Burnout Paradise

The definition of a love/hate relationship. I love the amazing crash physics. After approximately 1287 crashes, I hate still having to see every single one in slow-motion (previous Burnouts had the option to turn Takedown cams off). I love doing challenges online with online buddies. I hate that I’ll probably never get the 250 challenge achievement, since I’ll never do challenges with 6, 7 or 8 people. I love the ease of online racing, the leaderboards, and the stats given before each race. I hate losing races due to missing a crucial turn. I love the variety in the vehicles and how they actually react differently in collisions. I hate having to do specific Burning Lap events with specific vehicles. I still love Road Rage events. I hate the new Showtime (Crash) mode, but not nearly as much as I hate Stunt Mode.

Omega Five

Exactly the type of game that XBLA should have in droves. An original shmup that has tight controls and impressive graphics. And XBLA adds the incentive to drive for a high score with leaderboards. I can’t wait for Ikaruga to be released. I still can’t believe I just sold the GC version on Amazon Marketplace for $45. Can’t wait to rebuy a superior version for $10!

Halo 3

Yeah, I’ve been a huge critic of this series since the original, but co-op apparently is still fun. Ripped through the game on normal. Just as my predetermined hatred of the campaign was starting to recede, we reached a level that took place inside a giant anus. I don’t know who thought it’d be a good idea to have such a disgusting level in a video game. And there were anuses inside the anus. And it vibrated its walls as it spoke a few times. Bungie should be ashamed of themselves.

The Dishwasher

One of the XBL Community Games, which means it was developed with XNA Game Studio and released with XNA Creators Club. Let’s just say it’s a way for independent developers to get their cool games on XBLA. There’s still time to play a bunch of these games for free. I haven’t gotten a chance to play any others, but this one is pretty fun. You can tell it’s an amateurish work-in-progress, but it’s Devil May Cry/Ninja Gaiden in 2D, which should sound cool to anyone.

Call of Duty 4

Never completely out of the gaming rotation. Took a while to beat the single-player campaign, as Veteran was a bitch. I’m determined to eventually get 1000/1000, so I’ll need to beat the extra level on Veteran, even if it’s the most frustrating thing I’ve ever played. As for MP: even after weeks of vacation, I still rock the shit — most notably on Wet Work. I reached Prestige mode, and kept on mercilessly killing dudes with the vanilla M16. Call of Duty 4 might as well be renamed Boost Joel’s Self-Esteem.

Also, I just came across this gem (sorry, had to shrink to fit):

Facebook Scrabulous

This counts! I’ll take on all comers! I’m not especially good, but I can hold my own at times.