I've been making my way through GamePass games lately. One of the benefits of the Coronavirus lockdown is that you get to use the time you would have used for commuting more productively.  For me, this means video games and reading.Even though I own the other two Crackdown games, I didn't want to buy Crackdown 3, mainly on account of the bad reviews, and because the price (on sale) has not dipped

Wow!  I can't believe that I made it to the end of my non-backward compatible reviews on the 360!  And, my 360 is now safely wrapped up, protected from dust and water.  This mini review is for Kane Lynch: Dead Men on the xbox 360. This game was completed in March 2019 (so I hope I remember much of it)The plot from Wikipedia:The game opens with a voiceover of ex-mercenary Adam 'Kane'

Another one of my quick-runs through xbox 360 games to get a sense of the story and the game.  This one is Capcom's Operation Racoon City, which is a game that falls into the Resident Evil franchise.I think this game did multiplayer co-op much better than Crackdown 2. I played the campaign part of this game back in January of this year. From what I can see you can only play this game online (maybe

Back in November of 2018 I tried out a game called "Dark" on my xbox 360. I had been going on a binge of games that are not backwards compatible to the xbox one, so I thought I'd give this a try.The reviews for this game were bad...quite bad! (Metacritic score of 38%).  But the price was right (next to free...) and the concept seemed like an interesting concept: The game follows the story

Last semester I began to play Far Cry 2 on my xbox 360 on my free time (free time, LOL - I suppose that's why it took this long to complete the game :p)  I got the game as part of a far cry pack a few winters ago, and with the pile of 360 games becoming smaller and smaller, this series was next on my list.  Far Cry (the original) wasn't available at the time, and it seems that the stories

[Spoilers] My quest to complete all current Splinter Cell games is complete!  Last week (right before the semester start) I got to finish the last of the original Splinter Cell trilogy on the xbox. The game was originally released for the original xbox, but though the magic of backward compatibility I played this on my 360. This game played fairly well in compatibility mode. The compatibility

This past weekend I took the opportunity to wrap up the resident evil movie collection and saw Resident Evil: Retribution, and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.  I had seen Resident Evil: Afterlife in the theaters in 2010, but I had been putting off the rest.  All movies pick up from another another (well, at least the last three did), so I think they are better seen consecutively :-).Resident

Fresh from this week's E3There appears to be a sequel to Wolfenstein: A new Order coming out for the xbox one called Wolfenstein II: A new Colossus.  Looking forward to this installation of kicking Nazi butt in an alternative reality

The other day I wrapped up the campaign part of Battlefield 4 (which is really the only part of most games I play).  I was originally thinking that it would pick up from Battlefield 3, but this game seems to be (more or less) self contained.  With the exception of meeting "dima" in one of the stages in the middle part of the game.  Dima being one of the characters involved in the previous

Once I finished off Max Payne 3, I dove deeply into another game of a similar genre, Battlefield 3.  The campaign side of the game (which is basically what I play since I am not a networked player for most things) was rather short comparative to other games, but if I were to compare the game to games of the same genre (such as the previous two Battlefield games I played and the Call of Duty games

A while back I had bought Max Payne 3 on super sale for my xbox 360, so I thought it a good idea to go back and play the previous two.  Even though I have the original xbox discs for Max Payne, and Max Payne 2, it seems that the backward compatibility was throwing up some hiccups for the original Max Payne.  Luckily Humble Bundle had it on super sale ($2?) so I got it for steam.Max is a

Well, this game didn't take all that long to complete the campaign side of the game!  What do I do in-between class stuff? Obviously play games ;-)  This was my first foray into a Battlefield game. Even though I have Battlefield 3 and 4, I was intrigued by the cop mechanic where you can arrest people instead of blowing them to bits, which really gave you an incentive to play the game in

Compared to how long it took me to finish Bully, Wolfenstein: the new order on the xbox 360 took almost no time to complete.  The game is a fast-paced first person shooter (action obviously) which takes place in an alternative 1960 timeline in which Nazi Germany has won World War II and has gone on to become the super power of the planet.  It is a bit like the TV show the man in the high

