Gruel's Game-a-Thon

-Hello everybody! It feels like I haven't updated in forever, where in reality it has probably only been about a week since my update, and a ton has happened since. So let's get to it.

-In anticipation of the new Hulk movie and game coming out (the game came out last Friday, oddly a week before the flick), I finally started up Hulk: Ultimate Destruction on the Xbox. I am in chapter two with about three hours invested thus far. I definitely like the direction this game went for, all about Hulk raising a ruckus and causing as much mayhem as possible. Ripping vehicles apart and attaching them to Hulk's fists to make them even more leathal, now that's freaking awesome. Equally so is Hulk making huge leaps off of, and running up tall skyscrapers. My only main problem with Ultimate Destruction so far is the camera can be pretty touchy and get in the way of the action from time to time. Otherwise, I'm having a riot with this, and regretting I didn't start it up earlier. I want to beat this and then check out the new game, which I watched Matt play at his place yesterday. The new Hulk game on 360 looks to go in the same direction as Ultimate Destruction, though seems a little more limited on Hulk's arsenal of destruction capabilities (which is kind of odd to admit, since Hulk can now actually demolish buildings from their foundation). Matt loved Ultimate Destruction, and says the new Hulk game is still fun, but is disappointing compared to the last game, though he admits to liking it more and more as he progresses.

-I got a good amount of DS time in while out of town the weekend before last. I made a lot of progress in Hotel Dusk and Mario Tennis on GBA. Mario Tennis is the same awesome Sports-RPG hybrid that the GameBoy Color version was. You level up your characters after earning experience from moving up the singles and doubles ranks, and there is even an involving story attached to the whole experience too. I also completed Super Dodge Ball Brawlers on DS, making it the 7th game I completed this year. Granted, it's main mode was a simple 10 team tournament romp against the computer AI which only took me about two hours to beat, but dammit I'm going to count it! I loved Dodge Ball on the NES, and this is the first Dodge Ball game since to capture the same amount of fun and intensity as that version.

I talk about Mario Tennis and Dodge Ball Brawlers in more detail in my latest podcast, which also has a review for the newest PC MMO, Age of Conan (download - http://www.monkeyspike.com/ontap/vgp-ep60.mp3. Speaking of the podcast, if you subscribe to the old RSS or iTunes feed, stay tuned here for a new feed link to subscribe to since I have been unable to upload to the old RSS past few weeks. Chris and I have a new site in the works for the podcast, and it should be going live within a week or two. I'll make sure to have the new feed links here as soon as they're ready, so stay tuned!

-In other gaming news, I finally got some good non-DVD, actual game time out of my PS3 yesterday. I got my wireless connection set up to it so now I don't have to go bother switching the damn ethernet cable from the 360 to PS3 all the time now. This allowed me to finally give the new PS Store a thorough looksee. I didn't mind the old setup as much as other people, but the new store is a significant step up. It runs incredibly smoother, far easier to navigate and search through older content, and little icons let me know if I already downloaded particular items. Awesome thing about PS Store (which I'm surprised I don't hear many other people bringing up) is that all PS3 Wallpapers and Themes are free, compared to Xbox Live charging $2-$3 for nearly every damn theme they put up.

For PS3 gaming, I've been playing through the Resistance campaign in co-op with Chris, we're about halfway through. I'm having a pretty good time with it so far, I'm a nut for history so I like the alternate WWII/alien invasion route Insomniac is going with. I also finally got around to playing the second game of the MLB08 league I'm in yesterday. Mr. Torgo bested me again, 4-0, but at least I managed several hits and a couple sleek double plays in there. One of these days I got to pick up Motorstorm again, I got stuck on getting past the second event and never got back to it. I'm disappointed in myself. Speaking of rally racing games, anyone see previews for that new BaJa game? I guess the fact there's going to be a 4 hour endurance race in there has me interested in giving the game a shot. It's from the folks who worked on MX vs ATV Untamed, but it'll be minus the quads and dirt bikes which I wasn't that much a fan of in Untamed, but I had a blast with the Off Road and Monster Truck racing.

-I saved the best moment for last in the blog. A couple days ago, my buddies Scott, Chris and I got together and did the impossible. We completed the 58 song Endless Set list in Rock Band! That's 58 songs straight (we pause a few times for breaks), and it tooks us seven hours total to do, but we did the unimaginable! I never thought we would pull that off, but completing that setlist will definitely go down as one of my all time favorite gaming moments. I now have the achievement to remember it by, so make sure to look at it, and bow before its awesomeness!

-That's all for now, later!