Welcome to NLU Weekly #81, it has been two weeks since my last blog entry and for that you can blame my laziness and you blame ultimately Twitter. I am finding instead of writing epic blogs for three hours, I just quickly note down my thoughts on Twitter... I really should start doing a weekly Twitter dump or something... if you haven't done so yet you should probably follow me on twitter, that way you can read my thoughts on the latest games without waiting for me to suck it up and write one of these damn things. For this one I am going to just do another one of those quick thoughts blogs, no more than a paragraph for each topic... here we go.

Games Thoughts Quick
- I finished Batman: Arkham Asylum a week or two a go and it was a really great game. The stealth sections where actually really fun and I loved how with each guy you took out in a room the other thugs would more and more frightened. Solving the Riddler's riddles was a little easy but they kind of gave the game a Metroid like feel where you couldn't get every riddle until you go the right upgrade. I highly recommend Batman.

- The Beatles: Rock Band came out and I got that as a birthday gift (it came out the same day) and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The art style is unmatched in music games and it's even pretty fun to watch especially during the trippy "dreamscapes" in the later songs. The only real problem is the game is really short and easy (in three hours you can finish all 46 songs) and it is quite possible that your favorite Beatles song is not on the disc... even if it isn't a personal special favorite, many of their #1 hits such as "Help!," "We Can Work It Out," "Elenor Rigby," "Hey Jude," and my personal faves, "Yesterday" and "Penny Lane" are not in this game. Three Beatles albums are slated for release this fall, so I'm sure we'll eventually get these songs. DLC for the WIN and the LOSS.

- Mid-September mean it's time for NHL Preseason and the Pair of new NHL videogames. This year is a little shaky, I'm not so sure about either of the games this year... NHL 2K10 has some of the most advanced AI in hockey videogame history, but the AI of the goalies is beyond stupid and it frankly ruins the game. As for NHL 10, EA didn't spend much time on AI and it shows... it unbelievably broken, it gets stuck in loops, doesn't make quick decisions (something very important in hockey) and it is OBSESSED with taking shots from the blue-line... I have to play each more but it's not looking good for either game this year.

- I played a bit of Midnight Club: Los Angeles and I got pretty tired of it after about 5 hours... it's a really tough game, it is incredibly hard, even in the first few races you will have trouble winning. The race types are pretty repetitive and I fucking HATE the characters in this game; your character is a douche-bag who is cocky as all hell... and you will get tired of the lame school yard trash-talk delivered in various LA slang. At the starting line: Competitor: "This is the last time you're gonna see me, son!" Your Character retorts: "No it ain't I got a rear-view mirror!" OH SNAAAAAAP!

- Forza 3 and Brutal Legend demos where released this week and they are both pretty fun. Forza 3 demo features one track and 5 cars, it isn't something that will hold your interest until Forza 3 arrives in October (27) but it will give you a good idea of how the cars will handle. Brutal Legend demo is about 25 minutes long, but I'm not sure it goes deep enough to get an idea of all the gameplay, but the demo is funny and it looks to be better than Psychonauts.

Closing Out
That about covers what I have been doing the last couple of weeks... things are sure to heat up soon, so I will hopefully manage to do some detailed thought instead of just tweeting all the time. Heard on the streets of LA: "I'll be the first to laugh when you wrap that thing around a telephone pole!" Loading Complete!