Wow...I am lazy.

So it's been a while; a long while since I posted on this damn thing. Really the reasoning for it...I have no excuse. I have not been particularly busy, nor have I not been playing video games. I have been playing a ton of new games actually. I am not normally good with keeping up on new releases, for money reasons, interest reasons, etc, but these past 3-5 weeks have found me very busy in gaming. I guess I should break it all the hell down and talk about the games I have been playing, all of which have been fun in their own, unique way. Then after all of that, I want to talk about booze. Actually wait, let's talk about booze first. Ya know...after the jump.



So I have been reading a great blog for the last few days. Normally the blogs I read with any regularity are about World of Warcraft, cause really, that game has so much you could have a million blogs on the topic, and they would all be different. However this one I came across while going through the backposts of another great site, The Drunken Moogle. The Art of Pairing Video Games with Booze is a great blog started earlier this year in which the author, Ben Saller talks about games being thematically coupled with some sort of alcohol. Now this guy is more of a booze aficionado than I could really hope to be, but I have to say his writing makes me miss the day where I drank something besides Bud Light and Captain Morgan. I am a big fan of being intoxicated, especially when playing some great, mindless video games, but Ben here takes it to a new, much more artistic level. I have to say, playing New Super Mario Bros with friends and Bud Light is great, but it is hardly high-brow. He has great insight into what makes each sampling of alcohol great, and (usually) can pair those sort of stirred up tastes, and emotions into the feel of a great video game. Anyway to my total readership of most likely zero, I advise both sites be visited immediately. Anyway, while I do love me some booze, I should really talk about games, namely the games I have been playing.

First of all, Transformers: War for Cybertron, was a pretty good one player game. I am probably not the best person to talk about this really because I am not someone who plays Halo, or Gears of War, or Killzone...whatever. I am not a shooter guy, as in I am not normally hopped to the eyeballs on Ritalin, making sure I need to see a sweet ass fucking explosion of Michael Bay pants-creaming proportions every six seconds, lest I lose my hard-earned PvP hardon. So aside from that...tirade-lite, I thought the campaign mode in Transformers was a great amount of fun, especially the Autobot side of things. By no means are the Decepticons boring, I just found the Autobot banter more uplifting. There was only so many times I could put up with Starscream or Megatron threatening a subordinate. The gun-play is tight, and the levels are well designed. There is a sprawling feeling to each level which is needed, considering the transforming abilities of each character. Also, one of the greatest feats in the game, as far as I can tell, you never quite feel like you need to either be in robot form, or vehicle form. I have spent time in one room using both forms, giving combat a huge amount of diversity, while allowing the player to craft their own playstyle.

Also, as is expected now, especially since the movies, the world of the Autobots is so much more colorful. The Decepticons deal in more subdued tones, a lot of blue, muted greens, and gray. This though, is a huge step up from the current movie series where the only color the Decepticons have ever heard of is Gunmetal. Where as the Autobots have Optimus, Ironhide, and Sideswipe, who are all bright fucking red, Bumblebee who is appropriately yellow.

Lastly the part of this game that has me coming back even after I beat it is the multiplayer aspect.  Take everything I said about the sprawling levels and diverse combat, and throw that together with Team Fortress class based play, and RPG style leveling up. Oh, then throw in the option to customize your Autobot and Decepticon looks and colors. It wins with all of that there. Lack of maps take away a bit from the experience. But then again I was never one to notice much diversity in shooter's multiplayer maps anyway. So fuck it, I do not care that there are only 6 maps. I'm not starting at walls and ramp placement anyway, I just want motherfuckers to blow up. The game is fun, come for the single player, stay for the PvP.

I meant to write about two other games I am playing lately. But today at work has been to say the least, extremely odd. So my desire to write has left me. I am gonna go play some Dragonquest IX and then maybe tomorrow write something about that and Crackdown 2.