I haven’t posted here in a while and for the five of you people who read this blog, I apologize. However, I can tell you why – I was let down by a video game last year, and just haven’t felt the same urge to play games. I’ve started a new job, so the majority of my gaming time is on a weekend, I’m sure many 9-5ers are the same, there’s just not enough time after work to play games and spend time with the spouse/kids/family/friends. I like RPGs such as Fallout, Mass Effect, Fable, Dragon Age etc – not games that can be played a few hours at a night (well, they could be, but it wouldn’t make much of an experience). Note, there are spoilers in this post, you have been warned…

I’m not the type of video gamer who will rush through a game just to have completed it, yet I’m not a completionist either. I like to take my time, soak up the graphics, the game’s atmosphere, and enjoy it at my own pace. So when it comes to RPGs, I invest a lot of time playing them. That’s why I was so pissed off at a game I played last year, I questioned my hobby. I had put so much time and effort into the game, yet the game’s ending was beyond a let down, I was absolutely furious.

The game I’m writing about is Red Dead Redemption – yes, the Game of the Year. I loved playing the game, enjoyed it’s immersive soundtrack, it’s awesome graphics and scenery, and for the most part, it’s storyline. I enjoyed playing. But the ending of the game spoiled the entire experience – Marston’s killing by the FBI agents in his barn seemed like such a waste – there wasn’t even an opportunity to shoot it out with the men sent to capture Marston. Surely the best way to end the game would have been to have that be the decider of the games ending? Even as I think about it now it pisses me off. Not cool Rockstar, not cool.

I often purchase discounted items from the XBox Live Marketplace, and it looks like next week’s deals of the week could see more of my Microsoft Points being spent.

Here are the XBox Live Deals of the week for next week, and if you’re a fan of Tom Clancy, you’re going to love it:

Week of February 21, 2011

• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Co-op Collection, 200 points (50 percent off)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Co-op Collection 200 points (50 percent off)
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction Deniable Ops: Insurgency 400 points (50 percent off)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Chapter 2, 300 points (50 percent off)
• Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. Air Supremacy, 400 points (50 percent off)
• Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 All-in-one Pack, 400 points (50 percent off)
• Tom Clancy’s EndWar Escalation, 200 points (50 percent off)
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, 600 points (50 percent off)
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction Outfit, 200 points (50 percent off)

Find out more information about the deal of the week.

This may be (slightly) old news for some, but the patch for Fallout: New Vegas for the XBox 360 has been released. To update your version of Fallout: New Vegas for the XBox 360, simply play the game and follow the onscreen prompts.

I’ve only played about half an hour previously to tonight and haven’t experienced any of the glitches mentioned by other players. I was a huge fan of Fallout 3 buying all of the DLC, so I can’t wait to see what the Bethesda Software team have in store this time around.

Apparently the update was released last night – those of us who have day jobs don’t realize these things until we can get to our 360′s…

For more information about the update see the official forum posting from New Vegas producer Jason Bergman.

Below is the cinematic trailer for Dragon Age 2, developed by Bioware. I’m a huge fan of both Bioware and the Dragon Age games, and I can’t wait for the game’s release date of March 8, 2011. But until then, we’ll have to make do with Dragon Age: Origins, and this epic Dragon Age 2 cinematic trailer.

In a weekly update, Bungie decided to put gamers out of their misery by releasing the complete list of Halo: Reach achievements. All 49 of them are listed.

1. Completed the Campaign on Normal difficulty.
2. Completed the Campaign on Heroic difficulty.
3. Completed the Campaign on Legendary difficulty.
4. Completed every mission in Halo: Reach alone, on Legendary.
5. Completed the 2nd mission on Normal or harder.
6. Completed the 3rd mission on Normal or harder.
7. Completed the 4th mission on Normal or harder.
8. Completed the 5th mission on Normal or harder.
9. Completed the 6th mission on Normal or harder.
10. Completed the 7th mission on Normal or harder.
11. Completed the 8th mission on Normal or harder.
12. Completed the 9th mission on Normal or harder.
13. Completed the 10th mission on Normal or harder.
14. Cleared the 2nd mission without setting foot in a drivable vehicle.
15. Killed 2 vehicles at once with the Target Locator in the 3rd mission.
16. Hijacked a Banshee during the Reach Campaign.
17. Killed the Elite Zealot before he escaped during the 5th mission.
18. Performed an Assassination against an Elite to survive a fall that would’ve been fatal.
19. Destroyed the Corvette’s engines & escort in under 3 minutes in the 6th mission on Heroic or harder.
20. Finished the 9th mission on Legendary with the Scorpion intact.
21. Earned a Triple Kill while Jetpacking in Campaign, Firefight or Matchmaking.
22. Killed 7 Moa during the 2nd mission of the Campaign.
23. Killed 3 of the anti-aircraft batteries during the 8th mission.
24. Used a Health Pack to replenish life after taking body damage.
25. Performed an Assassination on an enemy.
26. Killed 10 enemies in a Firefight or Campaign session with the M6G pistol.
27. Killed 10 enemies in a Firefight or Campaign session with the DMR.
28. Traded weapons with an AI ally in Campaign.
29. Killed 10 enemies in Firefight or Campaign with a supercombine explosion.
30. Let a teammate spawn on you 5 times in an Invasion Matchmaking game.
31. Earned a First Strike Medal in a Matchmaking game.
32. Won a game of Invasion in the 1st phase.
33. Earned a Killing Spree in multiplayer Matchmaking.
34. Earned a Killionaire medal in Firefight.
35. As an Elite, killed 5 Spartan players in Matchmaking.
36. Scored 15,000 points in Score Attack Firefight Matchmaking.
37. Scored 50,000 points in a Firefight game.
38. Scored 200,000 points in a Firefight game.
39. Scored 1,000,000 points in a Firefight game.
40. Completed a Firefight set on Legendary without dying.
41. Purchased an item from the Armory that required the rank of Lt. Colonel.
42. Reached the rank of Corporal in the UNSC.
43. Reached the rank of Captain in the UNSC.
44. Used the File Browser to upload a file to your File Share.
45. Completed all of the Daily Challenges in a given day.
46. Purchased an item from the Armory.
47. Recommended a file to someone.
48. Advanced a Commendation to a Silver state.
49. Completed a Weekly Challenge.

