It's been a while since I played a game offline.

For the last few months I was playing the crap out of Mercenaries 2's co-op campaign. It left me with a bland, metallic taste in my mouth. The delayed DLC which hit PSN recently was pretty sub-par. I only skimmed through it's contents, but four challenge missions, a tank that might've rolled off the set of Mad Max 4 and Obama/Palin skins smells like straight up filler, to me. I knew I had the right idea when I posted that picture of a bologna sandwich in one of my previous blog posts..

I quickly forgot about Merc's glaring issues with my return to the world of Warhawk. Climbing my way to Wingman rank granted me...well, pretty much nothing. So little infarct, that I was outraged. It's absurd to think that 2500 points later, all I got to unlock was a wife beater for my Eucadian dude...insanity!!!
Don't get me wrong, I still love to play Warhawk, but since obtaining a dirty undershirt for my soldier I've been approaching rank-up differently: taking it in stride, not necessarily having my gaming time dictated by the necessity to earn another 5000 points as quickly as I can. What will I unlock next? A wrist watch? Come on...

The other day my area received about a foot of snow. It was my day off from another ridiculous work week, I had no obligations and a plate of cheese and crackers on my desk...and so I put on a little game called LOST PLANET.



This is why I miss the offline experience. It's all here in this game..

It's old, it's just another third person shooter/adventure title, but some things about this game really strike me..maybe because it reminds me of a dumbed-down version of BIONIC COMMANDO, which I eagerly anticipate..but to put it simply, it's the combination of tight controls, monster fights reminiscent of Shadow of The Colossus, mech game play and the integral necessity of obtaining heat energy. It's not a particularly dense game..but I'm the type of guy that loves the idea of being resourceful in a snowy wasteland. Exploring for those dumb spinning coins, and having a bunch of memorable, kick-ass gunfights the whole way through.

LOST PLANET reminds me that I can still have fun playing games by myself. Taking it all at my own pace, I can romp around in a virtual wasteland of snow and ice, fighting vicious beasts with gun and grenade..ah, the demons of Winter.