I was able to get in a little gaming time over the last few days and boy, I picked a couple of good ones. First, a quick note about the Midnight release of NCAA 08: We had about 30 customers for the release, which was pretty impressive for a small town like Pittsburg. I knew at least by sight most of the guys who grabbed a game, either as repeat customers or guys from the college. I didn't get a copy, mostly because I've tried the football video games and, well, let's just say I'm not that accomplished at them. Now, on to the games I DO play:

The Bigs:

At last we have a baseball game that focuses less on mechanics and button-presses and more on just plain fun. I (of course) played a couple exhibition games as the Cardinals against the Tigers, and the first didn't go so well. I was disappointed to discover the game features no tutorial for gameplay so I had to figure out on my own that balls hit to a certain fielder required a button press to the corresponding base for the fielder to make the throw. The bases map to the buttons, so B is a throw to first, Y to second, etc. I launched quite a few throws from the outfield to home plate by accidentally hitting the A button and gave up a lot of doubles and triples as a result. Also, it was a bummer that pitching was pretty easy, but picking pitch location didn't seem to work very well, even though it seemed to be a matter of just using the left thumbstick to pick pitch location. The result was a Major League whoopin' in that first game. So I moved on to the Home Run Pinball game and found a minigame that is the most amazing and most frustrating game I could play in a while. It also gave me the first and only drive to gain a particular achievement (250,000 points in Pinball), which I managed to do after about 20 tries. I also tried Home Run Derby, which was fun, but not overwhelming. I moved back to the exhibition games after that, and played a 5-inning stint against the Tigers again. This time I had a better idea what I was doing and as a result I had a much better game. Pitch location was easier this time, I figured out to hold the stick in place until the pitch was thrown, and as a result I got a lot more strikes. That, and holding the button until the meter filled was much better! The game went to extras, and of all things the Power Meter got me an Adam Wainwright blast to end the game. It was a lot of fun, and if you like arcade-style baseball games instead of the super-serious simulations, The Bigs is definitely a game to check out. I'll play it some more and post a review in a few days.

Overlord:

I downloaded the demo for Overlord and was impressed enough to check the game out from the store. After one night of playing it I went back and put down the money to buy it. This game is just flat fun to play. For those who live under a rock, Overlord is about a resurrected evil lord who is setting about to put his empire back together. Following him are his horde of minions, little Gremlins that do the Overlord's bidding and slaughter Halflings, other enemies and innocent peasants. The minions follow your every command, smashing objects for gold, potions and weapons and slaughtering sheep and other people for the sake of Lifeforce, which is used to call forth minions from their pits. The minions run about with you, making comment about gathering treasure, saying "For you, master!" and other comments that remind me just a bit of Grunts from Halo. Controlling your minions is as easy as facing your target and pulling the right trigger, and off they go to smash and cause mayhem. See a target you can't reach but your minions can? Sweep the right thumbstick in the direction you want your minions to go and guide them to your target. The quests are by no means simplistic, and you will lose minions and take damage yourself, but they are not so tough as to be impossible. Some quests give you a choice to do the "right" thing or do something evil, like rescuing food for the village of Spree but then killing the peasants who have come to take the food and hoard it for yourself or let them have it. Certain acts will increase your corruption level while others keep it at zero, and there is an achievement in the game for maintaining a zero corruption level the whole time. For the first play-through, though, it isn't any fun to do that! Yes, I killed the peasants and took the food! It was fun, too. The only aspect of this game that can be frustrating is controlling the Overlord and the camera. The left thumbstick controls all the Overlord's movements and to a lesser extent the camera. Getting the camera to swing in the right direction, however, is not easy. You maybe facing one direction but the attack is coming from a completely different one, and the only way to get the camera to face that way is to run around in a circle until it gets right. If you can get the Overlord to face the right way and hit the right trigger, your minions can usually take care of the attackers until you get the camera right. Still, it does get frustrating from time-to-time. All in all, this is a really good game and it's eating a LOT of my game time.

Miscellany:

My oldest daughter's birthday is coming up, and we got her a blue DS and a pink RAZR phone. Yeh, it was pretty expensive but she's worth it. I also bought a red DS for my wife (yes, they're originals, not Lites, my money only goes so far) and she was pretty happy about that.

Yes, things are going better at home, too, for those who were wondering.

A warning to you young people out there: Stay AWAY from credit cards! I cashed in my retirement fund to pay over $5K in credit card bills and I still have $6K to pay! They're bad news, and responsibility has nothing to do with it. The most responsible person can still get in a big hole, and in the long run, it just isn't worth it. Ever.