My roommate just signed up for GameFly, and got Dark Sector. I was never really all that interested in the game, but I figured I might as well play it since he's only renting it. I'm not going to write a full review since I haven't finished it (and probably never will), but I want to talk about a few things. For the record, I got to chapter 7 (out of 10) before I stopped playing.

Quick Thoughts

Dark Sector isn't a terrible game if you're a fan of the genre, but there are a lot of weaknesses. Enemies respawn far too often, which amounts to you ducking behind a wall for ten minutes shooting the same enemies. It copies Gears of War too much, including things that don't make sense: as GiantBomb pointed out, your running and sprinting speed is the same as GoW — which makes no sense here as Hayden (your character) is a skinny guy, not a giant man in armor.

The "glaive" is great, and is one of the only things that sets this game apart. It's a blade that acts as a boomerang; throw it to slice enemies in half, and it'll come back to you. You'll gain an "aftertouch" ability which lets you slow down time and actually direct the glaive mid-flight, which is what I spent most of the game doing.

Aside from that it's a pretty standard shooter.

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Ever wonder what real musicians think of Rock Band? I don't normally post links to other sites, but this is a great little essay. He started off as a hater, having never played it, but actually went out and bought it. He tells the story of playing Rock Band with his friends, and how he got hooked:

A Musician's View on the Rock Band Phenomenon

Kudos for being open minded and actually playing the game!

This is part 2 of my review, also see part 1.

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Note: we have it for the Xbox 360. Each person needs to be signed into an Xbox profile (it can be the same one). Some things may be a bit different on PS3.

I started writing this review right after getting the game, two months ago, and have since added to it. There is so much more to say about the game, though, that I have left some things out to talk about later. I have broken it into two parts, and apologize for the unorganized format. It's not so much a review as it is a discussion.

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When I first read about the gnome achievement, I knew I had to do it (partly because it sounded fun, partly because I love Amelie). I had already beaten Episode 2 on the PC, but we just got it for the 360, so I wanted to play through it again anyway (points!).

This actually isn't as hard as you might think. There are a lot of battles where you can just set him down somewhere until after the fight. If you know the game (I assume everyone will have played through this episode at least once before trying this achievement!), you'll know which rooms you'll be coming back to, so you can leave him for large sections of the game. The rocket is found well before the end of the game, so it's only a few hours of play anyway.

This is not a guide for the whole episode, just some tips on where to safely leave the gnome.

SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!

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That's right, I have two of the HIGHEST ROCK BAND DRUM SCORES in the WORLD*!

Okay, this isn't nearly as impressive as it sounds, but I've gotta milk this for all it's worth, since this'll surely last a whole…hour? (day? week?) Actually the first one is pretty good, five gold stars:

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I had been looking forward to TimeShift for a while, but getting closer to release my excitement had been waning a bit. People sounded a bit unimpressed, the time powers weren't really as interesting as they first seemed, and the delays meant it was no longer as groundbreaking as it may have been. I was able to borrow the Xbox 360 version from a friend, so I quickly played through it (I think it only took around 10 hours to beat). Overall, it was a fun, solid game. But, I feel like there were many things they missed out on.

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It's finally here, via Wired's Game|Life, the Elite Beat Agents song list:

1. Walkie Talkie Man - Steriogram
2. ABC - Jackson Five
3. Sk8er Boi - Avril Lavigne
4. I Was Born to Love You - Queen
5. Rock This Town - Stray Cats
6. Highway Star - Deep Purple
7. Y.M.C.A. - Village People
8. September - Earth, Wind and Fire
9. Canned Heat - Jamiroquai
10. Material Girl - Madonna
11. La La - Ashlee Simpson
12. You're the Inspiration - Chicago
13. Survivor - Destiny's Child
14. Without a Fight - Hoobastank
15. Believe - Cher
16. Let's Dance - David Bowie
17. Jumpin Jack Flash - Rolling Stones
18. Makes No Difference - Sum 41
19. The Anthem - Good Charlotte

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It seems for every Guitar Hero video posted by anyone, there will inevitably be comments like, "Go buy a real guitar!", "What's the point?", "Get a life!", and so on. I think people overestimate how much time it takes to learn how to play these games. If you play other music/rhythm games, the concept is similar and the learning curve is a lot lower. Even if you're playing for the first time, it's pretty simple.

Here is a list of reasons why people play Guitar Hero instead of the real thing:
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While a lot of people love the new Nintendo bit Generations games for the GBA, many people (myself included) think they're priced a little too high. Why couldn't they put a few on one cart, and/or all of them on one DS cart, and sell it at full price? Well I've been messing around with the save files, and found something interesting — there is a second section in most of the save files for a second game:
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