After a month off from games to concentrate on studying for an exam (results pending), I have been playing copious amounts over the last 2 weeks. So many things to play, so little time.

On my way home from the exam I picked up NBA2k9. I really enjoyed 2k8 last year until my 360 scratched my disc and made it unplayable after a few months. 2k9 is a marked improvement over what was already a solid basketball sim. The presentation is as close to true broadcast quality as I've seen in a sports game. The little touches are all there. Players celebrate with their teammates or complain to the officials, highlight montages are played during dead ball situations, the crowds chant appropriately, if you are on the road and hit a big shot it will quiet the crowd, and the player animations are the best I've seen in a basketball game. Players move fluidly, defenders fight over and around picks, players change their shot in mid-air to avoid getting blocked, heads realistically track the ball instead of staring blankly off into space. It looks good, and plays great. The controls are so deep they are almost intimidating, but at the same time you can get by on Pro difficultly with just the basics. That's just the core of the game, not to mention the deep franchise mode, the streetball stuff, the dunk contest and all the online offerings including up to 10 players in the same game. I think I'll be playing this on and off for a long time.

NBA2k9 also finally forced me to replace my ailing 360. After not playing it for a month, it had gone back to locking up regularly. I decided not to wait the 3 or 4 weeks it would take to send it in for a repair and I picked up an Arcade unit. Hopefully this one will be stable with the added benefit of an HDMI port. The DRM transfer was surprisingly simple to use as well.

This week I picked up LittleBigPlanet & the SOCOM bundle mostly for the headset. I watched all the coverage of the LBP beta, all the YouTube videos of the crazy levels that people were publishing and I couldn't wait to play it. I've run through the first 3 groups of story levels and I am finding it every bit as fun and charming as I was hoping it would be. I've always been a platformer fan and LBP gives the right amount of variety and challenge along with a pretty addictive group of collectibles. The fact that you can potentially use everything you find to build your own levels only makes the anticipation of what is going to be in that next prize bubble higher. It also gives you a reward and incentive to replay levels to access areas you couldn't before. The other sense of exploration you get is from playing all the user levels. You never know what you are going to get when you load one up. So far there have been a few gems already. I imagine there are going to be some amazing things coming down the road once people get familiar with the toolset and unlock everything. Just look at this:

The reports of my 360's death have been highly exaggerated (I hope)

I continued to test my box out after my last blog to ensure that it was really broken and would red ring when I sent it in. I wanted to avoid the possibility of having it returned to me unfixed because it didn't display flashing red lights out of the box. Over the next few days my 360 would continue to freeze on the boot screen or a minute after starting any game, but I couldn't get the red lights back. My 360 is out of warranty so the only issue that gets a free repair is the red ring. Any other service is $90+ or just about half of what a brand new box would cost. I was still going to send it in and take my chances, but before I did, I decided to give an internet urban legend a shot. After it froze on Tuesday night, I wrapped it in a towel and left it on overnight. When I woke up there were 2 red lights flashing, so I thought that was an improvement. Much to my surprise when I turned it on, it no longer freezes and I've been able to play as much as I've wanted since then. I'm totally expecting this to only be a short term fix and I'm keeping the shipping box from Microsoft, which I have 20 days to use, close by.

• Pro: Enjoyable swinging and fighting controls which made it fun to explore the large open world and to dispatch the thugs you encounter
• Con: One of the worst game cameras I've encountered. Spidey's quickness is always going to make a tolerable camera a challenge, but that doesn't mean they get a free pass for this mess. They ensure the camera gets in the way by including as many cramped interiors as they can. You are combo-ing your way through a pack of enemies one second and find yourself upside down on the ceiling the next. 
• Pro: Welcome addition of alternate plotlines and classic villains to supplement the lackluster movie storyline
• Con: Unimaginative, repetitive boss battles that required nothing but an extreme amount of button mashing and patience. 
• Pro: A good variety of random crime missions with enough gameplay variety to keep them interesting
• Con: Frustrating difficulty spikes at unexpected times

• 

  Con: TOO MANY QUICK TIME EVENTS. Failing these "hamster feeding bar" moments results in a loss of health so if you were just able to beat a boss with a sliver of life left and you aren't anticipating LT, B, A, X, Left Stick Up, RB, Y, you get to start the whole boss battle alllll over again
• Con: Having to rely on a Spidey Reflex Dodge button that doesn't always dodge the attacks its supposed to
• Con: Last gen character models and cut-scene animations besides Spider-Man himself.
• Con: Introducing a brand new playable character with completely new controls in the middle of the final mission
• Con: Uninspired bomb defusing puzzles. Tapping Y rapidly and alternating the triggers doesn't feel like bomb defusal to me.
• Con: 100+ tokens to collect for no reason other than achievements. They unlock no abilities or even extra features.

