Had the strangest dream last night. My brother was picking me up from somewhere. He had changed his car to pimped up Saab 900 Turbo. Like this, but more chrome:

Picross 3D is amazing. Best puzzle game in a long time

Games played last week:
VVVVVV - Steam
Had no idea what this was before I saw this on Steam sale. Absolutely amazing game, hits the nerve perfectly here. Review coming up later on today. Purchased the soundtrack as well. Could listen to Passion to Explore all day long.

Mafia 2
Mafia 2 - Jimmy's Vendetta
Both for Xbox 360. Went back and finished Mafia 2 on hard difficulty and got all the Playboy magazines. Had really hard time on the fat bastard by the peer. Must have used at least two hours on it. Had a sound tactic all along, but just got some cheap deaths. Had I played and reviewed the game on Hard level the score would not have been so kind. The cheap deaths behind a wall is so much worse on Hard difficulty. Had to also get Jimmy's Vendetta on the day it was released. Bit disappointing tbh. Had it not been the cool end boss battle it would have been so much worse. Anyway review up that as well. My first DLC review!?! Would really like to get back to Mafia 2and finish all the achievements here. Even the 10000 mile one which takes hours and hours. We'll see, definitely not done with this game yet.

Samorost 1 - PC
Been getting into more indie games recently. Installed Samorost 2 which I got from the Humble Indie Bundle while back. Checked the first Samorost and it appears that is all free. So finished it. Really nice game, but way too short. Play it at: http://amanita-design.net/samorost-1/

Blue Dragon - Xbox 360
Had some disc issue but finally got those sorted and Mafia 2 finished (twice). Main focus has been on this for last couple of days and will be til its finished. I am at halfway through second disc. Really enjoying the story and the battle mechanism. Had tiny culture clash after all that Mafia 2. This is just so Japanese game, in good and bad. Kelo

New purchases:
Railroad Tycoon II: Platinum  
Freedom Force & Freedom Force vs 3rd Reich
Both for Steam. All three my favorite games that I surely got a hardcopy somewhere already. Hopefully still play these one day eh.

Metro 2033
Brutal Legend
Both for Xbox 360. Play.com had(has?) a sale where you get two titles fo £25. About time for me to get Brutal Legends. And of course Metro 2033. Steal for that price if you ask me.
Mafia 2: Jimmy's Vendetta - Xbox 360

Blue Dragon - Xbox 360
Had this game already but the disc 2 was so scratched that it wouldn't install. Not likely that it would get past that point when playing the game so got a new copy, well used one from Ebay.

Random youtube linkage, the awesome Passion for Exploration from VVVVVV sountrack: PPPPPP 
 

Games played
Mafia 2 - Xbox 360
I thought that this was amazing. Finished the game day after I got the game. Could not just put it down. Started game today on Hard difficulty. Also want to find all the Playboy magazines.

Art of Balance - Wiiware
Great small balance game. Got 100% on the game after few weeks.

Blue Dragon - Xbox 360
Not as good as Lost Odyssey but still really nice game. Just about to finish first disc I think. Been bit sparing this because the disc 2 I got is scratched. Tried fixing it at the Gamestation and with the disc repair kit, but it only made it worse. Just bought the game again on Ebay today.

Dead Rising: Case Zero - XBLA
Was not planning to get this. But after seeing how cool it looked from the Giantbomb's QL had to get it. And money well spent.


ACDC Live: Rock Band - Xbox 360
New month and new rhytm game for me. Well this is really not a full game, just a track pack. Also sucks that it is live songs. ACDC are good live band, but it is not so much fun playing some these extended drawn-out versions. Still first ever RB/GH that I finished on Hard. I usually review all the games that I play, but not rhytm games.

Games purchased:
Batman & Robin
Batman: Gotham City Racer
Both for Playstation 1. Have had a strange Batman wibe going on recently. Probably from triggered by the newArkham City screens. These should be decent games. 

Dead Rising: Case Zero
Rock Band ACDC Live

Random Youtube video here. This song is been in my head all freaking day. Not even the best ACDC song there is. At least this version is better than the one in the game.. track pack. 
  

