Current gaming

Lately I've been playing a ton of Rock Band on the 360, all of the downloadable songs are like a direct injection of addiction juice: I just got the Oasis three pack last night, great songs to play.

I'm getting in a good helping of Team Fortress 2 on the PC, it is fun, but damn frustrating when the people I play with are all dramatically better than I am. I can sort of justify it by saying my computer is getting old, and it hurts my performance, but I think in reality, I am getting old.

I've been doing daily attempts at the Burnout Paradise Demo on the 360. I really want to get Burnout Paradise, but the demo has this awful habit of locking up my 360 after a few minutes. My latest suspicion is that going too fast makes some chip get too hot in the 360. I will have to rent the full game and see if it still locks up, if not, I'm buying this game, it is just so much fun with a small part of the city and one car, I can't wait to see it with the full map and more cars out there.

I usually play Gears of War on the 360 every Friday night. Nothing caps off a week like going machine guns and chainsaws in two teams of 4. I'm so very inconsistent in that game that it isn't even funny. I can go 5 rounds as the first one dead, then hit a round where I take out most of the enemy team. It tends to stay fun, even when doing poorly, and the FIOS connection makes me a good host, so I get to contribute even when I'm doing terribly.

I am still involved in a turn-a-day game of Civilization 4. After nearly three months, we are up to 800AD. I have gone from last place in points, to third, and now back to the middle of the pack. I've established friendly relationships with the only two nations I've seen, and soon I will be venturing out into the open waters to attempt to make contact with the rest of the world. When I can afford the time, there is a group of players I join on Sundays to play a game. This is a rare opportunity for me, and so far I have only participated twice, but both times were really fun. This game just never gets old for me.

I try to keep up with raising Pokemon in Diamond on the DS. Allison just LOVES mocking me for it, but I love the strategic aspect of raising the little guys for battle, planning how to get the best moves for them, and taking them into a real competition. Sadly, McGuire doesn't really play his Pokemon games much, so I tend to be matched up against the CPU, or rarely one of McGuire's friends who is a great opponent and a really good kid. I love the internet for even making this possible.

My iPod has Peggle on it, which gets whipped out every so often, it really is a perfect 5 minute distraction.

On the list of games that I really want to play, but am having a hard time making the time for (this gets embarrassing):
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Super Mario Galaxy
Mario Strikers: Charged
Bioshock
System Shock 2
Vampire: The Masquerade
Psychonauts
Halo 3
Chromehounds