I don’t think it’s too often the first post is the best post you make for a while; they usually improve as you post a few more blogs. Instead of just randomly writing most of the time, I’m going to pick things to actually write about.

On PS3 launch day (Nov. 17th, 2006), I went to Target and picked up an Xbox 360. No waiting in line (even at the checkout!), no fighting for a ticket to purchase it, no jumping over other people and their carts to reach the electornics shelf first. No sir (or ma’am!). I walked in, told them I want a 360 and Gears of War, paid for the things, and waltzed right on out of there, past the Wii campers and all.

In fact, this comic depicts my excursion perfectly. That weekend concluded with me picking up Lego Star Wars II and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

First off, Gears of War is an absolute God-send to the 360. It has beautiful graphics with cut-scenes that really aren’t cut-scenes because they take you seamlessly from gameplay to cinematic and back again. It’s also not your typical shoot-em-up-style game. Well, it’s a shoot-em-up-style game, but there are tactics and strategy involved; most notably the “Take Cover” commands. You can run up to an object in the world and “take cover” so you’re (mostly) protected from enemy fire, taking a second to poke your head out or just your gun to return the favor; or perhaps you blindly throw a gernade over a crashed car and hoping it explodes something worthwhile? Perhaps you just wanted to see it explode. Regardless, you won’t get tired of the game because it’s going to make you think your way through some problems and blast your way through others. Gears of War will provide you with a lot of seriously gripping gameplay; but if it starts to get old, head on-line or jump into co-op mode and play with a friend.

I’ll write about Oblivion and Lego Star Wars another day, but to sum them up really quick: Oblivion is a pretty massive role playing game (RPG), but it’s single player only. That has its pros and cons, but is turning out to suck up the majority of my gaming time. Lego Star Wars is an incredibly stupid kind of fun game, one that’s rediculously entertaining to play, but can get old pretty quick. Still worth buying, however I suggest picking it up for a last-gen console (PS2, Game Cube, Xbox) because it’s cheaper than the next-gen systems by $10-$20 bucks, and I mean c’mon, it’s Legos, they can’t up the graphics that much.