Guerrilla Gamer

Prey 2

2011-06-03T11:52:00.003-05:00

I loved the original Prey, played through it twice. Despite the popularly negative sentiment of the internet community, a lot of other people actually enjoyed it too. However, it ended nicely and Tommy's story along with it so there isn't a need for more. The direction that Human Head is taking with Prey 2 is a stroke of genius. They've plucked one of the more striking sights from the original and used it as a basis for a new story with a new character. I can only hope that the game will live up to this amazing trailer.

L.A. Noire: Solving Crimes in the Uncanny Valley

2011-04-12T00:20:00.006-05:00

Rockstar's upcoming game L.A. Noire looks impressive in terms of its narrative and its technical achievements. Rockstar has spent a lot of time hyping up its advanced facial animation system, and there is no questioning that it is beyond impressive. Trouble is that the character's eyes look dead. They do not react, (aim, focus), quite like a real person's eyes do and it leave me with the impression of a super lifelike doll. Honestly, from all the game footage I've seen it's kinda freaking me out like Mr. Universe's love robot from Serenity. I'm still looking forward to L.A. Noire, and it may be improved before release, but it's a good example of how the closer games get to realism, the more difficult details will be to perfect.

Vanquish: If adrenaline were a game

2011-04-12T00:10:00.007-05:00

It's hard to describe the rush that I got playing Vanquish. It was roughly the sort of feeling I got from my first snowboarding trip, but it lasted from the beginning till the end credits. The variety and insanity of experiences in Vanquish is amazing. Somehow, Shinji Mikami and his team managed to take the best parts of God of War and the best shmups and jam them into a frenetic third person shooter. PLAY IT.
Click image to enlarge

EDC Update: Assassin's Creed 2 100%

2010-11-15T09:25:00.007-06:00

I met a new goal in my extreme difficulty challenge.
It took several hours to become interesting, but the original Assassin's Creed was a game that holds a special place in my heart. When the sequel came out, I jumped straight in and found a game with more streamlined mechanics, a better story, more likeable characters and more overall polish. Assassin's Creed 2 lets you feel like a deadly and stylish assassin on a quest for revenge and ties in several historical Italian figures in a conspiracy that doesn't come across as too hokey. Rarely in a videogame have platforming, exploration and stealth been combined so seamlessly. This game is a must-play for any gamer.

Here's my updated progress:

Halo 3: Legendary difficulty in solo mode
-done
Rainbow Six Vegas: Realistic Difficulty in solo mode
-done
Rainbow Six Vegas 2: Realistic difficulty in solo mode
-done
Gears of War: Insane difficulty in solo mode
-done
Gears of War 2: Insane difficulty in solo mode
-done
Mirror's Edge: Hard difficulty
-done
Halo 3 ODST: Legendary difficulty in solo mode
-done
Assassin's Creed 2: 100% completion, all feathers and items found
-done
Mass Effect 2: Insanity difficulty
-approx. halfway with vanguard (tip: vanguard is unbalanced and weak on high difficulty, attempt this with a different class)
Assassin's Creed: 100% complete
-Templars, Jerusalem flags and Damascus Flags still needed
Project Gotham Racing 4: Receive a platinum medal in every arcade event
-approx. 20% complete
Splinter Cell Conviction: Realistic difficulty in single player
-10% complete

Bad Company 2

2010-11-15T00:01:00.004-06:00

Bad company 2 has officially become my latest addiction. I just wish I'd gotten in closer to launch so that I'd have the massive skull-busting Barret rifle by now. Play with me on PSN if you like; my id is twelve1784.

The Long Dark Xbox-less Fall.

2010-11-03T00:14:00.005-05:00

I'm going on month number three without a working Xbox 360, which is typically my console of choice. While I wait for the opportunity to pick up a 250Gb 360s bundle I've been catching up on the PS3. I think it's safe to say that I'm far past the Metal Gear Solid 4 hype going into it over two years later and I feel that without those rose colors glasses the game is failing to live up to its reputation, at least at the four hour mark. Red Faction: Guerrilla I found for $10 and if you can appreciate taking down a whole fortress with nothing but a sledgehammer and the sweat off your brow, it would be a steal at twice the price. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 I purchased in a pack that includes the Onslaught maps and Battlefield: 1943. If you haven't played B:BC2, I can't suggest it enough. The single player campaign is fantastical but not absurd and overcomplicated, the characters are some of the most charming ever in an action game and the multiplayer is second only to Halo in my house.

I still haven't taken photos of the upgraded PC as I'm trying to figure out where our camera is. Hopefully those will be up soon. After the upgrade to a Radeon HD5770, I've been running Fallout: New Vegas with Ultra settings, 4xFSAA and 16xAnisotrophic Filtering all silky smooth. If you're looking for a big boost in PC gaming power I highly recommend the 5770.

My Bad Company 2 stats.

Hardware Upgrade!

2010-10-11T00:43:00.006-05:00

I've been ridiculously busy for a long while. I won't get into details and I don't want to make any excuses. I should be getting into a better and more regular schedule very soon though. Either way, I'll be doing some long awaited upgrades to my computer. I just installed a drive that adds 3 USB 2.0 ports and several SD card format readers that I can access from the front. I have ordered a USB gaming headset and most importantly a Sapphire 5770 ATI graphics card. I'll have an updated gaming equipment section with photos soon and hopefully more frequent new articles and posts coming very soon.

Halo Reach: death by loadouts

2010-05-07T00:58:00.004-05:00

I've been playing a bit of the Halo Reach beta and I love everything except the armor abilities. What a damn disaster. They unbalance the hell out of the game and you will never know frustration like jumping into a game of team slayer where the other team all has active camo and uses it constantly. I'm very worried about the final version of Reach and I can only hope that there will be a couple choosable gametypes without any armor abilities.

On the plus side, my overall K/D for the beta is 68/21.

EDC Update: Halo 3 ODST

2010-05-04T02:05:00.008-05:00

Goal #2 of my extreme difficulty challenge is done!
I just completed Halo 3: ODST on Legendary difficulty, which not only adds another notch to my challenge but it also means I've beaten every Halo game so far on legendary difficulty. Despite being a placeholder between Halo 3 and Reach, I found ODST to be an interesting and enjoyable side story with a darker tone, better characters and lots of backstory for the Halo series. If you like shooters, give ODST a shot, it's probably cheaper now, plus it will get you into the Halo Reach beta that just started up today.

Here's my updated progress:

Halo 3: Legendary difficulty in solo mode
-done
Rainbow Six Vegas: Realistic Difficulty in solo mode
-done
Rainbow Six Vegas 2: Realistic difficulty in solo mode
-done
Gears of War: Insane difficulty in solo mode
-done
Gears of War 2: Insane difficulty in solo mode
-done
Mirror's Edge: Hard difficulty
-done
Halo 3 ODST: Legendary difficulty in solo mode
-done
Mass Effect 2: Insanity difficulty
-approx. halfway with vanguard (tip: vanguard is unbalanced and weak on high difficulty, attempt this with a different class)
Assassin's Creed: 100% complete
-Templars, Jerusalem flags and Damascus Flags still needed
Project Gotham Racing 4: Receive a platinum medal in every arcade event
-approx. 20% complete
Splinter Cell Conviction: Realistic difficulty in single player
-10% complete

Single Player Review - Splinter Cell: Conviction

2010-04-17T00:51:00.013-05:00

I just completed the single player campaign of Splinter Cell: Conviction and I was blown away. The narrative and pacing are absolutely top-notch, raising the bar just barely out of the reach of popular favorites like Bioshock and Uncharted 2. I was sucked through the campaign from start to finish and I found the conclusion to be far better than I had expected.

The game is lean and efficient in nearly every way. There aren't any extraneous characters or threads in the plot, it is simple, compelling, gripping and unlike some previous Splinter Cells, clear. In fact, it felt like it might have been written by Luc Besson and compares to fast paced films like Taken and From Paris With Love. This has led to a shorter single player campaign and many gamers and journalists have, in fact, complained about not getting enough for a full priced game. The jury's still out at my house, but I spent about six hours on the campaign without once being bored or wading through a filler section, and I haven't even touched the co-op, denied ops or competitive multiplayer modes yet.

Conviction plays like the awesome cutscenes I always see in action games but never get to control. While other, (cough, Modern Warfare), games try to make you feel like a professional badass motherfucker by tossing in grand set pieces and scripted events, SC:C actually gives you the reigns. So when you see six guys in a room below you and you mark the first three of them, mark a fuel tank between the fourth and fifth, then pounce on the sixth and use your mark and execute skill to clear the whole room in two seconds, you feel completely responsible, empowered and badass. I can't count how many times I looked at the surgically precise devastation around me after a protracted strategic firefight and exclaimed "shit yeah, I did that," often accompanied by bemused looks from my wife.

Splinter Cell: Conviction is a dramatic change for the series, but it is one I welcome. Opinions on the other game modes will be up once I've had time to properly explore them.

Tip: Make sure to wait through the credits after completing the game for a hilarious conversation between Coste and Fisher.

Splinter Cell Conviction: Two Graves Just Ain't Gonna Be Enough

2010-04-06T00:14:00.005-05:00

Last week the official launch trailer was released for Splinter Cell: Conviction. My excitement for SC:C was already at a fever pitch but this trailer elevated it to a point where I might spontaneously catch fire. Johnny Cash's version of "God's Gonna Cut You Down" plays in the background, (putting it in this category), which along with Sam Fisher's dialogue sets the tone of the game perfectly.

Crackdown 2: Yet Another Reason Why I'll Be Spending Too Much Money This Year

2010-04-05T00:27:00.008-05:00

Just look at the insanity in that screenshot. I'd be lying if I claimed to have even the slightest idea what's happening but... I like it. Also if you look real hard you can spy an agility orb. Toss in expanded co-op and competitive multiplayer modes and Crackdown 2 looks to be a sure-win unless Ruffian somehow manages to completely bust the mechanics.

Why the Playstation Move won't catch on

2010-03-20T01:27:00.009-05:00

Despite the fact that many developers will sign on to "develop," (re-release), games for the Playstation Move, I don't think it will catch on.
Allow me to offer a one line argument for why the Move will not be the next big thing that Sony is hoping for.

Wii - Nintendo first party games = Move.

The only thing that has ever enticed me to buy a Wii is that it's the only place where I can find Mario and to a lesser extent Zelda, Metroid and other Nintendo properties. Shit, New Super Mario Bros Wii has already sold around 11 million copies, does Sony have anything exclusive that can even come close to that?

Of course, I don't represent all the consumers of the world. Perhaps certain people just want games that let them bowl or play tennis virtually or flail around like imbeciles, what about them? Well, those people already have a Wii and are happy with it and are not about to jump up to buy a Playstation for $300 and the peripherals required to play Move for around $100. Many people have mentioned that perhaps people with nice HDTVs and a Wii will want what is essentially a Wii HD. Honestly that sort of thinking is out of touch. I hate it every single time I hear a Nintendo rep say it but they're right; the vast majority of Wii owners don't give a shit about HD.

Barring some unforeseen and outrageous circumstances, wading into the waggle-ridden territory that Nintendo has carved out for itself is one of the most ill-advised things that Sony could do.

EDC Update: Mirror's Edge

2010-03-18T13:34:00.006-05:00

The first goal on my extreme difficulty challenge is complete!

I just beat Mirror's Edge on the hard difficulty. I actually found it easier than my original playthrough on normal, largely because I almost always knew where to go next. What a fantastic game Mirror's Edge is, the more I play it the more I'm willing to look past the issues and shortfalls and wrap myself up in the bliss that is Mirror's Edge gameplay. Despite the fairly linear levels, the sense of speed and freedom is a nice break from stop and go shooters like Gears of War, Modern Warfare and Halo where brief gunfights are broken up with constant hiding, healing and regrouping. If you haven't tried Mirror's Edge, you owe yourself to find a copy and give it a go, I'm sure it must be inexpensive by now.

