Blood Bowl, the Halflings

There's no more apt description of the underdog, as least in Blood Bowl, than the Halfling team.  They are smaller and weaker than most other teams, but they're also faster and really good at handling the ball.  For blocks and tackles, the Halfling team fields treemen players.  These hulking giants are placed right on the line of scrimmage and provide a nice defensive line for a ball carrier.  They are very slow, not that great with ball handling, and will sometimes root in one spot.  They are also very resilient, being able to take hits from multiple opponents with their Stand Firm skill.  The next two story matches would definitely be interesting.

The first was against a Skaven team, and as usual the goal was not to win but complete a particular objective.  This time it was two successful passes, which sounded easy enough, especially since Halflings have such high agility.  We kicked off first, they received and quickly rammed it down our throat.  The rats were really good at dodging and rolling out of tackles, around my defenders and scoring a touchdown on their first possession.  Now it was our turn for possession, so after receiving the kick off I immediately tried for a close pass with little risk.  It was successful, but the receiver got knocked down attempting to dodge an ogre.  They picked up the ball on the turnover and scored again.  Thankfully I needed only one more good pass to complete the goal, no matter how bad the scoreboard looked.  I think it's interesting they were running the ball instead of passing.  The Skaven obviously have good agility, passing should be a natural part of their offense.  I guess the computer was playing it safe, though I'm not sure why.  We still hadn't managed to score, and even if we did it certainly wouldn't have made any difference.

Another kick off and another successful pass and I could now rest easy.  The rats scored again on their possession, taking their lead to 5-0.  At this point all I had to do was wait until the match was over, but I felt I owed it to my portly team to at least try and score one touchdown.  Sadly we just couldn't make it happen, as every time we'd get the ball we'd either fumble or get knocked down for another turnover.  I honestly think the dice were working against me here.  The Skaven players would move in and surround whoever recovered, and it's easy to guess what happened next.  The game ended pretty quickly after one more touchdown, then I was able to move on to the next match.  This put us up against an Ogre team, which initially had me rolling my eyes.  I wondered how on earth the Halflings could stand a chance against such a strong, offensive team.  To my surprise, they held their own quite well.

 

The Ogres consist of not only the brutes themselves, but also small greenskins called snottlings.  They are very fast and good with the ball, which complements their bigger teammates quite nicely.  The trademark of this team is their ability to toss a snottling, with the ball, down the field and into the end zone.  I kept waiting for this to happen, as they had several opportunities, but they never even tried.  This time the goal was not only to complete two passes, but also dodge successfully ten times.  That wasn't a problem, as I already knew how good stunty players are at blowing right through a tackle zone.  We kicked off first, and I tried to put it as far down the pitch as possible.  It really didn't matter, as a snottling snatched it up quick, with his ogre teammates then surrounding him for protection.

 

Ball in hand, they marched down the field, pausing only to knock each of my defenders out of the way.  A touchdown seemed imminent, but luckily their snottling fumbled the ball right at the end zone.  One of my players was close by, so I moved him in for a quick.  At least three ogres were close enough to reach him next turn, so I took a chance and passed to another player down field.  That high agility score came through with a perfect pass, and luckily a perfect catch to go with it.  With most of their players on the opposite side of the pitch, I easily ran into the end zone and scored.

Somehow we were now in the lead 1-0, but the game wasn't over yet.  I had completed the ten dodges and two passes, so winning at this point really didn't matter, but I was emboldend by my first touchdown.  We kicked off with the rats running the same offense as before.  This time they didn't manage to get very far before I was able to use my treemen to tear down their defense.  An ogre fumbled the ball while trying to break out of our tackle zone, but of course we also fumbled trying to pick it up.  That turnover was all they needed; a snottling grabbed the ball and scored a touchdown just before the game ended.

We didn't win, but a tie is better than a loss, especially with the Halflings.  Given my limited experience with the game, I felt like I had really accomplished something.  It was pretty obvious after reading the post-match news that we wern't even expected to score, let alone tie.  Maybe the Halflings aren't such underdogs after all?  Regardless, my tenure as their coach was complete.  After my success I was offered the chance to coach two different elf teams for their next match: regular run of the mill Elves, or their distant Wood Elf cousins.

