Started playing “Mass Effect” again so I can max out a character and then import it to “Mass Effect 2” in anticipation of . . . . Well at least that is what I had been doing until Sean dropped off his subwoofers, fargin bastage.

Originally I was planning to just power through it to gain levels but very quickly I got into the story again and started playing along. Usually I don’t ever replay a story based game but I’m actually enjoying this more the second time through. Mostly because I know I don’t need to drive the Macco to every corner of ever planet. This actually makes the Macco sooooo much more fun the mining planets. They guy that came up with that one should get spaced. OTOH I still hate mini-games and for some reason the decryption game is kicking my butt. Well at least until I got some omni-gel built up.

Another plus is I figured out that since I usually take the same two NPCs those are the only ones I really need to keep well equipped which saves a lot of time sorting through inventories.

I also realized that just using a pistol is simpler since I can just blast away even while on the move and usually not worry about overheating.

Learning my way around the citadel again was a bit of a pain because the arrow doesn’t always point you where you really want to go. I’m also finding I like the elevator better than the newer graphic. Lean back angle the camera straight up and spin the image real fast. I’m not prone to motion sickness but I can’t do it for a whole ride w/o feeling a bit queasy.

I liked mass effect 1 a lot... very good game.

Some Fallout 3 to make me hopeful about the future.

Is anyone going to get the new Xbox 360? I'll probably end up with one just so I have a quiet black one to replace my loud white Arcade unit. It'll be after the Axiom 30th Anniversary celebration, of course. I'll have to get a black Wii at that point, too, so I can catch up on Nintendo first-party games.

I think I’ll skip this one. Mine is in the next room so I can’t hear the noise even with the attached fan and hard wired into my network. Unless the processor is much faster I can’t see spending any money to get features I don’t need. The Kinect sounds interesting but until games I want to play support it and do so well it’s just a curiosity to me. Any word if it will do 3D?

I’m not sure what MS has in mind but another incremental improvement in the Xbox would have me looking to a PS3 if I had to buy a new machine especially if I didn’t already have a Blu-ray player.

At this point, I would probably recommend the PS3 for anyone who doesn't already have a system. It's a solid system with a lot of value. I've already owned several 360s even though I've only had one fail on me, but that's just because I wanted HDMI, then I wanted a black one, then I wanted one that might be less likely to fail, and now this new one is quieter and has a bigger hard drive, as well as being black, which I want again. If I didn't own so many 360 games, I wouldn't be considering yet another 360.

And a release date for Gran Turismo 5 was announced today!

I'm waiting for that and Starcraft 2 at the end of July.

Well, that's super-annoying. I downloaded the new DLC and started up Mass Effect 2 to find that my saved game is no longer there. It was at the beginning of the game with the bonuses you get for already going through the game once. Now I have nothing. Grrr.

Gears of War 2
NHL 10
Red Dead Redemption
Halo 3: ODST

Anyone tried Joe Danger yet? I downloaded it from the PlayStation Network last week. My 7 year old son and I have been having a blast playing it. Simple, pick up and play, entertaining but gets tough pretty quickly too. Good value IMHO - it was a $14.99 download.