Here's my updated progress:

Halo 3: Legendary difficulty in solo mode
-done
Rainbow Six Vegas: Realistic Difficulty in solo mode
-done
Rainbow Six Vegas 2: Realistic difficulty in solo mode
-done
Gears of War: Insane difficulty in solo mode
-done
Gears of War 2: Insane difficulty in solo mode
-done
Mirror's Edge: Hard difficulty
-done
Halo 3 ODST: Legendary difficulty in solo mode
-15% complete
Mass Effect 2: Insanity difficulty
-approx. halfway with vanguard (tip: vanguard is unbalanced and weak on high difficulty)
Assassin's Creed: 100% complete
-Templars, Jerusalem flags and Damascus Flags still needed
Project Gotham Racing 4: Receive a platinum medal in every arcade event
-approx. 20% complete

The Extreme Difficulty Challenge

2010-03-17T01:25:00.009-05:00

I'm the sort of obsessive jackass who spent hundreds of hours of my childhood and teenage years beating games like Goldeneye in every way possible. I beat every level in that game on every difficulty in the time limits necessary to unlock every cheat. I collected all 120 Stars in Super Mario 64 and met Yoshi on the roof of the castle. I beat 100% of Super Mario World, finding all 96 exits and maxing out my coins. Quake 1 and 2 I beat on the highest difficulty, I unlocked every fighter in Marvel Vs. Capcom 1 and 2, I soloed Halo 1 and 2 on legendary.

This is not the sort of behavior that a normal and healthy human being should exhibit, let alone foster, but foster it is exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to challenge myself to beat many of my games on the highest difficulty, and/or 100% them. Call me sick and disturbed, but don't ever say I'm not determined.

Here's a list of the games, my goals, and my progress so far:

Halo 3: Legendary difficulty in solo mode
-done
Rainbow Six Vegas: Realistic Difficulty in solo mode
-done
Rainbow Six Vegas 2: Realistic difficulty in solo mode
-done
Gears of War: Insane difficulty in solo mode
-done
Gears of War 2: Insane difficulty in solo mode
-done
Halo 3 ODST: Legendary difficulty in solo mode
-15% complete
Mirror's Edge: Hard difficulty
-4/9 chapters completed
Mass Effect 2: Insanity difficulty
-approx. halfway with vanguard (tip: vanguard is unbalanced and weak on high difficulty)
Assassin's Creed: 100% complete
-Templars, Jerusalem flags and Damascus Flags still needed
Project Gotham Racing 4: Receive a platinum medal in every arcade event
-approx. 20% complete

Possible Future Challenges
Bionic Commando: Commando difficulty
Shadow Complex: 100% complete
Mass Effect 1: Insanity difficulty
Batman Arkham Asylum: Hard difficulty

New Portal Update Includes Mysterious Clues: My Money is on Half-Life 3

2010-03-03T10:22:00.004-06:00

The online videogame community has been abuzz about a new patch for Portal that adds a new radio station that includes hidden messages pointing towards... what? No one knows yet. It looks like Valve has hopped on the viral marketing bandwagon. Lets just hope they get it right and the messages don't just point to a website with no information or a countdown timer that ends with another countdown

My money is on the messages being an early clue towards Half-Life 3, (or Half-Life 2: Episode 3), perhaps only the beginning of a larger and more mysterious viral campaign. I noticed that at the same time that Steam updated my copy of Portal, it installed a hefty update to Half-Life 2: Episode 2 as well, perhaps there are some clues there as well.

Interstate 76 coming to GoG

2010-02-17T01:06:00.009-06:00

The best PC game of all time, (with the best soundtrack of all time), is being released on Good Old Games for $6 including the expansion pack and it will be reworked for compatability with Windows XP and Vista. If you never played Interstate 76, you owe it to yourself to buy it now. If you have already played Interstate 76, I don't need to convince you because you're already waiting with a credit card ready.

Protip: Never get out of the car.

COOP Live

2010-02-10T23:29:00.008-06:00

The fine gentlemen behind COOP, formerly of The 1Up Show, have moved their show from a totally pre-recorded format to a live online broadcast. Viewers - like you and me - can interact in real time and send their questions or comments via twitter. Check it out at the COOP Live page or watch the watch the first episode just below, embedded in the warm embrace of this website.

A Dante's Inferno Ad That I Don't Find Silly or Horribly Offensive

2010-02-08T09:28:00.008-06:00

Something about video game advertisements that play with the dissonant elements of bat-shit insanity and laid back music really get me. Gears of War and Gears of War 2 nailed it and now EA put out a commercial for Dante's Inferno in the same vein.
Not to mention that there's just something that I find *cough* compelling *cough* about a guy who will dive face-first into hell without a second thought for the love of his life.

All this talk about 3D

2010-01-19T11:51:00.005-06:00

I've read and heard lots of discussion about the pros and cons of 3D in gaming, but one point that I believe will be one of the most important is also one that I haven't heard elsewhere. What will the effect of adding 3D to videogames do to development costs? Costs have already been climbing so fast and high that developers are going to have to hire company Sherpas. We are already seeing games like Mirror's Edge which sold something like 1.5 million copies and still weren't considered a financial success.

If developing for 3D adds to that I worry that we're going to wind up seeing a more extreme form of the current segregation between high profile games that have ultra-high budgets and tons of marketing that sell millions of copies. . . and everyone else.

An Hour Into Uncharted 2

2010-01-06T18:59:00.012-06:00

Earlier today I was standing in EB Games with Uncharted 2 for $55 in one hand and Skate and Prince of Persia $40 in the other. I was leaning towards Skate and Prince of Persia but in the end, based on the rave reviews and the plethora of game of the year awards it has recieved I walked out with Uncharted 2. I haven't yet decided whether that was a good choice.

I'm only an hour in so far, mucking around in the museum in Istanbul, so there's a lot of game ahead for me to play. Still, I can't help but feel underwhelmed. Of course, the graphics are top notch and the animations are some of the best and natural ever in a videogame, but those animations seem to have come at a cost. Controlling the character feels like he is moving around knee deep in mud; what Nathan Drake does on screen certainly looks convincing but I often feel that it doesn't reflect what I am trying to make him do. Also the cinematic nature of the game often comes from dramatic camera angles that made me feel like I was watching a movie but sadly has sent Drake to his death at least a dozen times. When the game cuts to a dramatic camera angle I just can't figure out which direction the game wants me to point the analog stick and jumping from one ledge to another becomes a game of guess and check. I can't help but feel like if all the graphics and admittedly superb voice acting were stripped away, the game mechanics would be almost identical to the clunky and stiff but passable mechanics of Lego Indiana Jones.

As I mentioned before, the graphics are some of the best I've ever seen, but there are little inconsistencies that drive me bananas. Maybe I'm just a pessimist or way too anal about little details but in a game that gets so many other things right, the small but repetitive problems are often the worst. The flashlight attached to Drake's hip always points forward, yet is able to shine light wherever the camera is directed, even if it is behind him. Guards immediately sound the alarm if they see Drake or his accomplice, but they couldn't care less if they stumble across another guard lying unconscious on the ground. These are all strange omissions from a developer that went out of their way to make Drake look sopping wet when he gets out of water which, by the way, is an awesome effect that they absolutely nailed.

Maybe these issues will all fade into the background as I continue playing and I haven't even looked at the coop or multiplayer yet, but the first hour of a game just shouldn't be as underwhelming and sometimes even frustrating as this. I'll post more impressions once I'm further into or done with the game.

Spec Ops: The Line - My Underdog of 2010

2010-01-06T16:53:00.016-06:00

The Spec Ops series isn't one known for quality. Released at budget prices for the Playstation 2 in the late 90s and early 2000s, the Spec Ops games were moderately enjoyable but the gameplay was stiff and unoriginal. Hopefully gamers forget about all that when Spec Ops: The Line arrives on store shelves in late 2010 because based on the short trailer that was aired at the Spike VGAs and the little other information I've heard about it, it could be a classic in the making.

Spec Ops: The Line is set in Dubai after a series of devastating sandstorms and the scenery is barren and intense. The plot has you playing as a soldier sent in after a crazed army colonel named John Konrad. That's right, like Apocalypse Now, this is a re-imagining of Joseph Conrad's 'The Heart of Darkness,' but with Dubai taking the place of Apocalypse's Vietnam and Darkness' Africa. The gameplay looks like like a third person shooter with a Gears of War/Rainbow Six Vegas style cover system.

Debut Trailer

Extended Trailer

Win Borderlands for PC!

2009-11-15T18:02:00.003-06:00

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

2009-06-05T00:10:00.004-05:00

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?

2009-06-04T02:14:00.010-05:00

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

2009-06-02T19:53:00.001-05:00

-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

2009-06-02T16:02:00.001-05:00

-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

2009-06-01T17:00:00.003-05:00

-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

2009-06-01T11:57:00.004-05:00

via GiantBomb

285 Years Later, Assassins Have Finally Learned to Swim

2009-05-14T01:37:00.009-05:00

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

2009-05-05T02:25:00.005-05:00

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

2009-05-01T11:00:00.023-05:00

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

2009-04-30T03:20:00.008-05:00

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!

2009-04-21T15:50:00.004-05:00

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

2009-04-17T15:30:00.010-05:00

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

2009-04-03T10:39:00.001-05:00

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

2009-02-16T16:21:00.002-06:00

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

2009-01-19T23:50:00.008-06:00

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

2009-01-18T23:16:00.005-06:00

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

2009-01-15T01:30:00.018-06:00

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.

2009-01-07T10:08:00.011-06:00

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

2009-01-02T11:56:00.006-06:00

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.

A Rare missed opportunity

2008-12-18T12:07:00.006-06:00

The NXE, (New Xbox Experience), has been out for a month but it already feels old and worn in, (in a good way). As difficult as it is to gauge the success of what amounts to mandatory interface update, there appear to be more positive that negative reactions. I personally prefer the NXE, it runs faster on my Xbox 360 and despite the fact that he looks a bit generic I like my little avatar. It's just too bad that the avatars represent an opportunity that Rare and Microsoft did not take advantage of: integration of avatars into their new games.

Rare was working on Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise concurrently with the avatars for the NXE, so I can't help but wonder why they wouldn't have integrated the avatars. From a marketing perspective it couldn't have hurt to advertise that Banjo Kazooie and Viva Pinata 2 support avatars. Sales of Uno and A Kingdom for Keflings were higher than expected and a portion of those sales can be attributed to folks who wanted to see their avatars in-game. Having the avatars supported in these games would also have helped promote the NXE and the Xbox 360; Microsoft needed to show gamers why avatars matter and including them in two big-name games right out of the gate would have helped.

From a consumer's perspective, (mine specifically), it would be a blast to be able to tend my garden in Viva Pinata 2 as my avatar. Since Rare designed the avatars, they are an aesthetic match to Viva Pinata and wouldn't look out of place wandering around in-game. To take it a step further, the folks on the Xbox Live friends list could inhabit the game as shopkeepers or garden workers. In Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts it would obviously not work to be able to play as your avatar through the single player story, but they could still be worked into the game as inspirational statues in the town or as a citizen and in multiplayer there is no reason why players couldn't exist as their avatar.

Microsoft forced me to choose or create an avatar when I booted up the NXE, and now I hope they do something interesting with it. It's just a shame they didn't use Rare's games to that end.

PS2 on PS3, how might it work? (aside from how it already does)

2008-12-09T20:35:00.008-06:00

According to an interview with GamePro, SCE's Hardware Marketing Director John Kohler mentions that Sony is "absolutely interested" in providing downloadable Playstation 2 games, which would be similar to the Xbox Originals downloads available on Xbox Live. Of course, Playstation 2 games would have to be emulated on all newer PS3 consoles, since those newer models no longer contain internal legacy hardware to run said PS2 games.

This brings up the following questions:
-If Sony were to go through with such an endeavour, would the emulation software be coded into the firmware of the Playstation 3 or will the games themselves be reworked on an individual basis to run on the PS3?
-If the emulation software for PS2 games is coded into the Playstation 3 firmware, will it allow the newer PS3 consoles to run PS2 disks, or will consumers be forced to re-purchase the games that they may already own through the PS3 online store?

None of this is certain yet as it is unclear whether or how actively Sony will pursue downloadable Playstation 2 games, but should it happen, I really don't want to be forced to download a copy of Shadow of the Colossus when I have a perfectly good copy sitting in my stack of games.

Source: GamePro (relevent information on second page)

_______ of War?

2008-11-19T01:18:00.016-06:00

After waiting far too long for Gears of War 2 to be mailed to my home, (props to Future Shop for waiting a full week before starting the shipping process and to the Canadian postal service for not working on Saturdays), I've finally played through the single player campaign. Aside from having an absolute blast, there's something I began to notice around halfway in: Gears of War 2 has a lot in common with the God of War games.

