Usually the turn of phrase “let’s play two” comes about for baseball — specifically for a double header. Kind of fitting, then, for the Portland Timbers, who opened the newly renovated Jeld-Wen Field in front of an international TV audience for the first ever home MLS game. After all, JWF (née Civic Stadium) was primarily thought of as a baseball field for a long time. Also kind of fitting because the Timbers get two home games in four days, since we’re hosting Dallas on Sunday.

Of course I won’t get the chance to actually see the new park for a while since I’m, you know, busy. Busy preparing Backlogs! Tyler joins the fray again this week, Aaron has been digging into Pokémon and back into New Vegas, Nick is contemplating some new computer parts, and Doug is burning iPhone battery on another Kairosoft game.

Onward to the (sizable) Backlog!

Aaron

Aaron wonders if ghouls, like Dean Domino here, have a hard time smoking because their lips are melted into their faces.

In the time since my last Backlog was written, things have managed to settle down. I’ve even aged by a year, thanks to a certain birthdate — 25 is the new 24, according to my sources (read: myself). The best news this week is that I don’t feel so guilty or, to a greater extent, flat-out sad for registering myself on the official Pokémon website. I can attribute some of this newfound confidence to the launch of the Pokémon Global Link on Wednesday of this week —mayhaps a justification for my downward spiral. The dreamworld portion of the website is essentially a glorified Flash game, but many rewards may be reaped in the form of rare Pokémon not obtainable in Black and White (I befriended a Ponyta and imported it back into my cartridge to capture it, and what’s more is it had special abilities!).

The content is robust, for what it is. Players are limited to an hour of play each day on the website, which I assume is to discourage a cheating or exploitation of the system by amassing too many free Pokémon and items. In my first hour of using the Global Link I uploaded my sleeping Clefairy, checked out my dream-house, planted some berries, explored the forest and browsed a catalogue of furniture and decor for said house. It’s all very novel, if not extremely childish and aimed squarely at the most devoted (and obsessive compulsive) fans, and for a free addition to an already packed-to-the-rafters game I can’t complain. And Nintendo was very smart to promise that special Pokémon may be obtained through its Web service; that way we players can keep grabbing at the carrot it has tied to its very lucrative stick.

Aside from my adventures in Unova, I took it upon myself to complete Fallout: New Vegas’ first expansion, Dead Money. Clocking in at around five hours’ worth of gameplay, it ranks up there with the longest of Fallout 3′s expansion packs (i.e., Broken Steel). Thankfully, Dead Money was a suspenseful and creative romp from Obsidian, and it didn’t have to rely on tossing purchasers some powerful weaponry to justify its cost (hello, Operation: Anchorage). What transpires is unfortunately not the videogame adaptation of film classic The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but is instead a tomb raiding of apocalyptic proportions. The ever-unlucky Courier, lured into a trap by a siren’s voice floating upon the airwaves of the Mojave, has been enslaved by an old man frothing with insanity and determined to loot the contents of a hermetically sealed pre-war casino of legend, the Sierra Madre. Perhaps the marketing for the expansion was skewed, because I didn’t expect the first New Vegas DLC to be so good. I bought it primarily because of a Live Marketplace sale the other week, and once I finally tried it out I wasn’t disappointed. Even the normal $10 price would have been worth the experience — an experience that educates you on how royally fucked-up, demented and inspired the writers of New Vegas are. If you liked the core game, get Dead Money. It’s damn clever. And don’t we all play these Fallout games expressly for the compelling stories they tell long after the gratification of scavenging for caps and bullets has soured?

So I’m playing Crysis 2 right now, as I type. I’m probably two-and-a-half hours in, and what’s there is exciting enough. I haven’t touched the multiplayer yet, but the campaign is keeping my interest. From what I’ve seen it’s exactly what I wanted: sci-fi action mixed with customizable tactical options and a fun hook (i.e., the nanosuit powers). I’m withholding judgment for now, but so far I’m feeling positive about Crytek’s latest FPS.

Lastly, I spent some quality time playing Forza Motorsport 3 last night with a friend. We set up custom races, played various modes like cat and mouse and tag infection, and had a great time overall. Which is why I felt awful that I hadn’t touched this polished racer (and faithful mainstay in Doug’s Xbox disc tray) since December. Maybe it’s all the Pokémon messing with my melon, but after leveling my car level alongside my driver level and then collecting more cars to achieve a balanced lineup for each respective class of car, I’m convinced Forza is the adult, manly version of Pokémon. Do with that statement what you will, because I’m very cool with the comparison — and the similarities.

Doug

Doug says if you can't appreciate the finer details of running a Japanese hot springs then he just doesn't know what to say

Oh god, it’s happening again. I’m addicted to another Kairosoft iOS game. After I was forced to lock Game Dev Story behind lock and key because of its addictive nature (just take a gander at the review here), I can fully blame Tyler for getting me hooked to the developer’s follow-up, Hot Springs Story. Thanks for telling me it was on sale, asshole! It is exactly what it sounds like: You’re in charge of taking a Japanese hot springs inn from the small time to being the best in all of Japan, while also improving the status of your inn’s hometown all throughout. It’s a game about making the right investments and planning, and while obviously similar to its predecessor, it’s also more nuanced, which is a refreshing break. It also drove me down past 25 percent of battery life yesterday, which is unreal.

I might also pop back in with Game Dev Story because it’s added Game Center and achievements. For what it’s worth, I’m currently sitting 40th in the world in capital through year 20 in the game. Yeah, I think I broke the game, but I started fresh because precious few of the achievements unlocked retroactively.

Also spent some time racing online in Forza 3, though not to great success. It was a series put on by one of the guys on the forum I’ve been on forever, all in the same sorts of car (the Australian V8 Supercar racers that are in the game), and I resoundingly stunk it up and lost focus. I couldn’t get higher than 6th place in any of the races, thanks to a combo of not having great setups on the car and driving poorly.

Aaron’s right, though — games like Forza and GT are totally Pokémon for adults. Collecting cars, styling and upgrading them the way you want, trading with friends, then unleashing them for battle…yep, sounds just like it.

Playing a little bit of the games mentioned in my Street Fighter retrospective has been fun, too. Need to keep practicing and improving!

Nick

Nick wants to have fun with science, but his gaming PC needs an upgrade. Time to raid Newegg!

It’s been another gameless week, thanks to the (mostly) welcome intervention of the real world. But just because I haven’t been playing much doesn’t mean I’ve stopped thinking about games. On the contrary! With Portal 2 out on Tuesday, I’ve just ordered Steam to reinstall the original Portal for one last run-through. But as it turns out, my PC just isn’t much for gaming anymore.

The last time I upgraded a few components was in early 2008, and the other half of this machine was assembled in 2005. At both junctures I was pretty low on money, which means this machine has only been a mid-level performer at its absolute best moments. And with games like Battlefield 3 on the horizon, I’ve started to get the itch to throw together a bundle of new components on Newegg. I miss the thrill of gutting my trusty Antec Sonata case like a tauntaun and filling it up with shiny new components.

I’ve got a pretty solid build ready to go. I just need to pull the trigger. So much pressure.

Tyler

Tyler thinks that Dissida 012 Duodecim can be pretty blatant in its fanservice but that doesn't exclude it from being an enjoyable experience, especially in short bursts.

