So kicking off my slog through my backlog is off to a rough start.

The first game on the docket was Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 on the Xbox 360. I remember having a good time with it, because hey, I loved Lego Star Wars and I’m a huge Harry Potter fan. Unfortunately I started playing it not long after I had just finished Lego Star Wars so I was kinda Lego’d out. Going back in and doing the last couple of story mode levels and then doing all the postgame stuff was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, it has to go back on the pile.

While I try to not be an achievement whore as much as I used to be, part of the appeal of the Lego games to me is finding all the collectables and getting the game to 100%. The first game that I ever got 1000/1000 on that wasn’t super easy was Lego Star Wars so I was ready to do it again with Potter and company.

(Note: I originally published this article on Bits ‘n’ Bytes Gaming on April 28, 2011.)

I’ve been playing the Gears of War 3 beta for the past couple of days, having a blast chainsawing people and making my team lose. I was never into the multiplayer modes of the previous games (except for co-op), but seeing as how this is the last game in the series, I wanted to try to spend a little more time with it and see what it has to offer. As I’ve been playing the beta, I’ve actually started to understand myself a little bit better.

The first thing is no surprise: if you tell me something is limited, I want it. Part of why I wanted in on the beta in the first place was so I could unlock the special characters and weapons available only to those who completed certain tasks in the beta. I’m playing like a madman trying to get this stuff. Unfortunately, as I got beta access by pre-ordering Gears of War 3 and not by purchasing the Epic Edition of Bulletstorm, I missed out on week one of the beta and thus I can never obtain the flaming Hammerburst weapon. You have NO IDEA how much that is going to haunt me.

The other thing I learned about myself I actually figured out while showering this morning. I’ve never been good at multiplayer shooters, first- or third-person. I was never able to figure out why; my reflexes were fine (I’m pretty good at competitive Street Fighter), but whenever it came down to me and another person one-on-one, I’d lose damn near every time.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a PK Bloggin’! style review of a game (that is to say, a review that isn’t really a review) but I wanted to talk about Alice: Madness Returns because I’ve been spending a lot of time with it and it’s a lot of fun.

Alice: Madness Returns (for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC… we got the PS3 version to try to flesh out our library a bit) is a sequel to American McGee’s Alice for the PC, which was released in 2000. For those of you who don’t know, American McGee is a guy who’s made a name for himself by taking classic stories and making them dark and gruesome. No joke, I once saw an “American McGee’s OZ” figure at an f.y.e. store that was two fat little munchkins who had Dorothy tied up, blindfolded and gagged.

Luckily, Alice: Madness Returns isn’t tasteless like the OZ figures. I never played the original (although it’s bundled as a free download with new copies of Madness Returns for consoles), but the story is able to stand on its own, and a quick reading of the original game’s Wikipedia entry is more than enough of a briefing to get you ready to jump into the sequel.

(Note: I originally published this article on Bits ‘n’ Bytes Gaming on February 16, 2011)

You would think that with a smaller roster, a new art style and a retooled control scheme that Marvel vs Capcom 3 would be primed to disappoint series fans that have anticipated the third entry for ten years, but you’d be wrong. Every change has been for the better, and its reworkings, additions and yes, even omissions, all create a more solid experience than the evidence would lead you to believe.

Marvel vs Capcom 3 is the third installment of the wildly popular 2D fighting series pitting Marvel’s roster of fantastic superheroes against Capcom’s stable of colorful and wacky characters. The first two games were largely similar, both featuring very similar rosters of characters and the same 2D art style and control scheme. MvC3 bucks tradition, employing a new 3D graphics engine (although the gameplay is still 2D), slimming down their selectable characters and simplifying the game controls to make it more accessible to newcomers.

It might just be me, but do you guys feel very fond memories of the first games you play for a new system, even years after they’re new?

I know for me when I feel in a “vintage” mood on a given night, the games I typically turn to are the first ones I played for whatever system is currently striking my fancy. For about a week now I’ve kind of had a hankering to play Viva Piñata for the 360, which is one of my favorite games for the system.