Last week I headed off to the movie theaters to see the new Assassin's Creed movie, which I have been waiting for with great excitement for a while (now, if only the Splinter Cell movie were to come out soon!). We also went during the day when there were only about 10 of us in the movie theater (seems like a waste, but I did like having more room to spread out, and if I laughed out-loud it wouldn't

Back in 2006 there was a new show on TV which was good (which means that it was cancelled - HA!), called Jericho.  It was an action, mystery, drama type of show where a number of nuclear devices were detonated (simultaneously I think) throughout the continental US. Since the seat of government, DC, was destroyed there was some understandable chaos.  What emerged were the Allied States of

Well...it took a while...a long while, but this game is done ;-)  I had started to play this game part time on my 3DS because I wanted to get through the entirety of the assassin's creed series before I got an xbox one.  I had originally played this on my jailbroken iPhone 3GS many years ago (back in the iOS 4.x days) and I found the game extremely (extremely!) frustrating to control on

One of the reasons to get the dissertation done sooner rather than later ;-)

OK...yes...I am still talking about Spain even though I've been back for two weeks now ;-)ID4: 2I am catching up on some things that I wanted to blog about while I was away - namely in-flight entertainment.  Heading over to Europe is usually sleep-time on the plane, so I don't get to see a ton of movies, but coming back we're going back in time (so to speak) and that allows for some additional

What happens when Mario dies?  Something found via facebook this weekend :-)  Happy Halloween to you out there :-)

In the most recent lootcrate there was a code for World of Warcraft, for all expansions (up until the most recent Legion expansion that just hit) and a month's worth of free playtime.  With my hard drive a bit short on space I made the decision to get rid of Defiance and SWTOR and try to recoup some space for the 40Gb installation of World of Warcraft.  After a couple of days of trying to

I am conflicted about this new MacGyver.  I will watch it, considering that I grew up with the original one, however this doesn't really strike me as MacGyver-y.  While MacGyver worked for the "foundation" he was more or less a lone wolf.  Any support he got in the field seemed incidental.  There was no team involved.  This trailer makes it look more Mission: Impossible, and

Another of the TV shows that I caught up on (thanks Netflix!) is a show that aired a few years ago called Revolution. The series kicks off with someone coming home and instructing their family to fill up all empty containers with fresh water, fill the tub, fill the sinks, and so on. He looks at this pendant he's got and...power goes off!  Oh snap!Flash forward to 15 (or so) years after the power

Woah!  I think I need to do a marathon re-watch of all resident evil movies in preparation for this ;-)

Last week I went to see the new Star Trek movie in the theater, called Star Trek Beyond. Oh yeah - spoilers ahead - you've been warned :-)So anyway, prior to going to see it I heard from some that it was so-so and I heard from others that loved it.  I was prepared to be disappointed but I actually liked this film a lot!  The saddest part of the film was watching Anton Yelchin on screen as

Another interesting game coming out soon. I have the original TitanFall in my collection of games that I have yet to play, but the trailer makes it look promising ;-)  Maybe once I am done with Bully on the xbox I'll pick up Titanfall.  I still have loads of time before I get an xbox one LOL. No rush.

Nice!  There is a follow up...of some sort, for the game Watchdogs.  It seems that this game is not following the story of Aidan Pierce, the protagonist of the first Watchdogs. It also isn't taking place in Chicago, but rather it takes place in San Fransisco.   I think I'll have a ton of games to play once I am done dissertating if this keeps up ;-)

Woohooooaaaaa!  Fall semester is looking aweeeesome!  Working on my dissertation proposal AND a new 24 series! This looks pretty amazing!  Wonder if there will be some Jack Bower action in some part of it :)

The other day I finished off watching Daredevil season 2 on Netflix.  I managed to steer clear of all of the spoilers  from friends and acquaintances on facebook talking about this.   In season 1 the main introductions (as far as super heroes and super villains go) were the Daredevil and the Kingpin.  This time around we were introduced to the Punisher, and got his backstory,

I love this Independence Day sequel promo.  Looks and feels like a news reporting segment. It gets you immersed into the alternative reality of the world. Can't wait for the movie to hit theaters!

