RISK Factions brings all the fun of territorial control and conquering that the original game had but with no clean up, simplified scoring and much faster game play.  The “Factions” portion of the game come in assigning different cartoon characters to the colors of Risk.  Black becomes Zombies, Red for Robots, Yellow for Cats, Green for Humans, and Blue for Yeti’s.  The Single player campaign takes you through the story about how these characters interact, but mostly it’s there to provide a little more eye candy for the grueling dice rolling game play.  They have also added a form of “Fast attack” where the rolls are all done in the back ground and you keep attacking until someone wins.

For those purists who don’t want any taint on their precious game, they preserved the original game play in a “Classic” mode that includes the original cards and structure.  Honestly, I tried to play this way once, and it seemed slow.  I much enjoyed the newer style better.  The turns are faster, the scoring is much easier, and when you are done, no clean up.  This is one of the best family board game ports on the arcade and I highly recommend it!  I give it an VIII out of X

Sadly, I was wrong.  I bought Naughty Bear at 7:30pm on Tuesday night, got home and played through the first "episode" and instantly knew that I had made a mistake.  I toughed it out and finished the episode, then packed it up and headed back to Gamestop.  Thankfully the gracious personnel there were nice enough to let me swap it out for Lego Harry Potter.

Side note here.  I was warned, by Erin when I bought Naughty Bear, that it was going to be bad.  I decided to make my own judgment.

So what made it so bad?  Well, The idea was good and funny.  Unfortunately that was the extent of the good.  The Premise was that you played Naughty Bear, the bastard step child of this "Care Bear" style island where everything is puppies and kittens.  Some of the other bears on the island have treated you unfairly and you decide to get back at them by being naughty.  Being Naughty can range from scaring them, sabotaging their stuff, or even bashing their stuffed heads in with a baseball bat.  Who wouldn't think that could be fun?!

What it ended up being was a series of "Challenges" where you had to sneak around and scare/kill your fellow bears while disrupting their activities.  I guess that you could play the game more Sam Fisher style and sneak in the bushes then pop out and scare them, but after the first time you do that they all know you are there, so no more sneaking will help you.  From there is just becomes "I'm going to run around and hit you with a bat".  When you finish with the bears, you can gain a few extra points by smashing stuff.  And that was it!  After a while, even the narration is grating.

Now, I think the game may be not as bad as I am making it out to be if it weren't for one more glaringly bad problem, it was release at the price point of $49.99.  For the same price as something like Lego Harry Potter, you get a game that may have done well as an Xbox Arcade title, for maybe $10-$12 bucks

The Graphics were just ok, the actual game mechanics were horrible.  I had to maneuver myself around and fumble with the view to get into a position where I could actually scare another bear.  Just Awful, one of the worst games I have tried.  This may, and I emphasize MAY, be worth it when the price drops down to like $5, which I have no doubt that it will fall to that.

Me: Alan wake is a "psychological action thriller". Sarah: That's code for "scary as shit!"

Thus began my decent into the darkness that claimed Alan Wake, the latest story driven thriller on the Xbox 360.  I had decided to hold off on playing Alan Wake due to my obsession with Red Dead Redemption.  Since RDR took quite a while to get through the story, it delayed my run of AW.  Of course once I finished AW I had planned to write up my review but my house was set upon by a plague of darkness on it's own with everyone catching some sort of head cold.  This leaves me behind on quite a few posts, but I will do my best to catch up.

So, Alan Wake lives up to it's tag line (and thusly, Sarah's translation).  The main story gets played out as a kind of a Television episodic story that is broken up into 6 parts.  Even though I spread it out over the course of the month, the actual game play was exactly 6 days.  I did this because I really didn't want to cut off an episode mid way.  Each episode was approximately 2-3 hours of game play, so in hind sight, the whole game was just about 15ish hours of play time.  Some of you would think that is short but trust me, the story is more than worth it.

