I’ve played quite a few of the games I listed in the earlier post, but a few have been taking up more time than others while a single title really dominated my time.  A quick recap of each follows:

Fable 2 – Much much better than the first Fable.  Pay little attention to the storyline, the real fun here is amassing a fortune in order to buy out all the real estate, marrying as many spouses as you can get away with and just generally existing in the world.  Biggest complaint?  The weapons system sucks.  Without hardly trying you can have the best weapons by mid-game.  When you’re raking in money hand over fist from your real estate investments it would be nice to have something to spend it on.

Force Unleashed – Not the greatest Star Wars title ever to grace a screen, but a very fun game none-the-less.  The moves system is pretty deep, and the character upgrades system is fun.  Even if your budget can’t fit this title in it’s definitely worth a rent for the weekend.

Rock Band 2 – Meh.  More of the same I guess.  While there are some truly epic and fun songs on this outing overall I liked the track selection of Rock Band 1 better.  Depending on your musical tastes your milage may vary widely from mine.

Left 4 Dead – Haven’t picked this up, but the demo was pretty fun.  Its next on my list of purchases.

Warhammer Online – This game is a real blast. The PVP scenarios are super fun, and regardless of what anyone says the Witch Hunter class is awesome.  I’d imagine it would be harder to consistently place in the top 5 with a class that was really actually broken.  If you’re looking for a new MMO and you’re sick of WoW like I am, give this one a go.  I’m sure you’ll like it.

Fallout 3 – WHOAH.  This game has sucked more hours out of me than any game in recent memory.  In fact, I can’t remember spending as much time just exploring since I played Morrowind.  Fallout 3 does away with all of the problems I had with Oblivion, namely the terrible interface, quick travel and scaling enemies.  This is a true 100/100 game; placing Bioshock and Fallout 3 side by side makes Bioshock look like an 85/100 by comparison.  If you only have the budget for one game this season make it Fallout 3.  Let me repeat that.  Buy Fallout 3 right now.  Its that good, I promise.

Left 4 Dead, November 20th – Multiplayer zombie battles!  This game promises to be one of the biggest multiplayer online shooters since Counterstrike made you miss your birthday party, graduation, wedding and birth of your first child oh so many years ago.  Pitting you and 3 other human-flavored zombie snax against hordes of animated rotting corpses, Left 4 Dead incorporates an AI ‘director’ that dynamically alters the action, sounds and music depending on how your team is doing.  Hopefully this feature is actually cool, and not just marketing box-speak for stuff that games have been doing since 2005.

Warhammer Online, Sept 18th – I’ve been in the beta for this for a couple months and I have to say it’s the most fun I’ve had in pvp since Unreal Tournament 3.  The rewards system is highly developed, earning you loot, xp and money for pvp kills, as well as renown points that increase your pvp rank, give you access to pvp vendor loot and provide a way to add permanent (and noticeable) bonuses to your stats.  Another cool feature is that your guild is an entity in the game world and levels up with its members, providing access to a guilds-only tavern, standard bearers and guild specific buffs.  This idea is VERY cool.  Not to mention that the atmosphere and background story is outstanding.  Some of those people new to Warhammer might complain that some of the setting elements are too similar to WoW, and I have to agree.  Warhammer has been around as a table top wargame for over 20 years.  Where do you think the Warcraft devs got most of their ideas?  It wasn’t from playing My Little Pony Horse Princess Adventures, I can assure you.

Endwar, November 14th – It’s been a while since I’ve played a good RTS, and Tom Clancy’s Endwar is shaping up to be something interesting.  The biggest difference between this and your garden variety Command and Conquer clone is that you control your forces with voice activated commands via headset.  Most of the previews give this mechanic a thumbs up, so we’ll see if it turns out to be a revolution for RTS games, or merely a gimmick to push a few copies at Christmas.

Red Alert 3, October 27th – Red Alert was always my favorite Command and Conquer game, and now there’s a new once coming out using the CnC3 engine.  And the best part?  This time The Empire of the Rising Sun is stepping up to take on America and the Soviets for total world domination.

Wrath of the Lich King, November 13th – Just kidding, I hate WoW! 

So there you have it.  Enough games to keep you occupied into the wee hours of the morning for the next several months.  Try not to fail your classes!

This go-around I’m going to talk about the games that I’m excited to play.  This isn’t a list of what’s going to be hot, and I’m sure most of you will think, “But what about Super Ultra PS3 Game X Part 2: The Sequeling??”  First of all, there’s no such game, and second, if it’s not interesting to me it’s not going on the list.  I’m also only going to talk about games for platforms that I own, because getting all worked up for a game I can’t even play is kinda silly, don’t you think?  Fear not though, because my collection includes all 3 current-gen platforms, a PC, DS and PSP.

