Playing Today: Alien Hominid HD, Wii Sports, Guitar Hero II

With my new found Easy Difficulty, I burned through the rest of Alien Hominid like it was a diarrhea-sufferers roll of toilet paper. I really love the art style and silly sense of humor at play in this game. They could easily adapt the game into an animated TV show (or just make a sequel). I'm especially psyched to see what is in store for Castle Crashers. Alien Hominid HD is one of the best XBLA games available and worth spending your well saved points and free time.

I spent some quality time with Guitar Hero II. So much so, while not blinking for about 7 minutes straight, my contact lens literally peeled off of my eye. My eye was so dry from not blinking that the lens curled up and attempted suicide. Weird. I survived Message in a Bottle on Medium and loved discovering War Pigs as an unlockable. Hopefully, I will get some more songs over and done with this evening.

Playing This Weekend: Loco Roco, Me and My Katamari, Dead Rising, Texas Hold 'Em, Guitar Hero II

I was on the road on Friday and was stuck playing quite a bit of Loco Roco. The difficult continues to creep higher, but never gets so hard that you can't progress. Now being at stage four (and with 4 hours played), I wonder how much longer this game could possibly be.

Dead Rising took up most of my console time today. I still need to go back and earn the Mega Man suit (technically, I already did) to get closer and closer to unlocking the full 1000 gamerscore. This might take a few months (or years).

And some minimal time was spent in Texas Hold 'Em, Me and My Katamari, and Guitar Hero II. Damn, Message in a Bottle was hard on Medium.

Playing Today: Wii Sports, Uno, Burnout Revenge, Texas Hold 'Em, Gears of War, Guitar Hero II

A nice mix of games over the past two days have kept my attention. I'm still playing Wii Sports, although, losing your bowling skills is quite a frustration. Perhaps I'll just earn a pro score and retire. I played a three inning baseball match and it was pretty cool seeing Rosie O'Donnell (Mii) hit quite a home run. Paris Hilton singled in the 6-0 victory, likely her first game without reaching third base.

A new XBL contest has me returning to Texas Hold 'Em after a hiatus. The contest requires an online multiplayer match per day and I can easily sacrifice 40 minutes for some poker. I wish they would implement the Live Video option, but I'm sure that isn't an easy task. Online play has been more realistic than when this game launched, so, I think a lot of the kid gamers have moved on...

...to games like Gears of War. I played quite a long match of Annex the other day. Annex is the newest gametype with a slew of new Achievements worth attempting. Too bad my first game was ruined by a host that bailed right before the match became official. Sure, it was fun to play the game, but the hosts early exit blanked all of our stats and ended up as a waste of time. Lame. Stunts like this, expensive new content, and glitchers have forced me to retire Gears of War. It has a great single (co-op) campaign and had a great multiplayer component. However, the time has come for me to leave it behind and wait for Gears 2.

I've played some quick games of Uno and I continue to have interest in the Kameo deck. For $1.25, this might be one of the best downloadable bargains on XBL. Hmm.

Played some more Guitar Hero II, mostly just amping up the difficulty of songs I already know. I'm not sure how I'll ever get to the Hard Difficulty and I'll probably bail on the game before then. I have this vision that Super Paper Mario is going to suck away my life soon.

Playing Today: Forza Motorsport 2, Guitar Hero II, 300, Prince of Persia Classic

Prince of Persia Classic made its way to XBLA this morning. I spent about five minutes with the demo and it was quite the classic. The control is really screwy (like the original) and might turn a lot of younger gamers off. The CGI cut scene at the beginning was a cool touch and the lack of voiceover is understandable. I might need to give this a more thorough look-see.

I turned my PSP back on and spent some time on 300 again. This game is not made for the casual gamer and the bosses get really hard near the halfway point. Some of your deaths are downright frustrating, a vibe that some gamers enjoy. However, if I can't get past this point soon, I'm just going to hang it up and spend my time with something else.

I'm still working on perfecting Possum Kingdom on Guitar Hero II. A day or two more and I should have what I want. I played Jessica for the first time and its tough, but not impossible. I think that I just need to learn the tune.

Yes, more Forza.

Playing Today: Forza Motorsport 2, Guitar Hero II, Fuzion Frenzy 2, Loco Roco

Nothing new played today, although I wrapped up one game (hopefully) forever. The majority of my play time was with Fuzion Frenzy 2. After several hours of play, I have all of the achievements and I don't think I'll ever play it again. The game isn't extremely difficult and can be fun in groups, but playing alone or online is frustrating. As many other reviewers have said, the card system is completely screwed up and should be optional. If I want last second cards to completely screw me over, that should be my choice. Fuzion Frenzy 2 is likely the last game in this series (please!) and will disappear into history as an awful follow-up to a mediocre game. Fuzion Frenzy gets a D+.

My time spent with Forza Motorsport was a lot of experimentation with hiring drivers and tooling around in the Auction House. Now with Fuzion Frenzy done, I expect to spend more time racing around and leveling up.

Guitar Hero II continues to give me a case of tendinitis. I tried out the Lefty Flip and decided... I'm very much right handed (at least when playing a plastic guitar). I've mastered Possum Kingdom on Medium and I have no idea how much time Expert players have invested in this game. I'd rather play Open Season than listen to Cheap Trick hundreds of times.

And, finally, more Loco Roco before I went to bed.

Playing Today: Forza Motorsport 2, Guitar Hero II, Fuzion Frenzy 2, Loco Roco, Grandia II, Pac-Man Championship Edition

A whole bunch of sequels have been in rotation this week. I finished up some achievements in Fuzion Frenzy 2 and I have one more left to go. This game is still absolutely redonkulous to play but once you've figured out some of the mini-games, the computer is pretty easy to beat. Soon enough I'll never have to play it again.

More time spent with Forza Motorsport 2. The graphics continue to amaze and staying on the track continues to frustrate. I was able to win a race with all of the assists of and while driving manual. Doing so took multiple tries but is fulfilling in the long run. Also, figuring out that you can hire a driver to win for you is a nice little bend-of-the-rules.

After a few days off, I picked up the axe and returned to Guitar Hero II. Possum Kingdom is like second nature now and I wasn't very far away from my first 100k performance. Too bad when I tried hard & expert I was annihilated. For now I'll stick with Easy & Medium.

I bought Grandia II used for the PlayStation 2. I loved this game on the Dreamcast but memories and video games tend to warp drastically. The dialogue is still corny and silly, but for some reason I remember the music being much better. Who knows if I will ever pick this game up again.

Loco Roco is still awesome and the new Pac-Man was better than expected. Although, I doubt I'll end up buying it.