Santa was good to us. We asked for a lot of games, and boy did he deliver.
First off, there was Rock Band. The 40-pound box took some doing to unpack, assemble and get running (you need an included powered USB hub just to get all of the wired controllers connected!). But it was worth it! The drums are remarkable and feel rather realistic once you get the hang of them. We spent Christmas Eve at the Experience Music Project getting a handle on the real thing, and these are reasonably good knockoffs. I quickly learned to keep my right stick on the main drum, my foot on the kick pedal and the left stick (crossed over the right one) tapping between the cymbals and fill.
Even more surprising was how natural the guitar felt. After playing the original Guitar Hero on the PS2 and Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360, I was a little burned out on feeling like an inferior strummer. But I immediately felt at home with Rock Band and even started using hammer ons and offs - a technique I never felt comfortable doing with the prior games. We haven't tried vocals or coop play yet. My only gripe is the usual one with these games: The music controllers can interfere with other titles if you don't unplug them.
Which brings me to The Orange Box (my Xbox 360 seems to think I should play it with drum pads!). I only found time for about half an hour of Portal, but so far it's amazing - sort of a hybrid of casual game and first-person shooter. I also intend to play through all of Half-Life 2, which I skipped since I prefer my shooters on the console rather than with a keyboard and mouse.
Xander (now nearly 5) tapped some drums, but mostly grooved on his big ask from Santa: Bee Movie Game. As kids games go, it's not bad - not as intensely difficult as Ratatouille (360 version) and it has a free-roaming section at the start that Xan tooled around in for about an hour before he realized the story wasn't advancing. The twitch sections (where you tap buttons and directions a la Shenmue II) are a little too advanced for him since he hasn't memorized the controller buttons yet. But with a little help he should be able to find plenty to do.
We did play some Super Mario Galaxy, which is good so far but hasn't knocked my socks off yet. Xander was interested in playing the co-op mode where he can point things out to me, but mostly used his mouth rather that the Wii-mote - which he hasn't quite gotten the hang of yet. We've kept him away from the Wii since he gets a little crazy at times and we don't want him throwing the controller into the TV or at a person or cat.
I also got Ratchet and Clank Future, but haven't cracked it yet. Our major use for the PS3 this holiday was as a Blu-Ray player. We enjoyed the Pixar Short Collection, Cars and the workprint version of Blade Runner (which we were lucky enough to see in an arthouse several years back). So far, the Blu-Ray experience has been great. Everything we played today was flawless, unlike several past experiences with our Toshiba HD-DVD player.
Speaking of screw ups, you may recall my Black Friday foray to secure a Leapster. We let Xander get into it on Christmas Eve as part of our tradition of opening something early. Five minutes later, the thing locked up and then failed to ever restart. He took it quite well, but was clearly disappointed. Good thing I didn't buy it online; we'll be exchanging it in the morning.
Completing our gamer's Christmas: a Halo 3 Master Chief T-shirt and Grunt faceplate, Silent Hill Origins for PSP, the Assasin's Creed artbook and game guide and Stranglehold with Hard Boiled for PS3.
So, what did you get for the holidays?
-=Gamewatcher
First off, there was Rock Band. The 40-pound box took some doing to unpack, assemble and get running (you need an included powered USB hub just to get all of the wired controllers connected!). But it was worth it! The drums are remarkable and feel rather realistic once you get the hang of them. We spent Christmas Eve at the Experience Music Project getting a handle on the real thing, and these are reasonably good knockoffs. I quickly learned to keep my right stick on the main drum, my foot on the kick pedal and the left stick (crossed over the right one) tapping between the cymbals and fill.
Even more surprising was how natural the guitar felt. After playing the original Guitar Hero on the PS2 and Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360, I was a little burned out on feeling like an inferior strummer. But I immediately felt at home with Rock Band and even started using hammer ons and offs - a technique I never felt comfortable doing with the prior games. We haven't tried vocals or coop play yet. My only gripe is the usual one with these games: The music controllers can interfere with other titles if you don't unplug them.
Which brings me to The Orange Box (my Xbox 360 seems to think I should play it with drum pads!). I only found time for about half an hour of Portal, but so far it's amazing - sort of a hybrid of casual game and first-person shooter. I also intend to play through all of Half-Life 2, which I skipped since I prefer my shooters on the console rather than with a keyboard and mouse.
Xander (now nearly 5) tapped some drums, but mostly grooved on his big ask from Santa: Bee Movie Game. As kids games go, it's not bad - not as intensely difficult as Ratatouille (360 version) and it has a free-roaming section at the start that Xan tooled around in for about an hour before he realized the story wasn't advancing. The twitch sections (where you tap buttons and directions a la Shenmue II) are a little too advanced for him since he hasn't memorized the controller buttons yet. But with a little help he should be able to find plenty to do.
We did play some Super Mario Galaxy, which is good so far but hasn't knocked my socks off yet. Xander was interested in playing the co-op mode where he can point things out to me, but mostly used his mouth rather that the Wii-mote - which he hasn't quite gotten the hang of yet. We've kept him away from the Wii since he gets a little crazy at times and we don't want him throwing the controller into the TV or at a person or cat.
I also got Ratchet and Clank Future, but haven't cracked it yet. Our major use for the PS3 this holiday was as a Blu-Ray player. We enjoyed the Pixar Short Collection, Cars and the workprint version of Blade Runner (which we were lucky enough to see in an arthouse several years back). So far, the Blu-Ray experience has been great. Everything we played today was flawless, unlike several past experiences with our Toshiba HD-DVD player.
Speaking of screw ups, you may recall my Black Friday foray to secure a Leapster. We let Xander get into it on Christmas Eve as part of our tradition of opening something early. Five minutes later, the thing locked up and then failed to ever restart. He took it quite well, but was clearly disappointed. Good thing I didn't buy it online; we'll be exchanging it in the morning.
Completing our gamer's Christmas: a Halo 3 Master Chief T-shirt and Grunt faceplate, Silent Hill Origins for PSP, the Assasin's Creed artbook and game guide and Stranglehold with Hard Boiled for PS3.
So, what did you get for the holidays?
-=Gamewatcher
I envy your initially play through of Half Life 2. I typically don't care about achievements since many are online and I don't play online. I play though a game and let the achievements fall where they may. But when I got the "Defiant" achievement I had to read through all of them. I plan on a repeat play though of HL2 and going for all of them, even "Little Rocket Man". I use GameFly so this Christmas I asked for older games. I got the Half Life 1 Anthology and The Longest Journey an adventure game I missed back in the 90's when I was playing though the Monkey Island series. I am glad you finally completed your quest to obtain Rock Band.