Gears of War is one of those popular games that came out for the Xbox 360 during its early days that I’m really interested in playing. Unfortunately, I had no intention of getting the Xbox 360 so I had to wait till the PC version was released.

Even though it was available for a while now, I didn’t buy it immediately because there were other games I was interested in. Also, I had to pay a subscription to Xbox Live just to play it online, so that was a downer. I have no intention of paying a subscription. In the end, I just wanted to play the single-player campaign. I heard good things about it.

It started out great. The graphics were amazing. The musical score was very engaging and inspiring. At first, I had a bit of trouble getting used to the new cover mechanic introduced in Gears of War (and made popular by it) but I soon got used to it, though sometimes annoyed by it.

However, it was only half-way through the game did I recall a very important reason for why this game was so popular. A lot of reviewers said that they enjoyed the game mostly because of the co-operative play. That is, because they were playing through the levels with a buddy.

I was playing by myself. No buddies. I played the game on the easiest difficulty level possible and yet it was still very hard not to get killed multiple times in some areas. Those parts really frustrated me. I died mostly due to those creatures that cause instant kills. And the worse part of it is that whenever my character gets killed, I had to sit idly in front of my PC for more than 10 seconds while the game reloads. What the?!

I could see how the game is a lot easier if I have an actual thinking person as a buddy in the game helping me out instead of the stupid AI buddy I had that only always gets itself taken out of action.

It was very very frustrating that I had to jump out of my chair in rage a few times. But I pressed on. I wanted to beat the stupid game. The end boss was specially difficult but eventually, I was able to kick its stupid butt.

In the end, I wasn’t so happy with the game. It looked gorgeous but there wasn’t much in terms of story. I also felt that the game design could have been a lot better. Now that I’m done, I can finally sell this game on eBay. Good thing I haven’t even used its free one-month subscription to Xbox Live. Maybe that will help sell the game at a higher price.

Now that’s out of the way, I can finally go back to playing the game I really wanted to play for the past week but never had the chance — Assassin’s Creed!

I’ve always been a big fan of first-person shooter games (such as Doom, Half-life and Unreal Tournament). However, I only recently noticed that I’m no longer into it as much as I once was.

Nowadays, I’m finding myself enjoying the sandbox-type games a bit more. These are games that allow the player to roam freely and explore the gaming world and environment. Sure, there are still game objectives but the player is allowed to proceed in anyway they wish and not be railroaded into a predetermined path in the game.

What I like about these games is that I sometimes feel like I’m actually moving about in that virtual world whenever I’m playing. It’s as if I’m taking a virtual tour of that virtual world. This is specially true for sandbox games that are also first person shooters because I’m viewing the world through the eyes of the character. But it doesn’t have to be first-person. I enjoy the world just as much in third-person view.

An example of a third-person sandbox game is a game I bought recently — Assassin’s Creed. It’s basically a game about an assassin (think Medieval-era ninja) on a mission in Jerusalem during the time of the third crusade! I love medieval history and biblical history. Playing this game allows me to see what it was like to be in that world and move around it! It’s amazing! The graphics is almost realistic and the sounds are very convincing. It really puts me into that world. Right now, I’m just enjoying a little bit of sightseeing around medieval Jerusalem.

I think it’s a lot easier for you to see what I mean rather than me explaining what the game is about:

Well, the gameplay shown in the video was for Xbox 360 but it looks just as gorgeous on my PC. Also, the setting in the gameplay above is in the city of Acre and not Jerusalem but you see what I mean. I can’t wait to advance in the game so I can see not just Jerusalem but also Acre (as seen in the video above) and Damascus.

Another game that gave me great pleasure in just exploring its virtual world is Oblivion. It’s basically a first-person fantasy role-playing game. There are different cities and locales to explore in that game and it really is an escape to another world.

