Black Ops Maps Tuesday

I am just going to come right out and say it...DANNY TREJO! OMG! Okay I am done.

Yeah, the new multiplayer maps are coming out on Tuesday and yeah, they look pretty sweet and all that but did you see the new zombie map? DID YOU?! I am so geeked about this. Danny Trejo, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Robert Englund and Micheal Rooker? Treyarch you really outdid yourself.

And to all that epic-ness you add the zombie god himself, George Romero. Trailers give the impression that you are going to fight George Romero. Lordy I hope so. On one of the trailers, the one at XBL, we noticed a zombie in a suit that looked an awful lot like McNamara once it was shot with the special gun. This makes me wonder if we are going to have zombie presidents.

Check out the Grindhouse style trailer:



Okay I'll get off the zombies now. The other 4 maps are Hotel, Zoo, Stockpile and Convoy. Now I am looking forward to checking them out, okay maybe the zombie map will be first, but I excited to have new maps to play on. These maps offer something a little new like elevators you can use and doors you can close. This should prove to be very interesting. Personally, I will be heading into a private match so I can really give the maps the once over. Maybe thrown on some combat training to get the feel for them. They will be 1200 points but at least these are, once again, 5 new maps and not new with recycled maps. Yes I am talking about you Infinity Ward.

I admit it, I can't get over the zombie map. I am going to go tweet Treyarch.

Gears of Wars 3 beta

So I just had a quick jaunt through the Gears of War 3 beta. I didn't actually have a beta code but someone I know did, so I logged onto to their Xbox.

Graphics are pretty nice and of course the 'roady run' will be very familiar. It still has the basic mechanics that people have always loved about Gears multiplayer.

I have never been a fan of the Gears of War multiplayer. I know, I know, blasphemy, but it's true. Maybe they will have fixed some of the things I have always found frustrating. It's too early to tell. Gears has always been famous for glitching and boosting. It's annoying. I really didn't get much play time either and I really wish I had my own code. I just can't pre-order right now because I have too many other things that have laid claim to my ready cash. Need plane tickets for 5 to San Diego in Nov, 17 yr old's graduation and prom, 17 yr old's first semester of textbooks in the fall, stuff for same kid's dorm room, oh and I am still raising someone else's kid without benefit of income. I am taking him and his twin brother out for haircuts tomorrow because their mom can't be bothered but they are getting in trouble at school for dress-code violations. ANYWAY, enough of my griping...lol.


At any rate, I am looking forward to it coming out because I want to play the campaign! I want to know what happens. I want, I want, I want.

More Portal

My last entry was so late that I just whizzed through it. At the same time, if I get into too much detail I will spoil everything for you. It's a fine line.

Some improvements over the first Portal, game length, the accuracy of the portal gun and of course graphics. You can finally shoot the gun from great distances and extremely oblique angles. Adding the gels in has added a whole new aspect to puzzle solving. The puzzles are more complicated and my family and I have found more than one way to solve some of them.

I had a peek at co-op, my son and his friend were playing it. It will definitely work your head. I actually came in and gave them a hand since they were stuck. You play co-op as two robots. You can learn ways to interact like hugging, or playing rock-paper-scissors. It's pretty entertaining.

I'd play some co-op tonight but my family gave me the night off last night to play Portal 2. Well, that means nothing got done last night because they left it all for me today. Gee, thanks.

Oh a side note, the kid I am now fostering saw Portal 2 and decided to play Portal. Now my Orange Box is making the rounds of all the teenagers' homes. I guess everyone is jumping on the GLaDOS train now.

Portal 2?

Well after 10-12 hours of playing, I beat it. It was AWESOME! Now just because I beat the main story doesn't mean the game is done. I still have some very cryptic achievements to figure out and then there is the co-op. I haven't even touched that yet.

At any rate, this is just as fantastic as the first Portal and maybe better since it is longer and more involved. There are nifty new things in this like the specialty gels we've all heard about. I won't give anything away but let's just say there's a twist.