It has been a long time since I downloaded a game from XBLA or PSN. The last game I bought from Live Arcade was Symphony of the Night in March 2007 and the last game I bought from PSN was the overrated Everyday Shooter when it was half price in December 2007. Since then there has been a dearth of interesting titles released. I've had my fill of Match-3 clones and shoddy retro ports so nothing has compelled me to open my wallet. That streak seems to be coming to an end very soon though as the drought seems just about over. In fact, there may be a flood on the horizon.

Pixeljunk Eden

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2

Bionic Commando Rearmed

Castle Crashers

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix

WipeOut HD

I thought I'd throw down random thoughts as I'm using the image moderation tool. Hopefully this won't be totally boring.

5:45 PM - I''ve already been reviewing images for a few hours. It is amazing to see the variety of games that people are adding images to from just about every era. This whole concept is awesome. I'm glad we are able to pitch in and help the guys out. It's the least we can do for all the years of entertainment and this great new site they've built.

5:48 PM - Someone REALLY likes uploading Gothic 3 screenshots

5:50 PM - OK, I've just reviewed 8 images of Star Fox in a row making up a frame by frame barrel roll. That seems rather excessive.

5:51 PM - A shot of the opening scene of Bioshock before the plane crash. I can't believe it's been almost a year since that came out. I need to go back and finish it a second time for the Brass Balls achievement.

5:54PM - More Gothic 3!

5:58 PM - Why did someone attach a series of photos of Satoru Iwata, the President of Nintendo, to Ocarina of Time & Halo 2 of all things?

6:02 PM - Bungie should sue the makers of CellFactor: Revolution based on these screens I'm seeing

6:03 PM - Hamburger has an image gallery and someone uploaded the movie poster to Good Burger.

5:57 PM - Knock Knock. Who's There? Gothic 3

5:59 PM - The Heavy from Team Fortress 2 modded to look like Venom. Now that's cool.

5:59 PM - SackBoy! I can't wait for LittleBigPlanet

6:00 PM - ENOUGH GOTHIC 3 ALREADY!

6:01 PM - Rygar is just as ugly as I remember it.

6:03 PM - I am shocked I haven't come across a watermarked image.

6:04 PM - I spoke too soon about the watermarked images (1 - Gamespot)

6:05 PM - I'm tempted to start declining these Gothic 3 shots.

6:07 PM - That's got to be close to 30 Gothic 3 screenshots and most of them are boring stills of a static environment.

6:09 PM - Why does Solid Snake have a pencil moustache in this Twin Snakes shot?

6:11 PM - Snatcher sounds like a sequel to the movie Teeth

6:14 PM - Ah, Blaster Master, that brings back memories

6:17 PM - Just when you thought you were safe, Gothic 3 returns. This time he's on a bridge!

6:18 PM - It looks like they modeled the creatures in Gothic 3 after Nashville Predators coach Barry Trotz

6:22 PM - Gothic 3 at night!

6:24 PM - What the hell is a Puggsy?

6:25 PM - Just a tip, but an image can't be box art and a screenshot. That's probably going to be rejected.

6:26 PM - An NHL'94 screenshot of a Rangers vs Islanders game! Awesome! I wish I could approve it more than once.

6:28 PM - Everyday Shooter, now that is another overrated game. Much like Psychonauts, everyone heaps praise on it as some revolution, but it's not that fun to play. I appreciate the artistic merit, but that's not pulling me back in like Super Stardust HD or Geometry Wars did.

6:30 PM - I didn't mention the last few times Gothic 3 screens popped up because I figured it was getting annoying to mention, but if I ever find out who uploaded all of these, there will be retribution.

6:32 PM - Another tip, an image can't be a PC screenshot AND a 360 screenshot AND a PS3 screenshot. If you don't know, just use the general screenshot gallery

6:33 PM - Watermarks #2 & #3. It even says "No Rights Without Permission" right in the corner......

6:34 PM - Gothic 3 has deserts too in case you were wondering.

6:37 PM - Having Yoda in Soul Caliber IV is dumb

6:43 PM - I need to pick up God of War II. The first one was epic.