In terms of level structure the games are quite similar, (especially once you go underground). Gears of War 2 and God of War both create breathtakingly epic environments, but put you on an ultra-linear, almost claustrophobic path through them. Both games utilize super-simple puzzles or minigames from time to time to break up the standard action gameplay. Both games involve rooms full of enemies where the exit will not open or appear until all enemies have been defeated. The civilizations represented in both Gears of War and God of War have a ridiculous fixation with switches and pressure plates.

(SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH) In Gears of War 2 the bosses also seem to draw directly from the God of War school of design. Seriously, taking down Skorge boils down to not aiming, not shooting, not moving, but just PRESS 'B' RAPIDLY. The bosses in the original Gears of War resembled classic FPS bosses, the sort you might see in Doom or Quake where you unload boatloads of ammo until you find a weak point, then unload more boatloads of ammo into the weak point while not dying, (think of RAAM or the corpser). In all honesty, while fighting the Leviathan, (though it was undeniably fun and one of the more graphically stunning enemies to date), I may as well have whipped out my blades of chaos and fell to my knees yelling "ATHENA!!!!!."

Gears of War 2

2008-11-03T13:06:00.007-06:00

I've been unable to put the time I would like into writing about games lately, but I'm not going to do a whole post about my lack of time so I'll use what little I have to talk about a game I've been looking forward to for a long time and is hitting stores on friday: Gears of War 2.
I absolutely loved the first Gears of War. The gameplay was fresh and exciting, the graphics were simply astounding and it had the best co-op experience that I had played since Halo and Halo 2. I can't speak on behalf of Gears of War 2 yet because I haven't played it, so instead I'll leave that to the following video reviews (they both overflow a bit onto the right sidebar, my apologies):

Rekindling my love for Viva Pinata/Scene It is a good game

2008-10-24T15:13:00.007-05:00

Well, I've been sort of lazy and busy lately and I haven't gotten the chance to really write much out. During my spare time I've become addicted to Viva Pinata... again, (that's right, the original). I've also been playing Scene It: Box Office Smash with my wife and sometimes with our friends. I have to say, if you have avoided it because you consider yourself too much of a hardcore gamer, (like I did until recently), try giving it a shot. It's a lot of fun if you can find 1-3 other people to play with you and there is currently a demo on Xbox live so check it out if you have an Xbox.

That's all you're getting out of me today!

Max Payne: the movie

2008-10-16T08:44:00.006-05:00

Mark Wahlberg was a fantastic choice for this movie. His range of emotions covers everything necessary for such a film. If you don't believe me, just ask Max:

Max says I'm right.

How much would you pay to reduce load times on your PS3?

2008-10-16T01:59:00.002-05:00

It's amazing how big games are getting these days. Big-budget next-gen titles can occupy up to 50Gb thanks to the Playstation 3's BluRay drive*. This allows games to include large amounts of uncompressed textures, video and audio. The downside of the Blu-Ray drive is a rather limited read speed that has led to the practice of installing large portions of games to the PS3's hard drive. Even with large portions of games installed to the hard drive, you may still have to wait for anywhere from six to ~thirty seconds.

I don't find those load times to be a big nuisance. However for those ADD-riddled gamers who can't sit still for that long, ExtremeTech has tested the effects of installing a high-performance solid-state drive, (SSD), in a Playstation 3. They find that load times are reduced quite a bit. The difference between the PS3 HDD and the SSD"anywhere from 33% to over 40%. The question is, are you willing to dish out $600-700 for such an upgrade?
Check out ExtremeTech's article here.

*Let's put 50Gb into perspective. Back in 2001 I was absolutely shocked that a full install of Baldur's Gate II was going to occupy 2Gb of my 10Gb hard drive. That's a 2,400% increase in the size of what we consider a 'big game.'

Microsoft's TGS 2008 keynote

2008-10-09T00:00:00.006-05:00

Microsoft's keynote at the Tokyo Game Show has just ended, and with it came several announcements, including at least two major ones:

Tekken 6 will be released on the Xbox 360. This will be the first time that a Tekken game has arrived on a non-Sony platform (not counting arcade). Release is set for fall 2009.

The speculation is over regarding Bungie's next Halo project. Halo 3: Recon has been confirmed as a Halo 3 campaign expansion, (a "standalone-expansion" according to xbox.com), where the player plays as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper and will also include new multiplayer maps. Release is set for fall 2009. Check out the new trailer at Bungie's website here.

Other highlights of the Microsoft keynote:

Last Remnant will premier exclusively on Xbox 360 on Nov 20, 2008.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope will arrive on Xbox 360 February 19, 2009 in Japan and March 3, 2009 in North America.

Ninety Nine Nights 2 was announced exclusively for Xbox 360.

Space Invaders: Extreme, Arkanoid: Live, King of Fighters Ultimate 98, Metal Slug 7 and R-Type all were announced for Xbox Live.

The "New Xbox Live Experience," (NXE) will launch November 19 2008 globally, (that's the new blades system and avatars, etc.)

The Flood have been announced as a race in Halo Wars, which is set for an "early 2009" release.

Sonic Chronicles, Bionic Commando Rearmed and the Nintendo DSi

2008-10-01T00:29:00.021-05:00

I finally beat Bionic Commando: Rearmed today and cannot stress enough; it is a fantastic game. Don't let the lack of a jump button deter you, once you get used to the swinging mechanics you will find that the control scheme allows for far more control than you might expect as well as some interesting and creative platforming puzzles and secret areas galore. I won't say it isn't tough, I only played on normal difficulty and came damn near breaking my controller on multiple occasions, but that difficulty only makes it so much more satisfying when you overcome it.

I've also started playing Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood. I'm only about forty-five minutes into the game so I can hardly comment on the game as a whole but at least I am enjoying the attitude and writing. Imagine a really well written children's cartoon. It's good, but you still won't get any adult themes or situations, (and that doesn't automatically mean sex you perv). Once again that is based on only the first forty-five minutes so... things could take a turn for the worse. Or not. My only negative comment is that I would like to tie up Amy the hedgehog in a burlap sack and drown her. That isn't to say that my dislike for her is a good reason to not include her in a game, but damn. Okay, maybe I have one other negative comment; I think the game would have benefited from not using any touch controls whatsoever. I know about a billion people are going to disagree with me and possibly hate me for saying this but I hate having to drag my character around the screen by the tits à la Phantom Hourglass. Just because the touch screen is there doesn't mean it must be used. If I find out there are any mini-games that involve blowing on the microphone I swear I'm going to murder someone.

On the news front, Nintendo announced the newest version of their little handheld that can: the Nintendo DSi. Apparently the screens are slightly bigger, but from the reports I've read the resolution is the same. Also a .3 megapixel camera will be built in and possibly the best news is that a flash SD slot will be added so that DSware, (like Wiiware), games may be downloaded directly to the system. That stuff is all well and good but honestly I don't care about any of it. I'll buy it if the console will actually support the WPA wireless encryption standard this time around. As it stands I can't utilize the Wi-Fi abilities of my Nintendo DS because my wireless network is WPA encrypted, (and hopefully so is anyone's network who has any common sense). I don't really think it's something Nintendo cares about, but let's just hope it was considered this time, (even if it means less battery time).

Of course there's at least one major problem as I see it, the GBA slot has been altogether removed from the system. I'm not sure how many people truly still play GBA games, plus the nature of the industry is to move forward and after four years of obsolescence it may be time to stop supporting the old format. However, the major problem with not including a GBA slot is that peripherals which require the GBA port will now become useless. The Guitar Hero World Tour fretboard peripheral will be unusable as will the memory cartridge for the DS version of the Opera web browser. I don't know if these products have been taken into account but this would seem to me to be a major issue. Maybe Nintendo just frankly doesn't give a shit. Sometimes I get the impression that caveat emptor is the mantra around the offices of the big N. Of course what they really want is simply for the millions of DS owners in the world to have to shell out more cash for the third iteration of the same handheld. Innovation my ass. (I should have bought a PSP, it would have been more expensive but I wouldn't have had to buy three of them).

On one last, entirely different note, I encountered a fantastic freeware game last week. It's been out for around a year so I'm a bit late to the party, but I would like to share it nonetheless. It's called "Death Worm," and it is frigging amazing. Have you ever thought "damn I wish I were one of the huge-ass sandworms from Dune?" Neither had I until I played this game. Few things are as fun as launching into the sky like some sort of freakish sand-dolphin, taking out a plane in midair, and devouring several camels and maybe a bewildered desert-dweller or two on the landing. Yeah, it's awesome. Check it out here.

is it worth 400 clams?

2008-09-30T01:16:00.015-05:00

I'm actually beginning to entertain the idea of purchasing a Playstation 3 for myself. Previously I've never found any games or features compelling enough for me to shell out $400, (probably more... backwards compatibility is a deal breaker for me), but now there's a game that may seal the deal.

It isn't Little Big Planet, though if I were to have a PS3 already in my possession I would undoubtedly jump on it. It isn't Metal Gear Solid 4 either, (boy did the hype for that game fall off fast), nor is it Resistance 2 or Killzone 2. To tell the truth, I don't even care about BluRay and by the time I do care to watch all my movies in high definition, either BluRay players will be cheap anyway or there will be other solutions available.

The reason for my interest in Playstation 3 is my long-time love for Omikron: The Nomad Soul and Fahrenheit, (a.k.a. Indigo Prophecy). If that statement alone isn't enough to clue you in to what game I am anticipating, this should help a bit:

I guess the only other reason why I might go out and drop 400 clams on a big, black shiny paperweight is if I Warren Spector himself announced his plans to personally develop and bring Deus Ex 3 to PS3 exclusively.

A visual sucker-punch, courtesy of Dead Space

2008-09-17T23:57:00.013-05:00

When I first played Resident Evil, (the original) I understood why it was termed a "survival/horror" game. I stayed up late many nights with my room illuminated only by the flickering glow of the TV playing that game. I remember not playing with a specific goal in mind so much as desperately trying to keep my intrepid characters Chris Redfield and Jill 'master of lockpicking' Valentine from suffering one form of horrific death or another. I also remember being generally scared shitless.

Since Resident Evil, I've played a lot of good, (and bad), survival horror games, but none that motivated me to move forward in the game and play to the best of my ability simply because I was scared to death of dying. Earlier today I watched a video of a boss battle from the upcoming "Dead Space" and it looks as though I might have just that sort of experience to look forward to again. In watching the boss dispatch the intrepid space engineer, I've found that maybe I'm not quite as inured to violence as I had thought and that empathy, even for a fictional video game character, can be a hell of a motivation.

Check out the video at GameCinemaHD
CAUTION: this video contains a minor boss battle and some people may consider it as a spoiler, though it doesn't contain any plot points. Also it is extremely violent.

On a completely different note; an article about how EA's DRM methods are further motivating game pirates. It's an worthwhile read.

One Small Step for Open-Mindedness

2008-09-09T00:19:00.007-05:00

Like Rock 'n' Roll and Comic books before, video games are largely misunderstood by people who are unfamiliar with them and often criticized unfairly as a result. Of course, if you're on this website, I probably didn't need to tell you that, did I? It's a common subject of discussion for gamers. I only bring it up because the following instance is a perfect example of video games being unfairly judged, but in this case logic and rationality prevail.

Earlier tonight I was experiencing some Bionic Commando related frustration as I tried to make my way through the sixth stage. At one point, after countless drowning-related incidents I dropped my controller and said, (rather loudly), "you've got to be f**king kidding me!" (Outbursts of this sort aren't entirely uncommon for me and generally don't mean I'm not enjoying myself or ready to stop playing). My wife, who was in the room with me, then said something that I have heard many times from my mother while growing up; "If that video game is getting you so worked up that you're cursing, you need to put it down." Then she mentioned how she hates how video games get make me and her brother, (my brother in law), curse so much.

Maybe it's just me, but if I am already frustrated... not angry or pissed off mind you, just frustrated, the one thing that might push me over the edge is the feeling that I'm being patronized. Still, I kept my cool. Rather than yelling or getting upset, I simply pointed out how people act when watching a sports game on TV, or how she gets way too into watching Big Brother and I frequently hear her cursing when one of her favorite contestants makes a stupid decision. I reminded her how often both her and I and both our families spew streams of vitriolic profanity at other cars while driving.

