So everyone loves Saints Row The Third, right? Well you should, because it's hilarious and fun as all hell. But I've run into more bugs and glitches in my 40+ hours with Saints Row than in my 140+ hours with Skyrim. Now everyone knows about the issues with Skyrim and I've experienced my fair share of backwards-flying dragons and such, but nothing that flat-out broke the game. Unfortunately I can't say the same about Saints Row. I've experienced far more bugs in this game and at this point I cannot progress at all unless I play co-op or start a whole new game. Allow me to explain.

I competed the game as a co-op partner a good week or so ago. Afterward I figured I'd go about getting all of the collectibles by myself and clean up a few other achievements while I was at it. When I loaded my save in single player I was thrust into the "I'm Free...Free Fallin'" mission which occurs very early in the game. No big deal. I figured I'd finish what was required and then be thrown back into the world to do whatever depraved activity I so desired. Or so I thought. If you haven't played the game at all this could be considered a (very minor) spoiler so be warned. At one point during the mission you have to shoot out the windshield of a plane so you can pass through it. I did this with no problem during my co-op run but I've tried this at least a dozen times in single player, in all sorts of ways, but to no avail. I die. Mission restarts. No quitting the mission. It seems that since I've fully upgraded the SMG's you're required to use, which makes them use incendiary ammo, they won't work for this task. Shitty.

I've looked on the official forums and other users have been affected by this, but so far there has been no word from Volition about any sort of fix. There is a mod for the PC version to get around this problem but obviously this won't help folks playing on consoles. So needless to say I'm pretty damn disappointed. Just thought I'd share my first-world pain with you good people.

So last December my 60GB PS3 kicked the bucket which is, of course, extremely shitty. I bought my PS3 when they were still $600 so having to pony up another $130 was pretty infuriating. But in January I bit the bullet, upgraded the HDD and moved on with my day. So here I am not even a year later, I get another yellow light of death, and I'm asked to pay yet again.During my conversation with Sony customer service I (somewhat) respectfully expressed my dis-satisfaction with this situation at which time she asked that I hold while she spoke with a supervisor and "worked her magic". And just like that my PS3 is getting fixed for free. Moral of the story - you don't have to eat shit all the time. Demand satisfaction and you might just get it.

So now I really want to play Enslaved. I dug Heavenly Sword quite a bit but I think this could be way better. Hope it has decent length to it as I don't see much replay to it. Thoughts?

So after a lengthy stretch without a job, I'm happy to report that I'm no longer unemployed. My first step was to get a new HDTV which was, thanks to Best Buy's lax credit approval methods, a pretty smashing success. So now I'm left wondering where I should start in regards to all of the games I missed. I've managed to keep up with 360 releases thanks to some generous friends but I haven't bought a PS3 game since Uncharted 2 came out. So here's my list of potential purchases.
 
Heavy Rain 
Yakuza 3
Infamous 
Killzone 2 
 
 I'm leaning towards Killzone just because it's probably pretty cheap at this point but I really wan t to play through Heavy Rain. Any thoughts as to where I should begin?   
 

Like just about everyone else in the world,  I've been looking forward to Red Dead Redemption and Alan Wake. A lot. I just started RDR a little while ago, played for about 20 minutes and then felt compelled to stop. Why? Well it has nothing to do with the quality of the game. It does, however,  have everything to do with the quality of the TV I'm playing on. After gaming on an HDTV for the past four or five years, going back to standard definition is really affecting my level of enjoyment. I feel kind of douchey for saying that, but it's true. Of course going back to SD wasn't my choice, as my HDTV decided to shit the bed several weeks ago. When I first hooked up my 360 to the SDTV in my living room I wasn't playing anything new. I played some Just Cause 2 and FFXIII, which I had already played a shit-ton of on my HD set. But when I threw in Alan Wake a couple of days ago, I truly realized just how freaking spoiled I've become. I really feel as if I'm missing an important part of the experience ( still douchey - sorry). At this point in time I have no way to buy a new TV. I have no money or job but that will hopefully be changing very soon ( I hope), so I've decided to wait to play through RDR until I get a new HD rig. I've almost finished Alan Wake but chances are I'll play through it again when I can do it in HD. Anyone else go through a similar predicament? Let me know!

