Uncharted 2: the accolades are rolling in

The game is still 2 weeks away from release but big things are already being said about Uncharted 2 for the Sony Playstation 3. IGN reviewed the game a week or so ago and gave it 9.5 out of 10. They also have a video review up but I have skipped that for fear of having parts of the game spoiled. The cover of of Playstation: The Official Magazine features Uncharted 2 and this quote: "Forget game of the year. This is one of the best games of all time." The article inside is massive but is said to contain spoilers, so once again I am staying clear.

So yeah, I am stoked. This was always a day 1 purchase for me. The first one was unbelievably good and from what I have read so far, the sequel improves on just about everything. Needless to say I will be posting impressions once I have the game in hand and have given it a whirl.

Headaches suck

I have had a headache going for about 15 straight days now. I have always suffered from migraines (as have my parents) and have had spells like this before. Today I woke up with a nasty sinus headache. I am *really* getting tired of feeling like crap, and I am sure my family is tired of it as well. I am going to the doctor on Wednesday so we'll see what he has to say. Last year at about this time I had to get a CAT scan of my head (about the 5th time a doctor has had me do that) so we'll see if that is gonna be the game plan again. I am not worried that it is anything serious like that; like I said, this has been going on forever and it's a family thing. What I really need to do is see an ENT specialist and get my sinuses checked out. Most of my migraines start out as sinus headaches.

Anyway, here's to feeling better tomorrow! And thanks, Barb, for all you do to help make me feel better. You're the best!

FIFA 10 gets a rave review from IGN UK

Usually the UK is pretty hard on the soccer, er...football games that come down the pike. Not this time. IGN UK loves FIFA 10, giving it a 9.3 overall score. What I found most promising was this passage:
"...results in a game that behaves exactly as you'd expect a real game of football to play out. This fidelity conversely makes FIFA 10 easier to play, and more importantly it's much more enjoyable than previous FIFAs."

Now I have always liked the previous FIFA titles because I love soccer (er, football) and the FIFA game features a crazy amount of teams and leagues. But the gameplay itself has often been frustrating to me. Pulling off routine moves such as headers seemed more like a chore than anything and after a while I got tired of feeling like I was always battling against the controls. The demo of FIFA 10 seemed to play a lot better to me (in the very limited time I spend with it) and now it appears as that will indeed be the case for full game. This is music to my ears.

I was seriously considering skipping FIFA this year, or at least relegating it to the Christmas List section, but now I may have to seriously rethink this. Of course as always the question will be just when will I find the time to play it? I am finishing up Fallout 3, so that will be done with before too long. But I still have many other games waiting for me, including open-ended games like The Beatles: Rock Band and a plethora of sports games, including the excellent Madden 10 and NHL 10. FIFA may not get played a lot right off the bat, but it will probably make my collection of sports games needing attention.

Back to Fallout 3

With a whole lot of games demanding my playing time (NHL 10, IL-2 Sturmovik and of course The Beatles: Rock Band), what have a I been spending time with lately? My 2008 Game Of The Year winner Fallout 3. I had downloaded a bunch of the extra content and even finished some of it a long time ago, but when the Broken Steel add-on was released, it allowed you to advance 10 more levels, (geek speak alert!!!) from the previous maximum of 20 to 30. So I reloaded a previously saved game from before I had finished any of the DLC and started the add-ons all over again.

Even though, as mentioned, this was my 2008 GOTY, I forgot just how tremendous a game Fallout 3 is. The add-ons that I have completed - Point Lookout, The Pitt and Operation Alaska - are all grade A levels and add a lot of depth to an already massive game. I still have yet to begin the actual Broken Steel DLC, but it is coming up soon.

It has been a real pleasure to dig back into Fallout 3. According to my game saves, I have logged over 115 hours with this game. And I have enjoyed every single minute of it. Now THAT is value. If you like RPGs, epic adventures or just flat out excellent games, you owe it to yourself to check out Fallout 3. Take my word for it, you won't be sorry.

All You Need Is Love needs only 2 days to set Rock Band download record

This is from the Kotaku web site: The combination of an iconic tune representing both a band and an era, sold to support a charity, helped the Beatles' "All You Need is Love' become the fastest-selling downloadable song in Rock Band history, two days after its release.

It's awesome that people came through to support a worthy charity like Doctors Without Borders. That's certainly keeping with the message of the song.

First (small) complaint about The Beatles: Rock Band

I wanted to go through the entire story mode playing an instrument and singing backup vocals. The Beatles' background vocals were such an integral part of what they did that it made perfect sense that Harmonix made them a key addition to this game. But things are a little bit different than I hoped - you cannot sing just the backing vocals if no one else is singing lead. At all times, if you are doing vocals, the lead part must be sung or the performance meter will drop until you fail the song.

This can be remedied 2 ways: Sing the lead vocal part and switch to background vocals when they come in, or play on the Easy setting with the No Fail mode on. Neither one is the ideal solution, however. Singing lead and then backing vocals is complicated, can leave you out of breath and, well, sort of defeats the purpose of wanting to sing just backup in the first place. And singing in No Fail mode is only available on the Easy setting, which is way way too simple. It's just not a challenge to hit the notes at this level. And even then, your score will be all screwed up because you are still being penalized for not singing the lead part.

I hope that the ability to sing JUST background will be added to the game. It's what I had envisioned when I learned that background vocals were to be included. It's certainly something I can live with the way it is now, but I am hoping this game keeps Getting Better All The Time.

Don't run in flip flops!

A lesson was learned today as I pushed John in his little car through the neighborhood sidewalks. I started running to give the little guy more of a thrill than our usual plodding pace. My toenail on my big toe got caught on the top of the inside of my flip flop and it darn near got torn off. It was a bloody mess and it hurts like hell. Barb and I have a wedding and reception to go to tomorrow and it looks like anything other than slow dancing is out of the question.