God damn it, I've got a splitting headache and I really want my sheets, but I aint going to bed until I tell you about these two games.



* Arkanoid Plus if s WiiWare game that costs 600 Wii points. It is consists of the exact same levels of the original Arcade Arkanoid, plus it has a time trial mode, 2-player, and a couple of other extras.

- It also has new music, which sounds shitty and bad. To be more specific, it sounds like stereotypical, soulless, idea-less techno music. I'd turn it off.

- The game doesn't use any motion controls, which is sort of dumb. They worked so well in Bit.Trip Beat that you'd just assume they'd be implemented here. That said, the d-pad controls work fine. You can even adjust the speed of that little Tylenol thing (Vaos? Valos? I can't remember...). It's nothing spectacular, but nothing to complain about either.

- For 200 Wii points more, you can download 61 new levels, which contain a whole new boss. I haven't beaten them all yet, but so far they are way more interesting than the arcade-based levels. The graphics are also a little prettier.

-In summation, it's nice to have arcade Arkanoid in my life, even nices to get the 61 new levels. I'm glad I bought it. I think it may be worse than the XBLA version though, so if you have that, don't get this.



* Dead Space Extraction came out today, and in someways it's pretty surprising, in others it's exactly what you'd expect.

- I was surprised by how closely the game comes to looking like the original Dead Space, and even Bioshock at times. Very moody set design here. The first few seconds of gameplay really caught me off guard. I thought I was playing the 360 Dead Space. The graphics do slip in and out of PS2-looking territory no and again. Overall though, the game is fun to look at.

- There is a lot more psychological terror than I figured. There aren't any "real" monsters (necromorphs if you're nasty) for the first half hour or so, but still plenty of death and trouble. There is a scene a little past the middle of the second chapter that really took me aback. It's sort of like crazy-scope of Eternal Darkness, except turned up a notch, and with a crowd. There are also quite a few Bioshock moments with lumpy people going crazy. Everyone's going crazy in this game. Anyone could be the next killer. Again, pretty fun stuff.

- There is tons of story so far, way more dialog than there are enemies. People are talking to each other all the time, then suddenlt trying to kill each other. For the most part, the acting is quite good, and there is already one character that I really hope survives for a while.

- They probably wont survive, because so far, no one is safe. Anybody could die at anytime.

- I'm much more frustrated with the game being on-rails than I thought I would. I like on-rails games just fine, but I really want to get out an explore this world. I really hope they make another story-based, co-op Dead Space like this that's a FPS or 3PD sequel to this game, even if they just end up using a lot of the same graphics. It would still be worth it.

- The music is well written, but sometimes poorly placed. It will be filled with adrenaline-inducing gusto when nothing really scary if happening. That's the exception though, not the rule, but still, those exceptions really stand out sometimes.

- The cross-hairs are a little too big. They'll sometimes obscure an enemy that's really far away.

-This game takes itself extremely seriously.

- Challenge mode is a lot of fun so far, very arcade-y.

- The game includes at least 6 "digital comics" from the Dead Space IDW run, drawn by Ben Templesmith. Those six comics together would have cost at least $15, so that's a deal right there.

* Ok, that's it, I gots to get some sleep!

Good night, y'all.