Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Red Faction: Guerrilla - Enjoying the Destruction

So, I know I've been quiet these past few months. And now I'm here on Blogger again. But you all know why. Life's been a busy crazy ride for a while now, and it's only starting to calm down. I won't bore you with too many details, but I am indeed finding myself head over heels in love with a beautiful girl who drooled on me one random night in her sleep. I'm still working at the Department of Veterans Affairs. I'm 4 months out from finishing my Masters in Information Systems. I'm the Art Director for a soon-to-be launched geek interest site. I'm reading a crap-ton of comics from Ground Zero in Strongsville, Ohio. I'm still doing comics and other art for Ten Ton Hammer. And I'm still playing games whenever I actually can squeeze some time in with one.

That's probably why you're here at all reading my blog, so then you'd probably like to know what it is I've been playing. Ladies and Gentlemen... let me detail the beauty of Red Faction: Guerrilla. I'm not playing any MMOGs at the moment, as I await Champions Online. I've been dabbling in Left 4 Dead, Rock Band 2, and The Orange Box a bit. That is until I took a leap of faith based on a game-store clerk's opinion and purchased Red Faction.

How do I put this game's enjoyment into words? Let's put it this way: when I sleep I dream of either naked ladies or destroying buildings with my sledgehammer. Or Don Knots. But let's not get into that last one.

I was tempted to get Prototype instead just because the thought of ninja-kicking a helicopter seemed too enticing to pass up, but I am very pleased I went with what the store's peon suggested. RF:G is a third-person open-world shooter that has you playing the role of a mining colonist on Mars who gets caught up in a struggle for the control of the planet's terraformed landmass. You see, virtually everything on Mars is controlled by the giant conglomerate militaristic corporation called the Earth Defense Force. When you arrive on the surface, you just want to make a living and enjoy your life... but your brother's a member of Red Faction a Che Guevara-like movement to free the people of Mars from the EDF. When he's killed for apparently no reason at all, that's when you get pissed and take up his mantle as liberator.

The game then folds out with a series of missions and random occurrences and miscellaneous goals that basically have you destroying every building erected by EDF, and killing lots and lots of the little military bastards. As you break down the walls of their strongholds, the colonists begin to rally behind you, and soon you find yourself with an army of people helping you revolt against the EDF. There are guns, mines, hammers, arc welders, bazookas... it's everything a boy could want to destroy things with. You can drive trucks, pilot space-ships, and in general lay havok to everything you see with anything you see. I once took an entire building out just by hammering the crap out of its support beams. The satisfying rumble of the controller and the screen made me smile as I walked away from the debris.

It's just a very fun game, and comes highly recommended if you're looking for a strong action game to add to your Xbox (or PS3) library that's not GTA IV. It's out on the PC in August if you feel like waiting. Multiplayer's a blast both locally with an ingenius pass-the-controller type game mode, and online with a host of different game modes for competitive play.

4 Bildos out of 5. Ha!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Coming back to Blogger...

Hey folks!

Not sure how many of you still check this site... ever. But I've closed down the hosted Wordpress blog, because I simply didn't see a reason to keep paying for something I used to seldomly. But I'm re-opening this place, and hopefully will have some news to churn out every now and again.

Life's still crazy-hectic, and I'm not even really playing all that much these days, but I am watching and wishing I had the time. And there's plenty of commentary in the ol' noggin left. So, if you catch wind of this blog post... thanks for not forgetting about my old blog.