Wednesday, October 31, 2007

1UP Review of Guitar Hero 3

Head over to the site and check it out.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

1UP gives Guitar Hero 3 a 9.0 see why!

Check out the full review.

Awesome Infected Halloween Halo 3!

"Playlist of the Living Dead
Posted by Frankie at 10/30/2007 10:25 AM PDT


In the dead of night, cold lids flutter and wake from dread slumber. What do those milky eyes see when they rise from their graves? What do those decaying nostrils scent in the air as they sniff the perfumed night of the boneyard? Brains of course. Succulent, delicious brains. Brains are to zombies as bacon is to people. Or candy, if you’re kosher.

It is a scientific fact that zombies feast on human brains because they are the softest meat on a person and Zombie dental care is not really up to snuff.

To celebrate the gustatory tendencies of the walking dead and to acknowledge All Hallows Eve, we’re launching a spooktacular, eerie-otic and cryptmongous playlist for 27 horror-filled hours, starting on October 31st at 12:01am and ending at 3:00am on November 1st because we love Hawaii Halloween too (Chicken skin kine). It is infection and it is the playlist of the Living Dead.

To answer your eerie queries and uncanny questions, we reanimated Transylvanian Tyson Green from his dank and moldering pit.

Q: Infection, what’s that?

Infection is this really great gametype, inspired by a custom game devised by our community in Halo 2, which we added official support for in Halo 3. In Infection, most players start off on a Human team, with one or more players starting off as Zombies. The odds are stacked heavily against the Zombies at first, but when a Human is killed by a Zombie (as they inevitably are), they join the Zombie team and turn on their former teammates.

Q: How long will the Living Dead haunt matchmaking?

Just for Halloween, from 12:01am to 3:00am the next morning, PST. We decided to let it go a bit late into the morning to give people a chance to play when they got home from their Halloween carousing. Infection is a lot of fun when everyone is into it, but we don’t think it would make a good playlist long term, so it’s going to come and go.

And if everyone has a good time, who knows? It may return, as the restless dead are known to do.

Q: Can I get achievements in this playlist?

Yes, it is set up as a Ranked Playlist, and players will have some good opportunities to pick up a few of the harder MP achievements without any of that pesky guilt. Fending off the hungry dead is as righteous a way as any to score an Overkill. It’s also a good chance to fill out your Ranked Medals with some of the Infection medals, like Infection Spree and Hell’s Janitor.


Q: Can I join with my homies or is this a Lone Wolves style hopper? And how many corpses will I play with?

You can join with a max party size of 4, Infection matches can start with eight players and the games have a player limit of 13.


Q: There’s more than one version of Infection in this playlist, what is each version and how does it work?

We’re using two main versions: Save One Bullet, which is close to classical Infection but with limited ammunition which keeps the Humans from holding off the Zombies forever, and Creeping Death, where the Zombies are a bit slower but shockingly invisible and deadly. Creeping Rockets is a third variant where the Humans are more heavily armed, but the Zombies are tougher too.

Q: Do the maps in Living Dead have the same set-ups that I am used to?

The Living Dead playlist will be the first to use Forge variants in Matchmaking. Lars [Bakken] and Dan [Miller] pulled out all the stops and Forged some masterful variants featuring fortified positions and anti-Zombie booby traps to help get people into the Zombie mind (which is to say, wanting to get into a Human’s mind. Directly.)

Q: Man, I love these gametypes is there any way I can get them?

Any time you play one of these variants in Matchmaking, they’re saved in your Recent Games queue (in the Custom Games lobby, go to select the game type—the Recent Games list is at the top.) They may also show up in the Bungie Favorites this week.

Q: Will there be more special hoppers in the future?

You bet."Bungie.net

Guitar Hero 3 Launch Trailer

No DLC for Skate?


"...Blackwood also touched upon the lack of female characters. "We really wanted women to be in there and have all sorts of cool stuff to wear and hairstyles," he said. "You have to choose between watering the whole thing down and making it just really mediocre for everybody, or do you focus? We decided to focus. I will say, however, that was the hardest decision on this project. But we are going to make it up to you. When we do it -- and we will -- it's going to be done very well...""1UP...