Right, so I have this non-gamer friend who owns a Nintendo Wii. He falls to the stereo-type of the most common Wii owner-type. He has even mentioned that Kinetict is something he is interested in. Because it is a new gadget and for his excercises he doesn't have to use restricting controllers. He even went bough a wireless nunchuk for his Wii so that he can exercise easier. Exercise video games, now there is a funny concepts. Don't get me wrong I do agree that any kind of exercise is better than sitting at your couch all evening. Strangely somewhere this so jumping in "front" of the couch has becoming a vial method exercising. I have really close look on this since my wife uses her Wii Fit+ almost daily for yoga and simple exercises. She only does this because the weather is not nice enough to go for walk or run every day. Yau Scotland! She knows that is not the same thing, but then again she has a need to exercise every day. 
 

No Spoilers here. Thought I write my view on the Mafia 2 hype exprience before actually getting the game. For me the first Mafia is my all time favourite games. Especially the story was really good. And I still remember the ending clearly, like I've just played the game. Anyone who played the game knows that it wasn't a perfect game. Janky controls and uber annoying police to name few. Not that game needs to be perfect it to be good or to belong to a favourite games list. Anyway fast forward to Mafia 2. 

I preordered the game as soon as the release date was revealed. Getting bit too old for getting too hyped about games now a days, but I can still say that I am looking forward to Mafia 2. The game was released in the NA three days earlier than in Europe and that was the same day when the embargo for reviews was lifted. I did skimp Brad's review of the game and as a Mafia game I fan I was bit dissapointed. Gameguru had a small news collating some of the major reviews as well. All and all the game seemed to get bit mediocre reviews. I did check Mafia 2 QL quickly but just two minutes because didn't want to get anything spoiled so stopped it, same happened with a last at1UP podcast when they started talking about Mafia 2. Strange thing here is that I am avoiding any details about the game that might get story ruined for me, but same time I am thinking about cancelling the pre-order because of the mediocre reviews?? Can't let story to spoiled but the review scores make me (think about) cancel the pre-order? In the end I want to experience the game myself. And write a own review about it anyway. Well I can't cancel the pre-order anymore since Play.com has dispathed the game allready, the same day embargo was lifted. Usually they dispatch the games two days before, but now three days.(?) Actually I am glad they did because that reminded that I need to stick to my guns regarding spoilers. And reviews. 

Can't really decide if I keep on writing these or not. These entries work as a personal gaming diary but doesn't really have purpose for anyone else. Would be probably more insightful if I wrote more about these games.

Anyway, on with the show:

Final Fantasy 3 - DS

FACT. Odin lives in a underwater cave with his horse Rusty! At least in FF3! OK I don't know if the horse is called Rusty, but lets assume that. Finished the game finally and got a review up. In-game clock says that it took only 25h to beat the game, but I am sure it was closer 35h. Last group combo was: Knight - Devour - Summoner - Ninja, all at level 60 when meeting the final boss. Got a impression that the last boss had less HP than the four bosses before her. Got to use only 4 Bahamut summons and about same amount of Shurikens before she was dead. Hardly did any damage with the Knight since had to move him to back row. Forgot equip a shield and he was taking too much damage. Had even Ninja down for counting one turn but still the Cloud went down fast.

Gran Turismo - PSP

Fixed] my PSP finally and being a racing game fan wanted to test this out. I did know that they dropped the career mode. And ruined the game same time. It is still fun, in very short burst. Posted a review here as well.  

 Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood - Xbox 360

Got my scratched copy fixed at Gamestation. Was about half way through the game already and managed to finish it on one sitting. Posted a review the game here already. Had it not been the decent story I would finished this. Ray's fate was bit sad though. Yes Ray's, not William's.

Splosion Man - XBLA

Finished and reviewed this. Nice and fun game, but in shorts bursts as well. Annoyingly difficult, like N+ which is good. Occasionally.

Far Cry 2 - Xbox 360

Finished the game last night. Review coming up soon. This game reminded me of the first Assasins Creed so much. There was so much potential with some really amazing features. Shame that it was too much of the same and in places it is just broken. Maybe FC3 will improve the game same way as AC2 did?

