What is UP! I'm back after a tiny layoff, but I am ready to update you on stuff I have been playing, including impressions of the ProtoMan add-on for Mega Man 9 (Wii) and I am going to talk about the next three weeks of October and how they are going to rock. This will probably be long as usual so let's get to bloggin'!

Games That I Played
First off, let me start with that Mega Man 9 (Wii) ProtoMan add-on. If you think the standard MM9 is nearly impossible then don't waste your 200 Wii Points ($2) on this add-on you will not have any fun. You have to be a glutton for punishment to play this. First Proto takes double the damage than Mega Man and since they already increased the amount of damage Mega Man takes in 9 you have to avoid getting hit at all costs. To top this double damage off you can't buy or collect E or M tanks so basically you need to be insanely good at dodging.

To counteract this ProtoMan can charge his buster, block shots with his shield and use the Mega Man 3 slide move. But just to add to his limited abilities Proto can only fire two regular shots at the same time to Mega Man's 3, which makes rapid firing impossible. I didn't spend a ton of time with it, but I don't think I will be playing it that much, it is just too ludicrously difficult.

Continuing on with the Mega Man 9 coverage though I bought the Xbox 360 version of the game and have played through 7 of the 8 bosses and I am happy to say that the game actually plays great with the 360 controller. The sensitivity problems on its D-Pad don't show up because Mega Man has such simple controls. Also don't get this version for Achievements, because they don't come easily, you gotta work for them. Other than that I would say buy the Wii version, the controller is better and the resolution is off on the 360 version, the image over-scans on my SDTV (picture is cutoff at the top and bottom) and looks fuzzy on an HDTV.

Moving on I actually played Infinite Undiscovery and I only got an hour in, so I don't have much to say so far... It starts off pretty slow though and Capell (the main character) is a whiny wuss at least to start off.

Next I finished my first season of my first "pro" on NHL 09 and cleaned house with him. I won many of the major player awards (the Hart, Conn Smythe and Calder to name a few) and my team won the Stanley Cup. So I decided that playing as a Centre and a Sniper was too easy so I started a new game playing as a offensive defenseman and it is better but in the transition the game unchecked my "win trophies" box on my hockey card progress which sucked because all I had to do to get my Legend card was to get up to 150 games. Oh Well.

That mode has a few issues though, first the AI that decides to move you up and down lines has problems. There would be no chance in hell that a coach would move a sniper with 65 goals and 105 points off the first line just because he failed to get a point in one SINGLE game. Secondly, your character plays WAY TOO MUCH, he gets upwards of 35 minutes of ice-time a game. With that much opportunity not getting chances and having to work hard to advance doesn't require much extra effort on your part. But other than that I love the mode and hope that EA Sports makes some adjustments to it for NHL 2010.

There is no point in me talking about Rock Band 2 so I will talk about how I have started a new game of every one's favorite GTA Rip-off Saints Row in anticipation for Saints Row 2 next week. I haven't got too far in to the game, but I have done a lot of activities and have barely begun the Vice Kings story missions.

I also spent some time with Burnout Paradise Bikes and it is a pretty damn cool update and since it is free you have no excuse not play it. I have completed quite a few of the challenges and just need to complete the Road Rules and the timed routes and will have 101% on the bikes.

That does it for the games that I have been playing, I will probably have more coverage of games soon, because the next three weeks are going to be... well just read about it.

October of Awesomeness
Saints Row 2, Fable 2, Dead Space, Fallout 3, FarCry 2 and Little Big Planet... What is a man to do? Go frickin' broke that's what, okay, okay, so I am not going to getting all of those games, but I am going to talk about the 4 of those 6 that I am getting... right now.

Saints Row 2
I loved the first game I have spent a total of 180 hours with it over 3 and half games. I say half because I encountered one of SR's famous bugs, the disappearing car and hadn't saved in a bit and lost quite a bit of progress so I just kind of gave up on that play through. I am excited to see if they improved the storytelling at all in 2 and I can't wait to try all my favorite activities in the new game. Besides Johnny Gat is in the game and he is one of best characters in years.

Dead Space
This one I am not as sure about, it looks cool, but I am afraid that it will be just a bit too freaky for me, I don't like to be frightened or startled too much because I tend to get too intense (not good for the nerves). But Dead Space looks too cool to not play because I don't think I can handle the experience.

