Unfortunately, tonight is the season finale of Top Chef, which means Mrs. Buttonmasher rules the TV until late. I’ll still be on later if anyone wants to play!
Halo: Reach
Video Game Power Rankings #10
This week’s Power Rankings is a little mix of everything. This week we actually had two stories that could have taken the top spot, but I had to go with my orb-loving heart this week.
1. (-) Crackdown 2 – Crackdown was one of the most anticipated games of 2010 and had a lot to live up to. So after playing the demo and being underwhelmed, I wondered how it would be received by the gaming populous. With all the expectations, it was a bit disappointing to see reviews all over the place in terms of scores. Worthplaying said “A newly designed city and seamless co-op aren’t enough to overcome the game’s ho-hum missions or general lack of content.” But Co-optimus says “But it truly is everything you loved about the original game with plenty of more things to do and minor improvements all around,” giving it a higher score for it’s Co-Op action. I’m still looking forward to playing and collecting orbs no matter the score. We’ll see how long that lasts.
2. (-) Blizzard Forums – So Blizzard decided that maybe it would be a good idea to display players’ real names on their forums. You know, to put an end to forum trolls forever. At first blush, I thought it sounded like a pretty good idea. But it’s probably a pipe dream to think Blizzard can fix the troll problem with one silver bullet. And now Blizzard has called it off. That’s probably for the best. For now.
3. (-) Xbox Live – Speaking of hives of scum and villainy, it was reported last week that Xbox Live sales (a little of everything, I’m sure) surpassed $1B. That’s one billion dollars. That’s a lot of Avatar gear.
4. (-) Halo: Reach – Bungie celebrated Bungie day by releasing a teaser video with Red vs. blue announcing the return of the Blood Gulch map in the form of Big Blood Gulch for Halo: Reach. Feels just like home! Now just bring back Hang ‘Em High!
5. (-) Dragon Age 2 – In a surprise to pretty much no one, Bioware announced their upcoming sequel to Dragon Age (cleverly named Dragon Age 2). There was much rejoicing.
6. (-) Dragon Quest IX – Speaking of dragons (man I am the king of segues today!), the long awaited DQIX was released to the public. And it was good.
7. (9) NCAA 11 After watching this video review of NCAA 11, I was sold. All the new online dynasty goodies their releasing has me dreaming of doing my recruiting when I should be working. This game is going to be fun.
8. (1) OnLive – OnLive is going to live and die by how responsive the game capture and streaming community is becoming. A post at Eurogamer claims that OnLive’s performance is, “similar to playing Killzone 2 locally, and in line with Rare’s claims for lag when using the new Kinect camera controller.”
And that’s all I have to say about that.
In My (Digital) Hands
I know the Beta started Monday, but between kid duty on Monday nights and Lost on Tuesdays, this was the first chance I’ve had to download the Halo Reach Beta. I’ll be diving in as soon as I hit Publish.