Back to Zero

Pulling myself up from the quicksand of the backlog minus world, today I saw the credits roll on Super Mario Galaxy, the first.  I wouldn't say I've completed the game though, by any means.  There are still probably 10 or more levels I haven't even seen yet.  You only need about 65 stars to have found and beaten Bowser and saved, Peach, though.  I currently have 66 out of 120 or 121, whatever the maximum total is.  I doubt I'll get them all, but I would like to at least see all of the levels, which are the best part of the game, hands down.

This weekend I also plowed through several more levels of The Force Unleashed, and I'm enjoying it.  I put it on Easy and I'm just tearing through the legions of guys in my way on my mission to help Darth Vader overthrow Emperor Palpatine.  It's good for that, and the story is also pretty good, for Star Wars.

I'm wrapping up all the loose ends in the first chapter of The Witcher, as well.  There's a hellhound boss called The Beast that gives a lot of players trouble, from what I've read of the game online.  I killed that and also made a choice to stick up for the witch Abigail, who was being persecuted by the corrupt and hypocritical villagers of Vizima.  That part was pretty awesome, with Geralt pulling out a speech much like Clint Eastwood's from the end of Unforgiven.  I love this guy.  Player agency in The Witcher is done nicely, and a little different from something like Mass Effect, though they have a lot in common.  Geralt, unlike Shepard, is his own person, and you just make the decisions for him.  He has his own past and his own attitude, whereas with Shepard, you determine those things yourself.  It's easier to get into the character's swagger when it's at that slight remove.

Trials HD was on sale this week on XBLA, so I picked that game up (along with Shadow Complex), and had a go with it for a while.  It's simple and fun; you control a motorbike stunt rider through tons of crazy physics puzzles, competing with friends over leaderboards for best times.  It's viewed from the side, like Excitebike of old, but there are no other riders on the course at the same time or anything like that.  It's purely time trials, which is probably where they got the title.