Then I explained that I like it when games frustrate me, it means that I'm being challenged. As long as I'm not breaking things, cursing from time to time is sometimes a good sign. Games aren't fun when they're too easy and for me personally I enjoy them the most when I am being tested to my limit. If a section of a game is causing me a lot of frustration, then it just means it'll be that much more satisfying when I overcome it Of course there are times when a game truly can get so aggravating that the controller just needs to be put down, but that isn't specific to video games, just about everything in life is like that.

Lucky for me my wife is actually pretty open minded; she gets it. I just wish it was always that easy.

Nintendo remains nebulous regarding Wii storage solution

2008-09-08T16:16:00.003-05:00

In an interview in Club Nintendo magazine, (roughly translated by the website Nintendo Everything), Reggie Fils-Aime and Shigeru Miyamoto offer vague, half answers regarding a much-needed storage solution for the Nintendo Wii.

From the website:

"We are working on a storage solution and it is especially important in America because our consumers are using Wii Points for the Virtual Console and WiiWare. I want the people to have the right expectations; We have never said that it will be a hard drive nor have we mentioned how we will fix this issue, but we are going to deliver a better way to store the games." Miyamoto added that gamers should expect an announcement in the future, as Nintendo is researching different technologies to provide Wii owners with some sort of relief.

So it seems that Nintendo plans to investigate and possibly release a storage solution of some sort that may or may not be a hard drive and they plan on announcing it in the future rather than shocking everyone by hopping in the Delorean, going back in time and announcing it in the past. Boy am I glad that's cleared up!

Also in the article

Miyamoto reiterates that Nintendo is working on the next Zelda, which I'm happy about but honestly isn't any more shocking than Toyota saying they plan on releasing a 2008 model Corolla.

Miyamoto states that there shouldn't be too many more peripherals for the Wii.

There will be no Wii demos on the Nintendo Channel and no Nintendo DS redesign until sales slowdown.

Xbox 360 to see holiday sales 20% higher than last year?

2008-09-05T15:15:00.006-05:00

During his most recent gaze into the crystal ball, famed Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has discerned that Xbox 360 sales may rise 20% over last Fall holiday season. In an interview with Gamasutra he states, "with a little help from correct marketing, Xbox 360 sales stand to lift 20 percent in the Fall-Holiday season over the same period last year."

So what information is this latest oracular vision based on?

The $199.99 price of the Xbox 360 Arcade SKU and the continuing supply-constraints of the Wii. As Pachter says:

"I'd guess that there will be some substitution of Xbox 360 Arcade for Wii as gifts," Pachter says.

"More important, I think, is the low price itself; I think that Wii owners may consider buying a 'next gen' console and look hard at the Xbox 360 at the $199 price point, and don't think Sony is particularly competitive at $399 for the cost-conscious crowd."

Meanwhile, Sony corporate communications department employee Julie Han replies:

"We're really confident that consumers are making choices driven by value," she says, "and we know PS3 offers that value across the board, with the built-in Blu-ray player the broadest and deepest software lineup in the industry, with LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, Motorstorm [Pacific Rift]... we're quite confident our holiday sales will be good."

So how will the so-called "console wars" play out this holiday season? The only way to find out for those of us without crystal balls (not a pun) is the tried and true "wait and see" method.

Who else enjoys Good Old Games?

2008-09-05T13:08:00.003-05:00

The fine folks over at CDProjekt who made The Witcher, one of my favorite games of last year, are rolling out their "old school" games website: Good Old Games and if you sign up before September 8, you can get in on an early access beta. Not only are fantastic, classic games available for a mere $5.99 - $9.99, ("less than the cost of a lunch at some lousy diner" as the website reminds us), but the games will all be DRM-free and optimized to run on Windows XP and Windows Vista. If any of you are like me and have run into countless hassles attempting to play classic games on your modern PC, (thank the Maker for ScummVM), you'll appreciate that last point.

Did I mention that the games will include various extras like soundtracks, guides, instruction manuals, artwork, add-ons and bonus packs to make that six to ten dollar price point even more appealing? I didn't? Silly me. Get your arse on over to their website and check it out for yourself, whether you miss the good old days and want to relive them, or you flat out missed the good old days and want to live them for the first time.

Google picking up steam

2008-09-04T23:33:00.001-05:00

Google has just released Google Chrome. Previously Google has already released several other products and services to compete with and undercut Microsoft, (Google Docs, Gmail, Google Talk). Google has also created a mobile development platform called Android.

Who wants to take bets that Google announces a complete PC operating system within the next five years?

Halo 3... Mythic?

2008-09-04T01:07:00.006-05:00

There has been rampant speculation following the release of the following screenshot taken by the guys at Addict Gaming during PAX.

Not much is known regarding what this Halo 3 "Mythic" screen means, although since then, more screenshots have been taken from PAX of new map-pack related achievements and the the website theorizes on what this "Mythic" thing might be. An expansion to the campaign, perhaps?

While I certainly wouldn't mind more Halo sooner or later, what I really want is a patch or update that lets Halo 3 render at a higher resolution, or some sort of severe antialiasing support. While the textures are sharp and the artistic design is fantastic, if you play on a big TV there are some unpleasant jaggies that make my eyes sad.

How do you review an MMO, or Little Big Planet for that matter?

2008-09-02T23:58:00.019-05:00

There is a long standing disagreement among many gamers as to how reviews should be written for massively multiplayer online games, or MMOs as I will henceforth refer to them. There are a variety of reasons for this, but many of them stem from the fact that MMOs are made to be played for a long, long time.

One issue is that the average MMO player will put hundreds to thousands of hours into their MMO of choice, (several thousands for hardcore players), yet for professional game journalists deadlines are a fact of life and simply cannot put in the hundreds of hours necessary to adequately assess and weigh in on an MMO and still get a review out before everyone who cares has already read reviews from all the competitors. In most MMOs, the first 20, 40, or even 100 hours play very differently than later on, once the higher levels are reached. If a game's lower level gameplay is all flowers and gumdrops, that's all well and good but how will the game keep the experience rewarding later on? On the other hand if a game is dull or merely slow in the early stages, it still might ramp up after 20-40 hours once the player begins getting in on high level activities like raids and is powerful enough to access new areas and better quests. Of course it might just be a snoretacular feat of boredom straight through.

Another issue is that an MMO six or more months after release is very different from what it was at release, which is when it receives the majority of its reviews, (a prime example being Tabula Rasa). No matter how long a game is in beta, developers cannot perfect all balance issues, kill every bug and eliminate every exploit prior to the release date but in the following months MMOs often become more streamlined; bugs are squashed, exploits are eliminated and interfaces, quests, etc. are tweaked hopefully to improve the game experience. Also, around the release date there isn't much of a community surrounding the game and the number of people inhabiting the world isn't indicative of how well the game will be populated months or even years down the road. Social interaction is a major aspect of MMOs, and a review written within weeks of a game's launch, (and in some unfortunate situations, prior to launch), can't take a large part of it into account. Perhaps games should not be reviewed based on how many people play and what they do, yet I can understand the argument that if a reviewer hasn't gotten the change to join a guild and set up a large-scale raid/siege/assault on a super high-level boss or rival guild, then said reviewer has not really experienced all that MMO has to offer. The sort of highly organized, tactical experiences that require co-operative seasoned players simply don't occur in an MMOs earliest stages.

The big question becomes: how does one review an MMO? Should it be reviewed based on the game exactly as it is at launch or should bugs, exploits and other issues be ignored based on the assumption that they will be fixed in the future? Should a reviewer have to guess whether the game will build up a thriving community and economy?

In my opinion an accurate MMO review would have to be written about four to six months after launch and the reviewer should make it at least 70% of the way to the highest level in the game if not more. Unfortunately for mainstream video game press that isn't an acceptable option, not to mention that most people who were interested in the game will have already either tried a free trial or read one of the early reviews. MMO-specific websites sometimes put out late reviews after putting loads of time in, but those must be taken with a larger grain of salt than usual because they are often written by people who

Another possible answer that I've heard is the idea of re-reviewing a game from time to time or after major updates. It's a fantastic idea but there are two major problems as I see it. The first problem is that as it is gaming publications and websites are already swamped trying to find time for their journalists to research and write previews, set up interviews, play through the games that they have to review and then write the reviews. We're not talking about movies here that only need to be watched for an hour and a half to three hours. Games take anywhere from ten to upwards of fifty hours to play through for a proper review. Try adding in the responsibility of re-reviewing games on a regular basis and it can just be too much. The second problem I see with re-reviewing games is that if re-reviews become the norm, then developers and publishers will be that much less motivated to make sure a game is adequately complete before releasing it. If an MMO is going to get re-reviewed anyway then why not just release the beta version in stores and say it's done. It can always be patched for a higher score. A similar mentality is already on the rise on the console game side. Ever since the current generation of consoles has allowed games to be updated, I've seen a lot more games being released in an unfinished form, (Alone in the Dark... you broke my heart).

Soon, we'll have a whole new style of game that may raise similar and possibly more questions regarding how reviews should be written. Little Big Planet is set to come out in October this year and the game is essentially a super-intuitive game creation tool that you play within. The game itself almost mirrors the Playstation 3 in the manner that the creators have created a fantastic and powerful tool, but since the people who use it won't be able to instantly grasp everything it is capable of, the most delicious fruit that it will bear won't show up until later on down the road. As it has taken Playstation 3 almost two years to before games could show what the system was really capable of, (largely due to developers learning how to program for the system), it may quite some time as well after the game's launch before we see the really good content for Little Big Planet.

So how does one write a review for Little Big Planet? If the single-player game that comes bundled in is amazing and the design tools are fun and intuitive then obviously the answer is easy, you score it nice and high, discuss the game as-is and mention future potential. On the other hand, what if the game as it is at launch is simply an awesome game design tool with an afterthought single player game bundled in? Do you review it based on the promise of great community content popping up in the future? Can a review truly be written based on the potential of a game rather than what is actually there?

So undoubtedly now you're looking for my answer to all these problems. Truth is, there's no "right answer" and any way that a review for Little Big Planet or an MMO is handled, it will be forced to make assumptions and walk a fine line between not giving a game enough of a chance and giving a game too much credit. As more non-traditional games are released that, by design, won't reach their innate potential until long after they have been released, (hopefully many more), it will be interesting to see how reviews are handled going forward.

Swimming with the Fishes

2008-08-27T01:33:00.010-05:00

I stumbled upon a game online today called Fish Tycoon. The price for a full, legitimate copy of the game is $20. Not only do I have trouble understanding why anyone would pay $20 for this game, I have even more trouble existing in a universe where anyone would pay $20 for Fish Tycoon, yet people take up arms over paying only $15 for Braid or Castle Crashers.

Anyway, when I hear the name "Fish Tycoon," I think of something more along the lines of this...

A Couple Things the Force Unleashed demo needs

2008-08-22T20:52:00.007-05:00

1. Limb dismemberment. Even Jedi Knight 2 had it, (and was still rated Teen, no less!), so there's no reason why this shouldn't have some good old fashioned severable limbs... and heads and torsos. Seriously, Star Wars has a rich history of dismemberment, (Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Darth Maul, Jango Fett). Even if the developer or publisher doesn't want to include blood, a lightsaber shouldn't leave people whole.

2. Bodies and Objects that don't disappear within 3 seconds. When I lay waste to an army of stormtroopers, I just don't feel like the badass that I should unless I can wade through the corpses and bits of destroyed tie fighters once I'm the last man standing. Of course there are technical limitations, but having a freshly fallen enemy fade away instantly is jarring when paired with the physical realism that Lucasarts is trying to accomplish with their game engine.

3. Boss battles that don't involve quick time events. I shouldn't have to explain this one. Whatever. Having the climax of the demo take away direct control of the character is a weak decision. Who knew that the weakness of an AT-ST is pressing X, Y, B, Y, A, A in that order. I felt more like I was playing a hacking mini-game than unleashing my unholy Sith fury on a mechanized engine of destruction.

QTE's worked in Shenmue, (at least I thought so), because they were worked into the overal cinematic nature of the game design. Essentially every game since that has used them in a manner that is totally incongruous to the game design and if there is something that really pisses me off it's shoehorning an element into a game when it doesn't belong.

There is precedent for Star Wars games with severable limbs.

Wasting Time

2008-08-22T17:32:00.004-05:00

I'm waiting for the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo to download on the Xbox, and in the meantime I've been playing Half-Life 2: Episode 1. This is the third time that I've had to start it from the beginning due to unfortunate circumstances (and poor planning). I began playing it after purchasing The Orange Box when I still lived in NC. I wasn't too pleased with the first hour or two but I thought it was just starting to get interesting, (after the fight with the ant-lion queen), when I had to pack up for my move to Canada.

