Pac-Man Championship Edition DX

Now it all makes sense!

Date played: March 30th
Platform: PS3
Time played: 25 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

I was waiting for my girlfriend to finish her fucking Cafe World routine so I played some Pac-Man to kill the time. I did a couple of time trials and one 5 minute run on the Manhattan level. I didn't beat my high score but I sure had a lot of fun. This game ramps up pretty quickly and becomes a game of reflexes combined with smart path finding. In some of the time trials I did, there were like 8 ghosts on the small map, that was just crazy. Wish I could play this on 3DS, it doesn't make sense that Namco released Pac-Man CE on it but not DX...

You Don't Know Jack

I won by a pimple HAIR!

Date played: March 30th
Platform: PS3
Time played: 35 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played two games of You Don't Know Jack against my girlfriend. I dominated the first game, hitting a new personal high score. The next game was much closer as my girlfriend was on a roll and answering almost all the questions correctly. I eventually won thanks to the Jack Attack round but I beat her by less than 50$, something that had never happened before. Cookie Masterson even made comments about winning by a pimple hair! I think we have played about 40 episodes which means we still have a whole lot of questions waiting for us. This game is a steal for anyone who plays games with friends locally.

Hydro Thunder

I hate this track

Date played: March 30th
Platform: Dreamcast
Time played: 20 minutes
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played a few races of Hydro Thunder and tried to unlock more than the first 3 races but I could not finish in the top three on the last track. It's the arctic track that has killer whales and a cruise ship. I must have been doing something wrong because I just couldn't finish better than 4th. Maybe I'm missing a major shortcut or maybe I just have to grab every single boost power up and boost the whole race. That seems difficult.... Either way, as old as it is, this game is still super fun, maybe I should try the remake on XBLA.

Mass Effect 3

Legion is awesome

Date played: March 28th
Platform: Xbox 360
Time played: 70 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

It's a bit hazy but I know I fought a lot of Geth on their Dreadnought. The highlight of the mission is that Tali is back baby! I just love that character, she has a cool voice and looks really cool. She's a tech expert who uses drones and shotguns in combat. I think she will fit in well with my team if I bring Liara for biotics stuff. Being an infiltrator, I can take out anyone but struggle at close range so a shotgun seems to be the tool for the job. It was a pretty cool mission. I walked in outer space (it looked amazing!) and basically turned off the warship's defenses for the Quarian fleet to attack.

It turns out that the Geth were stronger than before because of Reaper influence. I had to save an old friend, Legion, to get the help I needed to finish the job. Legion is a great character, he's a Geth who changed sides basically. The Quarians managed to blow up the ship but almost took Shepard and company out in the process! Now I have to go destroy a server on a nearby planet to remove Reaper influence and gain the support of the Quarian fleet.

Mass Effect 3

Date played: March 27th
Platform: Xbox 360
Time played: 90 minutes
Session fun rating: 7/10

I did a side quest that had me explore an abandoned monastery. It's a monastery for sterile Asari who can be turned into Banshees by the Reapers. The Banshees are pretty tough to beat, having a strong barrier and tons of armor. I tend to take off their barrier with a strong sniper shot from stealth to take off the barrier. Then I change to armor piercing ammo and take potshots at them until they die. They are fun to fight.

I met Samara, one of the squad members in Mass Effect 2 and she and her daughters needed my help to escape from the place. I blew the whole place up since it was crawling with Reapers. These religious sterile bitches have a weird sect-like code that prevents them from living outside the monastery. When I blew it up, Samara would have had to kill her daughter since she would be breaking the code so instead, she decided to shoot herself in the head. Since my Shepard doesn't care for religious extremists, I let her splatter her brains on the floor and killed the remaining daughter to prevent her from being converted to a Banshee. So long Samara, I never cared for you anyway.

