Win Borderlands for PC!

The folks at Hooked Gamers are going to give away a copy of Borderlands for PC and all you have to do to enter your name is sign up for email updates. Read about it here

While you're there, check out the rest of the site, it's chock full of goodness!

E3 - Just Cause 2 Trailer

This could be my most anticipated game of 2009 that caught me off guard. Watch the trailer to see why.

Left 4 Dead 2? Seriously?

During the Microsoft E3 press conference, Left 4 Dead 2 was announced. Let me get things straight here, I'm a big fan of Left 4 Dead, in fact I paid cash-money for both the PC and 360 versions, and I've been eagerly anticipating more L4D. Nevertheless, I'm more than a bit pissed that Left 4 Dead 2 is coming out this soon.

When Left 4 Dead was released, it wasn't a complete product. Of the four campaigns included in the game, only two were usable in the versus gameplay mode, the meat and potatoes of a long-lasting Left 4 Dead experience. Since then Valve has remedied that situation with a free content pack, and kudos to them for not taking the low road and charging for what should have been in the game in the first place. The official excuse from Valve as to why the maps were left out at launch was that the versus levels take too long to set up and test. Nevertheless, we are being given a new and hopefully complete game in less than a year? I'm going to have to call shenanigans. Merely seven months ago I was charged a full $60 for an incomplete game, I'm not falling for it again.

P.S. - If you happen to feel the same way, you might want to join this Steam Group: L4D2 Boycott.

Sony Press Conference Liveblog - E3 2009

-We have movement on the screen
-It’s the opening montage! Playing to Queen’s One Vision
-This is one hell of a long opening video
-Jack Tretton on stage now, he’s joking about all the leaks
-“We consider ourselves to be industry leaders at Sony and press leaks are no exception”
-He mentions that he’s nervous talking in front of everyone
-364 games coming out on Playstation platforms this year, (that’s PS2, PS3 and PSP)
-Sony is the only company with three successful consoles at once
-He’s mentioning upcoming titles, both exclusive and non-exclusive

-Playstation 2 time, mentions that current price is $99
-Sony is committed to PS2 as long as consumers are interested
-Nearly 100 new titles this year for Playstation 2
-“Todays PS2 owners are ultimately tomorrows PS3 users”
-Talking about sales in Latin America now, apparently they’re doing well
-24 million registered accounts on PSN

-Tretton says it’s time to talk about games
-Says Infamous is getting good reviews and is one of 39 PS3 exclusives in 2009

-Tretton just mentioned Naughty Dog, which means Uncharted 2
-A couple of guys from Naughty Dog are on stage now to talk about Uncharted 2
-They’re now demoing Uncharted 2 live, Nathan Drake is on the roof of a building in Central America
-He looks out over the city and it’s absolutely breathtaking
-It looks like Drake will be guided through a linear path through the expansive environment
-An attack chopper just showed up and is shooting at Drake, the camera pulls out cinematically
-Drake is now involved in a roving gunfight across the rooftops and through the buildings in the city, all the while with the shopper chasing him
-The combat and player movement is very fluid and lifelike
-The building just collapsed with Drake in it and Drake jumps face-first through a plate glass window

-Tretton’s talking about MAG now, thy’re going to show some live gameplay
-Someone from Zipper interactive just came out to talk about MAG and show it off
-They are going to show off a live 250 player match
-They just showed all of the people who are playing on the big screen
-The sheer size of a MAG multiplayer match is mindblowing when you see photos of all the 256 players at once
-They just pulled out to some sort of command map that shows the whole battlefield
-Gameplay-wise, MAG seems pretty generic squad-based action, with the quantity of players being the the only remarkable bullet-point
-Squads are responsible for taking care of individual objectives
-Graphically the MAG is a pretty average next-gen game with lots of browns
-Players can call in other squads for help as well as air-strikes
-MAG will make its debut Fall 2009

-Tretton is back talking about PSP
-Tretton is showing off the AA titles that have come out on PSP
-Global install base of the PSP is now over 50 million
-Mentions upcoming games: Rock Band Unplugged, Dissidia: FF and an Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines
-A Lilac PSP with Hannah Montana will be released along with other games aimed at teens and tweens

-Now it’s Kaz Hirai’s turn on stage
-PSP: Go is "announced," jokes are made about being the worst kept secret of E3
-Will be sold alongside PSP 3000
-PSP: Go won’t have UMD, all games will come through digital download
-PSP: Go will be 50% smaller and 40% lighter than current PSP, will have 16Gb if internal flash memory and integrated bluetooth and wi-fi
-PSP Toolkit prices will be lowered by 80% for PSP developers
-All PSP games going forward will be released digitally and on UMD
-PSP: Go will cost 249 dollars/euros and be released in North America and Europe on Oct 1, 26800 yen in Japan on Nov 1

-Gran Turismo is being shown running at 60fps, contains 800 cars and 35 tracks
-Gran Turismo: PSP will feature adhoc racing mode for up to four players, as well as trading of cars between players
-Not surprisingly, GT: PSP has visuals comparable with PS2. In other words: it looks fantastic for a portable game

-Hideo Kojima is talking about Metal Gear: Peace Walker on PSP
-The main team of MGS 4 will be working on the game
-The game will take place in 1974, graphics look pretty darn fantastic for a portable game, will star Solid Snake
-multiplayer has been hinted but not mentioned explicitly