Woot!  I can't wait! :-) Seems like Greece is in the movie ;-)

I am starting to like to Call of Duty franchise :-) I have not played their World War II games, mostly because I don't like that era for this type of game, but who knows, once I am done with whatever I can play on my xbox 360 from this series, I might go back and revisit the first 3 CoD games (plus world at war), which take place in WWII.Anyway,  In Call of Duty Black Ops II story is told partly

Hey!  There is a defiance update! Woohoo!  This past weekend I downloaded an update to defiance - which was surprisingly small (my weekly STO patches seem quite huge in comparison).  The Trion team released a short season update with the release of season 4: Dark Metamorphosis. This update brings us five new missions for our Arc hunters. Now that Nim Shodu has been defeated (hahaha! 

I guess I needed a little entertainment this semester so I couldn't give up all gaming ;-)  A while back I got a good deal on Call of Duty Black Ops and Black Ops II so I ended up starting to play Black Ops a few weeks ago during the winter break, before the semester started.Having finished 4 other Call of Duty games, the mechanics of this game felt pretty familiar.   The game is pretty

OK - first of all - SPOILERS - If you have not seen the series on Amazon Prime, go ahead and watch it - otherwise don't complain about the potential spoilers in this post ;-)Over the winter break I ended up catching up on some television series that I wanted to see this past fall.  It's very odd to 'catch up' on television considering that the TV was called the "χαζοκούτι" when I was

While I am not a huge Star Wars fan, episode VII (The Force Awakens) seemed like an interesting film from the trailer so on new year's day Kristin and I were off to see it in IMAX 3D.  Prior to this I had seem some of the previous films.  From the original trilogy I'd give a new hope 3 stars, empire strikes back 4 stars, and return of the Jedi 3 stars. From the prequels the Phantom Menace

Well,  one more game completed before 2015 is done! I started playing Watchdogs on the xbox back in August, before the semester started, and it's taken me well into the end of the semester (almost the end of the year) to complete it.  I ended up doing many side-missions in the game, but I think after six months of slowly picking away at it, I just wanted to make sure I finished the main

From the initial visuals this seemed more like a a G.I. Joe movie...but I was pleasantly surprised.  I guess  I need to go see the first one before I go see this one ;-)meta: Trailer for 2016 TMNT2 movie, by Michael Bay.

Another youtube find. This one explains the  the timelines. No explanation of where the Sarah Connor Chronicles fit in though... As Janeway said - time travel gives me a headache ;-) Video curtesy of "New Rockastars" on youtube.

Even though the movie has been out for a while, I just came across this video of terminator references in the most recent Terminator movie :-) Courtesy of "New Rockstars" on Youtube

It seems like it took a while to finish this game, but it was a pretty good game (so no complaints here).  Last I left Agent 47 he was being laid to rest as and the FBI director was pretty pleased with himself that he got Dianna to turn and get 47 captured (or killed).  The game ended with a faint heartbeat that kicked in once Dianna placed his two signature weapons (his Ballers) in his hands.I

One of my favorite game series is the Metal Gear franchise. Even though I haven't played all games, because some seem to be Playstation Exclusives, like Metal Gear: Solid (PS1) and Metal Gear 4 (PS3), I've played enough to get the gist of the story - which is thoroughly confusing.  Here is a quick recap to help put the story in order for other fans of the franchise.

