This past weekend was my birthday weekend, and I kickstarted things on Friday by stopping work at noon and playing inFamous 2. My goal was to finish the game before I had to do a jewelry party (another job) Friday night, but instead of finishing it then, I completed all of the side missions and found every single blast shard. I really, really wanted that gold trophy as I know I’m not going to get the other gold or the platinum. But after I got home, I started up inFamous 2 and beat it. I was very, very surprised with the good ending.

I won’t spoil it here, but it made me very sad. My husband snatched my strategy guide away from me and read ahead to the evil ending. He then said, and I quote, “You HAVE to do this.”

So, after the credits finished rolling and I was awarded the appropriate trophy, I started a new game and imported over my evil save from the first game. My plan is to burn through this game. I’m doing evil side missions and side missions I know will only take me a few minutes and that’s it. As a result, I’m over halfway through the game already. Despite what my colleague Blake Grundman thinks, I’m having a hard time playing as evil. It’s weird for me to not care for other people’s safety. On the flip side, it’s very easy to get through missions in a hurry, especially boss fights, and certain trophies are also incredibly easy to obtain.

I’m going to make inFamous 2 my gaming over lunch session this week so I can hopefully wrap up the evil ending by the end of the week.

However, now that that is out of the way, it’s time to focus on my next big strategy guide review: Dungeon Siege III. It’s going to be weird to play an RPG after playing a high-action shooter game, but I’m looking forward to it all the same.

Dear Diary,

I started three new games this past week. I finally got to sit down and play some inFamous 2, and while I had a goal of beating the game by the end of the week, I didn’t count on getting so distracted with everything else. I’ve probably put in over 8 hours to the game so far, and I’ve barely advanced the story at all. Instead, I keep hunting down side missions and while I’m running around looking for them, I get even more distracted by hunting down blast shards and dead drops. At first, I was really irritated with having to hunt down messenger pigeons for the dead drops, but it’s actually proven to be far more fun than I originally thought. My funniest dead drop story so far was when a pigeon landed on a taxi and I had to go chase the taxi down. I laughed so hard I almost lost it.

So yeah, I need to get back on focusing finishing the game this week, but I know I’ll get distracted again. It’s just too much fun to zap things with lightning.

I also started Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D to play during brief downtimes. That…wasn’t such a good plan. The game is too deep to really pick it up and play it in 30-60 minute bursts. I have to admit, though, that I have to switch back and forth between 3D and 2D. When a ton of movement happens on the screen and Link gets a little knocked around, it really, really hurts my eyes. Turning off the gyroscope function has helped immensely, and I obviously need more practice on holding the handheld still. I blame the fact that I’ve played a few regular DS games recently and fell out of the habit.

And last but not least, I started Gears of War over the weekend. My hubby and I started Gears 2, but I kept feeling that I needed to play the first one. With the third game releasing in a couple of months, I bit the bullet and hunted down the first game in bargain bins. The husband and I attempted to play it together on Saturday, but it didn’t go well. I was either yelling at him or reviving him. He’s been out of practice for a long time, but since we were playing on Casual mode, I got really, really irritated. After it took us way too long to finish Act 1, I told him he was fired. I’d love to play shooters with him since that’s all he likes to play, but man he needs to rehone his skills.

Now I understand why my friend Blake was yelling at me when we played Gears 2 together. I had just started to get into the shooter genre, and I was not prepared for the fast action of the game, so yeah, Blake had a very similar experience with me. Maybe he and I can play together now since I’ve gotten a little better.

But as for how I feel about Gears, I don’t know. I was hoping for more of a story about what is going on, and this so far hasn’t produced. I’m only two Acts in, so maybe things will unfold later, but for now I’m just shooting things that shoot at me. That’s a little fun, but the fact that the first game plays out a little like a Survival/Horror game (of which I was warned of) doesn’t help my affection for it at all. I HATE being in suspense or being scared. In the areas with the Kryll flying overhead and the Wretchers jumping out behind corners, I was constantly on edge. At least the dialogue cracks me up.

So goals for this week: move forward on inFamous 2, play more Ocarina, and try to finish the first Gears over the weekend. The Fall rush is rapidly approaching and I need to get prepared!