Games this week:

• Xbox 360      - Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
• Playstation 2 - Persona 3 FES
• PSP             - Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep

It's basically just been Persona 3 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 this week.  Been a busy week outside of games.

Just to get it out of the way, Persona 3 FES remains largely the same.  I hit a little bit of wall with a boss who kept casting Megidola and just whooping my ass.  But I pushed through it and now it's back to business as usual.  Which is fine, because it's awesome.

And the same goes for Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.  At least in the being about the exact same as last week.  Not nearly as awesome, though, but it continues to grow on me.

I finished the Anti-Registration campaign for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 this week.  Started up a second playthrough to go through the Pro-Reg side of things.  Anyway, I don't like MUA2 as much as the first game.  I've been wracking my brain this week trying to pinpoint exactly why and I think I came to a conclusion: it's just not as much fun, both in the story and in the gameplay.  And it's very difficult for me to play the game without comparing it to the previous entry.  It's a sequel, that's what happens. 

To that end, and in regards to the gameplay, there are less characters, half as many unlockable costumes per character, and fewer powers.  And what few powers you have are no longer mappable to the face buttons.  Where they are is where they will always remain.  The fusion powers are awesome in concept, but, there are only so many different ones and you basically find yourself seeing the same animations over and over again, as opposed to the awesome momentum meter powers from the first game that were huge and flashy.

The in-game character models look better, as long as you don't get too close, but the prerendered scenes do not.  They're still fun to watch if you don't get hung up on the visuals; there's plenty of action and there are some funny moments.

Which brings us to the story; the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance was goofy and just an awesome excuse to have all of these playable Marvel characters in a game.  Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 seems to have taken the idea of a big character roster and tried to build a serious story around it and, for whatever reason, it kind of falls flat.

If I took the time I could probably go in to more detail on the game, but, this'll do.  Basically, it's not bad, but it pales in comparison to the previous game.

Finally, some awesome news, as of this week I start writing for Player Affinity, specifically the PS3 department!  I imagine these Weekly Rundowns will probably be the same and stay put, but, there'll be some things exclusive to that site, particularly in regards to reviews of new games and a lot of articles on gaming in general.  Anyway, I will greatly appreciate any and all support you could all give me!