Since the rock & roll.

Yeah, been kind of update-free, I know. Between Brawl being awesome and waiting for new stuff to come from Gamefly, and a dead week on XBLA, there wasn't much to talk about anyway.

Rescinding that thing about playing through campaigns, I should add. A week is enough or I'll never finish the list once through, nevermind return visits.

Here's what came in, as well as fresh XBLA goodies, though.

TiQal
Achievements: 12 (all offline, 200 gs)

Tetris meets Lumines with BGM and aesthetic from Zuma. Meh.

Bee Movie Game
Achievements: 50 (all offline, 1000 gs)

Derivative minigames compiled to fill gaps between movie-inspired levels. Fun enough but not really engaging, but at least it looks a little better than most of the tie-ins THQ trots out ad nauseum. Easy points.

Blacksite: Area 51
Achievements: 44 (27 offline for 585 gs, 17 online for 415 gs)

Not bad, and not as cheesy as I had expected having played the original. I actually enjoy how they tried to tie things in with real-world events a bit. It's cute. Worth renting, though no one played it online even when it came out, so good luck getting those achievements.

Cabela's Trophy Bucks
Achievements: 31 (all offline, 1000 gs)

Of all the things to come back to after a hiatus, this was not what I wanted. A mildly polished take on the engine from that godawful Alaskan Adventures, this beast at least looks cleaner and did away with most of the excessive customization trappings. RPG elements do not do well in a game geared toward yokels.

Things move quickly in this one, which is good, because I don't have the patience for these stupid things anymore.

Okay, we're back.

Primary Smash drive is done, and while I still poke at it every day, it's not my drug of choice anymore. So here's last week's XBLA titles, in short.

Bliss Island
Achievements: 12 (all offline, 200 gs)

I initially played this game while smashed on Saturday night, and thought, "This game is fucking ugly, and really dumb." I woke up, though playing it might have just been a dream, and tried it again. Still fucking ugly, still really dumb. It seems like they were shooting for an appeal factor with young gamers, but young gamers are still going to think it's pretty ugly, if not really dumb.

Looks like an easy 200, though, and it only costs 400 points. Tempting.

Brain Challenge
Achievements: 12 (9 offline for 140 gs, 3 online for 60 gs)

Again, I was smashed when I tried these, but I get the impression this is XBLA's answer to Big Brain Academy and the like. I do appreciate that the achievements seem to reward you for being smarter than your friends, especially the online ones, so I'll probably end up picking this up. Unlike Bliss Island, it was not fucking ugly, either.

LiveBrawlging

12:02 AM - Game obtained.
12:16 AM - Home
12:20 AM - Wii system update off disc, rolled clocks forward.
1:21 AM - IT IS ON.
1:40 AM - Marth unlocked.
1:55 AM - Luigi unlocked.
2:12 AM - Remembered to get Brawl friend code - 0645-5417-1834
4:51 AM - 32% of Subspace Emissary completed. Damn, this is tedious, should've stuck to vs spamming. Event mode time.
5:36 AM - Gotta go to work. Boo.
3:45 PM - Unlocked Ness.
3:53 PM - Unlocked Snake.
4:12 PM - Unlocked all Stage Builder parts.
4:26 PM - Unlocked Falco.
4:37 PM - Der Komissar geht uhm.
4:52 PM - Lucario GET.
2:50 AM - A whole bunch of other stuff unlocked, Subspace Emissary finished AUGH.
2:54 AM - Wolf obtained.
3:11 AM - Toon Link, woo!
3:27 AM - Jigglypuff is in. All characters unlocked!
6:14 AM - Woke up after nodding off while trying to look through my stickers and trophies. All stages unlocked as well, so I guess it's down to the challenge wall. Brawlg over.

Rapid fire.

Some quick updates since I've been MIA what with a trip to Vegas and all, and some time off from play to avoid burnout. Figured I'd bang these out quick before Smash Bros Brawl starts tonight and NEVER ENDS.

First things first, I've had a slight change of heart regarding format, and decided any Gamefly'd games will be played through to the culmination of their story mode, even if this surpasses the typical week-long limit. I figure I may actually be missing out in some cases. Exceptions wil be made for quick-points titles that are pretty crappy anyway, like Avatar.

Secondly, reviews are likely to be quick and condensed unless I can think of something to rave about, because there's only so much I can care about a lot of these piles. On with what I've been playing!

Call Of Duty 3
Achievements: 26 (17 offline for 600 gs, 9 online for 400 gs)

Your dudes look a little less like plastic army men than the last one, but things still aren't quite so realistic. The tanks look cooler, though, and I kind of appreciate the attempts to inject a little culture for the different nations.

One of these days, I'd like to see a war sim do away with automatic ammo and easy weapons scrounging, though. I want to rummage through the dead, occasionally get nonfunctioning munitions, and so forth. Sure, it'd be hell of depressing, but that's the point. It's war.

Cars
Achievements: 15 (all offline, 1000 gs)

Based on the Pixar movie I never watched. Seems cute, and I like the idea of splitting it between a limited mode for kids and a full mode for actual gamers, but I don't forsee even that being all the more difficult.

The "tilt" thing for easy cornering seems to leave no reason for powersliding, either, but whatever.

Beowulf
Achievements: 31 (all offline, 1000 gs)

The poor man's God Of War. Your character looks made of plastic, as do most of your Thanes, the control scheme's not the most intuitive, and this rhythm game shit they threw in there to "inspire your troops" is the biggest waste of time I've seen in a while.

Seems like an easy 1,000, though it might require a second playthrough to get a couple of things. Eh.

Rocketmen: Axis Of Evil
Achievements: 12 (10 offline for 170 gs, 2 online for 30 gs)

Smash TV in space, with some RPG/upgrade elements to it. Seems pretty fun, can't wait to actually have money to buy the full version.

And that's it. Played a fair amount of Wipeout Pulse on the flights to and from Vegas, so I may give a rundown on that soon. Until then, look forward to my completely narcissistic Brawl unlock log, starting around 12 AM tonight.