Gaming with the flu is not much fun

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Getting laid out with the flu didn’t really fill me with a desire for gaming even though I had plenty of time off. However, there were moments of lucidity where I grabbed a controller just to see what was out there.

A demo released this past weekend for “Battlefield: Bad Company 2” gave me just enough adrenaline and held my interest long enough before the flu meds kicked in. It is a simple enough “sight target over weapon and shoot” game that was fun to try.

But the really cool element is the destructible environment that makes any cover you might find disappears under withering enemy fire. In the demo scenario, my team was tasked to destroy two objectives, but we were blocked by armored vehicles at a choke point in the road.

Armed with my rocket-propelled launcher, I rushed behind a cement barricade for cover and got off my first shot for a hit. Ducking down, I figured I had plenty of time to reload, but the tanks began hammering away at the barricade and destroyed it – leaving me completely in the open.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in other scenarios, but it is a fun element for the game.

I also found out that there is a new Legos game on the horizon. “Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars” is centered around the animated series and will feature many of the same characters, but in typical blocky form. There will be some new features added to the game and the release is expected to follow the “Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4”, which is due out in May.

There is also word that Electronic Arts may be benching its college basketball game. When EA released its fiscal year 2011 schedule, there were some notable omissions including the lack of the NCAA Basketball series. There were also no Rock Band titles on the list, but “Green Day: Rock Band” was recently featured at the VGAs so it will be intriguing to see where this comes from.

Finally, did you see there was a video game commercial in the Super Bowl? “Dante’s Inferno” took the big commercial stage with a relatively tame (for a game that has gotten a lot of hype about nudity and violence) ad featuring the protagonist during a fall into Hell.

I can’t remember the last time a single video game got one of the coveted spots during the Super Bowl. A smart play or a Hail Mary pass?

Posted by: Larry Frum for CNN.com
Filed under: Games • Gaming • video games