New games! Well, demos, actually

Amped 3 is one of my personal biggest letdowns ever. I've played Amped 2 to bits, it's one of my all-time favorite games. The next-gen sequel absolutely ruins it. It's disgusting. I can sort of get the humor (not quite, but sort of), but it handles horribly, the camera is awful (what's with the jumping? Huh?) and it even doesn't look considerably better than its predecessor - I would've expected decent shadows and some proper snow. In a word, I'm shattered. I deleted the demo after a couple of runs. My wife was equally disgusted. What a shame! And I was so looking forward to this.

Speaking of letdowns, Blazing Angles didn't do anything for me, either. One of the most boring tutorials I've had to endure, lazy gameplay, visuals didn't much impress. Pass. Top Spin 2 and the latest Tiger Woods also did not impress. Boring, boring. Might've been better with real company, maybe.

The new Tomb Raider is decent. Nothing fancy, but it looks good and plays well. Might be on the buy list from the used or budget bin, one day.

I'm getting better in Geometry Wars. I'm in the top 33K now on the global leaderboard (for some reason, 22K according to Mygamercard.net), having pushed myself up a good 30K positions this night with a good run.

The Chromehounds demo is up. I'm downloading it now, but first impressions are extremely weak. I would've expected at least some customization and multiplayer, not two slow-moving single player missions. Still, I remain a fan of From Software, so here's to hoping it's all good anyway. And multiplayer's clearly where it's at with a title like this.

Update: I played a round of the Chromehounds demo. Sadly, it's almost impossible to get excited about it. It moves very slowly - travel is tedious. Weapons don't feel powerful, accurate, weighty or adequate. The scale isn't there. The graphics are all right, except for lackluster effects. Combat is... dull. You just stand there, firing inaccurate, underpowered weapons at faraway targets, incapable of dodging return fire. The HUD is nonexistent - you feel like you're piloting a WWI-era tank. Still, the highly customizable multiplayer might be another thing entirely, but I find my hopes considerably lowered.

Update 2: Apparently the Chromehounds demo is from the retail game's training missions. According to first reviews, the game indeed does open up very slowly, but one you've got the customization options available and an online group going on missions together, it's all good. Hmm, will have to see if it attracts a dedicated community or not. If it does, this could be sweet indeed, singleplayer drudgery or not. And, hey, Famitsu liked it.