I haven't blogged in about a month, with school and all the new games coming out I haven't really had the spare time to write something up. However I felt like sharing some of my feelings on a couple of this year latest releases.
 
Uncharted 2:
Can't stop playing this! Beat it on normal my first time through, took 11 hours and 40 minutes. Now I'm playing through it again on hard mode to get all of the trophies and money to buy bonus stuff. The game has so much replay value. You get money for earning trophies and doing challenges. You can use this currency to buy single player skins, bonus videos, concept art and even perks for the multi-player. I plan on playing through it on crushing difficultly when I beat it on hard so I can get everything. 
 
The gameplay is much improved over the first one. The shooting, running and ducking into cover all feel so organic and smooth. I really enjoyed the story, it's a great Indiana Jones style high octane adventure. I haven't played much of the multi-player, only one match just to get a trophy. It seemed really fun. It's very similar to Gears of War with it's 5 on 5 elimination mode(no respawns) which is the only mode I played. However when I tried GoW online I just got discouraged because I would be looking around for people to shoot and then all of a sudden I would get a 'sploded from behind by a shotgun. In Uncharted I found that it was alot more forgiving. When I start to get shot a have a decent chance to take cover, unlike in GoW when always get sniped or shotgun'd. This is probably because Uncharted 2 is brand new and Gears of War has been out for much longer. As a result people are better at it then me and I get owned. But I felt like mentioning it anyway, in case any of you feel the same way. 
 
Brutal Legend: 
 The single-player story missions only took me 4 hours and 30 minutes to finish. I went back in and collected everything there is to be collected after beating it though. Just gotta finish those hunting missions. I drove around for 45 minutes and only found 4 out of 16 reaper horses I needed and the ones that have dudes riding on them don't even count if you kill them!!! All frustration aside the main story is a blast. It's funny and has so many great metal characters and units that's it's well worth your time. The only thing is that the multi-player seems like it's the biggest focus of the game. I really don't give a shit about the multi-player and find it to be no fun at all. Let me explain a little. Say you just made 5 units and you want to send just 2 of them to one place . Normally in a RTS you would just click on them and then click where you want them to go. 
 
In Brutal Legend you have to:
fly down next to the unit, 
hold Y to select them,
fly back up ,
hold down on the left bumper,
place a becon where you want them to go,
go near them again,
then click -> on the D-pad to tell them to go there.
 
I strongly feel that the RTS element of Brutal Legend is the weakest part of the game. Which is sad considering it started out as a full blown RTS. 
 
They even have new maps coming out soon. 
However my biggest problem is that the game makes absolutely no effort to show you any of the cool stuff that you can find. There's all kinds of cool stuff, like these "legends" that you find that explain how the world was created and how all the creatures came to be. Yet the game doesn't even make them known to you. There's no message after you beat the single player saying "hey! check out this cool stuff." No clever maps to point you in the right direction like in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Nothing at all! This is a big deal because you only see about 60% of the world if you just play the story. I just feel that with a little more effort into making the single player longer or the end game stuff a bit more enjoyable to do Brutal Legend would go from a decent game to a great game.     
 
I really don't know why I keep playing Brutal Legend considering I payed $75 for not even 5 hours of entertainment, yet I got Borderlands for only $45 and I really should be giving that game more of my attention. Which brings us to #3, last but certainly not least.
 
Borderlands:  
As of writing this I am level 18. I Haven't been playing this as much as I should since I'm really busy with Uncharted 2 and finishing that blasted hunting mission in Brutal Legend. However so far I really like it. There is a real "lust for loot" thing going on like in World of Warcraft or Diablo. Every couple of minutes I was finding guns with stats just a little better then the one I was using. It's got all the stuff i like about RPGs and MMORPGs but instead of clicking all day I get to shoot dudes in the face!
 
I played the Hunter class, mainly staying back and sniping dudes scoring mad criticals all day. The Hunter's action skill is to send in a hawk named Blood Wing to attack the enemies. I eventually got a skill that decreases the cool down of my Blood Wing each time a pop a dude with a sniper rifle. I also found a crystal thing that makes Blood Wing fucking ELECTRIFIED!  Just imagine an electric hawk soaring through the sky at your enemies while you get a ultra gory headshot and a big fat "CRITICAL HIT" pops up. If you don't think that sounds at least a little interesting than you are a lost cause.
 
Also check this story out:
     
I think It's a really neat idea.      

           
          The new year in video games starts tomorrow. Before I get to that though let me talk about something a little different. For me June is the end of video games for about three or four months. In June video games stop coming out, school finishes and everyone goes into summer mode. Which for me means lots of barbeque, late nights and sleeping in till 1pm. This years summer was a little different though. This summer meant the beginning of the end. The beginning of the end of summer as I know it and of the lifestyle I've come to know over my past 17 years on this planet. I begin my last year of highschool tomorrow. Which is certainly not a bad thing. 
          
          I was once told and I'm sure all of you have heard it before, that your years in school are the best years of your life. "I sure hope not" was the first thing out of my mouth in response to this crazy idea. Isn't that a terrible thing to say to anyone? "Hey, your life is only gonna go down hill from here!" What I realize now is that "best" was simply a poor choice of words. I think what everyones elders are trying to say is that the high school years are their most cherished years. Alot of stuff happens in school, you meet a shit load of people, nice or assholes. You learn alot of stuff, interesting or boring. You make friends that you'll stay in touch with or maybe never see again. You have alot of experiences great or terrible. All of this stuff helps shape who you will become after highschool. 
 
