Blog Post: Gotta give props to Uncharted film director David O. Russell

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In what was a surprise to pretty much nobody, an Uncharted film adaptation was announced a little while back. This is a series that saw a huge surge in popularity with its 2nd installment, and so the fact that Hollywood is eager to cash in on the property is just par for the course.

What does surprise me, though, is that critically acclaimed director, David O. Russell, who's just coming off the very well-received film The Fighter, will be the director of the project, and it's rare to see such an artsy director interested in bringing a video game to the screen. My excitement quickly faded, though, when he began speaking about his plans for the movie.

Granted, I have never played either of the Uncharted games, so I am in no way attached to the game and have no idea how different his plans are from how the actual games are. That said, I know what it's like to see a game I like turned into a shitty movie (Max Payne, for example,) one that's not at all faithful to the game, and that's always hard to deal with. Hearing fans and actually even some in the industry press, like Adam Sessler and other big publications, trash Russell's plans for the movie, including the casting of Mark Wahlberg as Nathan Drake (and even having not played the game, this raises red flags, as I know Nathan Drake's nothing like Mark Wahlberg) makes me annoyed that this looked to be yet another casualty of Hollywood's attempts to lure video gamers into a movie that's terrible.

What happened, though, is that David O. Russell recently addressed all this bad press, and I have to say, what he said took a lot of, well, bravery, and it's allowed me to sort of step back and even maybe trust this guy to make a great movie.

 “I’m not going to present myself as hardcore. But I played the game a bunch of times and I also read as much as I could about the game and I met the game’s creator, Amy Hennig, who’s really cool.”

“To grow a game into a movie is an interesting proposition because a game is a very different experience than a movie." “You guys are playing the game, and it’s about playing the game. It’s not about a narrative embracing you emotionally. You know what I’m saying? So, I want to create a world that is worthy of a really great film."

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m very respectful as far as the core content and sprit of the game, but beyond that it’s my job as a filmmaker to make what I think is going to be an amazing movie..."

(http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/)

So here's what I like about this....he seems incredibly confident in his abilities to turn this into not just another crappy video game adaptation, but a great film. And this is a guy who knows how to make a great film. He's frank with the audience, explaining that video games generally don't translate well into film, that more work is required to develop a world that works for film.

Is he right? Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. But I have to say, after reading these words, I feel like I have no choice but to trust that he will be delivering a great movie based on the acclaimed video game series. I would disagree with him that video games can't grab you emotionally (the ending of Final Fantasy 10, for example, grabbed me emotionally in a way that few movies ever have) but I can actually see and get what he's saying about video game movies and about how maybe you just can't make a great movie while trying to be overly-faithful to the game. At the same time, he says he respects the game and will try to tell a story faithful to the game.

At the very least, I can't wait to see a trailer.

Blog Post: Amazing trailer for Dead Island

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Old41bsSXU

Check this trailer out. This is actually the first time I've heard of this game, which, according to its Wikipedia page, is a multiplayer-compatible zombie game with an emphasis on melee attacks. Though I wasn't the biggest Left 4 Dead fan, and this sounds like it takes more than a little influences from it, I have to say, this is a very emotional and thought-provoking trailer that's worth a view even if you have no interest in actually playing the game.

Pretty amazingly-directed and powerful stuff.

Blog Post: Followup=Activision may try to buy Take-Two!?!?....

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Well, this is sort of a part 2 to my last blog post. When I wrote it up yesterday, I was pretty confused with what looked like Activision's plan to leave developing traditional console video games entirely. How else to explain a publisher cancelling almost their entire roster of IP and closing their studios?

Well, a possible explanation has made itself clear today, and it's not one that would be a good thing. It's being rumored that Activision's next move will be to acquire Take-Two Interactive, the publishing giant who owns Rockstar Games, 2k games, and all their franchises, including, of course, the likes of Grand Theft Auto.

To be completely honest, this scares me. Take-Two has been one of the few publishing giants that I've respected over the years. They allow their games to spend years in development if needed, they're generous with granting their developers the freedom to create new IP, and there's a strong sense of quality to much of what they release, especially from the likes of Rockstar. None of these traits gel well with Activision's strategy, which is to release yearly installments of each and every franchise and to downplay the importance of creating new IP.