The three games to me that resonate the most for the 360 are the first games I played for it: Viva Piñata, Dead Rising, and Gears of War. When I first started working at GameStop in California, the “next generation” of systems had just started, meaning that the Xbox 360 had just come out and of course I couldn’t afford one. I went over to my coworker Elliot’s house and just watched him play for a while, and I was absolutely blown away by those three games. They were the first three I bought when I got a 360 of my own, and they’re still the ones I think of when I think “Xbox 360.”

Am I the only one, or is this a common thing?

With Kinect finally out, it’s hard not to hear about it. It’s selling like hotcakes, and the reaction from the general public is not unlike when the Wii first launched in 2006. People who aren’t gamers are totally enthralled with it, their enthusiasm echoing through the media at an alarming volume. This, of course, is drawing the ire of the “hardcore” crowd, and I have to ask, why do you care?

“Hardcore gamers” (I was toying with the idea of referring to them throughout the post as “mouth-breathers” but I’ll restrain myself) are up in arms over Kinect, and they want nothing more than to see it fail. They type furiously on their keyboards, projecting their white-hot rage over the internet to other like-minded neanderthals who agree with them. If I’m taking anything away from all of this, it’s that I wish I had the free time some of these people had to piss away complaining about technology on the internet to impress people I’ll never meet.

Today Christina and I changed our Xbox Live Gamertags. I’ve used the name “Joe Sunrider” regularly as my online identity since 2002, and it wasn’t really an easy decision to change it. I’ll let Christina tell her story if she chooses, but I wanted to go into what prompted my change.

I’ve always been a shy person. I have a hard time looking people in the eye and I generally keep to myself. I think it’s a mild form of social anxiety, and since I started playing on Xbox Live a few years ago I’ve been just as nervous entering that online world as I have been out in the real world. I typically don’t use my headset, and when I heard people saying my name over voice chat it always made me uneasy.

I realized recently it was social anxiety keeping me from fully enjoying online gaming. I thought about why I had no problem in MMOs, but with Xbox Live I was uncomfortable. I didn’t think it was voice chat, because I call restaurants and other places all the time on the phone where I don’t know people. I realized it was because on Xbox Live, my first name was out there for everyone to see, whereas in an MMO my identity is hidden behind a false name.

I have a weird relationship with Halo, which has culminated in the past week in which I have devoted much of my free time (and any chance of having a pleasant evening) to the latest game in the series, Halo: Reach.

Now, Christina and I have played a few levels of the campaign but in all honesty the characters could be speaking Russian and the story would make about the same amount of sense to me. I didn’t play Halo 1, I played a bit of Halo 2, played all the way through Halo 3, and I skipped ODST and all the related comics, novels and movies. I’m sure the story is very good, but I don’t know what it is and it’s not why I bought the game.

I don’t even really know WHY I like playing Halo online so much. It brings out the absolute WORST in the gaming community (PROTIP: if your Gamertag makes ANY reference to marijuana, I automatically hate you) and I tend to fly off the handle of a game is going particularly bad for me. Still, every night, every time we have more than fifteen free minutes, Christina and I grab our controllers and join the fight.

Major Nelson had the unfortunate task yesterday to break the news that Xbox Live was going to be raising its prices, and the fury of a thousand rabid fanboys was unleashed in his direction. For one, I don’t really understand what the big deal is, and two, I don’t know why so much of it was directed at Major Nelson himself.

We’ll start with Major Nelson. He runs his own blog separate from any official Microsoft site where he lets people know about what’s coming down the pipeline, hosts gaming discussions, and does a weekly podcast with several other members of the Xbox team.

I finally got to play Scott Pilgrim vs. The World! Apparently, when Microsoft does their “Summer of Arcade” promotion, they don’t allow multiplatform games, so that’s why it came out so much earlier on the PlayStation Network. BAH. Anyway, we have it now!

And it’s awesome. Everything is perfect. The music, performed by rad chiptune rock band Anamanaguchi, fits the mood perfectly and does a really good job at recreating the heart-pumping tunes that flowed from the old beat-em-up arcade machines. The graphics are amazing, being both retro and gorgeous hi-def at the same time.