red Shells.

I have played about 10 minutes of the single player game and never liked it.  This game is all about the online racing where you can have up to 20 cars in a single race.  Throw in some nasty weapons and you've got a very hectic race.

The lighting effects are amazing in Blur

I didn't do that well but I think it's just because I was rusty.  I ended up in 4th to 6th place most of the time and was playing against 12-15 people on average.  I did play one 20 player race and I ended in glorious 17th place.  SHAME ON ME.  Anyway, I had a lot of fun with this, I just wish I didn't have to wait 3-4 minutes between races.

Bizarre Creations, the guys who made this game, are unfortunately out of business.  It's too bad really, I loved all of their games (I haven't played The Club) and they could have worked wonders on a sequel to Blur but that is not to be.  Oh yeah and this game has four player split-screen that runs smoothly.  This is as rare in gaming today as internet access was in 1994.  Other developers need to include this feature in racing games in particular.

Ridge Racer 3D

Date played: April 11th
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 35 minutes
Session fun rating: 6/10

More Ridge Racer.  Yay.

This track is still fun after more than 15 years

Seriously though, this game is taking it's sweet time handing out faster cars, I'm still in the first speed category...  I completed a Grand Prix event, the 6th one I think and it was all pretty easy.  I got to race on some really cool tracks though, some having plenty of elevation, lengthy hills and crazy jumps.  A lot of people complained that this game is a just a big rehash of the latest RR games but since I haven't played those, the tracks all feel new to me except a few very old ones.

This is a good game to play for 15-30 minutes I think.  It's fun in short bursts but becomes boring after four or five races.

Resistance 2

The Marksman, my favorite weapon so far

Date played: April 10th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 40 minutes
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played through the third level, AKA Chapter 2, AKA chameleon lizard man level.  I traveled through a forest while killing enemies and made my way to the end of the level.  I really like the Marksman weapon, a three round burst assault rifle.  It is accurate, powerful and has a long range.  The Rossmore shotgun is pretty nice too but has very limited ammo.

There were a few fights where I felt I had to really drop a lot of bullets into some larger enemies before they die. This game is actually pretty hard for a shooter up to now and I like it.  The first game was pretty difficult too.

I kind of forget the story of the objective.in each level and it feels like the game is just a giant place to shoot enemies.  That's good.

Civilization V

Date played: April 10th
Platform: PC
Time played: 20 minutes
Session fun rating: 6/10

This should be a thing

I had a few minutes available and didn't really have time to sink my teeth into anything so I just played a few turns of Civ V.  Right now, I have good relationships with people around me and am focusing on improving my cities by building facilities and improving the land around me with workers.

I think I will have to take over one of the city-states nearby, I want their real estate.  From previous experience, they usually put up a pretty decent fight so I'll make sure I build a good army before attacking.

I was lucky I only had a few minutes to play because I felt myself being sucked into the eternal wormhole of Civ addiction.  This disease is also known as "One More Turnism".

Civilization V

Date played: April 9th
Platform: PC
Time played: 105 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

Uh-oh.  I had to scratch my Civ itch last night.  This is not good, not good at all.  I've lost countless nights to this series since I was 8 years old playing the original to recently with Civ IV and V.  This is by far my favorite PC game but I tend to stay away from it because it makes me lose track of time.

I started a new Civ with random settings on the third easiest difficulty.  I managed to build a small empire focused on culture and trade right now.  My neighbors include the Romans and the Mongols, both of which are usually aggressive and have a strong military presence.

HEXES, FUCK YEAH!

There are also three city-states around my area and I figure I should conquer at least one but I'm still in the early stages where war is very costly.  Oh yeah, and hexes are cool.

Whenever I play Civ, it makes me long for a new Alpha Centauri....  

Resistance 2

Date played: April 9th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 60 minutes
Session fun rating: 5/10

There are amazing backgrounds in this game

Here's ANOTHER game I lost my saved data for when my hard drive failed.  Thankfully, I had not really played for a very long time before that so I didn't mind starting over.  I needed a single player HD game to fit Alpha Protocol's bench spot so I chose Resistance 2.

It's all right I guess but since I had seen these scenes beforehand, I really didn't get impressed with much.  The controls and general mechanics are fun though, kind of like the infamous "30 seconds of fun" Bungie uses when making a Halo game.

I got to the third level, killed two invisible giant lizard men and quit.

Ridge Racer 3D

Date played: April 9th
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 30 minutes
Session fun rating: 6/10

I bet the one on the left is a butch lesbian

Meh.  Played a few RR events, won all of them.  This game is taking it's sweet time giving me faster cars.

OH!

I'm forgetting the best part of playing Ridge Racer today.  I had received a ghost Streetpass challenge!  I beat it without incident by about nine seconds.  This was a challenge issued by the only other person I know has a 3DS hahaha!!

I think that's a cool feature but I'm sure it won't really happen often enough to make it interesting.

Marvel VS Capcom 3

Date played: April 8th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 40 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

Since I had another human player in my home last night, I thought I would give this game a second chance.  When I first played it, I was overwhelmed by the systems, I hated playing against AI and I got slaughtered online.