Posted on YouTube today was an amazing video which details the soundtrack behind the hit video game from Rockstar. The video covers in detail the artists who produced the unique sound, and the lengths sound artists go to when trying to create the atmospheric ambience we’ve all come to know and love. Enjoy.

New details emerge today about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2. I’m currently playing through the original, and I have to say, it’s not the bestStar Wars game I’ve ever played due to its repetitiveness and unwieldy camera. However, there’s hope for Star Wars button mashers yet with news and details about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (which looks infinitely more polished than its predecessor if video trailers are to be trusted).

So, what can we expect?

• Starkiller is a clone (a failed one). Or is he?
• The player now gets to use dual wielding lightsabers which introduce new force and lightsaber combos.
• The lightsabers have a much larger impact on the surrounding environment.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 is scheduled for a 26th October Release Date for gamers in the U.S.

I’m becoming a big fan of RPGs, in particular, those from Bioware – amongst my favorite are Mass Effect 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age: Origins. There’s just something about the attention to detail put into the gaming environment.

I don’t really participate in a lot of gaming sites or forums, but I do read TeamXbox. I was pleased to see they posted an update on Dragon Age 2, and I have to say, it looks awesome. Some of the details about the game are:

• You play as a single character and not in multiples like the original
• Updated graphics
• Updated battle mechanics

Dragon Age 2 has no scheduled released date, but I would expect it no earlier than 2011.

Head on over to the Bioware Dragon Age 2 page to find out more information, and look out for the debut trailer coming on August 17th!

I haven’t played Modern Warfare 2 in quite a while, but I’ve had some time in the past day or so to get in some serious time on my XBox 360. I got to level 70 a few months ago, and gave up all of my hard earned perks and weapons so that I could go through the Prestige levels. Recently, I bought the Modern Warfare 2 Resurgence Pack to try and add some variety into the online gameplay, and I’ve been trying to get used to the new maps (which is no small feat by the way).

After playing for the best part of today, there are two things that are really starting to tick me off:

• Spawn Points
• Rocket Launchers

Spawn Points

There is no rhyme or reason for some of the spawn points I had today. Sometimes I spawned right in the middle of gunfire, or a player on the other team just happened to be coming by which made me easy pickings. The other thing – when I spawned at a decent point away from enemies, there was normally someone camping right at the spawn point. I mean really, does that seem clever to you? Are these gamers that desperate to get the extra kill that they’ll sit there waiting for a player to spawn? Where’s the talent in that?

Rocket Launchers

Modern Warfare 2 is a game which has had its exploits, no doubt about it, but they’ve been taken care of by the XBox team or by Infinity Ward and updates have been released. What I saw during my gaming today was just outright abuse of rocket launchers. There wasn’t a game that went by which didn’t have rocket launchers being overused, and by overused, I don’t mean using it for its intended purpose like shooting down planes or choppers, I mean gamers carrying them as their main weapon and using them in close proximity. Getting a headshot or knifing someone from behind is somewhat of a skill, but using a rocket launcher from close distance is just crazy. One of the game winning kills from today had a gamer walk up behind someone and within very close proximity fire a rocket launcher at them. Is a shot with a weapon or a stealth kill not enough?

I was so close to picking up and using the rocket launcher in the same fashion, but that defeats the whole point of playing Modern Warfare 2 online in my opinion. Anyone can pick up a rocket launcher and fire it at someone within close range, but the great players of Modern Warfare 2 are the ones who can rack up a winning score by conventional, smart gameplay. Have you experienced this – what’s your opinion?

I’m the XBoxGamerGuy, and that’s my rant for today.

Today was Day 2 at E3 2010 and from all appearances, looks like it was all about the games.

Here’s what was revealed / talked about:

The Old Republic MMO was featured with a brand new cinematic trailer – watch the video at Kotaku. There was more information about Fallout 3: New Vegas.

Nintendo had a huge day – announcing the new 3DS, and lots more. They looked to have owned Day 2. Follow the #NintE3ndo trend on Twitter for more Nintendo goodness.