41. The New Experience

Are you excited?  You should be!  The New Xbox Experience is almost… almost… The Current Xbox Experience.  Just a few more days and everyone will finally have it.  As you’re all well aware, I’ve been running the NXE for a few weeks now and I really love it.  Sure, there aren’t a lot of new features and we don’t have Netflix, but the interface is very smooth and it does make finding things easier.  It isn’t still isn’t perfect but it’s ‘grown up’ considerably.

Also, I just finalized the schedule for the duration of 2008 and the last comic this year will be on December 15th.  We’ll pick it up again in the new year once the new releases start to roll out!

39. The Gears of our Time

Gears of War 2 drops this week and and if you’re not excited, you should be.  Judging from the reviews that dropped this morning I think it’s safe to say that the follow-up to the 2006 GOTY will be a resounding success.

In the Sinnix household, the original Gears is somewhat of a legend.  It remains one of the few games to implement couch co-op really, really well.  Two years after the fact I can think of only a handful of games that equal it and none that surpass it.  The coordinated gameplay, the excellent checkpoint system, properly done achievements… all of it boils down to an experience that really makes you both feel like you’re both heroes and making progress in the game.

The competitive multiplayer, on the other hand, was the aspect of the game I couldn’t really get into.  In fact, about the only versus gameplay I like is that found in COD4.  I played a few rounds against some of the other Canadian Xbox forum people but I just never hit my stride… it didn’t click with me.  Now, I’m not saying that the multiplayer in Gears 2 will either, but I am very excited about the new Horde mode.  Essentially co-op with larger groups of friends.  Once again, I don’t expect to be particularly good at it but what I do expect is to have a good time.

On a side note, I have the New Xbox Experience running on my primary console at home and we’re going to be talking about it a little later this week.  Stay tuned!

Fable 2 is the best damn game I’ve played all year.  Period. Since the media embargoes are all ending today, I think you’ll see that I’m not alone in believing this.  Everything from the first game has been dramatically improved and I really do believe this is Peter Moleneux’s best game to date. Sure there are a few things I’m unhappy with (a lot of it to do with co-op), but I haven’t had this much fun playing an RPG is as long as I can remember.

Obviously this game is currently my front-runner for game of the year.  I’m expecting Fallout 3 and Gears of War 2 to also be strong contenders but at this point  I’m not so sure they’ll be match my love for this game.

One of the most fascinating things about this game is how different everyone’s world is.  Talking with my twitter-friends reveals that we’re all having completely varied experiences based on the choices we’ve made.  And those choice? NOT OBVIOUS.  I can’t say too much without the possibility of massive spoilers but I will say that I was making choices without realizing it… BIG ONES.  If you want to get a lot more out of this game when you pick it up tomorrow… be sure to share your experience with other players.  It adds a lot to the experience.