Ninja Gaiden 2 is here!

Today I got Ninja Gaiden 2 for the 360! I've been waiting for it a long time and I've been excited to play it. As I wrote before already, I was hoping that they don't change too much since the first one already was quite perfect... and I didn't get disappointed!

It's still as hard and fast and smooth, the chicks still have the Tecmo-typical sexy outfits showing big, bouncing breasts, the boss mobs are huge and the atmosphere is great!

I'm not sure about the graphics. To me, it still looks like the first one, no real improvement. Then again, the first one was quite amazing already. It's probably the same as with Dead or Alive (the fighting game and the volleyball one), which didn't seem to be that much better-looking on the new Xbox either.

A definite improvement is on the gore-factor! Blood, blood everywhere! Chopped off body-parts and corpses that stay where you left them. I'm not sure if I simply had a censored version of the first one or if it really was that less bloody. I like the more intense display of violence, though it's not a must - the game would've been great with alittle less too. (some might say that the same goes for the bust-sizes of the females in their games, but that's a big NO from my side!)

The one thing that didn't get improved is the camera! I hear all Ninja Gaiden fans cheer "Yay!"... it's still as crappy, too slow, never focused on the thing you wanna see and so you end up controlling it yourself with your right thumb-stick while you are playing. Well, I guess most fans are used to playing it that way anyway.

They added an easier difficulty setting. I have to admit I started on that one and it wasn't that challenging. I might still finish the game quickly on that one but just like with the first game, I'll replay this game on higher difficulties too. It's a challenging game, but thanks to the higher amount of save-points and the now included max-health at those spots and the self-heals after fights, this game will probably frustrate a lot less than the first one did.

So, the game has been worth the wait. Some things could be a little more impressive - especially for a 360 game, but it's got all the things I loved about the series so far and I'm looking forward to beating the game and seeing more of the plot - which I can't say too much about yet.

more games coming up

After some time passed now without me buying new games, there are more and more coming up on the horizon that I simply want to have. And strangely, they are all coming out for the 360. Ok, not really surprising. It just makes me realize that I really don't need a PS3 - except for like 1 or 2 games perhaps and as a Bluray-Player.

Anyway, here are some more games I'm looking forward to.

Soulcalibur 4 I've loved all Soul... games so far. Starting with Soulblade/Souledge on the old PSX. That game back then was actually the reason I got myself a PSX. Soulcalibur on the Dreamcast was a milestone concerning graphics and playability in my eyes, while Soulcalibur 2 was more solid - it didn't blow me away that much, probably because it was released on the PS2 aswell and I was spoiled since the Xbox was able to deliver much nicer graphics at that time. The 3rd sequel didn't make it to any Microsoft-console, so now that the 4th one is announced, I'm really looking forward to it! From what footage I've seen so far, they can't really do much wrong anymore. Looks nice enough for me. Now I only hope for 2 things: same playability as the old games and let Taki be part of the cast! Then I'll buy this game without even reading a review.

Star Wars - Force Unleashed I can't say much about this game yet, cept: Looks cool and very promising! It definitely does, and as a big Star Wars- and lightsabre-fan this surely caught my attention. Now lets hope they get the rest of the ingredients for a good game together aswell, then this will be one hell of a game!

games I'm looking forward to

In the past I used to be more hyper about games coming out that I wanted. Maybe it's because I haven't been playing games too much recently. But there are a few new titles coming out that I'm quite eager to get

Ninja Gaiden 2 No big surprise since I've always been a big fan of the series ever since I played the first one on the good old Xbox. From the footage I've seen so far, nothing much got changed but rather everything revamped on the newer hardware. Which isn't neccessarily a bad thing. Don't change anything that's working well, and since the first one was pretty flawless in my eyes, I don't see much they could've done better... to be honest, I can't see how the graphics can even be much better. But maybe it's like with many older games: you remember them to look better than they actually do once you look at them again when you are used to the next generation of consoles.

Grid More surprising is my interest in Grid, a racing simulation with amazing graphics and a physics-engine to behold! I'm usually not into racing-simulations, especially not when they are too realistic - I love Burnout, I never played PGR. But the game looks quite amazing and like it would also be fun for me. I know my friend will get it anyway, I'll probably try it out then and see if I want to get it myself.

Update: The demo is now available even for non gold-members on Xbox Live, so I'm gonna use that to see if I'll like the game.