Read Dead Redemption : Undead Nightmare

Read Dead Redemption has to be one of the best open-world GTA style games I've ever played.  It's almost the end of the year, and it's still by far the best of 2010 for me.  I finished the story line months ago, but still have plenty of challenges left to do in single player as well as 20 more levels for my character in multiplayer.  With as many hours as I've put into it, I would imagine the cost per hour has to be well below a dollar.  Where else can you get value like that, plus get to shoot people at the same time?  Rockstar released a few different DLC packs, only one of which I downloaded and that's because it's free.  The others were paid DLC, and the content provided didn't interest me enough to pick any of them up.  Undead Nightmare, on the other hand, had my interest since the moment I heard about it.  I imagined John Marsten's rugged southwest, drenched in fresh blood from a zombie outbreak.  I never really gave the idea of cowboys and zombies much thought, but after playing this DLC I think I'm hooked.  I'm a sucker for all things undead anyway; when you throw in an open world and the Old West it's just icing on the cake.

The single player story takes place near the end of the main story line, with John Marsten arriving home from Blackwater just as a strange storm rolls in.  He enters the house and gets one last quiet evening with his family, Abigail and Jack.  Uncle, the remaining family member, hasn't returned from the fields which has John concerned but not overly worried.  The next morning starts normal enough, but Uncle of course returns very much undead with an insatiable hunger for human flesh.  I think it's interesting how they handle character reactions, as neither John nor Abby know what a zombie is.  She tries to run over and help him, only to be bitten on the neck and turned before John's very eyes.  He calls for his son Jack to come out and help while he deals with Uncle.  Jack is bitten and turns as well, just as John manages to finish off Uncle.  He's not sure what to do with them, thinking they are sick and need help.  The very first mission of Undead Nightmare requires you to lasso and hogtie your family before setting off to Blackwater in search of a cure.  John takes them into the house and barricades the door from the outside.

Of course zombie enthusiasts know that even though it's implied, there is never a cure.  Luckily John's horse manged to escape the infection, so I hopped up on his back and headed for town.  During the normal game, roads are usually busy with travelers going this way or that.  In Unead Nightmare, the road from John's ranch at Beecher's Hope into Blackwater was dead, no pun intended.  There's an eery silence everywhere, and the sky is an overcast gray.  The sun is nowhere to be seen, and as I come into town I notice I still haven't seen a single person.  Blackwater is the biggest city in the game, yet it's completely deserted.  It's not long before I start running into other survivors, including some familiar characters from the main story.  It's interesting to try and make predictions on who will make it and who won't.

After a couple missions in Blackwater, the undead horde attacks in full force and John is tasked with helping defend the town.  In these types of battles, I've learned that the roof is the safest place to be.  Zombies can't climb, thankfully, so staying up high is the best way to stay alive.  Once you clear the first town, things open up and you can then do the same for all of the others.  Each time I would first ride in, a mission would start where I would need to help defend against an ever increasing onslaught of undead.  The farther I got into the game, the harder things became.  I manged to get all the way down to Armadillo, which is roughly in the middle of the map, and it was definitely the most difficult.  Once you defend a town, it becomes safe which allows you to save the game and search buildings for precious ammo.  There aren't any stores open, so the only ammo and weapons you have are what you find.  Towns don't stay safe for long, as sooner or later the undead attack again.  When that happens, you're called again to help defend.

There's also a whole new set of new challenges, stranger missions, and random events that fit right in with the zombie apocalypse theme.  I've seen survivors on the road being attacked by zombies, a poor woman who was bitten and turned just as I had gotten off my horse to help her, and a man trying to take a woman's gun for himself.  The stranger tasks, at least so far, have all involved major characters from the main story.  Some that I didn't like ended up zombified, which made killing them fun.  Other good characters also didn't make it, and the game forces you to deal with them accordingly.

I haven't made it down to Mexico yet, as I switched out this past weekend and started multiplayer.  It's still just as fun as before, with Friendly Free Roam being a nice addition.  Before it could be a pain to try and gain experience as eventually there would always be some idiot show up shooting everything in sight.  With this new Free Roam that's no long a problem, and I was able to run several gang hideouts with no interruptions and dare I say actual cooperation from another players.  I noticed several new gang hideouts that are apparently part of previous DLC packs, so I guess I'm going to have to get them all eventually.

Undead Overrun is one of the new multiplayer modes that comes with this DLC, and for my money it's by far the best.  It takes one of several different set pieces from the main game, with four players fending off progressively harder waves of zombies.  Before a match begins you have to choose a weapon load out, each being suited to a different play style.  Once things get started it's all about killing zombies and staying alive as the clock slowly ticks down.  Coffins appear during each wave and if a player opens one the entire team gets additional ammo and time on the clock.  I had a match where one player dropped out just before we started, then another climbs up onto a building just as the first wave starts.  This left myself and the last player to run for the coffins and cover each other.  It didn't become a problem until after several waves, then things start to get really crazy and working together as a team is the only hope for survival.  Unfortunately the one player never came down, and could only hit zombies that were close.  I was surprised when he didn't even come to heal either of us after we had both been knocked out.  The clock ran out and the match ran into overtime, but I'm not really sure what that meant as I didn't stick around.  I did eventually get into one game with three players that were very good.  We worked well as a team and made it to wave 11 before running out of time.  I don't think I stopped moving that entire wave.