           I have no idea what i'm going to do after highschool. No idea where i'll be living. No clue what my job will be. Or who i'll still be in contact with. All I know is that wherever i'm at, whatever I do for a living and whoever my friends are I will always be playing video games. I can remember this time exactly two years ago when I was counting down the days to Halo 3. I can remember five years ago when I was homesick for a few days and my mom bought me Metal Gear Solid 3 to make me feel better. I remember eight years ago when I stayed up all night playing Super Smash Bros. Melee with my friends. I can remember ten years ago when I found my N64 underneath the tree and played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the first time. Trying to find that fucking sword so I could get past that bitch and see The Great Deku Tree. I remember eleven years ago when I first got my gameboy and played Pokemon Blue. I remember finding my dads old Atari in the closet so many years ago when I played my first video game console ever.  
 
         Video games have been apart of my life as long as I can remember. I can't wait to play all the great games over the course of my last school year. So bring on Halo: ODST, Borderlands, Modern Warfare 2, Mass Eftect 2, Brutal Legend, and all those other games. Bring on life after highschool,  let the new year begin. 
 
Now if you'll excuse me I'm gonna go make a new hero on Champions Online. 
 

             Ok, so this is my first blog post in a little while. That's because there's not much to talk about. What have I been playing? Champions Online. It's an mmorpg, and right now it's really unbalanced. That's cool though cause there's so many different combinations and stuff so it's gonna take them awhile to iron all that stuff out. The HUD is great and I haven't ran into that many problems at all. So if you like super heroes and mmorpgs give this a shot. Other then that I haven't been doing anything. 

           I went to Walmart because I was bored while waiting for my Champions Online to download . I bought a bag of those Guacamole Doritos, I haven't had them in ages and they fucking rock. I also saw this on the self: 

 
I played the demo on steam and really enjoyed it so I picked it up. After spending a few hours with it I found out I really really really enjoy this game! It's a simple but yet pretty deep game. The graphic style is fantastic. You basically use plants to keep zombies off your lawn and prevent them from eating your brains. What an awesome idea for a game! 
 

          Well, August is almost over! I just finished collecting all of the Riddler's challenges in Batman: Arkham Asylum. All 240 of them! I did it all by myself too, with the exception of the very last set of the Joker Teeth. They were hidden in the top of a room in the Arkham Mansion, I didn't even know the room had a top part. I still plan on getting 100% complete. I'm at 84% now and I have alot of the challenge levels to finish. 
 
          If you haven't bought this game yet, do so now. It only cost me $43.88 and it's got a ton of replay value. The single player is actually pretty long. When you finish it you get the chance to run around Arkham Island and collect a bunch of stuff. I'm not sure what it is but I really enjoyed solving the Riddler's Riddles. Every now and then he calls Batman to mock him. However after you start solving all his Riddles he gets very pissed off. You also unlock patient interviews, character trophies etc. This was good reason to keep going for me. Not to mention the fact that you can find maps to all the secrets in a particular zone. The maps are not very hard to find and they only tell you the general area of the secret. There are even lists in the pause menu that show you how much stuff you missed in a given area. This is a great way to do collectables, if there were no maps or lists I would never have bothered. Like those pigeons in GTA 4, fuck that. Or the flags in Assassin's Creed.  
 
          As well as tons of collectables Batman also has his work cut out for him in Challenge levels. There are a bunch of these levels. You unlock them by collecting shit, another reasons to put up with The Riddler. There are two basic types, stealth and beating up dudes. In the stealth levels you must take out a bunch of armed guards. There are three medals for each level that you get by doing specific things, like taking a guy out with explosive gell. The other levels require you to beat the shit outta dudes with your fists. Some of the bad guys are lightly armed with knives or sticks. Your goal is to get a high score by stringing together a mad combo and using a variety of moves. These are basically the same things you do in the strory mode, so if you liked that you should enjoy it. 
 
          What else is new? Well Champions Online comes out tomorrow. I've never played an MMO during the summer, so this is another sign it's over. I guess it's because there's always a new WoW expansion coming out in the winter and that usually gets be back into it. Not this time though (i think). I am going to start playing Champions Online as soon as I get a hold of it. I just hope my local Walmart gets it in soon because that's the only store in my town that sells games. Well, except for The Source but they still have collectors versions of fucking Hell Gate London! I know right, those guys are totally on the up and up!  
 
          I also played some pen and paper RPGs. I made a dwarf barbarian in D&D, never got a chance to use him yet though. I spent most of my time playing Call of Cthulhu. It's a horror roleplaying game. You roll dice for your characters stats then you set out on scary adventures. The guy who makes up the story is called The Keeper. He basically sends horrible monsters from H.P. Lovecraft's books after the adventurers. It's similar to D&D in the fact that there is an all powerfull bastard who tries to kill the adventurers. The differance is that Call of Cthulhu is fucking brutal, there are some creatures that if you just look at them your head explodes. I'm not going to explain all about the game because I'm far too lazy. If you like pen and paper rpgs and the works of H.P. Lovecraft then check it out. 
 
          Back to video games. I also played Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. A video game about the works of H.P. Lovecraft. It came out on the original Xbox and PC. I was playing it on PC and really enjoying it. It's creepy and really does Mr. Lovecraft's unique style of horror pretty well. However my fun came to an end because it keeps crashing at the same part whenever I go to open a safe. This saddens me but I can't expect much since I downloaded it from a torrent site :) Prehaps I will buy it from steam for 20 bones. 
 
          Alright well that about does it, I haven't been doing much all week since it's been non stop raining and snowing. Summer has officially ended for me. I will miss all that red meat and I'll always remeber how all I ate was barbaque for two weeks straight. I'll always chairish my silly rubber boating experiences and camping trips. However with the snow comes games! Bring on the games! Let the games fall from the sky!