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I’ve spent a lot of time gaming in the last three months, and it seems that gamers like myself have been particularly blessed with an abundance of high-quality gaming options. In fact, I’ve been so involved, I’ve neglected informing you, gentle reader, as to what is hot-or-not.

Dead Or Alive 4
The best and only fighter fix you can currently get on the 360. It fills that void well, but not perfectly. Fast is fun. Questionable character balance. Hit or miss level design and graphical quality. Many of the outdoor levels are stunning, while some of the indoor levels are wholly uninspired.

Project Gotham Racing 3
Slightly improved gameplay over predecessors which translates to a safely fun and generic racing game. Online community is great, and the graphics are amazing. A solid (if timid) multiplayer local or online game. I think Ferrari was unnaturally favored by the developers. Next version will be, “Project Ferrari Racing*”. Seriously, too much Ferrari love.

Call of Duty 2
Multiplayer sucks. Needed two patches to even make it playable with friends. Oozes atmosphere because of the authentic sound and well designed and varied mission objectives. The AI is frustrating when they decide to do run in front of your firing weapon, causing the mission to end. Veteran is hard but beatable, be warned.

Perfect Dark Zero
Meh. Not bad, but everything else is so much more enticing.

Playstation Portable
Double meh. Going back to Liberty City is fun, but the DS keeps stealing my attention.

Mario Kart DS
Best kart racing, evar. Better than any MK to date. Highly addictive. Missions are great addition.

Advance Wars: Dual Strike
This light turn based strategy game is the most fun I’ve had since Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri.

Guitar Hero
Rocked, partied, loved it. Sharing the love by lending to a friend was done to allow me to focus on playing other games. Highly addictive and satisfying. Everybody loves it, even non gamer friends.

Marble Blast Ultra
Impulse buy for the win. Everyone loves to armchair coach this game. Damn Microsoft Points! They’re *like* free money!

Geometry Wars
2d crack. I suck, but still love this game. My high score isn’t even above 1 million. One day….

For the record, I have copies of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, Burnout Revenge, and Metroid Prime Hunters. I am toast.

*coined elsewhere, though a quick search doesn’t show where I originally read it.

“Guitar Hero is about rocking your fucking face off.”

Perhaps you understand the gravity of those words, and maybe you don’t. But as I see it, such a phrase isn’t to be said lightly. You see, that resonates with me on some primal level, stroking the hope built up during so many hours as a teen spent jumping on my bed (yeah, as a teen, that’s the ticket) performing air guitar acrobatics.

Shame on you, for now you’ve made me think rock godhood is somehow within my grasp, if even for a short time. I hate you Tycho. I hate you for getting my hopes up, for making me spend money on this…. controller.

I feel used and dirty, as I’ll be paying for some cheap thrill akin to buying a blow up doll. When did normal game controllers cease to suffice? Oh sure, I don’t *need* this new succubus of a game. At least, that’s what I try and tell myself. I’ll love it. I’ll love it as I love rocking, and I’ll feel unclean for it.

I have you to thank for that.
~Tor