Killzone 2: Coming Soon to My Collection

So as a huge fan of FPS (First-Person Shooters), I naturally felt like a kid in a candy shop when Killzone 2 was announced. The game came out on February 27, so as I post this in late March, you may wonder why I haven’t been raving about the game daily for the past month. Well one sign of addiction is when you allow the vice (in this case: games) to effect your relationships (negatively). It just so happened that I also had an important anniversary with my girlfriend in that time period. In my ever-lasting quest to avoid all-out addiction while constantly bordering it, I decided to leave my reserved copy of Killzone on the shelves to gather dust long after everyone had come and bought theirs in the Killing frenzy that was Killzone 2’s opening weekend. I won’t share what I spend the money on instead, as most loyal gamers would never forgive me. Sorry, loyal gamers, but the lovely lady in my life takes priority.

Anyways, knowing that I had set aside the purchase of Killzone to buy her a gift, my girlfriend graciously picked it up for me for the same occasion. A super-win! She’s happy, I’m killing, everything’s okay. So now, as I return to school with this new FPS (and two mid-terms this week), the true test begins. Can any game beat Call of Duty 4? I’m open to the idea. More to come…

Social Gaming

CoD 4 Split Screen

So – believe it or not, I’m not a complete shut-in. I do have friends (and even a girlfriend!) and videogames is not all I do every day. However, recently I’ve been mixing the two, and with great success. Once the Playstation 3 was discovered by my friends in the residence hall here, there’s a steady flow of people coming in for “one round [of Call of Duty] before class” or a lazy night of gaming after homework. With this addition to the daily jumble that is college, I have been reminded of the fun of split-screen gaming. Sure, my 24″ monitor has been reduced to the puny 12″ section in the top left (Yes, I do demand to be player 1. What o f it?) but it’s a blast! As usual, Call of Duty 4 floats my boat just fine, but I’ve also had quite a blast with Gears of War 2 (Horde, anyone?), Guitar Hero 3, and Little Big Planet.

Wanted: Weapons of Fate Demo

At least the cover is cool...

Everyone has their vices. For me: lame action movies and good video games. So when Wanted: Weapons of Fate was announced, it struck me as the single most epic win since Counterstrike: Source (the combination of FPS greatness and post-90s graphics). I’m yet to play Weapons of Fate as it hasn’t come out yet, but I checked out the demo yesterday and was very unimpressed.

Little Big Planet: Intuitive, much?

Among my stack of borrowed games lies what some would call PS3’s flagship game (my vote would be towards Killzone 2 or Metal Gear Solid 4, though): LittleBigPlanet. While I’ve been waiting to explore the game more until I write a full-on review here, I feel compelled as I sit here exiled from my own PS3, to comment on the amazing intuitive quality of the game.

Being home on spring break, I’m no longer living alone in my college single. I have my 8-year-old brother in the same house, and big brother + impressive (superior) technology = must have. I do what I can to shield him from the violence that I so adore, so his options are limited. The other day, though, he found LittleBigPlanet. I haven’t seen him do anything else since. The only thing is: he doesn’t play the levels, he makes them. Before you get too impressed, I haven’t yet seen anything that I couldn’t beat it a minute or less, but still. Any level creator I have toyed around with has seemed too complicated for most computer programmers to figure out, and here is one that my eight-year-old brother can use (for days). Wow.

So, besides wishing I had my console back, I give a nice blogospere pat on the back to the creators of LBP and their awesomely intuitive level designer. Props.

Call of Duty 4: All Day Every Day

So it’s Monday, and as usual I have spent my weekend turning my brain to mush in some way or another. What’s different this weekend is that I did all the brain-killing on one videogame, one which I’ve played literally days of before. Yet I can not get enough.

This epic, addicting, first-person-shooter is Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Between the single-player campaign and the ridiculously addicting online play, I can’t get enough.