It's been a while

I've wanted to make a post here for a long time, but unable to do so due to various reasons such as work, moving to a new apartment, or just being unable to write about something interesting.

First and foremost, I'm really unhappy with my PS3 purchase. Sure, I'm glad that I got a PS3 with PS2 hardware built-in but I'm not even currently using it to play PS2 games. The most use that my PS3 gets is being the main DVD player in the apartment for myself and both of my new roommates. Other than this use, the PS3 is a dust magnet and won't see a PS3 game in its BluRay drive until March 2008. Thanks for supporting your system with quality games Sony. Thanks a lot.

I feel even more burned by my PS3 purchase with the recent announcement that Paramout and Dreamworks will no longer support BluRay for the foreseeable future. That basically means for me that there won't be a BluRay release for Transformers. =(

On the PC front, BioShock was impressive, but I think more for it's actual emphasis on story instead of mindless violence. We definitely need more games that emphasize on story. Having said that, gameplay is still what's important for a video game. A game can have the best story ever written and still suck if the game play isn't any fun. BioShock manages to get both done right, and I think everyone should experience the game if they have the chance.

Having said that, I'm also finding Stranglehold to be an enjoyable game. Sure the story is kinda cliché but sometimes a gamer just wants to stop thinking and just have some fun.

A game that I'm really really looking forward to is World in Conflict. I already had the chance to play through the single player campaign, which was a total blast mind you, and I'm eagerly awaiting the game's release date so I can play it online. I really like what Massive has done for this RTS. They took out all of the resource gathering and need for speeding through your tech tree to get the units you need. They also designed the UI in a minimalist way, allowing you to use your entire screen to view the battlefield. All I can say is that it's beautiful and that I wish other RTSes had this minimalist approach.

I'm finding it very hard to get back into playing Company of Heroes after playing World in Conflict. CoH just feels so slow in comparison - UI wise and gameplay wise. It irks me to say this... but I wish that StarCraft II would borrow WiC's UI enhancements for itself. I really feel that WiC's UI brings the player that much more into the game. I can't imagine being forced to go back to playing RTSes "the old way."

World in Conflict is a definite must play and will get my vote for game of the year.