Brad Gallaway's blog

So it took a few hours off of Twitter the other night, and when I got back, my feed was absolutely exploding with talk about the announcement of the NGP—Sony's next-generation successor to the PSP. I'm going to reserve most of my thoughts for later. However, I will say that I could not be happier that someone at Sony R&D finally realized the catastrophic error of their ways and added a second stick to the hardware.

If you follow console games at all, it's pretty likely that you've heard of Two Worlds. Released in 2007 for PC and Xbox 360, it was quickly greeted as a colossal failure and one of the poorest pieces of software to hit retail at that time. The reviews were absolutely scathing, and the title quickly became a running joke in the industry—even a bit legendary, really.

I have to say, I find few things as irritating as a console game that will not play without being installed to the drive. Disc. Console. Turn on. Play. This is a very simple concept that has been happening without issue for a few generations now. The fact that I have to turn my system on at least half an hour before I intend to actually play never fails to infuriate me.

The action and structure of The Adventures of Captain Becky is actually a little above-par as far as some of these indie games go, though that's not to say it's fabulous. No, I think the real draw here is that Becky is rendered in quasi-Anime "hot girl" fashion, and each level awards her a new outfit provided that the player makes sufficient progress. Taking this fanboy appeal one step further, the game offers a shockingly-detailed character editor where the player can modify Becky's appearance. I can't say that the graphics are good enough to sell the package, but the level of sophistication that was attempted in this mode alone far surpasses most of what I've seen on XBLI.

I'm only one track away from completing the most recent Trials HD DLC and the damn thing is driving me insane.

Another year, another breakdown of the year's best games—according to me. Looking back, 2010 was an odd twelve months. Catching many players and critics by surprise, a large number of the most hotly-anticipated titles ended up being unexpectedly disappointing, leaving the top honors wide open for a number of lesser-known, smaller-budget projects. Unfortunately, while many of these smaller games displayed promise and creativity, most of them were flawed or uneven enough to give pause. The result? A year where (in my view, anyway) there really was no single runway pick for the year's best.

I just completed A World of Keflings (XBLA) late the other night and I'm currently in the middle of writing the review. It's a great little title and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I definitely recommend it if you're on the fence, or if you're in the market for something kid-friendly, yet mentally stimulating enough for adults. It's good stuff.

I haven't had a whole lot of time to devote to straight-up gameplaying. What little time I have had has been going to A World of Keflings on XBLA, and it's been time well spent. I'm working on a review for it at the moment, but I haven't rolled credits yet.

My son became a Monster Hunter Tri addict earlier this year when he was with us for the summer, and we spent lots of time going after the big beasties on the Wii. He asked for a copy of his own for his birthday (which he got, of course) and I just found out yesterday that one of his other family members gave him a PlayStation Portable and a copy of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite as an early Christmas present.

I freely admit that I've got next to no experience with MMOs. I rarely play games on the PC, and my schedule is so busy and erratic that trying to coordinate with other people is next to impossible. As a result, I had only cursory knowledge of what DC Universe Online had to offer. However, after the thorough walkthrough provided by one of the game's developers, I'd be more than willing to give this one a shot.