Knights of the Jade Republic

Ok, after playing through Jade Empire in a mere day and half (roughly 20 hours, what can I say, I sort of go into a zone when it comes to rpgs, at least if they are paced well like bioware's are) I have to say anyone expecting a huge leap from KOTOR will be dissapointed. The whole philosophy instead of morality angle they've been pushing is complete BS. It's still light side vs. darkside, good vs. evil, yin vs. yang, whatever you want to call it, and it's easily seen in the dialgoue choices. There are a lot of thinly veiled references to both KOTOR games and the Star Wars movies in general (although possibly not completely intentional on some levels). It's KOTOR in ancient China. And that's a great thing. I had a great time going through it so quickly and much like both KOTOR titles, I'll probably go through it at least a couple more times thanks to the variety of styles if nothing else. But even if I don't, thank god for xbox live so I don't go and waste my money on some underwhelming title to fill the void.

I also played Lego Star Wars on monday, and it was a suprisingly decent title, with it being very cool seing every aspect of Star Wars Legoized and the game really taking advantage of that. My only beef is that you have unlmited lives so it'll be too easy for older gamers, but probably just right for the younger SW fans out there.

The only major film opening this weekend is the new version of the Amityville Horror, apparently from the same people who unleashed the atrociously laughable Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. It's been repeatedly proven over the last decade that hollywood can't make good horror movies anymore (at least ones that aren't campy jokes like Jeepers Creepers 2), so I might check this out on video since I like Ryan Reynolds, but I'm not wasting any of this weekend on it. I live in a fairly small town, but hopefully when Kung Fu Hustle releases wide next week, it'll come here so I have a reason to go to the multiplex.

Nex week, two potentially huge Xbox live titles are out-Unreal Championship 2 & WWE Wrestlemania 21. Now, I've said my piece about UC 2 awhile ago, but I'll reiterate here-It's a unique idea and brings some much needed freshness to the FPS genre, but it's also unblanced and the melee combat can be kinda sloppy. And I can only have so many live games on my plate at once. I'm at five right now, and I pretty much think that's my limit. Meaning it probably won't be a serious consideration until I get bored of Halo 2, which may happen down the road, but not anytime relatively soon.
And then there's Wrestlemania 21. I haven't talked about it much here, but I'm a fairly avid wrestling fan, and this could potentially be the deifnitive online experience I've been waiting for (so much so that I'm already part of a fantasy league for he game before it's even out). But I'm still being very cautious. And that's essentially because there has yet to be anything more than a couple of halfway decent wrestling titles this console generation, and saying the two xbox titles were embarassments worthy of putting the development teams responsible on double secret probation would be far too kind. So I'm taking an approach of cautious optimism, I'm expecting it to be good, but I'm just waiting for my gamefly copy rather than going right out and buying so I didn't feel like I just wasted $50. Course, If WM 21 dissapoints, then I may actually pick up Unreal 2 anyways because it's yet another title that offers something unique. That's it for now, until next time...