Happy Birthday!

... as of 4 hours ago, Benji is now 17. If you haven't checked out his blog yet, click here - it's quite simply awesome.

I'm afraid I'm a terrible person, and so this is going to be the mother of all cop-out posts.

Giant armed alien robots in New York? Standard

I'm going to put it simply - Crysis 2 is probably the best game of the year so far. Graphics are suitably epic - the game uses lighting and shading to an even greater extent, but also feels faster in terms of framerate - I've not checked the numbers yet though. Gameplay is much improved - the suit has been made simpler without losing any of its core functionality. My main complaint is that it feels more like a multiplayer game even in the campaign, with purchasable upgrades offering slight bonuses like reduced footstep sound or bullet traces. Useful but hardly game-changing, and all adding complexity. I'm currently in Grand Central station, struggling with a Pinger (which looks even better than in the pre-release picture above). More pictures will follow at some point later in the day. 

It still remains to be seen whether Portal 2 will steal the crown from Crysis 2 or not. Crysis will certainly take quite some beating...