I've recently become a little in love with Simon Amstell. Clips like the above, from his recent tenure as host of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, should show you why. He certainly did a better job of replacing Mark Lemarr than Ed Tudor-Pole did of replacing Richard O' Brien.
But enough of obscure reference to British nineties television. We played games this week and you can find out why, how, who and when right below.
DMV: Picked up Arcana Heart and have been alternating between that and God of War, a game which I am not at all enthralled with. But, I'm sure I'll play God of War II anyways.
Hamza: You got any change?
Nick: I popped in Unreal Tournament III for the Xbox 360 and am not at all surprised that it's just like Unreal Tournament III on the PlayStation 3, sans mods. I beat Parappa the Rapper on the PSP in less than a half an hour, and totally forgot how not-so-great that game actually is. If working on E3 scheduling and preparation were Xbox 360 games, I would have gotten 2000 achievement points.
Also, Rock Band.
Brad: I finished Hail to the Chimp in less than 2 hours, and laughed at how terrible it was. I have also still been traversing Brave Story: New Adventurer for the PSP. Brave Story is great thus far, and I wonder how deep the rabbit-hole goes with XSEED's PSP RPGs. Look at all those caps! It's a new record.
Jim: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow and The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass. Also finished replaying Half-Life 2 and Portal. Can't wait for Episode 3.
Grim: My brother bought a Wii this week and has been playing it constantly, which was a problem for me since I became addicted to Schizoid and both systems are hooked up to the same TV. When I wasn't gaming on a 360, I was playing Titan Quest, Dawn of War, and TMNT: Turtles in Time.
Chad: You know what is (not) fun? Playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the first time ever and not knowing that it was somehow set to Veteran (hardest) difficulty level. I seriously thought I was losing my skills as a gamer when I kept dying over and over again. It wasn't until I was stuck on the damn ferris wheel ambush for, literally, 4 HOURS when I realized the difficulty setting. And at that point I didn't want to start over ...
The good news: multiple hours and an ungodly amount of deaths later, I actually beat it! For the first time! On Veteran! I went from feeling bad about myself to feeling absolutely awesome! In fact, I think I will have a chocolate milkshake to celebrate my glorious victory!
I drink it up ...
Hamza: Wow, that's amazing Chad. That Ferris wheel portion IS a bitch.
Grim: You're my hero, Chad. There are 3 missions I can't beat on Veteran, and the ferris wheel level is one of them.
Colette: Just finished Under The Knife 2, but it made me want to go back for more so I am trying to replay the first game. It's hard as hell, but I can't help myself. I'm also playing Chocobo's Dungeon for Wii, which is fun and really cute, although I have to take breaks from it periodically. The voiceovers aren't bad, but Cid's makes me cringe. Does "US voiceover" have to translate to "talk to me like I'm mentally retarded"?
Niero: In between the few site updates this week I'm pretty sure that at some point I probably played with my balls. Who wants to borrow my keyboard?
Jonathan: Finally tracked down a copy of Gradius Collection for the PSP. Like COD4 made Chad question his skills as a gamer, Gradius Collection has caused my long standing image as an expert bullet dodger to become highly suspect. Two of the games on the UMD that I'd never played before, Gradius II and Gradius Gaiden, are nearly impossible to get through, even on the lowest difficulty level. I died less playing Contra 4 on normal. Seriously, it's that bad.
Also played some more user created levels in Blast Works, and got back into Zack and Wiki, both on Wii.
Brad: That's a hell of a coincidence, because I caught myself playing with Niero's balls this weekend as well. It's a pretty fun game, although it can get smelly after awhile.
Dale: I only played Daigasso Band Bros. DX last week, and it will be my Official E3 2008 Downtime Videogame. Unfortunately, looking at my schedule, it does not look like I'll have much downtime this week.
Gameboi: Other than forming a CoD4 version Voltron with the Friday Night Fights PS3 Brigade, this week was mostly dedicated to nursing my inner Rock Star, via Rock Star. I also spent way too much time playing around with the Guitar Hero: On Tour display at the local Toys R Us, if that counts.
VIDEO.DESTRUCTOID | JAPANATOR | TOMOPOP
7:25 PM on 07.13.2008 