Seriously, how much have you heard about Darksiders? I remember hearing something about "four horsemen game blah blah" a long time ago and nothing else until now. And even now you're not hearing much about it, which probably has a lot to do with the fact that it's coming out on the same day as Bayonetta. Regardless of any of this, after playing the first four hours of it last night / this morning, I heartily suggest you give this game a look. I assure you, it's not the God of War clone it appears to be. Darksiders borrows ideas from many games including GoW but is structured more like a Legend of Zelda game. Traverse an overworld whilst fighting monsters, enter a dungeon, solve puzzles and fight more monsters, find an important weapon/item, slay a boss with said weapon/item, collect fancy trinket, then repeat a few more times. But damn is it fun and addictive. I started playing it rather late and got through the first hour or so, then the game opened up a bit and I was confronted with the first dungeon. I figured since it was the first dungeon that it wouldn't take too long to complete. Boy was I mistaken, as it was totally epic and took a few hours. The combat actually kind of reminds me of the Fable games, except for the Ninja Gaiden 2-style kill moves. The one thing for me so far that truly stands out in Darksiders is the freaking awesome art style. It's some really imaginative and colorful stuff. 
 
So needless to say I like this game. Are any of you looking forward to it? Did you know it even existed?!

 During this weeks bombcast Jeff was talking about some titles in Modern Warfare 2 that allude to weed, during which he did his best Spiccoli impersonation and called weed smokers "fucking assholes". I, as an occasional smoker and asshole, took some offense at this. I'm not butt-hurt or anything but that seemed like a pretty harsh thing to call a group of people who have probably never wronged him in any substantial way, which I'm sure includes many a Giantbomber. I've known plenty of stoners in my life and by and large they've been decent people. I understand that idiocy is rampant these days and Xbox Live reminds us of that regularly, meaning there's bound to be at least a few rejects in any given group of people but... what the fuck. You disappoint me Mr. Gerstmann. Thoughts?

PS: I've never encountered a stoner who actually talks like that except when goofing off. But hey I like stereotypes just as much as the next guy, so no harm done.
 
PPS: On an unrelated note regarding this  "I'm-so-offended-by-the-killing-of-civilians" stuff stemming from Modern Warfare 2, please cleanse the sand from your vagina and take it elsewhere.

So the hype surrounding the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum has been nigh inescapable for the last week or so. So now that it's here everybody's busy enjoying it, except myself because I already finished it.  I was able to get it on Monday and I played the living shit out of it and finished it up early this morning. I have never marathon-ed through a new game. Ever. But I just couldn't put the damn thing down. As a pretty die-hard Batman fan allow me to state that this game is effing awesome. Not perfect but it's as close to a perfect Batman game we've had. The thing is, now it seems all I can think about is Batman. I watched the animated series, Batman Begins, read some comics, and I'll probably watch Dark Knight tonight. I'm a frickin' junkie in need of a fix. Has anybody else fallen off the deep end like me and went on a bat binge because of the game's excellence?

It never, ever fucking fails. So I intently fired up my 360 with the plan to download Mothership Zeta for Fallout 3. I knew I didn't have enough points on my account to buy it, but I knew I had quite a bit left from the last time I bought some Rock Band tracks. Basically I had in mind that I would have to buy 500 points for $6.25. But if I do that I fall 10 points short, which means I have to spend another $6.25 because of 12 fucking cents. And that, my friends, is bullshit.

Just yesterday I was watching the Resident Evil retrospective on Gametrailers when I was struck with the urge to play RE: Code Veronica. So today I dusted off the Gamecube and threw the game in only to realize that I had no idea where I left off. Then I remembered the trusty Official Dreamcast Magazine I have tucked away with a strategy guide in it. When I say tucked away, I really mean buried in a box in my closet. So I took a deep breath and delved into the depths of my closet and, of course, didn't find it. I did find, however, strategy guides for every other game from the PS1/N64 era.

That's at least 80 bucks right there. God I'm lazy.