FarCry 2
When I saw this at E3 I was pretty impressed by how you could play the game. The fire effects were amazing and the open world approach looks like a cool way to experience a FPS game. The sub-character driven plot line seems like it might be cool as it apparently changes based on who you might let die.

Fallout 3
This is by far my most anticipated game right now. The more I see of this game the more I want to play it... NOW! Part Oblivion, Part FPS, Part RPG, totally awesome. I don't know much about the old Fallout games, but I know that this game appeals to me very much and I can't wait to play it in just a few weeks.

As for Fable II, I am not sure, I didn't like the first one at all and can't, quite frankly, understand how any one even likes the first game. I guess I will see how it looks in reviews and videos, but from what I have seen it looks just as lame as the first game did. Those are the games of the month and as I said I will have coverage of all the games I do grab right here on this very space.

That covers all I had to talk about for this long session of writing, so I will talk to you again as soon it is warranted. The GM wants to talk trophies with you. Loading Complete!

It's been another one of those months where I hardly post at all, but it 'tis a tradition here on this blog. I usually have a lot of games to play and I have trouble balancing game play and blogging. But since September is coming to an end it is time to recap the month's posts. I have also been inspired by Usagi704 to add a new feature to Month-In-Review as it will now include Games-of-the-Month where I will recap my game purchases of the month. There a bit to cover so let's get to recappin' this ****.

September 2, 2008
I finished one of the most disappointing games of the year, when I completed Silicon Knights' Too Human. The game has potential, but it has way too many problems to sustain that promise. Pointless deaths, 30 second death-scene, unresponsive controls, bad camera and many more mar this semi-fun hack and slash dungeon hack.

September 18, 2008
After not posting for over 2 weeks I take the time to give impressions on all the games that I failed to post impressions about. They are posted in a similar way that Games-of-the-Month is presented further down this page.

September 23, 2008
I posted my finished article for Mega Man 9 (Wii Version). It is a really great game... a really hard game, probably the hardest in the series. I lamented the inclusion of so many instant kill spikes, but overall I loved this amazing 8-bit throwback title.

Games-of-the-Month
It is now time to recap all the games that I have purchased in the month of September 2008.

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (Ep. 1): Homestar Ruiner
Telltale Games, WiiWare, 2008
Purchased: 09.01.2008
I enjoyed the first episode of Strong Bad's game, the full out point and click adventure design might not have totally suited the content but there was still enough of the series in there to make it funny and enjoyable.

WiiPlay
Nintendo, Wii, 2008
Gift: 09.07.2008
I didn't (and wouldn't) actually buy this game, but after I got a Wii, I ended up with this as a birthday present... Think of it as a Wii Remote ($50) packaged with a $10 dollar collection of blah mini-games. It is almost so lame, that you may as well save the $10 and just buy the remote separately.

NHL 2K9
2K Sports, X360, 2008
Purchased: 09.09.2008
When I played the demo, I knew this wasn't going to be all that great, but after playing the full game for awhile I didn't think it was too bad... then I played NHL 09 and well that was the end of that.

Infinite Undiscovery
Square-Enix/Tri-Ace, X360, 2008
Purchased: September 10, 2008
I'd tell you all something about the game with dumbest, oddest and coolest title ever... but... I haven't even played the game. I have had it for 20 days and I haven't touched it... I kind of want to play it, but I also don't really want to start another RPG when I have Lost Odyssey and Tales of Vesperia to play... I guess I should at least try it out.

NHL 09
EA Sports, X360, 2008
Purchased: September 11, 2008
I could tell you all about everything that NHL 09 does that is awesome, but instead I am just going to tell you this... this is the first time I have finished a season in an NHL game since 2002's NHL 2K3, I mean, I played all 82 games and am now in the play-offs. Be-A-Pro is awesome.

Rock Band 2
EA/MTV Games/Harmonix, X360, 2008
Purchased: September 14, 2008
Simply put this is more Rock Band. But it has a refined career mode, more user friendly multiplayer and 84 new songs (plus your downloaded content and the tracks you ripped from Rock Band 1). So in my case RB2: 84 + RB1: 55 + DLC: 38 = 177 songs right out of the box.