First up is the 360.  Why?  Because it was the first of the current round of consoles that I procured.  Thats why.

Rock Band 2, September 14th: What needs to be said about this game?  The only way you could NOT have heard of it is if you’ve been sleeping under a rock on Mars for the last few years.  This year’s go around features a bunch of new songs, the most interesting of which is Eye of the Tiger, by Survivor.  That’s right, the inspirational rock epic from Rocky III is here to get you fired up to take on the challenge of your rival.  You’ll need it, especially if your rival is either XM staffer <rook> or <moebius> (I know I do).

Fable 2, October 21st: I want this game because it promises to be one or to things that Fable 1 promised to be.  Maybe I should be getting excited for Fable 3 instead…

Gears of War 2, November 7th: Mainly because I’d like to see the ending of the first Gears of War.

On to the Wii!  Wait.  There’s nothing awesome coming out for this console if you’re older than say, 9.  There are some must-haves for this system though, so let’s recap.  If you have a Wii, and you don’t already own these my recommendation is the following: sell it to someone who actually enjoys playing video games.

• Super Smash Bros Brawl
• Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
• Super Mario Galaxy
• Metroid Prime 3

The PS3 has a pretty shallow catalog, which makes me kinda sad.  The last big release was Metal Gear Solid 4, and the rest of big titles for Christmas are all cross-platform 360/PC games.  Nevertheless I love the PS3 menu system, and the DualShock 3 controller is way better than anything else out there, so xplat as these games may be, I’ll be getting them for the PS3.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, September 16th: I played the demo of this, and while not as jaw droppingly revolutionary as all the hype would have me believe, I actually had a good time playing it.  The Star Wars atmosphere and feel of the game is second only to the original Knights of the Old Republic.  Should be a fun play, but I doubt it will be one I find myself talking about with friends 5 years from now.

Dead Space, September 14th: I love horror.  I love science fiction, and I absolutely love science fiction horror (I’m looking at you Alien) so this should be the perfect thing for me.  Assuming the game is actually fun to play of course.

Fallout 3, October 28th: Fallout 1 and 2 are some of my most favorite games of all time.  I was even fortunate enough to be able to attend the Fallout 2 launch party in California in 1998.  Then the Fallout franchise was sold to Bethesda.  Bethesda rocked my socks off with Elder Scrolls: Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind, and then they released the atrocious Oblivion.  Raped of any sense of progression or accomplishment, and bereft of any real reward for exploration, Oblivion was a boring slog from start to finish.  Pretty landscapes though!  So this game could go either way.  I’m buying it in the hopes Bethesda can return to the greatness of their earlier works and produce a Fallout sequel worthy of its predecessors.

Stay tuned for PC games later in the week!

If you have a DSL router with a DHCP server that is on by default (Actiontec 1524/GT701/GT704/M1000, 2Wire 2701HG), getting your PS3 online is a simple matter of plugging in an ethernet cable and firing up your PS3.

Once you’re at the XMB (Xross Media Bar – Sony loves crazy acronyms!) navigate over to the settings icon, then down to ‘Network Settings’, which should be at the bottom of the list.  Hit X and scroll down to ‘Internet Connection Settings’.  Select ‘Easy’ and press right on the D-pad.  The PS3 will attempt to automatically discover the network settings.  If successful, a Settings List will be displayed.  Review this if you like, then press X.  After you do this you will be prompted to test the settings.  Hit X again to start the test.  If ‘Obtain an IP Address’ and ‘Internet Connection’ both show ‘Succeeded’ then you’re ready to start using your PS3 online!

If you have a Cisco 675/678 router you will need to manually configure the PS3 settings.  From the Internet Connection Settings menu select Custom > Wired Connection > Manual Settings > Auto-Detect > Manual.  At this screen you are presented with 5 settings.  Enter the following addresses in the corresponding field:

• IP Address: 10.0.0.10 (or any unused number between .10 and .255)
• Subnet Mask: Leave at 255.255.255.0
• Default Router: 10.0.0.1
• Primary DNS: 198.60.22.2
• Secondary DNS: 198.60.22.22

After you’ve entered these settings keep pressing right until you get to the settings list.  Review it to be sure there are no errors then press the X button to save your settings.

Voilà, your PS3 is now ready to connect to the network.  Once connected, be sure to stop by the PlayStation Store to check out new demos, free themes (the Metal Gear Solid 4 theme is especially nice) and more!