-Resident Evil is coming to PSP in 2010
-PSP video montage showing Little Big Planet, Soul Calibur, Madden, Persona and Fat Princess among others
-The PSP montage was pretty long, but it's over
-FF7 will show up on the Playstation store
-Home has 6.5 million users
-Sony is now playing another game montage, they love their montages

-Tretton is talking up Rockstar, mentions a new PS3 exclusive from Rockstar called 'Agent'
-will involve espionage and assassins in 1970s

-Talking about Assassin's Creed 2 now
-Ubisoft execs showing off the game, set in the Italian Renaissance, as we already know
-It seems like there will be a wider variety of events and NPC actions going on in the gameworld during gameplay
-AC2 will involve gadgets like a flying machine built by Leonardo DaVinci, flying with the flying machine looks fun
-AC2 will incorporate use of a variety of weapons, 30 in total not counting six that can be unlocked if you own AC on the PSP

-A FFXIII video is being shown, not the same trailer from the Microsoft press conference
-visually it looks very close, perhaps indistinguishable from the Xbox demo
-FFIV has just been announced for PS3 only in 2010, my guess is a FFXI sequel

-Sony is pulling out their new motion sensing controller/camera
-It's a controller, but they're demoing it and it seems that it's being tracked flawlessly in 3d space
-It actually utilizes a Playstation eye and a new controller
-it looks pretty awesome actually, although it will probably involve buying an eye-toy and a controller for each player
-The controller is extremely precise; they're using it with a paint program
-
It's LBP time now
-Little Big Planet is getting Disney themes

-Mod Nation Racers just announced as the next game in the 'play, create, share' genre, exclusive to PS3
-Lots of customization of racers and racecars it seems, but racers are sort of plastic and mii/avatar-like, not sure in what way this game could only work on a PS3
-Showing a video of gameplay now, looks like Mario cart meets burnout, but without the wrecks
-The racetrack creator looks extremely easy to use; it's giving me Re-Volt flashbacks
-The developer made a complete track in about two minutes and it looked pretty good, not sure if there will be a lot of variety though, we'll have to see

-The new Ico game was just introduced; it's called "The Last Guardian"
-So far it's the trailer we've already seen
-Still the same trailer we've seen, except now it says "The Last Guardian" the creature looks absolutely amazing but the boy looks a little bit last-gen
-The gameplay mechanics are very fluid
-PS3 only of course

-Showing a Gran Turismo 5 preview now
-Looks good, seems it will involve several real racing organizations and tracks, also damage modeling!

-Time for God of War 3, the final game in the GoW series
-Starts off looking exactly like you would expect: same old god of war but with much higher quality graphics
-Kratos is fighting skeletons and killing/riding harpies
-A HUGE lava creature shows up as part of the environment, now a big ol' centaur shows up to fight... big surprise, it looks easy to kill
-The kill was pretty darn gruesome though
-Helios keeps flying through the scene
-Seems like there are a lot of mini-boss monsters around, a chimera this time
-Kills chimera brutally as you could possibly want, demo ends, game is due March 2010
-All the motions in the game were extremely fluid, looked great

-Tretton is back to wrap things up
-Press Conference OVER!

Nintendo Press Conference Liveblog - E3 2009

-The screens just lit up with a montage, as Mario would say, "here we go!"
-Heeeeere's Cammy, Dunaway that is
-She's talking about how everyone in the auditorium is involved in video games
-This woman's a robot
-She's talking about how big the video game industry is and how its growth is due to targeting non-gamers
-She says Nintendo is trying to grow their audience by attempting to 'create, surprise'
-She says that Nintendo will bring complete innovation and smaller surprises
-Sounds like it's time to start talking games

-A montage of Mario games past is showing, looks like we've got a new mario game coming
-Cammy says everyone remembers Mario's move to 3d, but they haven't yet figured out how to move Mario into the 4th dimension, whatever that means
-"For the past 15 years Mr. Miyamoto has been thinking about one new way to let you play a Mario game that's never been possible before"
-The answer is "New Super Mario Bros for Wii"
-Here's Bill Trinen from the Treehouse group
-New SMB will be more than just more levels, enemies and items, it's also more players
-It looks like New SMB for DS but with four players simultaneously and prize blocks give out an item for each player
-New item: The propellor suit, waggling the Wiimote will launch you into the air
-The screen pans in and out based on proximity of players, sort of like Bionic Commando Rearmed
-Players are ranked at the end of each level
-Not sure how they can label it "never before possible," this could have been made on the N64. Regardless I can't wait to play it
-They're done demoing
-It will be available Holiday season 2009

-Cammy's moving on to Wii Fit now
-Wii Fit has been the best selling videogame in america and around the world over the past 13 months, she says
-She says the balance board is being considered a platform due to its large install base
-Nintendo has been looking at how to make Wii Fit better and more beneficial
-The result is Wii Fit Plus
-It is "something for everyone"
-You can be your "own personal trainer"
-6 new excercises
-WF Plus will be better with targeting specific areas and will monitor burned calories
-New 'fun' activities will include juggling, skateboarding and a game that will involve platform jumping and dodging obstacles
-Wii Fit Plus will be available Fall '09 and can be purchased with a balance board or seperately