What's becoming alarmingly clear, given Activision's decision to cancel a majority of their in-house titles and franchises, is that the company has given up on creating new IP themselves, and instead are content to simply wait until another company's IP becomes successful, acquire it, milk it for all its worth, and close the studio. Not a good thing for the industry at all.

I'm hoping beyond hope that this is just a baseless rumor, and I really hope Take-Two is capable of defending themselves from this buyout if it turns out to be in fact true. This isn't the first time the publisher has been targeted for a buyout, EA tried years ago, unsuccessfully, which demonstrates that Take-Two, at least back then, had a strong desire to remain independent. I really hope beyond hope that this is still the case.

Blog Post: Wow, what's going on with Activision?

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Well it seems that Activision's been busy over the last few weeks. As they've just announced yesterday, they will be discontinuing the Guitar Hero and DJ Hero franchises, not to mention Tony Hawk, and have cancelled the upcoming True Crime: Hong Kong, a game that just recently got a strong preview/cover story in EGM. This follows the announcement from a few weeks ago that Activision would be closing Bizarre Creations, the studio who developed Blur, and would be effectively shutting down their rhythm game division, eliminating Red Octane, the company they acquired to gain control of the Guitar Hero franchise.

So what exactly does Activision have planned for this year? Well, according to IGN, they still plan to release a Spider-Man, and of course they'll have Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. But is that really it?

It seems like it, and in that same IGN article, Activision discusses that they believe the industry is moving in a very "hit-focused" direction, believing that any game that doesn't sell millions of units is not worth bothering with. But really, how many franchises are capable of doing that? And how does Activision expect to grow the industry with that mentality? New IP don't just sell millions right off the bat, even Guitar Hero took its time to grow. Are we to expect nothing from Activision going forward except yearly Call of Duty games?

Well, the good news for them is that they have Blizzard. What it looks like to me is that Activision's planning on gradually moving out of traditional game releases, focusing more and more on the online game/subscription model that's worked so well for their other half, Blizzard, over the years. They've already talked about a potential Call of Duty MMO, which I definitely believe will happen. But once Call of Duty stops selling, just like Guitar Hero stopped selling, how will Activision continue to develop games that sell millions of copies when they're in the process of killing off all their non-CoD franchises?

It's a mystery, frankly. The only thing I can see happening is an eventual move into a Blizzard-like business model, and who knows how that will affect the industry? I guess we'll have to see. I've always had kind of a love-hate relationship with Activision. Lately I've found their business practices and their treatment of their developers to be pretty shameful, but on the other hand, games like the first couple Tony Hawks were a huge part of my childhood growing up, and so there's always that soft spot I'll have for the company. It's that part of me that thinks it sucks to see one of the industry vets losing touch with/losing interest in the industry that it's currently, well, ruling.

Review: Vanquish: How much awesomness can you fit in one game?

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Vanquish is a game that reminded me how much I love Japanese games. If somebody walks into the room as you're playing Vanquish, the latest from Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, their first thought might be that the game looks a lot like a brighter Gears of War, and, both being cover shooters, they do share some similarities. However, whereas I couldn't stand Gears of War and quit after only the 2nd level, Vanquish is a game that grabbed me and pulled me into its craziness almost from the beginning, and kept me playing until I reached the end. Fun to play, challenging, and incredibly addictive, here's something that every action game junkie should have in their collection.

This is a game set in our world in the future, where robots have been developed as armed forces and are invading America. Russia is behind it, and the plot pretty much covers everything from futuristic combat suits to space colonies, to world-weary old marines and politics, not to mention smoking. Lots and lots of smoking. The plot here is deliberately over the top and quite convoluted, but it delivers some truly amazing cutscenes, some of which set the scene for great battles and enemy confrontations.