Once in Canada and without my framerate-destroying desktop, (shipping it up here was a much longer process than it should have been), I found myself hungry for games but without a machine capable of playing them. Fortunately the Half-Life 2 engine scales wonderfully to lower-spec systems so I loaded up Steam on my laptop and installed Episode 1. What the heck, right? It only meant re-playing through an hour or so. I loaded the game, dialed down the graphics and away I went.

Of course, no sooner than I get into playing, my boxes show up from NC. The motherboard in my desktop had been mortally injured en-route so I took a day off from gaming to pick up a new motherboard as well as a new hard drive because I'm a compulsive bastard and dove into my computer's guts. After reinstalling Windows, drivers, etc., my computer was blowing away games faster than ever. I couldn't help myself but in re-installing my games it reignited my interest and I began to re-play through several of them, pushing Episode 1 to the back of my mind.

That's where Half-Life 2: Episode 1 remained until today as I mulled over what I should do while waiting for my download to complete. I sat at my computer, loaded up Steam and proceeded to play Episode 1 again, from the beginning, for the third time. Could I have just played it on the laptop? Yeah, sure, but why play with the graphics turned down when my desktop can handle running it with 5000x antialiasing and anisotrophic filtering?

Let me tell you, the first time I played the first hour or so of that game was boring and repetitive, the second time was downright tedious. This time I should have been getting paid for that shit because it felt like work. I've heard that the rest of Episode 1 and 2 are great... if that's measured comparatively to the beginning, then I'm ready to believe it because that first section in the citadel doesn't exactly set a high mark for the rest of the series to hurdle.

I guess I'll have to find out later, because my demo is done downloading and I'm out.

There's a lot of shooting energy balls into energy collectors.

Surprisingly, grabbing and launching combine soldiers can get old, and it doesn't take long.

Mirror's Edge... subliminal patriotism?

2008-08-18T21:23:00.002-05:00

I've been keeping tabs on Mirror's Edge for some time now with great anticipation. Perhaps it will be as fantastic as it looks, (I hope), or perhaps not. There is on thing that has been nagging me
and I've finally figured it out. As a red-blooded American, (born in Germany and currently living in Canada, but still AMERICAN DANGIT), I've come to the conclusion that Mirror's Edge is subliminally promoting the good 'ol U.S. of A.

Just check out these images and tell me that you don't want to bust out singing the Star-Spangled Banner.

It's the red, white and blue, baby!

Then again, maybe it's supposed to be French... or Russian..... nah.

*Mirror's Edge is set for release on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in November 2008.

Review gripes: the 1Up Too Human review

2008-08-18T10:56:00.002-05:00

Too Human is one of the big releases of the year, and that isn't something that is likely to change even if the game isn't great. After playing through the demo twice my impression is that the gameplay mechanic, while very different from other traditional action games, is fun and rewarding once a couple hours have been spent getting the hang of it and breaking yourself of the instinct to press A or B to attack. I also looked forward to getting into the story, which was headed in an interesting direction by the end of the demo.

The moment I saw the review for Too Human on the 1Up main page, I was naturally pumped to read it but I was somewhat miffed at the choice of reviewer. Who is this guy and why does he write with the stiffness of a high-school English student? Apparently he used to write for OPM, so at the very least there are some credentials there, but why give him such a big game that is has loomed so large in gamer culture for so many years as his first review now that he is back? On the one hand it wouldn't seem fair to give the new writer a deluge of crap games to review, especially if the reviewer has proven themself elsewhere. On the other hand one of the major benefits of reading reviews on a website like 1Up is that for readers like myself, we can get a sense of each editor's tastes based on their previous reviews and factor that in when we read their articles. Not giving readers that opportunity on a game as important as Too Human seems almost irresponsible.

Of course, to write off a writer simply because I haven't heard of him before would speak only of my own inflated sense of importance, but the review left a lot to be desired as well. I can't really say that I got anything out of it other than a few major gripes the reviewer had. The review was far, far too brief and most of the concerns, (issues with air-juggling, camera angles, target-locking), were facets of the game that I had absolutely no problem with in the demo, leading me to ask; is the full game completely different than the demo? Do these problems only crop up in later levels? Can I even trust any of this review?

I guess now I'll just have to sit and wait for other websites to get their reviews up and see what the general consensus on the internet is. Of course I like to read many reviews before purchasing a game so this isn't a major break from my usual routine... I guess I'm just used to getting more out of 1Up than I got in this time around.

iD on iPhone

2008-08-01T01:05:00.001-05:00

Forget all those claims that the iPhone is as powerful as the Dreamcast. That's old news. In a recent interview with Forbes, John Carmack, (co-founder of iD software, the company responsible for Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake and graphics engines galore) gives some of his opinions on the iPhone and how it might push mobile gaming forward. Carmack claims that despite hardware differences the iPhone has power relative to the PS2 or original Xbox, and mentions that iD mobile is working on a "graphical tour de force" for the iPhone that will be part of one of the existing iD IPs.

Microsoft announces that Games for Windows Live is free, effective.... NOW!

2008-07-22T15:01:00.003-05:00

Today at GamesFest 2008: Seattle, Microsoft announced that the Multiplayer-related features of Games for Windows Live will now be totally free rather than having the tiered price structured with a Silver membership being free and a Gold membership being $49.99. Such features that will now be available for free include voice chat, friend lists, cross platform play, achievements and gamerscores. Microsoft's "About Games for Windows - Live" page has been updated today to reflect this announcement.

Other announcements from Microsoft include the first official word on Direct X 11 and the features it will contain as well as a new marketplace for Games For Windows - Live.

NY Governer signs video game laws... "for the children"

2008-07-22T14:58:00.005-05:00

Today, Governer David A. Paterson of NY signed a "Package Of Bills That Will Protect The Public Safety And Rights Of New Yorkers" including a bill that "establishes an advisory council to conduct a study on the connection between interactive media and real-life violence in minors exposed to such media," and will "require new video game consoles to have parental lockout features by 2010, and mandate that games sold at retail disclose the ratings obtained from the gaming industry's voluntary rating system."

Link to the press release HERE. (The relevent section is about five paragraphs down).

I'm not going to go into the insanity of making parental lockout features required for video game consoles but excluding TV service providers, DVD players, computers/web browsers, etc. I'm not going to go into the many reasons why I disagree with passing legislation on these matters in general. I'm not even going to go into the fact that the press release states that the advisory council will study "the connection," (not a possible connection), between interactive media and real-life violence, indicating that they have already decided that there is, in fact, a connection without the inconvenience of actual data.

Still, don't you think it would make more sense to create this advisory council and actually wait for the results of the studies before enacting legislation based on the assumed result?

P.S.- In order to add insult to injury, the section of the press release regarding videogames has been lumped into the same paragraph as sex offenders. Nice.

Reflections on the big-three press conferences

2008-07-18T14:56:00.010-05:00

Hopefully by now you've read about all the big E3 press conferences either here or elsewhere. Perhaps for a lucky few of you, you actually got to be there. Well here's my personal take on the press conferences for each of the big three console manufacturers.

Microsoft: In my opinion, Microsoft's press conference was easily the best of the show. Microsoft basically spent an hour and a half slamming home one AAA title after another. By the end of the conference they had made clear that Microsoft is dedicated to A. bringing over the best titles that have been historically exclusive to other consoles, (Resident Evil 5, Grand Theft Auto 4, Final Fantasy XIII, etc), B. bringing exclusive content to 360 for multiplatform games, (360-exclusive DLC for GTA 4 and Fallout 3), and C. continuing to deliver first and third party exclusives for the 360, (Gears of War 2, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, Infinite Undiscovery, Fable II, and a bevy of XBLA titles). Granted, Microsoft is able to accomplish all this by basically dropping huge sacks of money on developers, (which Nintendo and Sony can't afford to do), but that doesn't really matter to someone trying to decide which console to purchase. They just want the best console with the most content and don't care how the content got there. Of course, in the middle of all this talk of games was the announcement of a TOTAL overhaul of the Xbox 360 dashboard, (not really sure why they decided to overhaul it, I kinda like the simple and extremely efficient blade-style interface currently in use). I can't have been the only person sitting there thinking, "they are doing ALL THIS by fall?!? Sony couldn't even get their act together to deliver just XMB in a timely manner." Finishing the conference with the announcement of FFXIII 360 didn't hurt either.

Unfortunately I can't completely let Microsoft off the hook. The Avatars seem completely unnecessary and are obvious rip-offs of some other company's avatar system. When talking to games journalists and the sort of hardcore gamers that follow E3, childish and unnecessary rip-offs are not something that will go over well. Also, watching Microsoft employees demonstrate You're in the Movies was just painful. That's the sort of cringeworthy nonsense you would expect from the Nintendo press conference. The idea is cool and packaging the game with the camera all for the standard price of one game is fantastic, but again, the core and hardcore audience that comprises the majority of 360 owners is just not going to care about this game except maybe as a cheap way to get a live vision camera.

Sony: There were two points to the Sony press conference worth taking note of. The first was the repeated message: "hey, we did all this great stuff before with the Playstation 1 and 2, so just buy a Playstation 3 and trust us that we'll do something cool sometime in the future." The second was the focus on the PSP as a companion to the Playstation 3. Surprisingly, there was actually almost as much time spent discussing the PSP as the PS3, with one major announcement being that movies and shows downloaded to the Playstation 3 could be transferred to the PSP for portable viewing.

Unfortunately the rest of the Sony conference was all discussions regarding sales figures, talking up games that we've already been waiting for for months or years and a new video downloading service that looked strikingly like the service for Xbox 360 that has been around for years already. In fact, the only three remotely interesting announcements were a Resistance game for PSP, (yawn), God of War 3 and MAG. God of War and MAG might have been enough to pull the Press Conference out of the gutter if it weren't for the fact that neither game had more to show more than pre-rendered, non-gameplay teasers which most gamers are just too cynical to care about anymore. Speaking of MAG, the one place where the PS3 may be able to build it's own niche is extremely large-scale battlefield games. Warhawk built itself slowly into a hit and Resistance 2 with 64-player online games and MAG with 256-player online games look to make the PS3 the only place to experience that sort of massive-scale multiplayer battles, (aside from PC).

Nintendo: I was extremely disappointed by Nintendo's press conference. At it's launch, the Wii had a nice low price-point and Nintendo postured as the choice for families and folks who don't bathe nightly in cash. They even brought some real games to the party for the Core audience like Metroid Prime 3, Mario Galaxies and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Unfortunately since then the Nintendo Strategy seems to have become to release party games and mini-game collections while nickel and diming consumers to death. The Nintendo press conference only made this fact more apparent, not a single game shown is designed to play at its best with just the Wii remote. You can play Shaun White Snowboarding with a Wii Remote but for the proper experience you need a balance board. You can play some of the games in Wii Sports resort and some of the instruments with a Wii Remote but for the full experience you need nunchuks, Wii Motion Pluses and balance boards. To play Animal Crossing you need a Wii-Speak microphone. If you want to have friends over to play these games as advertised, you need anywhere from two to four of each peripheral. I may have payed more for my Xbox 360 or PS3, but every single game that I own for those systems plays best on the controller that came in the box with the system. Nintendo is the company that apparently wants to put a smile on my face and a severe dent in my bank account.

In terms of presentation Nintendo, as always, managed to be irritating and childish to the point where I genuinely felt nauseous. Having prozac-popping imbeciles with smiles on their face dance around the stage playing children's games and tell us how much they want to put a smile on our face really gets old quickly. I guess having a woman saying the majority of it is a good idea on Nintendo's part though because having the walking PR-tornado Reggie Fils-Aime telling us that he wants to personally put a smile on every child's face just sounds a little creepy.

I'm going to go into another paragraph on Nintendo here, because I have a very specific, major bone to pick with them. They show up at every interview or press conference chucking the term "innovation" at anyone within reach like raving monkeys throwing feces and their E3 2008 press conference was no different. Well, I'm going to yet again have to call BS on Nintendo's claims of continual innovation because there was exactly ONE SINGLE GAME that was mentioned during their press conference that wasn't a sequel, part of a franchise or multiplatform, and that was Wii Music. You know what, I don't care about Wii Music, after Wii Play, Wii Fit and Wii Sports I'm a little bit sick of dancing around like a bloody idiot in front of my television.

