A few notes.

• Third year of med school is amazing. Extremely busy, but amazing.
• Rock Band 2 (360) is still awesome and my friends are still obsessed with playing it every time they come over.
• Braid (XBLA) is a beautifully challenging game that has given me two moments of intense satisfaction: 1) Solving all 60 puzzle pieces on my own; 2) Beating the challenge time for the speed run.
• Ikaruga (XBLA) is tough.

 
`Nick

I didn't do any gaming this weekend, but that's okay because I was enjoying myself on a visit to Chicago.  I basically avoided all of the tourist trap activities, only walking through Millennium Park to get somewhere else.  Instead of the standard fare, I spent most of my time catching up with two of my good college buddies, watching/playing sports, and throwing back a few beers.  The highlight of the trip has to be the Second City performance that we attended.  The skits were hilarious and the improv was almost impeccable.  If you ever go to Chicago, I highly suggest you check it out.

As for the sports, I ended up playing a bit of soccer, volleyball, and softball.  It's quite a sight to see hundreds of people playing volleyball on a huge beach and I had an absolute blast.  It was also quite eye-opening to see how many parks and green fields can be found in such a large city.  Overall I had a great time and am now exhausted.  I firmly believe that vacations are supposed to be relaxing, but when you've been sitting on your butt for 18 hours a day, a little activity is a good thing.  My only complaint about the weekend is the 3 or so hours that I spent sitting in stand-still traffic.... and the other 11 hours of driving I did over the weekend.  Still, it was worth it.

`Nick

P.S.  Here's some awesome music:

Sometimes I think we forget just how large of a commitment many modern-day games really are.  Having not gamed seriously in the past couple years, I'm actually too intimidated to fire up Fable II or Halo Wars right now, instead opting to start with something simpler.  As such, I'm beginning my return to gaming with a few 80s classics courtesy of Namco Museum: Virtual Arcade and the ridiculous advergame known as Doritos Dash of Destruction.

Galaga (XBLA)

The vast majority of gamers have heard of Galaga and probably played it at some point in their lives, whether it be in its original arcade format or later on t he NES and every other console that followed, so I don't need to elaborate on the gameplay mechanics.  Instead, I'll just say that this sucker is hard.  So hard that you'll probably be inclined to check out a few YouTube videos to find out how the experts do it.  Now I'm not trying to say it's unfair or impossible, but simply acknowledging that this game was made to be a quarter-eater when it was released.  On the flip side, the achievements in this game are a breeze thanks to the unlimited continues supplied by Namco.  Work your way to level 31 and you'll have gained 11/12 achievements and be ready to call it a day.  The last one requires a bit more work, requiring you to perfectly clear a challenge stage, but you should be able to get it with a little practice, persistence, and the double ship upgrade.  All in all, I had a good time with this senior citizen of the gaming world and netted 200/200 achievement points in about an hour and a half.

New Rally X (XBLA)

Judging by the reviews I've read, not a lot of people enjoy this game.  I'm on the other end of the spectrum: I love it.  You basically spend your time navigating a maze in search of flags, while fending off enemy cars with your wits and some timely smoke screens.  It's relatively simple in premise, but the real complexity shines through when you attempt to attain a high score.  There are two special flags labeled "S" for special and "L" for lucky.  The Special flag doubles the value of every subsequent flag on that level, as long as you manage to stay alive.  This means you need to avoid the enemy vehicles, boulders, and other flags as you navigate to the Special flag first.  This is possible thanks to a very cool radar feature on the right side of the screen.  The Lucky flag doesn't appear on the radar, but it rewards you based on the amount of fuel you have remaining in your tank, so it behooves you to find it first.  If you like games that mix brains with reflexes, I suggest you give this one a try.  Also, the music rocks.  I spent about an hour and a half and was able to nab all 200/200 achievement points.  A couple of them are tough (100,000 points and clearing levels 1 through 7 without dying), but I had so much fun playing that I wanted to get a perfect on this one.

Doritos Dash of Destruction

The developers of this advertisement masquerading as a game actually did a pretty noble job with what they had.  Playing as the dinosaur is a drag because the controls are terrible, but driving a delivery truck away from a stampeding T-Rex has a certain charm.  Overall, the game is fun for a few minutes and the achievements are so easy that you'll have no problem getting them all.  By the time you're ready to move on, you'll have grabbed 200/200 points and only wasted about 30 minutes of your life.

So that was my morning.  600 points later, I'm contemplating playing a little bit more tonight and then I'm heading to Chicago for the weekend to see some friends from college.  Being on vacation for the first time in 6 years is awesome.  Really awesome.

`Nick

Hey everyone, I hope you're all doing well.  I just thought I'd give you a bit of an update on what I've been doing.  I spent the last couple months studying for Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) and finally took it on June 5th.  I won't know how I did until the middle of July, but I'm extremely glad to be done. This exam covers everything from the first two years of medical school and how one performs is relatively important in determining what specialties will be available later on.  After that, I had a week of Intro to Clinical Medicine (ICM), which was basically a very quick primer on life in the hospital.  I finished that up on Friday and have been traveling since then.  So, while it may not sound like much, that's what I've been up to.

As I've been studying my butt off, I've found precious little time for gaming.  The biggest draws have been Contra 4 (DS) and Plants Vs Zombies (PC).  I can honestly say that both games are fantastic and come highly recommended. 

Contra 4 has a bit of a learning curve, but is actually pretty easy once you've got a handle on the levels and weapons.  I enjoyed it so much that I actually went through and completed all 40 challenges, which are much more difficult than the main game itself.  Besides improving your skills for the main game, conquering the challenges also unlocks extra characters, an interview, and some other cool stuff.  The controls are great, the music is enjoyable, and the level designs perfectly balance nostalgia  with the DS's technical prowess.  Despite all of these positives, there are a few pertinent negatives you should consider before purchasing.  For one, there are a lot of cheap deaths due to the dual screen layout; it becomes very easy to lose bullets in between the screens.  And even though the game is challenging, the powered up weapons are much too strong and the bosses are pretty easy, especially the final one.  Don't be surprised if you're able to save the world without even dying in the final confrontation.


If you haven't heard about Plants Vs Zombies, you should definitely check it out.  It introduces itself as a tower defense game, but it has a lot of unique features.  The game also does a fantastic job of keeping you hooked by continually doling out new seeds and levels.  The game is probably a little too easy, but the art style is endearing and everything else just seems to work.  It's only $9.99 on Steam and has some pretty interesting achievements, so go get it. 

So that's about it for me.  I'll probably be around a bit more before I start my third year, which will consume my life with 12 hour days and studying at night.  I'll be reading your blogs and commenting when I can, so I look forward to hearing from you all.

`Nick