Banshees are the most dangerous Reaper class so far

I also continued the main quest by meeting with the Quarians on the edge of the galaxy. I was super happy to see Tali as part of the fleet! They are fighting the Geth again, trying to retake their homeworld but they've put themselves in a bad position and now need my help to push the Geth back. In return, they will provide me with their amazing fleet to fight the Reapers with me. Seems worth the effort.

World of Warcraft

Hacked like it was 1995 baby

Date played: March 26th
Platform: PC
Time played: 20 minutes
Session fun rating: 1/10

My friend dragged me into accepting his scroll of resurrection so that he gets a free mount. I got a free character transfer and faction change with it. I grabbed my 80 Dwarf Priest and transferred him to my friend's server. I chose to go with Undead this time as I never really played one. The heart breaking part of my little adventure is that my priest had been hacked. I still had most of my armor but I had no weapons, no money and of course had no spells, talents or addons. On top of that, the fuck face who hacked me even made the effort of killing my dude until all my armor was broken.

Thankfully, my friend gave me 200 gold to get me started and showed me where the 80+ zones start. He paid for my first month so I might play a bit but I doubt it, Mass Effect 3 is way more fun at the moment.

Mass Effect 3

Political shit storm? In my Citadel?

Date played: March 25th
Platform: Xbox 360
Time played: 150 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

I completed the Cerberus invasion on the Citadel event which was pretty simple. Then I spent a lot of time doing side quests, most of them on the Citadel. I increased the strength of my war assets by fetching items, doing favors and fixing shit basically. There were some pretty major events that happened with the council... I don't want to spoil anything but shit hit the fan yo.

One of the side quests reunited Shepard with Jacob, the Cerberus operative that helped me in Mass Effect 2. He was helping a crew of ex-Cerberus scientists who were hiding on some planet researching stuff. They were found by Cerberus though and I had to save their refugee asses. I love this fucking game, I just wish it was easier to track my quests and to compare weapon stats.

SSX

Date played: March 23rd and 24th
Platform: PS3
Time played: 90 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played a few explore events and they were pretty cool. Then I played through the Himalayas, including Mount Everest, and it was not as much fun in some spots. The regular tracks were great and lots of fun, but the special survival tracks were complete garbage. Basically, the air is so thin that the snow boarder wears an oxygen tank that the player can use at will until it's depleted. The problem is that the screen dims to black when oxygen is needed and that makes it too hard to get back on track and get some speed to reduce the amount of oxygen needed. I made it through without much effort but it was still frustrating and not fun at all.

Mont Blanc is my next target

Now I've got most of the characters unlocked, a lot of credits in the bank and only three deadly descents to go. I unlocked the Alps and Africa and started with the Alps. The enemy here is rocks. I made it through all the events but the Survive It when I stopped playing. 

Rayman Origins

Date played: March 22nd
Platform: PS3
Time played: 60 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

Riding mosquitoes doesn't suck. Get it?

I played through the end of the first world and most of the second world in co-op with my girlfriend. She seems to like the platforming and mechanics but doesn't give a flying fuck about Rayman and the other characters in the game. It's too bad because she doesn't seem to enjoy the visuals and music but she seems to enjoy everything else. Either way, we had fun and that's what counts!

The Simpsons Arcade Game demo

Arcades at their best

Date played: March 22nd
Platform: PS3
Time played: 10 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

I have fond memories of playing this game in a movie theater in Ottawa when I was about 10 or 11 years old. I remember saving my quarters for this game whenever I went to see a movie. I mostly played as Bart or Homer but never got very far in the game.

With a digital version like this, it's easy to see that these games were designed to eat quarters but they are still fun, but very simple . My girlfriend played with me, as Marge, and I played as Bart. We kicked ass and had a good time.

Scene It : Movie Night demo

These questions are pretty cool.

Date played: March 22nd
Platform: PS3
Time played: 20 minutes
Session fun rating: 5/10

I played a round of this game with my girlfriend and it's clear that it's not the same people who made the excellent Xbox versions who made this one. The questions are good for the most part and the movie clips were fine but the whole interface sucks. It's hard to read the questions and answers, there is almost no voice work and it's just kind of boring. The only good part was answering questions about Back to the Future... I think I won but it was pretty close. I'd rather play You Don't Know Jack.

