Its been a while...

Almost two years really. A lot has changed since I last bothered to post anything on this page. We're now college students, and its been an interesting year for the industry. Anyways, let's just get right down to what I've been playing:

Batman: Arkham Asylum

You've probably heard all of the gushing reviews and praise for this game, and much of it is well-deserved. Rocksteady has done a fine job of transplanting the essence of Batman from the comics, movies, and TV shows to the format of a game. This is particularly noticeable when you look at the talent they brought in on this project. First off, Paul Dini, known for his work on the emmy-winning Batman animated series from the 90's, was brought in to do all of the writing and it shows. Bringing in Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill to reprise their roles as Batman and the Joker, also helps bring Dini's writing to life. It's going to feel familiar to anyone who's watched the animated series, and overall it complements the games atmosphere.

As far as the gameplay goes, there is definitely variety, but not to the point that the consistency of the quality is compromised. Everything from the combat system to the platforming, to the detective modes, and the various gadgets feel very fluid, and well implemented.

My only complaint is that the boss fights are rather repetitive and lack much variety, and that the final boss battle is very underwhelming when compared with the rest of the games. It's a shame that such a great experience ends on such a flat note, but on the whole it's not bad enough to ruin the entire experience.

Burnout: Paradise

It's been nearly two years since Burnout hit the 360 and PS3, and for some strange reason I'm playing it again. Why? Blame it on the Steam Holiday Sale. At only $7.49, I went ahead and repurchased the game on the PC. Put simply, it's Burnout Paradise on the PC with the added ability to tweak your video settings and what-not. Visually the game looks great running on my mid-level 15-inch MacBook Pro (4GB Ram, 256MB nVidia 9600M GT) even on the lowest settings, and the controls are pretty responsive on the keyboard, though a controller is probably the best way to pay the game. As I said earlier, it's basically Burnout Paradise, which is already a great arcade racing game, on the PC with all of the performance benefits that entails. And for only $7.49, you really can't go wrong.

That's it for today. I've only just started to get into Assassin's Creed 2, and I still need another day to formulate what I want to say about Left 4 Dead 2 and Modern Warfare 2.