The story is where Alan Wake really shines.  Most games that come out these days have amazing graphics, outstanding music, etc, etc.  The story is really one part where many games loose it just a little.  Case in point, I loved the story in Red Dead Redemption, but there were enough holes, and missing elements that, as a player, I missed out on.   With Alan Wake, the whole game was very linear so that the string the player follows is the story the developers want to tell.  When the story is done, you may want for more, but it's not from holes in the story, it's from the story being so compelling that you want more of it.

Ok, Spoiler time, if you don't want to know, don't read any further.

Alan Wake is a troubled writer who, with his wife, vacations to a lake side town of Bright Falls.  Unfortunately, the town has it's own dramatic flare.  A haunted lake claims Alan's wife as it's hostage and forces Alan to write infusing his story with it's own powers of darkness to gain strength.  Alan escapes the story by writing himself into it (I know, it's weird but it does make sense, kinda) so that he can rescue his wife.  You spend the bulk of the game racing through town trying to learn about the whereabouts of your wife and following a trail of dropped manuscript pages that "you" wrote for the story.  The really mind blowing meta comes from the last two episodes where you learn that Alan's Father was trapped by the same lake and forced to write a story that leads to Alan coming to the lake, to get trapped, and forced to write a story where he encounters his father's story.... I'm going to stop there before my head explodes.

Now, as for the likes and dislikes:

Bright Falls (Likes)

Night Falls (Dislikes)

Over all I felt Alan Wake was an amazing game.  I can't wait for the next two episodes that are due out as DLC soon.  Hopefully the game won't suffer in numbers due to being released opposite Red Dead Redemption.  Go Buy It!!

•Kinectimals lets you train and play with 20 different virtual cats, including a lion, cheetah and tiger.

•Joyride, a racing game, lets players use their hands to hold an imaginary steering wheel — pull your hands toward you and push back out for an acceleration boost — and their bodies to execute jumps and tricks.

•Kinect Sports has six activities including boxing, bowling, beach volleyball, track and field, soccer and table tennis. To serve a volleyball, you mimic the real motion; in soccer, you can kick the ball or do a header.

•Kinect Adventures includes a river-raft time trial and obstacle course, playable by up to four players. On the raft, playing as a duo, you and a partner must lean one way or another to steer. Jumping helps the raft reach special areas for extra points.

•Dance Central, in development by MTV Games, incorporates immersive, full-body dancing without the need for a controller.

•Star Wars characters and iconic Disney favorites will be featured in separate new games being developed at Microsoft in conjunction with LucasArts and Disney.

In other E3 news, some new game trailers have been released for a few games I am really looking forward to seeing.

The Force Unleashed II:

Rock Band 3:

Spiderman Shattered Dimensions:

Yeah, it's gonna be a fun week!

Yeah it's been a little while since the last update, mostly because I have been powering through Red Dead Redemption, the latest open world game from Rockstar Games.  (There was also a little time spent down with friends in Fredericksburg, Aw Yeah GhettoCon!)  So after much playing and venturing back and forth from New Austin to Mexico, I have finished the game.  (and to those who know, you just lost the game)

One of the things I love about the open world games from Rockstar is that they know how to write a good story, and then they let you play it out as you like, when you like.  This happened with Grand Theft Auto IV as well.  The story was so engaging that I really felt for some of the characters and cared about what happened with them.  When one of the characters wronged me, I felt no compunction when it came time to choose to kill them or let them live.  I also became attached to certain characters and found myself wondering if there would be more missions with them or if I would even run into them again.

This happened in spades in RDR.  From the very start of the story I began to meet characters that made me want to work on the story more than the side missions.  I almost wish that there was some sort of random mission generator that would involve the storyline characters more instead of just standard NPC's, but I am getting ahead of myself.