Some random sessions of GH/RB

Still working through GH2 on hard. Got to last tier now, but haven't unlocked Freebird(encore song) yet. Got also few alcohol infused Metallica sessions. After couple of beers get an urge to do some classics.

New purchased: 

Saboteur 

Prototype 

Both for Xbox360. To get my Call of Juarez 2 copy fixed I had go to a game store. And couldn't just leave the place without buying anything, right?

Dark Void - Xbox 360

Tesco had this for a fiver. Judging from the reviews it is a bad game but it can't be so[/i] bad?

Avencast

Foreign Legion: Buckets of Blood

Both from Steam sale

Random Youtube video here. Track from latest Rob Zombie album that has been in-play here quite lot recently.

I would imagine it is every gamers dream that your significant half would be a gamer as well. My ex-girlfriend used to be such. She was (and probably still is) into Sims and WoW. And even to some stranger titles such Baldurs Gate, Bloodrayne and that Playboy Mansion sim. The relationship had some other issues which I wont go into. 
 
I've gotten married to a non-gamer since that and could not be happier. Well could, if she would be bit more interested in gaming of course. Somehow I think I've managed that now.

After my previous blog on this matter I thought that I was bit harsh since I actually hardly know the guy. He works in different department and thanks to my busy schedule I don't even have time to talk him every day. Anyway casual gamer he is, for sure. We had couple of PSP multiplayer ad-hoc session this week. These were the first ever PSP ad-hoc multiplayer games I had as well and that was strangely disappointing. How can there be a lag in ad-hoc WLAN game. I know it's only 802.11b, which should way better than anything over internet still.
Anyway, another example on how some people should be consulted before getting into gaming to get most out of it. That sounds terribly arrogant I know.

After I had slacked off his chosen console last time I need to blabber more about the matter. On our first game pre set-up it came clear that this fellow doesn't have a memory card. Apparently the bundle he got simply didn't have one. And after one months use he had not gotten one? Well granted PSP's sleep function is quite good here but I got an impression that he was not using it either since each time he was loading his game. Anyway his console selection was odd and not having a save function even more stranger. This guy really has no clue. Anyway I hooked him up with one old memory cards I had lying around. Which was my good deed of the day/week... I mean come on. You get 100-150£ games console but no £5 memory card to be able to save your games. Tried giving him some recommendations on getting some decent PSP titles, but if these can not be found from the bottom the bargain bin he was not having any of it. Oh dear...

This weeks gaming diary thing.  Played games this week: 
Final Fantasy 3 - DS 
Got to the second map and finished the "golden" cave/dungeon. Lost bit interested after that because didn't really know where to go to. Found the next place where I am heading just now. Bit lost with the jobs system still though.
Splosion Man - XBLA 
Wanted to pick up something totally different. Can only take this on small dozes. Some brutal levels huh? Good game but difficult.
Guitar Hero/Rock Band - Xbox 360  
Been playing almost every GH/RB I own. First finished GH Metallica guitar on Medium. Now started GH2 guitar on hard. Still want to finish all these on hard. Interesting to see that the songs I was struggling before, such as Woman and Freya were relatively easy now.  
 
Got also my wife interested in GH/RB games somehow. She is playing the bass while I do guitars or drums. Didn't take long before she started to handle Medium difficulty. Will be interesting to see how this turns out. Turning my non-gamer wife to a gamer!? Probably will ramble about this more this week. 
 
Purchases: 
Machinarium - PC 
Just purchased this 30mins ago. Amanita Design are running a Pirate Amnesty promo, selling this game for a mere 5$. Never played this but have heard lots of good things about this. Can't say no for that price 
Rock Band Microphone - Xbox 360 
Wanted to get a complete Rock Band set so got this for tenner. More suitable for wife thought.
PSP Official battery and a charger 
Mate at work wants to do some ad-hoc PES'ing so had to fix my PSP. Got a official battery and vola! PSP started to work properly straight away. Had some horrid Chinese batteries from Ebay earlier, absolutely useless stuff. Was nice to use PSP again. Interested in checking the Gran Turismo for PSP out
 
Have had this melody in my head for weeks now............