E3 2008 Sony Keynote Summary

2008-07-16T16:23:00.004-05:00

For those of you who missed out on the hour and a half of announcements, excitement and PR fromSony, here is a handy bullet-point summary. The statistics and PR bluster have been intentionally left out, go somewhere else to see developers blabbing about how they're starting to get used to programming for the PS3 or how many PS3, PS2 and PSPs sell per year.

-Resistance 2 will have 8 player online coop, 60 player online competitive modes and is scheduled for a November 2008 release

-Playstation 3 Greatest Hits will arrive late 2008 at a $29.99 (US) price point, and will include Resistance, Motorstorm, Warhawk, Call of Duty 3, Fight Night, Need for Speed Carbon, Rainbow Six Vegas, Assassin's Creed, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma

-Playstation 2 development will continue with games like NCAA Football 09, Tiger Woods Golf 09, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Warriors Orochi 2, Singstar Pop 2, Yakuza 2, Madden XX and Mercenaries 2

-The Buzz series will be coming to PSP and PS3 later this year

-A new Playstation 2 bundle including the PS2, Lego Batman and a DVD of The Justice League: New Frontiers will be available in the fall for $149.99 (US)

-Playstation Network will feature a new service that will allow downloading of full length TV shows and movies. The media content partners involved with this service include Sony Pictures, Fox Film & Television, MGM Studios, Lionsgate, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Turner Entertainment and Funimation.

-TV shows on the new service will be available in standard and hig definition and will start at $1.99 (US) per episode and movie prices will range from $2.99 to $5.99 for rentals and from $9.99 to $14.99 for purchases. All downloaded content through this service will be transferable to the PSP

-A new PSP entertainment pack including a silver PSP, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters, and National Treasure 2, Book of Secrets, a 1Gb memory stick and a voucher for Echochrome will be available in fall

-A new game in the Resistance series, Resistance: Retribution, has been announced for the PSP and is scheduled for a spring 2009 release.

-An 80Gb version of the Playstation 3 will be available for purchase starting in September, it will have the same functionality as the current 40Gb Playstation 3

-God of War 3 "announced" exclusively for Playstation 3

-infamous, an open-world superhero-ish game, will be coming exclusively to Playstation 3

-A multiplayer action game under the working title MAG, (Massive Action Game), has been announced exclusively for the Playstation 3 that will involve up to 256 player multiplayer split into 8-player squads and will involve RPG style character growth

E3 2008 Nintendo Keynote Summary

2008-07-16T00:15:00.005-05:00

For those of you who missed out on the hour and a half of announcements, excitement and PR from Nintendo, here is a handy bullet-point summary. The statistics and PR bluster have been intentionally left out, go somewhere else to see How many Wii consoles have been sold in each country or what the ratio of male to female DS owners has been for the past three years.

-Shaun White Snowboarding announced for Wii and will utilize the Wii balance board, scheduled for October 2008 release

-Animal Crossing: City Folk announced for Wii, scheduled for release on November 16, 2008. It will utilize the new Wii Speak microphone for community communication

-Wii Speak peripheral announced, a microphone that will sit on top of a television that will pick up voices of everyone in the area

-Star Wars: The Clone Wars-Lightsaber Duels announced as Wii exclusive, releasing Holiday 2008

-Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party will offer more minigames, this time utilizing the Wii balance balance board, releasing Fall 2008

-Call of Duty: World at War will be released on Wii utilizing the Wii remote as a control device and will contain cooperative gameplay, releasing November 2008

-A sequel to Guitar Hero: On Tour has been announced, also for Nintendo DS, titled Guitar Hero: On Tour: Decades

-Spore: Creatures will involve the "core elements" of Spore which are creativity and sharing, (creating and sharing creatures). Spore: Creatures is scheduled for a September 7, 2008 release on Nintendo DS

-Pokemon Ranger: Shadow of Almia will be released for Nintendo DS on November 10, 2008 in the US

-A new installment in the Grand Theft Auto series, Grand Theft Auto, Chinatown Wars, has been announced for the Nintendo DS and will arrive in Winter 2008/2009. It will be set in modern-day Liberty City and feature a new game engine and new characters

-Nintendo is testing the Nintendo DS for use as a sort of local information hub. One example being that it might be used at an airport to find gates, departure times, local hotels and restaurants, etc.

-A virtual cookbook with recipes, tips and more is in use in Japan and an English version will be released in November

-An addition to the Wii remote, called Wii Motion Plus, has been announced that will supposedly make the remote more precise and responsive (1:1 motion control)

-Wii Sports: Resort has been announced as a beach-themed sequel to Wii Sports and will include one Wii Motion Plus with the game. Mini games shown that will be in Wii Sports: Resort include a frisbee game, a wave-race looking game and sword dueling game. Wii Sports: Resort is scheduled for Spring 2009

-Shigeru Miyamoto's official title has apparently been upgraded to "gaming legend" and will be introduced on stage as such henceforth

-Wii Music has been announced and will utilize the Wii remote, nunchuk and balance board to play over 50 virtual musical instruments in real-time to play along with various songs and melodies

E3 2008 Microsoft Keynote Summary

2008-07-15T04:02:00.005-05:00

For those of you who missed out on the hour and a half of announcements, excitement and PR from Microsoft, here is a handy bullet-point summary. The statistics and PR bluster have been intentionally left out, go somewhere else to see how many items have been purchased on Xbox Live or how many more Xbox 360 consoles have been sold than Playstation 3 in North America.

-Fallout 3 will get "substantial" downloadable content exclusive to Xbox 360 and Games for Windows

-Resident Evil 5 will have full online cooperative play

-Resident Evil 5 will get a "Friday the 13th" release on March 13th 2009 in Europe and North America, and March 12th 2009 in Japan. (2009? Haven't we waited long enough for this game already?)

-Fable II development has been completed

-Peter Molyneux announces a new "innovation" for Fable II, "Friend Orbs"

-Cliff Bleszinski shows off Gears of War with new enemies (tickers), new weapons (flame throwers), new activities (Brumak riding), and new gameplay modes (Horde)

-Gears of War 2 is dated for a November 12th release worldwide

-NBC/Universal Studios have been named as partners in downloadable content on Xbox Live, (which includes NBC, USA and Sci-Fi

-The next Xbox update will include a complete overhaul of the interface and menu as well as the addition of a Mii-like avatar (designed by Rare) that will be built in to the gamercard

-A "Community" channel will be added to the Xbox interface including "Live Party," where up to eight people can chat and share photos, watch a video together or play as contestants in gameshows on the new "Primetime" channel to win actual prizes

-Geometry Wars 2: Retro Evolved announced exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade

-Galaga 2: Legions announced exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade releasing next month

-Portal: Still Alive announced exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade in Fall, with new levels and achievements

-An unknown game based on South Park announced Exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade

-Xbox Live Community Games, (XNA created games) will release in Fall

-An exclusive partnership with Netflix will allow Xbox Live users who subscribe to Netflix watch more than 10.000 movies and TV episodes

-Netflix movies and TV shows will be sharable with up to seven friends through Live Party

-The first exclusive Grand Theft Auto 4 DLC will hit before the end of the year

-Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise are set for a Holiday 2008 release and the original Banzo Kazooie has been announced as an Xbox Live Arcade download scheduled for a Holiday 2008 release as well

-Scene It: Box Office Smash will be the first Xbox game to integrate Xbox Live avatars online

-"You're in the Movies," a game that uses (and includes) the Live Camera to put you in a a cheesy movie green-screen style

-Metallica's new album, Death Magnetic, will be released in its entirety in September for Guitar Hero 3, and then again along with Guitar Hero: World Tour in Fall

-Lips, a new sing-along game exclusive to Xbox 360 has been officially announced and will be released this holiday season with motion sensitive, wireless microphones

-Rock Band 2 will debut as a timed exclusive for Xbox 360 in September with 84 songs on disk, all with master tracks

-All downloadable tracks for Rock Band as well as most on-disk tracks from Rock Band will be playable on Rock Band 2

-Infinite Undiscovery will be released exclusively for Xbox 360 on September 2nd in North American, 5th in Europe and 11th in Japan and Asia

-Star Ocean: The Last Hope will be releasing to Xbox 360, in Spring 2009

-The Last Remnant will be released on November 20th 2008 worldwide as a timed exclusive for Xbox 360, and will also be released on Games for Windows

-Final Fantasy XIII has been announced for Xbox 360 and will be released concurrently with the version for Playstation 3

2008-07-15T02:35:00.004-05:00

I'm sure that if you know anything about Peter Molyneux or his many unfulfilled promises regarding what will be in his games, you read the title of this post and sighed... or perhaps rolled your eyes. The fact that you're reading this means that at least you decided not to just ignore it completely.

This particular promise of innovation looks like it might bear fruit. Molyneux claims that development on the game is actually complete, so the fact that this "innovation" actually sounds pretty darn cool is compounded by the fact that it has apparently already made it into the final build of the game.

The innovation is what Molyneux referred to as "friend orbs." Friends orbs are actually representations of all your Xbox Live friends as they play in their own Fable II single player game that manifest as glowing purple orbs at the same time in your single player game. For example, if a friend of yours is playing and standing in front of a shop on his/her Xbox, then in your game there will be a little purple ball of light floating in front of that same shop in your own game at the same time. Wherever that friend is in their game, the little purple orb will be their in your game all in real time, (provided you are both connected to the internet). You can then walk up to the orb and invite them to join you without going through any Xbox Live menus and if your friend accepts then BANG you'll be playing coop instantly.

Molyneux may be a man with a reputation for having enough hot air to lift a balloon into the sky, but this particular innovation is truly an interesting concept and I can't wait to try it myself. I just hope that it works just as advertised and that there is an option to turn the friend orbs on or off on the fly.

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, Get it Now Free!

2008-06-17T00:15:00.003-05:00

I have a sort of love/hate relationship with FilePlanet.com. I can't recall how many times I've lost my place in a long download queue just because the site didn't refresh the screen properly. On the other hand, from time to time they decide to do something suspiciously gracious like giving out Psi-Ops for free. That's right, FilePlanet has Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy available for free download, no strings attached, and if you haven't gotten a chance to play it, you have absolutely no excuse to not click on THIS LINK and play a game that is fantastic and underrated, yet not without it's flaws.

Review Gripes: the IGN US Metal Gear: Solid 4 review

2008-06-13T02:19:00.009-05:00

I've only played about five hours of Metal Gear Solid 4 and as of the moment, I can't say that I agree with the IGN US score of 10/10 for Metal Gear Solid 4. Of course since I haven't completed the game I may yet find that the rest of the game is so fantastic it makes up for it, who knows. Nonetheless I often don't agree with review scores but that isn't a big deal to me, everyone has different opinions and I don't take issue with it.

My issue is that IGN, (yes I just referred to a website as an conscious entity), was dumb enough to put Jeff Haynes in charge of the review. My reasons for this have largely been covered already by other bloggers (who do not endorse or have anything to do with this blog), not to mention the guys at the 1Up yours podcast, (download the relevent episode here. Lets just say that Haynes has had his head way up MGS 4's imaginary ass since far before the review process ever began, not to mention that he was actually directly involved with the game before the development of it was completed. I don't care if his involvement with the game was simply that of an unpaid game tester, I would not put a company's game tester on a review of a game they had input into. Once someone feels that they may have contributed to a game, and feel connected to that game, they should not be put in charge of a review for that game. Haynes even brags about being the "first American in the world to have beaten MGS 4." Don't you think that someone with a claim like that might want said game to get great ratings and make his claim as first to complete it that much more impressive? He should not have been put on the review, end of story.

Maybe you think I'm overreacting? Maybe you think Haynes really didn't have much of a role? Haynes himself states, (brags): "The second task was much more important, because at the end of every gameplay session, we were asked to provide detailed feedback, which would be given to the development team to make adjustments to the final build of the title. We weren't alone in experiencing the game in this way; Kojima himself was replaying the title at the same time we were, going through the same gameplay sections and feedback tasks as we were. In effect, we became part of the design team."