Blood Bowl : Legendary Edition

Blood Bowl combines the Warhammer fantasy world with American football, the result being the most violent and bloody sport ever.  Two teams square off on a pitch surrounded by screaming fans, and just about anything goes.  The Chaos team I played wasn't very good at handling the ball, but they were really good at beating the opposing players into unconsciousness.  You really don't need an offensive strategy if most of the opposing team is either dead or knocked out.

The original version came out last year, complete with 8 teams and a campaign mode where you could play an entire season from start to finish, even the Blood Bowl itself if you're team made it that far.  Shortly after, a new edition was released with Dark Elves as an added team.  Last week, the Legendary Edition came out and now I think all but one of the official teams is playable.  It retains the campaign from last year's version, as well as a new story mode.  When playing the original, I opted to let the computer handle all of the rules and dice rolls for me by playing the game in real-time mode.  Any true Blood Bowl player will tell you that is sacrilege, as at it's core it's a turn-based board game.  For the LE, I've only been playing in turn-based and it makes a world of a difference.  So much is hidden to you in real-time, it doesn't even feel like the same game.

I've finished the first two matches in story mode, mainly just to get a feel for the rules. It seems interesting, but I'm already getting the itch to create my own team and jump into a campaign.  I'm not sure that would work, as the first two matches are pre-set with specific goals.  Luckily I was able to meet those goals, but I still don't understand the game enough to formulate tactics or strategy.

The first match pits Orcs against Dwarves and starts just as half-time is ending. I picked Orcs, and the game started with my team leading 1-0. The dwarves had the ball, so I tried to set up a good defense with every open square covered by a tackle zone. The dwarf team would always cage the ball carrier, then start moving towards the line of scrimmage. They downed both of my black orcs and linemen quick, but luckily they turned the ball over fairly quick. One dwarf player was ejected for kicking a downed Orc, two others were knocked off the pitch and beaten into unconsciousness by the crowd. After that I had the numbers advantage, so it was a matter of dismantling the cage he had around the ball carrier while keeping them away from the end zone.

The second match was as Goblins against Humans, and man did that seem like a lopsided match-up. We started down by 4 I think, but luckily the goal wasn't to score but throw 2 goblins. Not as easy as it may sound, but I did manage to get it done. I had one troll throw a goblin at the human ball carrier, only to miss horribly and smash him into the ground. Needless to say he didn't make it, but my next attempt was more successful. They kept the ball almost the entire game, except after their two touchdowns. We had the ball once, but fumbled it quick and the Humans recovered. The one other possession we had was when they kicked off and one of my goblins managed to get a hold of it. I didn't waste any time, marched him down the field, then grabbed and threw him with troll. I thought maybe I could land him far enough down field to get at least one touchdown, but of course he face-planted too. At least the throw was good, so the goal was complete and I moved on.

The last match had me play the Halflings against the Skaven I think, but the game crashed as it was loading so I'm not sure what the specific goal for that match is yet.  I really hope it's not to win. From what I've read, Halflings are only for the more experienced players, and that is definitely not me.

Fallout : New Vegas

I played Fallout 3 quite a bit, on both the 360 and PC.  I started on console, then got bored and traded it off after finishing the first DLC pack.  I managed to finish several of the side quests, and was probably about half way through the main story before giving up on it.  About a year later I happened upon the Game of the Year edition and decided to give it another try.  Given that I've always been more of a PC gamer, the better controls and sharper graphics really pulled me in unlike before.  I powered through most of the side quests I had done on 360, then switched over to the main story and finished it.  Broken Steel, one of the DLC packs included in the GotY edition, changes the ending and extends the story so that you can keep playing  After the main story ended, I packed up and headed back to Megaton to get my bearings.  I last left the Capital Wasteland standing in my house, armed to the teeth, and ready to head back out.  There are still several side quests to complete, all four DLCS packs, and a massive amount of the map that I never even set foot in.  It's all going to have to wait, as I think I'm way overdue for a few nights in Vegas.

This Fallout takes place in the Mojave desert, in and around the city of New Vegas.  My character in the previous game was built around agility and intelligence, opting for the slow silent kill instead of brute force.  I decided to stick with what works, and created a new character with the same ideas in mind.  Guns, Science, and Security were the three skills I started with.  The first is pretty self explanatory, as melee combat really isn't an option, so I'm going to rely on dealing death from afar.  Science skill will help me break into the numerous computer terminals I'll no doubt find, and Security will make sure locked doors and containers don't stand in my way.

