GamerDad is recuperating from quadruple bypass surgery and he’s using games to do it! Here’s how he’s coping!

What a wonderful time to be sick. Seriously, football is on TV, the weather outside is more conducive to leaves and walks than sports and sweat, people are baking a lot, and the Holiday video games start rolling out – like a juggernaut. Normally I’m buried this time of year and while I’m still very busy, with both kids finally in school (7 years of waiting for that) I have time to really sink my teeth into what’s out there. Here goes, on with the teeth sinking!

Since early October I’ve beaten Fontaine in BioShock and guided the Master Chief part of the way in single player, more of the way in co-op, and learned very quickly that being on Xbox Live in Halo 3 means putting up with a lot of rude people. I know, that’s not a revelation, but I haven’t had time to properly meet an online community until now and… look… I’m weak. I had a heart attack. But my ears are sensitive. Also, do you have to throw grenades with that kind of accuracy? I mean, is it necessary?

Team Fortress 2 doesn’t have grenades. Did you know that I’ve been tracking this game since 1998? I even have a T-shirt from back then. Until now, TF2 was my favorite piece of vaporware and given Valve’s virtually nonexistent release schedule, and the massive success of Counter Strike, I figured I’d never see it. Well I see it now and man is it good! Pure, simple, cartoonish, and brutal multiplayer action. Prediction: Halo 3‘s multiplayer servers will swell with far more gamers, but TF2 will be where the fun is.

Not to be too mean to Halo 3 – I do like the game, I gave it four stars – but Half-Life 2 and Episode’s 1 & 2 are “case in point” examples of what reviewers are talking about when they claim disappointment from Halo 3’s story, world, setting, etc., HL2 drips with atmosphere and mise-en-scene, which is French for… you-are-there, or something equally clever. The only place that seems more real and interesting than Dystopia: The Game – Starring Gordon Freeman is BioShock and as I said, I finished that beauty a few days ago.

The less said about Portal the better is what the pundits seem to have decided and far be it from me to break any great secrets. Look, if you like puzzle games and physics and hate gunplay but always secretly wished for a 3D shooter … Portal is for you. It’s one of the most clever games I’ve ever seen and a delight so far – but it sometimes makes my head hurt. There’s nothing in the Orange Box to recommend for children, except for Portal.

Which is what Brain Age 2 and Flash Focus are for. Flash Focus is yet another game that presents interesting but un-fun tasks and demands you do them every day. Then it marks your progress and assigns an arbitrary number that has no connection to reality – or even what they’re talking about. Is Flash Focus really making my eyes younger? Really? No is it? I want to know because it’s giving me a headache. (Seriously though, if a game of visual puzzles and memorization appeals to you, run out and get this game.) I’m also noodling with NAMCO Museum and trying to get people around me interested in trying Pac-Man Vs with me. I’m avoiding Zelda, though I hear good things and spending some time with High School Musical 2.

What? I bought it for Maggie but she’s a bit rhythm challenged. Since I’ve got that music burned in my brain anyway, and since I adore Elite Beat Agents but find it too challenging at times, I took Mike’s advice and started playing it myself.

Soaring, flying, there’s not a star in heaven that I can’t reach.

Okay, that’s just the DS and Xbox 360. Tomorrow we can talk about the other systems.

Tags: Misc