Well, I've finished the last Xbox360 Assassin's Creed (that I know of):  Assassin's Creed: Rogue! From what I can see, Assassin's Creed: Unity, and Assassin's Creed: Syndicate are only on next-gen consoles (xbox one and PS4) and PC so it will be a while before I play those.  While I could play then now on a PC, I prefer to leave the PC for the two MMORPGs that I play (Star Trek: Online,

A few weeks ago I finally completed the last game in the Metal Gear HD Collection, and that game was Metal Gear 2: Sons of Liberty. I suppose that the HD collection also include Metal Gear, and Metal Gear 2: Snake's Revenge, but since you have to boot up MGS3 to play them I am not counting them as part of the "HD" collection. Prior to playing it more recently, I had started playing MGS2 when it originally

A few weeks back I was debating what game to start next, games being the interactive equivalent of that TV show that you love to follow along with.  I thought that it would be a good idea to get into Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes which I got for a cheap price last Christmas on xbox live (I think it was $7).  I was simultaneously excited that Kiefer Sutherland (of 24 fame) would be voicing

With the storms that have hit over the past week came school closings, and with school closings came a little extra time on my hands.  I did spend a considerable amount of this extra time catching forward with my readings for my research methods course, but I guess I also used the time "wisely" to complete another game on the xbox. Over the Christmas break Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 was on

Well, that didn't take long!  I guess it was a combination of having the holidays, and playing this game on normal mode that made it seem like a breeze.  Hitman: Contracts is the second game in the Hitman Trilogy HD collection, and the third in the series as a whole. It still follows Agent 47 around his contracted killings work. I think this game was a bit of an improvement over Hitman 2

About a year ago I bought the Hitman Trilogy HD for the xbox 360.  It was a good deal and it seemed that Hitman was one of those games that many people have played and that people know about, so it was something that I should be playing to gain at least a passing familiarity with it.  The trilogy did not include the original Hitman: Code 47 (which I guess was a Windows-only) release so I

[spoiler alert] It's been a few weeks since I finished Gears of War: Judgement, but with the end of the semester, and other stuff, it's been not easy to sit down and write a few thoughts about the game ;-)This game is a prequel to the Gears of War series of games that I've played before. This game takes place through flashbacks as each character is called upon to provide testimony for chargers of dereliction

Right before I went on vacation I downloaded Assassin's Creed Liberation HD for the xbox 360 ( I think it was on sale). I started messing around with it at the time, but I really didn't get very far.  Upon returning I started playing through this portable game upscaled to home console.The story follows Aveline de Grandpre, an assassin in the making.  Aveline is an orphan, living with her

Over the weekend I decided to just play through the main missions of Splinter Cell Blacklist, which I have been plays for some time now, at least according to Raptr which clocks me in at 46 hours.  I've been trying to go through the side quests first, the Grim, Kobin and Charlie missions, so I can get some extra cash to upgrade my gear, but at the end I decided to just go through the main story

Right before classes started a few weeks ago I decided to start playing Halo 4. Given the amount of games I ended up getting on Black Friday last year it was a bit tough to decide what to play next, but I thought that since the next Halo isn't coming for a while (and probably will only be on xbox one), this seemed like a good game to play for the story.This was the first Halo game I've played on the

Last spring when Microsoft had sales on their xbox live store, one of the daily deals was Modern Warfare. All three were on for sale, but th first two we're $10 a piece while the third one was more like $25 or $39. Not a sufficient drop in price for my liking, and I did not know if I'd like the series enough to play three games in a series. So, I ended up just grabbing the first two. This ended up

Over the past month or so a few shows (that I watched) have had their series finales, but I haven't had much time to really write about them.  I thought a quick abstract of each would be good, just for posterity purposes ;-)FringeI have to say that I really liked fringe! I wasn't quite sure where it was going during the first season. It seemed like the X-Files for a new generation with the weekly

OK, I've mixed my movie metaphors a bit - Mission Impossible, the Matrix, James Bond, but it's all in good fun.  Last night I was out at the movie theater to view Inception.  The movie was a couple of hours long and I was getting a bit twitchy by the end, but it actually went by quite fast!I really liked the movie, It was like the Matrix had a mash up with Mission Impossible, Life on Mars

Well, this past weekend, after quite a few weeks of late nights and weekend game play, I completed the first Assassin's Creed for the XBOX. I'd heard a lot about this game, both on 1up and on G4 when it first came out, and I guess the game was a success because Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed Botherhood are already out for consoles! Not to mention of course the Nintendo DS, the PSP and the