This was the first full week of my new job as a private high school teacher in the Kanto region of Japan. Prestigious as it may sound, the position comes with its own set of drawbacks, the most glaring being that I work at nine campuses and each day requires long, grueling commutes. I am far from alone in this, however; if you heard that portable systems are the most popular platform for new games in Japan, this is why. Every day I see dozens of children, teenagers and adults alike with DSes and PSPs. It took a little while to overcome my uniquely American sense of shame for playing video games in public, but I’ve started bringing my PSP to work, and the title I’ve been playing lately is Dissidia 012 Duodecim Final Fantasy.

Yes, that is the full title, and yes, it is only the first sequel.

Blame it on our culture, our parents or whatever else, but for young boys the most existential debate you can have is, “Who would win in a fight?” My dad or your dad? Superman or Thor? Ninja Turtles or Thundercats? These are endless debates. There is no universal truth to be had, so it’s not a debate we ever truly grew out of once we became adults. If you’re looking for proof you only need look as far as the popular franchise move in pop-fiction, the crossover. Characters from different worlds meet and more likely than not fight. In the medium of video games this handily translates into, well, fighting games. Capcom has been doing this for well over a decade now, partnering Marvel and Capcom many times. Super Smash Bros. from Nintendo is a similar concept, and it leads to gamers to wonder when we might see similar titles from other major developers.

Square-Enix is, of course, best known for the Final Fantasy series. This entire franchise was ripe for “Who would win?” disputes, as each installment is a self-contained story featuring only the most tenuous of franchise ties. This finally happened with the first Dissida title two years ago on the PSP. Two gods, Cosmos & Chaos (guess which one is evil!) are competing for control of the universe, and they have each summoned champions from several worlds to compete on their behalf. Each side features the recognizable protagonists and antagonists of the primary Final Fantasy games. There is some grey area when it comes to some characters like Jecht from FFX or Kain from FFIV, but for the most part the lines are clearly drawn.

The game plays like a hybrid of Smash Bros., Power Stone and a standard fighting game with RPG-esque elements, like equipment. You likely won’t see it being played at EVO anytime soon but it can be enjoyable when you’re not being dragged through the token long and melodramatic cutscenes. I’m not very far in at this point, but the most frustrating aspect for me is that while I transferred my progress from it’s predecessor, Duodecim forces me to start the game as one of the new heroes, Lightning of Final Fantasy XIII. Needless to say, she’s not exactly my favorite new addition. I’m hoping like the last Dissida title (and perhaps every Final Fantasy), it becomes significantly more enjoyable once it opens up.

I really dropped the ball on this one, guys. Everything was all ready to go well ahead of schedule last week but I just never got around to compiling the damn thing and getting it out the door. I sincerely apologize; I take this stuff seriously, and I’m still trying to figure out how to balance work and free time.

There’s another Backlog dropping within the next 48 hours, but hopefully this one won’t appear too stale in comparison.

Let’s just get right to it: Aaron and Doug have some great stuff to share, and I’ve got this bangin’ new 3DS to talk about. Baller.

Aaron

In The Road, Viggo Mortensen turns in a moving performance as a recent journalism graduate looking for work

In The Matrix, Morpheus told a bewildered Neo that he would show him just how deep the rabbit-hole goes when the latter found out his once perceived reality was actually a trick to keep his body feeding the machines. We all remember this scene: Two pills were presented, one red and the other blue. Neo chose to leap down that hole without hesitation, and his fate — really, his destiny — was sealed thereafter.

On Thursday, April 7th, I took my own red pill. Pokémon has infected me…has made me doubt my own existence like Neo did. I’m fucked, and absolutely down the rabbit-hole.

Why the melodrama? Well, I’m now an officially registered member of the Pokémon website. I’ve made my own trainer avatar, and used the coins I earned playing the “Play to Befriend a Pokémon” Flash game (which promises to bequeath upon me one of the seven Eevee evolutions if I reach the fourth level) to purchase new outfits and, um, animated scenes for my avatar.

Yep.

The only reason why I’d stoop so low is because I’m preparing myself for the most exciting, most next-generation feature of Black and White: the Pokémon Global Link. It’s been pushed back to an undetermined date in response to the continuing natural disasters striking Japan on a daily basis. Wait: A company would deny millions of children (and adults) an integral aspect of their latest mega-hit to help conserve energy after nationwide destruction of life and property? Respect, Nintendo. Respect.

Whenever the Global Link does show up I’ll be able to earn special Pokemon and items and fight real trainers online with my kick-ass team. The Global Link has all the charm of a schoolyard at lunchtime, but without the social implications of a 24-year-old man hanging around children on school property to trade and battle with his Poké-peers.

I didn’t believe that the fifth generation of Pokemon games were going to hold my interest past the sixth gym battle, but I’ve been proven wrong — and I’m ecstatic about that. Sometimes I feel like it’s 1998 all over again.

Also, I bought my first Blu-Ray movie this week. For $14.99 I couldn’t pass on The Road, which I thought was a beautifully poignant take on Cormac McCarthy’s dreary-as-all-hell novel. Does my purchase mean I’m finally ready to live in the high definition future? Is there now but a small step over the cliff into the churning sea of 3D television? Will I ever get a smartphone?

Unlikely as that all is (even though I bought Infinity Blade for my nonexistent iPhone when it was on sale last month), I’m probably going to pick up TRON Legacy on Blu-Ray after my next paycheck. Fuck that movie looked good, and Daft Punk’s soundtrack has to be the best film score I’ve ever heard.

Doug

Despite being one of the world's most famous political figures, and one driven by non-violence to boot, Gandhi always seems to be a dick in Civilization games.

There’s a famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi: “We need to be the change we wish to see in the world.” And whether that relates to major parts of your life or something as frivolous as one’s gaming habits, it’s something I’m better at espousing than actually following. However, with nothing to do but figure out how I must change and improve myself, I might as well give it a try in relation to this site and my gaming habits.

I guess that’s a more high-brow way of restating the impetus behind my current Retrospective Overdrive shenanigans. In this way, I’m trying to make gaming fun and interesting for me again, and try to rediscover the past, both my own and gaming’s. And you know what? It’s working, to a certain extent. I’m still booking time in Forza 3 and on other games on my 360, but I’ve also powered my Dreamcast on for the first time in a while and gone through a couple of my favorite games. A couple can’t be mentioned because I want to do Retrospective pieces and announcing that would spoil the fun, but a couple were just for fun. Crazy Taxi is just as batshit crazy as ever, but it’s a shame the Xbox Live and PSN re-release had some of the licensed content cut and put out at too high a price point. For $5, it’d be a scream with leaderboard support, but anything higher is too expensive. Plus, frankly, it’s not Crazy Taxi if I don’t have The Offspring and Bad Religion greeting me.

You know what other game has survived the test of time pretty well? Soul Calibur. As if I needed more reason to wish I’d bought that damn Dreamcast arcade stick in Tokyo for $2, picking that game up again provides me yet another. Best 3D fighter of all time? Best system launch title of all time? Certainly has my vote in both areas. Might have to do more of a write-up on this game soon.

So, in short, I promise to play more old games — even just in short bursts — to provide me with more reason to write and more articles to publish on the site. Productivity is a habit learned.

Nick

It's like that.

What can I say about the Nintendo 3DS? The only thing most people care about is whether it works, and I’m happy to report that it totally does. The 3D effect is pretty impressive, the button layout is solid, the GUI is fantastic and the feature set is strong for the first iteration of a new system. In other words, everything is there for a smash success. All that’s missing is the software library.

