So, I haven't written much of anything on these forums, or anywhere for that matter, in the last little while. My time has been filled with a curious and adventurous 3 year old daughter and a very pregnant wife due at the end of June. Video games haven't been exactly this center of my free time lately. However, I've taken the time to play a few games that I feel like I should talk about with someone (once again, I live a small city in Korea where video games other than Starcraft 2 and Mmo's are almost never played, much less talked about). So, audience, welcome to some random ramblings about a couple of games followed by some "What's happening in Jeonju, S.Korea." 
 
L.A. Noire  
I think I sit on the fence with my feelings about this game. On one hand, I enjoyed this game because it felt different from other games I've played. The opening voice-over and the first couple of cases felt like this game was going to build up to an interesting whodunnit. The crime scene investigations seemed smart, hiding a few clues in difficult places and throwing in a few odds and ends that didn't pertain to the case at hand. The city was detailed enough that I felt if a grade school teacher asked me to give a presentation about  what it was like to live in the 40s, I could get bonus marks for pointing out famous landmarks as I demoed driving through L.A. in my era-appropriate car. The characters were easily believable: I wanted to punch my partner from Ad-vice in the face for being such a dick and I felt that same embarrassment for the thoughts and opinions of my homicide partner as I did when my grandfather used to spout off inappropriate comments about race or gender. 
On the hand, this game had some flaws. Once I became familiar with investigating crime scenes, it became relatively easy to find all of the clues. Sure, I could've turned off the musical cues to make things more difficult, but that not what I'm talking about. I bothered me that EVERY beer bottle, whiskey bottle and hairbrush looked the same, meaning it was something for Cole to pick up and comment about it not being related to the case. Why could there be a little more variety in the "red herrings"? Sure, maybe all beer bottles back then were brown or green, but why not throw in a couple different labels on them. Make it part of your collectibles. 
Speaking of collectibles, these were very poorly done. I felt that the designers said to themselves, "Hey, we have this wonderful open-world for people to explore and not much to do in it. These side quests only take up a bit of time so what can we add to our open world? I know. Film reels that you'd never find without a guide. Perfect. 95 different models of cars to drive where most of them look the same except for their grill and taillights. Great idea!" I never found a single film reel while working the main story line or completing a side quest. Not one. Am I really supposed to go back and hunt down all 50 of them in free-roam mode? I'm up to 65 cars out of 95 and I'm tired of watching my character open a car door, sit down, realize that I already have this car, get out, watch my partner get in the car, get out, and occasionally mumble something like "what gives?" 
Finally, the other knock I had to this game was the random things that people on the streets would say about Phelps. Never mind that the affair Cole had was sudden and without any build-up, it seems that every single citizen of L.A. recognizes you as the cop who cheated on his wife. We're talking L.A. here, not a town with a population of less than a 1000. 
Overall, I had fun with this game and, who knows, I could come back to it when they release some DLC. For now, though, I'm going to dive back into.... 
 
Mortal Kombat 
Love this game. I suck at it but it is one of the most entertaining games I've played in a while. I love the over-the-top story, the ridiculous modes, and the ease at which I am able to learn some of the characters moves. I've played a few other fighting games and none make me feel as badass as MK.  I'm not talking about X-ray attacks or fatalities...I'm talking about pushing a couple of buttons and watching something that looks like it hurts. Unfortunately, I don't get any time with this game because of my 3 year old daughter. I have to wait until she conks out for the evening, finish up a little bit of work, practice the guitar, and spend time with my wife before I get a chance to play. Meanwhile, my wife plays while I'm at work and my daughter is taking a 2 hour afternoon nap. She then innocently challenges me to a match to decide who is going to do the dishes. So, yeah, I've been doing a lot of dishes. 
 
Jesus University 
I work here. Yeah, it's actually called Jesus University. It's a fantastic job despite the fact I'm the only non-Korean (and thus English speaker)at the university. 15 weeks of teaching, 11 weeks of paid vacation, 15 weeks of teaching, 11 weeks of paid vacation. AND, the only 2 majors offered by this university are nursing and social welfare (i.e. counselling). Final exam week for the first semester starts next week and after that, I'll get back into my routine of shaving once a week, wearing t-shirts (whiskey media stuff of course) and baseball caps, and adding Bailey's Irish Cream to my coffee. I can't wait. 
 
