Yay Presents!

I officially got spoiled rotten for Giftmas this year. In addition to lots of much needed clothes (ZOMG Bee Suit Mario tee!!!) and a shitload of candy, Santa brought me Guitar Hero III, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance on Wii.

Although I've played quite a bit of Guitar Hero I, II, and 80's cashwh0re edition, GH III is the first one I've actually owned and played through an entire career. I've pretty much determined that I'll probably never be able to get anywhere in Hard difficulty, although I've managed to reach the last boss in Medium. Beating him is another story. I've played through Easy and Medium a few times just to earn cash for the unlockables, which I've almost finished up with. Yes, I know... Rock Band is better, Activision are money-grubbing devil worshipers who punch orphans and voted for Bush. Somehow I'm still managing to enjoy the game despite all this. My GuitarHero.com profile is here, although it's currently empty since my Wii is offline until later next month. If anyone else is actually still playing the Wii version, PM me your Friend Code and once I get my Intertubes situation resolved we'll do some online rocking.

I've already gone through Lego Star Wars I & II on the PC separately, but I enjoyed the games so much I definitely wanted to get the Complete Saga for when the kiddo is a bit older. Right now the girl has played it a bit with me in co-op, though she has a tendency to fall off platforms repeatedly and laugh hysterically whenever one of the little Lego men explode into tiny pieces. Obviously she is not aware that Lego Star Wars is serious business.

I'd also played a bit of Marvel Ultimate Alliance on PC, but never got further than the fourth level. I have a hard time gaming for any length with my PC, I hate being stuck hunched over the desk. The 8 gig install footprint didn't motivate me to keep it on my hard drive for very long either. While the graphics are a definite downgrade, the controls on Wii actually work much better than I expected. I'm having no problems with them at all, and even prefer it a bit over the traditional gamepad. Now I just need to get a couple more nunchucks and a few friends I can con into playing co-op with me. Right now it's $20, so if you were a fan of the X-Men Legends games and haven't checked this out yet, check it out. If you have a 360 though, go with the $30 Gold/Platinum version, it includes 8 additional characters and Live support. I have a feeling I'll probably rebuy this game whenever I do eventually get a 360.

The girl got some games too, although the only one that's semi-respectable is Mario Party 8. Let me just say, if you never get a chance to play Boogie or Petz 2: Catz, your life will be much better for it.