The real reason you play Vanquish, though, is for the gameplay, and this is the type of game that you need to play (and I'm not talking about the lame demo) to really understand. Once you get the hang of controlling Sam in his high-tech combat suit and discover which weapons work best for your style of play, Vanquish's controls feel like second nature, making the hours upon hours you'll spend gunning down these Russian robots incredibly fun and rewarding. Cover is there and it definitely plays a big role in battle; if you don't take cover at the right time, the enemies will wipe the floor with you. What I love so much about Vanquish, though, is that unlike Gears of War, it doesn't require you to constantly lug a slow-moving character from one cover wall to the next, and in fact gives you many incentives to hop out from behind your cover and take on the enemies directly. With the press of the left bumper, Sam is suddenly able to lie down and slide through the environments like he's on a motorcycle, definitely one of the cooler gameplay mechanics the 3rd person shooter has seen in some time. The feeling of zooming around enemies,dodging their bullets and powerful ray gun missiles, is pretty much second to none, and this becomes even cooler when in bullet time. In another cool feature, Sam's suit sends him into bullet time mode whenever his HP runs low, and as it regenerates, you have some time to either run for cover, or to absolutely wreak havoc on the enemies surrounding you in slow motion. Incorporate a slide into this and you have the recipe for absolute....erm.....badass-itude. I haven't even mentioned your melee attacks, yet another surprisingly satisfying gameplay addition that makes Vanquish feel not like "another 3rd person shooter" but like a game all its own.

The focus here is on its fast speed. Sam moves very quickly, and his ability to athletically hop over cover, the quick time in which the enemies' HP depletes, the short length you stay in each location before your squad moves on, and some of the seriously cool combat set pieces, make for an adrenaline-pumping experience that I found exciting in a way I've never found 3rd person shooters exciting before.  This game's all about the flash, it's all about the excess, it's all about the intensity and the action, but on the other hand, it's not a shallow game. Some of the massive boss fights and the more elaborate battle scenes you'll find yourself taking part in require a definite strategy, especially later in the game, and the weapons you pick up (you can carry 3 different ones at once, any of which you can swap out) are all varied and allow for a completely different combat experience. There are also robot mechs you can take control of and turrets you can hop into, both of which can do serious damage to surrounding enemies, though these have limited ammo so you can't make the game too easy for yourself. Vanquish does run on an ammo system but there always seems to be plenty of it around and you have other weapons you can switch to should you run out. You can also find weapon powerups throughout the levels to upgrade their ammo capacity and power.

It's all just really, *really* fun. I can't stress that enough. For much of the time, playing Vanquish is like getting to control the coolest action scenes in the most intense action movies. This is a non-stop thrill ride with a challenging (but reasonable) difficulty and tons of great action sequences, both playable and in cutscene form.

Even so, though, Vanquish isn't a perfect game, and one thing that holds it back is the story. I'm not sure why a game that looks as great as this does and that features cutscenes as cool and expensive as these were was given such bad dialogue. Almost every line, both during battle and during cutscenes, is so incredibly cheesy and campy that I actually felt embarrassed for the voice actors, (and this has some good ones too, like Final Fantasy 12's Gideon Emery and of course Steve Blum) who give bad performances as they struggle with an uneven script. It feels like it was Mikami's intent for Vanquish to replicate the feel of an "American Action Movie," with the problem being that "American Action Movies" haven't been this way since, like....the 80s. As a result, rather than feeling like the homage it was probably intended to feel like, the poor script and voice acting result in Vanquish feeling cheap and even a little dated. Which is too bad, because some cool stuff actually does begin to happen towards the end, but the under-developed characters and bad dialogue make it tough to take any of it seriously, let alone care much about these characters. The somewhat inconclusive ending might also rub a lot of gamers the wrong way.

On the gameplay side of things, Vanquish does move from being "challenging" to "frustrating" somewhere during the last hour or so, as some of the enemies you fight (the flying ones) can be unfairly difficult to see, and this, along with the game suddenly seeming to favor overloading the screen with enemies over real strategy and bosses who have moves that kill you in one hit, makes for a frustrating last hour or so. Thankfully, Platinum Games was more than generous with the checkpoints, so things never seem to be *too* frustrating, but there are definitely some moments towards the end that may send some controllers flying.

Verdict: Vanquish is actually the first effort from Platinum Games that I really enjoyed. I liked MadWorld but thought it ended just as it was getting good, and I couldn't stand Bayonetta, but Vanquish is something else. It's an intense, fun, challenging, nice-looking, and perfectly paced 3rd person shooter that just served to remind me why I still like Japanese games so much more than many of their Western counterparts. Vanquish isn't afraid to go over the top in the way that many Japanese games love to go over the top, and in an age when many games are taking themselves so seriously, it's refreshing to get to play one that's not afraid to push the boundaries of what's possible in a 3rd person shooter while completely destroying any sense of reality or believability. Still, one area I wish the game did take itself more seriously in is its storyline, as this is a world that's absolutely begging for a great story. Instead, Vanquish settles for action movie cliches, bad dialogue, and characters with very little in the way of personality. Don't go in expecting a well-written or acted story, and you'll probably love Vanquish.

