Today's topic will be my newest diversion - Total Overdose, for the Xbox (also available for PS2 and the PC).

This game is not the best game I've ever played. The graphics are not the best the Xbox has to offer, the camera sometimes works against you, and some of the missions are slightly repetitive. But damn is it fun nonetheless!

The storyline is hilariously demented and over-the-top (you play as yourself, and then your evil identical twin when your first character gets injured), and I love that. The action steals elements from just about every great action/shooter game of the last few years, and makes for a truly enjoyable experience. This is not Socom or a Tom Clancy game, looking to evoke the realest of realism. The main point of this game is to kill the bad guys in as many imaginative and deadly ways as possible, chain all of those impossible shots and deaths together to earn more points and unlock new special moves, to keep right on killing the bad guys!

The music is sometimes weird, but when it hits the mark, it is excellent (and evocative of the setting like the GTA series) and oftentimes humorous as well. Your choice of weapons is perfect, ranging from pistols and sawed-off shotguns to rifles, rocket launchers, and good old sticks of dynamite. There are many secret points and powerups scattered throughout the sprawling, GTA-esque open areas of the Mexican city you traverse in the game. You can earn doubles of most weapons in the game, starting with double pistols and moving up from there. To me, this game seems setup to play like the best of the best and worst action movies. You can explode every vehicle you see in action movie fashion, complete with the last second jump from the open driver's side door. Your character can cartwheel off the walls ala the Matrix and drop two guys at once before his feet touch the ground again.

As my roommate Chuck often says, sometimes you just feel like watching a movie where a lot of shit blows up and people get gunned down. This game is prefect for people looking for that kind of thrill. And with that, I am going back to earn even more spicy moves, and try to nab some new sombreros! Till tomorrow . . .