It hasn't been too busy around these parts, I haven't done all that much gaming though I did spend enough time to play through one of the craziest games to be released in years... 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. That's right, after reading a few reviews and seeing the video review on Giant Bomb I knew I had to check this game out for myself. Really there isn't too much to say about it, it is generally a pretty generic 3rd person shooter with a cover mechanic, but what sets it apart is that is a 3rd person shooter with a cover mechanic featuring 50 Cent going after a diamond encrusted skull in a unnamed middle-eastern country. 50 Cent makes this game what it is, without him and the over the top gangsterism featured within, the game wouldn't be as enjoyable.

The ability to throw out gangsterrific taunts at any time, the way the game scores you, some of the best, worst dialog ever and one of the most insane plots in the history of gaming and you got a game that is plain on the inside, but is really fun to play and enjoyable to experience with its sugary candy coating. What I like about the game is that you can play it nice short bursts and a lot of games these days expect you to play for hours before you can save or really make any progress. Here you just start a mission and finish an area segment in about 10 - 15 minutes, then get scored and move on to the next segment or stop there if you desire. It's only 8 hours long, but that is perfect, the shooting is pretty simple and it is mindless fun, but after doing the same thing for that long and in the process fighting off at least 5 different helicopters, you won't mind that it is over.

Though there is a decent amount of replay value, your money that you gain, weapons you unlock, taunts and melee attacks carry over to any new game that you start so you can keep going to unlock everything. Plus the game has a medals system where you unlock music videos (with the lyrics strangely censored), production stills and cheats as your reach score thresholds during each of the mission segments. I found the silver scores easily attainable if you could find all 5 posters and all 5 targets hidden in the segments, but I'm pretty sure you have to play on Hard mode if you want to grab golds.

50 Cent: BotS is a unique game, not because the gameplay is, but because the package surrounding it. I'm not sure it is worth the full price that I paid, but a rental would definitely suffice to get the experience. I'm actually in middle of playing through the story again to unlock all the items and it is still pretty fun especially with the most powerful weapons. Rent it, laugh, have fun, find out where 50's skull is and return it, you can't really go wrong.

I'm not sure what is coming next on the blog, probably Resident Evil 5 talk most likely... Oddly I'm not really as excited for that game as I thought I was going to be... but we'll see how it goes probably next week when I write about it. I'll talk to you later. Where's my skull? Points at 50's head... Loading Complete!