I'm officially drowning in great games to play right now. Not that I'm complaining, but it's quite hard to decide where to focus my (very) limited game time.
I picked up Uncharted 2, Ratchet & Clank, and NHL 10 as part of Best Buy's buy 2 get one free deal a few weeks ago. I've alternated between Ratchet & Clank and NHL 10 during the day on weekends since those are okay for the kids to see, and then played Uncharted 2 at night. That was a decently easy routine to follow...until Nov 10 that is. Now it seems that Modern Warfare 2 has consumed all my playtime.
But first let me talk about the other games. First, Uncharted 2. Wow, this is a gorgeous game. And not just the sweeping vistas, either. I can't recall ever seeing better facial animation in a game before. The gameplay seems pretty much the same as the first, which is fine with me. One thing that seems different is that the larger combat sections don't seem to drag on as long. However, I'm only at Chapter 9 so far, so that may change further in.
Ratchet & Clank is a lot of fun. I'm not too far in yet, but I've liked what I played. I do wish that there were more Clank missions though. The time recording mechanic puzzles are simply fantastic. I seem to have hit a long series of Ratchet missions, so hopefully I'll get some good Clank missions here soon.
NHL 10 is hands down the best sports game I've ever played, slightly eeking out Tiger Woods on the Wii with the Motion Plus. The Be a Pro mode adds so much to the game. I didn't own the '09 version, and I've heard that this year's incarnation is largely unchanged, but if this is how last year's played, then I see no reason for them to change much anyway.
So, Modern Warfare 2. I went with a buddy to pick it up at a midnight release at Walmart. We decided to get there around 11:15 to try and keep from getting too far back in line. As we pulled into the parking lot, we saw a line of about 300 people wrapped around the GameStop in the same shopping center. At this point we were worried that we would be waiting in line forever.
Much to our surprise (and delight), there was no one waiting at Walmart. In fact, the lady working at the electronics department had no idea what was going on. She had to ask a couple other people to find out if they even had the game.
After about 20 minutes some more people showed up and started to queue up behind us. By the time midnight rolled around there were probably about 30 - 40 people waiting. Now, I don't know if they just were clueless about what was going on at this particular Walmart, or if they really didn't have more copies, but they brought a stack of games that wasn't nearly enough for everyone waiting. My buddy and both bought our copies of the PS3 version. After I bought mine, I heard the manager who brought the games from the back say to the electronics lady, "Uh-oh, I hope no one else wants a PS3 one." Two copies, that's it. And probably another 20 or so for the 360. I figured that they had more in back that they missed, but on a subsequent grocery trip to the same Walmart the next day, I checked and saw no copies in the case. At least I got mine. :)
Anywho, the game is a blast. I finished up the single player campaign on Sunday, and really enjoyed it. Nothing groundbreaking, but definitely fun. The cinematic moments are really well done. It's not Citizen Kane or anything, but maybe along the lines of First Blood kind of feeling. You know, makes you want to get out and kick some ass type stuff.
Spec Ops seems pretty cool. I haven't tried it co-op yet, but am excited to give it a shot. Multiplayer is where this game shines though. I loved MW1 multiplayer, and had a lot of fun with WaW as well. I've never been particularly good though, and tend to get creamed in a lot of matches. The balancing in this game seems so well done. I've been able to compete at a decent level in pretty much every match I've played thus far. And all the little ways to earn experience that they've added are a great touch. The extra boost for stopping some one short of a kill streak, for instance. And the multitude of unlocks for each weapon loadout is great.
All-in-all, I should be pretty set for gaming for a while. At least my wife sure hopes so. ;-)