The game opens as I dig my own grave, three seedy looking characters standing watch close by.  One of them is dressed in a fancy suit, the others don't look like much more than hired muscle.  Once finished, I find myself standing in the hole with my arms tied.  The leader tells me I've delivered my last package, but that I shouldn't feel bad as this one was rigged from the start.  He pulls what looks to be a poker chip out of one suit pocket, then a large handgun out of the other.  I'm not sure what the chip is for, but I definitely know what he's going to do with the gun.  He rambles a bit more, then raises the barrel and puts a bullet through my head.

I wake up some time later, not sure if I'm dead or alive.  The room spins as I sit up, I notice an elderly man sitting at my bedside.  He says I was brought to him several days ago by a robot named Victor, and that he's been patching me up ever since.  I slide off of the bed and hit the floor, realizing that everything I had on me is now gone.  The man introduces himself as the local doctor, and tells me that I'm in the town of Goodsprings.  I ask if he remembers anything about the men who shot me, but he doesn't know much and suggests that I speak with Victor.  Before heading out, Doc gives me some clothes and supplies and advises that I stop in at the local saloon.  He also gives me a PipBoy 3000, normally used only by vault dwellers, saying he no longer has a use for it.

I step out into the blazing sunlight and it's so bright I'm nearly blinded, but it soon fades as my eyes adjust.  I find myself in a dusty little town, not more than a few buildings here and there.  I see a couple locals harvesting crops, the Prospector Saloon that Doc mentioned, and a General Store.  Tumbleweeds blow by as the wind picks up, I notice that outside of Goodsprings there doesn't seem to be much of anything around.  If I'm going to make it to New Vegas, I'm definitely going to need supplies.

Since I'm a sucker for good decor, I head into the Prospector first.

The bar is small and dingy, but comfortable and quiet.  I find Sunny, a local hunter the town procures to keep pests away from their water supply.  Doc mentioned that she could teach me a few things about surviving in the Mojave, so I inquire about a lesson.  She takes me out behind the saloon, for some target practice, then asks if I'd like to come help clear out geckos.  Given that I have no money, anything that earns a few extra caps is worth my time, so I agree and we set off to the first water supply.

She takes the lead, with me following, and her dog close behind.  We get to the first water pump pretty quick, several geckos charged at us.  Sunny opened fire right away, but I was feeling a bit rusty so I enabled the V.A.T.S. (Vault Assisted Targeting System) that comes standard with each PipBoy.  It greatly helps with your accuracy, and allows you to focus your attacks on the specific body parts of your target.  I aimed for the head, as that's almost always a good choice no matter what you're fighting.  Sunny dropped one, and I took care of the other.  We decided to take a quick breather before heading to the next one.  I thought it was a nice opportunity to collect some spoils to sell at the general store.  Gecko hides and meat don't bring in many caps, but for now every cap counts.  Gunshots ring out from somewhere as I stand from the last corpse.  I'm not sure where they are coming from, but Sunny keeps firing and the sound guides me.

It's not long before I find them, taking on an angry pack of geckos by the next water pump.  Her dog was killed first, having charged in and drew their attention.  He managed to kill one, but the rest were now coming towards Sunny and I.  I raised my rifle and blew off one gecko's head, she hit another twice in the chest and it went down.  The final two got close enough for a couple bites and scratches, but it didn't take long to finish them off.  Sunny lamented the loss of her dog, but we pressed on as there was still one more pump to clear.

The last one didn't present a problem, only a couple of geckos to kill and we were done.  Goodsprings' water was again safe, and I prepared to head out after receiving my reward.  Sunny offered to teach me how to cook using different plants and other ingredients.  Anything that can increase your odds of survival in the wasteland is always worth the time, so I agreed.  She told me she needed two different plants before we could begin; one she thought grew over by Goodsprings' cemetery, the other near the old abandoned school house.  A quick check of my PipBoy told me the school yard was closer, so I headed in that direction.

It wasn't very far until I could see two buildings, so I knew I was heading in the right direction.  When I arrived the place was deserted, save for a strange robot.  He said his name was Victor, the very same Victor that pulled me out of a grave and took me to the doctor in Goodsprings.  He said that he noticed my captors as they were taking me to the graveyard and decided to follow us.  After they left, he took me to town.  I asked if he knew anything about the men, but he only said the leader looked like he was probably from New Vegas.  I head inside the schoolhouse.