I picked up Pilotwings Resort along with my 3DS, fully cognizant of its less-than-stellar reception but driven to a purchase by raw nostalgia. It’s Pilotwings, but it feels pretty spartan compared to previous games in the series. With only three vehicles available (although I’ve heard more are unlockable eventually) and a relatively small open world to explore (by today’s standards, anyhow,) it’s not doing much to keep me coming back. But because it leverages the 3D effect and control scheme pretty well, it makes for an excellent system showcase. So that’s why I’ve sunk so many hours into it already; it’s not much of a game on its own, but it lets the 3DS really shine.

Oh, and I got Pokémon White, and it’s the first Pokémon game to hold my attention past the third gym since Blue and Red. That’s about as ringing an endorsement of a Pokémon game as you’ll ever get from me, so go pick that ish up.

This image is .05% related to the title. You can see that there's a Slinky, and Slinkys "spring." Also, this creature's stuck in it and can't move "forward." It's ironically genius, when you think about it.

Welcome to this week’s Backlog! I’m your typist-guide — my name’s Aaron, but you can call me Aaron — and it’s my job to introduce our content. So let me do that.

Today is a good day, and not just because I’m totally fond of our latest contributions about games we’ve all played during the past seven days. No, that’s all fine and dandy. What I mean in calling today a good day is that the atmosphere is different — finally. I can feel the air warming. I can see the daylight growing longer. My roommates are busy cleaning their rooms, watering their plants and putting on airs for guests who are showing up this weekend. People are emerging from winter’s woolen grasp and it’s visible on the faces around me. Spring is fuckin’ here.

How nice.

Doug:

Slip slidin' away.

Spoiler: I too am writing this on my iPhone, but it’s for a different reason – my stalwart MacBook has a slight problem that should be easy to fix. Thank god for small miracles.

However, I’ve been gaming like a fiend this week. I finished Limbo and feel like that is a beautiful, awesome game that gets a touch too obtuse, puzzle-wise, at the end. I guess I’m not smart enough to figure out how to do some of those puzzles.

I played a couple demos, too. I dont play tennis at all, but Top Spin 4 I may have to buy. It’s definitely the successor to Virtua Tennis, is fairly simple to pick up and play, but looks fantastic and has great depth. Tennis games are great same-couch multiplayer jams, too. Add in a sweet-looking single-player mode and this could be a fun sleeper.

MLB 2K11 was really sharp, graphically, but it’s just kind of eh. Sony’s MLB The Show series is much better.

I also finally got a proper taste of CoD: BLOPS. Yeah, that’s the volume turned to 11 24/7. Thanks but I’ll pass.

What I’ve been spending way too much time on is drifting in Forza 3. I got the itch after watching a recap show about the 2010 Japanese D1GP series, and impressed with the array of cars and relative street car resemblance they bore. It’s a good match for Forza’s tuning capabilities.

I perused Forza’s official forums and found that the first post of their Drifting subforum tuning thread had great tips for adjusting setups, so with knowledge in hand, I set out building and tuning a small fleet of cars. And painting! I now have a team of Castrol and Falken sponsored drift machines with authentic U.S. Formula Drift numberplates. It’s my personal fantasy made real.

Actually drifting is a whole different style from normal “grip” driving. The lines around the track are different, and car control is a bit different, too. Throttle control is paramount. It’s fun to practice, though, and a lot cheaper than burning through all those tires in real life! It also makes me excited for Shift 2′s drifting modes.

Aaron:

My girlfriend wants you to know this game is rated "T" for "Too scary!"

I’ve taken a swing at so many games over the past two weeks (which astute readers will recognize that I was absent from the last ‘log, due to generally fuck-upery). To list all of them and what I’ve beaten and/or stated would be boring, so let me try a different approach: I’ll discuss one game! That’s better, no?

Dead Space 2: What the hell was that? It lived up to the developer’s namesake, that’s certain, but I certainly have some opinions about the game now that I’ve finished it. While Dead Space 2 is the best sequel I’ve played in 2011 (Dragon Age II will triumph in the end, you watch), it’s also a game that tries very hard to be hated. Survival horror is dead, and should rightfully be until 10 years have passed and devs run out of ideas again, and what’s left of that old genre is Dead Space: an action-y creature that writhes within and embodies the shriveled carcass of the original Resident Evils, but still does a lot of things wrong to make it unforgiving — and not in a satisfying, challenging way.

The presentation is top-notch, even perfect. The atmosphere is scary and I love it.  The sound design makes me long for my 5.1 stereo set up. In so many ways, Dead Space 2 doesn’t appear to have its faults, but I think they’re readily apparent. It’s how stupid the game is. Dead Space 2 is brain dead, and it’s because you’re given an open world design as far as the weapons and RPG-lite elements go, but no really indication that your choices in upgrading your RIG, stasis powers or weapons are the “correct” choice. And don’t tell me the choices aren’t right or wrong when you die repeatedly because your weapon doesn’t have the best reload speed or some other missing Excel stat sheet number.

It’s entirely possible I’m simply awful at Dead Space. Regardless, the game doesn’t get off of the hook for its lack of intelligent or logical progression just because it offers a New Game+ mode. It’s not fair to give a bevy of upgrade choices as an illusion of freedom and then punish the player for not chosing the “right” load out on moderate difficulty. Offering a second go-around with your (poorly) updated equipment and the chance to find more power nodes is not a proper consolation prize.

Anyway, the game was good!

Nick:

Let's hope Nick doesn't get LONELY in the LONE Star state! HA! Clever.

I’m writing this backlog contribution on my iPhone about two hours outside of Austin. It’s been an insane week, what with packing, saying my goodbyes, bingeing on all my Oregon food staples (much love to Cornucopia, Café Yumm! and Dove Vivi) and driving a billion hours across half the country. Unfortunately, that leaves no time for games.

Seriously. I haven’t so much as touched an iPhone game since last weekend. But I think it’s only appropriate to point out that the last game I played in Portland before hitting the road was Rock Band 3 (of course). I’ll miss playing it every couple weeks in Portland — but I won’t miss shoving all my fake instruments into the trunk of my car each time.

Well, the day is almost here. I’m going to be driving out to Austin, Texas in a few days to start my new job at Facebook! In light of my newfound employment, please look forward to our relaunch as the brand-new, Zynga-exclusive Silicon Sasquatch! Forget Dragon Age 2 and Diablo 3; from here on out, if the game doesn’t have “-Ville” in its name, we don’t want anything to do with it.

Nah, don’t worry. We’re still gonna keep doing what we do best — as soon as we figure out what that is, exactly.

Doug:

Charming, addictive, deep, and 99 cents: Tiny Wings is the newest true iPhone classic.

This week’s Backlog is brought to you by good game recommendations from various sources. Huzzah! Of course I’ve been playing Forza and PES and F1 2010, but new games are more fun to talk about.

As part of sending Nick off on his next adventure, he planned an outing to Ground Kontrol for the first Rock Band Tuesday since the completion of the friendly local arcade’s renovations. There’s going to be some headaches for the GK crew to sort out as they adjust to life in the new space, but all told, I’m really impressed with the changes and improvements — including with how the Rock Band setup is composed.

One of the other improvements and changes is the new Pac-Man Battle Royale cabinet right near the entrance. Imagine fast-paced traditional Pac-Man tropes mixed with musical chairs and a lot of swearing. Five quick rounds go by in a flurry of excitement. I can’t believe Pac-Man is still relevant in much the same form 30 years after the series’ beginnings.