The story starts out with John Marston getting escorted into a train to the middle of nowhere in New Austin to Confront one of his old Gang Member friends Bill Williams.  John, not being all that smart, confronts Bill outside of a heavily guarded fort and gets himself shot.  Thankfully, a local Rancher, Bonnie MacFarlane, comes to your rescue and nurses you back to health.  As it turns out these Shady government types have kidnapped your Wife and Son and are holding them until you turn in your former game members.  The story has you venturing all through New Austin to hunt down these gang members. Along the way you learn how to ranch, hunt down other law breakers, fuel a Mexican Revolution, and explore a number of interesting characters.  So as to not spoil anything, I will stop there with the story and move to game play.

Rockstar is very well known for their open world games and with RDR they took it to the next level.  The setting was absolutely stunning.  Everywhere I went I found myself stopping for a moment to admire the graphics and the environment.  There is something about watching the sun set over the Mexican desert while sitting on the back of your horse who just saved you by outrunning the bandits that were chasing you down.  As I have stated before, the story is awesome.  It engages you, it pulls at your heart strings, and even enrages you at some points.  (I found myself exclaiming as certain points "Damn I hope I get to kill that guy!)

I actually had only a few issues with the game.  There is an aiming system that allows you to snap to a target, kind of like Modern Warfare of Bad Company, when zooming in.  This is a blessing and a curse.  I found myself accidentally snapping to the wrong target a few times and shooting Lawmen instead of Bandits, Stagecoach drivers instead of Bandits, etc.  This resulted in some unwanted bounties and loss of honor.  I didn't bother to reload thought because. well, accidents happen!  Also, watch out for bears.  There is a reason why they are the Number One Threat to America.  My last complaint is a little bit of a spoiler so I will do my best to talk around it.  After the ending, which is very touching and I loved it, being able to continue roaming the world is great, but I felt very disconnected from the character after that point.  Through all the rest of the story you really start to identify with Marsten and his troubles, after the ending, Marsten just isn't the same and I felt awkward playing as him.

Overall the game is outstanding and well worth the many many many hours spent playing it.  I only wish there were more story.

Also....Poor Bonnie.

That's right, Splinter Cell is back and it's awesome.  (Sometimes I wonder if I use the word awesome too much...hmmm)  Splinter Cell Conviction came out this month and I finally got around to focusing on it.  (it's been a rough few weeks with travel and such)  I managed to finish the outstanding single player campaign last night and was very impressed with the story.  The story for this episode of "Sam Fisher kills everyone" is that Sam discovers that his Daughter is still alive and vows to do anything it takes to get her back!  Oh and something about saving the President and such too.  For the first time in a SC story I felt genuinely involved in the story!  There was an actual level of attachment where I cared about the characters that I haven't gotten in other SC games.  Most of them before just seemed like puzzle games where I can see how I can get from one side of the map to the other without killing anyone or annihilating everyone.  So this was a nice change of pace.  Finishing up the single player game meant that I unlocked all the weapons I would need for Multi-player.

Before I get into Multi-player, I feel I should mention the Bob and Steve thing. So a few years ago a couple of guys did a little machinima called "Splinter Cell Co-Op Theater" and the stars were Bob and Steve.

There are actually 11 total episodes and they are hilarious.  So, when I heard that Splinter Cell Conviction would have Co-Op multi-player, I talked with my friend Lee and we decided that it was game on for Bob and Steve.  Not so much with the making of Videos and such, but honestly, that's how we play.  If you watch these videos you will see EXACTLY how Lee and I play SC.  Last night was a great example.  We joined up to start working on the Co-Op campaign and ended nearly in tears as we tried to extract on the helicopter.  (GET DOWN HERE AND REVIVE ME YOU BASTARD!!  NO I Do NOT want to Jump over the RAIL!)