This is strange news. In one breath the developers say they are not making downloadable content because it dilutes the game. Then they say that we should wait to see what they are going to do. Do what? Is there going to be content available for the game in the future or not? Perhaps reading the EGM article will be more enlightening as to the actual situation.

Monday, October 29, 2007

IGN Manhunt 2 Video Review for the Wii

Gamespy Reviews Guitar Hero III

Head over for there review goodness!

Guitar Hero III Reviewed on TeamXbox

Head over to TeamXbox for the review. Hopefully the HDCGAMER review will be next week.

Gametrailers Video Review of Guitar Hero 3

Gamestop Video Review of Guitar Hero 3

Walmart not bringing the wireless to Guitar Hero 3

"Forget to make a reservation and find yourself bolting to a 24 hour Wal-Mart at 3 am? Be warned: Reports have been flooding in that Wal-Mart is selling the Guitar Hero 3 bundle with some slight alterations. What kind of alterations, you may ask? Well, it's nothing big, really. Just a minor change to the equipment. The guitar contained within just happens to be the old one from Guitar Hero 2. Ahem. Well. Yes.

While some of you may be too excited to be bothered by this tidbit, fans who have been fervently awaiting the release will be downright pissed if they get this box and don't realize it until they get home. Reported apperances include the Xbox 360 Xplorer and the PS2 red SG guitar instead of the Kramer and Les Paul bundles expected with GH3. As noted by our own Grim, the price does differ ($90 for the old guitar bundle and $100 for the wireless new bundle.)

If you go, go armed with this important information, as the last thing Destructoid wants is to hear the bloodcurdling screams of our unhappy readers as they beat an elderly Wal-Mart greeter to a pulp."Destructoid..

Head over to Destructoid for the picture evidence of the wired guitar rip-off. Just a suggestion, if your gamestore doesn't have GH3 head over to Best Buy; they seem to have quite a few.



1UP Needs to think outside their box: Rock Band Hub problem Solved!

"Check Out Rock Band's USB Hub
Prepare to plug yet another device into the wall.
By Patrick Klepek, 10/29/2007
When Rock Band ships next month, you'll quickly realize there aren't enough USB slots on Xbox 360 to accommodate the load of peripherals that need to be jacked in for the whole experience. Given the PlayStation 3 features four accommodating USB ports, this extra step won't be necessary there.

1UP was recently shipped the finalized Rock Band peripherals, including the USB hub. We haven't had enough time with the hub to determine how well it holds up -- up until now, we've been using a separate hub that was delivered with an earlier version of the game, but isn't part of the bundle on Xbox 360 -- but we can't say we're happy about having yet another device that needs to plug into the wall, especially considering the hub's limited length.

The hub's made by a company called ViPowER, and while it's a little disheartening there don't seem to be many reviews of the other USB hubs they make, here's hoping we don't have to search out our own replacement hubs a few weeks after launch. We'll keep you posted."1UP


Hey guys, this is a pretty simple solution. Go to any Best Buy, Circuit City, Walmart, or Target and pick up a 4 port USB hub. I believe they are around $20-$24. You can plug this into your XBOX 360 directly and let the XBOX 360 power it. These hubs don't have their own power supply, but you don't need it if you are going to plug it into the XBOX 360 anyway. All most all of these hubs work with the XBOX 360. because they have been tested prior in many magazines including OXM. Just because it doesn't say it is for Rock Band, it doesn't mean you can't use it for the accessories.

Is This the Last Guitar Hero?

As great as the new Guitar Hero is; it is far from perfect, according to critics. The upcoming Rock Band will offer a ton of features besides just instruments beyond the guitar. Activision has been having quite a run,
" The latest from the NPD group shows that sales of Activision's titles, led by the Guitar Hero series, has hit almost $400 million. EA has lost the top spot for the first time in over a decade with sales of $365.7 million."Destructiod

This is all pre-Rock Band and Skate came out to good sales and good critical review but it has had a very short time to build steam. Most games of this type including Tony Hawk, are usually "long game" titles that make more money as time goes on. Even more when they reach the discounted price point. When RedOctane was rocking the Guitar Hero, the price point never went down; which is probably why Activision bought them in the first place.

