Amazon Gold Box is all Xbox 360 stuff today.

Amazon has a bunch of Xbox 360 games for sale today, and today only. BioShock 2 is on sale all day for around $40, and right now Mass Effect 2 is also on sale for just under $40.

There are clues for the upcoming titles too. My guess is that starting at 2:00 EST, they'll have Dragon Age Origins: Awakening, followed by either one of the many Rock Band titles, or the Rock Band Stratocaster guitar at 5:00, Aliens Vs. Predator at 7:00, and even more later on.

I'm anxious to see if I'm right about the Dragon Age expansion being available. If it's a decent sale price I might have to pull the trigger. I'm also thinking long and hard about Mass Effect 2, but I might be able to continue my trend of financial responsibility and hold off.

Bioshock 2 Impressions

I decided to be financially responsible for once, so instead of buying a new game I decided to give Bioshock 2 a spin.

I have to admit that I've had a negative attitude towards Bioshock 2 since it was announced. The original BioShock was one of the best games of 2007, but didn't really need a sequel. I was terrified of the world of Rapture. The atmosphere in that game completely sucked me in from the opening scene until I was finished. But unlike other games, I had no desire to return to Rapture. Actually, the thought of returning to that underwater hell filled me with a kind of dread.

That's how good the original was.

Then the reports came out that Ken Levine, the mastermind behind the original, would have nothing to do with the game, and that the sequel would have multiplayer added on...yeah, I wasn't exactly thrilled with the game. Even the mostly positive reviews couldn't shake the negative feelings I had.

I'm glad to say that after 3-4 hours, I'm having fun. Does the atmosphere of the game hold up to the original? Not really. Is there a deep story here? If so, I haven't seen it yet. Does any of that matter?

Nope.

What this game does is refine the gameplay from the original, and try to make it as fun as possible. And so far it has done that very, very, well.

Is Dead Rising 2: Case Zero a bad thing for gamers?

The original Dead Rising was an instant hit. You play Frank West, a sarcastic photojournalist, who gets dropped into a mall filled with zombies. What made this game stand out is that the player can use anything he can get his hands on to mow down the zombie horde.

That's as close to a sure thing as you can come in video games.


So, zombie loving gamers have been waiting patiently for Dead Rising 2 to be released. And when it was announced that there would be a prequel called Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, to be released as DLC only on the Xbox 360, people didn't know how to react. On the surface it seems great. A stand alone story that will bridge the gap between the events of the two games, and basically be the demo for the sequel. The problem is many are afraid that this will inspire the industry to start charging for people to play their demos.

Bill Harris, one of the few writers who I feel is required reading, is not a fan of this trend. Not at all.

An in-depth look at Roger Ebert's belief that video games cannot be art.

Over the past several years, film critic Roger Ebert has written about his belief that video games can never be art. In 2005, Ebert wrote “I… consider video games inherently inferior to film and literature. There is a structural reason for that: Video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control.” In 2007, Ebert again criticized video games in a response to a speech by Clive Barker, given at the Hollywood and Games summit. Most recently, Ebert authored an article titled Video games can never be art. Here, he responds to a presentation given by game designer and publisher Kellee Santiago, in which she defends games as art.

When debating any topic, it’s important that both sides agree on some key definitions. You can’t argue if bowling is a sport without first defining what a “sport” is. The same is true here. Before we can explore whether or not games are or are not art, we have to first define “art.”

Weekend Update

My original plans of staying home all weekend and playing games fell by the wayside. I was pleasantly surprised by my girlfriend coming to visit me for the weekend. Combined with the Pittsburgh Penguins playing Games 2 and 3 of their playoff series against the Ottawa Senators Friday and Sunday, I didn't have much time for video games. I did manage to squeeze in about an hour Sunday night after the hockey game was over, enough time to finish up Final Fantasy XIII. As much as I enjoyed the middle part of the game, the final chapters are just tedious and boring. I do plan on having a spoilerific post to discuss the story sometime this week, so keep an eye out for that.

In the meantime, thanks to two Penguins victories, I really want to get my hands on NHL 10. Still, I might have to be the responsible adult and play some of the games I already own...stupid rent.

Actually, I have an extra copy of Madden NFL 10 lying around still in its shrink wrap. It's on Best Buy's list of games to trade in for $30.

Uh-oh...

Final Fantasy XIII

Platform: Xbox 360
Time Spent: 55 hours
Still Playing

I have an up and down relationship with Final Fantasy XIII. I absolutely hated the first few hours of the game. The story is thrown at you with no exposition, the combat system involves hitting A over and over again, and the menu was a confusing mess filled with options that I knew nothing about, and couldn't even access if I tried. And the characters were about as one dimensional and cliched as a casting call for Jersey Shore.

But I slogged through until about the 6 hour mark, and I realized that I was starting to enjoy the game. The story started to make sense, the game progressed to a point where the battle system became far more than just smashing a single button repeatedly, and the characters became surprisingly deep and likable. Then, after roughly 30 hours, everything changed again.

On Deck Update

I'm a big Pittsburgh Penguins fan, and to see them come out completely flat to start the 2010 NHL Playoffs was really disappointing. Disappointing enough to knock NHL 10 down my list of games I'm thinking of picking up next. I'm sure if they redeem themselves with a win Friday night I'll be running out to pick this game up tomorrow, but in the meantime I'm still unsure of where I'll move on to next. It dawned on me last night that Splinter Cell Conviction is out this week. I haven't played a Splinter Cell game since the original title came out for the original Xbox back in 2002, but this series has a big fan base and always has a lot of hype. I downloaded the demo, so we'll see how that goes.

On Deck

I've been slowly working my way through Final Fantasy XIII. I'm finally on the final chapter, and I've started to think about what to play next. I could, and probably should, start working my way through my Pile of Shame, but the reality is that I'm not that eager to play any of those games. Bioshock 2 would be at the top of that list, but I just can't get excited for it, even though I loved the original. Mass Effect 2 is high on my list as I recently finished the first one and have only heard good things about the sequel. Then again, the NHL playoffs start in less than half an hour, so chances are I'll be itching to play some NHL 10.

We'll see how I feel when I finish Final Fantasy, which will most likely be before the weekend.