Guitar Lessons 
I've also recently started taking acoustic guitar lessons. It's a very odd situation. My instructor doesn't speak fluent English and my Korean isn't so hot. I mean, his English is good enough that I generally don't have too much problem talking to him. However, because his English is better than the average person, I sometimes forget that talking too fast is generally met with a confused look and a 10 minute English lesson to explain what I just said. During class, I sometimes wonder if I could bring in a video camera, work in a little script, and produce a series of short comedy sketches based on our adventures in miscommunication. Being told that I have beautiful fingers certainly made me laugh.   
 
Well, t's getting late here and this post is probably way too long for it's own good.  if you've read this far, I'm sorry for taking away the last 5 minutes of your life. But hey, thanks for reading.

I can't say that I've been overloaded with the large number of WWII games that have come out over the past decade or so. In fact, with the announcement of R.U.S.E, I decided that this game would be worth a try and spent the 2 weeks leading up to it's release by playing a few favorite WWII video games and watching a few movies. Saving Private Ryan, Enemy at the Gates, and Band of Brothers Boxed Set made their way into my DVD player and Medal of Honor (the one for PS2) and Company of Heroes occupied my time on the games front.  These things made me remember that WWII movies are bloody and gory, Medal of Honor is a great game and Company of Heroes single player pisses me off with secondary missions that seem impossible (timed missions anyone?). 
 
When I first loaded up R.U.S.E I wasn't actually able to play for the first 30 minutes. Ubisoft prompts you to login to your Ubisoft account or create a new one. I tried logging in with one of my common IDs I use for these sorts of things but was told that "that ID did not exist." Creating a new account didn't help either. I couldn't make a new account using the same e-mail address. I had to close the game, go to Ubisoft's homepage and locate my missing Ubisoft ID and password. An ability to do that in game would have been nice. 
 
It's a really good thing that this game started me off slowly with tutorials because the controls for this game take awhile to get accustomed to and furthermore seemed to hinder my ability to make quick decisions in the game. For example, when queuing up new units, I'd often forget that they need to be sent to a rally point. I'd queue them up, go to a different building to queue up a different kind of unit and then wonder why the first group didn't get built. Even making 2 groups of the same unit to go to 2 different rally points seemed to be a monumental task. Also, don't even try to make new units if one of those neat cutscene panels pop up during the mission. You'll either send those units you just made to a random place on the map or they won't get made at all.
 
R.U.S.E. uses the rock scissors, paper formula, for the most part, to decide whether I crushed the AI or if my army was left in a smouldering mess of metal and body parts. It's not a bad system in theory, but when a group of tanks is approaching and you have to zoom in to select your tank busters and then zoom out to find the tanks on the map, it's a pain in the ass. I generally took my stack of mixed units, clicked them all the attack that group of tanks and watch the tanks chew holes in my anti-air units, my infantry and my recon. This seemed a little disappointing afer initially hovering my mouse over the tanks and reading the tooltip.  I guess "easy" means that my tank busters will have an "easy" time destroying those tanks after the tanks rip me a new one. Quite often I'm finding that I have to replay each mission because it seems like there is one way to get all of the side missions as well as complete the main mission. Sometimes, completing the main mission is impossible unless you do it in exactly a specific way. The mission where you fight the battle of Bastogne felt hectic and tense the first time I tried and failed it. The second time I did it, I lost very few units and never felt pressured at all.
 
The story for R.U.S.E revolves around a conspiricy that someone is providing intel to the Germans from within the American ranks. When it comes to a movie with a plot twist, I'm pretty dense and generally don't see these things until the end. I was hit over the head with how easy it was to connect the dots to find out who the mole is. I haven't reached the point in the game where they reveal the twist, but I'll eat my keyboard if I'm wrong. 
 
So why is this game addicting? Despite it being frustrating with difficult controls, one way answers to missions, and a paper-thin story, it somehow still feels cool to be a war general looking at a table top covered with miniture armies. I've yet to try the multiplayer, but it could be fun with the differences each countries' units and the ability to deceive your opponent (I didn't feel the ruse abilities were much use in the campaign other than in a "we're teaching you how to use this ruse and if you don't use it, you'll fail the mission."). I think I still prefer Company of Heroes as a WWII RTS but this one feels a little more like you're a general ordering his troops around. 
 
Although Company of Heroes and its timed missions can go screw itself, R.U.S.E. has some of those too, but they aren't difficult to do.