The Lull

Faithful readers, I am back from my long weekend on The Island and a rather uneventful week in gamedom. Just wanted to let you all know that I am still alive. It really was a dull week, with hardly any substantial news hitting the Intertubes and very few new games in rotation on my box.

I'm still chipping away at Double Agent and chipping is as apt a verb as any for describing my current love/hate relationship with this game. I'd like to quickly soften my criticism I made last week and say that yes, while SC:DA has horribly blatant trial-and-error game design, it is no more frustrating than the challenging Thief titles I spoke highly of. Those old games were a bitch and a half to complete too. Lots of blood and sweat. All I can definitely say for stealth games a they exist now: You Had Better Include a Save-Anywhere System!

As for the lack of new gaming activity, I really am holding out for my Next Big Purchase, also known as Mass Effect, which won't grace our consoles until early June.

To tide me over, I've been considering taking a romp through Dead Rising or creating my ultimate superhero team in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. The latter idea was planted by one of my old friends, gamer and comic book fan. I've already perused a couple video reviews and slowly warming up my wallet for a possible purchase. I know that it would provide much local co-op action. I'm just not sold on the action-RPG balance it presents. It seems weighted far more towards the action (the mindless button-mashing variety) than any kind of serious character development or addictive loot-drop system. It's a shame a demo isn't available to try out.

Well I won't lose sleep over it. As always I'd appreciate any suggestions you might have about this game. Full-price worthy? Discount? Rental only? Or fuggedaboudit?