So I beat BioShock over the weekend. And while the game, story, and the immersiveness of Rapture were all amazing, I was slightly disappointed to find out that I was greatly overthinking the supposed spoiler I read a while back. I saw the trophy for "Become a Big Daddy" and my mind was racing with possibilities about the implications of this. Unfortunately, the only reason you put on the Big Daddy suit is to get through a few doors in the last stage of the game. I was both happy that the plot wasn't spoiled, and disappointed by the simplicity of it. Imagine how awesome it would be if your character met some horrible fate at the end of the game and you were destined to spend the rest of your life trapped in a Big Daddy suit, protecting little sisters and living with the degredation of the city and its tortured former citizens?!

Still, it was a great game, even if the ending wasn't quite as tragic as my mind was conjuring up. I went back and harvested a couple of little sisters at the end to see the bad ending. I am trying to go back through the game on Hard to get a few more trophies but am having a hard time with it. I foresee either giving up or it taking a really long time. We'll see if I'm able to stick with it. Especially considering the fact that I started playing Resistance 2 the very next day.

I am having a lot of fun with Resistance 2. However, I agree with some of the comments out there that it seems as if Insomniac made the multiplayer modes the main focus and the single player campaign suffered a little bit as a result. It is still really fun, but I am having a hard time getting into the story in the single player campaign. Its super fun to play through the levels, but it seems to me that the bosses are easier than the stages themselves a lot of the time. Also, the 1Up Yours Podcast was right, they give you a specific weapon right before you need to use it. The only thing is, I sometimes don't find it until after I've already defeated the enemies that the weapon was put there to dispose of. Lastly, it definately seems shorter than the first Resistance. I'm already on the last stage and should be able to beat it soon. Oh well, I am still enjoying it quite a bit and can't wait to start playing multiplayer. Everything I'm hearing about multiplayer sounds really cool. This is a game where I might be able to get a platinum trophy! We'll see how it goes. Once this game is beaten I can finally start playing Dead Space.

So I just realized that I could use my Guitar Hero 3 guitar to play Rock Band now! Whoooo! I bought the disc-only version of Rock Band 2 and rented a copy of Rock Band 1 so I could import the songs to my hard drive. I am finally able to experience what everybody else has been playing for almost a year now. I love it! All I need to do now is buy a drum set. And get Guitar Hero: World Tour.

One thing I've noticed is that Rock Band has a much more gradual learning curve than Guitar Hero. That's awesome. I am finding that I can actually play pretty well on Hard difficulty, something that I never was able to do in GH. I am getting better and better with using all five notes and think that once I get good maybe I can actually go back to GH and play on Hard. We'll see. Now I'm probably just going to buy a bunch of music. I want to play some of the Smashing Pumpkins and Motley Crue stuff.

I am also making my way through BioShock and am really enjoying it. The Big Daddies are really hard though. I am kind of pissed that one of the big surprises has kind of been spoiled for me. It was my own damn fault, but I was looking at the list of trophies and saw the one marked "Become a Big Daddy." Wha wha whattt!!!??? Holy crap! After all the trouble I went to to avoid all spoilers too...it makes sense since an outcome like that would fit the tragic outcome of the rest of Rapture. I am trying to forget I saw it, but I guess writing about it doesn't really help does it? The game is still pretty fascinating.

I also need to get to Dead Space, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, and Valkyria Chronicles. I feel kind of bad that I never finished Condemned 2, it really was a cool game. I plan on going back to it eventually, but so many good games came out at one time that I just kind of put it on the back burner.

BTW, Burnout is putting in a DeLorean time machine!!! Effin A!!! That's so awesome, is there no end to Criterion's greatness? I would so pay for cool additional cars. Don't know how exited I am for Burnout Paradise Party though. I don't have any friends...at least none that play games. I guess I could play it by myself and pretend to pass the controller around just to get the trophies. We'll see, it depends on how much they charge for it.

I have decided to abandon my Now Playing list somewhat for the time being simply because between now and the end of the year there are so many good games coming out and I am going to be trying to play as many of them as possible. Therefore, it is unreasonable to think that I will be able to keep up the list when I won't even be able to keep up with the games themselves. Basically, here's how things are looking. Through the end of the year I will be playing Penny Arcade Adventures, Flock, Sam & Max Season 1 on Wii, BioShock, WipEout HD, LittleBigPlanet, Dead Space, Resistance 2, Valkyria Chronicles, possibly Fallout 3 (not sure if I want it yet), and lastly, I have to play GTA4 again for trophies. AND Burnout Paradise is getting more updates, not to mention that I am paying pretty close attention to Mirror's Edge and MK vs. DC Universe. They look really cool but I'm not sure if I want them yet. There's too many damn games! I haven't played my DS or PSP in a while now just trying to keep up with the PS3 stuff. I eventually plan to play Lego Batman too. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few but that's just off the top of my head.

As to what I've played recently, I finally beat Bionic Commando Rearmed. Very nice payoff at the end there : ) I never beat the original but I had heard about it. Nice to actually see it. I am continuing to play WipEout HD here and there and I'm enjoying Penny Arcade Adventures more than I thought I would. I downloaded Everyday Shooter, LocoRoco Cocoreccho, and flOw as well. Everyday Shooter is pretty cool. Very trippy and psychadelic. And really difficult. I like that the mechanics of defeating enemies change with every stage and that as you play you constantly build up points that you can use to unlock additional stuff.

LocoRoco is possibly the most bizarre, insane game I've ever played, even slightly more so than the original game for the PSP. I think I like the PSP one better. flOw is pretty cool, very serene and calming. I can see myself playing it after a rough day just to unwind or chill out for a while when I'm bored. It seems like it is a game that just doesn't end. I'm very curious to see how Flower turns out, since its by the same people. Ooh, and I almost forgot about Fat Princess! I can't wait to see how that turns out, it looks hilarious!

So bottom line, too many awesome games, too little time. Just like last year. Lame, but also awesome!