Presentation: Top-notch cutscenes and high production value, coupled with enough style to fill two games, works to hide the groan-inducing dialogue, which does its best to cheapen the experience.

Graphics: Beautiful art direction, a vast cityscape, and so much happening on screen at once that it's almost unreal, Vanquish is without a doubt Platinum's best-looking game so far.

Gameplay: Delivers a fun and intense experience loaded with variety and style. Really pushes the envelope of what can be expected out of an action game. Words can't describe how fun this is to play, and the pacing is relentless.

Audio: Soundtrack's both subtle and epic at the same time, works well with the action. The voice actors do their best but still can't quite redeem the dialogue. Sound effects though are as crazy as the action.

Value: a "God Hard" mode is unlocked after beating the game, which I'm sure presents an EPIC challenge....can't even imagine. There are also some other challenge modes you unlock as you progress through the campaign.  Game could maybe have used a little more in the way of extra features with its somewhat short length, but the campaign's good enough to be worth it all on its own.

Overall: 8.5/10

Review: Red Steel 2. Surprisingly awesome game that Wii owners need to play.

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Why is humanity here? What is the meaning of our existence? How do we solve the economic crisis? Why did Ubisoft name this game Red Steel 2?

There are some questions that we may never know the answer to, and given the beating the original Red Steel took in the media and from gamers, why Ubisoft chose to revive the name "Red Steel" for this game is one of those questions. I was actually somewhat of a fan of the original Red Steel, mostly because I found it to be so entertaining, often in very unintentional ways. Any game where you put away your pistol in the midst of a deadly gun battle to draw a sword to duel with a samurai Yakuza member....in downtown LA, is a game that has at least some value......c'mon. That said, it wasn't exactly a game I was looking forward to playing more of, but Red Steel 2 surprises in a number of ways: the original Red Steel was funny and fun to play, but I would never call it a good game. Red Steel 2 is not only a good game but a great one, one that improves on its predecessor in every way and delivers a truly unique experience that makes great use of the Motion Plus. It's unfortunate that Ubisoft chose to name this Red Steel 2, because it's a decision that may have scared away a lot of potential buyers who would have loved this game if they'd given it a shot.

Visuals: One area Red Steel 2 amazes is in its visual presentation, which is, simply put, beautiful. The Wii is not an HD system but I can hardly tell when I have this game running in 480p on a 32-inch HD television. The visuals use a cartoony, cel shaded style that actually reminds me a lot of the film A Scanner Darkly, and that's a huge compliment. The setting's a bizarre fusion of Japan, cyberpunk, and the old West, going from Asian-themed city locations to abandoned desert towns, moving trains, dojos, and all that good stuff. It's all so pretty, and this make-believe setting makes the fusion of swordplay and shooting much more believable than it was in the original game. The characters look great in an over-the-top, cartoony way, and the story's presented in a mixture of awesome FMV and in-game conversations that are infinitely more interesting than the original Red Steel's comic book exposition scenes. It's not flawless, however. There's loading each time you open a door, which can feel a bit excessive at times. The game's effort to disguise these load times (with door opening scenes that make the old Resident Evil games' door opening load times seem subtle in comparrison, and *that's* an achievement) almost makes things worse. Aside from that, there's one bizarre choice that the developers have made: when learning your moves, the motions are demonstrated to you by someone (live action-style) who looks like she came right out of a Wii Fit video. It's distracting (in a bad way) and really took me out of the experience. But these are small marks on an otherwise brilliant visual presentation that sidesteps the system's limits to deliver what I think is one of the prettier games (artistically) this gen.