SSX

Date played: March 21st
Platform: PS3
Time played: 80 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played through two more deadly descents, Alaska and Antarctica. Alaska was super fun for the most part as it had great trick courses where doing crazy tricks are easy to do and there is a lot of open space. The deadly descent is an avalanche. At first, I thought it would be lame but it turns out they decided to reverse the camera, turning the camera angle to the front of the boarder, kind of like the top down view of old ski games. The event was pretty easy, just had to trick a bit then boost out of the way of the avalanche while trying to stay on high ground.

Alaska

Antarctica is a different beast. It's filled with deadly crevasses and tunnels. It was a bit more frustrating than Alaska because of that but the tracks were still fun to play overall, they weren't too crazy. Crazy is the deadly descent for this event. It's so cold down there that staying in the shade for too long will kill you. The deal is, stay in the sun as long as you can while building up boost, then boost through the shaded areas. It works well but the final track was pretty difficult. I had to restart five or six times before I found a path that didn't leave me freezing to death at the bottom of a tunnel. I also did the first even of the Himalayas which also feature fucking Mount Everest and grinds on the Great Wall of China, I can't wait to see that!

Mass Effect 3

No spoilers here!

Date played: March 19th
Platform: Xbox 360
Time played: 150 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

Rachni, Reaper Destroyers, Thresher Maws, ruthless Salarians, growth thirsty Krogans and a Cerberus attack on the Citadel, all in one day's work! I don't want to spoil any details so I'll leave it at that. I really love this game so far but for some reason, I keep going back to SSX... I think I was due for some competitive action!

SSX

Fly you fools!

Date played: March 18th and 19th
Platform: PS3
Time played: 140 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through the second and third mountain ranges in the story mode of SSX. This time, the focus was on wing suits and ice picks! The wing suits are fucking awesome and can be deployed at any time, creating some insane combos and tricks. The tracks themselves weren't super difficult but I did have to replay the last event two or three times to pass it without dying.

The ice picks are a bit different as they don't really do much outside of allowing for tighter turns on ice. The tracks were fun except for the final Survive It event that felt a lot more like a platformer than an SSX game. I had to learn the track by heart again to win it.

I also tried out a few Global Events, the online portion of the game. It's basically asynchronous multiplayer where people compete in set events with a time limit, ranging from a few hours to a few weeks. There is also a pretty steep entry fee. Then depending results, the player is put into a bracket for that event and will receive a payout based on their performance. I did about three or four events and managed bronze on all of them. I did hit silver with one run but it changed to bronze after other players made runs. I then moved on to try the Explore mode which seems to be the meat of the game. It's basically a single run event to get high scores. I like that.

Mass Effect 3

Sexual tension!

Date played: March 17h
Platform: Xbox 360
Time played: 90 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played a main story mission today, saving a Krogan female in the process. I brought Wrex, the iconic Krogan and met Mordin, the rebellious Salarian, on the Salarian home world. Basically, I had to negotiate the release of the female with the Salarians but as soon as I landed, Cerberus troops landed and tried to get the female themselves.

What followed was a "dungeon" full of Cerberus units and robots. I had no problems wiping them out and saving the female. I also did a bit of system scanning. As a side note, I think Wrex has a thing for the female and I think Joker has a thing for EDI. 

SSX

Date played: March 17th
Platform: PS3
Time played: 50 minutes
Session fun rating: 7/10

SSX was on sale for 40$ on Amazon, being a fan of the series and having enjoyed the demo, I jumped on that deal like a fat kid in a candy store. I played through some tutorial missions and a few race and trick events. I also played a deadly descent where the goal is simply to survive the run. The game is kind of weird. It feels like it wants to do a lot of things but really, all that matters is that it feels good, plays well and it's really fun to go on insane tricky runs. Add the thumping soundtrack to that and you've got an adrenaline rush going.

