Star Wars: The Force Unleased II story trailer

Star Wars is a strange beast in that normal video game standards don't always apply.

Fanboys (like myself) are often so starved for a good Star Wars game that they are willing to overlook flaws if the game that they do get is half decent.

This was the case with the first Force Unleashed, which was a good game, but not a great game. Targeting was a little wonky and there was an unforgivable amount of QTEs, but the overall product was enjoyable force-powered romp through the Star Wars universe.

I have high hopes for Force Unleashed II, where the additional time should have given the developers time to iron out some of those gameplay issues. What really interests me, though, is the plot. From the looks of the trailer above, you play as a clone of Starkiller after (SPOILER ALERT) your character is killed during the 'good' ending of the first game.

Cloning the main character always seems like a bit of a cop-out plot point to me, but I'm willing to give this game the benefit of the doubt until I get all of the details.

X-Men Destiny trailer

With the exception of the Saturday morning cartoons, X-Men was never a big part of my childhood. A large part of that was that I didn't read comic books, so my interaction with the series was limited to once a week at most.

Despite that lack of intimacy, X-Men is one of my favorite superhero series. The characters are diverse and interesting, the plot (from what I know of it) is fun, and the three movies were very entertaining (despite my crushing disappointment that Gambit was not in them). So when this new trailer for X-Men Destiny hit the web today, I was intrigued.

From the looks of the trailer, the game will allow you to create your own mutant and insert him or her into the X-Men world. If that ends up being the case, this game jumps to the top of most anticipated games.

I've seen some concerns that Destiny will be an MMO, but with Marvel Universe Online around the corner, I think we can safely put those fears to rest.

Achievement Grab: Cabela's Outdoor Adventures 2010

I make no apologies about being a Gamerscore whore. As such, my Gamefly queue is dominated by games that 1) I will never buy and 2) have quick and plentiful achievements.

For some reason, it seems that the lower a game's Metacritic average is, the easier its achievements are. I don't know why crappy games tend to be Gamerscore gold mines, but they are, and that means I end up playing some pretty bad games.

Cabela's Outdoor Adventures 2010 is one of those bad games. One of my biggest pet peeves is when a developer tries to create the appearance of an open world without actually creating it. Nothing is more frustrating than getting slightly off course, then running into invisible wall after invisible wall as you stumble back to the one route the developer deemed correct to travel.

The thing that is really hindering my enjoyment of the game, though, has nothing to do with the mechanics or graphics. As an animal lover, I actually cringe a little every time I blow away a defenseless deer or bird. I have murdered countless people, aliens, monster, you name it I've killed it, but there's something sad about killing a defenseless animal for sport, even in virtual form.

In reality, I'm probably just a sissy. More importantly, I've already earned 70G after just an hour or so of playing, so I'm well on my way to that perfect 1000G.

Impressions: Final Fantasy XIII

I'd been putting off playing FFXIII for a few months now. It wasn't due to a lack of interest (far from it), but it's hard for me to jump into a game knowing that it's going to consume 60 to 70 hours of my limited gaming hours. That's a hell of a lot of investment, especially with a stack of other quality titles collecting dust on the shelf.

Last weekend, I decided I was ready to take the plunge and despite only being about five hours in, I am completely hooked.

Heading in to FFXIII, I had heard two major complaints; the linearity and length of the first section, and the battle system. In regards to the former, I've actually enjoyed the pacing quite a bit. Rather than throw everything at you all at once, FFXIII does a nice job of rolling in new features of the battle system every twenty minutes or so, so you get nice and familiar with one feature before tackling the next.

The linearity also solves a problem I have with a lot of RPGs, where you are thrown in to the middle of a grand world, with not a lot of driving force. Sure, I'm supposed to be saving the world, but is that fishing over there? And oh look, an archery contest I can enter! Keeping the game on a linear path for the first few hours allows FFXIII to push the narrative forward at a quicker pace before then opening up a vast world to explore.

In terms of the battle system, I'm just now starting to get into the meat of it. This is actually the first Final Fantasy game I've ever played (disgraceful, I know) so I don't have much basis for comparison. I've enjoyed it so far, though, and I'm looking forward to really digging in to it.

Welcome to the Average Gamer Blog

If you've stumbled upon my little corner of the internet, welcome to the Average Gamer Blog (or TAG for short).

If you're wondering what this blog is about, well, I'm kind of wondering the same thing. They say you should write about what you enjoy (I don't know who 'they' are, but it sounds like good advice) and I enjoy video games, so I'm off to a good start.

What I plan to do here is chronicle my gaming experiences. Game impressions, reaction to news, trailers, really whatever comes across my scope.

In short, I just want to share my enjoyment of all things gaming. If you see something you like, something you hate, or just something you want to add, drop it in the comments.

Let's see where this thing takes us...