PAX Impressions

Note:  I'm posting this now, Wednesday morning, but it was written Sunday night.

So tonight, as I write this, my trip to PAX has ended.  I have only six to seven hours on a plane left to go in the trip itself.  I saw a lot of new things, a lot of cool things, and a lot of things that I would have liked to have seen if I had been willing to spend the time in lines.

Its such a shame that Portal 2, Dragon Age II,  and the now mythical Duke Nukem Forever were all effectively behind doors with constant long lines. Brink and Deadspace 2 had long lines the entire time as well, but other people could see them being played.  Brink, I can’t speak on, because I didn’t watch any play.  Deadspace 2, I wanted to play, but I didn’t want to stand in line, and if I couldn’t play, then I didn’t want to see it, because I will definitely be getting Deadspace 2 when it comes out.

I was able to watch people playing Marvel vs. Capcom 3, its awesome that Deadpool is in the game, but either no one has figured out how to use him yet, or his move list isn’t that great, as I didn’t see any moves that used his swords, just martial arts and guns.  Christ Redfield seemed to be favorite, with multiple special attacks that used his guns, as well as a grenade launcher as his super.  The other major characters I saw played were the expected: Ryu, Iron Man, Captain America, and Wolverine, with movesets similar to how they appeared in Marvel vs. Capcom 2.  I didn’t see enough players using Trish or Dante to really tell how they played.   One thing I did notice though, is that there were only two or three stages being played on, and all of them seemed to include Servbots hanging around in the background, I wonder if Servbot will be a hidden “for fun” character again, like he and so many others were in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 were.  Though my limited time at the Capcom booth did see me buying a Servbot bobblehead, because Servbot is awesome.

I passed by the console freeplay area and managed to see real Steel Battalion controllers and games, though I wasn’t able to play, and later had a 4 player game of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World going, playing as Stills, and Stills ranked highest after each of the three stages we played, even if I did end up also being the most revived character as well…

A few times throughout the convention, I also stopped and played a few games of Monday Night Combat(!).  I made a good showing of myself as an assassin, though I didn’t play in any of the tournaments.  At the very end of the convention, I did get to play two games against the developers, and our team managed to get its ass handed to it both times.

I also spent way too much time sitting at the MSI booth in hopes of winning high end PC components, and came away empty handed.  What really added insult to the injury was that there were a few people that won things multiple times.  MULTIPLE TIMES.  It was most displeasing.  But the guys at the booth were cool, and MSI itself hasn’t done me wrong yet, not with the motherboard on my old desktop, or the netbook that I’m typing this one.  If I decide to build a new desktop, they’re not that far down on my list.

I spent a bit of time at the Squard Enix booth.  They were showing some new game called Wakfu, which didn’t know what to make of.  Some kind of isometric, grid turned-based strategy game with a rather colorful art style.  There was also Front Mission Evolved, which trades the turn-based strategy gameplay for third-person action, involving mechs.  They were only letting it be played as Free-For-All Deathmatch, so there was no indication of what the single player portion of the game will be like.  It played pretty well, but the graphics didn’t look bad, but it could look better.  I’m sure the Xbox can output better.

Last at the Square Enix booth was what is probably the first public showing of Final Fantasy XIV, unless you count the opening of Open Beta, which began just before two or three days before the show.  I played during the last phase of closed beta, and managed to get into the open beta beta before having to catch my flight to come to PAX.  They were allowing people to play through any of the three opening tutorial sections, and gave them FFXIV branded flashdrvies containing the character they created.  I will say that I care about the game, and I plan on buying and playing it, but straight up, no one seems to care about it.  Which leads me to my next point.

There were several MMOs that either premiered, or had their first major public showing at PAX, but I will get to that later.  I have a bit of a bone to pick with the subject of MMOs, especially in conjunction with the games media.  I will discuss this at length in another post.

Anyways, I also attended several podcast panels:  the Giantbombcast, Rebel FM and Geekbox, as well as the Gamespy Debriefings.  All of them are super super guys.  I managed to get pictures with everyone from the Bombcast except for Brad Shoemaker, as well as Rebel FM’s Arthur Gies and Anthony Gallegos (sp?).  As well, since the Bombcast was the last major event of the first night, I , along with several others, followed them out afterwords.  Vinny Caravela was cool, and I can sort of see why some people (on a handful of podcasts I’ve listened too) seem to have man-crushes on Jeff Gerstmann.  Anyways, closed down two bars, and I only actually had one beer.  Not even a buzz, and beer still tastes like crap, which is probably part of why I don’t drink.  Well, that and having friends that aren’t bar hoppers.  It was an experience.  As a side note, other people I saw at these panels were Scott Bromley, Ryan Scott, Jeff Green, and the great Michael Pachter, who seems to actually be a nice guy.