The controls have changed for the better as well. It's easy to play because the tricks are mapped to the second stick. There is also equipment that you can buy like boards, suits and other specialty items like the wing suit or armor.

GET TRICKY!!!

There was one race where I had to use the wing suit to make some of the jumps. It felt great to pop that wing suit open, hundreds of feet in the air, then gliding to the next part of the track. The only thing that sucks about SSX so far is that some of the tracks seem designed to be frustrating. I had to race another character down this slope riddled with holes and rocks and cliffs. I eventually had to learn the track by heart to win. Granted, winning felt good but the 15 minutes before it were frustrating as hell.

NHL 12

Michalek saves the day!

Date played: March 16th
Platform: PS3
Time played: 20 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

I finally won a game against my friend who is usually better than me! I had more shots and hits but he had more possession time. In the end, I managed to score a goal with 5 seconds left to the third period. It was a hard shot from Michalek that bounced off Carey Price which Michalek picked up himself and slid through Carey's five hole. It feels good man.

Journey

Date played: March 15th
Platform: PS3
Time played: 120 minutes
Session fun rating: 10/10

I went on a fabulous 90 minute Journey and all I got was this lousy blog post! Being a fan of Flower, Journey had been on my radar for a long time. I finished the entire game in one sitting and had a very memorable experience.

Journey is a simple game where your character has to reach the top of a distant mountain. That's pretty all the context there is for this. The game actually plays a whole lot like Flower in that you must gather scarf pieces (like petals) to increase your abilities and have to activate certain things like banners (flower clusters) to make changes to the environment so that the player can progress. I don't want to spoil details but let's just say that the game has more than the desert environment that was shown off before release.

To quote Jack Johnson : "It's always better when we're together"

Another interesting part to Journey is the weird multiplayer. At any time in the game, you might find yourself paired up with another player. There is no obligation to work together and there is no way to communicate except with one sound. It makes it really cool to just have a buddy playing with you throughout your Journey. I really enjoyed my time with Journey, enough that I even replayed a level or two after the credits. Sure it's a short game, but it's beautiful, has amazing music and really has a feel of it's own. In many ways, it's closer to a short story or short film than a typical video game.

Mass Effect 3

I spent lots of time looking at this type of display

Date played: March 15th
Platform: Xbox 360
Time played: 120 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

More side quests! I spent most of my time exploring systems, scanning for items and running from Reapers. The scanning mechanic is kind of cool, it's quick, it's easy and the rewards are worth it, usually in the form of credits or war assets. I also completed the quest with Jack and her students which have now joined my crew. I bought a bunch of upgrades for my weapon mods also. It seems a bit difficult to compare weapons to find out which is better though... the interface really sucks for this stuff.

Blur

Motor Mash rocks

Date played: March 14th and 16th
Platform: PS3
Time played: 60 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played some split screen Blur with a friend. We mostly did races with and without AI and a few Motor Mash events. I won most of the races and he completely destroyed me in Motor Mash. I still think that Blur is the best arcade racing game this generation, rivaled only by Wipeout HD in my mind. It would have been nice to play split screen online but unfortunately, that's not possible. I did manage to win one motor mash with well timed bolts and my friend managed to win a race, leaving me in the dust.

Mass Effect 3

Date played: March 12th
Platform: Xbox 360
Time played: 120 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played a bunch of side missions today, mostly in the Citadel. Basically, everything I'm doing is to bolster the war effort. There is even a gauge in game that shows how successful our team will be based on the types of support we receive. As an example, when I got back to the Citadel, I found the Asari who was in charge of Omega, the bandit city of the Terminus systems. She gave me some quests to gain the help of the mercenary factions she controlled before Cerberus took over Omega. When I completed one of the quests, I had points added to my war effort!