Next, inspired by discussion of Japanese baseball games on this week’s Giant Bombcast, I went and found Baseball Superstars on iOS. It’s a deceptively detailed fun little baseball game in the style and tradition of Konami’s Japanese Power Pro baseball games. Batting is based on timing and pitching is very pared down compared with console games, but that simplicity isn’t an issue. I need to spend more time with it and dig into the deeper single-player modes, but it looks pretty featured for a game I can play on my phone.

Lastly, on the recommendation of both Nick and site contributor Tyler, I downloaded Tiny Wings for my iPhone last night as well. At first glimpse, it looks like it’s cashing in on the success of Angry Birds — small cartoonish bird games aren’t exactly a common genre, after all. However, Tiny Wings shares more in common with Excitebike than Angry Birds. Your bird has to fly based on momentum and riding hills, all based on one command: holding your finger on the screen. It’s incredibly simple but surprisingly deep and capable for such a basic game design. Plus, the graphics and music are really soothing. That’s important sometimes, you know.

Nick:

Nothing like a good, old-fashioned dumb Photoshop.

Man, Bulletstorm. I had my doubts about you, what with you slinging adolescent insults at me and threatening to do horrible things to me if I didn’t buy you. But purchase you I did, and I couldn’t be happier. Developer People Can Fly’s previous big-name series, Painkiller, is one of the best shooters I’ve ever played, and Bulletstorm keeps up with the frantic pace of its predecessor but adds a great new concept in the form of skillshots.

I’d love to write more, but I have, like, 72 more hours in town before I throw all my stuff into my car and drive a billion miles into the middle of Texas. I think right now the best thing I can do is catch up with friends and get my things ready to go, and I’m sure you’ll all agree. I’m looking forward to getting settled and getting back into my regular routine with the ‘Squatch in time for next week’s Backlog.

Until then, let me just say how grateful I am to everyone who has kept up with this blog over the last two-ish years. I think it’s fair to say I wouldn’t have been able to land a job as exciting as the one I’m going to be starting if I didn’t have this body of work behind me, and none of us would have kept it up this long if it wasn’t for your continued support and encouragement. To everyone who reads this blog: Thank you so much. I can’t express how grateful I am, and I can’t wait to get settled in Austin and to keep doing what I love. See you next weekend.

Oh! Hello there.

So sorry I didn’t notice you; I was busy tousling my hair and practicing my charming, inextricably British character quirks.

Err-ahem. Yes. LittleBigPlanet 2 was released this week, headlined once again by a revelatory performance from your humble narrator. While those of you with a PlayStation 3 have undoubtedly snatched up your very own copies without hesitation, the rest of the world was left with no comparable alternative; alas, some of you had to resort to games from two years ago! Imagine that.

Now if you’ll kindly excuse me; I’m late for my weekly poker night with Hugh Laurie, Tony Blair and The Stig. In outer space.

Doug:

Doug says killing fools in Assassin's Creed II is made better by all the Italian swearing in the game. Can't really argue with that.

After spending the week mourning the end of football season, I’ve come out of that stage of grief. After taking some time to ponder Nintendo’s online strategy, I’ve been catching up on a couple of 2009′s finest games. Yes, really thrilling, but what I need right now is some comfort.

Through twists of fate, I’ve started getting back into PES 2010. I think I’ve spent well over 170 hours in the game by now, and I still have reason to continue on. That’s the catch with me and sports games: there’s always another trophy to win, there’s always another deal to strike, there’s always another way to improve the team. I jive with that narrative flow, and get carried away.

I’ve also continued playing Forza Motorsport 3. Since Turn 10 gifted a car that could be sold back in the game for a cool 1.2 million credits, I’ve been able to entertain myself with what I enjoy the most in the game: finding a car, tuning it up, and seeing if it works. I currently have a turbocharged Volvo 242 that can touch 160 mph easily; shame it can’t turn to save its life.

Lastly, and most importantly, I’ve finally dug into Assassin’s Creed II. Back in the earlier days of the Sasquatch, I picked up the first AC and gave it a shot; unfortunately, the game’s good ideas were marred by overly simple execution. Stalking and assassinating somebody was fun, but there was little variation on the theme. However, AC2 has built on those mistakes brilliantly. Not only is there enough on the side to keep things entertaining, but the main storyline bounces along at a much quicker pace; no longer must one stalk their pray with so much intent. The information hunting still happens, but it often comes to you in cinematics instead of by repeating missions. Frankly, the game is much better for it.

Aaron:

Aaron says "eh" to Killzone 2.

Maybe it’s because I’m playing the game with my girlfriend, or perhaps it’s that Media Molecule frosted the platforming genius with a delicious layer of story-rich sugar batter, but I’m enjoying LittleBigPlanet 2 more than I anticipated. It’s relaxing in the hustle and bustle world of today to slow down and play a game that makes you happy. And who doesn’t enjoy collecting a lot of random shit?

I also happened to receive Killzone 2 in the mail yesterday, which was bundled with a DualShock 3 controller for a very low price. I haven’t even touched the game yet. Something inside me is expecting to be disappointed.

And in other PS3 news, I finally finished Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune last Sunday. It took me a few years to get my own console and borrow it from a friend, but now I’m “in the know” in regards to the Uncharted franchise.

With all this PlayStation usage, I’m curious if my Xbox is feeling neglected. Oh well.

Nick:

Every day I'm grapplin'

LittleBigPlanet 2 and I have an understanding: I’ll look the other way when its platforming mechanics are wonky and unreliable as long as it allows me to create hulking, monstrous automatons that stalk the cardboard landscape like papier-mâché Lovecraftian horrors.

Mushy, unresponsive jumping aside, LBP2 is a pretty incredible step forward for the series. The built-in levels are far more polished and satisfying than the first game’s batch, and the creation tools — at least, those that I’ve seen — are astounding.

What else is there to say? Not much, unfortunately. I’ve been surprisingly busy with my job search this week, and in a very good way, and I haven’t spent much time playing videogames as a result. I’m still building things in Minecraft, of course — I’ll be playing it until the day I die at this rate — but I managed to dip my toes back  into the irradiated waters of New Vegas for a couple of hours. Yeah, it’s an adequate RPG with some hysterical writing — I’ll never forget my first meeting with Fisto, if you know what I mean — but considering it’s still riddled with game-crashing bugs, I’m finding it difficult to remain interested. So the few remaining hours I’ve had for entertainment this week have been spent with my other good friend, Fiddy.

Let me be clear: 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is dumb as hell. Really — it’s unbelievably stupid. Running around and massacring color-coded enemies in a nameless Middle-Eastern country as either Mr. Cent or one of his G-Unit cohorts while listening to his music on repeat is probably killing my brain cells off rapidly, but somehow — despite everything going against it — Blood on the Sand is a lot of fun. It’s a competent shooter with some clever arcade influences, and I’m having a great time chasing down my jeweled skull. It is to Gears of War what Saints Row was to Grand Theft Auto: None of the gravitas or self-seriousness, but a whole lot of fun.

It scares some of us.

Nick and Doug settle for the gaming equivalent of security blankets this week instead of embracing the unknown.

I’m not judging them, at least not intentionally. But maybe I am now that I think about it.