Other similar games I’m interested in getting in the future are Burnout Paradise and Grand Theft Auto 4 (GTA4). Burnout Paradise is actually a driving game. But unlike other driving games with fixed race tracks, this game allows the player to drive around an entire virtual city. You can drive anywhere and take short cuts. You don’t even need to race anybody. You can just have a virtual joy ride around the city which looked marvelous. As for GTA4, the virtual city is modeled after New York City. So, if you want to see what it’s like to be in New York, you can do so by riding around in car, walking or taking a taxi in GTA4. Unfortunately, neither of these games are available on the PC at the moment. But I’ll be picking these up once they are.

I heard that there is actually a Simpsons modification out there for the Quake 4 first-person shooter game. With this modification, the player can move around the entire town of Springfield, home of the Simpsons. I got to get myself that game and that modification.

I just wish there are more games like these which will allow the player to have virtual tours of virtual environments. Actually, it doesn’t even need to be a game. There should just be a program that allows the user to explore fictional places and even actual cities in first-person view. It’s like seeing the world without leaving your desk.

In the meantime, I’ll be going back in time to the twelfth century to look around Jerusalem some more.

Raquel has recently been hooked on playing the Nintendo DS (which we have to thank Alma and Shane for). The first DS we have was a hand-me-down from my brother two years ago. This is the non-”Lite” model which was a bit bigger but we didn’t mind because neither of us used it that much until recently.

Now that Raquel is more addicted to playing the DS, I thought it was time for her to upgrade to the newer, lighter and sexier Nintendo DS Lite. I figured it would be a nice birthday gift, too. The timing is also good because the major shops are all having a big toy sale around this month.

After a lot of research, we have concluded that the DS promotion offered by Kmart is the best and the most bang for our buck. The DS package deal included the actual DS portable, of course, a DS game from a selection of four games and a starter pack (includes case, screen protectors and earphones). The Kmart promo started July 3, Thursday, with a special 12 midnight opening day.

In order to avoid running out of stock of the black DS Lite, we decided to go to Kmart on the midnight of the first day of the sale. That meant staying up late on July 2, Wednesday, to go to Kmart when it hits midnight.

I thought it would be the best time to go. We usually sleep late anyway so staying up till midnight to go to Kmart shouldn’t be such a big deal. Also, I thought that by going to the midnight launch, we’ll avoid the crowd of people wanting to buy heavily discounted products.

With the idea that it would just be a quick hit and run, I didn’t even bring my coat when we drove to Kmart on Wednesday night. I didn’t even bother to bring my iPod (which I usually have with me so that I can listen to my podcasts whenever there is a lull).

When I stepped out of the car, I was immediately greeted by very cold air accompanied by gusts of wind. I regretted not bringing a thick winter coat right then. I was just thankful that I at least had a jumper on and warm jogging pants. Then when we finally entered Kmart, I was dismayed to see the place packed with shoppers! There were long queues for the check-out registers so I decided to quickly find and get the DS and head straight for the register queues.

Unfortunately, the DS couldn’t be taken right off the shelf. All gaming consoles like the Xbox 360, Wii and DS must be taken from the lay-by service counter. The problem was that there were a lot of people wanting to buy gaming consoles that night. This resulted in one very long queue to the lay-by counter. And it was a slow going queue because a lot of people in that line also wanted to avail of the lay-by service which require some paper work!

We ended up standing in line for two hours! I finally got the DS at past 2 AM. That’s right. Two o’clock in the morning. That’s two hours I could’ve spent listening or watching podcasts if I had brought my iPod with me. My legs and feet were also so tired and stiff by the time we got to the counter. I was just thankful that we could pay for the DS on the same counter and we didn’t have to queue up at the check-out exit counters again (which still had long queues at that time).

When we got out to the car park, I wished that I had parked the car nearer the Kmart entrance. The air had grown a lot colder since we got there two hours prior and the wind was blowing a lot more, too. It was freezing and I didn’t have a coat!

By the time we got home, I was hungry, freezing and feeling a little ill. I had to call in sick the next day because I felt like I caught the cold. Still, I’m just glad that Raquel is very happy with her new DS Lite. It makes all that suffering seem worth it in the end.

Would I do this kind of thing again? Unlikely. But if I ever do, I’ll probably be better prepared. Next time, I’ll be bringing drinks, snacks, a stool and maybe something to read, listen to, and/or watch.