It's been picked over of course, but that's not unusual.  In the wasteland if it's not locked up, bolted down, or under guard, it won't be around for long.  The school house is infested with giant mantis insects, they swarm towards me as I walk in.  The rifle just isn't fast enough, so I switch to a 9mm pistol.  It only takes one good shot each, and I don't even end up needing to reload.  I kneel down to cut off their wings when I notice a computer terminal on the far side of the room.  Closer inspection reveals a safe, which is most likely what the terminal controls.  I could either pick the safe open, or hack the computer.  Since I don't have many bobby pins yet, and they break very easily if you aren't careful, I hit the computer terminal and manage to hack it fairly quickly.  Inside I find a wealth of caps, stimpacks, drugs, and a few weapons.  The haul fits easily in my pack, I head back out and find the first plant.

I ran into a nasty looking scorpion on the way there, about the size of a large dog.  Amazingly enough, that's not as big as they can get.  I felt lucky for that, and also that there were no others around.  I tried blowing off it's tail first, but since I'm still a horrible shot I had to shift my aim towards it's body.  The varmint rifle Sunny gave me is a very weak weapon, but it gets the job done.  The only problem is that it takes several shots for a kill, and that means ammo is already a concern.  After taking the scorpion's tale, I head towards the graveyard to find the other plant.

Can't check the graves because I don't have a shovel.  Fortunately this plant is easier to spot, so I harvest it quickly and then head back towards Goodsprings.

Darksiders

I played Darksiders on 360 back when it first came out.  I thought it was pretty good, but since it was a rental I never put much time into it.  The PC version finally came out the end of last month, so I went ahead and picked it up on Steam.  I have to say that it's much better than I remember, but that's probably because I prefer the PC control scheme over a controller.  Trying to play a third person action game with a mouse and keyboard could have been an exercise in frustration, but thankfully it works really well.

Darksiders drops you right in the shoes of War, one of the Four Horseman of the apocalypse.  The story begins as the armies of Heaven and Hell descend on Earth to wage their final battle.  War, as one of the horseman, is sent to Earth to bring order and put a stop to it.  Upon his arrival, he learns that the other horseman have not arrived and the Seventh Seal has not been broken.  It's here where the game starts properly, and you are tasked to find out who brought about the apocalypse before it's due time.  The first level is a tutorial of sorts, getting you used to War's combat moves and abilities.  As you move through the city, the battle between Heaven and Hell rages all around you.  I've played through some pretty big set-piece levels like this in other games, God of War being the most notable, but Darksiders has to be one of the best I've seen.  Angels and demons of all kinds are fighting all around, and it really made me feel like I was in the middle of something bigger.

This game has often been compared to Zelda, mainly because it has the same sense of exploration and character upgrades.  As you progress through the story, War gains new weapons and abilities.  Each is important, as a new weapon might be the only way to defeat the next boss or those angelic wings the only way of jumping across the huge chasm.  This is where the similarity to Zelda comes into play, as it pretty much does the same type of things.  You're somewhat limited by the power of your character, but the more you play the more options open up.  While some people may find this annoying, I like the idea of starting out as nothing and building up your power as the game progresses.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment, as that new crossblade offers yet another method of doling out punishment.

I haven't played very far, maybe a few hours before Dead Rising 2 got a hold of me.  So far the game has been really good, changing up it's pace here and there to keep things interesting.  One level has you stealing a ride from one of Heaven's gryphons, flying through caverns and around obstacles as you take down various enemies.  Another is an arena fight, where you have a set amount of time to take down a certain number of enemies.  Then of course you've got you're larger than life boss battles, against foes that literally dwarf you in size.  I haven't seen anything yet on the order of God of War or Lord of Shadows, where the boss is so huge that you literally have to climb up it just to get in a swing.  I'm not sure why I like those type of fights, maybe it's just the grand scale of it all.  Given the size of the first boss on the tutorial level, I'd say there's got to be at least one screen-filling fight before the credits roll.

It seems like most games these days have some sort of upgrade system that lets you cash in on your destructive abilities.  Darksiders uses souls of the damned, collected from battle and rewards.  You can use them to upgrade War's weapons so they do more damage, purchase new abilities, or in one case a different weapon entirely.  Obviously I haven't seen much as I'm still at the beginning, but already there are lots of choices and it will be interesting to see how things develop as the game progresses.  I don't have enough souls to buy everything I want, so choices are already a factor.  Do I buy the scythe, which may be slower than War's sword but is much better when attacking multiple enemies.  Or do I upgrade the sword so it does more damage or new combat moves?  Decisions, decisions, decisions...

So now that Dead Rising 2 is out of the way, I'll definitely be heading back to this one soon.  I've also started playing Castlevania : Lords of Shadow on PS3, so I'll probably be bouncing back and forth between the two.