Guitar Hero 3 was all ready pretty far along when the deal went down between RedOctane and Activision. It is certainly understandable that there aren't too many improvements or advancements. However, with Rock Band coming out in about a month with some of the advancements that would have benefited Guitar Hero 3. There are certainly more songs on the way for Guitar Hero 3 but there are even more songs on the way for Rock Band. Even that won't help in the long term.

Guitar Hero 3 was Activision's coming out party, and it rocks. But if there aren't some big changes in the future this might be the swan song for the series. At one point if Harmonix and Redoctane were still together they would have a monopoly. Now that Harmonix is working for EA, and coming out in a month. With features that everyone was thinking about since Guitar Hero 2. It is hard to believe that Activision and Redoctane are going to be able to recover from this very easily.

Guitar Hero 3 gets Offline mode with Patch


" Those who fired up their new copies of Guitar Hero III yesterday might have been disheartened to find that the game lacked the offline co-op quickplay mode. Luckily (for a portion of you, at least) that's going to be addressed with a quickness, thanks to a patch that 1UP says is coming this Tuesday to Xbox Live.

The bad news is that there's no word of similar treatment on the Wii or PS3 versions so far, but hopefully it's not too far off. We're not sure what's so difficult about offline co-op quickplay that it had to be addressed with a patch, but we're happy that Activision seems concerned enough about it to act on it so quickly. Of course, that's not much comfort to those without internet or (we're looking at you new Arcade owners) a hard drive to save the patch on."Joystiq...

This is great news and btw, if you have neither internet or hard drive I don't think I would have bought an XBOX 360.

Rock Band Full Setlist


Here is the set list for Rock Band,"1960s
Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter"

1970s
Aerosmith "Train Kept a Rollin'" (Cover)
The Who "Won't Get Fooled Again"
Boston "Foreplay/Long Time"
Mountain "Mississippi Queen" (Cover)
The Police "Next to You"
David Bowie "Suffragette City"
Black Sabbath "Paranoid" (Cover)
Blue Oyster Cult "Don't Fear the Reaper"
The Ramones "Blitzkrieg Bop"
Deep Purple "Highway Star"
KISS "Detroit Rock City"
Molly Hatchet "Flirtin' With Disaster"
The Outlaws "Green Grass & High Tides" (Cover)
Sweet "Ballroom Blitz" (Cover)

1980s
Rush "Tom Sawyer" (Cover)
Bon Jovi "Wanted Dead or Alive"
The Clash "Should I Stay or Should I Go"
Faith No More "Epic"
R.E.M. "Orange Crush"
Iron Maiden "Run to the Hills" (Cover)

1990s
Foo Fighters "Learn to Fly"
Metallica "Enter Sandman"
Nirvana "In Bloom"
Stone Temple Pilots "Vasoline"
Weezer "Say It Ain't So"
Smashing Pumpkins "Cherub Rock"
Radiohead "Creep"
Beastie Boys "Sabotage"
Hole "Celebrity Skin"
Garbage "I Think I'm Paranoid"
Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun"

2000s
The Hives "Main Offender"
Queens of the Stone Age "Go With the Flow"
The Strokes "Reptilia"
Jet "Are You Gonna Be My Girl"
OK Go "Here It Goes Again"
Nine Inch Nails "The Hand That Feeds"
Pixies "Wave of Mutilation"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Maps"
Red Hot Chili Peppers "Dani California"
Coheed & Cambria "Welcome Home"
Fallout Boy "Dead on Arrival"
The Killers "When You Were Young"
New Pornographers "Electric Version""Joystiq..
.

This is 45/58 tracks. This omits the unlockable tracks...

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Team Fortress 2 Gets an Update! Yeah!!!



"
• Reduced network bandwidth usage in multiplayer.

• Improved overall game performance.
• Arranged search results to favor preferred host conditions.
• Improved searching for ranked games.
• Addressed a possible false report of too little storage space on larger hard drives." Head over to Kotaku and check it out.



Friday, October 26, 2007

Unreal Tournament 3 Single Player Trailer

Unreal Tournament 3 site Updated!


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Blood Streak

Unreal Tournament 3

Hey UT Fans,

Make sure you check out a major update to the Unreal Tournament 3 website today. We have included new vehicles, characters, weapons, game info and more cool stuff. More updates to come too! Don't forget that the release of the PC version is right around the corner.

