Game you should buy this week:Fallout 3

The light up ahead is blinding. I push the tatters of what tries to be a door open and light overwhelms me. It takes a good 30 seconds for my eyes to adjust to the blazing globe in the sky. Behind me the vault door snaps shut. I am outside. My pipboy wrist computer starts to crackle and hiss with static. Through the static I can hear music, someone going on about the presidency or such. My Father is out there somewhere…

Fallout 3 is the spiritual successor of the popular Fallout series from the nineties. Bethesda has given us an offering on their collective “take” of the Fallout world. I find it hard to attribute Fallout 3 a direct lineage since it is so radically different from the original 2. That is not to say it is bad, quite the contrary it is, thus far, as entertaining if not more engrossing than the originals.

Many review articles have covered the unique start, and tutorial levels. They are well done and unique and I for one am happy to have played through them. I am however not certain what their replay value will be. The first 30 minutes of gaming are all about fleshing out who you will be, and every last one of those 30 minutes gets thrown out the minute you leave the vault.

I like the game over all however. There is humor of the off-sort, you may have to go looking for it. In other words it may require reading. There are also moments that will catch you off guard. A small skeleton on a dock by a river of irradiated water, a teddy-bear clutched in one arm, an empty bottle and a rusty gun in the other hand. Real and visceral emotions produced by a video game? I have been floored more than once by this games use of props to set scenes that are very human and very real.

The Combat system, which has been covered over and over again, is good. I like the ability to slow things down and use the VATS system to coordinate attacks strategically. However I have found that even with my 23% in energy weapons I can still take out someone at 100 yards with my laser pistol in FPS mode. That is slightly disappointing. Skills are for people that want to play a strategic game, twitch will triumph over all.

I would definitely put this one in the BUY column. The caveat there is I seriously recommend the PC version. I am a big fan of Bethsoft. I also know as a fan that often their games need to be finished by their fans. Morrowind and Oblivion were both excellent games, that were made better by the fans. SO for the longevity of the game I would recommend the PC version. Hey it took them ten years to make a sequel to Fallout, who knows when the next one will be.

Store Not Worth Buyin' From

Gamestop. We all know this. But yesterday I had an experience that I had to write you about because it not only shows how asinine these stores are, but it was also a minor victory for the consumer.

First a background. Gamestop likes for you to pre-order. Why? Because it guarantees them a sale in what is probably a shrinking market for them: NEW GAMES. They order a scant few per stores for the 8-10 people who are A)not aware of the internet and B)not aware of Best Buy. Who hasn't been hounded upon entering the store with WOULD YOU LIKE TO PRE-ORDER THE GAME!?!? YOU BETTER PRE-ORDER OR YOU WILL NEVER EVER HAVE THIS GAME, etc.

As a side note, they have no problem taking your money early, but BY GOD they will never sell you a game early. F*ckers.


So yeah....they are annoying. Normally I don't find myself in there, but I happened to have lunch at a Chinese place and I wanted to pick up DEAD SPACE this week. It was a convenience thing. So I asked the clerk for the game....he went to check and low and behold he had one. I said I would take the game and we proceeded to walk to the counter. Before going further into this tale, please keep in mind, I DID NOT go INTO the STORE to SHOP. I ENTERED THE ESTABLISHMENT TO PURCHASE.

We get to the counter and the manager (this term used lightly because she may have been 12 and part of a bring your daughter to work day) asked me if I pre-ordered it. I said no. She then ripped the box from my hand and said I could not have it. She then scolded the employee who helped me for having the audacity to get me what I asked for.

After shaking my head in disbelief, I politely said, "No problem, I will just go to Best Buy" to which the manager said " Yeah...good luck" very SNARKY. She was conveying that I had NO chance to get the game because I was not smart enough to allow the benevolence of the mighty Gamestop to hold a game for me. I was a sinner who did not pre-order.

So off I went to Best Buy. Walked in directly to the XBOX 360 section and low and behold...they had like 30 copies.

30 copies.

SOOOOO...i grabbed a copy and went over to a couple of Best Buy staffers who were there. I told them to pay attention to what I was about to do because they would get a kick out of it.

