Long time no status report of my gaming activities. Why is that? Because I'm too busy with my studies and preparing a semester abroad. Anyway, since the latest entry: I've been playing Red Dead Redemption.
Yes, it's true I played over 2 and a half months on Red Dead's campaign and finished it in about 30 hours. So few times I've come to play it, but it was an awesome experience nonetheless. To be honest, it might be Game of the Year for me, but then again there's still a 2nd playthrough on Mass Effect 2 waiting for me (to which I won't come this year). Red Dead Redemption had everything a great game needs: Impressing visuals (the far sight is unbelievable), great gameplay mechanics (Rockstar knows their work) and a great storyline with rememerable characters. And let's not forget about the authentic soundtrack, which dominates my Winamp (besides Eminem's Recovery).
Since I have played the multiplayer only a few times, I still could spent months with this game. Sadly this isn't about to happen due to my semester abroad.
Semester abroad... How'd you live 5 months without your console? Taking it with me is not an option. Right: Laptop gaming. So what have I done? I downloaded steam (since I've forgotten the password for my old account with Counter Strike, Half Life 2, etc on it, I had to create a new one) and will propably look into games like Alien Swarm (already installed it, since it's free) or Torchlight (I hoped Diablo III would be released at this point in time).
And I ordered myself StarCraft II. I'm not a good RTS player, especially not competetivly. But: Blizzard's games always have a well made campaign mode and that's the reason I bought it for. Perhaps I'll try the multiplayer a few times, but I don't have high hopes in being the winner. I already tried the game and the first thing was a shock: It runs only on middle settings. And my laptop has a strong hardware, I thought: Intel Core 2 Duo with 2,4 GHz, "Up to 1791MB Nividia GeForce 9500M GS Turbo Cache, 4Gb DDR2. The game runs on 720p. But even in middle settings, once things get too hectic (when many units move and battle each other) the game gives me the nice hint to lower settings even further. And I thought Blizzard's games were designed to run even on the weakest machines...
Anyway, the game itself is a blast. The animations are fantastic and the gameplay addicting. The story is very cool, like one of the great action movies of the 80s or 90s. Between missions StarCraft II becomes a point and click adventure with lots of dialogue to explore and skills to improve.
Battle.net 2.0 is much like Xbox Live or Steam. You earn achievements for solving certain mission tasks, you have a friends list and instant messenger, which allows cross-game chat and you can download games. All two of them: StarCraft II and World of Warcraft, with Diablo III on the horizon.
Any other things of interest? I still try myself in Super Street Fighter IV ranked matches online with my Fight Stick Tournament Edition (one of the best purchases in my gaming carreer), my old Xbox 360 got visited by the Red Ring of Death (I'll have to get a new one when I'm back in Germany in February 2011) and for my birthday my girlfriend got me a super cool present: John Marston.
More pics of StarCraft II's unfoldable box:
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