Our story so far: two editors walk down well-tread paths carved out of boredom while I charge blindly into trying two indie games on a whim and a 2010 retail release I had completely forgotten about until this past Tuesday.

Nick:

Nick says: Considering that Diablo 2 was my favorite game when I was 14 years old, I have a long history of characters with crude, juvenile names. My current character is named Assbutt. I'm nearly 25 years old. You're welcome.

World of Warcraft is the great divider among gamers. Either you play it or you don’t, and when you’re playing it that’s generally the only game you have time to play.

As an editor of an award-winning¹, world-famous² website about games, I can’t reasonably justify diving back into the murky depths of Azeroth post-Cataclysm. I’ve watched a fair bit of video on the new regions and races, though, and it looks like a smarter, faster WoW. That’s good news, but it also means it’s a game I should probably steer clear of for the time being.

But when life closes one time-consuming, soul-sucking door, it opens another one called Diablo 2.

If you know me you know that as far as I’m concerned Diablo 2 is the real goddamn deal. More than 10 years after it was released and came to encompass my high school gaming experience, it’s still unsurpassed in its genre. Newcomers like Torchlight have come very, very close, but when Diablo 2 is still so playable and so much fun after a decade of new games, there’s something legendary about that.

James (of StarCraft 2 review fame) and I have been playing some serious Diablo 2 over the last couple days, and the game is every bit as fun as I remembered. The expertly-paced combat, the varied dungeons and the addictive loot-hunting gameplay all resonate down to my core desires as a gamer. And with the latest patch adding modern features like being able to reallocate your skills and points as you level up, it’s more playable than ever.

The only downside to all this is that Diablo 3 is all but certain to disappoint. How could it not? Between the near-perfect design of its predecessor and a decade of my own potent feelings of nostalgia, it’s facing an uphill battle. I hope that, as was the case with StarCraft 2, all those years of development and refinement result in a similar leap forward for the series.

1. Well, in our hearts…
2. Okay, that’s just a flat-out lie

Doug:

Doug says: The ol' girl's still looking pretty good. Oh, and Forza 3 stands the test of time, too.

Right now I’m still sitting between what I want to play and what I feel like I need to play. I’m still playing through a couple different games ahead of our Game of the Year discussions, but I’m only really drawn into one of them. I actually put another one into my Xbox 360 a couple nights ago, booted the game up, and then stared at the title screen for a minute or two…only to pop the disc out and put Mass Effect 2 back in.

Yep — I’ve gotten the bug for ME2 back, and earlier this week I blitzed through the Lair of the Shadow Broker content pack. Without giving anything away, I thought it was maybe too combat-heavy but provided a fascinating twist into the storyline. Highly recommended for anybody who’s played the game, but that’s a fact we’ve known since Nick’s review.

Another game I’ve been putting time back into recently is Forza Motorsport 3. It’s over a year old, but it’s still a very good-looking game and plays very, very well. After spending all the time with F1 2010, my racing senses have been set to “super-alert”; the street cars in Forza obviously react and drive a bit slower, which takes some adjusting. I really want to sit down and give Gran Turismo 5 a shot now that I’ve been playing Forza 3 again some more, because it’ll be a clearer comparison in my mind. There’s also another DLC pack coming out for Forza 3 next week, and it features some cars I like in real life — and then also the DeLorean, as made famous in Back to the Future.

Lastly, I’ve been playing more NBA 2K11…and it’s still amazing. It also helps that I created an awesome Trail Blazers squad with a fantasy draft — Kevin Durant and Tony Parker to run things on offense and Kevin Love to pick up all the rebounds? Yes, please. The closest nerd analogue I can think of is playing a game where you start off by rolling characters, and getting a really good starting roll. I’m looking forward to trying to get through a season with the lineup I’ve drafted.

Aaron:

I say: In spite of a horrendous advertising campaign and lukewarm reviews, Blur is the most splitscreen fun I've had all fucking year.

It would be great if someone would tell me I was wrong about something way ahead of time. Blur came out in May, and I blacklisted this racer as a cheap knock-off of the Mario Kart formula. It’s not. It’s much, much better as far as this generation of Mario Kart is concerned.

I’m absolutely serious, people! Mario Kart for Wii was god-awful. I couldn’t even stomach the hackneyed motion controls during multiplayer, let alone an entire singleplayer racing campaign.  And that’s coming from a diehard fan of every other Mario Kart game in the series — even Double Dash.

My opportunity to play Blur came this past week, and over the last few days I’ve spent several hours with the game’s singleplayer campaign and multiplayer splitscreen modes. The learning curve is steep, and the tutorial videos are tedious and do a bad job of explaining the concepts. But once I had a few races under my belt I was ready to unleash the fury of my RS Camaro. Time and time again the NPC drivers would fall prey to my land mine traps, EMP fields and tiny purple energy missiles of doom. Blur is a gorgeously rendered neon-soaked alternate universe where a race is won by crossing the checkered line first and pummeling cars into oblivion. This is the most addictive racing game I’ve ever played (yeah, ever), and I’m saddened that Bizarre Creations might be closing its doors in part because Blur, the better-than-Mario-Kart-Wii racer, flopped at retail.

Aside from blowing up a hundred Ford Focuses this week, I randomly bought two Xbox Live Indie Games. My purchases of Breath of Death VII and Epic Dungeon have been very sound investments. Breath of Death is a parody of everyone’s favorite JRPGs as well as a compendium of so many references to nerd culture that I can rarely keep up with the script. Epic Dungeon is a rapid Diablo-like hack ‘n slash. It’s simplistic in an admirable way, and the incessant dungeon crawling is more immediately rewarding than, say, Torchlight.

Both indie titles are a buck each, and I would recommend them to anyone with the Microsoft Points to spare.

Image by friend of the site Brian Gundell

I don’t care who you are, if you’re an Oregonian, this is a weekend you care about. It’s Civil War weekend, and as proud (if a bit underemployed) alumni of the University of Oregon, all three of us have a side to take in the game. Good luck getting much done in Portland tomorrow between noon and 4 pm, and god speed to anyone driving south on I-5 from Portland who isn’t going to the game. I don’t think it hurts us to take an excessively pro-Ducks stance, so here goes:

LET’S GO DUCKS!

We do have the usual Backlog content to go with the heaping of school pride, though. Nick’s been stabbin’ fools in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Doug’s tackling some single-player games passed over during the year, and Aaron has been finding a balance between work, games, and the Wasteland.

Nick

This reminds me of a recent Penny Arcade comic that featured this very thing. Didn't think I'd actually see it in the game!

So there’s this book I was working on? Anyway, I guess it’s out now. I wouldn’t really know much about that kind of thing.

Now, though, I’m faced with an overabundance of free time — that is, until panic sets in and I spend my days focused only on job applications and the crippling guilt that comes from having lived at home for four months now. But in the meantime, I’m hoping to finish sampling games as we lead up to our Game of the Year feature later this month. Let’s talk about some games, okay? Is that fine?

As is my custom, I demolished Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood‘s single player mode and have been climbing the ranks of multiplayer. I had my doubts about that series getting a direct sequel a year after Assassin’s Creed 2 did so much to improve upon the original, but it delivered in just about every way I could have hoped for. Granted it’s much more of an incremental improvement over its predecessor, but I still think it’s safe to say that Brotherhood is the strongest overall game in the series.