It’s time for EB Games’ annual mid-year stock-take clearance sale. I went there during my lunch break hoping to get lucky and find Call of Duty 4 on sale. I’ve been wanting that game since it came out but I just found it too expensive. I even contemplated on buying it off Valve’s Steam service which sells it for how much it sells in the US. With the Australian dollar exchanging to almost one-is-to-one against the American dollar, I’d be a fool not to buy it off Steam. However, the publishers of Call of Duty 4 caught on and increased the game’s price on Steam if you are from Australia! The short of it is that it is no longer cost-effective to buy the game off Steam. I’ll just have to wait for the price of the game to drop, is all.

Anyway, when I got to EB, I quickly saw at the entrance that Stalker was at half-price. It was about $50 bucks to begin with and at half-price, that comes down to about $25! I held on to that, just in case that was the last one.

When I got to the PC section, I also saw that Bioshock was on sale. But I’ve decided a while back that I’m going to get that from Steam. It’s almost just as cheap but with the added bonus that I can install Bioshock on any machine I want with Steam. Bioshock bought at a retail shop will only install on two PCs and then no more, as far as I know. I skipped Bioshock and saw Gears of War for the PC. It’s originally selling for $80 but has a “$30 Off” tag so that brings it down to about $50. Woohoo! I held on to a copy of that, too.

And then I saw it. What I was after. Lots of boxes of Call of Duty 4. Originally selling for $99 but now has a “$20 Off” tag on it. I quickly grabbed that game, too. I then had three games in my hands. I couldn’t justify getting all three so I put down Stalker as I was least likely to play that if I had COD4 or GOW.

I actually thought about getting both games but I know that I won’t be able to play both right now. In the end, I just bought COD4 as I’m more excited about that game than GOW anyway.

I was very excited to try the game out at long last. The problem was that when I got home, I realised that I needed 8Gb free space on my hard disk just to install the game. And I only had 3Gb space left. Doh! I had to write some of the files on my hard disk on to a DVD just to free up more space for the game. I wish I had gotten a laptop that had a bigger hard disk. That’s something to keep in mind for my next PC purchase.

In the end, I got the game installed and played the first two chapters of COD4. It was awesome! It’s like watching and being a part of a big blockbuster movie about the military. The first chapter in the ship was amazing and exhilarating. I don’t want to give anything away but if you don’t mind First-person shooters, then I really recommend you get this game. Well worth the cash I laid out for it.

In case you’ve been wondering why there hasn’t been a post here for nearly two weeks now, it’s just that we’ve both been busy. Hubby has been busy with his newly acquired Guild Wars game while I’m busily solving the puzzles being thrown my way by Professor Layton!

I’ve first heard of the Professor Layton game from one of hubby’s downloaded podcasts and we’ve been anticipating its release here in Australia since then. It was released last Thursday and we promptly bought it from JB Hi-fi. I originally intended to get my copy from Target when I saw that they had the best price in their catalogue but it seems like when Target said it would be released on 11/04/08, they actually meant 12/04/08. When we asked for the game in the shop’s CBD branch, they told us to come back the next day!

Fortunately, it was in stock in the neighbouring JB Hi-fi where the price has been reduced from its pre-release price of $69.95 to $59.00, almost a full dollar less than we would have paid for in Target. Ha! Bonus.

Anyway, the graphics of the game is simply amazing and I do love the art style. The puzzles are of varying levels of difficulty, although some people might find the placement of the puzzles a bit contrived. I mean, how odd is it that everyone you meet in the town of St. Mystere wants Professor Layton and his apprentice to solve a puzzle? I don’t mind though as I knew that going in and I like that it has an underlying story while getting the player to solve interesting little puzzles on the side.

If you own a Nintendo DS (Lite) and love some puzzle solving, I couldn’t recommend this game enough. Meanwhile, I better finish up with this post so I could get back to my game!

Last week, we had some friends over for a game of bowling. It had been a long while since we had played bowling so we thought that was a valid excuse to come together. Unfortunately, the bowling centre was running a tournament that day and didn’t allow for any casual players (even though there were lanes available).

