After having more than a year of my life sucked away by World of Warcraft, it's nice to finally come back to enjoying other games. Not to criticize Blizzard since they have put a lot of time into the most popular MMORPG to ever exist, but the game does require too much time to reach the best content. That said, World of Warcraft and it's expansion do not lack quality, but here I am having to read about all the great games that I've missed in the past eighteen months due to them.

Most of all, I've missed writing as a hobby. Sure, I got to write a bunch of structured essays in school, but I can't wait to get back into writing reviews and such. When I stopped following this interest of mine, I was still an amateur at the whole deal, and now it feels like I'm going to have to start at level one again. Hopefully I'll be able to get some practice writing with some creative pieces at the moment. However, it's going to be a little while until I can begin writing game reviews again thanks to a small roadblock.

That roadblock being that my X-box 360 has been flashing that depressing red light for a while now, and it conveniently broke only a couple days after the warranty expired. Another problem, of course, is that I'm simply low on cash. So once I actually get a hold of some new games, I'll be sure to type up some more rusty reviews to improve my writing.

So anyway, I'll probably begin to be more active in the community since it is really a great community here at gamespot. I mainly made this post because it just looks stupid to have a blog post that's like 1300 months old. To wrap this up, it's nice to be back in the know of games, and especially nice to be able to go do stuff with friends without having to give a damn about raid times.

A couple days ago, I played through one level of Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy on the PC.  While it doesn't appear that there are any new features, the charm and humour is still all here.

When booting up the game, I was treated to an enjoyable and hilarious starting movie, which involved many of the famous Star Wars characters making silly faces.  The facial expressions are the heart of the cutscenes and managed to explain everything, without a single line of voice acting.   The character models are polished and every lego piece that makes up their bodies are detailed.  In fact, every lego looks very slick, making huge constructions look amazing. 

There were quite a few of these to be made in the short demo.  I even got the chance to create a tall AT-ST walker, which was quite satisfying.  Some of the creations were needed to get through the level, along with some good thinking.  While none of the puzzles were too challenging, they make good use of all the characters and make you proud of yourself when you complete them.  While these puzzles are the main focus of the level, I also got involved in a few firefights.  The combat is quite simple, because if your character is wielding a gun, then you can just continuously press the fire button and leave the rest up to the game.  Although, since there is no camera control, your character will often be shooting at something you can't even see.

The only noticeable flaw in the short play through, was the camera.  It was fixed in a certain place, instead of following one of your group members.  This is annoying when attempting to jump to a certain area and it also made controlling vehicles difficult, since you won't have a view from the back of your nifty Star Wars craft.  The vehicles are needed to get to the end of the mission and reach a few areas with special lego pieces.

After playing running around Mos Eisley for a second time, I realized how many little things there were to discover.  There was an amazing amount of things that could be easily missed the first time through.  If the Mos Eisley level is similar in mechanics as others, it looks like players will be spending a good while of their time searching for all the small secrets.

With a release date set for September twelfth of this year, it doesn't look like there will be much time for improvement.  Fortunately, it looks as if there are few aspects of the game that need improved upon.  Judging from the enjoyable experience of the demo, the second entry in the series, looks like it will give fans exactly what they want.  The same fun experience featuring all of the favorite characters in lego form.

All the fun of poker was missing in the dozen or so matches that I have experienced.  The length is a big factor in this boredom as games can go on for hours and you can still walk away without winning a cent.  All the while, the characters repeat the dialogue over and over again.  There is a vast number of personalities that each have around three unique lines, although in a single game, the phrases are repeated several times.  The commentary is very bland and quite often the narrators use the wrong pro-nouns.  For instance, they occasionally say "He's raising you.", even when you're putting in the chips and theres a number of players who haven't folded.  I found myself turning off the volume and watched as my opponents perform clunky animations. 

The characters look very blocky when putting chips into the middle of the table and one certain animation shows the player moving his arm in an ackward way.  However, the character models have a bit of detail and the lighting is impressive.The backgrounds look polished, but are usually lacking anything interesting. 

You're able to buy furnature and put it in your personal house which can also be puchased.  This is a neat feature, but a short ways into the single-player, it isn't a big part of the game yet.  Another different apect is the bluff minigame in which you attempt to show a poker face or show a bluffing face to trick your opponents.  If you fail, you will give an expression that shows what you really have in your hand.  This sounds great on paper, but during game-play it makes little difference.  I have made my contenders fold in many cases when I showed that I had poor cards.  You can also increase your skills in certain attributes, although most of them corrolate with the useless minigame.

Fortunately these are just first impressions and I have yet to jump into the online play.  I will have a review up at some point, and it will be much more slick than this quick blog post.  

I have finished my next review and it may be my longest one yet.

Nintendo Wii
Nintendo's next big console looks promising and its controller opens up many possibilities. If the PS3 doesn't live up to its price, many may consider the Wii. If the controller ends up working perfectly and releases with a number of innovative games, this small device could end up being a competetor. It is also likely that the Wii will have a small amount of mediocre games due to its unique capabilities. Its relatively cheap price may tempt people to buy the Wii, even if they have another next-gen console. Although, the PS3 may steal some of the attention away from the Wii's unique controller, with its own inclusion of the same technology.

Sony PS3
The first thing that comes up about the PS3 is the huge dent that it will make in your wallet. Paying 600 dollars for the premium package will scare many away, the core package may be 100 bucks less, but at that point you will just want to pay for the best one. This price, however, wouldn't be as painful if the cost of games stays around fifty dollars, but this is still a mystery. Sony's third console needs to show that it obviously has more power than its competition and that it has great games to show it. Metal Gear Solid 4 needs to be a masterpiece, but the PS3 also needs support from other Sony exclusive franchises. If Series' like Gran Turismo, Ace Combat, and God of War each put out stunning games, the PS3 could be successful. The loss of Grand Theft Auto exclusivity and the fact that the PS3 is just more difficult to create games for will hurt Sony. Although, if the Blu-ray player really catches on, the PS3 could be getting a lot of attention from those who aren't even gamers. Also, the online needs to be just as useful and accessable than Xbox live and keep its free cost.

Xbox 360
Microsoft made a smart move of getting the 360 out way before Sony or Nintendo. They also have quality games like Call of Duty 2 and Oblivion already available to play, but what they need is an incredible title thats exclusive for the Xbox 360. If Gears of War and Halo 3 both turn out to be excellent, people will purchase the 360 just to play them. This will probably be what sells the Xbox 360 and it is already selling at a good rate right now. Also, If the PS3 fails to have any quality launch titles and Blu-ray doesn't get popular, Microsofts main competitor could be the Wii. Xbox live is by far the best online console service out there and if Sony's and Nintendo's online service doesn't match up, it could give the 360 another huge advantage. However, if the 360 fails to receive any huge exclusive titles, it could easily fall behind the other next-gen consoles.