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (Ep. 2): Strong Badia - The Free
Telltale Games, WiiWare, 2008
Purchased: 09.15.2008
The second episode is a much better game as it has a clear goal structure and simpler more compact level design. Each area is a fictional country (with goofy pun'd names) controlled by a different Homestar Runner character. This allows for more site gags and the comedic timing that the cartoon shorts are known for.

Mega Man 9
Capcom, WiiWare, 2008
Purchased: 09.22.2008
I pretty much summarized my thoughts on Mega Man 9 in the September 23 entry in the Month-In-Review segment. If you like old school games you should check this out.

Kirby Super Star Ultra
Nintendo/HAL Labs, DS, 2008
Purchased: 09.23.2008
This is an update to the old SNES collection of Kirby games called Kirby Super Star. There are 6 short but sweet Kirby games in this collection. The updated graphics are nice, but I don't like that they changed out the old SNES sub-games for new touch screen ones, especially the Mega Ton Punch competition game.

There you have it September 2008 in a nut-shell. October is going to be another big month as two of my anticipated games are coming out within the month. Saints Row 2 is among my most anticipated games of 2008, I loved the first game (going against the grain I know) and can't wait to play the sequel. I am also excited to delve into Fallout 3 near the end of the month. I might also give Dead Space a try too.

So that does it from me today. I will have more here as soon as it is called for. Maybe I will give that Infinite Undiscovery game a shot for awhile. The Coach wants a word with you. Loading Complete!

After that long stretch without a post here comes another one. Today was the big day for fans of the cl.assic (read: when it was good) Mega Man series games. Mega Man 9 came out on WiiWare this morning and I spent the afternoon playing and completing my first playthrough of the game.

I'm going to just get straight to the point...If you think that Mega Man games are hard then this game is not for you! I am being serious, I can play through Mega Man 1 - 6 with no problems what so ever. I can beat Mega Man 2 without dying and the rest without ever continuing. But Mega Man 9 kicked my ass for quite awhile.

This is definitely s.tyled after c.lassic NES-era games where you must suffer many defeats before your practice pays off. There are some downright sadistic rooms in this game. Actually, if you have read what I have wrote about Mega Man before you may know that I hate when the series' level designs devolved into lining rooms with spikes. This game has that in spades, there isn't one level in the whole game that doesn't have a room covered in spikes. I give them credit these areas are fair, but I still think that you can do better then just go: "Spikes = harder game". More often than not: "spikes = more frustrating game".

That's another thing I am not a big fan of, this game is hard just for the sake of it. Mega Man games are challenging sure, but there are a lot times where it just seems forced. Like I said though it is nothing that some old-school skills and some practice won't help overcome.

As for the game, it is Mega Man. If you've played one the NES, you have played this. There are some innovative new traps, platforms and a whole set of 8 new bosses, but it plays the same as the older games; Like Mega Man 2, but with the faster ladder climbing from 4 and 5. The graphics look NES-era and play the part well, but there are times when there are too many colors on the screen at the same time (but that is only some one like me would notice). We'll call it "pseudo 8-bit".

The music is done with NES-era sound and sounds great and there are some good songs to listen to. Unfortunately it isn't quite as good as the Mega Man 2 music, it has the sound of games 3 and later. But all the cl.assic sound-effects are there including the awesome "dee-dit" sound when Mega Man lands.

I recommend the game if you think you are hard enough to take on an old-school challenge. If you are one of those who thinks that previous Mega Man games are hard then you will not survive this... If you like to spike controllers, then this is not for you. I enjoyed the game, though I was disappointed to see all the spikes and, man, do I miss the slide.

I also recommend that you give the Wii version a shot if you have that option available as you can use the c.lassic controller (or sideways Wii Remote) and the D-Pads on those controllers are perfect for this type of game (though the PS2/3 d-pad isn't too bad). I am probably going to check it out again next week on the 360 and see how that version controls... (I was planning on getting it on the 360 before the other systems but the Wii version came out first).

That does it for me, I'm probably going to work on another game, probably one of those RPGs I bought, I still haven't played Infinite Undiscovery yet and it's going on two weeks now (September 10th). I am also planning on grabbing Kirby Super Star Ultra for the DS. I loved the old SNES version and this on has updated graphics and such. I'll talk to you soon. You got a new weapon! Loading Complete!

