World of Evil Watchmen

World of Goo
I'm a sucker for independent games. I love the idea of one, two or a very small group of developers putting their time and passion into a project they love. I just don't buy that many of them though. Shelling out $5 to $20 for every game that came across my desktop would have me sleeping on the couch most nights. World of Goo is the exception to my rule practice though. It is a engineeringish puzzle game with fantastic art design and a killer carrot on the proverbial stick. Much like Peggle I always can make time for "just one more level" to the point of hours played, in the face of just a few minutes planned. I picked it up on Steam for $5 one weekend when it went on sale, where it is normally $20.

Resident Evil 5
I came on board to the Resident Evil series in 1998 with RE2. It was one of the first games I got for my PlayStation and was the first game I had an audience for while playing. It was like watching an interactive horror movie with my friends. RE5 is the first game in the series to take what was essentially a coop series by audience and make it a true coop game online. It stands on the shoulders of the last game in the series, in that it is RE4 with Africans instead of Spaniards and has coop. Where RE4 was the best looking game on the Gamecube, I would argue that RE5 is the best looking game on the 360.

Looks aside the first half of RE5 is a very enjoyable experience much like RE4. You fight "zombies" in a dense urban environment, with limited ammo and not many places to run. The recipe for actually working with your partner is in place, more so than any other coop game I have played to date. It is unplayable with out communication and coordination and I love it for that. RE5 parts ways with RE4 about half way through when there is a vehicle level and nose dives from then on. By the end of it is nearly unrecognizable from the simple formula that set it up for greatness.

Watchmen
I am new to actually reading and enjoying comics for the most part. My limited budget and passing interest before now did not result in the passion I have built up in the past year. My new foundation has been built on reading pivotal books like Batman: Year One and Watchman. The latter of which I mentioned not really getting in a previous post. None the less, I was geeked for the movie when it was first announced and upon watching subsequent trailers. Upon watching the Watchmen, I can say that it is a near match to the graphic novel. The dialouge still dominates and when there is action it is very good, but the action few and far between. At three hours, it could have used a good trip to the editing room and I can't imagine it made a ton of sense to someone who didn't already read the book. Overall it was good film, but great films don't find me looking at my watch half way through the picture.