-Here comes the Regginator, Reggie Fils-Aime
-He says Nintendo havs become part of mainstream culture
-the primary driving force is 'interface,' with the Wiimote, then the nunchuck, then the balance board
-I think Reggie is a robot too
-Reggie is talking about the Wii Motion Plus, (WMP), now
-Time for a video montage of WMP goodness
-The video is showing off the WMP controlling minigames in Wii Sports Resort, stuff we saw at last year's E3
-Reggie is bring
ing out Bill Trinen to demo the WMP and Wii Sports Resort
-He's showing off the intro to Wii Sports Resort, apparently it will involve skydiving
-The controller is moving the skydiver in true 1:1, it looks pretty basic but it's a slick intro for the game
-The parachute opens and Wii Sports Resort is printed on the top
-Time to see archery
-The bow is controller by holding the Wiimote/WMP as the bow shaft and pulling the nunchuck back like a bowstring
-It looks fun and intuitive
-Trinen is bringing Reggie back out for a 3-point basketball contest
-Reggie: "I hope you shoot baskets better than you shoot arrows"
-Awkward banter ensues, scattered nervous laughter in the audience
-They're starting to shoot now
-They use the controller to reach down and pick up the ball, then shoot
-The player moves around the 3-point line and shoots from different angles
-Reggie wins and Trinen leaves the stage

-Reggie is talking about third party support for WMP
-Tiger Woods 10 will incorporate and be sold with WMP
-Grand Slam Tennis and Virtua Tennis 2009 will both include WMP support
-Reggie says now you can suck in-game as bad as you do in real life
-Red Steel 2 will be only playable with WMP, no gameplay shown
-More third party games were sold for Wii and DS last year than other platforms

-Reggie's talking about RPGs now
-An exclusive open-world RPG for Wii from Square Enix
-Video is playing, looks like a new Crystal Chronicles
-Yep, FF: Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
-Now we're seeing video of a new Kingdom Hearts on Wii
-If you've seen or played Kingdom Hearts before, there aren't any suprises here
-Reggie is talking about Bowser now
-Showing a video of Mario and Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story, the art looks like the previous games
-Mario and Luigi play on the inside of Bowser on the bottom screen and Bowser is shown on the top screen
-It will be available in NA and Europe Fall 2009
-Reggie's teasing another RPG
-Golden Sun DS! A video is being shown
-They managed to capture the look of Golden Sun in 3D and it looks spectacular on DS
-Nice spell effects

-Cammy is back
-She's talking about how DS is a great place for third parties due to the install base of over 100 million
-The large install base allows developers to take chances
-Segue to James Patterson's Women's Murder Club: Games of Passion for DS
-It looks like Pheonix Wright with puzzle games mixed in gameplay-wise
-Now she's talking about a new gritty game
-Cop: The Recruit for DS by Ubisoft
-Gameplay wise looks like GTA III, but squeezed onto DS
-Time for a fashion game
-"Style Savvy" for DS, aimed at pre-teens to 20-somethings
-Cammy: "Nintendo DS = diversity"

-Talking about DSi now
-They're showing a video of people talking about the DSi, seems pretty canned
-Cammy says the DSi complements the DS lite due to the different features
-DSi has sold 2 million units in the past 2 months, DS lite has sold 400,000
-She's showing off Moving Memo now, now it will be called Flipnotes Studio and be available in the US this summer
-Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again will include a level creator and will be available through DSiWare on June 8th
-Levels will be sharable with other game owners
-WarioWare: DiY will allow players to create their own microgames through an in-depth creation tool
-Player-made microgames will be sharable
-DSi will be able to upload images directly to facebook
-Time to talk about Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
-What the hell, she moved on without showing it!?!
-Time for another video montage, there doesn't seem to be any point to it

-Cammy just swapped with Satoru Iwata
-I think he was born smug
-Nintendo splits people into three groups, active gamers, people who will never play, and people who might play
-Nintendo targets the maybes
-295 million people actively play games, he says
-149 million people say they might be interested in getting involved
-This all sounds incredibly scientific
-The nintendo goal is to create games that can satisfy every kind of game player even though skill levels and experiences are widely varied
-"making it harder for newcomers to join is dangerous"
-lowering the bar will not satisfy skilled players
-Iwata uses examples like Donkey Kong and Space Invaders to illustrate games that appeal to new gamers and skilled gamers
-He says Mario Kart Wii was a game like this and Wii Sports Resort and New Super Mario Bros Wii will be as well

-Iwata rhetorically asks what is next after Brain Age and Wii Fit?
-What the hell is this?
-He just announced that the next big thing is the "Wii Vitality Sensor," a clip for your finger, like you see at a doctors office that will monitor heart rate and other vitals
-I'm tempted to think this is a joke but he sounds serious, auditorium is pin-drop silent
-Iwata says it will help people relax
-Now Iwata is leaving, still looking smug

-Cammy is back, talking about Mario again
-A new 3D mario for Wii
-Time for another video
-It's another Mario Galaxy!
-Looks like there's some interesting new gameplay in this one, including Yoshi
-Super Mario Galaxy 2, no release date mentioned

-Reggie is back, he says he hears people in the blogs talking about wanting more
-He says there will be new, edgier games coming out as well for Wii
-He's showing a trailer of the Conduit, it looks promising, comes out in three weeks
-Now he's talking about Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles
-A trailer is showing, visuals are remeniscent of RE4, but an on-rails shooter
-It must be time for Dead Space: Extraction
-Yep, showing a trailer, it's graphically pretty impressive for a Wii game

-Reggie is teasing a new, edgier Nintendo developed game
-He says they brought in a traditionally mature developer to help
-Team Ninja? Yeah it's the Team Ninja logo
-It's something in space
-WHOA it's Samus, a new metroid!
-This is the best looking game graphically I've seen on Wii
-It looks like there's some side-scrolling and some third person action
-Metroid: The Other M, it will take players deeper into Samus' story and the Metroid universe

-Reggie's reiterating the conference bullet points now, looks like we're at the end!