All in all, it was a good trip, and I’m sad its just about over.  If I come back again, I definitely need to drag my friends with me, as well as bring a larger amount of available cash for souvenirs.  But this also means that they didn’t get any free swag off me, unless they want the freebie Fallout: New Vegas T-shirts I got.  More time to see more of the city would have been nice too.  I probably would have made the trek to get a picture of the Space Needle if I knew where it was in relation to the convention center.

All in all, I would like to come back, and will try to, should the opportunity arise.  And if I do, I should definitely have a smartphone that isn't on AT&T.

Metro 2033 as art?

I wrote and posted this at the youthrights blog  (http://blog.youthrights.org/2010/08/11/schwarzenegger_v_gamers_help_us_fight_back) and am reposting it here.  Add your voice and defend all of our rights of free speech.

The topic here is proving that videogames, violent videogames included, have any intrinsic value, artistically and/or culturally.  It suprises me that during this conversation, as well as the earlier conflict involving Roger Ebert, everyone has failed to metion Metro 2033.

I will no debate the merit or quality of it as a game, but it definitely has merit as a work of modern interactive art.  The style of the visual and sound design is realistic, with the setting being as realistic a representation of post-nuclear war city (in this case Moscow).  There is an air of oppressiveness and claustrophobia that the fidelity of the setting manages to hammer home to the player.  Sure, there are times when the player is able to go out into the city, but it ends up both eerily beautiful and totally scary at the same time.  You realize that the claustrophobic underground is dangerous, but its safe compared to the outside.  The first time playing through the game, before the player realizes the amount of scripted events in the game, the feeling of loneliness, claustrophobia, and danger created by the setting, lighting, and sound is ever present.

Evocative of a feeling, visually artistic, those are two things that, when applied to other mediums, make a work artistic.  So why not here?

Now here's the real reason this game can be considered art.  It is an adaptation of a book.  Now I realize the term "adaptation" is a bit loaded, as most adaptations of written work are less than the work it came from.  Many times written adaptations of visual art, such as movies and television, end up being superior as the the written work can commonly do more with the work than the visual medium.  But Metro 2033 is a rare case in that is was made as an interactive adaptation of a book, as opposed to a videogame adaptation of a movie based on a book.  Also, the developers, many of whom are refugees from the studio that produced S.T.A.L.K.E.R., are proficient developers, but it was obvious that many gameplay concessions, mainly in terms of scripted events, were made in service of telling a story.  That's right, the primary purpose of the game is tell its story in an interactive way, as opposed to making a more proficient game and simply telling the story along the way.

And that is one of the truest, yet most subjective, part of the test of artistic merit: intent.  The intention was not to build a game, and then place the story within it, as many people seem to forget (and is the problem with Bioshock, despite how many people use it as the test of art).  In this case the story came first, and someone decided that they wanted to use the interactive medium, videogame, to tell the story to a greater audience, and as I stated earlier, this adaptation was made in service to the story being adapted as opposed to being in the service of the game.  That was the intent, and the intent makes this videogame art.

Innocent Aces quickie

Okay, its been months since I've posted anything here, even though I fully intended to do so sooner anyways.  So what is there to say?  I don't know.  I played and saw alot of things, but really ran out of any desire to write about any of those things since I didn't get around to talking about them sooner.  Go me!  And go procrastination!  But since I'm here, I should probably talk about something...


The Sky Crawlers:  Innocent Aces


This game came out for the Nintendo Wii in the US earlier this year.  It was a small time release, and the cover art was pretty bad (the promotional cover art was better), and I don't believe it sold that well.  Innocent Aces is a tie-in game to Mamoru Oshii's animated film from 2008, The Sky Crawlers.  The game does not follow the plot of  the film, and even appears unconnected if not for the presence of Kildren and WWII style planes.  It is, however, a prequel, with the actual connection to the film not being made until the game's ending, and even then it is only noticeable if the player has also seen the movie.


