Continuing Adventures in New Super Mario Brothers Wii

Had a chance to play some more NSMB Wii last night. I'm still having a lot of fun with the game. In my play-through, I'd warped past world four (yes I know I'm a dirty cheater), so I've gone back to the world and played through some of the levels again. It has a cool beach theme, and I like a lot of the new enemies, especially the mud-ball throwing crabs. Adorable. I found myself smiling every time I hopped, skipped, and jumped my way to the end of the level, and Mario does his little twirl and hat doffing in celebration. His voice changes depending on your power-up (or lack of). Whenever you're mini-Mario (a-la the shrink power-up) he sounds like he's been turned up to 2x speed. And the fireworks whenever you rescue a capture Toad blink star and 1-up shroom power-ups make me happy, too. That's what I just love about this game -- it's just plain good fun.

New Guild Wars 2 Video -- Races of Tyria

Exciting new trailer showcasing the five playable races available in Guild Wars 2. Very exciting. I love the new art style -- it preserves just enough elements of the original Guild Wars while progressing. Perfect for a two-hundred year gap between the game worlds. No idea when the game might be available, but it's going to be good.

LittleBigPlanet: One Year Later

It's been the year of LittleBigPlanet around here. It released to much fanfare and a little bit of controversy back in October 2008, and we're still playing it a year later. My kid liked it so much that we actually had a LBP-themed birthday party. I'm not kidding. He's even taken to bringing his replica Sackboy to school where they play Sackboy tag. Adorable.







And here we are a year later, and the shine still has not worn off this charming and fun game. Recently, the Media Molecule team released a big update that added some features and functionality to the game, on the heels of the big anniversary re-release of the game, conveniently bundled with new PS3s for this holiday season. More and more community levels and great DLC content come out all the time, including this properly awesome Ezio get-up.

It's been a great year of gaming, including the dynamo that is LittleBigPlanet. Long live LBP!

Another Gran Turismo Demo?

There's nothing like a little bit of Gran Turismo 5 news to bring the fanboys and the haters out. This is no exception. Apparently there is a "demo" coming to the PSN in a few weeks -- most likely a thinly veiled marketing attempt for Nissan, similar to the Toyota Prius special edition release from GT4. But we'll see. And maybe the game will come out in 2010!

Forza 3 Runthrough

Had fun playing some Forza Motorsport 3 last night. Two-player is a great race mode; you have just enough friendly competition. I have to say the most fun was probably banging million-dollar Bugatti Veyrons off of the barriers in New York City. Also, the twin remade muscle cars, Camaro and Challenger, was fun as well in Sebring.

I was impressed with the number of cars available in Forza. Although Gran Turismo has strictly more cars, Forza has more manufacturers, most notably the ones missing from GT like Bugatti and Lamborghini. And while the game doesn't look quite as good as GT, it is still a lot of fun, and definitely has a more forgiving driving model if you're looking for something not quite as serious as Gran Turismo.

Impulse sale on Sins of a Solar Empire

For anyone interested in picking up Sins of a Solar Empire, Impulse is running a sale now. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Sins is only $9.99. Quite a steal for a fantastic strategy game.

Dragon Age: Origins Complete

Though my problems with crash and loading bugs conspired to keep me down, I was finally able to finish the main campaign in Dragon Age: Origins.

The end battle and boss fight was a treat, properly epic and allowed you to see lots of character cameos. It was pretty tricky, too. Very well done.

I felt a little let down at the end, because a lot of my decisions drove off or doomed different characters or factions. I'm hopeful that in a second play-through I can improve the world a little rather than get by. I suppose that says a lot about how you can get emotionally invested in the characters and setting of Dragon Age, in that you can regret making the wrong decisions in a simulated world. I certainly did. But I was happy to finish. On to round 2.