I'll admit, lately I've been a bit behind the times with gaming. After FF2 and Valkyrie Profile 2 came out, I haven't really turned it on much. The PS3 and XBOX 360 look amazing, but ehhh, so much money when I know they're just going to get cheaper... and so will the games! Honestly, I'm going to wait for the platforms a bit longer, so lets focus on the PC. I recently (and reluctantly) moved to Vista in order to get DirectX 10, but honestly, I'm glad I did because I couldn't wait any longer to play a couple of these.

First up is Mass Effect... and holy shit is this an awesome game! I hadn't heard much about it prior to release, so I was a bit surprised that I missed it. Not only does it look amazing, but it runs great even with all of the eye candy, but as we'll soon see, only eye candy doesn't necessarily make a good game. Mass Effect need not worry though, this game has got it all. The scope of the game is amazing! I've tried describing it a couple times to people that have never played it and the best combo I can come up with is Oblivion meets KOTOR... essentially a full blown space RPG. The amount you can customize your character is fairly in depth, the story is very addicting, and just the free reign you have to explore the galaxy is amazing. Did I mention you can also land on random planets and explore in an armed rover at your will? Yep. It kicks some serious ass. My only gripe is that the GUI is a bit clunky, but gets the job done I guess. Regardless, this is a must play for any RPG fan and definitely worth checking out for shooter fans.

Moving on, we have Hellgate: London and holy shit is this game boring. Essentially what the developers did was take Diablo 2, make it 3D, center the whole thing in London subway tunnels, and give you the most uninteresting quests you've ever played. It's a classic hack n' slash groups of enemies, but there is so much shitty about the game that I just can't get into it. Considering it had so much potential, they did a really bad job of inventing anything new and it really is just the same old game play rehashed from ten years ago. You'd think this would work, right? Nope, it's tired.

The interface takes up the whole screen while you're being attacked by monsters, the dialog is silly and never serious, and the quests are ridiculously repetitive! Go kill this guy in this tunnel, now go kill this guy in this tunnel... yeah we know he looks the same, but he's a different color, we swear! Suck. When you're fighting you're always backing away from the monsters or they all gang up on you in huge herds. Ehhh, there is nothing really special to see here except maybe the occasional frustration release. I guarantee though that you'll be bored as shit after about thirty minutes. Let's move along... I'm glad I only paid $7 for it on Ebay, but I guess there's a reason for that. :)

Everyone has heard of it, played it, or attempted to run it, so I'm not going to spend too much time on Crysis, but it definitely is worth mentioning here. Simply put, this game looks ridiculously good IF you can run it. Without even an exaggeration, you need one of the most recent video cards on the market to even run it comfortably on medium or high, and if you plan on running with full eye candy your box will explode unless you have only but the highest computer tech out there. So, with all this mind, is it still a good game? You're damn skippy it is.

Now, I've heard a couple of people (some friends included) tell me that the game wasn't that good, but honestly, I can't see where they're getting this from. Right from the beginning the game dumps you into the action and the eye candy all in one! Hell, you start out free falling from a military air carrier! Freaking awesome. The action is great, the game play is a lot of fun, and the world looks so beautiful... after playing it I can't even look at some other games the same. In my opinion, make sure your system can run it and definitely pick this game up. All I have to say is... Far Cry 2 is going to rule.

I had mix feelings on this game. It's been out for some time now, but it only just came to PC not long ago, so I thought I'd check it out. Honestly, it's not that great, but it has potential at the same time. The idea is original, the graphics are gorgeous, and the voice acting is decent, but it just doesn't feel that fun to play. At least on PC, the controls are very clunky. It's an obvious port and most of the time I had to keep figuring out how to do the proper key combo. Yet, at the same time it is very reminiscent of the Thief series which was one of my favorite games of all time... so I'm very conflicted. It's good, just not great I guess, but by now you've probably played it anyways. ;)