Dead Rising 2

After almost 40 hours of real time and two playthroughs of the main story, I think I can safely put Dead Rising 2 aside for now.  The game was a blast from start to finish, but at the same time it really made me long for more.  They stayed pretty true to the original formula that made the first game so unique, which I definitely appreciate, but at the same time I really want to see Dead Rising 3 taken to a new level.  A true open-world, where the entire city is your play ground.  Lots of different types of zombies, the mutated ones were a nice addition but they need to take a look at Left 4 Dead.  Take the combo card idea and just run with it, there really are limitless possibilities here.  Vehicles would take on a much more prominent role with an entire city to explore, so being able to outfit them with various implements of destruction would be awesome.

But I digress, I'm not really talking much about the game I just spent a week's worth of my life playing.  I finished the story with the S ending and was able to make it into overtime, but the last two psychopath battles against the main "bosses" really left me cold.  Neither was impossible, but each was designed to require a particular tactic and punish when you try something different.  For Sullivan, your forced to do away with melee attacks and resort to ranged weapons.  This normally wouldn't have been a problem, but it seems every psycho in Dead Rising 2 is hopped on PCP because gunshots don't do much.  That's fine with me, as my weapon of choice for most of the game has been knife gloves, but with Sullivan you can only get in a couple swipes.  After that he becomes "invincible", and knocks you off of the platform and into a swarm of hungry zombies.  It didn't take me long to switch tactics, opting instead to pick him off from a distance with the sniper rifle.  It did take longer, but after that I didn't take nearly as much damage.  You really have to be on your toes, even when keeping a distance.

There's also T.K., the loud-mouthed host of Terror Is Reality.  From the start it's pretty obvious that he's going to be the main antagonist; framing Chuck for letting loose the zombie horde that provides the TIR show it's main form of entertainment.  At one point you catch him and his hired thugs loading up a train in the tunnels below Fortune City,  It's never made clear what he's doing, or even what he's loading, until later.  After stopping the train, you next find him attempting to drill into each casino's bank vault and make off with the cash.  After he's captured near the end, Chuck makes it a point to let everyone know that T.K. started the outbreak just to rob Fortune City.  At that point I wasn't convinced, and started to suspect Sullivan was in on it somehow.  Everything fit just a little too perfectly, and I found it hard to believe that robbery was the sole motive here.  My suspicions were clear after completing the next case, where you find that Phenotrans has set up an underground lab right below Fortune City.  During that time, T.K. attempts to escape and is bitten by a zombie.  You're now faced with a choice to either let him turn, or give him zombrex to stave off the infection.  If you don't, he turns and once Sullivan is dead it's game over.  If you take pity on him, he shows up one last time to take Katey and Stacey hostage.  Like the first game, he then sends you off to collect numerous different items scattered around Fortune City.  Unlike the first game, where you were tracking down ingredients to make the precursor to zombrex, this time it's just an excuse to run you through the zombie gauntlet one last time before the game ends.

So I finished his little scavenger hunt, had my knife gloves ready, a couple painkillers to mitigate damage, and plenty of fresh OJ to down if things went bad.  In the end all that preparation meant nothing, as you get knocked out and all of your stuff taken.  The last fight takes all of the choices you had for the entire game, and tosses them right out the window.  You're forced to slug it out with T.K., all the while preventing Katey and Stacey from being slowly lowered into a throng of zombies.  Don't get me wrong, once you figure out his patterns and what moves to use it's not really that hard.  My problem is that, yet again, the last boss is a fistfight that involves little choice or tactics.  The first game ended the same way; Frank West fighting the evil army colonel on top of a tank surrounded by zombies.  At least this fight you have more room to move around, but other than that it's just as frustrating.

I ended my second run at level 50, 60 people saved, A ending.  This time I let T.K. turn, as one fight with him was enough for me.  Overall I would definitely rate it higher than the first, if not as inventive.

Dead Rising 2

The first Dead Rising was the reason I bought a 360.  After playing WoW almost exclusively for over 2 years, I sold my account on eBay and was able to get the console and that game.  It didn't matter to me, as it was really the only game I wanted at the time.  I have a zombie fetish anyway, so pretty much any game that features the undead is an automatic must play.  So now that the sequel is finally out, I find myself once again in gaming nirvana.  Dead Rising 2 has everything I loved about the original, and oh so much more.

Like the first game, you're dropped right in the middle of a zombie outbreak.  Unlike the first game, which was entirely in the Willamette Mall, this one takes place in the Vegas inspired town of Fortune City.  There are several different malls, casinos, and various other areas.  All are connected and open to be explored as soon as things get started, which is a nice change.  Even after 10 hours I doubt I've seen half of the map.  I still haven't found a gun shop, but I know there's one somewhere.

