As we embrace digital downloads, companies can bring us full retail games and new content for released games. XBLA games (and similarly PSN games) and DLC generally release in between the $5 and $20 range. The issue I’ve noticed. What am I getting for my money and is it worth it?

There are those who are of the mindset that some companies want to nickel and dime you to death. Take Namco and Capcom for instance. Namco’s Ace Combat 6 has roughly 60 items available for purchase that range from 200 to 400 MS points and a few free DLC thrown in here and there. This doesn’t count any of the themes or gamer picture packs. Strangely enough, Tekken 6, arguably their most popular series and highly anticipated game has had zero DLC.


Capcom has felt the ire of consumers for the way they’ve handled Street Fighter 4 and Super Street...

Doesn't look like I'll have anything for new reviews this week, so maybe I'll just keep having fun with Red Dead Redemption for a change. In between that, I'm working on a second playthrough of Star Ocean on Universe difficulty and I have all of the DLC to go through on Fallout 3.

I have Red Faction Guerilla, but I just can't seem to get into it and maybe due to some Achievement Whoring burnout, I can't force myself to play it for a review. I just need some fun right now!

Though I'm not necessarily all out grinding for it, I have set a goal for getting 1000 on Star Ocean. Can't see it happening this year though!

I'm getting Alan Wake next week from Gamefly, something I've wanted to check out for a while now.

I'll likely throw in some article ideas I've had lately.

Those who've been reading and check back,...

Better Late Than Never Review: Red Dead Redemption

I was dreading the day I would start working on this review. It meant I had finally completed the single player game and spent some time in multiplayer. Red Dead Redemption was like my favorite movie, show or book. You fear that something great is coming to an end and look for something to fill that void.


No doubt about it. This is my Game of the Year, and easily one of my all time favorites.

Unless you were living under a rock, RDR was an eagerly anticipated game. We just knew Rockstar (San Diego and North) would give us a western epic along the lines of their Grand Theft Auto series. GTA IV is an outstanding game, no doubt. The stories have all been top...

This came out a couple of weeks ago and I just got around to watching it. If you're a fan of Michael Caine, I would highly advise checking this out. I don't believe there is a Blu Ray version FYI, so you'll have to settle for lower resolution.

Most of the younger generation might not even know Michael Caine outside of the current Batman movies. That's a shame as he's a fantastic actor, who at the age of 77, looks great and is putting out quality work.

At first glance, Harry Brown might seem like Gran Torino in England and there are some similarities. It isn't a stretch to say that the producers and director want to draw off of the success of Gran Torino. The titular character, Harry Brown, is a retired British Marine. His neighborhood has gone to complete shit. Gang members, drug dealers, prostitution, violence has taken a hold of the Estates. Innocent people...

Kind of a bummer for those of us that use www.trueachievements.com

They had a massive hard drive failure and lost a ton of data. Mostly game solutions, posts, reviews and data of that type.

Well, after about a week the site is back up minus all of that data. It took me a few days just to get reverified so I can log in. Sadly, my Gamerscore is up to date, but my feed page is all out of wack. :(

I'll have to repost reviews I've done, but other than that. I'm just glad its back up.

I hit 70,000 over the weekend. That's about a 101k adjusted on TA

Better Late Than Never Review: Splinter Cell: Conviction

You've probably read the other reviews or heard from someone else. This game is short. The single player is short. The Co-Op campaign is short. This review may not be that short...

I read a comparison of SC: Conviction to 24. I'm a little torn on that idea. I like 24. I generally like a good action/spy/thriller movie. Conviction is pretty much your standard plot twisting spy thriller. You never really know who's on your side, but they all need you to do what you are good at, killing. It doesn’t make for a bad story, it just doesn’t stand out.

Sam Fisher is called into action again as he has been in hiding three years after the death of his daughter. Anna Grimsdottir, Sam's former colleague in Third Echelon, manages to warn him of an impending hit against him. This, of course, is where you jump into...

Thanks to the XBLA Deals of the Week, I've had a chance to pick up a lot of DLC and XBLA games lately that I otherwise might not have at full retail price. I finally got a chance to play the Resident Evil DLC and I picked up Lara Croft: Guardian of Light (which I will have a full review soon, the game is longer than I thought!) and Bust-A-Move (Puzzle Bobble) Live!


Better Late Than Never Review: Bust-A-Move Live!

Or Puzzle Bobble if you prefer, strangely enough, MS couldn't decide on a name either. In your game library menu it is listed as Puzzle Bobble Live, yet at the title screen it shows Bust-A-Move Live.

If you are unfamiliar with this series, it is a puzzle game where you shoot bubbles towards the top of the screen to match up three like colored bubbles. Your “character” is from the old Bubble Bobble series, and the bubbles you break contain...

I made a recent post about Gamerscore, achievement whoring, www.trueachievements.com (which has been down due to some techinical issues for about 3 days now!) and just hitting 68,000. Now I'm not vain enough that I want to update you every 1,000 Gamerscore, but I realized something last night.

I'm currently sitting at 69,475. On a normal achievement rampage, I'd try and knock that 525 out to put me at 70,000. But, for some reason, I'm not making a mad dash for it.

That reason would be Red Dead Redemption. This is my game of the year. It is my current favorite. I will be doing a full review for sure. There are just so many things to do in this game, I can't get tired of it, even wandering around "hunting" animals or picking flowers lol. Hell, even my girlfriend wants to take good ol' John Marston for a spin...uhhh, you know what I mean...


I...

Well, the Mariners season can't end soon enough, but at least the AAA Rainiers showed something this year. The last series was played entirely in Memphis because Cheney Stadium in Tacoma is undergoing renovations. Too bad, I would've loved to have seen some PLAYOFF baseball for the first time in 10 years around here.