Funny thing is, at the end of the article they try to give readers someone else's point of view aside from just Haynes and they throw Greg Miller's two cents in. Now I don't have a lot against Miller, (aside from the same sort of irritation I get from a small extraordinarily hyper yapping dog), so don't take this as a condemnation of him. The problem is that he admittedly went into playing MGS 4 already madly in love with the escapades of Solid Snake, (and had basically made up his mind about the game a year ago anyway). I know that for a review of the fourth game in a series it would be stupid to put a writer on it who is unfamiliar with the series, but we already have someone who knows the series in the form of Haynes. The "Another Take" section should be done by someone either unfamiliar with the series or perhaps someone who played them but wasn't really won over by the previous games. Having both the review and the "Another Take" written by people who would lick the sweat of Snake's balls and enjoy it if they were given the opportunity just isn't objective journalism in any sense of the word.

At least in his GTA IV review, IGN editor Hilary Goldstein was willing to point out that there were flaws in the game, but explain that it was still of a quality and value that it warranted a rating of 10. Haynes just ignores all of the flaws in MGS 4 like a mother watching her daughter tripping through a dance recital and then claims that it shouldn't even be a 10 but rather an eleven. That's bullshit with a capital B and a capital ULLSHIT. Even if a game deserves a full 10, a responsible journalist/critic would actually mention the issues with the game or at least explain that there are some aspects that aren't actually flaws, yet may annoy some gamers.

For the record: I'm not saying MGS 4 is a bad game. Based on my gameplay so far I would say it is a good game, a great game even, but far from perfect.

Also for the record: Castle Wolfenstein did stealth years before Metal Gear.

New Saint's Row 2 trailer: Pompous Stupidity or Sheer Genius?

2008-06-10T23:47:00.009-05:00

Within the past week, THQ and Volition released a new trailer for their upcoming game: Saint's Row 2. If you haven't seen it, take a look.

Reactions to this trailer have run the gamut, with many being pleased or amused by it, and just as many finding it in bad taste and saying things like "how f***ing dare they," "too over the top," and "unusually pompous."

Honestly, I'm in the group of folks who are pleased. I can't say that I don't enjoy Grand Theft Auto IV, it's an extremely solid game with boatloads of replay value. Unfortunately it just takes itself too damn seriously and that seriousness not only raises the standards to a level it can't quite hold on to, but it also causes the game to lose the over-the-top, gritty yet lighthearted sense of humor that we've come to expect from Rockstar's big moneymaking franchise. The sense of go anywhere and do anything that was the hallmark of the three dimensional GTA games is also gone and GTA IV often left me feeling like options had been taken away rather than added.

With Saint's Row 2, it seems that Volition has made the true spiritual successor to GTA: San Andreas. Based on this new trailer it looks like I will be bombarded with options, and not just gimmick mini-games. I really could care less about going to a cabaret, bowling or playing darts, Shenmue already did mini-games like that and it wasn't fun then either, (though Shenmue on the whole was fantastic). I would rather car surf, or rob a liquor store as a cop, or hell, even just fly a fucking plane. I flew one in the last GTA, in fact I had a variety of planes to choose from. What the hell happened?

No matter how many arguments I hear about Saint's Row ripping off Grand Theft Auto or how this advertisement just appeals to the lowest common denominator, I will have to disagree. It illustrates how Saint's Row 2 will actually give you options, it will give you choice. That's something that even critically acclaimed artistic masterpieces like Bioshock and Mass Effect are trying to figure out. Saint's Row 2 already has it figured out; don't give me a simple black and white decision to make, give me a whole city where I can do what I want and achieve my goals how I want, when I want. That is choice. If I want to spray sewage on civilians with a stolen septic truck, that is choice, and that advertisement is sheer genius.

Jumper sequel in the works?

2008-06-10T13:32:00.006-05:00

I've got news everyone! Everyone's favorite actor, Hayden Christensen, claims that last year's film, Jumper (average review score around 35/100), was originally set to be the first in a trilogy if the film did well and there are currently talks of a sequel. Maybe even two sequels! Christensen says "We're talking about it. I know that they're having those conversations, I hear about them." Funny how fast "we" changed to "they" in reference to who is involved in these discussions.

What does this have to do with video games, you ask? Perhaps you're familiar with film-video game tie ins. They're those terrible games that get released simultaneously with the movies they are based on, and Jumper had one. While the movie may have set the bar for quality uncomfortably low, Jumper: Griffin's Story managed to limbo beneath it with inches to spare. With an average review score of 29/100, the only bonus to playing it was the fact that it only took about an hour to rack up most of the achievements in the game, (if that's your thing).

Just think, if another Jumper movie is made then who's to stop another game from being released? How many trees will be felled to produce the instruction manuals and cover inserts? How many plastic-beasts will be slaughtered to make the game discs and keep cases. How many children will stumble across the game in bargain bins, only to play it and have their lives ruined?

If nothing else, I think we're at a point where we can just assume that every new movie is intended to be the first of a trilogy.

Prince of Persia cast gets a bit more confusing

2008-06-05T02:20:00.005-05:00

There was much scratching of heads when it was announced a couple of weeks ago that Jake Gyllenhaal is to be the titular prince in the upcoming film adaptation of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Gyllenhaal certainly isn't Persian, and for that matter, he's not a prince either. The situation kind of reminds me of something I saw once in some article on some website.

But that's all old news, so on to the new news: according to Variety, Alfred Molina and Ben Kingsley have also been attached to the film. Alfred Molina will be playing the role of Sheik Amar, a mentor to the young Prince Dastan, and Kingsley has been rumored to be filling the role of the villainous vizier.
(News ends there).

If you haven't been keeping count, between Kingsley, Molina, Gyllenhaal and Gemma Aterton, who will be playing "Princess Tamina," the cast so far consists of an American, two Brits and Alfred Molina, who is of Spanish and Italian heritage, but was born in England. It seems to me that Prince of Persia might wind up suffering from 300 Syndrome, where all the actors are not only of the wrong ethnicity, but also have offensively inappropriate accents.

Let's just hope that, like 300, so much attention is paid to action, style and art direction that acting becomes inconsequential. With Jerry Bruckheimer producing, that isn't such a long shot.

Not Just for Kids: Games You Might Have Avoided but Shouldn't- Part Two

2008-06-05T02:13:00.004-05:00

In last week's blog I talked about the fact that many gamers will simply avoid games if they look too childish or feminine. I mentioned Super Princess Peach and Viva Pinata specifically, but there are certainly a large number of other quality games that have been underappreciated for the same reason. Here's a list of eleven of such games, some you may have heard of or even played, others you may never have heard of, and still others that you may have simply avoided. After browsing through, tell me if there are any other games that you've played that largely went under the radar due to their perceived childish or feminine nature.

Re-Volt: The bright, colorful, kid-friendly box art on this RC Car racing game belies a solid arcade racer with unexpected depth, loads of unlockable cars, highly varied courses and one of the most entertaining course editors ever included in a racing game.

Super Princess Peach: The tables have been turned and this time it's Princess Peach rescuing Mario. Controlling the umbrella-toting princess's moods to get through each level may not sound like the most macho fare, but if there is one thing that Nintendo has figured out how to do properly, it's make a great platforming game and this is no exception.

Beyond Good and Evil: For some reason I always thought this was a children's game when I saw it on store shelves. Maybe it was the idea of playing as journalist armed with a camera which reminded me of Pokemon Snap. Turns out it is a gem of an action/adventure/stealth game with a good plot, great storytelling, and a sequel in pre-production.

Viva Pinata: One of Microsoft's attempts to establish the Xbox 360 as a family-friendly system, this Rare developed game has you tending a garden full of colorful animals called "Pinatas" with names even more absurdly cute than the animals themselves. The surprising combination of deep, rewarding gameplay with a high factor of accessibility makes this game perfect for anyone of any age, just be ready for a possible cute overload.

Barbie: Secret Agent: I'm sure you're thinking that this one must be a joke, but think again! Considering the multitudes of Barbie games that have been made, one of them has to be worthwhile, right? Well this is that one. I like to think of it as Metal Gear: Barbie. Or perhaps this makes more sense; get rid of the vast quantities of pink, swap out Barbie for a weathered Englishman and you've got yourself a good 007 game. Just don't ever let anyone see you playing it.

Zak and Wiki: From the big "E for everyone" esrb rating to the stupidly cute golden monkey with the satellite ears and obnoxiously big adorable eyes to the bright and simple primary color scheme, the game packaging screams "kids only." Don't let it fool you! Despite some of the puzzles being too obvious on the one hand or controller-chuckingly arbitrary on the other, Z&W was largely a fun, refreshing and entertaining adventure game worth the $40 (US) price of entry. It is also one of an exclusive group of games that makes the Wii-mote an integral and intuitive part of the game rather than an afterthought.

Fur Fighters: To its detriment, Fur Fighters has the look of a kid-friendly bargain-bin game at first glance. If, on a wild impulse, you were to purchase the game and play it, you would find a well-polished third person shooter with a maturity level and sense of humor located halfway between Banjo-Kazooie and Conker's Bad Fur day.

Cookie and Cream: It's hard to defend a game about a two bunnies with a flowerpot and an umbrella on their heads as anything other than unapologetic kid fodder, but I have yet to play a more enjoyable co-op platformer. Imagine a game like Lego Star Wars with less emphasis on button mashing and battles and more emphasis on problem solving and platforming... and pastel colors... and umbrellas.

Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village: If you hadn't heard anything about this game you might believe, based on the cover art, that it's nothing more than a loose collection of puzzles suitable for children around age ten. In actuality it is a collection of about 150 puzzles of varying difficulty strung together by genuinely interesting story complimented by beautiful hand-drawn FMV cutscenes.

Backyard Baseball 2005: If I had to rate games based on box art alone, this would have been lucky to get a 4/10. 2005 was a bit late to be bragging "Now in 3D" and the developers don't try to hide that the game was made with kids in mind. Why, then, would you want to play this game? Because it was critically acclaimed as one of the best and most addicting baseball games, and for good reason. If the movie "The Sandlot" were a game, this would be it, except without the shame of being picked last for teams.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus: I foolishly passed on this game for a long time thinking that it was just another cookie-cutter juvenile platformer. The title sounded like a bad Saturday morning cartoon and the faux-cell shaded look seemed ripped off. It wasn't until last year that a friend of mine let me borrow it and I was pleasantly surprised to find an engaging platformer with likeable characters and fluid controls. The humor was at times self-referential and at other times parodied other games and movies. While it was a bit short, there are two equally worthwhile sequels.

Not Just for Kids: Games You Might Have Avoided but Shouldn't- Part One

2008-05-28T11:46:00.002-05:00

"Will that be all?" the clerk asked as I stood at the register at my local purveyor of fine gaming goods, his question penetrating the blank stare that had aggregated on my face over roughly fifteen minutes of waiting. I looked at the sole item in my hand, an empty display case for Super Princess Peach on Nintendo DS, and answered "yeah, that's it." As he searched behind the counter for a retail copy, he tried to make some conversation, "are you buying this for your girlfriend?" and before I had a chance to answer, "it's awesome how many chicks have a Nintendo DS, it's like it's actually getting them into gaming�" My eyes glazed over as he attempted to explain to me the state of females and videogaming and as he ran my credit card I replied to his initial question, "nah, I'm buying it for me." Now it was the clerk's turn to assume a blank stare accompanied by a slight look of embarrassment. "Oh, sorry bro, it's just usually girls or parents I see buying games like this."

While driving home I thought about what he had said about mainly girls and their parents buying games like Super Princess Peach. It's a great game that anyone can enjoy if you can get past the fluffy, feminine girliness and obvious stereotyping, (Peach has different powers based on her mood swings... I'll let you infer what you want from that), and it's too bad that a lot of male gamers are missing out on it. As my mind wandered, I began to think about other games that have alienated a large segment of consumers by tailoring the theme, style or even the box art for a target audience. I don't have the sales demographics to back it up but I would guess that since Viva Pinata is targeted at children and looks like a kid's game, not to mention that it was released in conjunction with a kids television show, many older gamers have chosen to avoid it. Few of my friends will give it a try, even after my attempts to convince them that despite the childish exterior it is a well-crafted and gratifying "strategy/simulation" game with a great sense of humor that anyone can enjoy and easily justifies the twenty dollar price tag.

My friends' innate aversion to Viva Pinata shouldn't surprise me. For core and hardcore gamers, avoiding niche games that are aimed at children or girls has become something of a defense mechanism. When we see a game with hearts or bright colors or large quantities of pink on the cover we automatically let our eyes slide over it as if it isn't even there. We automatically ignore advertisements that look too cute. It helps us avoid the suffering that is inherent to games involving Nickelodeon characters, Barbie or anything that ends with a Z, (Bratz, Horsez, Petz, Babyz). Unfortunately, this instinct of ours makes us miss out on some real gems that deserve to be played.