Playing Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands makes me wonder if Ubisoft has any idea what made 2003′s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time such a landmark success (and, if I’m remembering right, my declared favorite game of that year). Like most flagship series under the Ubisoft helm, it’s had its fair share of ups and downs, ranging from the unabashed shittiness of Warrior Within, the relatively successful conclusion of that trilogy with The Two Thrones, and 2008′s series reboot, which remains one of my favorite current-gen experiences — so as you can imagine, most people thought it was stupid. The Forgotten Sands is the product of a company groping in the dark for whatever serendipitous formula made The Sands of Time a classic, and it sees the series returning to an almost carbon copy of that exact formula. However, the crucial elements — the balanced pacing between exploration and combat, the storybook charm and narration, the stuffy Prince — are all watered down. Yeah, it’s an okay game, and if you never played the old trilogy you might get a lot out of it. But to me, Forgotten Sands is kind of just sad, you know?

I also spent an hour with 3D Dot Game Heroes, a tediously paced and, frankly, pretty boring homage to The Legend of Zelda. It’s clever and weird and unlike much of anything else out there, so you’d think I’d go wild for it. But for whatever reason, I feel like it hasn’t done much to spark any sort of attachment for me. If it had a stronger identity or it was more self-aware with its Zelda imitations and references to gaming culture, then maybe I’d stick with it. But so far, it’s a pretty bland experience all around.

And then, at the opposite end of the spectrum from Brotherhood, there’s Fable 3. I’m a few hours in, but I don’t think I’ve seen a lazier sequel from a big-name studio this generation. I’m trying my damnedest to engage with this game, but it’s just sort of sitting there, twiddling its thumbs and occasionally humming under its breath, staring vacantly out into the distance. This is not a game that was ready for the world to see.

Doug

It's from multiplayer and not single-player, but this Halo: Reach screenshot was too badass not to post.

Much like Nick, this is the time of the year where all three of us have to get caught up on some of the games we may have missed this year. Thanks to the largesse of my chums, I’ve been able to borrow and put some time into a couple of the titles that may be up for our Game of the Year award.

I’m about three or four hours into Bayonetta and I can’t believe I haven’t gotten to the game sooner. I mean, it must be cheap used by now, right? Regardless what you think of the game’s setting, cut-scenes or art direction (to put it kindly), the actual fighting engine and in-game combat is really, really fun. Seeking out attacks to dodge then activate Witch Time can feel a bit hokey, but bouncing from target to target and kicking ass feels appropriately…err…bad-ass. The mechanics are great, and I can tell I’ve barely scratched the surface. Time to kick the difficulty down from normal and see what Bayonetta has, because I do not have time to repeat bosses four or five times each.

The other single-player game I’ve taken a dive into is Halo: Reach. That game really does not fuck around — you get dropped into Noble Team, it assumes you’ve played a Halo game or two before, and you get stuck into fighting the Covenant quickly. I barely ever play first-person shooters — I actually think the last one I spent time with may have been Halo 3 — but I’ve enjoyed the Halo series for a long time, and especially love the way they integrate story into the proceedings. As well, the firefights are obviously well done (great encounters have been at the heart of every Halo game) and the weapons have that heft. Picking Reach up feels like reminiscing with an old friend in a good way; I’ve heard this is one of the best single-player campaigns in the Halo series, and ends on a poignant note. I’m looking forward to that.

Inspired by a friend finishing up the campaign in Mass Effect 2, I’ve spent a good five or six hours with my second playthrough this week. I’m into the second half of the game, about to start up the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC content, and also at the point where your Shepard’s powers have blossomed. The beginning of the game really relies on gunplay, but as you unlock and level up biotic and engineering powers, the combat gets better. Playing through the story again reminds me how much I loved the game the first time around. Definitely a Game of the Year contender.

Of course, a week can’t go by without playing more sports games. I’ve got Nick salivating to dig into NBA 2K11; I’m looking forward to teaching him the ropes in the coming weeks. I’ve also done another F1 2010 race weekend and spent some time in NCAA Football 11 guiding the Ducks to victory as well. Hopefully they win the day on Saturday, too, and get to the National Championship in January.

Aaron

Aaron's car, dubbed the Spicy Penguin, makes its destructive debut in Forza 3

Working has its benefits. For one, I actually have an income, which lets me do things like eat, drink and be merry (and pay rent!). The only problem with all the working I’ve been doing is I’ve had little time to myself to play games. I’m coping with that fact, and I just need to figure out a schedule that permits more time to relax with a videogame or two.

This week I finished Fallout: New Vegas. It was kind of a let down, but I attribute that to following the “good guy” path and allying with the New California Republic.

With my wandering in the wasteland complete, I dove into Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood more, and I’m enjoying what I’ve played. I don’t think I’ve explored enough of Rome yet to be able to tell the game apart from AC2, but what I have seen impresses me. Still, it’s more incremental than revolutionary, but I think it’s what most fans wanted anyway.

I also received my used copy of Forza Motorsport 3 on Tuesday, and poured three hours into the game a few days later. The experience system is genius because it gives me a reason to keep playing besides simply collecting cars and unlocking tournaments. It’s a shame I waited so long to play it (It really is – Doug).

I have incredibly mixed feelings about Formula 1 2010. On the one hand, this is the first Formula 1-based game on next-gen platforms since Sony’s F1 Championship Edition in 2006. As well, the game does an amazing job painting a portrait of the Formula 1 circus, from the glitz and glamor in the paddock to the thunder and thrills on the track. However, the game has a facade that is too easily broken; compounding the problem is that it feels unfinished in spots.

Reviewer’s Note: We will run an amendment article at a later date, once F1 2010 is patched to address the numerous issues with the game. As it stands right now, it feels unfinished and has numerous frustrating bugs, including one that corrupts save data; when, and how, these are addressed is a major issue surrounding the game right now.

F1 2010 uses interactive menus, placing various game mode options into the "real world" you would see as a Formula 1 driver.

Formula 1 racing is, much like soccer, a sport incredibly well known and followed outside of the United States; 400 million viewers tune in for each of the rounds of the championship, and the series has been run every year since 1950. I’ve watched almost every race since 1997, and know a ton about the history of F1. Considering my love of racing games too, I’m undoubtedly the game’s target audience. Each round in the championship is a carnival, as the racing series’ own video edits of races prove. Codemasters has thus provided a rich tapestry on which to build a virtual world and something of a storyline. Unlike a Forza Motorsport or a Gran Turismo game, each race acts as a piece in a greater narrative, instead of focusing solely on what happens on-track and what car you unlock.

Codemasters has tried to do something very different and innovative with the game’s structure. You’re launched directly into defining your career mode in the form of a press conference, including details like your driver’s name, nationality and how long a career you’re planning. Accessing the other menu options, like single-races, multiplayer modes and other options are done in the paddock next to your career teams’ transporters. If you played Codemasters’ DiRT games this may sound familiar — the large, popped-out text on screen is a style Codies has made their own, but it also helps to make the game feel more like a sports game instead of a Gran Turismo clone. Everything is laid out to make you become a Formula 1 driver, and immerse you in a virtual re-creation of something only 24 people on the planet each year get to experience.

Driving a Formula 1 car is hard enough; driving an F1 car in the rain? Exciting, to say the least.

