Well, I’m playing World of Warcraft again. I’ve got myself a Death Knight and I’ve started a Paladin on Thunderhorn.

Death Knight is quite fun actually, it’s also nice to start at Level 55. There have been a lot of changes to the game since I last played it for any length of time, it’s going to be quite interesting leveling up the paly.

Think that’s probably me for the day – the 360 will be going on later, for some GoW2, maybe even some CoD4. Depends what I fancy. I still really want to have another go on Bioshock but be evil this time

I always planned to do some review writing once my blog was up and running properly.  It’s quite fortunate that I can write a review about a game I really like so soon after release.

I started out with the training missions, it’d been a while since I’d picked up a lancer (with built in chainsaw) and I needed to blow out the cobwebs before getting started online.  The training missions were excellent – showcasing the different multiplayer gamemodes whilst also allowing you to get to grips with some of the new features.

Completing the 5 training missions gives you an achievement (woot).

The campaign mode of the game starts off from pretty much where the first game left off, the Locust are moving forward at an increased rate - mounting massive assaults against entire cities.  I won’t spoil any of the key plot points, save to say that the entire game moves at a very good pace and it’s just like watching a really good film (movie, for the folks in the USA).  It’s like one of those books that you just can’t put down.

I powered through the campaign with my brother in less than 9 hours total playtime on casual difficulty – we’ll be going back and playing it on the harder modes over the coming weeks.  I wouldn’t say that I was disappointed with the length of the game, I know that as we up the difficulty it’s going to get harder to complete and the longevity with the first came with the multiplayer modes.

Speaking of which – the new ‘Horde’ gametype pits you and your friends (up to five of you) against an oncoming onslaught of locust scum.  After about wave 6 it starts getting hard.  Wave 10 is nigh on impossible if you don’t have the right sort of map with which to barracade yourselves in.  The good news with that is that it goes right the way up to 50 waves.  I can’t even begin to imagine how insane that will be with 5 people.  Tried it with 3 and it was very enjoyable.

Gears 2 is the first game in a long time that I’ve just wanted to play right the way through.  Sure Fable II and Fallout 3 are good and I’m enjoying them – it’s just Gears has that extra something for me, its difficult, it’s fun and its downright dirty.

It’s got extra gore and the chainsaw and other finishing moves add that extra umph to it.

All editions of the game come with a code for 5 extra maps from the original game that EPIC have reworked to add something extra.  The Collectors Edition comes with an Art book, bonus DVD and a gold plated lancer (ingame).

I did encounter a few problems when playing the game in co-op.  In one instance the game developed a glitch where the two main characters should have gone up in a lift together but one ended on the top floor and one ended on the floor below with no way to continue.  There was another glitch with a sealed room where JACK was supposed to cut throug an iron door – JACK disappeared and I had to restore the game from the checkpoint in order to progress.  Other than this, everything was fine.

The gameplay is much improved from the first game.  There was a repetitive feeling to the original game which had you running around all over the place with grubholes forming around every corner.  It’s refreshing to see that the game is different in that the different things you get to do (you’ll see when you get there) make it very fun to play.  Theres enough variation to make replaying the game through a pleasure.  It also didn’t feel as impossible as the first one tended to do in parts.

Summary:

Improves over the first game in every way.  Adds some impressive new features and I can see the multiplayer modes providing months of fun.

9/10

List of achievements for GoW2:

http://www.achieve360points.com/game/gearsofwar2/

Buy the game from amazon.co.uk::

Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360)

Gears Of War 2 Limited Collectors Edition (Xbox 360)

I’m running out of inspiration for titles.  Not just with blog posts but with photoblog posts too.  Its crazy – I want to think up clever things but I want to avoid clichés and avoid being completely anal. 

Its like this morning, I had a nice photo of Scarborough harbour, couldn’t think of anything clever so it got called Scarborough – thats inventive, isn’t it?

The dark nights are really setting in now, I had to put my headlights on driving home – I definately had to have them on this morning, when I got up at 6:30 it was proper pitch black, it could have been 10pm.  Nightmare. 

This is getting to the stage where my SAD starts to get really bad.  I can’t explain what happens with it, it just turns me into a miserable bastard (whats the difference from the rest of the year? ho-ho).  The lightbox usually helps, this year it seems to be a bit hit and miss.

Take yesterday for example, we had a really fun day, spent most of the day lounging around watching TV and films (was nice for a change) and went out for tea.  Once we’d gotten back from tea I just didn’t feel like doing anything, my energy was zapped, interest levels were non-existent.  Its just a big ball of I can’t be arsed.  Very odd.

Feel a bit like that tonight, so I’m just listening to music, trying to zap myself out of it, I’ve used the lightbox, if anything I feel worse now that the light has gone.  I really need to look at moving the big light back in the room so that this corner is a little brighter because its darker than a narrow corridor in an abandoned space station and I have neither a flashlight or shotgun (Doom, for the non-initiated). 

Chemical inbalances in the brain suck balls. 

Plus the fact I should be playing the new Ghostbusters game, damn you Sierra! ;(

Still, Gears of Wars 2 is out in a few weeks, will I feel like playing then? I dunno.  Meh.