Holy crap it is has been awhile, I haven't updated this thing since I wrote my Finished article for Too Human on September 2nd. I have picked up so many games that I am so swamped that I don't have time to do it all. For this blog I am going to just recap my thoughts on each of the games that I have gotten since I last wrote with some quick impressions on each. Why quick impressions? Because if I were to do my normal full impressions of some of these games then this would take 3 hours to write and probably would take almost as long to read. Ready?

Super Mario Galaxy(Wii)
I got a Wii back in late August and Super Mario Sunshine was one of the reasons that I did so. I have picked up about 45 stars and it is a pretty good game, but the old school collecting stars thing is just getting old now. But I will probably finish the game some time.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption(Wii)
I have hardly played this, an hour at most, to be frank, I don't really like it. Too much first person shooter, not enough Metroid Prime.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl(Wii)
I love the idea behind the Smash Bros. games. Nintendo all-stars battling it out, add in Solid Snake and Sonic and you've got something with a lot of appeal. The problem with this game is that it doesn't feel like a sequel, it feels like Melee with more characters. Also that Sub-Space Emissary mode sucks, it has lives, but they are pointless, you can just continue as many times as you want. Dear Nintendo, lives are so '90s.

Tales of Vesperia(360)
I haven't delved too deep into the new Tales title, why, because of that damn Too Human. It seems good so far, but I am less than 4 hours into the game... stupid crappy Too Human.

The Rest: A Breakdown
Other games that I have been playing include the Strong Bad Episodic games: Ep.1 is pretty good, but it doesn't have enough Strong Bad humor, it is just a bit too point and clicky. Ep.2 is better, it is much more funny and has a more straight forward linear path which gives more chances for jokes.

The 2009 NHL games have arrived and I have traditionally picked up both. I started with NHL 2K9 and thought it was a bit better than the demo... then I played NHL 09, let's just say that I haven't played so many games in an NHL videogame in years. That is because of the fantastic Be A Pro mode, it is a cool way to play a sports game.

I also picked up Infinite Undiscovery... and... haven't played it yet. Because of NHL 09 and the next game...

Rock Band 2(360)
I have been playing the heck out of Rock Band 2... Okay to be realistic I have really only been singing, I haven't really been touching the other instruments... why? because I am way better at the singing than I am at the other instruments. I beat RB1 vocals on expert and I was ~3350th in the world in Rock Band (1) on the solo vocals leaderboard and as of now I am in the top 120 (I'm sure that will change) in RB2. Since you can play what ever you want in the band world tour mode (characters are not tied to instruments anymore), I figured since I never was really able to graduate past Hard on Guitar and couldn't even beat Drums on medium, I'd blow through the Tour mode on vocals.

I have been playing on Hard (just to give myself a break) and they definitely made the singing much more forgiving. In RB1 I usually scored between the 90-98% range on most Hard songs, but on Rock Band 2 I manged to 95% some songs that I have never even heard before in my entire life. And I was able to 100% a couple of Rock Band 1 songs that I couldn't before. I'd say I average 98-100% in pretty much all the songs on Hard vocals (so far, haven't unlocked them all yet) in RB2.

I have been having a good time, though as a solo vocalist there are a few of the new RB2 (on-disc) songs are too long for players of that sort. I mean, I, like most love a good guitar solo, but I don't want to sit there for nearly 2 minutes doing 200 billion percussion note hits. But that is the only real problem that I have with the game.

Well that covers, pretty much all that I have been doing. As usual I will have full impressions or finished articles on many of these titles as I get a chance to play the games. So I will talk to you all later. Loading Complete!

Good:
- Pretty good graphics
- Good Voice acting; especially Baldur.
- Combat can be fun at times
- Loot collecting is addictive; lots of cool weapons and armor
- Interesting Story setting.

Bad
- Too many enemies / difficulty too high, but...
- Dying is unpunished and pointless, making for a careless easy game.
- Valkyrie / death cut-scene cannot be skipped; lasts nearly 30 seconds.
- Very repetitive, very few monster types.
- Areas are too big.
- Combat doesn't always work as intended and health drops are too uncommon.

Too Human is one of those games that makes you want to cry because if they had just made a few minor adjustments here and there the game could have pretty damn great; as it is, it is a playable, slightly enjoyable, broken mess of bad design choices. But let's start with the good stuff, before I dish out the dirt on the game's horrible problems.

