Duality

First and foremost, an explanation. I’ve been without TV or Internet since Friday, and before that, on and off for the last two weeks. So now that everything is *knock on wood* back up and running, it’s time to talk about things I’ve been thinking about recently. Now, I’ve got a bunch of stuff to talk about, all of which could easily be separate posts, but I’ll try to keep ‘em short and sweet and scrunch it all into this one post.

Burnout
So last week I was down in the bay and I helped a friend hook his X-Box up to his wireless internet so he could use X-Box Live. You see, previous to this, I never personally knew anyone on X-Box Live. I’ve had the service for the last three years or so, but never really played on it much. But now that I’ve got someone I know to play with, my interest has been rekindled. Only problem was, the only game we both owned and could play online was Burnout 3: Takedown. Now I’m in no way saying that Burnout 3 is a bad game (it’s one of my favorites), but the problem was, ever since I replaced my 1st generation X-Box with a more recent one, I’d lost all my saves. And with no Burnout 3 save, I had no cars to play with. So the only solution was to play through the whole game again to try and unlock all the cars, otherwise I’d have no chance against my friend. However, after spending this entire weekend playing Burnout 3, I get online today (finally) only to realize that Burnout: Revenge (ie, Burnout 4) is coming out tomorrow!! Of course I’m going to get it (my friend will get it too), so I essentially spent all weekend unlocking cars in a game I’ll never play again. And while it was time consuming fun, I can’t help but feel like I wasted the whole weekend.

Tell me a Fable!
Speaking of games I’m playing over again, Fable: The Lost Chapters recently came out and I managed to *cough* buy *cough* (read: download) a copy of it. For those who might not know, last year Fable came out for the X-Box and was wildly hyped to the ‘Ultimate RPG’. However, while it was a good game, it was by no means Ultimate, and it was incredibly short. So now, a year and a half later Lionhead Studios releases Fable: The Lost Chapters, which is essentially Fable, but with some extra areas to explore. Only thing is, those extra areas aren’t accessible until after you beat the main game, so I’m playing through the entire thing again! Oh, and as a further kick in the pants to those of us who shelled out 50 bucks for Fable when it came out, Fable: The Lost Chapters is also being sold on the X-Box…for 20 bucks!

Let’s all go to The Movies
Aside from Fable, Lionhead Studies is busy working on several other games that I’m looking forward to playing, like Black and White 2. But the main game that I’m just dieing to get my hands on is The Movies. Now sadly, most people haven’t heard of this game (in fact, I’m the only one at my local game store who’s preorder it) but it is such a perfect sandbox game that I just can’t resist. Essentially the goal is..well, to make movies! You run the studio, you make the stars, you make the movies! And when I say you make the movies, I mean it! You can write the script, chose the actors, sets, camera angels, locations, sound effects, and even record your own dialog! You have complete control over everything! I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a whole bunch of movie ideas in my head just waiting for a canvas to release them, and it’s looking like The Movies is going to be that canvas. Only problem is, they’re gonna have to stay stuck in my head until late November…*sigh*

Well, I know there was more I wanted to say, but after exhausting my brain on these three topics, the others seem to have run off. But don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll find them soon enough and get started on the next collection of thoughts.