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First let me say that I have been EXTREMELY busy these last couple months and have not had time to update this blog. Hopefully things will slow down a bit and I will be able to spend more time posting.

With that said, I have had some time to play some games and also received an iPad. Since everybody and their brother has already done a iPad review, I figured I would switch it up a bit.

As someone with a family with young kids, I am amazed how quickly kids take to technology. The breaking point for me to get an iPad was when my 18 month old grabbed my wife’s iPhone, turned it on, unlocked it, scrolled to find the game she wanted to play and then selected the correct icon. Steve Jobs and the people at Apple should get an award for this level of usability. Maybe they can steal the tag line from Geico, “So easy an 18 month old could use it!”.

Before we got it I was a huge skeptic. I believed the iPad was just a big iPhone. Which is some ways is true but the different form factor changes how the device is used. After playing with it with my kids and wife, I have come away pretty impressed.

Here are the PRO’s:

1) For young kids, this is a great system. We have loaded it up with apps for the kids and they love it. Due to the intuitive controls, the kids have no problem booting it up and playing. I give Apple HIGH marks for this.

2) Battery is awesome. I am amazed how long it can go between charges with heavy use.

3) iBooks rocks. I spent the last two nights reading Sun Tzu: Art of War. I plan on spending much more time with it.

4) Plants vs. Zombies. I played this game on the PC but I feel the iPad is the perfect place for this game. Not only have I been enjoying it, but my wife has become addicted to the game.

CONS

1) I have not been able to find a way to tether it to a cell phone for Internet access. I am not a fan of paying for ANOTHER data plan just for a device that I might use on trips. I should be able to use my G1 or our iPhone so my wife can surf the web on long trips on a bigger screen.

2) The App store is a bit tough to navigate. You should be able to search through categories and maybe even allow tagging of apps. It is nice that they have a kids section but the selection is limited and it is not uncommon to find “kids” apps located under other sections.

3) DEMOS….they should almost be required. Spending $14 on an app that you can not see other than screenshots is disappointing. I know some apps have “lite” versions but it is hard to tell if it is worth upgrading to the full version.

Overall I think the iPad is a wonderful device with a couple shortcomings for the average user. I could get into the walled garden know as the app store, lack of multi-tasking (OS4 hello!) and lack of Flash support. But for the average family it does exactly what you expect and in this day and age, that is surprisingly impressive.

I know I am a month later that all of the respectable gaming sites but I figured I would add my 2 cents. (With the way the USD keeps going, that saying will need to change to “Add my $3.50″)

Test Parameters:

I played the entire Single Player campaign on normal difficulty. I played on my Xbox 360. I played on-line and off-line game modes.

Likes:

1) Spec-Ops is awesome. I am a huge fan of Co-Op games and this is just amazing. There are 20 or so Spec-Ops missions. They range from Defense, Seach and Destroy, Evasion and Nuke it from orbit game modes. (A little more on that shortly) All of the missions were interesting and challenging. Add in multiple difficulty levels and this could last awhile. With more levels, this could be a game all to its self.

2) Hercules AC-130 gunship from Spec-Ops. One of the missions in Spec-Ops one player takes control of an AC-130′s guns and the other player is on the ground trying to get from point A to point B. I loved this from the first Modern Warfare and I love the ability to play this through with a friend. I had a ton of fun with my friends on this level.

3) The polish on this game is amazing. Every level is beautiful and really entertaining. The production values and pacing are top notch. The multiplayer is extremely smooth and almost no lag.

4) Multiplayer is top notch again. I can not say this enough but the game just feels right. If you played COD4, you will feel right at home. There seems to be more game modes and the matchmaking seems a little faster. There have been some changes to the kill streaks (Which I never cared for to begin with) that have changed the way the game plays but nothing I have seen that has hurt the balance of the game.

5) From boot to game takes no time at all. After your first time booting, you can get into a game in a matter of seconds. This can not be over stated. I hate having to wait through long boot screens to get into a game. As a father of 2 (Soon to be 3), my gaming time is limited. My gaming also has a lot of starts and stops so those loading screens add up.

Hates:

1) The single player story….WHAT?!!? The amount of plot “twists” made me sea sick. I believe the levels were all designed and then the writers were asked to piece it all together. It made no sense.

2) I hate unlimited spawning enemies until you reach a special area. It was not as bad in this game but if I just cleared an area, I don’t want to have the same 20 enemies popping back up because I had not moved to the next checkpoint in time.

3) Short single player. I believe it took about 7 hours for me to beat the single player.

Conclusion:

This game is perfect in so many ways. The lack of story and short single player could adversely affect my opinion. But the large amount of content and the polish given to that content has me loving this game. I hope they release more Spec-Ops missions via DLC and maybe some additional single player content. I strongly recommend a buy!

Score:

10 Oscar Mikes out of 10 Oscar Mikes

First let me say that I am a huge fan of Double Fine Studios and in particular Psychonauts. Psychonauts is one of those games you just have to play. The world and the humor in that game is amazing. I would go out and say it was the most enjoyable game I owned on the XBOX.

