playstation 3

Girlfriend Gaming: Why Make Her Join the Dark Side?

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Happy Valentines Day! For those of you in love, out of love, or in-between love, I hope that your Valentines Day turns out to be a good one. Up until recently, the majority of my Valentines Days were horrible, but this isn’t the right forum to discuss that.

Anyway, I thought today would be a good day to start what may become a series of entries from me that pertain the role video games have in a relationship with a significant other that I call “Girlfriend Gaming”. I don’t mean to exclude the GLBT community, as some of my best friends are GLBT, but I would not be able to speak well on the intricacies of that dynamic. In any case, I’m sure that anyone with a significant other can find something to relate to here.

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There’s No Place Like Home?

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Last time I spoke about Silent Hill: Homecoming, I focused mainly on how freaked out the game made me. It took a lot of will from within for me to overcome my psychological shortcomings to get through that opening sequence. As a survival horror game, I thought it started out really well.

Unfortunately, my mental fortitude hasn’t been pushed nearly as hard since. Part of that has come from growing familiar with the world. But most of my growing weariness towards the game comes from the game’s design faults and squandered potential.

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Would You Kindly Read My Bioshock Thoughts?

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With the release of Bioshock 2 only days away, I thought I would take a minute to reflect back on my time with the original Bioshock.

I vividly remember reading video game sites and listening to podcasts who were hyping up how amazing this game was. I didn’t care. The screenshots looked pretty, but I didn’t care that it came from the guy who made the System Shock games cause I’d never played them before. I didn’t care about the Little Sister dynamic. I didn’t care that you could add elemental powers to yourself to add variety to the combat.

Then I played the demo. Oh, my, God.

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Welcome Home, Sonic

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Sonic has had a hard knock life ever since his heyday on the Genesis. He had a ton of problems transitioning into 3D (which most people say the Sonic games never really pulled off well), he’s been held back by stupid sidekicks, his old games have been shoddily ported to every platform imaginable, his new games have been riddled with gimmicks, and he’s even been subjected to bestiality. Eww.

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Are You Afraid of the Dark?

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Flashback to sometime in the early 90s. I was between the ages of 8-10 years old around the time this happened. I was on a family trip, and we stopped at some souvenir shop that happened to have a haunted house in the basement. I guess it was more of a dungeon than anything. As a cocky kid, I thought I could handle it, no problem. Then I went down the stairs, saw a pitch-black hallway, and ran back up. I told my mom straight up, “I’m too scared to do this.” Wanting to get her money’s worth, my mom then came down there with me. This time, the lights were fully on, everything exposed, and nothing there that could possibly jump out of the blue and kill me. I think whoever was running the dungeon toned it down just so that I could get through it without messing up my underwear. I may have only been in that dark dungeon hallway alone for five seconds, but I still live with that fear to this day.

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Rolling Deep With the Brotherhood

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In April of 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV captured my imagination with a great story and fun open-world gameplay. Prior to GTA IV, my only open-world gaming experience was with The Godfather on the Wii. While many may have grown accustomed to (or weary of) the Grand Theft Auto formula by this point, I was completely caught up in the life of Niko Bellic, trying to find my way in Liberty City.

Almost two years removed from that experience (and almost one year since the release of The Lost and Damned), I have begun playing Episodes From Liberty City, which I received as a Christmas present from my girlfriend. Will this GTA IV add-on experience grab me like GTA IV did? Will it stand out on its own terms? Does the GTA IV style of play hold up even after I’ve played other fantastic open-world style games like Assassin’s Creed II and Borderlands?

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I Can’t Quit You, Borderlands

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I thought I could separate myself from Borderlands the moment I beat it. Sure, I only beat it on playthrough 1, and my character had only reached level 35, but I had basically seen everything there was to do in the game. All that was left was playthrough 2, which is the exact same quest, with tougher enemies and more awesome guns. I figured now was the time to move onto the next game in my backlog.

And yet, here I am, still playing this game.I took a few days off to chip away at my backlog, but one lazy Sunday playing co-op on playthrough 2 with my brother was enough to reel me back in. My usual nightly routine of late has been to play a few missions in Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes From Liberty City followed by Borderlands.

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It Takes Two to Tango

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Hot off the heels of Army of Two: The 40th Day, I thought I’d take a minute to write a bit about the original Army of Two. I received this game as a Christmas present this year and have put in some time with it, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on it while it’s relevant again.

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Making The World A Better Place, One Assassination At A Time

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The original Assassin’s Creed was one of the most successful launches of a new IP this console generation. It was best known for having absolutely gorgeous graphics that were beyond anything else at the time, but the gameplay left a lot to be desired. While most people would agree that it wasn’t a bad game, the faults I heard about the first one really killed my interest in it.

With the release of Assassin’s Creed II, the overall perception of the game was much more favourable. Everyone was hyping this up as one of the best games of the year. I figured that now may be the time to check it out. It also didn’t hurt that I was able to pick the game up for $30 brand new during an EB Games sale.

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Achievement Junkie

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When the XBOX 360 launched in 2005, nobody expected the runaway success of the platform’s achievement system. The advent of platform-wide rewards across games has really changed the way many consume them. Ever since the 360 implemented it, equivalent systems have been put in place for the PS3, WoW, Steam and within certain Wii titles, just to name a few.

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