The really ingenious addition is the ability to combine items and create some interesting new weapons.  A baseball bat by itself doesn't do much, but combined with carpenter nails it's downright nasty.  Same thing for a flashlight, not really much use for killing zombies by itself.  Duck tape a box of sparkling rare gems to the front and you've got yourself a crude light saber.  Silly?  Yes, but very effective.  It cuts a swath through zombie hordes like nothing else, except maybe the broadsword.  As of now, it's my personal favorite.  Not only can you cut through zombies like butter, but it's got a combo move and alternate attack that splits them down the middle  Another example; combine a few power drills with a metal bucket and you get an interesting new zombie hat.  Almost every item can be combined with something, so there's lots of combos to find.

One annoying thing about the first game is the survivors were pretty much dumb as bricks, so you had to really keep your eyes open and stay close.  Thankfully the survivor AI for this game has been dramatically improved, so it's not nearly as frustrating to get them back to the safe house.  In most cases I just gave them a pistol, then had them follow me while constantly yelling to keep close or hurry up.  I tried giving a couple survivors melee weapons when I first started playing, but it doesn't work so well when they stop to attack a zombie and get swarmed.  Firearms seem to be the way to go for now, at least pistols.  I stay away from doling out the bigger guns.  Being shot in the back with a shotgun by the survivor you are trying to help convinced me. Even though they aren't quite as dumb as bricks anymore, they still fire with impunity.  Whether you're in the way or not doesn't seem to matter much.

Fable 2

After over two years of playing it on and off, I finally finished Fable 2 yesterday.  I thought it was a really good game, but not as good as the first.  I like the idea that you can now buy shops and houses, thus creating a constant income for yourself once you get a few of the more profitable businesses under your belt.  I didn't like the fact that they removed armor and replaced it with a dress-up Barbie type clothes system.  I remember my character at the end of Fable 1, decked out from head to toe in the best armor in the game.  He looked almost like a walking tank, definitely not someone you would want to mess with.  I have to admit that my character at the end of this one did look cool, but in a stylish Jack Sparrow kind of way.  One of the hooks in an RPG game is that your always looking for better loot, and Fable 2 really doesn't do that well here.  There isn't a wide selection of weapons, and once you find a legendary you won't be going back.  As you progress farther into the game, you do find a wide variety of different clothes that can be mixed and matched.  The game also has various dyes that you can find, which can be used on your clothes to create all kinds of different looks.  That does make up for it a bit, but it's not a replacement for a nice suit of full plate armor.

Fable 2 has a distinction from other RPGs in the fact that your character isn't really restricted to any class.  There are three sets of abilities; one each for Strength, Skill, and Will.  Strength is pretty obvious as to it's benefits, the other two are for thievery and magic respectively.  Although you can specialize, I always spread my points out among all three.  Here is where no armor comes into play, as your defense and health are directly ties into various abilities.  You can't survive long without investing in some strength abilities, and skill is pretty much a requirement to use ranged weapons effectively.  I didn't do much with magic for the first half of the game, but did pick it up later on.  By the end I was using powerful area attack spells first, then finishing off whatever didn't die with blade or blunderbuss.

Your actions also dictate the appearance of your character.  Getting knocked out in battle will produce very visible scars, and continued use of magic will begin to show as powerful runes start to appear all over your body.  The same can be said of your morality, or lack thereof in some instances.  Spend time killing and robbing innocent people, and you'll begin to grow horns while your eyes turn blood red and your face starts to crack and darken.  Likewise, the people of Albion will react to your appearance.  They'll cower in your presence, or simply run away in fear.  On the flip side, if you play the good guy like I did, your character will appear radiant and full of life.  I couldn't go anywhere without mobs of people following, wanting to give me gifts or just stand in awe.

One of the most interesting aspects of the game is how you can affect the world.  The story takes play over several years, from starting out as a young child to late adulthood.  Even in the beginning, the choices you make have a drastic impact on the world.  One example is you can do various jobs for people to earn money as a child, one of them entails finding some lost arrest warrants for a local guard.  He'd like to clean up the streets, but needs those warrants to do it.  Of course there's also the criminal element, and they'd like to make those warrants disappear.  After you return as an adult, your choice has a pretty big impact on that particular section of town.  In my game it had a thriving economy and virtually no crime, so it's pretty obvious the path I took.