Microsoft Press Conference Liveblog - E3 2009

-Something’s happening, the conference has begun!
-It looks like an intro for The Beatles: Rock Band
-The video seems to be a run through the various stages of the Beatles’ career
-It’s an awesome video actually, especially towards the end as they ride a giant blue rhinoceros to the tune of “I am the Walrus”
-Here come the Harmonix execs
-Talking about how important The Beatles were
-The Beatles: Rock Band is being shown off by the Harmonix house band now, the instruments look authentic and there are three vocal parts
-The multiple vocal parts will allow up to six players at once, how much would high-end instruments and three microphones cost?
-The game will ship with 45 songs
-On screen the game looks like the Rock Band we all know, but with The Beatles characters and locations
-The game will also feature downloadable albums... seriously, I’m going to wind up spending a ton of money on this game
-The game will feature actual recorded conversations between the band members
-The song 'All you need is love' will be exclusive, (no mention as to whether that is timed or not) to Xbox 360 as a 1st day download
-Danny Harrison just showed op for a moment, now Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison
-Holy bejeezus, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are on stage now
-Ringo: “The game is good, the graphics are good and we were great”

-John Shappert is on now
-Shappert is talking about what people want these days
-“today is about showing, not telling”
-apparently we’ll be seeing ten world premieres of games never before seen

-Here comes Tony Hawk to talk about Tony Hawk: Ride
-“The best way to experience skateboarding is the way it’s meant to be, on a board”
-A video is being shown, no real new information, the board peripheral looks pretty solid though
-Tony Hawk leaves

-A Modern Warfare 2 trailer is playing, one we’ve seen already
-Bruckheimer and Bay films have nothing on this trailer
-The Infinity Ward guys are on stage now to show off some gameplay
-it’s a snow/ice environment, probably the same as the one with the snowmobiles in the trailer
-the player is using ice picks to climb a frozen cliff wall
-The character almost falls and is saved by a teammate
-The visibility in this level is almost zero, the air is filled with snow
-The gameplay looks distinctly Infinity Ward
-There seems to be some sort of radar built onto the side of the weapon
-Enemies are coming after the player with snowmobiles, after dispatching the enemies, the player takes the snomobile
-An action-packed snomobile race with guns ensues and the game is shut off
-Shappert is back and announces that the first two Modern Warfare 2 map packs will be timed exclusives for Xbox 360
-Modern Warfare 2 will be out November 10, 2009

-The Squenix folks are here to talk about Final Fantasy XIII
-The translater is one of the best I've seen at any games conference
-Final Fantasy XIII is being shown off running on an Xbox 360, it looks as stunning
-time gauges have been added to the combat that will power up attacks
-They show off the 'Odin' summon and it looks pretty sweet
-Square Enix is targeting spring 2010 for the FFXII release

-Shappert is back talking about exclusives, says that everything from now on will be totally exclusive to Xbox 360

-Cliff Bleszinski of Epic Games and Donald Mustard of Chair Entertainment are on now, Cliff is wearing a Bill Gates mugshot T-shirt
-They announced the next Epic Games Unreal Engine 3 game to be released: Shadow Complex
-Mustard says the goal of Shadow Complex is to take the gameplay style of Metroid and Castlevania and bring them to next gen with modern design sensibilities and next-gen graphics
-Mustard: Shadow Complex is all about exploration punctuated by moments of combat
-The game will star Jason Fleming, a guy who stumbles upon a secret military complex with just a flashlight
-Visually the game is like Bionic Commando: Rearmed, but with the lighting and texture quality of UE3
-The gameworld looks huge and it seems that there is emphasis on creative problem solving
-As the game progresses the character will go from being a regular guy to a "weapon of destruction" with advanced armor
-Over 120 collectible items and over 10 hours of gameplay
-Shadow Complex will come out this summer

-Shappert is back and talking about a game called "Joy Ride"
-It looks like a party/kart racing game with a bit of stunt driving set in a road-runner environment with Avatars at the wheel
-It will be free to download and play, with microtransaction upgrades for cars, racers, etc.

-It looks like a trailer for Crackdown 2 now, all CG so far
-It seems there is now an infection in the city, and the shadow of some sort of monster is shown at the end
-L4D 2 trailer!
-It looks like this time there will be melee weapons: axes, chainsaws, etc.
-It will be only on Xbox 360 and PC, available November 17th
-Splinter Cell Conviction trailer now, Fisher has short hair

-A couple French guys from Ubisoft are on stage now to show of SC: Conviction
-Melee combat and interrogation looks awesome, it looks like objectives will show up in-game*
-This Splinter Cell looks far more fluid than the past iterations
-Gadgets will make a comeback in Sam's inventory
-While the game is stealth-based, Sam looks like he will now be able to clear out rooms using his ninja-like abilities
-SC: Conviction will be out in Fall 09 exclusively on Xbox 360

