I used to write about games I played a lot more than I do now, and I’ll probably never write professionally like that again, but since I still play and I still have stuff to say I might as well write it down informally.

Halo 4

Last night my friend Ernie and I started a Halo 4 lobby and filled the room with unmanned controllers.  Is this cheating?  The goal was to get as many of our unearned achievements as we could.  Xbox 360 Achievements can be some real bullshit as you may well know, going beyond it being an actual “achievement” and becoming something you do by accident or complete luck.  Halo 3 had one called “2 for1” where in a free for all match you knock out 2 guys with ONE laser shot.  This is FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE and remains my one unearned point from that game.  So when Ernie proposed that we cut down our ‘guests’ for 4 saw kills in a row and a double with a pulse grenade… I was in.  I regret nothing.

Injustice: God’s Among Us

I didn’t play the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot, even though it got very good reviews.  Just not enough time, so it got backlogged and I assumed I’d just pick it up at budget price.  Injustice builds on that same engine/play style with DC comics characters.  The demo is free to download now so I gave it a try.  Played through all three characters, (Lex Luthor, Wonder Woman, Batman) and fought against Doomsday.  Feels… fun.  The pause screen with the moves list indicates duration and recovery frames for each move so clearly they’re going for the hardcore fighters, but as just a pick up and play I’d say its as good as Soul Calibur series.  moves are easy to pull off, and you can do really cool looking stuff on screen without having to memorize or line up complex scenarios.  The final game may warrant a buy.

Bioshock 2

Yeah, not Infinite.  I’ve hard Bioshock 2 in my collection and sealed in plastic for a long time now. At least 2 years.  In order to allow myself to play Infinite and other new games, I’m going to clear off some of my back log here.  Bioshock 2 has been dissected pretty well by now by others, but I’ll at least say playing as a Big Daddy from the start and looking for a girl who may be your daughter isn’t exactly evoking the same kind of wonder and sudden power the first game did.  But the atmosphere is still cool, the powers are still fun to throw around.  I haven’t played the original Bioshock since I completed it on August 28, 2007.  I think of it as being one of the best games ever, and not going back is a purposeful act that maintains that memory.

Boom Blox Party

A Wii game, a gift from my brother on my birthday a few years back.  Dawn and I have been playing and its pretty fun, kind of light.  If games like Bioshock are the 1 Hour cable dramas, then Boom Blox is a half hour network sitcom.  Drop in, play for a bit, have some laughs, but not racked with questions and suspense at the end.  Can’t imagine playing alone, this is a multiplayer game only.