Another interesting thing about Fable 2 is that even when you aren't playing, the game still takes that time into consideration.  When I first rented it, I managed to get to Bowerstone virtually penniless with only the scraps on my back.  I walked through the streets, going from shop to shop as I realized it would be a long time before I could afford anything.  Doing quests didn't seem to pay much out, so I started working jobs at the local blacksmith making swords.  When that got old, I switched over to serving beer at the local inn.  I managed to save up enough to actually buy the inn, so that meant I now had an income that paid out every five to ten minutes.  It wasn't much, but it was a start.  After a couple more hours of play, and a crap load of swords, I had saved up enough to buy the blacksmith as well.  So thats' how it went for awhile, and thus also how my Albion real estate empire was born.  Shortly after that I quit playing the game for several months, until I managed to work a deal in trade and was able to start back up again.  As noted above, the game keeps track of time even when you've long forgotten, so I received a huge payment of several hundred thousand gold for all my back rent.  Naturally I took all of that cash and put it back into buying properties, and before I knew it I owned over half of Bowerstone.  By the time the credits rolled, I owned about every building in the game and had well over 3 million in gold.  Fable 2 doesn't actually end, so I was able to keep playing to finish up everything I missed.  After the end, there is one last major piece of property to buy.  Castle Fairfax, home to the main villain for the entire game, is put up on the market with a 1 million gold price tag.  By that time money was of course trivial, so I bought it first thing.  After that I was pretty much done with the game, but I at least went in and looked around before saving.  The castle is gigantic, comes with it's own butler, and is just all around cool to own.  All in all it was a fun ride, and now I feel I'm ready for Fable 3.

Elemental

This was from awhile ago, version 1.06.  I haven't played another game yet, just too many other good games to distract me lately.  They've released up to 1.08 now, but I'm still probably going to wait for 1.1 before I get another huge game like this one going.  Overall I only had a couple crashes straight to desktop, which is not nearly the problems that others have reported.  As an owner of GalCiv 2 plus all of it's expansions, I still very firmly believe in Stardock as a developer and I know they will support Elemental for years to come.

So this game had passed 300 turns, playing Resoln, on a large map, with 5 other opponents on normal difficulty.  The game placed me on a fairly large continent, I ended up only meeting the 3 other factions who started close by.  Umber was directly west, Altar somewhere close by as I hadn't uncovered enough of the map to see exactly where.  Gilden started to my south, but we didn't run into each other for quite awhile.  I first encountered them while sending a pioneer down to lay claim to that area, only to find out it was already occupied.  I didn't really feel like going to war, so I left them alone until Umber asked me to join in attacking them.  By that time I had a pretty nice-sized army, so I managed to steam roll over their defenses pretty easy.  Two of their cities fell quickly, after which their king went into hiding and I have so far been unable to find him or any of their cities.  I really didn't like their random names so I just used Forgotten Realms city names instead.

The map of the known world, at least by the scholars of Resoln.  The mighty empire of Umber is off to the west, with several Altar cities to their south.  The three of us seem to be the major powers on our continent, so we've avoided fighting each other so far.  Our efforts have mostly been to eliminate the kingdom of Gilden, which somehow manages to hold on to at least one city somewhere.

The kingdom report for Resoln indicates almost all of our income is being paid out in troop wages.  Aside from Umber, our armies are the largest and strongest.  Spies report that Gilden's army has been almost wiped out, with Altar's about half the size of ours.  Umber is definitely the strongest, but their research is lacking so their armies are many but poorly equipped.

The dynasty of Lord Zamiele, Emperor of Resoln.  Interestingly enough, his first son Mordred married the princess of Altar very early on in our relations.  Normally we would be sworn enemies, but I think this marriage has helped to keep tensions low.  Ironically, the marriage was Altar's idea.

Neverwinter, Resoln's capital city and seat of power.  It's come quite a long way from the dusty hole in the ground it started out as.

Zhentil Keep, our second city, was founded near an old growth forest to provide materials that were very scarce in the early years.

The city of Neverwinter, with Zhentil Keep far in the background.  Our sovereign is making his way down the road, gathering up troops for war.

Our sovereign and two of his sons are marshaling their forces together into one large army.

Here are two of Gilden's cities that fell during the first war.  At that time our army consisted of spears and leather armor, as we had been unable to locate any source of metal.  Luckily Gilden had plenty, so we ended up with not one but two productive metal mines.  With our knowledge of smelting, we were able to increase their output even further.

Waterdeep became the third city founded by Resoln, serving as a bridge between our capital and Gilden's conquered lands.  It was also close enough to harvest the nearby fire shard.

After years of war, and capturing two of his greatest cities, the King of Gilden is somewhat curt when we negotiate.

Lord Mordred leads his demonic army out into the wastes.

New Phlan is a younger settlement near a beach to allow building a harbor and exploring the sea.

Luskan is our last and smallest outpost, placed strategically to counter the ever-expanding Umber Empire.  With it's founding they are unable to expand their territory any farther east, not without declaring open war.  An Umber city can be seen not far in the distance.