Hey, sorry it's been so long since my last post which wasn't even about games. For the past 2 or so weeks I've been playing the three games listed above constantly. In case you haven't gotten any of them yet, I'll tell you which one I think you should buy first, etc. Let's start off in the order they were released, or the amount of hype for each one.

First up is Modern Warfare 2, the most highly anticipated of the three and possibly of the year, too. While I did rate it a 9/10, which is still fantastic, I don't think it's as good as Call of Duty 4. I think this mostly because of the poorly written campaign. The story in this game just sucks. You play as three different people: Soap from COD4 who has a mohawk (not what I expected him to look like), some other British dude named Roach, and then a U.S. Marine who I forgot the name of. Like what GameSpot said, "the plot is muddled and inelegant." I agree with that 100%. Why does Russia suddenly attack the U.S.? There's also a plot spoiler that doesn't make any sense that I won't get into, and another after that that's equally confusing. Also, why is the president's bunker located a few feet underground and less than a mile away from the White House? Gameplay wise, they've added a shotgun to some assault rifles (two guns in one) and a couple of new weapons but beyond that nothing's changed. The gameplay itself is solid, but since the plot is bad it doesn't give you as much motivation to beat the level. The multiplayer features some improvements like being able to put two accessories on your gun, and you start off with the ability to carry your primary weapon and a shotgun/ grenade launcher. However, I swear there's only, like, 6 or 7 maps that I've played on and I'm already on level 30

Bottom Line: Unfortunately, this would be the last of the three I recommend getting. 8.8/10 for me.

Assassin's Creed 2 on the other hand, is simply excellent. Unlike Modern Warfare 2, the story has been improved considerably from its predecessor. Desmond and Lucy escape the facility to their own building and you get to play a new assassin, Ezio, an Italien, around 300 years after Altair's adventures. At one point you briefly play as Altair, but it doesn't really add much to the story. Ezio's family were assassin's and were murdered, so he trained to become one with his uncle and slay the Templars. They've added a money system into the mix, so you have to visit armor places for weapons/armor and doctors for healing and medicine. The combat is generally the same, but they've added more weapons, including a pistol, and some more enemies so the combat essentially has more variety. The assassination missions do as well. Remember how you had to locate three different people to learn information about your target before taking him out? Well, the missions are straightforward so you don't have to waste an hour looking around for someone. You also have a daily income, and this increases as you restore your uncle's village and large villa/mansion. They've also added a wanted level by filling up a circular bar, and you can decrease this by tearing down wanted posters around the city or kill officials. Oh, yeah, and the city's still as beautiful as ever.

Bottom Line: This improves upon an already great game, and this is the first of the three you should buy. Easily a 9.8/10 for me.

Left 4 Dead 2 also improves from its predecessor by adding more weapons game modes and enemies. The game itself is more intense by having the screen filled with more zombies. In addition to the special zombies from the first game, they've added a charger, some witches that walk around, a think that jumps onto your back, and a spitter which spits poisonous goo from long distances. New weapons include: AK-47, Grenade Launcher, Silenced Mini-Uzi, a more powerful shotgun, and a magnum pistol. Each campaign is one continuous story, so when you get rescued by a helicopter in the first campaign, chances are the pilot turned into one and the chopper crashed somewhere, so you won't fully escape until you beat the last campaign. There are also melee weapons to use against the zombies, but if there's a whole hoard of them charging at you, you're probably better off using guns.

Bottom Line: This is the second of the three you should buy because it improves from the original in variety, story, and most importantly, tension. 9.3/10 for me.

Revenge is a dish best served cold courtesy of a light machine gun-wielding robot.

When I first saw the trailer of "Law Abiding Citizen," I thought it was going to be pretty good.It's about a genius government assassin, played by Gerard Butler, who gets revenge on a corrupt justice system after his family gets murdered by two white trash men with the aid of a machine gun, an exploding cell phone and blowfish venom. After Jamie Fox's lawyer character sends the wrong guy to death row, Gerard's character manages to keep the guy who actually killed his family "out of jail" by cutting off his feet, legs, arms, nails, genitals (yeah, I know), and head and sending the video of it to Fox's daughter. We do not get much insight into his character, because most of the movie's dialogue consists of variations on the phrase "This is f**ked up." For a movie focusing so much on the justice system, you'd assume you'd find some sense of realism, right? Unfortunately, looking for logic in this picture is like looking for sexy pictures in the Lands' End winter catalog

1) Why does the CIA assassin live in a neighborhood where white trash men are liable to break into his home and kill his family? Wouldn't his pay grade allow him a home with less riffraff and better security?

2) Why would a CIA assassin be surprised at the fact that the justice system is flawed?

3) Why does the Philadelphia city government keep scheduling meetings to figure out how the assassin is committing murder from his prison cell, yet it never occurs to anyone since he can communicate with his "outside help" to maybe install a camera or a guard to see what he's doing in there all day?

3.5) Couldn't the city at least transfer him to a higher-security prison after he confesses to killing about 12 people?

4) Why do the two lawyers go investigate the Batcave BY THEMSELVES when they can't even get through a full workday without a colleague being killed by an exploding object?

4.5) How can one man rig dozens of vehicles in front of the entrance of the prison that he's supposed to be being held captive in?

5) How can a bomb under a bed incinerate everything but the bed?

Long story short: Despite all these logic flaws, the film can be enjoyable at times and is worth seeing once if you've got nothing better to do.

Grade: B without the logic flaws, C+ with them.

Time to nut up or shut up!

"Zombieland," a movie directed by Ruben Fleischer, seemed very entertaining and funny when I saw its trailer. I decided, heck, why don't I give it a try? Well, all I have to say is that this is, by and large, one of, if not, the best movie I've seen all year. It was simply laugh-out-loud funny with great action and suspense. The opening scene starts off with the White House on fire and a zombie staring down at the camera, tender flesh dripping from its mouth. The story itself is pretty straightforward: almost everyone in the world has turned into mindless zombies and it tells how the handful of survivors remain alive in Zombieland. The performances were genuinely quite funny from Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin as Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock (not real names, just the names of the cities the character is headed to). But while these performances are great, by far the best of the bunch is Woody Harrelson as the twinky-lovin', zombie-hatin' Tallahassee who's "in the ass-kickin' business." Throughout the film, he kills zombies in brutal yet funny forms, such as pushing Colombus' shotgun away and instead pulling out gardening pliers and walking up to a hugely overweight zombie in a grocery store while saying, "I'm just gonna take a l'il bit off the top." The next shot has the pliers being tossed aside with blood dripping form it--you do the math. Overall, this movie is well-paced, smart, extremely humorous and genuinely entertaining, and you'd be an idiot if you refused to see this cult ****c.

Long-story short: This is a great action-comedy flick with funny and memorable scenes in it--go see it NOW!

Grade: A