Here is another outstanding wallpaper image of some Concept Art from UT3 to wet your appetite!

Click here to download the wallpaper.

Penny Arcade and Ratchet and Clank. Yeah!

Hellgate London and Nintendo's Game about Death


Nintendo's Game about Death seems to be missing a certain point. That is if you played the original Diablo or the new Hellgate London in hardcore mode. Your character will die if you let it. Therefore, it's not like Fire Emblem when just one of your characters dies; this is when your character that you have worked on for weeks dies. Then that's it. So Fire Emblem is rare but not unique.

Sony's got an Ad Campaign that might help Business. Or not!



Article on PS3 campaign is basically about them bringing back the cool white room campaign. But they are trying to turn it into something mass market and that is scary. Not the good kind of scary that they had going last year, a bad kind of scary. Like clowns and large annoying teachers who want you to write three papers in one week scary.
They are going to be highlighting their system selling games: Uncharted Drake's Fortune, Heavenly Sword, Ratchet and Clank Future Tools of Destruction. These are more or less ALL their games coming out this fall other than Haze and all their multiplatform games. Which, of course, they can't count on any of these coming out except for the ones listed above. So that is probably why they are focusing on them.

Gran Turismo 5: Flirting with Online?



Amazing how just when everything seemed perfect with Gran Turismo everything begins looking odd.
"We wanted to keep those experiments to a rather smaller compact designed game and be able to experiment on a base that is small rather than having a humongous base to start with and for us to be for the first time bringing the online elements to the franchise with the scale of a huge mothership so to say."PS3fanboy...

What the heck is wrong with these guys? The way you deal with this type of thing is to study other games and you see how they do it. But Polyphonic doesn't do that. While I assumed this meant that they more or less knew what they were doing. But as it turns out...
From the demo on PSN, I really wasn't impressed with the graphics or the handling of the cars. If Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is an experiment, then why are we paying for it?
I'm sure the final product, Gran Turismo 5. Will be great, they all ways manage to be. But why are we paying for what amounts to an extended demo?

Will Wright says Spore is Coming! Spring 2008..


Will Wright says that Spore is coming soon; still. The estimate is for Spring 2008. Problem here is that he has been projecting dates for about 2 years now. It's great that we have something to look forward to, but I hope this is true this time.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

HDCGAMER Podcast Episode 1: Really it is!



Hey what was I doing all day today? I was recording and trying to post a podcast. Here are the fruits of my labor, please subscribe to the Podcast, because this is just the beginning of our fun trip. This week's episode has the Newsstand which is a review of this months Video Game Magazines as well as two game reviews: one for Sega Rally Revo and the other for Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal for the XBOX 360.

Time Crisis 4: Terror Alert Trailer!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Tim Schafer says No New Psychonauts Game!


"I wish! No, we are just putting up a new page for the old (Excellent) game. Sheesh. How many games do these people think we can do at once?"--Tim Schafer."Gamespot..

With the announcement of Brutal Legend and the fact that Double Fine is an independent publisher it would be hard to think they were making two games at once.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Nolan Bushnell talking without Experience...



"Nolan Bushnell Says Today's Video Games are 'Unadulterated Trash'


Video game veteran Nolan Bushnell said in a recent interview that video games today are in "a race to the bottom." He believes that most games are isolating and are missing the important social element. More within...

Atari founder Nolan Bushnell has never been afraid to speak his mind. In a recent interview with Electronic Design, the 'father of electronic games' said he is sorely disappointed with the direction the video game industry has taken in recent years. He believes most of today's games are pure garbage.

"Video games today are a race to the bottom. They are pure, unadulterated trash and I'm sad for that," he said.

As the founder of Chuck E. Cheese, Bushnell is now looking to create a wholesome family gaming experience at his uWink restaurant chain, where he will offer tabletop games to people who come in to eat. Despite the online revolution, Xbox Live, massively multiplayer games, and more, Bushnell believes that most games today still lack the social element.

"Social games represent something that has been missing," he commented. "Most of the board games are purchased by women for families. It is this gaming world that can be re-energized. We used to have families sit down and play a game together.

"A lot of video games today are very isolated. You don't see mom and dad, sister and brother, sitting down like they used to play, say, Monopoly. That represented good mentoring time for families that just isn't happening now."



by James Brightman"Gamedaily...

