Found My Pheonix Down

It's been awhile since I wrote anything, so long in fact, that I had fallen into sort of a "blogger's block". I had planned on writing a really long and extensive blog about Halo: Reach (which I kinda still want to do), but I've been so busy with work and family I haven't found the time.
So rather than keep not blogging I decided to just go ahead and write something, anything, to get myself back on track. So I figured I'd kick it off with what I've been playing, what I need to play, and what I'm looking forward to playing. Mix in a little bit of what I've watched lately, end it with a question to everyone to help quell my curiosity about something, and I think I've got myself a blog.

Halo: Reach

So obviously I've been playing a ton of Halo: Reach since it launched, I really, really love that game. There are so many things that make Reach special vs. other shooters, the biggest, I think, being how dynamic the gameplay is. No matter what your doing; campaign, multiplayer, Firefight, it's always a fresh and fun experience and you never know when something hilarious and awesome might occur. There's just so much you can do outside of shooting that really makes it special. Things like Race mode, Infection, Grifball, Machinima with Theater mode, or creating custom maps (or just works of art as so many have done) in Forge mode are all examples of just how much there is to do in Reach. But I won't go on too much about it as I still plan to write a more extensive blog on it soon.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Another game I'm fully engaged in right now is Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. I'm pretty far into it and as usual I'm really loving it. The game hasn't really "wowed" me like AC2 did, but I expected that seeing as how this is just a continuation of Ezio's storyline. I really like being able to do more outside of the Anibus as Desmond though, that's been fun. My favorite new feature is the whole "brotherhood" thing which has you recruit citizens to be members of the assassin's guild. Once recruited you have the ability at any point in the game to summon them to kill a target, which looks really cool. You can also send them off to do contracts which helps them level up and earns you more cash. I'll write more about it once I've finished it, but two thumbs up so far.

God of War: Ghost of Sparta

This is another one I'm working on right now, I'm not as far into it as ACB, but I am having alot of fun with it. I love that we're getting more story on Kratos' family in this game and things like going to Atlantis are really cool. The graphics are top notch and as usual the controls are spot on. The new "Thera's Bane" feature is really cool, allowing Kratos' blades to become infused with fire for a short time similar to rage mode from previous games, only this time you only have to wait a moment for a meter to recharge before you can use them again. I'm a big GoW fan so I'm having alot of fun with GoS.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

I must say that I've been somewhat disappointed with NFS. Given that this game is made by Criterion I was really hoping for the game to have the same super-tight controls that the Burnout series has, instead, alot of the higher end cars feel very "slippery". Maybe it's just me, but I've found myself to be more frustrated when playing this game than having fun. I'm also not sure how I feel about the Autolog feature, having the game constantly remind me how much I suck compared to my friends is not what I call fun. I plan on finishing it though, so who knows, maybe it'll get better.

Infinity Blade

This is game that really caught me by surprise. Not only does it look amazing, the way it's designed is perfect for the iPhone's interface (or lack there of). The combat is all timing based, with you either dodging to the left or right (depending on which direction the attack is coming from), blocking with your shield, or parrying by attacking in the same direction and at the same time as your enemy. One of the things that makes the game so appealing to me, is that it kind of has that "Shadow of the Colossus vibe" going on. There isn't any back story, you just show up to this castle, fight the body guard of some dude called the "God king", and after getting your ass kicked it shows someone who is apparently your son looking out over the castle some 23 or so years later promising to avenge you.

But you basically fight your way through this castle, occasionally getting to pick your path (you don't have direct movement control over your character), until you get back to the God-King's chamber and try to defeat his body guard and ultimately him. And if you fail, then another 23 or so years will pass and you'll take control of the next son in the line looking to avenge your death. Everytime this happens it's called a "bloodline". As you play you'll find bags of gold and treasure chest' with either gold, weapons, or armor in them. At anytime you can enter the character screen where you can spend your money on new swords, helmets, shields, suits of armor, or magical rings.

Everytime you defeat an enemy you get XP for each one of your equipped items, and eventually these items are mastered and cannot receive anymore XP, forcing you to upgrade to the next best thing, which helps keep the progression moving along. Your not forced to unequip a mastered item, but if you don't then that item cannot receive anymore XP meaning you won't get as much XP toward your overall level. The only problem with the game is that there is only the one castle and just a few different enemy types. I've actually beat the God-King multiple times at this point and, although there is a very cool twist in the ending, it's the same for every blood line, and it does start to get repetitive.

At this point the only motivation I have to keep playing is to reach the level cap of 45 (I'm 35 now). But the combat is really addicting and there are a ton of different items to equip making it worth playing even after finishing it multiple times. This is easily the best iPhone game ever released in my opinion. I would say that the only thing that really annoys me about it is the interface (which isn't the game's fault), playing games on a touch screen surface just sucks compared to real buttons because sometimes I may not have my thumbs resting in the right place and therefore miss a dodge or whatnot. But it's still a great game, at $5.99 I highly recommend it to anyone with an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad.

Backlog:

Fable III

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (starting it as soon as I finish ACB)

Splinter Cell: Conviction (just got it the other day for $17 from Gamestop)

Tekken 6 (I know it's old but my wife bought me the special edition for Christmas because she knew I wanted the arcade stick)

Comic Jumper (I actually started this but put it on hold because of all the other games I need to finish)

Movies:

Saw Tron: Legacy a few weeks ago at the Theater and loved it, curious to know what y'all thought about.

Watched Idiocracy, the Mike Judge film from 2006 (I know, I'm late on this one) last night, freakin' hilarious. "GO AWAY....BATIN' ", lol, good shit.

Coming Soon:

BulletStorm - reserved (mainly for Gears 3 beta invite, but I was gonna get the game anyway)

Dead Space 2 - not sure yet on this one, beat the first game and liked it, just not sure I liked it enough to buy the sequel.

Two Worlds II - definitely wait and see on this one, got burned bad by buying the first game day 1 only to find out it wasn't even finished, but if they fix all the problems from the first game it could definitely be cool.

Hard Corps Uprising - day 1 buy

Marvel vs Capcom 3 - day 1 buy

So my question that I mentioned way back at the beginning of this thing is about trends. Over the years it has at lest seemed like people that grew up as Sega fans turned into Xbox fans and people that grew up as Nintendo fans either stayed with Nintendo or became Sony fans. Everyone has a system that they prefer a little more than the others, even those of us that own them all, even if it's just the one you happen to play on more.

So my question is: Which one did you prefer in the days of Nintendo vs Sega, and which do you prefer these days between Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft? I'm curious to see if there are any trends to be found here.