These blogs are all too quickly becoming a monthly event, giving me too much to write about at once. My fragile mind can't handle it. I'll do my best to make this somewhat sensible and then hopefully start writing them more regularly. Where to start......ah, The Force Unleashed.

I bought and played through twice, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Once on normal and once again on Sith Master, although I mainly sprinted through the latter. I found the game to be very good. The story, although a little contrived, was entertaining and better than any of the new movies. The graphics and sound were the other high point, with solid voice acting, again better that the new movies (damn you Hayden Christensen) and the music you expect from a Star Wars product at this point. The gameplay on the other hand was a bit all over the place. Using the force to throw guys around was fun, but when the game started introducing Force resistant enemies and cheap boss battles things got a little tiring. Lightsabers without dismemberment doesn't play anymore. Still, overall it was worth playing.

Following that I played some Alone in the Dark. Don't play that game. I'm not going to anymore. I got to the second last mission and the game is asking me to burn all these roots (of evil) that have appeared. To do that I have drive around an apocalyptic Central Park in a car that controls as if it has the ability to fly but is scared of heights and when it touches a kerb it gets enough courage to fly several feet in the air but then gets scared again and comes back to the ground (my obtuse way of saying the physics are terrible). I refuse to play it anymore, especially when I have games like Fallout 3 to play.

What a segue. Fallout 3 is awesome. It would be fair to say that it's basically a post-apocalyptic Oblivion. Because of this, the game has some of the same problems that Oblivion had, such as repetitive environments (metro stations) and stilted NPC behaviour. In other ways it has improved on Oblivion with sharper dialogue and more voice actors and unique character models. The combat is fairly satisfying as soon as you get the bloody mess perk and remains fun throughout. The best thing about the game though, as it was in Oblivion, is interacting with the different, interesting characters in the game, completing side-quests and exploring the world. I've played the game for 40 hours and have done most of the quests I can do, all I've got left to do now, is explore the world collecting, killing looting and so forth. If you liked Oblivion, or just like the idea of the game, definitely check it out, its few flaws are easy to overlook.

Apart from that I've continued to dabble in Pokemon Diamond, The World Ends with You and New Super Mario Bros. I'm on the last world Mario and it is damn difficult. I'm also close to the end of Final Fantasy X and after finding the game to be mostly easy, the second last boss is proving very difficult. What makes it more frustrating is that there is about 10 minutes of build up that there is no way to circumvent. I'll do it eventually though. True to form, I've once again been toying with the idea of getting back into WoW. Just to tide me over until Christmas when I'll have all the new games that I wanted. I'll be level 80 by 2012.

It turns out that Microsoft can fix a 360 in a relatively short time, as I received mine back on Tuesday, less than two weeks after I sent it away. Not too bad. I mean, it shouldn't break in the first place, but at least they return it quickly. Since I got it back, I've finished condemned. The story was pretty interesting and a few of the locations at the end broke the repetition of industrial buildings. Overall though it was a great game, even if it did screw me out of 90 achievement points for collecting all the stuff throughout the game.

I'm now playing Spiderman 3 for the 360. Not a great game but I really like Spiderman 2(the game), so playing another game of that type is sort of appealing to me. I've not played it much yet, but I doubt it's a particularly long game. I'm off school next week, which will give me a chance to finish, this, the force Unleashed when I get it and Final Fantasy X. Speaking of which, has got much harder, I'm just over 30 hours in and facing a pretty tough boss.

Well thats pretty much it, just a short update to inform anyone who happens to read these things that my 360 has made a triumphant return. Well it wasn't all that triumphant really.......

I guess it was inevitable. I happens to everyone eventually. My 360 died. At least it happened before the big rush of games that is almost upon us arrived. I sent it away over a week ago and received an e-mail saying it had arrived in the repair place a few days ago. However I still expect to be waiting a few weeks until I get it back and can continue bludgeoning people in condemned. Another game I plan to get for the 360 is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. It didn't get great reviews but since the story is supposedly impressive, I'll give it a try. I'm one of the idiots who will pay for anything that says Star Wars on it.

Since I spent all that money on a PS3, I've been playing PS2 games...on a PS2. Anyway, the game I have been playing is Final Fantasy X. I'm about 20 or so hours in and am enjoying it quite a bit. The game has been relatively easy so far though; I only had my first game over 20 hours in. Not that I'm complaining of course. I'm sure I will be looking back on the games easy half longingly when bosses at the end are making me look like a fool. So far the story is very compelling, even if the voice acting is inconsistent and the characters gesticulate like morons half the time.

Another game I'm playing, or was playing I should say, is The World Ends With You. Don't get me wrong, the game is great and has an interesting story, I just don't feel like playing it. I can't explain why because I enjoyed the time I spent with it. However, I'm sure I'll go back to it at some point. New Super Mario Bros, I haven't played at all. Not sure why the hell I got that game. As for Pokemon diamond, I have seven badges but am severely under levelled. I'll see to that soon though. Sound like a threat? Maybe it is.

Another fear of mine came true recently as Nintendo announced a re-designed DS shortly after I purchased a lite. Luckily the changes are pretty pointless (to me), so I'm not too bothered about it. It's closer to the time when all the big games come out. In fact many of my most anticipated games are coming out this very month.

Dead Space

Fable II

Far Cry 2

LittleBigPlanet

Fallout 3

It's looking like another awesome year for games.