What I'm playing this week

While the Xbox Live Gamercard on the right side of this blog will always be a good indication as to what I'm playing, I figured that I should write a post each week detailing which games are currently vying for my attention. Whether Civ decides to do something similar or not, well that's up to him. If anything though, these posts will be a good excuse for me to offer a few thoughts on a game (say for example, if I recently purchased it) or to detail my progress for future reference. So without further ado, here is what I have been playing in the past week or so.

Mass Effect

Unfortunately for me, I missed the launch of this game due to various reasons. While most of you were out saving the galaxy from a Rogue Spectre, I was silently weeping as I saw nearly everyone on my friends list playing the game and a massive amount of forum posts discussing the newly released game. I can however say that the (extra) wait was worth it, as this game has completely blown me away. I expected it would, actually (something I will elaborate on in a future post) but even with particularly high expectations for the game, I have been blown away with the game's brilliance. It's everything I wanted it to be and so much more. I may not have progressed too far into the story just yet (despite playing it for nearly 30 hours), but I honestly couldn't care either. I'm massively (no pun intended) immersed within this game and I look forward to continuing my adventures aboard the Normandy and throughout the Milky Way in the near future.

Forza 2

I am re-visiting this title after not having played it for quite a few months. There were a few reasons behind that, with the main one being that the game was freezing a lot due to my 360's disc drive (or so it seems) not reading games as well as it used to anymore. Regardless of that though, my return to the game has been an enjoyable one. I have been playing it online with a few friends which has been pretty damn fun. Not only that but it is helping me gain some Online Credits so I can get my final achievement from the game. I have also been setting lap times in the Time Trials (and I will be doing Hot Laps after that) after realising that my originally set times were wiped when Turn10 (the developers) wiped the scoreboards due to a few reasons. My original times were quite high (top 200 in the world) so they unfortunately got wiped and I'm now working on getting back up there.

Rainbow Six: Vegas

When I first got this game, I played through it once in Co-Op and then left it on the shelf to gather dust after that. I don't know why I didn't play it but it got ignored in favour of other games that I was playing at the time. I'm playing it now to finish it by myself and despite the fact that I am finding it quite hard, I'm loving it. The game looks brilliant and I don't think that is just because it is set in Sin City. As I said before, I am finding it hard but I think that's just making me enjoy it more as I love a good challenge in my gaming. Not to mention something different, which is what Vegas is compared to what I would normally play.

Okami (PS2)

I started playing through this last month due to the aforementioned 360 problems that I was having. While those problems are now fixed, I still can't help but play this game. Even if only for that absolutely gorgeous art direction alone. Seriously, words cannot describe just how beautiful that art direction is on paper, let alone when you see it in motion. Thankfully the game itself is also pretty damn fun to play, so I'm getting the best of both worlds and loving every minute of it.

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Well, those are the games I have been playing in the past week or so. Check back next week for another update on what I am playing and if by chance people are actually reading this, feel free to let us know what you are playing (and perhaps even why) as well.