I called 411. Asked to be connected to the Gamestop I just left. The call was placed and thankfully the manager gal answered. The following conversation happened:

HER: "Thanks for calling Gamestop where you can trade in your old games for new, how can I help you?"

Me: "yeah...hi...I was just in there and wanted to buy Dead Space...but you only had pre-orders...remember...I said I was going to Best Buy?"

HER: "yes..."

ME: " well I just wanted to let you know that I am at Best Buy and they have like 30 copies...so if you piss off any other consumers today looking to spend money in your store you can send them over here"

At this point she either hung up or did an impression of a dial tone.


So, that is my tale. Never again will my body walk into a Gamestop. Never again will I even go to their website. They have a stupid system and hire stupid people. I urge you to join my boycott as well.

VIVA LA BEST BUY!!!

Also I got DEAD SPACE...full review coming, but so far the purchase has not upset me!

Crap Game of the Week: Superman Returns

Found this game for $15. I picked up for my 4 year old, which made me dad of the year. I thought I would throw it in and try to pick up some easy gamer score.

Man was I wrong.

This game is SOOOOOOOOOO stinking bad. And to make matters worse...you want to love this game because it's SUPERMAN for cripes sake. You fly..you punch with super strength. Heat Vision, Freeze Breath...its all there. But as USUAL, crappy controls and unbalance kill this game before it really gets started.


The first level is your typical tutorial. You save part of Metropolis from a meteor shower and learn all your moves. Then, via a flashback you see what Supes was doing when he left Earth (setting the plot for the movie). You are fighting in WARWORLD against alien gladiators. One of which requires you to throw things at him. The problem is he is 10x as big as you and has this attack which will ALWAYS knock you down, knocking whatever you were going to throw at him away too. AARRGHHH. It is really REALLY frustrating and proved to be a gamebreaker for me. $15 bucks is too much for this pile.

Not that you would...but dont get this game!

Game You Should Buy This Week: DEAD SPACE

Everything I have read about this game makes me drool. See, ALIEN is one of my favorite movies of ALL TIME. To date, no one has made a decent ALIEN game. THE THING is also a favorite. To date no one has made a decent game of that.

DEAD SPACE seems to marry the two in such a seductive way. If you have not seen the trailer or any footage from this game: WATCH NOW. I will wait.

OMG RIGHT? And so far the reviews coming in are GOOD. I will be picking this game up this week. I love deep stories. I love when I game makes me forget I have a mortgage..ya know? I love when a game makes me think about it when I am not playing it.

And it looks scary as hell. I will let you know how it plays soon!

New AC DC

I have heard the new ACDC....and it is....bland. But is ACDC.

Music Worth Buyin': Tesla, Forever More

Bold Statement time. This album is as good as THE GREAT RADIO CONTROVERSY. Yah. A friend of mine told ne today he would be happy if Tesla just stopped doing new albums and toured on THE GREAT RADIO CONTROVERSY until they retired/broke up/died. I would have been inclined to agree with him...until I heard this new release.

This album is just what it needs to be. It sounds like Tesla. They are not a band trying to reinvent themselves for 2008. They are a band that makes solid rock and this album over flows with it. The first 5 tracks alone are KICK ASS. And any Tesla fan knows the are always ready to do that.

You can get the album for $10. 12 songs that kick the ass of most crap that tries to pass for rock these days. It's worth buyin'

Game You Should Buy Only If You Like Star Wars of the Week

The Force Unleashed (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, PSP, and PC...heck even the iPhone)

So, lets get this out of the way. Save your $60 unless you are a rabid Star Wars fan. The upside for me is that I am a rabid Star Wars fan. But no game in recent history has frustrated me more. I mean...to the point my controller was almost unleashed from my freaking hand and sent flying into the wall.

I am not going to rehash the story. You are Vader's apprentice. Since this character doesn't appear in Episode 4...you DO THE MATH.