The dialogue is just as humorous and well thought out. The voice acting is spot on and GLaDOS is just as insulting.

All and all, a must buy. If you like puzzles, you love this even more.

Portal 2, Mass Effect 3 and the video game "playground"

Portal 2 was released today and boy, am I excited. I haven't gone to pick up my copy yet since I am without vehicle. The husband had to take mine because his windshield wipers went belly up and it has been storming all day. Needless to say, I am pouting about he fact my local Best Buy did not offer a midnight release like some Best Buys across the U.S. did. Ah the joys of living in a small town.

There are rumors swirling about hints to a Half-Life 2: Episode 3 or even a Half-Life 3. This would be completely epic if true. Fans have waited for what seems like eons for the mention of a new Half-Life game. My fingers are crossed.

I read the article in GameInformer regarding the Mass Effect 3 title. Did you hear the happy squeal when I found it in my mailbox? I am surprised since this is my favorite gaming franchise ever. I am very sad that this will be the last Mass Effect title and I will probably shed a tear when it's all over. I will miss the excitement of a new game coming out for it. There have been rumbles of rumors about a possible Mass Effect MMO. Now I am not a fan of MMOs but if BioWare decided to do this, it will be the first MMO I will play. I still need to play the Arrival DLC. I just haven't had time. I do have a new job that will allow me more gaming time but things are still in transition.

To answer a few questions, I do not review every game that comes out because I actually buy the games I review. I am not independently wealthy and am in the process of putting a kids through college, soon to be 2 kids. My money is precious and I don't get freebies from game developers like professional bloggers/reviewers/magazines do. So I am sorry if I do not play the game you want to know about. It's not personal.

Now for the video game playground I hinted at. It recently has come to my attention that the video game "friend" world can honestly play out like a kindergarten playground. One person gets mad at another person and then deletes everyone on their friends list that has that person that angered them on their list. The next logical step is deleting everyone that hasn't deleted the people you deleted off your friends list and so on and so forth. Really? Has it really come to this? It's a video game community. There is a lovely thing called mute and you can use it for the people you do not care for. You cannot rule your friends list and dictate who your friends can and cannot play games with. I honestly do not get the mentality that thinks that way. It's as if you were fighting with a friend back in grade school and went around making your friends choose sides. It's all so silly.

Yes this happened to me recently. I had someone I have played with for years decide he doesn't like someone else and all this is over a girl, basically. That and the fact the the one that was deleted was getting tired of being insulted and fought with the deleter. I stayed out of the whole affair and today received notice that I was being deleted. Fine. I am not going to die over it but it did make me wonder how long it was going to be before this person made everyone else delete me. It's very controlling behavior and unhealthy. I worry for the girl in question now. She is moving to be with him and I wonder how long it will be before he tries controlling everything she does.

I finished something! Costume Quest

Microsoft was having a sale on games the first week in April so I snagged Costume Quest and the DLC for it.

Last night I couldn't sleep so I finished it. You know, it's a really fun game. Totally easy and completely silly but there isn't a rule that says we can't play games just they are easy.

The premise is it's Halloween and some Grubbins kidnapped your sibling thinking they were candy because they were dressed as candy corn. I am not stating a gender because you decide if you want to play as the girl or boy and the sibling's gender changes accordingly.

You trick or treat for candy to purchase battle cards to make your costume(s) more powerful when you battle the Grubbins. You can collect treat cards too, and trade for rare cards. Then there are the bobbing for apples games. Of course, you collect costume patterns and materials to make the costumes.

Each costume has a unique ability like healing, launching missiles or creating shields. Don't let the costumes you fool you either. You might think that Robot has to be totally the best but then along comes the French Fry or Unicorn and whomps the enemies better.

You do have to be creative on which costumes and battle cards you use when fighting boss battles. The last boss in the DLC, Grubbins on IceSearch Amazon.com for Costume Quest, is tricky.

All and all, a fun little game that is basic mind candy but totally worth playing. The achievements are not hard to get either. Double Fine is the developer and they created Stacking and Brutal Legend so they have a good reputation for good games.