I had never heard of Borderlands until the day I purchased it from Target. A great friend of mine called me up and said, “Zack, if you don’t go buy Borderlands right this minute, I will not be your friend anymore.” So I went out and bought it. Of course, the friend told me loads more about the game before he swayed me away from my money-consciousness. The conversation was indeed quite lengthy, but I will not bore you with all the gory details. I’ll merely try to sum up everything that my friend told me that made me interested in the game, and everything that I have experienced as I have played through the game.

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For the longest time, the Playstation 3 was criticized for its high price point, lack of quality platform exclusives, problematic development and bugs for multi-platform titles. It’s developers like Naughty Dog, however, who defy this stereotype with the Uncharted franchise. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune holds a special place in my heart. It’s an often-overlooked gem in gaming of this generation. Drake’s Fortune had its flaws, namely in gameplay. Yet its stellar graphics, voice acting and cinematic style all stood out to me. So when the sequel was announced I was certainly excited. Awards at E3, incredible trailers and the general media stir were enough to make it one of my most hotly anticipated Q4 releases.

After logging considerable hours in the multiplayer and completing the main story, here is my take on the PS3’s killer app this quarter, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (after the break). Read the full story

I realized this past Tuesday that I would have a couple extra hours to kill going from the mid-week into the weekend. I stopped into my local Blockbuster store to check out if there were any new games I would be interested in renting. I saw Brutal Legend on the shelf, and I thought to myself, “Hmm….Jack Black is sometimes funny. And I enjoy classic rock music.  And Tim Schafer’s last game was brilliant. Shouldn’t any combination of these be extraordinary?” Of course I assumed the positive, and paid the 9 dollars (Sidenote: NINE DOLLARS TO RENT A VIDEOGAME IS PRETTY RIDICULOUS.) to check out Brutal Legend for a few days.

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Quarter 4. As Jeff has already pointed out, this could be a challenging quarter. However, for some of us, this season is bringing on a whole new level of excitement. I am talking about, of course, the girly gamer’s Q4 picks. While Jeff’s list contains some gems that I myself am quite excited about (namely Uncharted 2 and Fallout 3 GOTY) there were a few names that slipped through the cracks that I’m looking forward to. Read the full story

My thoughts on Batman: Arkham Asylum can all be summed up in one 2-syllable, 8-letter word. Peerless.

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Among the ridiculous amount of fall game releases is the PS3-exclusive Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The original Uncharted, developed by Naughty Dog,  is one of my very favorite games on the Playstation 3, so you can imagine my excitement with the announcement of the sequel. This anticipation was compounded by a few excellent trailers released for the game recently Read the full story

It’s almost fall, and of course that means  game publishers are cramming every A-list title possible into a three month span, thereby dooming many releases to be lost in the shuffle. While fall is always an exciting time for gaming, nearly all the best (or most hyped) games of the year come out each september-november, but it can also be a bit stressful on gamers, especially those with a budget in mind.

While I would rather not spend my life’s savings on a plethora of plastic instruments and games with voice actors named Nolan North, I will,  as always, end up buying way too many games. Here is my lineup so far:

Beatles Rock Band- Yes, I am going to buy the super rip-off pack with the licensed instruments (for 4 times the price of the game). Why? 1: As surprising as it seems, I don’t own any rhythm game controllers (that still work anyway) 2: because they look completely awesome. Am I a bad person for wanting this pack?

Guitar Hero 5 - Why wouldn’t I buy this game, when Activision is offering Guitar Hero Van Halen free with purchase? I’m not a big David Lee Roth fan, but there are enough post-Hagar hits to merit the price tag (read: free).

Uncharted 2 - The original title was one of my very favorite games on the PS3, with superb voice acting, gameplay and a coherent story (thats all one can hope for these days), and the sequel looks even better. My purchase decision was cemented when the title won best of E3.

Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition - I played Fallout 3 pretty extensively when Zack got it last fall, but I am a completionist when it comes to RPGs, and plus the GOTY edition comes with ALL the expansion content, none of which I have played yet.

Modern Warfare 2 – The grand-daddy of fall releases. Once this hits all other games become irrelevant, so I have a bit of work to do before November. I have been a bit starved for first person shooters, with BF 1943 being the only game to tide me over until MW2 releases. I plan to buy the collectors edition for Call of Duty 1, though I don’t have much use for the night vision goggles included in the “prestige edition”

Thats it for me…what are you looking forward to this fall?

–Jeff (gamertag: Decksathron)