So where has Nolan been isolating himself lately? Dropping out of Atari way back when didn't exactly benefit anyone. Being that he is still more interested in food service than video game development. He should probably keep his mouth shut.

Supreme Commander on Consoles!

"Report: Supreme Commander commandeering consoles
Gas Powered Games founder Chris Taylor says 360 port of massive-scale RTS likely to arrive before PS3 game; Space Siege also possible to go multiplatform.
By Tom Magrino, GameSpot
Posted Oct 22, 2007 4:27 pm PT

Chris Taylor apparently is a man who enjoys being coerced out of a secret. For example, the Gas Powered Games founder inadvertently revealed to UK gaming publication Pro-G that a console version of Supreme Commander is currently in development.

In response to whether SupCom would be the first real-time strategy game to perfect a console control scheme, Taylor said, "I hope so. That's our goal. Especially not to talk too much here because you've almost made me confess that we're working on it...no actually you have. That's good. I like that. This is a secret I want to share." SupCom publisher THQ was not so forthcoming--as of press time, the publisher had not responded to requests for comment.

Taylor didn't explicitly call out when or which platform(s) the game would be coming to, but he did say it would likely arrive on the Xbox 360 first. "If you look at pure development economics, it's the platform of choice for moving stuff from the PC," he said of the 360. "You can get stuff over there economically, very quickly." Addressing the possibility of a PlayStation 3 version, Taylor continued, "The hardware is more complex, but it's not out of the question. It's just more time."

Supreme Commander isn't Gas Powered Games' only RTS being considered for multiplatform development. Taylor said that the upcoming Space Siege, a sci-fi spiritual successor to the classic Dungeon Siege franchise, would "move through the 360, the PS3, heck and probably the Mac." Space Siege is expected to hit PCs in the first quarter of 2008."Gamespot..

This is some good news, the RTS games are just getting better on consoles. First, Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth, then Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, and now Supreme Commander. Hopefully the game will be the best yet on consoles.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Big Hellgate London Preview over at Gamespy!



Gamespy has video and a nice commercial that runs on the same screen as the preview. Looked pretty good to me, not quite as good as mine, but then I'm bias...:)

Friday, October 19, 2007

Playstation Blog Updates us with Warhawk 1.1 patch info!



Click here folks for the full run down. All of this is great and this really does show that developers are really committed to their online properties on the PSN. I'm hoping that this trend continues because the next big game coming to PSN is Unreal Tournament 3 and developer participation there will be a requirement.

My Team Fortress 2 Nightmare Round!


Hey, I'm normally a pretty easy going guy. But I was in a match yesterday with a bunch of folks playing TF 2. The game is wonderful... Lots of fun classes with lots of fun weapons. The problem with the game seems to be LAG! All it takes is one dude with a crappy setup and you are playing pixel ballet for the next few minutes while the system tries to get a grip. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
Yesterday, there was one guy on the other team with a laggy connection. At the end of the first round we had managed to kill all most all of them and for a spilt second I was the only one by the control point. Once I was completely over the point and it said point taken, we won the round. I guess this was a big mistake because, it somehow dumped my whole team off the server except for one other person and myself. We two happy campers wanted to keep our scores; Well, this guy hung around doing nothing for around 5 minutes and then realized that I couldn't defeat the whole other team all by myself.
Then he turned into a spy and tried to single handedly beat the whole other team using backstabs. That didn't work, so for the last two minutes we tried working together to beat them. But by then, the other team had built up enough turrets to kill us before we got close enough to the control point for it to matter.
The problem with here. of course, is that this lag is completely ridiculous and unacceptable. If the game cannot be played with 12/12 or 16/16 except on a T1 cable then we shouldn't be allowed to do it without that kind of connection. Hosts need to be chosen better. Also, since Valve are the wizards of technology they should allow people to have their XBOX 360 act as a dedicated server for people. I for one, would be happy to do that.
Barring all that, we NEED A PATCH!

The HDCGAMER Podcast, Premiere episode! Sort of...


All right I'm going to drop everyone the link to sign up for the show. Then you can listen next Friday for the REAL FIRST EPISODE! Right now, we have a Promo for that show.

HD-DVD built into XBOX 360, maybe in 2008 or 2009..