Against someone with similar skill though, it was really fun and it surprised me!  I think I found a team that I like too and it wasn't even characters I even wanted to play as.  It was the result of choosing random characters that I stumbled upon.  In the end, I have two characters I am certain about and one that I'm still thinking about.

The first is Tron from Capcom's Tron Bonne.  I don't even know this character but she is a little girl inn a giant green robot exoskeleton.  She is strong and has really cool attacks with rockets, lasers and machine guns.

The second is Zero, from Megaman.  He is fast, agile and easy to use so far. He also looks really cool!

Zero rocks your balls off.

The third is a toss up.  I played with Morrigan a bit as well as Storm and Ryu.  I think I like Storm best but I Ryu is easy to use for me.  Morrigan is also interesting but I'm not really sure how to use her yet, I was mostly spamming her fireball equivalent.

My brother used many characters but always seemed to come back to Dante from Devil May Cry and Chris from Resident Evil.  His last character was always different.  He won most of the matches but I was really starting to understand the basics now.  I managed to do a few air combos and such.  I'm not sure if I will play more yet but I feel like I understand the game now at least.

Flatout Ultimate Carnage

Date played: April 8th
Platform: PC
Time played: 15 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

Everything can be destroyed!

Well, my brother and I wanted to kind of chillout for a bit after some intense Soul Calibur IV fights so we played a few races of Flatout Ultimate Carnage.  This is essentially a physics-focused racing game on dirt (it seems at least).  My PC runs it pretty well so the physics are very impressive.  Pretty much everything is a movable object.  Forget immovable lamp posts and wooden fences built like a tank, everything in this game can be crashed into and destroyed.

It's a lot of fun but sometimes it feels a little too random for it's own good.  We just did a couple of races though so I don't have much to add except that I am still happy with my laptop's gaming performance 18 months after I bought it.  Oh yeah and Flatout is cheap as hell on Steam, it's worth it even if it's just to mess around with for a few hours.

Soul Calibur IV

Date played: April 8th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 45 minutes
Session fun rating: 10/10

God, I just love Soul Calibur!  I played against my brother for a while.  His main is Nightmare and mine is Astaroth and that's the matchup we had for most of the night.  We did change it up a little with some random matches and such.

This (sorta) happened.

I tried out Lizardman and it turns out I really like his style.  This game is always great and it's because the mechanics behind it are rock solid.  Blocking at the right time, judging when to use vertical attacks and when to use horizontal attacks, grabbing and dodging merge together to create up to five rounds of awesome.  :-)

Astaroth VS Nightmare is actually a great matchup that plays more methodically than anything with button-mashy characters.  Oh yeah and Sophitia's giant metal armor looks fucking amazing.

Super Meat Boy

Date played: April 8th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 40 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

Badass.

I wanted to show SMB to my brother for a few minutes and it turned into me doing the entire second world except the last boss.  The world is supposed to be hospital themed but I didn't get that vibe at all.  It was still lots of fun though!  There are now enemies on the screen which reminded me of the hard hat enemies in Megaman.  I also had to avoid flying blobs of purple goo with eyes.

I tried the boss for a few minutes but I didn't manage to finish it.  My heart wasn't in it though, I'll get him next time.

Chime Super Deluxe

This level is devious...

Date played: April 8th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 15 minutes
Session fun rating: 6/10

I played Chime with my brother who was visiting.  He didn't really get it but we still had fun even if we only played about three or four songs.  I really don't have much else to talk about.  QUADS!

Super Meat Boy

Date played: April 7th
Platform: PC
Time played: 60 minutes
Session fun rating: 10/10

Ok, I was hesitant to play Super Meat Boy because I was a bit intimidated by the high difficulty that everyone was talking about.  It was on sale on Steam though and I finally broke down and bought it.  I have this nice setup now in my living room to play my laptop on the big screen and have 5.1 sound.  I also have a wired 360 controller so it's pretty much the same as playing on console but with all the functionality of a computer.

Anyway, this game is fucking madness.  MADNESS.  Super Meat Boy is a side-scrolling platformer in the purest sense.  The levels are extremely short but also very difficult.  My friend was still there so he was watching me play at first and after I while, he took the controller and started over from the beginning.

It starts off easy enough but after six or seven levels, it kind of gets crazy.  Super Meat Boy is a little piece of meat who runs very fast and controls with surgical precision.  The only thing that makes the extreme difficulty bearable is the precision of the controls.  Our hero's goal is to rescue some lady Meat Girls.  The setup could have been that Meat Boy needs to gather pie and it would have been just as good.  This game is all about precision platforming.

The levels are littered with saw blades, deadly traps and various ways to die.  Super Meat Boy runs very fast and jumps very high and far.  He also leaves a little trail of blood where ever he runs and makes a big bloody splash when he lands on the ground.

Meet Super Meat Boy, the toughest little fuck in the history of video games.

The coolest little feature is that when you finish a level, the game shows you a replay or all your little dead Meat Boys moving together at the same time.  As the level progresses, you see all your dudes dying as you eventually watch the lone Meat Boy who gets to the end get the girl.  It's a very satisfying way of watching your progress.  For the record, after playing about an hour, I had died 355 times in the first world only.  The last boss alone must have taken me about 40 or 50 attempts.