6:45 PM - Hearts of Iron II looks complicated, really, really complicated

6:48 PM - Does the chick in Dreamfall: The Longest Journey walk around in her underwear for the entire game or should the user that uploaded these things be put on a watch list?

6:54 PM - Saints Row has a dude dressed up as a giant milkshake.

6:57 PM - In game screenshots are not concept art

6:58 PM - The rocket launcher in Killzone takes up nearly half the screen. I would imagine that makes it hard to aim.

7:03 PM - How can you tell the difference between NASCAR '05 and any other NASCAR game?

7:09 PM - The Civ IV boxart uploaded to The Movies......how does that happen? Are people that rabid for points that they aren't even paying attention what they are uploading?

It's time for Mets baseball so I will bring this blog to it's conclusion. I hope you were somewhat entertained. I'm loving the site and being a part of building the most comprehensive video game database on the internet. Don't stress about how long your submissions are taking to be approved or how many points you have. There are hundreds of thousands of things to edit. I just like being able to contribute. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

• The Overabundance of Cut Scenes - There were sections of this game where gameplay was interrupted every few steps. They might have looked nice, but I didn't find them all that compelling which brings me to...
• The Story - This point may be my own fault for having high expectations, but I read this game was supposed to have a great plot and clever dialogue, what I played had neither. The only thing unique about the narrative of Psychonauts was the aspect of Raz invading people's minds to cure their demons, but to me that just led to a bunch of disjointed levels which didn't seem to fit together. That was also probably my fault because I got bored of  the story pretty quick and wasn't caring why I was jumping from the mind of the Milkman to the Crazy Actress to the Painting Bull. Beyond that its the same derivative "unlikely hero learns powers and saves the day" thing.
• Power & Item Limitations - You learn a bunch of powers as you progress through the game, but you can only equip three of them at a time. If you come to a point you need invisibility to sneak passed an enemy, but you don't have it equipped, you have to hit select, bring up the powers menu and swap out the one you need. Its even more frustrating for the items because you can't hold an item and activate a switch or talk to a NPC. If you put it away to open the door, you have to hit select and pull up the item menu all over again. The lack of a quick select menu that gives you access to all your stuff is disappointing, especially since Ratchet had it 4 years before Psychonauts came out.
• Collecting to Advance - Yes, collecting is part of most platformers, but pretty early in Psychonauts you are forced to walk around the camp with a device that detects arrowheads buried in the ground. You have to collect over 1,000 of these things to buy two items from the store or else you can't advance to the next level. In order to dig these things up I had to mash on a button so hard, I was seriously risking an aneurysm. This was a boring waste of time which was interrupted by more cutscenes as I ran into characters walking around camp.
• Frustrating Sections - I'm not one to shy away from a challenge, but there is a difference between being challenging and being cheap. Getting blown up by exploding mice that constantly respawn on the asylum level. Having to make precise jumps with sloppy, floaty jump controls and when you miss, falling all the way to the bottom of a level only to start all over. Having to protect the kid in the meat circus, but not knowing where he is in the level because he jumped to a platform (in a cutscene) that can't be seen from the platform you are on. A rail slide section with gaps spaced in it that forces you to slow down so you miss the jump or go too fast that you overshoot the next jump combined with the previously mentioned sloppy jump controls.
• Having to Wait to Level Up - If you want to redeem the Psi-Cards, Cobwebs or Brains you pick up mid-level, you have to warp back to HQ then warp back, but instead of taking you back to the exact spot you warped out, you are taken back to the start of the level. That discourages you from actually reaping the rewards of the items you find.

Things I Did Enjoy

• As a fan of Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas & Corpse Bride, I dug the visual style of Psychonauts which seemed to be at least influenced by Burton's work and I think Psychonauts could have been a good animated movie.
• Two of the levels did live up to the hype of being unique and different. The level where Raz is a giant that is stomping around a city environment was a lot of fun to play. You don't normally see that kind of scale in a platformer where the character towers over it's enemies. The other level I enjoyed was the board game level which you play with the Napoleons. Figuring out how to get the pieces on the board and then moving them into the right spots was fun.
• I found the powers varied and useful. Double Fine did a good job of ensuring that you would encounter sections which would require you to use each power you acquire. Setting something on fire with Pyro, bouncing with Levitation (when a precise jump wasn't required), picking up an enemy and tossing it aside with Telekinesis all feels satisfying.
  
  

Unfortunately, on balance, Psychonauts turned out to be a big disappointment to me. It's not an unplayable game, but it is far from the pinnacle of the genre that people make it out to be. Hopefully the cool kids will still let me sit at their table.