I'm sure many of you have the same problem as I: playing too many games at once. I try to be good and finish a game on a console before I start the next one, but then reality happens and the publishers start dumping the titles on our faces as we drown in a sea of happy (spoiler: it tastes like sad) all the while acting like caffeine dosed school children. It's because of this that I decided to do this "Gaming Buckshot." The idea behind it is to take a few games I'm playing and write some short thoughts on them. If anybody wants to take part in this, please do; I like to share (hands off my cookies).





Jericho (360): I played the PS3 demo and was wholly unimpressed, but I decided to give the full game a rent to see if I was less confused and overwhelmed. Thankfully, I am. Unfortunately the game is rather "meh." The story, concerning God's original creation, The Firstborn -- which looks like Lemon, btw -- its exile, jealousy of man and eventual release is some pretty cool Barker material. However, the dialogue and voice acting is some serious community college level tripe and I'm just not feeling the "super psychic" commando squad aspect even if the powers are rather nifty. It's not an awful game, but I hope the next time there's a "Clive Barker Apostrophe S" in a game's title, it's a slower paced horror title with less boom-boom and more "I might pee myself." Undying this most certainly isn't.





Dementium: The Ward: I won't say how I'm able to play this game before its release. I will say that it's a rather amazing DS game that should be a must-buy for horror fans. From the get go, after the very vague and creepy intro, I was amazed at how incredibly smooth the game controlled. It was seriously like sliding silk along the touch screen, which is how you control your view a la Metroid Prime: Hunters. To get the full effect, I highly recommend you play with headphones on. The music is put to great effect, being very minimal, usually featuring a creepy music box plunk that really helps push the mood they're going for. Plus, spinning around to shine the flashlight towards zombie groans is fantastic. My only real gripe so far is with melee combat. For me it feels like you have to be in a weird spot to hit an enemy because even when I'm right up in their grill I have to step back to make my swing connect. Buy it; you'll need something after Zelda and before Contra 4 anyways.





Beautiful Katamari: If you've played the PS2 versions, you've played this -- I left out PSP because the controls were hateful. That's not a bad thing, especially with the $40 price tag and the ability to roll up 360s during your adventure. It's still a great game even though I seem to really suck at nailing requests and the controls are a tad sluggish. The epic multiplayer helped Butmac and I practice diplomacy with Canada and Japan (spoiler: We creamed them); we also won bountiful amounts of cookies. Protip: don't be a jerk and throw your cookies.





Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (360): WOW! How did they make this game so f'in good? They could've made another "doofus in a lab" FPS but instead they gave us huge outside environments, slick "cut-scenes" and the best weapon ever, The Gravity Gun. Valve should be given a Nobel Prize for Awesome and Peanut Butter Cups for this gift to gamers. I don't want it to end :(





Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure: You know how I feel, but I need to say again that I LOVE THIS GAME. It may be hard in places to the point where I want to have a Wiimote "accident" but my stoicism will not allow me to use a walkthrough. I spent an hour on a boss level last night that was damn satisfying when I finally stopped being stupid and figured it out. We need more games like this and you need to buy it if you haven't already. Cupid, please hear my cry.


That's how I'm getting my game on as of late, what about the rest of you? Anything "under the radar" that's tickling you in the submarine parts that we should know about?