Anyways, the game was produced by Project Aces, the team behind the Ace Combat series, and could best be described as "Ace Combat Light".  It looks like an up-rezzed PS2 game, despite the Wii being more powerful than it.  Overall, its rather easy, with only the two or three ace battles providing any kind of real challenge.


That brings us to the controls.  While the game has Classic Controller support (which, in my opinion, is preferable to the default), the default control scheme is Wii-mote and Nunchuk motion control, using the Nunchuk as an aircraft yolk with Wii-mote controlling throttle.  It works on an immersion level, but since the Nunchuk only has an accelerometer and no sensor, it ends up not being responsive enough.  As well, the yaw controls (for fine left/right turning movements) is mapped to the Wii-mote's d-pad instead of the Nunchuk's analog stick.  The analog stick instead maps several combat maneuvers that are difficult to pull off with such imprecise controls, namely barrel rolls and various types Immulman turns.  These maneuvers are possible with the Classic Controller, but the use of these maneuvers is faster than doing them yourself.


More of the gameplay, however, hinges on the use of more specialized "Tactical Maneuvers".  In most cases, they are effectively kill-commands, with the exceptions being the ace battles.  These maneuvers are crucial to success since you are relying on unguided weapons to take out (usually) fast moving targets.  Whenever you are within attack range of anenemy that you're locked onto, a gauge onscreen fills up to up to 3 levels.  As soon as one level is filled, and you remain within range, you can use it to pull off a Tactical Maneuver, which is represented by the game temporarily taking control from you and pulling off a series of impossible maneuvers in orderto put you directly behind the enemy so that you can shoot them.  Harder enemies, including the aces, require higher level maneuvers to get behind, though you'll never be close enough long enough to get past a level one fill.  This whole sysetem is generally what makes the game easy, since so many concessions had to be made for the default control scheme, while if makes the ace battles (especially the final battle) much harder, since the maneuvers will get you near the ace, but not behind them.


Music is pretty good, with a sort of Celtic beat to it.  It does not include any music from the film, but all of it seems like it could easily have come from it.  The music for several of the major battles (including the final battle) is definitely one of the best of the game.  Kinda wish there was a soundtrack available somewhere.


Well, I was originally hoping to do some short paragraphs on multiple games.  Guess that didn't work out though.  But maybe doing some short ones now and them will help me get stuff on here more often.

Tale of the Six-Shooter Samurai

Red Steel 2, yeah. Where do I start on this one? How about this: Red Steel 2 is an FPS game for the Wii (yes, the Wii) that came out last month. Sequel to the Wii launch title, Red Steel, this game has almost nothing to do with the original.

Not that that's a bad thing.

In the original, the player played a former-Yakuza bodyguard trying to save his girlfriend, the Yakuza heiress he was formerly protecting, from a usurper. Usually, you shot guns at people, occasionally stopping for a one-on-one duel. It was good as a proof of concept, but not much else. The movement and looking controls were janky, sword-fighting was unresponsive, story was absurd, graphics, while not bad, could've been better.

Red Steel 2, you play an outcast from a samurai clan returning to avenge the destruction of said clan. You shoot stuff, and you hit stuff with a sword, usually in quick succession. Often. Like Metroid Prime 3, this isn't proof of concept, it is simply proof. Proof that the Wii controls can do an FPS, and do it well. Controls are good all-around, story is still absurd, but at least it fits with the game's style, and the graphics are good (for a Wii game, and having to use that caveat sucks, but this is an XB360 and PS3 world...).

I think I'll start with the graphics. Knowing the Wii's limited graphical power, the developers went with a stylized, comic book visuals. In terms of actual aesthetic though, I would have to describe it as Borderlands-lite. If the Wii had more horsepower and kept with the stylization, I'm sure Borderlands is what Red Steel 2 would look like. The whole aesthetic is a combination of American western, Japanese samurai, and high-tech. Most building fit western, with major locations being traditional japanese, while high-tech is mixed in throughout. The enemies wear psuedo-modern/high-tech takes on traditional japanese samurai/ninja gear. The player character is a straight-up man-with-no-name in a double-breasted duster straight out of a 70s Western movie (and that is so absolutely badass). The main antagonist, as well as the friendlies, are over-the-top stereotypes as well. Included are a hilly-billy crossed with a stereotypical old japanese man (dressed in an unbuttoned hawaiian shirt and western hat no less). A southern-belle dressed like a goth-punk. The teacher character is an old sensei who looks like he was pulled from a 70s kung-fu movie, and was written and dubbed like a 70s english dub of said kung-fu movie (also freakin' awesome). The antagonist, he's just your stock evil scarred man character, not as interesting as the others, but it still works in context.

