Welcome to the first spin of the RecSpec Roulette*, my weekly spot to tell tales of my weekly gaming endeavors. Since this is the first one, I have a lot to write, going all the way back to the beginning of November. Don't expect walls-o-text every week. Just this one. I have some ideas of where I want to go with this, but I just wanted to write about all the stuff I was playing this week, clear it out of my writing backlog. And if you want to just comment on my quickly thrown together banner and leave, that's cool too, really. Sadly, I probably spent about 6 hours on that thing. No art skills here. All lamenting aside. Let's place our bets and spin!

*Note that RecSpec Roulette is just a name and will not contain any actual betting. Sorry.

Skyrim

Let's get this out of the way. Skyrim's great. I'm playing on the PS3. Things are swell. I could write pages upon pages about Cat Sassin's adventures, (he's a Khajiit, get it?). I'll spare you.

Finished Dark Brotherhood and the College quest line. Almost done with the Thieves Guild. None of these were able to hold up to the Dark Brotherhood line in Oblivion, but who cares. Overall I have been having a blast. My character is focused on Stealth/Conjuration when I mess things up. Since I have the stealth ability of King Kong, the Conjuration really comes in handy.

Holy shit moment:  This. Second would be my Dremora Lord decapitating an enemy so the head rolls and triggers a bear trap right in front of where I'm hiding.

Saints Row: The Third

After Bombcast after Bombcast telling me how awesome this game was, I had to give in. For the record, I'm not a fan of the GTA series. Enjoyed 3, meddled in Vice City, and haven't spent any significant time since. Because of this I never felt the need to play Saints Row.

Is this an unfair comparison? Maybe, but guess what? I'm loving this game. I love the utter insanity of it all. I love the RPG aspects to it. I love the way they use the music in the game. I love the way I'm able to do a touchdown dance over a dead cop dressed as Leon Bell. The best part is that I'm only halfway through. It's a game I can just have fun with. Sadly, that's a rarity these days.

HS Moment: Tripping over a flagstone, breaking your neck, and dying. Seriously, http://deckers.die

Shadows of the Damned

I bought this soon after it came out, played the first chapter, and shelved this. Finally finished this, and I just love the setting and the characters. I became a huge Suda fan after playing through No More Heroes this year, and this game is vulgar, ridiculous, and just fun...if you ignore the combat. The combat feels like RE4/5 but sloppier.  I had fun with everything except actually playing that game. But everything else was good enough to keep it great. I was surprised at how much this game made me laugh especially the storybooks. Also, hearing someone try to reproduce the sound of a harmonica is one of my favorite things in a game this year.

HS Moment:  The chase sequences. Every time that enemy showed up, it was a miserable experience. I mean that in the best way possible.

To the Moon

I wrote a review on this game. To sum it all up, it's fantastic. The story is so great, you should be able to forgive the basic gameplay. I won't write too much because I'd just be copying it from the review. You can download the first hour of the game for free here (it's about 4 hours long, so that's a quarter of the game. And it's not too demanding of your PC. The way that game makes the big reveal is pretty hard hitting. And over a week later, still thinking about parts of that story. I really want to try playing through it again if I get the time. I think it's a game that everyone should at least try.

HS Moment: One of the main character's decisions near the end of the game. I really need to stop thinking about this game. It's making me want to play it again.

Sonic Generations

Sonic is like that girlfriend you once had (the series, not the hedgehog). Things went fantastic for a while (Genesis), things get worse, but you still love her enough to try and keep things going (Adventure 1 and 2), then you had a destructive break up and stayed distant for awhile (Sonic Heroes on). You don't hate her, you want her to be happy. There are times when you and her try the relationship again, and it ends worse than it ever did before (Sonic 4). Doomed to repeat for all eternity.

Sonic Generations is that brief moment when me and the Sonic series remember the fun we had together, but also had a blast in the present. No commitment, no future plans, just a once-off moment where I had fun. Sonic is what it is, and there is no changing that. But damn, I had a lot of fun with that game. The Genesis Era was fantastic, Dreamcast fun but slipping,  Modern Era a wreck. That game is so much like the series to me. I couldn't help but think the people working on the game were in on the joke. Hell, Crisis City (the Sonic 2006 stage) was EASILY the worst in the game, just like 2006 was the worst game in the series. For better or worse, this is the definitive record of the Sonic series. I'm glad that I played this. Oh right, the music is spectacular.  

HS Moment: TWO ROBOTNIKS! Such great dialogue between them and the other characters, such a shame that it preceded a pathetically miserable boss fight.

Tails: It's Dr. Robotnik!  

Retro Eggman: Nobody calls me that anymore.

Me: sigh

Uncharted 3

A great story, finished it from Chapter 5 on in a single day. Some combat parts aside, the overall experience was always fun. While I liked story mode, I've been having more fun playing the co-op multiplayer. Arena mode is a blast, especially playing with my brother and sister. I played through the beta and the Subway trial, and I'm still having a lot of fun with it. Wish I had more to say, but it's more Uncharted. It's familiar, but still good.

HS Moment: Any of the drugged sequences, which may seem weird considering the set pieces in that game. But they showed most of them so far in advance, you knew what was coming.

Future Bets: This week I'll probably play more Skyrim and Saints, but I really want to try to finish Ghost Trick and Bastion soon. Also, Skyward Sword hasn't been touched yet. I don't think I'll get to it before the end of the year. 

If you've managed to read all the way up to this point, congrats, you've made it to the end. I promise the next one will be a lot shorter, and will be less of a mountain of text. Thanks for reading. Til next time.

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