-Shappert is back and talking about racing... that means Forza 3
-Yep, he says it's coming in October, video playing now
-That was a very short video, must be an introduction
-Yes, here comes a dude from Turn 10 Studios with a fancy Audi R8 on stage
-They're going to show off the game now
-The game looks jaw-droppingly good in motion and will run at 60fps
-Now the guy's talking about car customization
-Now we see a video with people talking about how much they love custom painting cars through Forza and sharing them on Xbox live...
-The car customization and video editing looks pretty darned amazing though
-Turn 10 guy leaves the stage

-Halo 3: ODST time
-Joe Staten from Bungie is out now and wastes no time getting into showing off ODST
-Looks like the game starts with the trooper landing in a one-man drop ship, (flashing back to Quake 2 now)
-The player will have a new supressed smg and visor, supressed smg is pretty loud
-It seems that this game will involve some mystery solving and playable flashbacks, certainly new to the Halo universe
-Staten briefly mentions a new game mode that will be included with Halo 3: ODST called 'firefight'
-Uh oh, there's another Halo project
-Looks like a teaser trailer to me...
-It's Halo: Reach, coming 2010, the trailer didn't really show much but my guess is that it's the rumored squad-based game

-It's Sam Lake, the face and writer of Max Payne! Also there's another guy from Remedy
-They're playing Alan Wake on the big screen
-Environmental effects look darn good
-Alan is running around in a forest town in the dark, the lighting is nice
-Something invisible is picking up objects and chucking them at Alan
-Weird humanoid monsters are coming after Alan Wake now and he's destroying them with his flashlight
-He starts a generator and a floodlight comes on, destroying all the enemies in the area, I guess they don't like light
-Alan just shot off a flare to clear out the area, the smoke and lighting are superb
-"To be continued," the trailer ends, Sam says Alan Wake will be out spring 2010 on Xbox 360 only

-Shappert is back talking about entertainment
-last.fm will be integrated into the Xbox dashboard for free for Xbox live gold members only (this year)
-Netflix will now allow users to access and change their queue from the Xbox
-The HD video library on Xbox Live will be upgraded from 720p to 1080p and now 18 countries will be able to access the video store, also the videos will (supposedly) begin instantly
-Xbox Live Parties will be able to view video now
-Facebook will be integrated into Xbox live as well
-Felicia Day just showed up to show off Facebook... the nerds in the audience all just melted
-It looks like Facebook has been changed to fit the look of the Xbox dashboard
-She's talking about something called "Facebook Connect" now... it seems that games that support it will be able to post images straight to Facebook
-She just mentioned that Twitter will also be integrated into the Xbox dashboard and they will both show up this Fall
-Felicia Day is very pale
-She's leaving now and Shappert is back
-He's reiterating the presentation, maybe it's almost over already
-Nope, he just introduced Don Mattrick

-Mattrick Says there is still an IP missing from Xbox
-Hideo Kojima just showed up, is it MGS4?
-He says it's called "Metal Gear Rising"
-Apparently it won't star Solid Snake
-Teaser time, "Metal Gear Solid Rising: Lightning Bolt Action” starring Raiden

-Mattrick is talking about the origins of Xbox and Xbox Live now
-Oh it's motion controller time
-He says the controller is a barrier for too many people; it's definitely going to be the camera
-A commercial video is being shown that shows off some sort of motion sensing controller, it looks pretty darn good but it's basically an ad so who knows how accurate the depiction is
-The video just showed an ability to scan in a skateboard deck and use it in a skateboard game
-A girl just walked in front of the camera and it recognized her face and logged her into her live account
-The girl is checking out dresses with a friend while video chatting now
-A family is playing 1 vs 100 using their hands as buzzers; they’re playing against another family in another home
-a couple is navigating the dashboard to find a video using their hands, looks pretty slick

-Mattrick has returned and referred to the camera as “Project Natal”
-He says the only experience you need to play is life experience
-He says the sensor tracks 3D movement and recognizes voices
-Mattrick likes to clap at his own statements
-Natal will work with all existing and future Xbox 360s
-He just invited Steven Spielberg onto the stage, hot darn Microsoft has some star power this year
-Spielberg says they’ve been asking how videogames can be made as approachable as other mediums of entertainment; most people are too intimidated to pick up a controller
-He says the key was to make the technology invisible
-Spielberg says Natal is similar to the move from square movie screens to cinemascope, and then to Imax
-“What Microsoft is doing isn’t about reinventing the wheel, it’s about no wheel at all”
-Hopefully this means Boom Blox 360

-Spielberg leaves, the creative director of Project Natal is being trotted out now
-Dude’s name is Kudo and he looks like he should be hanging out outside a high school trying out pickup lines… a real slick looking guy
-He’s showing off How Natal can control the dashboard and control Avatar movements… it isn’t working too well, the Avatar looks like it has bone-itis
-Now he’s having a girl show off a game/tech demo called Ricochet, it’s pretty impressive
-The player’s representation on screen is moving exactly like the girl playing with almost no lag
-Kudo just mentioned referenced “preset waggle commands” like it was something dirty
-Ricochet looks like Arkanoid using your body as the paddle
-Time for another tech demo, it’s called Paint Party
-Kudo has the creative director of Microsoft Game Studios working the tech demo
-He’s using his movements to throw paint on a canvas and using voice commands to choose the colors, it looks pretty fancy
-He says “pose” and the camera begins showing the outlines of all the people in view of the camera
-Between two people, they manage to make a pretty convincing looking elephant, seems like they’ve practiced
-He says “cheese and the camera takes a shot and uses it as a stencil to place an elephant in the painting
-“Development kits are heading out to our partners today”
-Kudo leaves and Mattrick is back

