I have discovered today that it is quite difficult to play Guitar Hero with an injured pinky finger, particularly attempting the final tier of songs on Hard.  Continuing work on my 5-star set on Medium was much more achievable, since the pinky can pretty much sit that one out.  But there was just no way I was going to get through "Institutionalized" without being able to feel the buttons.

Still quite enjoying the game overall.  Hopefully I won't have to buy a new guitar for Guitar Hero 3, though the prospect of a wireless GH controller may be tempting enough to talk me into my 5th guitar...

I had to argue with the clerk at the local Gamestop for almost 20 minutes to convince him to sell me a single copy of Game Informer (the one with GTA IV on it, natch).  You'd think I asked him to let me walk off with my pockets full of stolen merchandise.  I'm sure it was not a useful investment of my time compared to just paying for the subscription to Game Informer, which seems to be what they are hard wired to provide instead.  But it was the princple of the thing.  It galled me that they were insisting I could only get the magazine with the subscription, which I knew to be patently false.  It took the guy calls to three other Gamestops before he could figure out how to do it.

Please oh please someone compete seriously with Gamestop for the enthusiast gaming market.  I would so love to take my business elsewhere.

Woo, 300th article!  Do I level up?

Speaking of leveling... I'm traveling some for business this week, so the timing of Pokemon: Diamond being released over the weekend couldn't be any better.  Admittedly I already have Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, Hotel Dusk, Izuna, and of course Puzzle Quest queued up for the trip, but still -- one just can't resist a new flavor of Pokemon, especially one that brings it to a new platform like the DS.  Many gaming friends I have turn up their nose at Pokemon, but very few have actually tried it.  At it's core it is the same addictive "level up" RPG that those same people love, just with a monster-training bent and of course tons of SD anime saccharine.  My tolerance for that is pretty high it seems.

In my travels to various Gamestops around the area to pick up a copy I was also looking for the new Game Informer with juicy GTA IV info and screenshots.  Sure, I've peeped the scans online but I want to be able to really look at those screenshots on the printed page.  Unfortunately, they all still had last month's GI, so I guess the search continues...

Well, that's what the PS3 isn't doing, at least in North America according to NPD.  The March numbers are out -- check these threads for actual numbers: (QT3) (NeoGAF). 

Yet another month where the PS3 failed to move more units than the Xbox 360.  Time will tell whether releases in the Fall (woo, Ratchet & Clank) and international sales will save the PS3 but right now it's looking like that particular matchup is a blowout in favor of the 360.

Of course, the Wii outsold them both.  However, while 360 vs Wii was about -100k in February, it was -60k in March (a longer month, to boot).  The Wii's supply issues continue to keep it from really capitalizing on the mindshare advantage it has right now, and by the time they sort things out some of the 360 powerhouse releases will be fast approaching (or already arrived): Bioshock.  Mass Effect.  Forza 2.  Halo 3.  I'd count GTA IV in that set too until some compelling reason to play GTA on the $200 more expensive console without exclusive DLC is announced.

Obviously I'm biased (both as an MS employee, and because Ensemble is developing Halo Wars as a 360 exclusive), but I still think things are pretty grim for PS3 no matter how you slice it.  Empirically, my home use is about in line with these numbers: the 360 and the Wii get plenty of play while the PS3 is pretty much just a fancy box for playing PS2 games and doing some protein folding...

Between STALKER, Lord of the Rings Online, Sims 2 Seasons, and C&C 3 my PC gaming time has really increased a lot lately.  Not that the console releases have been any slouch either, but it is more clear to me than ever that the constant doom and gloom about the viability of the PC as a gaming platform is wildly overblown.  Sure, it has a smaller market share than it did before the ascent of the modern-day console in the past decade or so, but the just as the PC will never escape some of it's root problems (hardware inconsistencies primary among them), it will always have some inherent advantages like an impossibly large install base, highly expressive input devices, and the first platform for cutting edge technologies. 

Of course technologies first pioneered on the PC (to its advantage) like pervasive networking, electronic distribution and advanced 3D graphics, will make their way to the consoles.  Heck, I love all my consoles.  But the PC is still king in many ways, especially in some of my favorite genres like MMOs, RTSes, and strategy games.  Things may change, but I don't see expect to stop buying PC games anytime soon -- even if I wind up buying them all online. 

Finally!  I that horrific GTA: Vice City Stories mission that I've been pounding my head against.  I think I must've tried it upwards of 30 times, and eventually resorted to researching (thanks GameFAQs!) which side activities would boost my combat stats so I could survive a little longer.  A little bit of Air Rescue helicopter grinding later, +50% health and many, many, many tried at the mission got me through it.  It didn't help that after the painful pathing + camera firefight there was a whole final section which, while back to good GTA gameplay, was hard enough that I could complete the annoying stage and still fail the mission.