Instead of bowling, we just went back to our house for some snacks and story sharing. We decided to go out for dinner afterwards because we didn’t have any dinner prepared at home. On the way out, we noticed the old box of Boggle sitting on the bookshelf near the front door. I bought this several years ago to keep me amused during those first few years of being alone in Canberra. I love word games so this certainly did its job back then.

After dinner, we got out Boggle and refreshed ourselves with the rules. It all came back to me soon enough. We also established some house rules. One of which is that for challenged words, we would consult the dictionary we have in our library. It’s by no means the official Scrabble dictionary of allowable words so there would be valid words that won’t be in there. So, we agreed that if the word isn’t there, it won’t be counted even if it turned out to be an actual word. It just makes things easier.

At first, our writer friends was taking lead with her long words. In the end though, I was able to catch up to her and eventually take the lead by the time we decided to call it a night. Well, if we had followed the rules and stopped when somebody had reached 50 points, she might’ve been the winner because it took me a while to catch up to her score.

In the end, I quite enjoyed our game of Boggle. I usually played it either with my friend Randolf or with Raquel only. I have never played it with four players since college. It was certainly more fun with more people playing. More people meant that more common words get removed from the list of any player and made the game a bit harder, too.

I hope our guests genuinely enjoyed the game too so that we can invite them for another round of Boggle.

For those of you not living in Australia, June is the time of the year when shops offer huge discounts in order to clear their stock before the end of the financial year. So, I thought it’s a good time as any to buy a game for playing on my new laptop.

After much thinking and research, I decided on getting the popular role-playing game called The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I wanted to get it for the Xbox 360 back when I was still considering that console some time ago. Now that I have a more powerful PC, I can just get the PC game version instead.

I looked at EB Games’ website to find out how much the one year-old game was selling for. Recommended retail price was about $50. But because of the sale going on at EB, the title was selling for only half the price! It was an offer I couldn’t let pass.

The problem was that I couldn’t find a copy of Oblivion in any of the EB Games shops I went to. The employees told me that it was sold out. It was that popular a game, apparently.

I really wanted the game so, yesterday, I went to the next best shop for cheap electronic games (in my opinion, at least): JB Hi-fi. The first JB shop also had Oblivion sold out. Later that day, I tried another JB branch in the city. At last, it was in stock. However, it was selling for $48.

After thinking about it for a couple of minutes, I decided to but the game despite its more expensive price tag, as compared to EB’s. I did try to haggle the price saying EB was selling the same game for only half the price. They did their research though as the JB employees told me that EB has sold out all its copies of Oblivion. I ended up paying the original price.

It didn’t bother me much because I thought $48 for Oblivion was still a bargain. That was, until Raquel told me that JB’s latest catalogue listed Oblivion for the PC as only $34! I felt robbed. I wanted to get back the $14 difference.

After thinking about how I’m going to get the difference back, I returned to the shop a couple of hours later. I told the cashier I wanted to return the unopened PC game (PC games are generally non-returnable items) because my friend who I was planning to give the game to already has it. They said that was OK and took back the game. I won’t get a cash refund though. Instead, I’ll be getting a gift card with the amount of the returned Oblivion game.

Of course, I really wanted the game. So, while the cashier was processing the refund, I asked, how come their catalogue listed Oblivion as only costing $34 and yet the sticker price was $48. She said that it was probably an error in the label. So, I said, “instead of returning the game, can I just get the price difference?”

She said that she couldn’t just give me the difference. Fine. I allowed her to proceed with the full refund of the game. After a minute, I got the gift card worth $48. I asked her if I could immediately use the gift card. She said I could but the credit may not yet register in their system if I use the card in a different branch. That’s fine with me.

I went and looked around the shop for about a minute and then returned to the cashier with the same box of Oblivion I returned just a few minutes earlier. I said, “on second thought, I’d like the game for myself. And since you’re catalogue has this game listed for $34 only, can I get it for that price?” She deducted the $34 from my new gift card and gave me a totally new card with the remaining $14 in it.

In the end, I got the price difference and it might have saved JB one plastic gift card if they’ve just given me the price difference when I asked for it the first time.