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Malik (11/2/09)

I would normally spend some time Monday talking about my thoughts on the Seahawks game...but why bother? If they can't attempt to play, then maybe I can't attempt to say much.

Does the O-line still suck? Yes. However, now it's the defense, the offensive line, the receivers (ok, Burleson is damned good, but that's as far as the receivers go), the running game (however, that's another one primarily on the O-line), and everything else. Well, everything except Hasselbeck still looks good and Ryan is still the best punter in the NFC. Of course, you don't want a good punter. You want a punter to not have time to make good kicks and instead you only want the kicker on the field.

Is the season lost? Yes. There is no chance of anything good happening. I mean the Seahawks are now only one game ahead of the Rams. The Rams! If that's not a bad sign, I don't know what is. The only good news is that Seattle plays the Lions next week. It will, hopefully, be a victory...but it'll be the final victory of the season.

At least there is some good in my life. In particular, I cannot find the will to play The Ballad of Gay Tony since Ratchet and Clank is still dominating my life. I beat Tools of Destruction and have moved on to Quest For Booty (the PS3 download sequel). Once I'm done, I think I'll pick up A Crack In Time (the new game released a week ago). I never thought a platformer could win me over this strongly, and now I have a whole franchise dominating my life.

Malik

Malik (11/4/09)

I ended up skipping Rock Band DLC this week. I do enjoy the Foo Fighters and Nirvana, but like I've said before, I'm just getting too jaded on Rock Band. It's nice when I can play with a band, but I've found myself alone in my band career too often lately. Maybe I'll pick up a few of the songs in the future, but it's not feeling like a good use of money right now.

That's on the opposite end of something that feels like a good usage of money. In my case, that would be me picking up Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time yesterday. Best of all, when I bought the game, Gamestop still had pre-order codes, so I got the discovery Package in the mix for no effort and no extra time wasted pre-ordering.

I cannot say much to add to my R&C addiction, so I'll just say the game is damned good. I mean this franchise is pure addiction. Each game I've played (which has only been the PS3 titles) has pulled me in more than the last.

The two big changes on A Crack in Time are pretty cool. On one hand, you have modifiable weapons for three of your weapons. The pistol (you start with), grenades (you get shortly after the start of the game), and the shotgun (haven't found yet) can all be altered in a few ways. You can change things like how the grenades explode (time, proximity, or contact), the pistol fires (do you charge it like the Metroid charge beam), and all of them can be customized on color. There's three or so modification styles per weapon with color not included. It makes for an interesting option in how you want to play out the game.

The other big difference is that flying your ship is a lot more interesting. You fly everywhere in the game instead of just teleporting to new or old locations. You can warp to old places, but then you miss out on the fun of exploring space to find mini-planets (which have bonus items and weapon upgrades hidden on them), fighting evil ships in mini-battles, and helping stranded pilots who will give you rewards and side missions. I mean you add all of that together, and flying is just a lot more enjoyable. Also, you no longer have to worry about your ship (left stick in Tools of Destruction) and aim (right stick in ToD) being separate. It all feels just so much smoother.

Speaking of smoother...Velveta is not one to watch me play many games, but even she was enthralled by how beautiful the game looks. I mean ToD looked good, but ACiT is just that much more visually polished.

Anyway, I haven't given up on The Ballad of Gay Tony, but I think R&C now own my will to game and it may be a while until I rejoin my GTA4 times.

Malik

Malik (11/6/09)

Next week, Rock Band will see a smaller than typical set of songs. A three pack from The White Stripes, a single from Kasabian, and a single from The Damned. I think, despite my jaded state with Rock Band, that The White Stripes will find a home on my 360 next week. Despite being nearly done with RB, I can't turn down Jack White songs and their guitar glory.

I'm still too caught up in Ratchet and Clank to play much of anything else. In fact, I still want to get back to GTA4, but that will have to wait until I find every Zoni, holoplan, and most golden bolts in R&CF:ACiT. I'm probably not even 40% done with the game, but I see myself taking quite a while since it's too damned addicting to do the battle arena, and find the hidden collectables.

My only complaint, so far, with ACiT is the weapons. I do enjoy a good deal of the weapons available. However, a few of the early weapons just feel sad compared to those in Tools of Destruction. I mean you get too many hard to use in a fire fight weapons too soon. You get a sniper rifle, a slow moving ball of electrical doom, and the spikes (think land mines, but harder to utilize) before you ever get a shotgun or a rocket launcher. You only start with three good combat weapons before you get bogged down with the more unique and more difficult to use in a heavy action area type weapons. It makes things a bit difficult early on when you're facing the potential of running out of ammo while still getting the hang of the basics of the game.

Anyway, that's a minor issue. The weapons are still good fun (mostly...I'm not a fan of those electrical spikes) and fit the quirky nature of the R&C games. I just wish the order in which you get your weapons was a bit more balanced for the early fire fights that will drain ammo like it was nothing.

Anyway, today is another shorter post. Too much real-life things to do and not enough time to just sit back and enjoy the fun parts of life.

Malik

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