So I did a whole lot of those, whatever was easily accessible. Then I started a meatier side quest where I had to go find some school for biotics that was under attack by Cerberus and save the students. This must have been meant for a higher level player because I had to switch to disc 2 and the enemies were a lot tougher than I was used to. The worst being those engineer fuckers who drop turrets like a drunk club slut drops her panties. The turrets do a lot of damage quickly.

So I stormed the school, saving students and shooting Cerberus agents until I met someone from my past. Jack was there and she's a teacher now! She also has hair and seems more mature. I then helped her and her students escape, including a cool sequence where I got to ride a giant mech with rockets and shit. I am also using a new party member now, EDI, the Normandy's AI, decided to make herself a robotic body and join the fight. She is focused on tech powers, as is to be expected, and one of her best powers is decoy. It springs a fake EDI on the front lines and distracts enemies for a bit. She looks really cool but I'm not sure I will use her much, being an infiltrator. I kind of need someone with a shotgun and someone with biotic abilities to complement my sniping and tech powers.

I ran into a bug at the end of the mission though as for some reason, the game thought there were still enemies around but I couldn't find him and had to shut down the game since it wouldn't trigger the next cut scene. That sucks!

Mass Effect 3

Date played: March 10th and 11th
Platform: Xbox 360
Time played: 140 minutes
Session fun rating: 10/10

I finally got to explore the Normandy and it's received some interesting changes in the layout but it still feels like the Normandy. I talked to a bunch of my crew and started building relationships with them. I was then able to just go out into space, which is similar to Mass Effect 2. I explored a few systems but I don't get the scanning mechanic yet. Basically, I can press a button in a system to scan and discover anomalies (credits, missions, etc). There is a chance that Reapers will sense the scan and invade the system which is probably a game over.

Garrus rocks

Either way, I decided to just go do the next mission where I had to go help the Turians protect one of their planets by fighting some dudes on a moon. I even met Garrus who joined my crew of course. He's a beast with the sniper rifle. I bought some new weapons too and combat has been easy so far. I completed that quest and now have a bunch of side quests, most of them on the Citadel. It's unclear where the other quests are though, this isn't like Skyrim where it always points you to the right place. I should also mention that Shep is flirting with Liara again.

Street Fighter IV

Cammy is so fucking hot

Date played: March 11th
Platform: Xbox 360
Time played: 45 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played Street Fighter IV with my brother and his girlfriend for a bit yesterday. It was really cool because we were all rusty so most fights were pretty fair. I was better than them for the most part and was using random characters to give them a chance. I did lose one match to my bro's girl in a Cammy vs Cammy fight. She learned the tornado kick thing and that was enough to give her the edge. I love Street Fighter, I just wish I had people to play it with more often.

The New Tetris

Date played: March 10th
Platform: N64
Time played: 20 minutes
Session fun rating: 7/10

My family and I were hanging out in the basement and my girlfriend asked if we could play some of my old games. We ended up playing a game that is timeless, The New Tetris. We played some multiplayer and tried a few different modes. This is a good version of the game, it plays well and is fun, as usual. Me and my girlfriend traded wins pretty evenly. Maybe I should get the version on PSN...

Mass Effect 3

Date played: March 8th and 9th
Platform: Xbox 360
Time played: 260 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

Finally, Mass Effect 3 is out and in my disc drive! I fucking loved both of the previous games and am really excited to bring over my Commander Shepard onto to the last game. Unfortunately, there seems to be a bug where ME3 is not able to recover the physical appearance of the imported character Shepard. So I start playing and the game asks me to import a character which I do of course. The decisions are all there, the dead party members are reflected in ME3 and everything looks fine until the face shows up. Long story short, I had to remake my femshep and thankfully, I was able to make her look very similar to the original.

My Femshep is much cooler than this Femshep

The intro of the game is on Earth where Shep is hanging out. The Reapers are attacking Earth and shit is blowing up all around. Cue some tutorials about movement, shooting and cover. As soon as I could, I dug through the game's extensive codex and read every single entry. That must have taken a good hour by itself.