-Mattrick swaps with Peter Molyneux who’s giving us the business about what interactivity really means
-Molyneux says Lionhead has been working with Natal for a while
-Video Time
-in the video, a woman approaches a TV with a boy on a swing and says “hi Milo”
-The boy comes towards the screen and addresses the woman by name, apparently the camera recognizes her
-The kid, Milo, seems to be responding to what she says and her facial inflections and conversing with the woman
-This is done in enclosed environment, but it looks like the interactions are pretty fluid… it’s a bit creepy actually
-The woman is drawing a fish on a piece of paper and holding it in front of the camera, which scanned it in, pretty impressive
-The video ends, Molyneux leaves after a few words

-Mattrick is back, clapping again
-He’s wrapping things up now, the word ‘watershed’ has been thrown around quite a bit in this presentation
-Conference is over!

Tales of Monkey Island long trailer

via GiantBomb

285 Years Later, Assassins Have Finally Learned to Swim

A month or so ago, Game Informer revealed details on Assassin's Creed 2. Set in Italy in 1476, (285 years post-Assassin's Creed), players will play as Ezio de Firenze, a nobleman/assassin who carries dual hidden blades and a flamboyantly over-the-top outfit that would startle a blind guard. Fortunately for Ezio, by the end of the 15th century assassins have mastered the art of swimming. As Assassin's Creed takes place in Florence, Rome and Venice, Ezio has plenty of opportunity to utilize this new skill in the network of Venetian canals. THANK GOD. It always pissed me off that water was to Altaïr what lava is to Mario. Master assassin my ass.

Check out some Assassin's Creed 2 art at MondoXbox.

CVG's 200 Reasons to Love PC Gaming

CVG gives their top 200 reasons to love PC Gaming. I might have chosen a different 200, and perhaps a few of them aren't PC exclusive but they are all fantastic reasons to be a PC Gamer that comprise a great list. (Oh lists, you wonders of modern journalism). My personal favorite is #77 because there just aren't enough miniature giant space hamsters in games..

Bonus points for anyone who is familiar with every point on the list!

1-100
101-200

Battlefield Heroes Beta: Battlefield Lite

As I mentioned in my last post, The Battlefield Heroes Beta can be easily obtained through Fileplanet, and now having played it I'll share some impressions. I've only gotten four or five hours to play with it, but I only started playing at 10:00pm, so the fact that I stayed up till 3:00 in the morning is a testament to how addictive it can be.

Upon signing up for the game, I was asked to create a character and assign that character to either the Royals (Allies) or the Nationals (Germans). I also had to decide whether I wanted him to be a gunner, soldier or commando. I chose the Nationals because I like the scowl permanently painted on their faces and the soldier class because it looked the most well rounded. Characters are permanently linked to the chosen team and class but will gain experience which grants new levels and new abilities. If you've played Call of Duty 4, Team Fortress 2 or any RPG ever, this system is extremely familiar. At first the options for my character seemed terribly limited, but once I started gaining abilities like flaming bullets, blasting strike and my personal favorite, grenade spamming, I found that this game is a bit deeper that it seems on the surface. Up to four characters are allowed on each account, so should I want to try playing on the Royal Army I can simply create another character.










Once I was satisfied with my Teutonic warrior I was anxious to dive straight into a match, foregoing the optional tutorial mission, but I found that there aren't any server lists or matchmaking options. This game, (at least in the beta form), runs entirely on one-button matchmaking. I clicked a big yellow "PLAY NOW" button and the game found a match and plunked me straight into the fight. This system seems to work fairly well as there is only one gametype and only a few maps in the rotation. Once in the match, I noticed that B:H diverges from previous Battlefield games in a few subtle ways. For one thing, the ability to choose any friendly occupied spawnpoint is gone. Players are spawned at the point that the game determines is nearest to the action. This may sound frustrating but it seems to work alright, especially since the maps in B:H aren't remotely as colossal as those in previous Battlefields. Another change is the switch to third person point of view. This change isn't as striking as you might realize, in fact I played through three full-length matches before it dawned on me that I was using the third person camera to peak around corners.

A change that isn't quite so subtle is the art style. The developers forewent super high-poly models, self-shadowing, advanced physics and all the other "good stuff" we're familiar with seeing in most modern shooters and instead adopted a whimsical pastel-colored Saturday morning cartoon art style. Gone are gritty, war-torn battlefields and in their place are saccharine but charming playgrounds that would be ideal for playing army-men. I could talk about the look of the game for hours and how much I love it, but instead just take a look at the screenshots and keep in mind that this game can run on a single-core 1Ghz processor with 512Mb of RAM. I even tried the game on my three-year-old Dell laptop and I never saw a drop in framerate.

















When it comes to gameplay, Battlefield Heroes is exactly what you would expect. If you've ever played a first or third-person shooter before, you can expect to jump right in and instantly be at home. The learning curve is virtually flat for anyone who plays PC games and not very steep for anyone else. The controls are intuitive and objectives are clearly marked. The only issue I had was one inherited from previous Battlefield games and that was vehicle controls. The vehicle controls in B:H are virtually identical to the rest of the series, which means that for those who aren't already familiar the cars, tanks and especially planes will take a lot of practice to control with precision. This design decision is a necessity though; if flight controls were too arcade-like, the airplanes would completely own the map.