I will work on getting to more of the other side stuff like Deniable Ops and such, but in the meantime, Splinter Cell Conviction gets an 8 Donald Sutherland's out of 10.  (watch episode 11)

Enter Toy Soldiers.  Toy Soldiers is a new Arcade title that was released about 2 weeks ago.  The premise of the game is more tower defense style set with your old fashioned Toy Soldiers (Duh).  Now, back in the 90's there was a game called Army Men, which took your old green army men and animated them to a strategy game.  This game is nothing like that.  The soldiers in this one are the old old style, think the old metal soldiers your grand dad would have had.  (for some of you, your great grand dad, damn I am getting old)  In Toy Soldiers you have your toy box and an unlimited stream of soldiers at your disposal.  You however only control the defensive aspect of the game.  You can queue up your offensive force and hope they make it to the other side.  You can take control of the various turrets and defenses to add more of a human element to the defense.  But that is all just the basic game play.  Some of the best parts of the game come from the overall design.

So lets charge into it, shall we?

The Hoo Rah's!!

• The overall look of the game is awesome.  The setting of making the backgrounds look like a bedroom where you are really sitting and just playing with your soldiers is great.  Add in the period music and it's a great package.  I could almost just set the menus and leave with the background playing and enjoy it.
• Upgrades Upgrades Upgrades!  Each unit has a series of upgrades which not only make the unit perform better, it changes the look!  A machine gun turret changes to a cannon and it has a completely different look of the soldiers.
• No Launch and leave.  Most Tower Defense game you can build them up to a specific place and then just leave them alone to finish the job.  Like it or not, you can't do that here.  You have to stay engaged.

The "Don't Ask Don't Tells"

• It's a race!  When playing multi-player you pretty much are in a race to get your upgrades done the fastest.  If I can get my howitzer up to level 3 it will have the range to destroy your guns.  So first to get there usually wins.
• The AI is smart, but not that smart.  You need to be on top of almost every aspect of the defenses if you want to catch everything before it gets to your toy box.  It can get a little "Micro (no pun intended) Management" like.,
• No Specials for teams.  Maybe I just haven't found it yet but it looks to be just two Teams, the Brits and the Krauts (British and German troops) and they all seem to have the same equipment.  It would have been nice to have the Germans get a special gun that the British don't, and vice versa.

Now all that being said, I really do like the game.  It's a great way to spend some time while I am laid out on the couch.  And I am sure I will find more good in it the more I play.  (I could do without the creepy gas mask Avatar award though).  If you enjoy the old timy aspect of classic Toy Soldiers, I Highly suggest you at least download the demo and check it out!  If you buy it then feel free to send me a game invite!

So I am quite a ways into B2 and it's just, finally, starting to get to a near playable state.  I say that because the first few levels were spent figuring out how to play and building up weapons so they can actually hurt someone wearing just a dress and a plastic mask.  Where as the junkie with a pipe can kill me in my deep sea armor plated dive suit.  Yeah, it's a lot like that.  It would also appear that the Xbox version has a few bugs.  None of the vending machines give off the familiar "Welcome, to the Circus of Values!". And I still miss the little sisters reacting to your rescue of them ("No No, No No!").  Now that I am past the build up phase and getting more into the game, it's getting a little better.  I may have to agree with the guys in the Joystiq Xbox fancast when they say that maybe using Bioshock 2 to follow Mass Effect 2 is a bad idea.  When you go from a game that is very heavily story based and rich in it's plot, and you go to something that is basically a re-hash of the first game, it's bound to leave you a tad bitter.  Fret not though, despite all this, I am still enjoying the game and it's probably better that I take it slow so that I can enjoy the good parts and be away long enough to forget the bad.