Primary complaint here is that you're in towns that are supposed to have people in them, but you only see the enemies. Even the friendly NPCs are relegated almost entirely to cutscenes, so the world feels pretty empty. On the gameplay side, it isn't helping that while the graphical style is great, the design of the levels are mostly uninteresting.

Gameplay though, that's where a game like this needs to succeed. In my personal opinion, Red Steel 2 delivers what Red Steel 1 promised: First-person shooting and sword-fighting. At the same time. Firing your gun is as easy as pushing the B button, swiping with the sword is as easy as any amount of Wii-mote flailing. Though its not that simple, those are basically what you do. Point the Wii-mote at the screen to aim, move the cursor to the edges of the screen to turn your character. Pressing B shoots the gun you have equipped. Holding a direction and pressing A will dash you in that direction, while holding A will pull out your sword to block. Swinging the Wii-mote will swing your sword in roughly the same direction as your swing.

Its not perfect, but actually, it doesn't need to be. One of the primary problems with alot of games that use the pointer is that the pointer is TOO precise. By that I mean that its so precise that it even picks up the involuntary movement and jitters of most people, so trying to hold the cursor still simply doesn't work. Only now are developers starting to work out how to keep the game from recognizing these movements and only see the deliberate ones, and this dev team has figured it out. Cursor movement is smooth, precise, and if you miss a shot, then either the enemy blocked it, or your aim just sucks.

The other big problem is the flailing that is typically seen in almost all games that use the Wii-mote's motion sensor. Yes, you need to move to swing your sword, but you can't flail, or you'll die. I know I should have mentioned this sooner, but Red Steel 2 requires the use of the Wii-Motion-Plus accesory, and the swordfighting is the entire reason why. It makes swinging the Wii-mote be more properly displayed onscreen. You don't need (or want) to flail because the WMP reads not only the direction, but also the force behind the movements. Flailing will give you weak slashes in random directions, and while that may be okay for the lowest of the low enemies, you will need hard, deliberate strokes (yes I see the double-entendre, moving on...), many times in particular directions, to see your way through tougher battles, as well as when using many of the combo moves in the game. It needs to work, and it does as long as the player realizes that flailing sucks.

Sound, well, I don't actually have alot to say there. The voice-acting isn't bad, but its not necessarily great either, most of it being merely adequate in service to the plot and setting. The only real standout is Jian, the sensei character, who as I stated earlier, is written like an over-the-top 70s english dub of a 70s kung-fu movie. He likes talking about how you, an outcast of the clan, is being successful against the enemies when the clan failed, and how it shames him. I find it rather humorous. Music, on the other hand, is quite good, primarily being heard during battle. It brings in a nice mix of ethnic japanese and american western string music in many various compositions. I, however, am not terribly knowledgeable in music terminology or criticism, so suffice it to say, the music is good. As an aside though, the song "Storm" by the "Yoshida Brothers" wouldn't be out of place in this game.

Red Steel 2 does have some issues, but they're pretty minor (in my opinion). The game tries to act like its non-linear when in truth its just as linear as any other, with objectives spread over an area map that you might go through 2 or 3 times before being shunted to the next area (through a clearly marked "point of no return" screen). The game is supposed to (at least partially) affect the difficulty based on player performance, but it doesn't really work, as even the lowest rank enemies end up appearing throughout the game. You can get up to 4 guns, but only the first one is required to finish the game, and 2 of them aren't even all that useful (the machine-gun and lever-rifle). After battles where you finished the final enemy with the sword, the character will typically look up because chances are that was were the aiming cursor ended up from the sword slash. Those are things I noticed, I'm sure other people found others.

I think I covered all the major things. Red Steel 2 isn't perfect by any means, but I think its one of the better core games on the Wii now, and someone looking for an original take on an FPS should definitely give this game a shot.

Rambling/Rant about Bioshock 2

So I finally finished up Bioshock2 the other day. By finish, I mean I got all the achievement points available (1000/1000). And my overall feelings on the game are pretty mixed.