My only worry is that Battlefield Heroes could become too boring too fast unless the final version adds more variety. While the maps look fantastic they are all too similar visually. As levels for Quake were all saturated with the color brown, levels in the Battlefield Heroes Beta are all saturated with green and yellow. The addition of maps set at night, in the desert, in the snow or just about anything to change up the scenery would be a welcome addition. Still, for a beta of a free-to-play game that could easily be sold for $30-50, it's hard to complain.

Battlefield Heroes Beta

I just acquired a key for the Battlefield Heroes Beta via Fileplanet. For those of you who may not have been following its long development, Battlefield Heroes is a browser-based, free-to-play, ad-supported Battlefield-style game with a cartoony aesthetic reminiscent of Team Fortress 2. Check out the official website here for further information.

Apparently all you need to get a key at Fileplanet is an account with them, (at no cost). If you're anywhere as interested in Battlefield Heroes as I am you should immediately create an account at Fileplanet and grab a beta key. I haven't gotten the chance to dive in yet, I'm still downloading the browser plugin to play, (which is basically the whole game), but once I get a couple hours of play in I'll throw down some impressions on it.

Happy Zombie Apocalypse Survivor Appreciation Day!

Hurray for fictional but cool sounding holidays, they're the new internet rage! Today we're celebrating the release of the free DLC for the insanely popular and enjoyable zombie-shooter Left 4 Dead. The DLC, entitled "Left 4 Dead Survival Pack," includes versus mode versions of the Dead Air and Death Toll campaigns, (which should have been in included in the game to begin with), and a new game mode called 'survival.' Survival will pit a team of survivors against increasingly large and frequent waves of infected with the only goal being to last as long as possible across 12 specialized maps. If you've ever played Horde Mode in Gears of War 2, you know the setup.

The pack runs at about 100Mb and as was mentioned before it is free of charge. If you own L4D on Xbox 360, it's already available for you to download and if you own it on PC, it should be up available sometime later today.

The importance of good matchmaking

I love Gears of War 2. I play at least once a week online for five hours or more with some friends and aside from Halo 3 I have more fun with Gears 2 that I have had with any other console multiplayer game. This only makes my attempts to play a public match using Gears of War 2 matchmaking more depressing. Gears 2 has been a mess of poor matchmaking and shoddy netcode since it was released in fall 2008, but some recent patches were intended to rectify the issues and slant the matchmaking system more towards the one used in Halo 3.

Earlier this week I attempted to play some public matches hoping the public matchmaking system wasn't the hellhole that it used to be. It placed me in a game with nine players whose minimum level was 47 out of 100. Since the majority of my online Gears of War 2 experience has been in private matches, my level is 3. Taking into account that the private matches don't factor into that score, I felt confident that I would be able to hold my own. Perhaps this would have been true if not for the lag. At one point the game ceased to respond to my input and when I gained control again I found that my death count had risen by three. Needless to say, (but I'll say it anyway), I was frustrated. After the game I checked out the gamercards of the other people in the match and not one of them is located in the same country as me. In fact, the majority of them are located in Mexico, (I'm in Canada).

An experience like that is unacceptable and can ruin a game. A matchmaking system has two purposes: to find other players of comparative skill and to find a game or other players that will yield a decent connection. If the system cannot achieve either of these goals, then creating and finding servers should simply be left in the hands of the players. Anyone, even blind monkey can find or set up a better server than the matchmaking system in Gears of War 2.














The king of good matchmaking.

No Escapism Here

I was playing Fable II last night in the bedroom with my wife snoring lightly next to me. My wife's name is Talitha, by the way, which is not a very common name, (it may seem strange for me to reveal her name but that information will be important in a few sentences). On my way back to Bowerstone after completing a quest, I was passing the gypsy town where I grew up and decided to stop in for old-time's sake. At the time I hadn't yet indulged in courting any of the wide variety of women Albion has to offer, so on a whim I locked on to the nearest gypsy of the fairer sex and hit her with an irresistably seductive pose. She responded favorably, yet I was dumbfounded. I had just macked on Talitha the Gypsy.

Destiny, coincidence or practical joke? I don't know, but there's only enough room for one Talitha in my life so I put the controller down, gave my wife a hug and fell asleep.

This is what a Half-Life (2) Movie could look like

The Half-Life series might be one of the most ideal video game properties to make into a film. It provides a rich setting and interesting secondary characters, but without an overwhelming story that a filmmaker would have to stringently adhere to.

Currently, there are no announced Half-Life related films in the works, but the Purchase brothers have worked up the first part in a series of Half-Life themed short films entitled "Escape from City 17." The story follow a group of survivors attempting to, (big surprise), escape from City 17 during and following the events of Half-Life 2. With surreal digitized backgrounds in the vein of 300, the cost to make the first two parts was only $500, yet the visuals are still top-notch. Watching the High Definition version is highly recommended and can be found on YouTube.

Have a Little Faith

I've been playing a little bit of Mirror's Edge lately and there are a couple things I've noticed. The first is simply that Faith, the game's protagonist, has man hands, (and arms)... (click for full size image)

Also, for a city where the police frown upon people running around on rooftops, advertisements seem to be placed in locations where only rooftop couriers will see them. (click for full size image)

Something Fun, Halo 3-style

I took a screenshot of a Halo 3 match a while ago because I wanted to show off my fly grenade-hat. That's right, I like to roll up on my enemies with a grenade on my head cause I'm hardcore like that.