The game gives you a taste of what you can eventually do by letting you play as Vader in the first level. And you also get a taste of how this game will destroy your will to live. And this first level is only a small dose. You get shit thrown at you from every direction. With Vader it's fairly easy. But when you enter the game as the Apprentice....the game goes from STUPID EASY in a corridor...ramping up to FLESH FLAILING HARD in the next room. Wave after wave of baddies attack. You get knocked down. The combo system works well against one...but when you start a combo and the animation takes over you move automatically. This of course leaves you open to attack from the sides from any of the bazillion bad guys attacking you. This leads to you getting knocked down...and then beat on. Then you get up...and get knocked down. Much like CHUMBAWAMBA.

And this is where the game really sucks. It should be called THE FORCE UNBALANCED. Because you get to d these really AMAZING FORCE POWER things. But MANY of the bad guys are IMMUNE to your FORCE POWERS. And what should one of the coolest moments in the game...bringing down a STAR DESTROYER from orbit...is turned into anal rape. The controls are such crap....and wave after wave of tie fighters knock you on your ass. For most this will be a game breaker moment.



Anyhoo....on the UPSIDE...the story is better than then Episode 1 & 2 combined. And in that, the game has cemented itself securely in STAR WARS LORE. There is a HUGE EVENT in this game that has ramifications in Episodes 4, 5 and 6. And luckily for Lucas Arts...that will keep many players plodding through the maddening landscape of the this game.

This Week's Game You Should Have Bought: Duke Nukem 3-D XBLA

Freakin' hell yeah. Hail to the King baby. I don't even know why you are wasting your time reading this when you should be paying this. Face it, we will never see another Duke Nukem game again...not when so much has already happened during it's development.


Back in the day, there was DOOM and Duke Nukem. The difference being Doom had demons and Duke had strippers. And a kick ass attitude. Whereas in Doom you only heard the Marine grunt, in Duke Nukem, Duke is a mouthy SUMBITCH. The game play is the same. Run around, pick up weapon, shoot. Repeat. But man is it satisfying! Check it out! Only 800 MS POINTS!

Dear Wii

Dear Wii,

I hate to have to tell you this in a letter, but we haven't been spending that much time together lately.

The fact is, I am breaking up with you. The magic is gone. The spark is gone. What was once a intuitive and innovative experience has become nothing more than a gimmick. When I first meet you, your motion controls were simply amazing. With Wii Sports and Play, we had the future of gaming shown to us. We were the hit of parties. Everyone wanted to go bowling with us. They way your remote and black bar captured even the most subtle movement was astounding. And playing Wii Sports made me want to spend more time with you...and you had so much to offer with the Virtual Console!! A walk down memory lane! You shared with me many of the games that led me to you. You were also a GameCube! You had an INTERNET browser! And you had WiFi out of the box! I could create my own avatar to interact with my friends online!

But I was so blinded by joy that I didn't see or care to see, your limitations. 512 KB on board memory? No way to access game data from the SD card slot? These are serious discrepancies. How is a serious gamer supposed to live with that? And I have to be honest and say your idea of "online" is flawed. After all the time we spent together and all the wonderful things you promised...you really didn't want me playing with other people online, did you? You made it so hard to find others like me, much less add them as a friend. You gave me a number too long to memorize, and no way of knowing who added my number to their Wii and vice versa. There is no Wii community. I can get other people's Miis....but I have no idea who the heck they are. Admit it, you wanted me for yourself.

There is also the matter of your parent, Nintendo. Why did Nintendo feel the need to tell me how to play my games. Honestly, I was ok with the controller. Face it, the best games for you are from Nintendo, and even those really don't utilize your remotes to the fullest potential. The Legend of Zelda feels like the motion controls were tacked on as an after thought. Super Mario Galaxy? GREAT GAME....but I can play it with a controller. Same goes for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The "new way" to play video games seems to have been forgotten by Nintendo. And the 3rd party games...well....the few that are good are simply ports from other systems. Why do you let them use you that way?

Now I am faced with another Holiday season without anything exciting from you. I have been hanging out with the Xbox 360 lately. Gears of War 2 looks pretty impressive. Little Big Planet on PS3 looks to be equally as such. You dont have anything to offer me.

So, I hope we can still be friends. I still want to hang out and play, but you have to give me a reason. Right now, I am afraid you are just lipstick on a pig.