Sure, I could have just resorted to a cheat code, but I'm ultimately glad I didn't.  I'm enough of a GTA addict that I really still do want to complete the game (hey, it's got to last me until October), and I think if I'd crossed that line into out and out cheat codes it would have lessened the experience.  It may be academic, but there's a bright line to me between focusing on a minigame to increase my health and using a cheat code to just be plain invincible.

I had pretty low expectations when checking out the open beta of Lord of the Rings Online.  D&D Online was a pretty not-fun experience sadly, and I've never been a huge Tolkien geek.  And, to be honest, it's got plenty of flaws.  It is very unpolished UI wise compared to World of Warcraft, and I've encountered a number of broken quests, and it will feel very derivative of World of Warcraft for many people.  Certainly a bunch of my friends have logged in, played a few levels, and dismissed it to return to Azeroth.

But, I've logged probably 30 hours in the beta and it has gamelocked me in a way no MMO has since WoW.  I've leveled a bunch of characters into the low teens and now focusing on getting a Guardian to 15, parked and waiting for the actual live release.  

Something about the crafting, the quest structure, the prevalence of story, as well as them getting many things right that no pre-WoW MMO did (being fairly generous to the player, actually explaining game mechanics, having lots of structured gameplay options).  I'm just really enjoying bumping around Bree and Staddle and Combe and feeling like there are some actual little storylines there.  Sure, there are still a number of "collect 10 rat tails" type missions, but they are generally much more structured around storylines and the more detailed world plays them out a bit better.  The actual "epic storyline" missions are fun too, and while they don't occupy most of my time, the fact that they are there gives me a little more purpose than most MMOs.

Part of it is novelty -- I like the low level experience in WoW a lot but I've done it probably 20 times and literally there isn't a quest there I haven't done.  It's fun to be doing that again and actually exploring.  Also there is just a tremendous amount of quest content.  In WoW you can hit level 15 and you've probably done 90% of the quests available to you (maybe higher) and if you don't leave your racial starting area you are likely to have to grind.  In LotRO, I could literally hit level 10 doing nothing but delivering mail in the Shire.  There are certainly way more quests than needed to level up, once you exit the highly structured 1-6 areas.

It certainly isn't going to unseat World of Warcraft.  But despite my very low expectations for this game I'm finding it quite compelling, at least to 15.  I think it has a good shot at unseating EQ2 as "#2" in the Western MMO market.

Anyways, a reasonable crew of people from QT3 seem to be playing on Nimrodel, so I am too.  Who knows how many of those will pre-order, but anecdotally it's sold a number of copies from people who checked out the open beta and decided to purchase.  Anyone playing there, drop me a line, my main on Nimrodel is "Hawksdottir".

I'm totally an Xbox Live Arcade addict.  The allure of a quick gameplay fix, low price, and those low-hanging Achievements are too much to resist.  So I was curious to check out EA's entry into the Live Arcade field, a fireworks / rhythm game called Boom Boom Rocket.  While it's no Guitar Hero, it's no Fantavision either, and ultimately proves to be a fun little zen-like diversion. 

Very relaxing, actually... classical music and nifty fireworks, simple but fun gameplay, and very attractive.  I'm hoping more songs unlock through play though.  Otherwise that "download" link in the game is looking pretty ominous...

I picked up Super Paper Mario today, and Xavier and I spent pretty much all evening playing it.  He's finally old enough to be interested in the words, so I'm basically reading aloud all the text in the game.  Some of the characters are pretty fun to give voice to, I have to admit.  In general it's pretty fun, though far more of a platformer than the previous Paper Mario games.  That's not inherently a bad thing, but I do miss the Mario RPG vibe.

A key gameplay mechanic is switching between the 2D and 3D representations of the game, which is a very clever little gimmick.  I don't know whether it will have enough legs to still be interesting by the end of the game, but it's a great deal of fun so far...

Played a couple of rounds of "half speed" C&C3 with the gang from QT3.  Tom Chick, professional RTS player / reviewer, of course kicked my ass both games but I still had a lot of fun.  Half speed feels a little too slow for me still with C&C3 but it was an interesting change of pace from the usual uber frenetic click fest.  I find it fascinating how carefully balanced a system these games form, modifying just one parameter, like the relative speed of human processing and simulation processing, can totally redefine the experience.

I used to mark myself a reasonable RTS player, but I think I'm 0-6 straight with QT3 games now.