As a driving game, F1 2010 is very solid. The game engine is an evolution of Codemasters’ previous racers, but with some serious tuning to suit the rigors of Formula 1 — like having 24 cars on the track at once. Driving an F1 car is incredibly difficult in real life, but similar to Forza Motorsport 3, the game tailors each difficulty level with a series of driving aids; these can also be adjusted individually. As a Formula 1 fan, the game manages to capture everything about F1 racing I’d expect — from your team engineer providing information updates and support, to the screaming V8 engines, to the incredible handling and stopping power. As I spend more and more time on the track, I find myself getting quicker because I’m able to push the limits of the car, and that is exactly how a Formula 1 game should behave. It may not be as one-to-one accurate as some PC racing simulators, but F1 2010′s on-track racing strikes an excellent balance — providing the right amount of fear and speed while remaining accessible but not punishing.

The worst of F1 2010's bugs corrupts your save data — and thus your single-player progress — if you advance through the menus wrong after certain circumstances. This has happened to me twice.

However, the game is far from flawless. It could have used another two or three months of development time before it was released; surely Codemasters must have been trying to meet a deadline to release the game in September, with a few rounds of the actual Formula 1 series left to run. I say this for two reasons: One, there are numerous bugs found when playing the game; and two, there is also a real issue of difficulty balance that could use tuning.

First, the bugs. The list of bugs both confirmed and unconfirmed in the game is lengthy. These range from the mildly annoying (AI cars not pitting or pitting too often in races) to the aggravating (the player’s car being unfairly held in the pit lane if you pit on the same lap as the AI) to the soul-crushing (corrupting save data, forcing the player to re-start their career; this has happened twice since I bought the game). While Codemasters is aware of the problems and working on a patch, there’s not a target release date, and many diehard racers I know are avoiding the career mode until the game is patched. While some bugs are only mildly annoying, their sheer abundance points to a title that looks undercooked.

The difficulty curve can be a bit off in the game; a Lotus shouldn't be leading the pack, regardless what's happened behind you.

More grating to me, personally, is the uneven difficulty curve. On the hardest two difficulty levels the AI is brutally fast, your starting car can feel terribly slow (especially the Lotus, Virgin and HRT, though this lack of speed is true to life) and the in-race penalties can feel overly punitive, especially if you’re trying to get to grips with the game’s physics. It’s hard not to be anything but a moving obstacle; moreover, it’s easy to ruin your race. This may be true to life — Formula 1 racing is far from easy — but it feels punishing and masochistic. Aaron and Nick can attest to the level of attention and focus completing a 17-lap race took from me…and that was in an effort where I finished 18th out of 24 cars. Punishment isn’t the only problem; by switching to the mid-pack Sauber-Ferrari and applying setups from this online forum, I can now routinely outpace the AI and win races by 30 seconds.

In short, Formula 1 2010 is long on ideas but falls short in the execution. As a diehard Formula 1 fan who remembers when Williams were good and Ferrari were lovable traditionalists who used V12s, I love the attention to detail that Codemasters has given the game, down to the grid girls in the paddock. However, it feels rushed. I have no doubt that F1 2011 will have solutions to many of the bugs and difficulty issues, but I’m not certain what a patch will be able to fix and when that will happen. When it works, it’s absolutely brilliant and is the Formula 1 game I always wanted, yet too often it stumbles into another bug or issue. I would love to be able to recommend this game to everyone, but without a demo and with so many issues, I can’t do that right now.

Recommended for:

• Console-centric racing game fans looking for a fix ahead of Gran Turismo 5
• Formula 1 fans yearning for a good, modern, accessible F1 game
• Graphics junkies — the in-game graphics are incredible, and the menus are very well done

Not Recommended for:

• Anyone who expects the game to be bug-free as of right now
• Hardcore racing simulator fans who are masters of iRacing or Grand Prix Legends — F1 2010 will not be enough of a simulator for the super-hardcore if you expect it to equate to those games

Formula 1 2010 was developed and published by Codemasters. It is available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for $59.99, and on Windows for $39.99 via retail and Steam. The reviewer played the game on multiple difficulty levels in career mode, single-race Grand Prix, Time Trial, and online for approximately 20 hours.

Extra special thanks to Something Awful goons for supplying PC screenshots of bugs and the F1 2010 menu system.

Read our policy on reviews here.

Street Fighter season is officially back in full swing, and you know what that means: Ken jokes are in vogue once again. Whether you’re poring over exhaustive guides to master Ken’s deeply nuanced fighting style or just enjoying a brain-dead pun, there’s no time like the present to dig into Capcom’s latest fighter.

Of course, there are a whole lot of other great games you could be playing too, whether you’re gaming on-the-go or squeezing every last ounce of enjoyment from a couple of recent big-name console games like a certain site editor. Anyone who can finish Mass Effect 2 on insanity is a stronger person than I.

Anyway, let’s get down to it.

Sam and a friend practice their headbanging skills for next year's Death Metal Expo in Finland

Aaron

What a low-key week for my gaming escapades — let me tell you somethin’. I finally capped off my time with Mass Effect 2 by beating the Insanity playthrough I started last month. I’m glad to put that game to rest for a while, despite my adoration for it. Or I was glad: Word hit the blogs yesterday that another DLC mission is coming. Knowing that I’ll buy this “Overlord” pack, even though I’m moving on to greener gaming pastures soon (Red Dead Redemption!), makes me a bit sad. What is free will if I choose not to exercise it?

Maybe I should have dubbed this Backlog entry “Aaron is a Hardcore Machine Fueled by Sex Appeal and Intelligence.” Why? Well, in addition to beating ME2 on its highest difficulty, I also completed Splinter Cell: Conviction on Realistic, which is the pinnacle of Sam Fisher-ness. Yeah, I pretty much did it for the achievements. There’s a bit less shame when I admit that fact to everyone.

Also, contrary to my statement above, I’m not a hardcore machine fueled by sex appeal and intelligence. I thought that needed some clarification. No, in reality I’m a soft-core primate fueled by carbohydrates and self-deprecation.

And on a final note, I’m receiving personal compensation from the insurance company from the accident I mentioned in the last Backlog to the sweet, sweet tune of $300. Because I’m going to be working this summer anyway, I’ve decided that this check will be used irresponsibly for the purchase of a new gaming console. Now I need your help in choosing either a PS3 or a Wii. I have my own pros and cons for each, but additional perspectives would be welcome. I’d like to read about why you yourself enjoy either console, and not such arguments as the following: “Lulz Ps4: it haz betur gaimms THAN teh Wii-nis!1111!!2

One…more…game…just one more, I promise, then I'll write my Backlog…

Doug

Sorry, too busy to write a Backlog contribution this week. Nah, it’s not homework. Nah, not finals. Nah, not family.

What’s that? Oh, sorry, was too busy playing Bejeweled Blitz to hear your question.

Yes. You may scoff; you may laugh. I am absolutely addicted to Bejeweled right now, and it’s actually not because of the game. It is a well-designed PopCap game, this is very true. However, the reason why I’m addicted to playing the Blitz mode both on my iPhone and on Facebook is because of the meta-game that’s been crafted.

If you tie in to your Facebook account, it will compare your score to your friends. The leaderboard resets every week, but amongst my grad school friends, it is a hotly contested timekiller right now. Yes, there is Bejeweled smack talk going back and forth, for what it is worth. I just know that I’m absolutely terrible and getting my ass routinely kicked by a group of Thai girls. My sense of nerd pride is somehow not okay with this.

I’m also still battling Nick and a few others on Words with Friends — still open to challenges! The more games of Scrabble, the better.

