The roulette wheel turns again.

17 Jan 07

The lack of response on the Game of the Year nominations has made me paranoid that I've driven off all my regular readers. It's sad. Help a poor web guy out.

I got my Xbox 360 back yesterday. It was a different refurbished unit with a build date of April 06. I've been running it through it's paces. Thus far it hasn't shown any of the signs of the lock ups that plagued the last unit.

I've mostly been testing with The Outfit. That game really killed the old unit. Now that I can actually play the game, it's kind of interesting. It's not a great game. It's too arcady for my tastes. The story is poor and overwrought. It's even worse in comparison to the narrative of Final Fantasy XII that I had been playing.

However, there is fun to be had there. The physics are fun to play with. The vehicles my be a bit difficult to control (floaty), but there's good variety in weapons and vehicles. Then there's just the sheer fun of blowing everything up in the game. I'd put it behind Mercenaries except it includes multiplayer. I've only played around with multi. I don't think it would be much fun to play highly competitive matches. However, as a fun, messing around with friends game, I could see it being a blast.

I'll probably be heading back to Gears of War soon. Perhaps, I'll get far enough in to have impressions.

Jason