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.