Man, I hate the title of this post. The more I play games, the more I become frustrated with bad design decisions like those found in Dead Rising and Trauma Center. On the other side of that, a game like Kong gets me excited and wanting to play more.

Dead Rising

I have been looking forward to Dead Rising since it came out, I read all about the save system and thought it would not affect my experience with the game. I couldn’t have been more wrong. There is nothing worse than making it through a difficult part of the game, turning around and not being able to get away from a zombie. You start all the way back at the last bathroom you saved at, which is sometimes a ten minute walk accross the mall.

The save system isn’t the only issue I have with the game. It seems like everytime you turn around there is a new cut scene to load and watch. Sometimes its as lame as, load new area, load cut scene, watch sut scene, load new area, walk two feet, load cut scene etc. And the cut scene was a dude opening a gate! Its pretty annoying.

Trauma Center

I started out loving this game, but during the third surgery something ruined it for me. You have to use a magnifying glass to get in closer to your subject’s affected area and in order for it to work you have to draw a perfect circle very quickly, which for me was near impossible. I can try it twenty times in a row many different ways and not get it to work. Your surgeries are timed, so you have to get this perfect on the first try in order to get past the stage. I couldn’t. I shut down the system, took out the cartridge and sent it back to Game Fly. To let something as simple as a magnifying glass to ruin a game was a major oversight by the developers.

King Kong

Kong has refreshingly simple design. No hud, no inventory, no jump button, no “switch weapons” button, you have no aiming reticle unless your weapon is drawn and there are no health packs. Just like the movie, the developers make you care about Kong and when you control him, you feel powerful. King Kong is a really great game and gets me excited for Peter Jackson’s future games.

I am listening to the Sirius Satellite Reggae channel and it is reminding me of our cruise vacation this year. What an outstanding trip. During the cruise I was starting to get a little claustrophobic in the evening and wanted to get home. But now with the weather dipping below 40° all I want to do is go back.

We snorkled in Hondorus, floated through giant caves down a river in a Belize rain forest (it actually rained a lot) and saw Mayan ruins in Mexico. Where else can you do all that and drink un-pasteurized Red Stripe?

Pugapalooza took place this past weekend (2006-10-07) and it was a great success! We raised over $3,500 for Pittsburgh area animal shelters. Go to the website to download some desktops and learn more about the event.

I borrowed Jeff’s Nikon D50 for the weekend and I have grown to love it. Below are a few of my favorite photos from the weekend.

Abbey at Pugapalooza

Matilda at Pugapalooza

Penelope chewing her kong bone

IGN has a feature on their website that gives their top five of the Barecelona X06 show that took place last week. Looking at the list, including those that did not “make the cut”, I want to play almost every one of them. Of the 14, I really want to play 11, and two I have already played. HL2 and F.E.A.R. With the WII coming out, my DS, my PSP and PC I don’t know when I will ever have time to play all of them.

Read IGN’s X06: The Barcelona Top Five

I am a coaster geek, everyone who knows me knows this. I thought this old Gemini ad was awesome. Who saves this stuff, captures it and puts it on YouTube!? Awesome.

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