On the one hand, it was a pretty good game. On the other hand, aside from a few improvements, its the exact same game as the first game. You do the same things over a similar set of levels for a similar length of the time, with the only major difference is that you get a helper at the end.

The overall story is indeed shoe-horned into the setting. The new big-bad was written in as a second nutbar the cities' founder was dealing with at the same time as the guy from the first game, who got conveniently locked away and forgotten about during said first game. And just what is the new big-bad trying to do? Make the most altruistic person in the world, ever, by turning her own daughter into effing St. Alia of the Knife the Abomination (from Frank Herbert's original Dune series). How does that work, exactly? Admittedly, the game takes place before the series would have been written. But then, if it had, why would anyone there have read it? The original story is supposed to be an homage/satire of Ayn Rand (whose work I haven't read) and Objectivist methodology (something I haven't studied).

What really gets me though, is the multiplayer portion of the game. Thematically, it takes place during the civil war that preceded the first game, but in the end its just a standard multiplayer in a game that doesn't need it. Okay, don't get me wrong here, the multiplayer IS NOT bad, its actually pretty decent. That being said, there is no reason for it expect to mark off a feature on the back of the game case. Free-for-all Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag (with variants), Territories (which doesn't even tally end-of-match scores properly), they have different names, but those are the modes.

They stole the idea of multiple loadouts, unlocks, and perks from CoD. The only real new thing that changes how things happen are the hacking, researching, and plasmids. Hacking and plasmids are okay, they make things interesting, researching though, feels like a bit of a game-breaker at times. Hell, the plasmids can be too, when combined with the right weapons. And here's the big thing, most of them are useless. There are 7 or 8 weapons and plasmids, and once a player completes the challenges associated with each of them, they move on and then you will only ever see the FIRST 3 weapons AND plasmids that you unlock (okay, maybe a little bit of exaggeration on the weapons part). Oh, and if you're fast and/or lucky, you can become a Rosie-type Big Daddy. It can also be a gamebreaker, especially at lower ranks.

And that brings me to my final, and biggest problem. The grinding, and the multiplayer achievements that go with them. Multiplayer achievements are a problem. In games like CoD:MW, and BF:BC2, where, where multiplayer is the primary draw of the game, you can get away with them, because people will be playing those games online for a long time to come. For something like this... no. This game, like others with unneeded multiplayer, will have a community at launch, but 6 months later will only be populated by the latecomers and the hardest of the hardcore. Now, to the devs credit, none of the achievements are hard, but the ones gained for ranking up require grinding XP.

And grinding is this game's multiplayer. Its unbearable. 10 Points. Everything is worth 10 Points. Kill an enemy? 10 Points. Hack/Research? 10 Points? You only get more points by getting Killstreaks, becoming the Big Daddy, or killing the Big Daddy, none of which happen that often unless you're pointlessly too good for the game. Only completing the challenges truly helps getting the XP better. Couple that with needing 97,000 XP to get to Rank 40 (Rank 50 only exists if you're a sucker who wants to waste $5...), and the game's netcode being complete crap. I've had (and I'm not alone in this either) Host Disconnect's freeze my XBox. Why? Seriously, why is my XBox freezing on an internet disconnect?

I don't know. I just know the multiplayer ended up being mentally painful for me. Alot of it feels unfair if you don't know how to game it (or you just suck, like I sometimes do...). And I'm glad I'm done with it. More time to play other, more important, games.

My picks of the year?

Really meant to do this earlier, but I'd been kept indisposed. Sometimes you just can't get away from the friend that doesn't know how keep his mouth closed long enough for you to tell him to do so...

Anyways.

Here are my picks of the year. They might be in line with other people's, they might not. And not everything will be from this past year. Mostly, but not entirely. If anyone reading this likes my picks, great. If not, remember this is my opinion, not yours. And if you try to pull that "Well your opinion is wrong." shit, well then you can go fuck yourself. And one last note, this is based on what I've seen and played, and I haven't seen or played everything.