I'm not sure if there is a way to solve this issue, or if anyone else even considers it an issue. Perhaps it's just a problem that is and will always be inherent to the entertainment industry; adults largely avoid kids movies and television shows in the same manner. It just seems a shame to miss out on some of the great prizes that are hiding under the thin guise of pretty, pink girl games or cute, cuddly kids games.
The upcoming part two, will include a list of some of the better girl-friendly or kid-friendly games that you might have avoided but shouldn't.

On the Precipitation-Lubricious Cliff of Legitimate System Requirements

2008-05-25T01:34:00.009-05:00

I, like many gamers, am a fan of Penny-Arcade. Not a huge fan or even a big fan, but I'll admit that I check for new strips a minimum of once a week. One thing I have to give them absolute credit for is rabid devotion to, and love for, videogames. It only makes sense, then, that two guys who so love and understand videogames would pour their sweat, blood and all manner of other bodily fluids into making the best game imaginable. "Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One," is the result of their toil and I figured I should at least give the demo a shot.

Unfortunately, my experience has been a bit of a mixed bag; upon installation I tried to run the demo at the default settings and beyond the usual torrent of developer and game logos I was treated to a black screen and no hard-drive activity. Being a long-time PC gamer I've become accustomed to this sort of occurrence and often as not, simply rebooting the system after an installation will help motivate an application to work properly. After alt-tabbing out of the blank screen and restarting my system I dropped the graphic settings to a mere 800x600 resolution and started the game up again and sure enough, I slid uninterrupted through the opening sequence into the character creation menu where I was pleased to find that whatever character you create, it looks like Mike Krahulik drew it straight onto the screen. In fact, the whole game looks like it came straight from the panels of the comic strip. Krahulik's signature look has been masterfully transferred to the third dimension and what the game lacks in graphical capabilities is made up for with style. This approach is similar to what has been done with the episodic Sam & Max, Team Fortress 2 and the upcoming Battlefield: Heroes, (among others), and one of the results of such a design formula is that the games don't look dated, yet run on a wide variety of systems including PCs long overdue for an upgrade. You might understand why I was shocked when I ran into more performance issues.

The game ran like a fat guy trying to make it up a flight of stairs after a trip to Dairy Queen. I'm talking anywhere from three to ten frames per second. The laptop I'm playing on is by no stretch of the imagination a machine designed for gaming, but I can pull solid framerates on Battlefield 2, Half-Life 2 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted at higher resolutions so I was not expecting this low-tech episodic demo to be a slap in the face along the lines of Crysis. For a game such as this to run this poorly at 800 by 600 pixels is absolutely inexcusable, especially when my system meets the recommended system requirements. I would love to speak right now about the gameplay and the writing and one would hope the great sense of humour but the game just doesn't have quite the same flow when the mouse cursor, (the primary method of controlling the game), is either moving like molasses or jumping across the screen.

Stylistically the game is fantastic, a shame it wouldn't run properly
click on image for full view

As I said previously, I can't give my impressions on the game when running under ideal conditions. As a guess I'd say that if you are a fan of Penny Arcade, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is something you'll want to check out at least. I would only warn you that if you plan on playing the PC version and you have even the slightest doubt as to whether you can run the game smoothly, you would do well to try the demo before you drop twenty big ones on the full version. Until game companies start listing realistic minimum and recommended system requirements that's the best way to find out if a PC game is right for your rig.

Laptop-Friendly Gaming

2008-05-13T13:25:00.007-05:00

I just moved to Canada and my desktop and Xbox 360 won't be reaching me for another month or so. For the past week my Nintendo DS has been my savior but I have a need for some competitive multiplayer gameplay that the DS just can't give me. As a result, I've been looking for games that will work on my not-so-gaming-friendly laptop and I've found a few, some of which may surprise you. After installing and testing, (and some uninstalling too... darn 60Gb hard drive), many of my mighty collection of PC games, I settled on a lineup that I consider a solid and well-rounded collection for anyone in my position with a relatively cheap laptop with limited hard drive space.

First of all, so you know what I'm working with here are the gaming-relevant specifications for my laptop. It is a year and a half old and cost $640 at purchase:

processor: 1.60 GHz Turion 64 X2 TL-50
memory: 2Gb G.Skill PC2 4200 laptop ram
graphics: Integrated ATI Radeon Xpress 1150, 256 Mb shared memory (steals from system memory)
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

The Games

StarCraft: The long-awaited sequel may be just around the corner, but after ten years this game is still as great as it was when it came out and you can still find people playing it online. It's real time strategy that is a deep or shallow as you want it to be and so ridiculously well balanced that the only time I ever cursed a race for being cheap was when I found myself brought to my knees by a massive, well planned zergle rush, (though it was really my fault for not being prepared).

The Orange Box, Counter Strike Source & Day of Defeat Source: I don't know what it is with the Source engine, but my laptop has absolutely no trouble at all throwing down consistently solid framerates with the graphical settings at mid-high with the resolution at my laptop's max, (1280x800). The engine may be three and a half years old but it still looks fantastic and the gameplay in these games is a solid as you can get. Half-Life 2 and Eps 1 & 2 are some of the best single player experiences you can get on a PC, Portal is a great brain-bending diversion for a few hours and DoD:Source, CS:Source and TF2 take online multiplayer and compress, polish and refine it until you get PC gaming diamonds. Oh yeah, you also get Peggle with Orange Box, which has about the highest addictiveness:simplicity ratio ever.

The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind: My favorite open world game of all time and a shining example of what a Western RPG can be. From the moment I stepped off the boat in Seyda Neen and saw the beautiful, open world for me to explore I knew I was playing a game I had never quite experienced before. One of my personal favorite aspects of the game is the extraordinarily varied cultures. Each town has it's own distinct architecture and culture and you never get the impression of cookie cutter game design, quite a feat with a game of Morrowind's size. It doesn't look nearly as good as Oblivion, and you'll notice some unfortunate load times between areas, but those are small complaints over what is an otherwise amazing achievement in game design. The game looked and ran fantastic on my laptop even before I upgraded to 2 Gb of ram and with two expansion packs, it takes a long, long time for this game to get old.

Sam & Max: Season One: If you like adventure games, get this. If you yearn for the good old days of classic Lucasarts Adventures, or even their text-based forebears, get this. Heck, if you have even the slightest sense of humor, get this. The new, episodic Sam & Max is absolutely hi-larious and expertly written. The only downsides are that the episodic nature keeps the season from quite getting the true feel of a grand adventure, and it's also a bit on the easy side, but that doesn't keep it from being terribly entertaining. When you finish it and crave for more Sam & Max you can move on to season two!

Trackmania Nations Forever: A bare, stripped down arcade racer with great graphics, hundreds of courses and the most amazing ranking system I've ever seen, this game easily justifies a full $40 price tag. The catch... it's absolutely free! This one's a no-brainer so do yourself a favor and download it now.

Halo: This one might be a bit controversial, especially among PC gamers, but the original Halo was one of the best games ever made when it came out on the Xbox. Once it was ported to PC it was even better. Not only was the single player campaign a blast with spectacularly designed levels, but the multiplayer was simple, fast paced, and well balanced. I spent many nights playing Halo PC on my computer over the dorm network with the other guys on my floor. There aren't quite as many people playing online as there were about four years ago, but if you can get a game going you'll realize that the gameplay is still as solid as ever. The only downside is the lack of co-op in the single player campaign.

Civilization IV: This is one of the finest strategy experiences ever crafted. An empire-building turn-based strategy game where you start in the bronze age and work your way through history till the twenty-first century. Civ4 takes the previous Civ games and Alpha-Centauris and works them into something more than the sum of their parts. If you aren't a fan of turn-based games this may not be for you, otherwise you owe yourself to play this game. To call it 4X just doesn't do it justice.

Is the New Space Invaders Extreme? (yes)

2008-05-01T22:55:00.009-05:00

In the world of video games, the word "extreme" has become synonymous with crap. For whatever reason, the world of low-budget games has decided that adding the word extreme will make a bad game more appealing. To an extent, they're on to something, as I've seen many a foolish consumer at Wal-Mart duped into buying total crap like Extreme Bullrider or Extreme Watersports. I always wondered if the sort of people who buy those games are actually capable of installing or playing them on a PC, (a difficult proposition for some less than technically-savvy people). Of course, the Wal-Mart crowd is very different from us hardcore gamers that most game development companies care about and we know that a game needs more than a cheesy title to be worth our hard-earned cash.

All that being said, I might have finally gotten my hands on a game where the word extreme is justified. A couple weeks ago I ordered a Japanese copy of Space Invaders Extreme, (which I will sometimes refer to as SIE), for my Nintendo DS and I have to say I'm impressed. If you played the mediocre Space Invaders Revolution that came out a few years ago, put that out of your head completely and and prepare yourself for a game that paradoxically feels familiar and new all at once.

My first impression once I started playing was that SIE is a combination of the classic Space invaders and the techno-psychedelic rail shooter, Rez. As in Rez, when you fire your weapon or strike an enemy ship, notes are added into the arcade-inspired trance music. That in itself was a cool addition but I figured that was probably as far as Taito was willing to go for yet another arcade remake. It seems for the 30th anniversary of Space Invaders they wanted to do more.

As I worked further into the level progression of whatever mode I was playing I discovered more and more additions that add depth to the game. The enemies are more colorful and vibrant and there are trippy, pulsating backgrounds that add to the sense of movement and overall style. Powerups are now available if you manage to destroy four or more of the same color enemy ship in a row, (which is called chaining, reminiscent of Ikaruga), and the color of the enemies determines the powerup. Examples of such powerups are a spread shot, a shield and a super-powerful laser that is visually and functionally similar to Iron Man's colossal death laser in Marvel vs. Capcom. Also the enemy types are much more varied than in the past. The traditional enemy ships and flying saucers still make up the bulk of the enemies for you to destroy, but you'll also face off against giant versions of the enemy ships, ships with shields that must be broken through, ships that when destroyed break into more ships, ships that explode and damage everything around them and several others that I don't want to spoil including boss battles.

Unfortunately, I did not think to import a paddle along with the game. A "paddle" that plugs into the GBA slot of the Nintendo DS and affords a more arcade-style control option is available in japan. From what I've heard the paddle works extremely well but that isn't something I can attest to. It won't be released in the U.S. though so if you want to use the paddle you'll have to import one, though I can say the game plays fine with a D-pad as well.

Since I don't speak or read Japanese I can't comment on the different game modes or options, though there are options for local and Wi-Fi multiplayer. SIE has been out in Japan since February and is scheduled to release in the U.S. on June 17 at a price of $19.99. From what I've played it's a great fusion of classic Space Invaders gameplay and modern shoot 'em up goodness that truly deserves the title of "extreme," though I'll have to wait till I have the U.S. version in my hands to see.

Kurt Vonnegut and Shigeru Miyamoto

2008-05-01T22:30:00.006-05:00

I have a long standing theory that Shigeru Miyamoto read Harrison Bergeron while growing up and completely missed the point. Now that I've played Mario Kart Wii, I'm more certain than ever. If you haven't read the story, then read it. It's extremely short and more than worth your time. Just replace the shotgun at the end with a blue spiked turtle shell.

(comic found on Penny-Arcade)

My Gaming Equipment

2008-05-01T00:01:00.009-05:00

To help understand what I'm playing on: here's the equipment I'm working with. (Click for larger images).
Last updated: 02/10/2010

Xbox 360 20Gb launch edition and my TV: Vizio 47" 1080p LCD

My PC, the guts have changed but the case has remained the same for seven years.

The guts of my PC: Xigmatek 750W PSU, Athlon 64 FX 52 (overclocked to 3.0Ghz), 4GB OCZ Reaper PC2 6400, Radeon HD2600XT, Sound Blaster Audigy X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition, MSI K9A2-NEO, 500GB Western Digital HDD, 500GB external Hammer MoreSpace HDD

My PC monitor: Acer 22" 1680x1050 resolution LCD

My Laptop: Dell Inspiron 1501, 17" screen, Turion 64 X2 Mobile (1.6Ghz), 2GB PC2 5200, Integrated Radeon Xpress 1150 256MB, Windows 7

I've added a Playstation 3 Slim 120Gb to the mix.