Wal-Mart has a deal where if you preorder Arkham City you get Arkham Asylum and a $10 gift card for free, I don't know if it's online only or not. Considering Arkham Asylum still goes for $30 on it's own that's a hell of a deal! http://www.walmart.com/ip/Batman-Arkham-City-w-Bonus-10-eGift-Card-Xbox-360/16553239
I don't know yet, I've got some big hitters coming up soon, maybe when it dies down next year when I'm finished playing Skyrim, Battlefield, Uncharted, and Rage... I'm sure Arkham Asylum will be even cheaper by then!
MASSIVE GEARS 3 SPOILERS BELOW! AVERT YOUR MOUSE IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE CAMPAIGN! Spoiler I seriously cannot believe they killed off Dom. And Marcus's dad. I mean, in a way I kinda expected both, but to see it actually happen... I think that's the most emotion that a Gears game has ever put out. It was actually quite touching and it did its job of adding weight to the otherwise mindless killing. Spoilers end here! I love the way the game feels overall. It's not as clunky as Gears 2 but it still feels like the person you're playing as has weight to them. I mean, I played the beta and all but it still feels quite new to me. Can't wait to dive into the Beast, Horde, and Versus modes.
Description of Gears 3 Campaign- Amazing Horde- A "horde" of fun Beast- The title of the mode is the description... Beast Versus- Amazing Depth! Overall- 9.75/10 ***NOTE*** Why are you still reading this?
I'd say Arkham Asylum is a pretty big hitter, if you've got the cash left. My main aims for the end of this year are Dark Souls, Skyrim, BF3, SSX (next year, admittedly, but I'm saving the money now) and Arkham Asylum. With Rage, Sonic Generations, Saints Row the Third and Forza 4 on the "If I can afford them" list.
For me only Arkham City & Assassins Creed Revelation this year. I've got so much left over from the last two years to catch up on.
Basically, Skyrim, BF3, and UC3 are must buys for me. Rage and Arkham City fall to whenever I can afford. Mass Effect 3 will overpower both of those though, so probably sometime in March or April I'll get around to those, maybe.
The only disc based game I've purchased all year is Portal 2 and the only ones I'm planning on buying are Arkham City (the walmart Arkham Asylum pack in deal is too good to resist) and saints row 3 (damn you, preorder bonus pack). I'm considering UMvC3 but I'd really hate to validate Capcom's shoddy behavior. I'd probably buy more stuff but considering the market is flooded with bland generic FPS and TPS games these days I'm more then happy to stick with XBLA downloads.
Gears is a lot of fun though. I've only played the campaign so far, but playing that with 3 friends is very fun. I'm not sure I'd care to play it solo, because yes the story, characters and such are generic/dopey action movie nonsense, but with friends it's a great time. We've played through Act 2 so far. I'm also looking forward to trying out Horde and Beast modes. I like coop play a lot more then competitive, so I'm not sure if I'll ever bother with the competitive online mode. Well, I'm sure I'll try it once, at least.
Several board games are on sale this week, 50% off, 400 points each (Gold-only deal). Catan, Carcassonne and Magic 2012. Well, I'm not interested in Magic, actually, but will probably buy Catan. I already have Carcassonne. Also, the free Portal 2 DLC is out! http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Portal-2-Peer-Review-downloadable-content/f3f6d854-549c-4f98-bb65-ed4e0731d688?cid=majornelson&partner=majornelson
Holy crap. Really? They converted for 360 gameplay? I always wanted to play it but didn't have a computer that could run the damn thing. I've done a lot of updates here and there with motherboards/chips/video cards to my PC so it's still going after about 10 years, but it still probably wouldn't play it. EDIT: Just did a search and found where this had been announced.. I've been pretty out of the loop lately with console gaming even though I have the big three (360/PS3/Wii). Maybe kind of sad, but I've been playing my iPod Touch more lately ($1 vs $60 game quickfix = win for iPod Touch).
Same with my computer, I tried playing it earlier this year, I think I averaged about 5 frames per second So excited to finally play it when I get home I was quite sick a couple of weeks ago so I was just sifting through tech news and found that. And only $20 is pretty decent for a re-release!
As somebody who had not played the first 2 Gears Spoiler I really didn't feel anything. Well, maybe a little from the hokey swelling music and such, but that was it. It was just tossed in for an emotional effect, and totally wasn't earned. I mean this guy just shows up and then a short time later he dies. Well, yeah, somebody dying with dramatic music playing has an emotional effect sort of automatically, but it isn't good storytelling. Mind you, I totally enjoyed playing the campaign with friends, but it had absolutely nothing to do with the story, which was utterly forgettable. Horde mode is pretty great too.
He didn't just show up. You did. It's kinda hard to justify criticizing a game's storytelling when you can't even understand what the heck is going on, having missed the first two games. I mean, it's certainly not award-worthy for its plot, but it added a little something that was surprising and, for those of us who have played the earlier games, touching.