Shortly after the tutorials, Shepard, Ashley and James (a new guy) are headed to Mars to find Liara who is supposed to have found the schematics for a device that could destroy the Reapers. I don't want to spoil too much so I'll just say that there was some fighting to be had on Mars followed by a messed up conversation with the Illusive Man, the head of Cerberus.

After picking up Liara and digging up the info she needed from Mars, we headed to the Citadel to begin the real mission, gather help from all the other species to unite against the Reapers. I talked to the council and have a job to do for the Turian to gain his race's aid. I also had to visit a beaten up Ashley in the hospital after a rough fight on Mars.

There wasn't much to explore on the Citadel, at least not yet, but damn it feels good to see those epic vistas. This is easily of the most awe inspiring graphics I've seen in a while. It might be because I'm such a fucking sci-fi nerd but it really looks great. On the Citadel, I picked up my old Mass Effect 2 doctor to join my crew and I also allowed a reporter to join. We'll see how that pans out, my Shepard has a history of punching journalists in the face. Oh, I also punched a journalist in the face.

I had forgotten how much I love this series and it's nice to see I still do. I stopped playing before heading back to the Normandy, I can't wait to see the changes that were made in it, if any!

Rayman Origins

Date played: March 7th

Badonk-ka-donk

Platform: PS3
Time played: 40 minutes
Session fun rating: 10/10

Holy shit, this game is good. I played through the end of the second world and one level from the third. The levels are amazing in their platforming design. This feels like Donkey Kong Country Returns's cousin with a dash of Sonic the Hedgehog for good measure. There are also a lot of levels that remind me of Super Mario World.

Honestly, level design is really top notch in Rayman Origins. I would love this game if it had 8 bit graphics and no music. The fact that the graphics and music are amazing is just like a big dump truck of icing on the cake. There are also great chase levels where Rayman has to go through the level very quickly while chasing a chest. It sounds simple, and it is, but it is so well designed and choreographed that it's just better than the other levels in the game. It reminds me of the special secret levels in Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Dirt 3

This better not suck!

Date played: March 5th
Platform: PS3
Time played: 100 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

I am so close to the end of the Dirt Tour now, most of the really fun stuff is done. I have no rally, no rally cross and no trailblazer events left on the board, leaving only a few events like Gymkhana and land rush. I loved these final events though because the different legs of each event take place in different locations. I had a greedy little crash when trying to push my car a little too fast. I fucking love this series because it mixes fun with realistic looking racing very well. I can't wait to see what happens next for Dirt. Will Dirt Showdown suck? Time will tell.

Rayman Origins

Date played: March 4th
Platform: PS3
Time played: 30 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

Rayman gets fat and Globox goes on a diet

I finally got a chance to try some two player Rayman Origins! My girlfriend and I played about three levels together and we had lots of fun. She seems to enjoy the game although she really wasn't a fan of using Globox as she found him fat and ugly. As soon as we unlocked new characters she changed to the blue Rayman.

She is pretty good at 2D platformers and so far, she's been a good partner although the game is pretty easy in the first few levels. It gets a bit busy sometimes when there are a lot of enemies, platforms and Lums floating around but we died only once in total. I hope she likes it enough to keep playing with me!

Resident Evil Revelations

Date played: March 3rd
Platform: 3DS
Time played: 40 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

This area reminds me of the mansion in RE1

The game is starting to show it's meat and potatoes here. I played through Episode 2 which had me trying to find my partner as well as my weapons and equipment. It's weird, the last time I played, Jill got poisoned and woke up in a room. I got her out of there and soon learned about the dodge mechanic in the game. Basically, I just have to press a direction and a button when I'm about to be attacked and Jill will dodge. It works well enough it seems but I need more practice.

So I went through a whole section of the ship that looked a whole lot like the mansion from the first RE game, dodging and running from creatures the whole time. The sequence had a surprising amount of tension to it and that was really enjoyable. I soon reached a room where my equipment was stored, fought a bunch of bad guys and got back to my starting point where I could now shoot a padlock off a door and continue with my partner. Chapter 3, here I come!