In the meantime I have been enjoying the Trek experience in Star Trek Online.  I have a grand total of 3 characters (BTW, the max is 3), My Main, Boothby, is a Trill Science Commander (Commander 9, soooooo close to Captain) flying the U.S.S. Amazonia which looks like it's ready to be hatched.  I hate the look of the Commander Science ships.  They have that horrible sphere instead of a saucer section.  I also have my Klingon Character which you are able to start playing after you reach LT 6 with your Federation character.  The nice thing is that you start at LT 6 with the Klingon as well so Lt Lock, Tactical Officer of the I.K.S VeS Qab (WarCrimes), is bringing hell to the Federation.  Finally I have my Alt, Lt Commander Wi'Zzer, Vulcan Engineering officer of the U.S.S. Fairfax.  This character I am running with my friend Doc so we are keeping the characters in line with each other.  When he isn't on, I play Booth.

So the State of the Galaxy is that Boothby just managed to reach Deep Space 9 out towards Cardassian space.  I like that there are a specific set of missions for each area and a specific enemy that you are working against.  Something I would love to see, though, is a different set of missions based on what you are.  I'm a Doctor not a Tactical officer!  Where are my Science specific missions?  Why does my Engineer character get missions where he needs to scan Nebula's and gathering Data?  My Science officer is running off on missions to take out 5 squadrons of ships that should be better suited for a Tactical officer.  Now it's usually better if you are running in a team of course so you have 1 of each type, but that is rare.  Another big complaint would be in the stats and skills.  So I have my ship that I can outfit with a billion different bits and parts.  I loot a science console that gives me +10 to Astrometrics.  I have found no where to tell me what exactly that does for me!  Some of the skills are good in that they give you examples of the skills they benefit, but it's really hard to keep the granularity straight.

On the plus side, the missions I have run lately have been great for the story.  Learning about the Hobus Star and what happened to Romulus was very intriguing.  Playing as my Engineer and being the tank while Doc tears through with his Escort ship, and even playing through as my Klingon even though it's just PVP for him.  (Need more Klingon Quests!!!)  I can see that I will be very entertained for quite a while still.  Is it bad that I have had the urge to watch more of the TV show and movies as of late?  Not much else on the radar right now so I will be cooking up some non-review articles in the coming weeks.  Stay Tuned!

So the main reason for attending Farpoint was that Felica Day would be there.  Given that she is a LA Native and a frequenter of most of the West Cost cons, having her at something in the east, and a small con to boot, was awesome.  Also at the con was the premire of Trenches, the web series produced by Shane Felux of Revelations and Pitching Lucas fame.  Also known as the sole reason I have an IMDB Film credit!  Trenches, which you know from the earlier post, Officially debuted today at Crackle.com, but con attendees were allowed a early viewing of the whole series on Saturday.  After the showing, Shane's wife Dawn presented the DVD copy to Felica Day for her library. (Felicia Day was unable to attend the viewing due to her signing schedule.)

Also on Saturday I got to attend the Q&A Panel that Felica was holding to see her speak on many different topics.  Everyone knows that She is an avid gamer but I was curious to learn what else she was playing.  Turns out that she has a large stack of games that are waiting for her furious writing schedule to allow, and in the drive is Mass Effect 2.  She also will be doing the voice of the Upcoming Wii Game Rock of the Dead, where she will be the Female love interest to none other than Neil Patrick Harris.  The questions she answered ranged from the standard "what would you like to work on" to the obscure "What are the best desert places in LA." (Which was answered in the most serious tone.  BTW, she is a sucker for the cupcake places!)  I did get the brief chance to meet up with her and talk a little about gaming and conventions (very very brief).  She also wouldn't give out her Xbox Gamertag (kind of expected) but did mention that she will be doing an Xbox Game with Fame event.

The rest of the weekend was spent with my lovely wife (who tolerates me most of the time) and enjoying our 1 year anniversary, as well as Valentines day.  I will spare you the mushy details but it involved awesome turtles and fishes.  Also, there may or may not be pictures of me in  BSG BDU's doing possibly bad things to the statue in front of the hotel.  I'll go ahead and say, it wasn't me!  I swear, it was Alan Rickman who happened to be a surprise guest at the hotel and, and, man can that guy drink! (Honest!)