Now this might just be a personal preference thing, but I really enjoyed the graphics and art s.tyle of Too Human. I enjoyed the cool sci-fi motif that covers every thing in the game. In fact I really enjoyed how they took the story of Baldur of Norse Mythology and made it fit in that world of technology. This is also impacted by some good voice acting. Baldur's voice is perfect for the character and he is by far the shining star. The story does end a bit abruptly but this series is designed as a Trilogy of stories so I am giving them a break.

Like I said in my Impressions article, the combat can be really fun; I loved sliding from Goblin to goblin and just laying waste, but unfortunately as you progress, the other enemies take much more effort to take down and the combat becomes more a chore. But the reason you are dealing with the combat is so that you can pick up the piles and piles of loot icons that drop after each fight. After you get to a certain point you might start seeing stuff over again but at a higher level, but there is a lot of stuff that you can grab.

The only problem I guess is that most of your good armor and weapons come from blue prints and cannot be just happened upon as a drop from enemies. But if you love collecting stuff, the loot might just be enough of a draw to get you to keep playing, just waiting to see what kind of awesome weapon or armor set you will find next... I know that it was for me.

Next, though, we have the things that will but a good strain on your loot lust and almost destroy Too Human's enjoyability. The first has to do with the combat system, which includes death. First off there are way too many enemies for one character to deal with and in final stage, I don't even know if two characters could deal with the swarms of enemies. This makes the game way too difficult... IN THEORY. In actuality, the game is insanely easy. Why? Because dying in the combat is for all intents and purposes: POINTLESS. You aren't punished at all, sure you lose a couple hundred points of durability on your equipped weapons and armor (which have 1000's of points), but all the enemies you damaged stay at the same health and you respawn sometimes within view of where you just died. You may as well be invincible, that would make the game better in the state it is in now and at the very least it would save you some time as the death scene with the Valkyrie and such takes nearly 30 seconds and cannot be skipped.

I guess it is a double edged sword: if the deaths where brutally punishing, then the game would be infuriatingly difficult, so the pointless death system saves many a temper tantrum, but they needed to find a happy medium in all honesty. The thing is, it isn't really the sometimes shaky combat controls that will kill you it is the combat's reliance on you getting RANDOM DROP HEALTH ORBS to keep yourself afloat during the fights. This is broken because you seem to get them more often when your health is full then when your health is low; blow's your ****ing mind doesn't it? This makes the game frustrating, especially when the enemy you killed seconds before dying drops one and you have to sit there for 30 seconds just staring at it.

Finally, the game is a bit repetitive, you will be fighting the same enemies for the whole game, until you get to last level where you fight the undead. There are about 8 - 10 different enemies in the whole game and you will see 100's of each before the game is over. I complained about the amount of enemies at times, well that is actually not so bad when you have to walk around big empty sections of the level without anything to do, the levels look impressively big to be sure, but I think they could have been shrunk a tiny bit here and there.

Overall, I can't believe how feel about Too Human... On one hand I think it is an okay game with a lot of problems (and promise, might I add); yet, on the other I think I might like it, because I can't stop thinking about the game and my next loot drop. I like it, but I don't like it, I like it, I don't like it... Funny, that actually explains Too Human pretty well: every time you are starting to like what you are playing, one of those problems comes up and ruins it.

This is a game where you will have to decide for yourself if you want to play it. I don't feel like I can make a proper recommendation, because the objective me, hates the game and its stupid problems, but some other part of me actually kind of likes the game. I'm too conflicted.

There you go my final thoughts on Too Human. I just bought, played and finished the first episode of the Strong Bad game in 5 hours; it was a pretty fun little game, but you have to be a fan of the show to get the most out of it. I also picked up Ys Book 1 and 2 (TG16) on Virtual Console because of the review I saw on RetroWare TV; it's a pretty cool little RPG. That just adds to the already huge list of games that I need to play as I am only 4 hours in to Tales of Vesperia (360), plus I have Super Mario Galaxy (Wii), Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) and I have only played an hour of Metroid Prime 3 (Wii)... I have a lot to do because next Tuesday I will be playing a ton of Hockey videogames and probably not much else.

I will talk to you soon with more articles, probably Impressions articles; maybe I will even do a special on my anticipated games of fall 2008 since we are head for that pretty soon. Talk to you later. The Now Loading Broad-Sword of Loading Complete!