In more hardcore gaming news, I’ve spent some time again this week in Forza Motorsport 3 preparing for a racing series hosted on one of the forums I’m on, and also a bit with PES 2010. For PES, I’m still working on my Master League saves, but I’m also trying to go get some of the low-hanging achievements to help boost the ‘ol gamerscore.

I’ve also been playing Super Street Fighter 4 some more as well. I tried going back to a little SSFIITHDR earlier this week (a friend in grad school wants to throw down on some old-school SFII) and it was very hard to go back to, simply because I feel like SFIV (and Super in particular) is such a great evolution of the Street Fighter gameplay style. I played for damn near an hour online with Nick last night, and though he kicked my ass most of the time, I was improving…and still having a ton of fun. What a game. It’s well worth the $40.

Lastly, since Steam is now available for Mac, I’ve gotten my account set up and downloaded a few titles. Apparently I can’t run Portal on my era of MacBook, which makes me sad…but at least I’ve got Torchlight! I need to spend some time on that; between class, SSFIV, and not bringing my wireless mouse with me, I haven’t spent any time with it yet at all.

Oh well; I wasn't too attached to living anyway

Nick

My mind may be working overtime to learn the nuances of Super Street Fighter 4, but my heart belongs to Demon’s Souls — and maybe not in a good way. I recently picked up a copy of the hard-as-nails RPG expecting to stand a fighting chance against its ruthless challenges and devious traps, but man, I really wasn’t prepared. No amount of playing Diablo 2 on hardcore could have prepared me for the frustration that comes with losing half an hour’s worth of progress because of one stupid misstep or late parry.

But the strange thing is that I love the game. It’s got that sort of slow-burn enjoyment that requires a hefty investment into its learning curve up front, but after a few hours things start to click. You learn from all your mistakes, and eventually you develop the skills to explore and defend yourself without dying every few minutes.

After six hours of play, during which I started the entire game over with a new character three times, I finally took down the first demon and progressed onto the second area. If you make it this far — if you stick with it, despite its valiant efforts to batter you into submission — you’re in for an absolutely top-notch game.

I also want to mention that I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of the English translation of Mother 3. It’s been about 15 years since I finished Earthbound, and I never imagined I’d get the chance to play a game that maintains the same strange feel and wit that made Earthbound so distinct. Mother 3 is better than Earthbound, and if that’s not reason enough to play a game, I really don’t know what is. It proves that no story is too difficult to portray in a believable, immersive way on even the most limited hardware. If you have the means to play it, it’s absolutely worth the effort.

Oh, the world warriors!

Enough of this nonsense, on to the backlog!

Frankenstein's monster entices us with his modelling skills.

Aaron

I’ve been on a major Mass Effect 2 bender for the past week and a half. It was time for me to finally finish the review I started back in February, which was a humbler, simpler time. Ah, February of 2010…it feels so long ago. So if you haven’t read the review yet, and you’re into reading about games that are far removed from the normal news cycle, go look at it. Shameless self-promotion isn’t something I do often, so you should all feel privileged.

Outside of gallivanting across the universe with Shepard and Co. (sounds like a wonderful manufacturing company, doesn’t it?), I’ve had a wonderful time playing Splinter Cell: Conviction with my friend Matt. (He asked for a shout-out, so he gets one.) We completed the co-op story on realistic difficulty at 11:30 last night, and the process was extremely fast considering we’ve played a lot of the game lately. The cooperative experience is very satisfying in Conviction. I recommend it.

Nick and I also started Borderlands’ The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned this week. We played only two or so hours of it, but what I’ve seen was refreshing to say the least. As much as we liked Borderlands, we didn’t love it. Our review demonstrates that fact. So it pleases me to discover that Zombie Island has a radically different design palette than the core game because all of the original’s browns and grays are dull and uninteresting.

Oh, I also downloaded the trial for Guild Wars. I don’t know why. There’s a nine-hour limit on it. Aside from timed Xbox Live demos, I don’t think I’ve heard of such a short (read: pointless) length of time for a demo — MMOs generally do a week to 10 day free trial, which is much more fair to the experience.

And…and…a friend gave me a beta key for StarCraft II last night. I’ve installed the program, but have yet to run it. Sunday is when I’m supposed to partake in online combat alongside this friend. We’ll see how bad I suck in 2v2. Details to follow.

PES 2010 not only plays well on the pitch, but gets so many details right off of it.

Doug

Time is on my side this week. I’ve been able to get in a lot of PES 2010 this week — enough to start going through withdrawals whenever I can’t get a hit every four hours — and a bit of Forza Motorsport 3 as well.

I’ve finally wrapped my head around how to play really well in PES, and also how to find what I’m looking for in the menu structure. While I’m glad for the changes Konami’s made to the game, it took a while to dig through and translate things to my existing Winning Eleven/PES vocabulary. Many of the changes have been for the better — the new scouting format is thorough and a great extension of the way one would previously find new players for your team. As well, the creation of a “youth team” to filter regenerated players into your squad is much, much better than trying to look at a “new players” page in WE9. It retains the features PES’ Master League featured in the past, while adding new twists and a fresh coat of paint.

It’s hard to say that Forza 3 is an old friend, but it’s been around since October…which is and isn’t a long time in gaming. Jumping back in to Forza, I rediscovered both how fun the game engine is, how expansive and creative the paint editor allows you to be, and how much fun it can be to race online.

Speaking of racing online, the demo for Activision and Bizarre Creations’ Blur is out on Xbox Live, and it’s really, really damned fun. Think Bizarre’s previous series, Project Gotham Racing, mixed with Mario Kart’s frantic pace and use of weapons. The “boosts” in Blur are a bit less cartoony than the Nintendo series’ shells and banana peels, but just as effective; more importantly you can stock up three of them at once and switch between them at the fly. The game has real cars and glitzy circuits inspired by real locales, but — most importantly — has multiplayer modes hosting up to 10 players to race and talk shit and have fun. I played for an hour or so a couple nights ago with friends, and it was awesome.

Lastly, Nick and I headed in to downtown Portland to play at Ground Kontrol’s Rock Band Tuesday this week, but I think we’ll have more on that at a later time.

T. Hawk finally returns to the series, but it's not as though anyone really missed him. Dude's a jerk.

Nick

I can’t fathom why Blazers fans are still mourning their team’s loss in the first round of the playoffs. Sure, it’s a tragic ending for an underdog team with so much potential, but that’s in the past! Like, several-days-ago past! Everyone should be pumped to the bejesus because, as of this week, Street Fighter season is officially underway. And thanks to a stellar re-balanced reissue in Super Street Fighter IV, the series has never been in finer form. And all you holdouts and naysayers ought to listen up, because there’s never been a better time to dig into one of the deepest and most rewarding fighting games out there.

With its robust matchmaking features and variety of online play modes, Super Street Fighter IV makes it easier than ever to hop online and get your ass thoroughly kicked within seconds. But thanks to a relatively simple moveset with untold layers of depth and a pretty good training mode, you’ll be picking up the nuances of combat after just a few matches. You’ll begin to learn how to read enemies and to get a sense for what moves counter which attacks. And most importantly, you’ll get a sense for what makes a decades-old fighting game still feel so fun and fresh — and if you’re like me, you’ll find the allure hard to resist.

So go grab a copy — it’s a mere $40, after all — and hop on Xbox Live so you and I can throw down on a match or two. Feel free to send any fight requests to whymog; I’m always eager for a match.