Dead Space

It's 1:30am and I'm wandering the corridors of a derelict mining ship. The only sounds are my own ragged breath, muffled by my helmet and an occasional metallic clank as the ship falls apart. I am Isaac Clarke, an engineer sent to repair the Ishimura, a huge 'planet cracker' class starship, but I have bigger problems now. Most of the crew of the Ishimura is dead, missing or worse. It seems some sort of infection has turned many of them into monstrous creatures who want nothing more than to paint the ship red with my blood. To make matters worse the shuttle I arrived on has been destroyed, most of my own crew are dead and my girlfriend is somewhere on this ship, hopefully alive.

I've finally found time to play Dead Space and I'm midway through the fourth chapter. As I played through the first chapter I had doubts as to whether or not I'd be able to get into it, but the further I progress, the more I'm drawn in. Between the audio, video and text logs and my communication with the remainder of my ship's crew, I feel drawn in not only to finding out what happened on the ship and escaping with my life, but also interested in the several subplots that revolve around my own crew and the crew of the Ishimura.

If I wanted to say there is a gimmick to the game I guess it would be be that each enemy has specific points that must be targeted, but it doesn't feel like a gimmick. In fact, I find it to be an inspired decision on the part of the designers. Not only does it make you adapt your strategy based on what sort of enemy you are faced with, but each time you encounter a new sort of enemy it becomes a miniature boss battle where you must find the weakness and exploit it.

I also find myself enjoying the adventure/RPG aspects of the game. Between being a completionist and the habits I've cultivated having played many adventure and survival horror games I explore every nook and cranny of the environment and I am generally rewarded for my efforts not only with the usual health and ammo packs but schematics for new weapons and armor and nodes. In Dead Space 'nodes' are what allow you to upgrade your weapons with greater damage, ammo capacity, rate of fire, etc. or armor with more health or oxygen capacity. The weapons you use and how you use them can be customized to fit you style of play. I have opted so far to put all my nodes into my armor and the starter weapon: the plasma cutter because I like to play defensively, often luring one enemy down a hallway at a time and wearing them down as they follow me.

The only thing that has bothered me about the game so far is the ridiculously contrived situation that my character is in where he has to go from one point to another on the ship fixing every damn system imaginable. I know that this is a common theme in sci-fi suspense movies and games, but if there is a single working system on the entire ship the Ishimura, I am not aware of it. The game so far has been one of 'go here and fix this immediately life-threatening problem... oh now that you've fixed that one, this other new urgent and possibly fatal problem has cropped up so fix that one too.' I can let it go but it would be nice to throw some variation in.

As I said, I am only on the fourth chapter, which is only about one-third of the way through the game, so I certainly cannot comment on the total package. I am confident, however, in saying that any fan of survival/horror or sci-fi/horror/suspense films, (Alien, Sunshine, Event Horizon, The Black Hole, etc.), will want to give Dead Space a shot. Beyond that, I'll have to hold off until I've finished the game before giving my final opinions.

about 1Up.

Upon hearing that 1Up was purchased by the Hearst Corporation last night I felt much as if a good friend had died, or to be more specific, I felt like I'd been sucker-punched in the gut with a sledgehammer. After several years with 1Up always always being there for me when I called on it to entertain or inform me, finding out that not only had the website and magazine been purchased, but that the majority of the writers who made it all what it is had been laid off was a hell of a shock. Of course how I felt must be nothing compared to how the forty or so talented employees, (many of them writers I look up to) felt upon learning that they had lost their jobs.

Frankly, what a fucking disaster. As Jeff Green, (formerly of GFW and 1Up), said on his blog, 1Up will not be the same anymore. 1Up was made what it is by the people who worked there and they are gone so 1Up as I lovingly knew it is dead. What 1Up becomes may well be worthwhile but it won't be the same. I don't care if anyone tries to tell me it's "still the same 1Up," it just isn't. In fact, where 1Up is now reminds me of the son in the movie Changeling.

So here's a toast to 1Up and all the folks who made it what it was. This comes from the heart:
Thank you all for being writers I can look up to and for people who understood the value of your community and for being champions of the value and relevance of video games. Thank you for entertaining, informing and interacting with all of your fans and readers. Thank you for not bending to the will of the lowest common denominator straight to the very end. Thank you all and the best of luck in all your endeavors.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Former 1Up employees who are now without a job

The PC in '09

Is PC gaming dead? No. Is PC gaming dying? I don't know, but the lineup of quality PC titles set for 2009 makes for a good argument that PC gaming is still alive and will continue to thrive. Here are just a few of the biggest PC titles of '09. (note: Diablo 3 and Dragon Age: Origin are rumored to be recieving console ports)

PC Exclusives
-StarCraft 2
-Dawn of War II
-Diablo 3
-Battlefield Heroes
-Dragon Age: Origin
-Star Wars: The Old Republic
-The Sims 3
-Empire: Total War
-Demigod


Multiplatform games coming to PC
-Bionic Commando
-Wolfenstein
-Ghostbusters
-Rage
-Prototype
-Alpha Protocol
-Alan Wake

It's going to be a good year for PC Gaming.