Flashing News! I'm old!

I recently picked up Madden 2008 for my 360 and promptly put the disk away to reaccess myself. I've been a Madden player since my Genesis days and have always enjoyed the series, I even considered myself good. I moved to PSX and PS2 without any problems. Madden 2008 has me stumped. Either I have lost a step or the game has evolved too much from my 2007 PS2 version and I just can't keep pace. I actually took the manual to work today to study it... sad...

Finished Crackdown

As always I'm late to the party (I save money that way), Crackdown has been probably the best console experience I've had since I completed PsyOps on PS2. Even before I had my 360 I knew this was the type of game I could get into. The reviews mentioned that it was short on story, which is fine, I don't have the time anyway. What it does have is plenty of explosions and action and just enough game play and easy achievements.

I started Crackdown on the 21 June and was done 25 June and there's still plenty for me to do. I plan on resetting the crime and attempting to get all of the Agility Orbs. What I really liked about the game was the open missions structure. The missions can be completed in any order, but it's advisable to follow the order they give you for taking out the gangs. If you run up on the the Volk or Shai Gen in the early stages before you have leveled up sufficiently you will die, fast and often. There no need to mention graphics, they're good. What does stand out is the game play and physics. Crackdown stands out from GTA and Saints Row because of your avatars ability to go vertical. The sense of jumping through the air and landing with an earth shaking thud is exhilarating.

Now that the Halo 3 beta is over this game can be had for cheap on eBay, it's a definite buy. I don't know if I would've given $60 for it new, but at $29 it was a steal.

Older Gamer Different Gamer?

Lately I've been playing plenty of Puzzle Quest on my daughter's Nintendo DS. Playing is putting it lightly, more like obsessed! The I won't go into the specifics of the game, you can just follow the link, but suffice to say it's a little Bejeweled, a little RPG and a lot of addictive gameplay.

Spending so much time playing Puzzle Quest really got me thinking about my changing gaming habits. I consider myself a hardcore gamer, without the time to invest in the hobby like I did in the past. I listen to loads of podcasts and read tons of reviews but lately find myself having to be satisfied by that. I buy plenty of games, but rarely finish any of them. The last game I finished was Half-Life 2 and before that Deus Ex. Everything else I have to play in short doses, which makes portable gaming so intriguing to me.

So now I'm at a crossroads so to speak. In my house there's a PS2, 2 DS's a PC and a couple of notebooks. I have been wanting an Xbox 360 for sometime now, but I really don't know if I'll get maximum use out of it. I've looked hard at the PSP but don't want to buy it with the rumors of a console refresh flying about. Decisions Decisions....