I guess a shout out to the Seattle Storm too, but I hate women's basketball.

http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.co...spartacus.html

Spartacus is not a show for everyone, but its one of the newer shows that I thoroughly enjoyed. It saddens me that this show is in limbo now as Starz decides how to proceed. I wish Andy Whitfield all the best in his recovery. I thought he was a total badass as Spartacus.

Better Late Than Never Review: Aliens vs Predator

I was pumped when I heard Sega announce Aliens: Colonial Marines. A revisit to the Aliens franchise? Check. First person shooter by Gearbox? Check. Co-op multiplayer? Check! Postponed and replaced by Aliens vs. Predator developed by Rebellion just to get a game out there? Check?

Yeah, I really do feel that AVP was a title that was thrown out there to satisfy fans when Colonial Marines was going to be pushed back. AVP isn't terrible by any means, it just isn't the triple A title I think Sega and Rebellion expected it to be, though it did very well in the UK apparently.

When I loaded up the game, I thought I'd check the multiplayer servers just for the hell of it. I wasn't expecting much since it was a weekday and rather late on the west coast, but damn, not one game to be found. I've since tried a couple of times...

I just finished up Aliens vs Predator (as best as I can as an achievement whore). I'll be doing a review on that soon.

Thanks to some great lowball sales here in the trade section, I managed to snag a few games that I can work on.

Can't wait to dive into some Red Dead Redemption finally. I've played about an hour, and I love westerns so I'm hoping I stay more interested in this than GTA4.

Red Faction is also on my short list. Star Ocean might have to wait since I'll be doing 2nd and 3rd playthroughs on it. It isn't going anywhere.

Also picked up that Lara Croft XBLA game. Interesting and lot better than I thought it would be.

Look for reviews (if you care!) soon.

I had to revisit this post because I read this and it just annoys the hell out of me.

http://games.ign.com/articles/112/1120315p1.html

Games are licensed, not sold. The understanding that this all started with Auto...

I will freely admit. I'm an achievement whore. I just clocked 68,000 last night. I do play way too many games that I do not find fun, but want to acquire more gamerscore. Then again, that is who I am, and in the long run, I do find it fun. Yeah, so some games end up being more like a job than a game, but there is nothing like hearing that bleep as I unlock yet another cheevo.

I have two favorite websites I use for both measuring my Gamer-penis-score and for solving cheevos that I would find otherwise...unsolvable?

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/ and http://www.trueachievements.com/

Both have their plusses and minuses.

Xbox 360 Achievements is a nice site to look up achievements, discuss games and achievements and get walkthroughs for generally all games and their achievements. Most games have a guide and those that don't, typically have a post in the game forum with a guide that hasn't been approved by the site yet. I typically...

Better Late Than Never Review: Samurai Shodown Sen

Samurai Shodown 2 ranks up there in my top 5 all time fighting games. While there have been some good versions since, they just haven't seemed to capture that magic that was number 2 again. Their first forays into the 3D fighting realm were a disaster. So, it is with that in mind that I was not holding out much hope for Samurai Shodown Sen. Let's just say, I wasn't pleasantly surprised.

The one thing that stood out the most about this game was the old school art direction. The character art looks great, as it almost always has. The character designs and stages are pretty good. Its nice to see the old stages like the beach with the waves crashing on the rocks, the wheat field, or even the nighttime temple stairs stage. I even like the fact that they recreated the old Samurai Shodown Haohmaru intro movie from the first Samurai...

Better Late Than Never Review: Final Fantasy XIII

To start with, I feel I am going to be the voice of dissent here. I've played most Final Fantasy games since the first one to some degree. I am old school when it comes to the JRPG's. I like being able to control what each of my characters do. I like playing a game where I know what my goals are, but I'm not led by the hand to accomplish those goals. I'm forced to figure it out on my own (or by the use of a guide when I'm stuck!) As you may have gathered, FFXIII does not have any of this. That doesn't mean I hate the game though.

I don't like to bore people with story details in reviews. For one thing, you may not want to be spoiled. For another, you can always read previews or other reviews to find out about the details. It is Final Fantasy, a bunch of people get together to save the world. Obviously the story is told in...

Better Late Than Never Review: Army of Two: The 40th Day

I remember playing the first Army of Two back when my buddy and I were starved for co-op games. We had already run through Gears of War 1 & 2 on the various difficulty levels. We tried playing the first Army of Two and it just wasn't up to snuff when compared to the Gears series. Having said that, I still appreciated Army of Two. It was rough around the edges, but an enjoyable enough experience. When 40th Day was announced, I was pretty intrigued. I had hopes that they would smooth out the rough edges and make a better play experience. Because Gears of War 2 has set the bar on 3rd person shooters, you will see some comparisons.

If you read my reviews, you'll know I don't go into great detail about the stories in games. There is essentially no reference to the first game, so no need to worry about not having played...

Better Late Than Never: Mercenaries 2

After a couple of years, sadly, Pandemic Studios is gone, and I'd finally decided to finish out Mercenaries 2 and go for what can be an elusive 1000 Gamerscore. Unfortunately, due to some blatant issues regarding enemy AI and programming glitches this game loses marks. But, its a solid 3 stars for being a fun, explosive romp through Venezuela. And did I mention you can double the fun with co-op multiplayer?

You're a mercenary (you can choose from three different characters) gunning for Solano, a man who double crossed you, and shot you in the ass. In your quest for revenge, you are thrown into the middle of a war in Venezuela between five different factions, of which you can choose to do missions for any and all. Some factions get pissed off if you do missions for their rivals, but money talks and you can bribe them if you've got the...