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, Ninety Nine Nights, Pac-Man Championship Edition, Uno

Ninety Nine Nights came in the mail today and I was completely sucked in. It is an okay distraction but nowhere near as good as the initial hype might have you believe. No wonder Microsoft was unable to gain traction in Japan with games like this. Instead of an original story or gameplay, you pretty much got more of the same. Maybe I just need to spend more time with it?

I also played my first game of Uno with the Kameo deck. I can see why Uno fans might enjoy playing with this deck and as premium content, it probably keeps the camera pervs away. I wouldn't pay for the deck but it was a worthwhile distraction.

Forza & Pac-Man demo continue to entertain.