Gameplay: Red Steel 2 places a lot of its eggs into one basket, with the combat system (particularly the sword-swinging) being the main focus behind this game, and the Wii Motion Plus proves to be more than up to the task. When using the gun, the aiming feels fluid and natural, and when engaging in sword play, there's a number of different moves at your disposal, the amount of which increases as you unlock more of them. For the most part, this really works, and we have an experience that just wouldn't be possible (or wouldn't be nearly as fun) on a regular controller. You use buttons to dodge and to slide up behind your enemies, and you use certain motions to designate the way your character swings the sword. Some enemies require wider, more powerful slashes to remove their armor, some require you to slash vertically, etc. Once the enemy is dazed, you can pull off a finisher to get more points. The large emphasis on points and combos is a pretty cool feature and adds some replay value to the game, and though I found myself wishing there were a bit more variety in the finishers, they're all cool-looking and get the job done.

As far as the shooting goes, with the press of a button you can switch to your gun, and though guns definitely play second fiddle to the swordplay this time around, they can still give you a leg up in certain combat situations and they're essential to opening a lot of the game's "treasure chests." Ammo is plentiful and there are several different guns you can use. There are other motion-based sequences that come up, like an awesome QTE sequence involving a moving car, there's safe-cracking, there are certain dials that you use the controller to turn, stuff like that. Some of these of course come off as being a bit gimmicky but that's the Wii for you. I can never seem to get tired of this stuff.

Red Steel 2 also has a great upgrade system. Whenever you get to a new area, you're told to pay a visit to the "hub" of sorts, where you receive mission briefs (a couple are required, a couple are optional side missions that net you some extra cash) and can upgrade your equipment, learn new moves, gain more HP, and increase the strength of your armor. There's actually a lot to buy and it'll keep you busy until close to the end of the game.

Though the regular enemies occasionally present a challenge, much of the difficulty comes from the boss fights, and though none are impossibly tough, there are a couple of them that actually required me to stand up and really put my effort into it. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed it, and though I'm glad Red Steel 2 doesn't make you do this all the time, it was actually kind of fun to really "get into" the battles by having to stand up and really put my all into my sword slashes.

The minute-to-minute gameplay experience here is a blast. The combat's great, the character upgrade system works well, there are plenty of side missions available to take on, varied environments, and the story progresses pretty frequently. That said, there are a couple iffy design choices that I have to point out that didn't really occur to me as I was playing the game, but looking back, I can't help but wonder, "wait....wha??" First of all, the environments are all totally deserted. Aside from the enemies you fight and the characters you interact with in the hub stores/dojos, there is not a single person wandering through these environments. This makes sense in the middle of the desert but it's weird (and unexplained) that the cities you explore are all totally empty. If there's one thing that would have added some extra depth to Red Steel 2, it would have been NPC interaction.

Also, money. Everything in this game gets money. You shoot out anything in the environment, break any barrel, open any container, defeat any enemy, you get coins. For the most part, this works fine, as like I said, there's plenty to buy. However, barrels that you break open come back if the environment re-loads, and even item containers (this game's "treasure chests") sometimes refill themselves. The unfortunate result of this is that you get money so easily that unless you make it a point to avoid doing so, you can power your character and his weapons up to their max potential before the game ends, making Red Steel 2's final fights far too easy. The final boss especially comes off as anti-climactic.

So there are some strange design choices here, maybe due to the limits of the Wii hardware, but these are very minor in the grand scheme of things. There's still room for Red Steel 2 to grow into something even better, but for now, this is probably the best sequel I could have imagined for such a poorly-received launch game. Plain and simple, Red Steel 2 is fun, and it really demonstrates the type of action game that's possible on the Wii if developers really give it their all.

Sound: Tom Salta returns to provide yet another great musical score, this time delivering a subtle, and at times even haunting, soundtrack that provides the perfect backdrop to the game's setting. Great stuff. The sound effects are also excellent, and everything from the sword slashes to the sounds of the desolate wastelands, is done very well.

I wish I could say the same thing for the voice acting, but that brings me to...

Story: This is by far Red Steel 2's biggest weakness. No matter how great the world is, no matter how stylish the cutscenes are or how badass the main character is, this series just can't seem to tell a story to save its life. The writing's uninspired, with a plot and dialogue that feel like they were thrown together in an afternoon and submitted on a first draft. The voice actors all sound totally detatched and uninterested in the game's events, and there's really not much in the way of a strong villain. There were times when I thought that *maybe* the dialogue was purposely trying to be campy and over the top, but if it was, it doesn't take this nearly far enough. Ubisoft's told some great stories in many of their games, but this just isn't one of them. I wouldn't call this as bad as Red Steel 1's story and dialogue, and luckily this game doesn't take itself quite as seriously, but it's still a major weakness that needs to be addressed if this series continues.