Once I heard about Brutal Legend, I figured it would be a day 1 purchase for me. My hope was that it would be as good as Psychonauts. In my humble opinion, it is close but no cigar. With that said, Brutal Legend is still an amazing game.

Story:

The game follows Eddie who is the worlds best Roadie. He is killed in a freak stage accident. He wakes up in the land of heavy metal. Without giving away much of the plot, your goal is to save the world from the evil ruler.

Presentation:

One thing Double Fine does better than anyone else is presentation. Everything from the world, story, music and hell….the main menu are amazing. I am not what you would call a “Metal” fan but I loved the world I was in. Everything exuded METAL! If you have ever seen the cover of a Metal Bands LP or T-Shirts, you will see where they gathered their inspiration. Everything is just spot on.

Graphics:

The graphics are not going to win any awards but fit the story. I found the quality as slightly above average but the design makes up for any issues I had with the graphics. (How could you have a problem with a dragon statue that has a ball gag in it’s mouth that you have to remove?)

Gameplay:

There are a ton of different things you do in the game. Driving, hand to axe combat, guitar riffs, simple party commanding, and even a rail shooter. The driving has been tough to get a hang of….the vehicles just feel wrong. Other than that, the game is just fun. The combat start simple but once you start adding new combos, the game gets a lot more complex…but in a good way.

Closing:

The humor and world make this game what it is. Any other studio that tried to make this would have probably failed. It is scary that this game almost did not make it to release. I am glad it did so I can play in their world.

Score: 9/10

I played Warhammer Online shortly after it launched last year. Overall I liked the game but I found it got boring pretty quick. About 10 days ago, I decided to give it another shot……and so far…..I like what I see.

My first play through I had 3 main issues.

1) The Realm vs. Realm combat felt VERY stale after a while.

2) The servers were barren outside the starting areas.

3) The game ran slowly and anything outside a small scale PvP fight was unplayable.

On my second go-around, I noticed some vast improvements.

1) The Realm vs. Realm combat seems more interesting. The first thing I noticed was changes they made to Keep defense. Keep defense is just what it sounds like. In the original game, assaults on a keep were pretty much useless if there was even a small force defending. The defending force would be able to block the one avenue of advancement to the Kings quarters. The only way to take keeps was to deploy a network of spys who would look for undefended keeps and try to assault quickly. Talk about boring PvP. The new changes open up multiple avenues of attack which make defending a bit harder and more fair in my opinion.

2) They merged a ton of servers. This has helped the game immensely in my humble opinion.  I hate playing a MMORPG only to play for hours and not see another Toon. It also helps one of Warhammers greatest strengths….it’s Public Quests. These are setup for public groups to get together and try to accomplish a single goal. With some of these being in RvR (Realm vs. Realm/Open PvP) areas, the action can get quite intense….as long as you have other players involved. Hopefully the Warhammer Online player base continues to grow. The starting areas are still hopping but some of the second and third tier areas look a little bare.

3) (Full disclosure: I did upgrade my PC a bit between play cycles. I went from 2 GB of RAM to 6GB of RAM) I still notice some slow downs and stuttering but the large scale combat is generally lag free. Since I am playing as a healer, timing my heals and insuring that the “health bar” I am looking at is an accurate representation of what is happening is a huge issue. Lag makes playing a “healer” a pain in the butt…..but whatever changes they did on the back end seem to make it smoother.

Overall, I think the game has changed for the better. I wish there were less “FedEx” quests and that they continue to work on class balance. At the same time, I would love for them to come up with a way to further customize your characters abilities. What I love about “skill based” MMORPG’s vs. “class based” is the character customization. In UO, I used to run a Grand Master Wizard/Blacksmith…..why…..because it made him interesting. I hate “cookie cutter” avatars. Give me something different. I fear that the “Class Based” system will be what forces me to quit again. I am trying my best to enjoy it but it is going to take some time.

I have been geeking out all day today and I just got back from watching District 9. Here is what I thought about the movie:

Plus:

1) The visual style of the movie is awesome. The CGI and live action shots are mixed so well that it is hard to tell what is CGI and what is live. This is probably due to the “documentary” style that this film takes. The gritty look of the film is what I believe Cloverfield should have been like. It looks like it was filmed from a hand-held camera minus all of the motion sickness.

2) The alien weapons are AWESOME! The weapons are believable and crazy. I loved every weapon that they showed in the game. (Why don’t more games have weapons like this?)

3) The overall plot is very good. The movie had its serious overtones but had some pretty light hearted parts to balance the film. This also keeps the story from coming across as too preachy as well.

Minuses

1) I only had one gripe…..but I need to first preffice this with me being a major geek. (Suprise…suprise) I like when my Sci-Fi trys to explain HOW the Sci-Fi equipment should work. The main human character is sprayed with some “fuel” that begins to transform him to an alien. They never explain why that happened which made it seem like a convienent plot device and it hurt the story for me a bit.

Conclusion

I loved it….there were a couple areas that I did not care for but overall the move was amazing. It is one of the best Sci-Fi flicks I have seen in years. It is also probably the best movie I have seen since The Dark Knight…..which the two would be a toss-up. I really hope they revisit this movie with a sequel and I hope to see more from this team.