Street Fighter IV

I want this so bad!!!

Date played: March 3rd
Platform: Xbox 360
Time played: 15 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played a few random rounds of Street Fighter with my girlfriend. It was nothing serious, we were kind of just trying to distract our daughter. I won all the matches but it's been a long time since she had played so it makes sense. I even managed a few Ultra combos after all this time. 

Darksiders

Date played: March 2nd
Platform: PS3
Time played: 60 minutes
Session fun rating: 9/10

I picked up where I left off a long time ago, at the beginning of the spider dungeon. It took me a while to get my bearings and remember how to control this game but after that, I was rolling through that dungeon like my name was Link. I had to kill four mini spider bosses before reaching the main boss. To kill the mini spiders, I had to use my new gadget, the grapple hook.

Darksiders in 2D would work

Basically, it's both a useful tool when navigating the area and a decent combat tool, stunning enemies and even removing their armor, some sort of ice shield in the spider's case. I reached the final boss after a lot of platforming, fighting and exploring but the game froze during the cut scene so I stopped playing there. Next time, spider boss!

Re-Volt

Date played: March 2nd
Platform: Dreamcast
Time played: 15 minutes
Session fun rating: 4/10

Man, this game kinda sucks now. The concept is cool, it's kind of like Mario Kart but with RC cars in real environments like a museum, street and super market. The problem is with the car physics. They seem to be  pretty close to what a real RC car would feel like but that doesn't make it fun, it makes it mostly frustrating.

Still, I wasted 15 minutes and Re-Volt was serviceable in that regard.

Machinarium

I love the art style in this game

Date played: March 2nd
Platform: PC
Time played: 45 minutes
Session fun rating: 7/10

Machinarium is a point and click adventure game that I've had sitting in my Steam library for a while. I wanted to play something calm so I booted it up and played through the first 4 or 5 screens. Each screen is a puzzle where the hero, a stretchable robot, tries to move forward. I'm not quite sure what the point is but the puzzles are ingenious and the art is pretty so it seems worth my time.

The puzzles are varied so far, having rebuilt myself, fooled a robot guard into thinking I was one of them, derailed a cart of berries and even been captured by two evil robots. I can't wait to see where this game goes as the puzzles were a lot of fun so far.

Starhawk beta

Date played: March 2nd
Platform: PS3
Time played: 0 minutes
Session fun rating: 0/10

Try as I would, after two massive patches and multiple attempts, I was not able to join a game in the Starhawk beta. I might give it another go later on, it is a beta after all. 

Rayman Origins

Date played: Platform: Time played: Session fun rating:
Date played: March 1st
Platform: PS3
Time played: 60 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

I'm way into platforming lately it seems! Uncharted 3, Super Mario 3D Land and now Rayman, I've played the first world of Rayman Origins and it's pretty awesome, just as the demo was. The music in particular is really great, full of didgeridoos and miscellaneous instruments. The game is also amazing to look at in glorious 1080p on a 24 inch monitor, hand drawn cuteness. The levels are well designed and just fun to play! I bet it will get difficult though, we'll see.

I beat this guy. He was awesome, wish he was on my side!

Motorstorm Apocalypse

This tech works great!

Date played: March 1st
Platform: PS3
Time played: 45 minutes
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played some Simulview Motorstorm with my brother today and we had lots of fun, mainly because he can race a fucking car in a video game, he is a good competitor. We traded wins the  whole time, avoiding falling buildings, exploding buses, crumbling bridges and caved in roads, it was actually exciting stuff!

I love this game and it's great in multiplayer.

NHL 12

Gonchar on offense?!?

Date played: March 1st
Platform: PS3
Time played: 20 minutes
Session fun rating: 8/10

Played against my brother who was visiting, me as Sens, him as Habs. He won 3-1 but I played pretty well. He plays the game a lot more than me so he's better of course but I still held my own and scored with Gonchar of all pêople!