Favorite Games (no particular order)

Borderlands

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Deadspace

Deadspace: Extraction

Halo ODST

Super Mario Brothers Wii

Muramasa: Demon Blade

Favorite Movies (no particular order)

Star Trek

District 9

Inglorious Basterds

Avatar

Corarline

Monsters Vs. Aliens

Zombieland

Favorite Books (no particular order)

Infoquake - David Louis Edelman

The Quiet War - Paul McAuley

Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks

Grass for His Pillow - Lian Hearn

Other Favorite Stuff (no particular order)

Warehouse 13

Venture Brothers season 4

Doctor Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog

Deadpool

Radical Comics

Worst Games (not necessarily bad, just disappointing) (no particular order)

Cross Edge (went over this one before)

Overlord II (average)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (single-player gameplay is okay, but the writing was the biggest sack of shit outside of Transformers 2)

Star Ocean (combat good, but the characters look like dolls, the VA work and writing are pretty crap)

Worst Movies (no particular order)

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen (only good thing about it is the Robot Chicken skit "Michael Bay presents 'EXPLOSIONS!!!'")

Worst Books (not necessarily bad, just disappointing) (no particular order)

Crossover - Joel Shepard (couldn't get into it)

Godspeaker trilogy - Karen Miller (found almost all of the characters unlikable on some level or another, and depictions of fanatical religious devotion is a loaded subject these days too)

The Difference Engine - Bruce Sterling and William Gibson (what was the point of the story?)

Looking Forward to Next Year (no particular order)

Geosynchron (book) - David Louis Edelmann

Gardens of the Sun (book) - Paul McAuley

Mass Effect 2 (game)

Final Fantasy XVI (game)

Iron Man 2 (movie)

Shutter Island (movie)

Those lists are a whole bunch of crap, aren't they? Whatever. That's what I've got for now. :P

Games I would have/have not...

...paid full price for.

Some games are good, some bad, most average. If you're sure they're good, you buy them day one (or shortly thereafter). If they're bad, they hit the local gamestop/used-game retailer just as fast. If you're just not sure, then you wait until it drops in price, or a cheap used copy. Regardless of how you play it, you find most are or aren't worth full price.

Things I paid less than full price for, but would have paid full price:

1) Deadspace: Okay, I'm not big on horror media in general, though I've watched enough to know how it all works. Space horror works on me. Of the horror movies that I've seen, Alien and Event Horizon are the only ones that actually scared me beyond the standard-issue "spring-loaded cat" moments, and I like those movies. Most other horror movies, ehhh... not so much. And even though it uses the Doom-style monster closet spawns, it still has the atmosphere those two movies had. Scared the crap out of me first playthrough, while going through with powered up weapons wasn't so bad. Then I played on the hardest difficulty. Yeah... I ended up listening to a podcast most of the way through, the enemies were so much harder that listening to the music and SFX would've freaked me out more. Either way, if I'd been interested in the game when it came out, I definitely would've paid full price for it.

2) Civilization 4: Got it during a sale on Steam, heard about it because the guys on the Rebel FM podcast (www.eat-sleep-game.com) went on about it for several episodes. Great turn-based strategy game, look up some reviews.

3) Assassin's Creed 2: Just came out (at time of writing), so just look it up. Admittedly, it was a used copy for only $5 cheaper, but, you know.

Games I paid full price for and wish I hadn't:

1) Cross Edge: I bitched about this one a couple months ago. Douchebag friend borrowed it, liked it more than I did, but has also failed to finish it. Haven't gotten it back yet, though I would since I plan on trading it in as soon as I do...

2) Prototype: Fun for what it is, but average game.

3) Overlord 2: Would've/should've gotten it used, but didn't. Kinda quirky and different, but still, a meh game (to me anyways).

Games I bought for partial price and glad I didn't:

1) Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard: Okay, this game is a definite rental. Gameplay is kinda average, BUT the plotline is worth playing through once simply because of how sharp the writing is, with its large number of homages to games and nerd culture, all the way to its incredibly genre-savvy hero, Matt Hazard.

2) Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Just finished this today (of this writing). Not a bad game, graphics are good, so is the story (to my suprise). But there are enough bugs and wonky controls, among other things, that I glad I didn't pay full price.

3) Mirror's Edge: Liked the demo, played the first couple levels. Haven't gotten around to finishing it, and need to.

Full Price, worth every penny:

1) Batman: Arkham Asylum: Well duh!

2) Borderlands: "You know there ain't no rest for the wicked..."

3) Halo ODST: Screw Master Chief, ODST for life!

I'm probably missing some, but I didn't want this to be too long, especially with this long list of tags.