Verdict: Red Steel 2, despite the name, is not a sequel to Red Steel, but an entirely new game that betters the original in every way and delivers a thoroughly entertaining action-driven experience with great motion controls, an awesome setting, immersive music and sound design, and a gorgeous visual style. What we have here is a game that's always fun to play and demonstrates so well what this system can do from a control perspective that it's definitely a must-buy for Wii owners, especially those who complain that there are no good games on the Wii. Here's one, so give it a shot!

Presentation: A great world with a lot to explore but with a radar that always keeps you on track. Plenty of sidequests to complete, and some stylish FMV cutscenes that blend in well with the in-game graphics. Story is awful, though.

Graphics: Gorgeous art style, varied environments, cool character design. Frequent load times are unfortunate but not a deal-breaker.

Gameplay: A fun, always-evolving combat system with great shooting, all made possible by the Motion Plus. A little too easy at times on the normal difficulty and could use more NPC interaction, but otherwise, no complaints.

Sound: Great music, great sound design, bad voice acting. Come on, Ubisoft, you can do better than this...

Replay Value: With some sidequesting, Red Steel took me around 10 hours, which is a lot longer than I thought it would be. Once done, you can replay the levels and try to get score-based medals. Not bad.
Overall: 8/10
(My reviews go on a .5 scale)

Blog Post: 2 games I missed that you shouldn't

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Well, we're into the dry spell of 2011. Typically the first few months of the year are slow ones for video games, a fact that seems to be especially true this year. Thankfully, 2010 was such a great year that there are still plenty of games I've got lying around that I need to play. Two of these games are what I'm blogging about right now, because they're both awesome games that may have been overlooked by a lot of people.

First up, Vanquish, (360/PS3) the latest from SEGA and Platinum Games, this one being directed by Shinji Mikami, the creator of Resident Evil. I'm not a person who usually gets into shooters, especially those in the 3rd person. But I have to say, Vanquish is one of the most fun and exciting action shooters I've experienced in a while. Rather than being slow and clunky like Gears of War, Vanquish gives you the ability to do powerslides, awesome melee attacks that involve your character jumping into the air, and it goes into bullet time whenever your health is low and it starts to regenerate. I'm just having a blast with this. The visuals and art direction are pretty amazing, at times reminding me a little bit of F-Zero, especially when set pieces take you onboard a moving platform and you have to shoot pursuing enemies. The bosses are epic in scope and quite a challenge but the game never gets too frustrating, and despite the terrible story, dialogue, and voice acting (which is about as cheesy as cheesy can get) the cutscenes are pretty epic.

It's a lot of fun and definitely worth playing. This one, like the other game I'll be talking about in this post, would have been one of my GOTY nominees if I'd gotten to play it in 2010. Vanquish is around $40 now so it's a definite buy.

Screenshots really don't do this next game justice. Red Steel 2 (Wii) is a beautiful-looking game, with a visual style that reminds me of the fantastic cult flick, A Scanner Darkly. The gameplay's awesome too, making great use of the Wii's Motion Plus attachment for sword-swinging and shooting accuracy that I haven't seen yet in a motion controlled game. There's a pretty big arsenal of combat moves you can use against the enemies you fight, and you continue to learn more and build your skills up as the game goes. Like Vanquish, the story's pretty dumb, but like Vanquish, the cutscenes are stylish and end up being a lot of fun to watch. Games like this are the reason you bought the Wii: they're the reason the Wii was created to begin with. So definitely give Red Steel 2 a shot. Game's on clearance now for only $20 (and that's bundled with the Motion Plus) so get it soon before it's discontinued!
(review coming soon.)

Annoucement: Opened up a Twitter account

Yeah, it's been slow. Not all that much going on right now, these are the slow months. In an effort to make it easier to tell when I've updated this when something actually does happen, though,  I've gone ahead and made a Twitter for this blog.

http://twitter.com/NintendoSega54

So anytime I update this with anything you'll be alerted to it if you follow me on Twitter.

Some more stuff's coming, don't worry. I've been playing 2 great games that I can't wait to post about.
-nS