I felt a bit like I was in a Zen state for many of the levels and when I made it through a level, it was a fucking amazing feeling.  Let's see what the second world has to offer the next time I play!

Chime Super Deluxe

Date played: April 7th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 80 minutes
Session fun rating: 10/10

I had played the demo for Chime Super Deluxe earlier this week and I loved it so I decided to buy it today.  This is a downloadable game for 10$ on PSN.  My friend was visiting and since it has co-op multiplayer, I thought it would be a good game to play together.  We had planned to just try it for a few minutes but we ended up playing for more than an hour because we had so much fun!

I see these blocks in my sleep now.

Like I said in a previous post, this is pretty much impossible to describe with words but the point of the game is to gain "coverage" by creating quads (I fucking love that word) by placing blocks on the playing field.  Then when the "beatline", similar to the concept in Lumines, passes over the quad, the coverage is gained.  There are other concepts concerning scoring and multipliers but I don't really understand those yet.

We played in co-op where we each had our little blocks and we were working together to gain coverage.  It's really cool how the music changes as you gain coverage.  There are ten levels and we managed to unlock and play all of them at least once.  The songs are really good and they mostly match my tastes.

At first, our play style was really messy and chaotic but as we progressed, we became more methodical and efficient.  On the other hand, we became slower overall.  This game is very addictive and it's fun to build something with another person.  There is also a VS mode but we haven't even touched it because we had to much fun in co-op.

I love having little games like this that I can play in very short bursts without putting in a disc, similar to Everyday Shooter, Lumines and Geometry Wars.

Alpha Protocol

Date played: April 5th and 6th
Platform: Playstation 3
Time played: 240 minutes
Session fun rating: 7/10

Well, I finished it.

Madison, prepare for penis.

I played a lot of Alpha Protocol over the last two days and I essentially finished Rome and then did the final (very long) mission.  Rome was actually more interesting than the last mission as I had a nice standoff with Marburg.  Basically, everything in Rome led to a final showdown in a museum.  I had to choose with my new ally, Madison Saint James and saving thousands of people's lives.  Also, to up the ante, I had sex with Madison in my apartment.  Hot.

Anyway, I chose to save thousands and that led to the execution of Madison by Marburg.  I then fought Marburg and he eventually ran away.  After that, it was off to shut down Halbech and Alpha Protocol, which I found out were actually working together.  Oh yeah and I fucked Mina, my handler. Oh yeah, I also fucked Scarlet, the photojournalist.  Like Darcy would say; "Fuck YEAH!".

The last mission was ok but it really displayed the technical and mechanical problems of this game.  The guards were tougher, the areas bigger and the stakes higher.  Before going into the mission, I enlisted the help of Shaheed, Albatross and Omar Deng, all former enemies.  The mission starts off really nicely with a good converstation with Leland, the Halbech CEO.

From there it went downhill tough.  The guards were no longer going down in one pistol hit which pretty much ruined my whole strategy.  Then there were a bunch of stupid fights including one against Parker who hides behind bulletproof glass and a bunch of turrets.  I also killed Darcy with a sniper rifle (that fight was buggy as fuck) and arrested the Alpha Protocol head honcho.

I also had to abandon Mina to her death as I wanted to take down Halbech and Alpha Protocol and I had to choose.  In the end, I confronted Leland, kicked the shit out of him and had the satisfaction of watching Marburg let me fuck Leland up because he respected me.  I then left on a nice yacht with Scarlet in my arms.  She turned out she was the sniper who had tried to take out the Taiwanese president but I forgave her because she has such a cute little face.  Also, she puts out so we're good.

Espionage RPG?  Yeah that sounds about right.

Overall, I liked this game.  While there were problems with the mechanics and controls in some spots, as well as plenty of bugs, it was still playable and enjoyable.  It's the kind of game that makes you wish for a sequel so that the developers can fix the problems and make a new story.  I would give this game a 7/10.

Now, moving on to something else I guess!

Pilotwings Resort

Date played: April 3rd
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 60 minutes
Session fun rating: 7/10

So I finally gave this game a chance.  I've completed the training and bronze sections of the game and while the first few missions were very easy, it has definitely been picking up speed in terms of challenge quickly.  Now that it's a little tougher, I'm liking it a lot more.

I basically played some events and for the first time, I had to retry an event to get three stars.  There was also a cool mission where I had to take a photo of a light house and another where I had to shoot targets with my plane.  Fun stuff actually!  The only thing I'm not a big fan of so far is the jetpack.  It seems to be a bit difficult to control because in order to stabilize it, it's best to hover.  The problem is that hover is set to the left trigger and I found it very difficult to hit while navigating with the joystick and still holding the device so that I could still see the 3D.

Fun to fly but difficult to control due to a weird control scheme.

I also unlocked some stuff to find in free flight mode, rings to fly through and balloons to pop.  The rings seem to unlock extra content and the balloons unlock additional fly time in free flight mode.  This seems like it will be the meat and potatoes of this game once the few challenge missions are completed.