Blood splatter obscures the screen. The cringe worthy sound of metal shredding through leathery flesh clashes against the bloodlust scream of a man who can only be described as a “badass”. It’s the scene which many associate with Gears of War – it’s the scene which helped solidify Epic Games original IP as a premier franchise. Gears of War 2 was on my short list of known quantities – I knew it was going to be good, the only question was, “How good?”

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Lionhead’s roleplaying game, Fable, was said to have under delivered — “too many promises and not enough results” they said. With no expectations, I played Fable: The Lost Chapters and enjoyed it thoroughly. When Fable II was announced, I kept tabs on the sequel’s development, but I remained distant in order to preserve realistic expectations. From the get go, it looked like Fable II was everything Fable should have been, but would the magic last until the very end? Almost.

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LTTP or ‘late to the party’ pieces are opportunities for us to catch up and write about games we missed out on the first time around. They may contain spoilers.

After the honeymoon weeks with the original Gears of War back in November of 2006, I began looking through the Xbox Live! Marketplace for some new demos. Capcom’s Dead Rising was the first demo I gravitated towards. It reviewed well, but at the time I just didn’t get it and thought it lacked substance. Two years later and I still didn’t get it! For the first few hours, I felt disoriented, lost and clumsy – nothing was working the way I expected. Despite all of that, I managed to complete the game and even enjoyed it. Hell, I even put off starting Fable II to finish the game properly.

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Eden Games’ Alone in the Dark for the Xbox 360, simply put, isn’t very good. In fact, it made the very short list of games which I’ve stopped playing due to frustration, annoyance and sheer lack of fun. There are a few noteworthy qualities which did make me nod with approval, but for every single one of them there were dozens of moments where I could not help, but shake my head disappointed.

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When the Xbox Live! Arcade service began back in November of 2006, Bizarre Creation’s Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved stood out as the premier downloadable bite sized game. The game was simple enough; it was just you, your ship and its handful of bombs against endless waves of multi-colored geometric shapes. As much as I enjoyed the original and the “Waves” variant, which debuted with Project Gotham Racing 4, they didn’t feel robust enough. Individually, they felt lightweight when it came to modes and variety –- especially next to the PlayStation Network’s Super Stardust HD. Now two years later, the official sequel is here. Let’s see if Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 is everything we could have hoped for.

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Sequels. We look forward to them in hopes that they’ll bring us more of what we love and then some. We all have expectations for sequels. Some have astronomical ones which will never be met, but we can all agree that at the very least, the fundamentals which made the original so great remain intact. Team Ninja’s, sequel to the original, Ninja Gaiden 2 excels in some areas, but takes a couple of steps back in others. What are those areas and why are they so important? Allow me to elaborate.

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During my holiday break, I got my hands on BioWare’s brand new science-fiction role playing game, Mass Effect. With Mass Effect, I sought to fulfill the fantasy of commanding a starship like Picard of the Enterprise or Adama of the Galactica. Mass Effect, in many ways, exceeded my expectations and allowed me to not only command a starship, but to also play the role of an interstellar diplomat, an explorer, and a hero of the galaxy. As wonderful as it may seem, my experience was marred by Mass Effect’s numerous technical and gameplay faults. What were these faults, you ask? Were they really that bad? Read on.

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