"Xbox 360 to get built-in HD DVD drive in late 2008?

Posted Oct 19th 2007 3:57PM by Nilay Patel
This certainly isn't the first time we've heard this rumor, but SmartHouse is reporting that Microsoft and Toshiba are working on an updated Xbox 360 with a built-in HD DVD drive. If that were all, we wouldn't bat an eye -- it's gotta happen sometime -- but there are some other, crazier aspects to this version of the rumor that set off some red flags: SmartHouse also claims that the new box will be Toshiba-branded and have dual HDTV tuners, electronic program guide capabilities, built-in wireless networking, and sport an "MP3 player" dock, which we'd imagine would be for a Zune. That's a hell of a box, right there, and while we've seen similar devices like Sony's PSX, they didn't exactly take the world by storm. Our money is still on a simple bump of the existing 360 to HD DVD, but get ready to hear a lot of about this rumor in the weeks to come."Engadget....

Even if this is true, late 2008-CES 2009? I really don't think there is really even any point in discussing it. Beside the fact that this will have no effect on games for the XBOX 360; because they cannot have one really small group(the new buyers) running on one format(HD-DVD) and the other really large group(the install base) running on another format(DVD). This just won't happen. No smart business would do this, they are splintering their own market. The new console might be good for people looking for a cheap HD-DVD player, although they can do that now for $599. With the purchase of XBOX 360 plus the add-on HD-DVD player. Now in order to make a descent impact on the market the new console would have to be the same price as the current console. This seems impossible, all though we are talking a year or more from now, can you say price cut?

Trenton wants people to buy PS3 games! All 62 of them!

"Tretton told the paper that taking support for PS2 games out of the new system isn't dramatically cutting manufacturing costs. However, by omitting the option of playing PS2 games, Sony hopes that new customers will instead spend their money on more PS3 games. He added that Sony's own research suggests that customers won't miss the feature because they probably already own a PS2."Gamespot...

This is insane. The system that has the fewest games out there wants to make that even more apparent by cutting off the the backwards compatibility that is probably helping their PS2 game sales. I have purchased just as many PS2 games and PS3 games. Difference is I still have the PS2 games and I only kept Resistance for the PS3. All customers out there make sure and purchase a 60+ GB PS3 before they are gone. The 40 GB PS3 is obviously a big rip off.

Ratchet and Clank break out their Tools of Destruction NEXT WEEK!



The Playstation Blog" As frequent Playstation.Blog readers will remember, about two weeks back we announced Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction had gone gold and would ship to stores Oct 30th. Well, due to some unexpected quickness at the factory, a vast majority of retailers have already received the game. With that, some retailers are choosing to release the game next week instead of waiting until the 30th, which we are all too happy to allow :).

Official launch date remains October 30, but for those who can’t wait to use your trigger fingers on the Tornado Launcher (or any other weapon in Ratchet’s arsenal), check with your local game retailer next week."

This sounds great, I did wonder when on the Internet Show, "On the Spot." Last week Insomniac representative said that the game was completely done. I was thinking, "Well then, what are we waiting for?" I guess nothing... Although the release date remains in November, hopefully retailers and renters will release their copies early as Sony has given them the green light.

NPD Sales for September 2007, Sony's PS3 not doing too well!

"Top 10 best-selling games of September 2007, according to NPD Group

Halo 3 (all versions)--Xbox 360--3.3 million
Wii Play with Wii Remote--Wii--282,000
The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass--DS--224,000
Madden NFL 08--PS2--205,000
Skate--Xbox 360--175,000
Madden NFL 08--Xbox 360--173,000
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption--Wii--167,000
BioShock--Xbox 360--150,000
Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day--DS--141,000
Heavenly Sword--PS3--139,000

September 2007 hardware sales, according to NPD Group

Xbox 360--528,000
Wii--501,000
DS--496,000
PSP--285,000
PS2--215,000
PS3--119,000"Gamespot...

Looks like Halo 3 was good for hardware sales after all. It seems that all the analysts predictions about the PS3 sales skyrocketing aren't panning out. Also, considering the price cut for the PS3 won't show until November's NPD. Analysts say that the larger the install base of the XBOX 360 and PS3 will positively impact the whole industry as opposed to the Wii install base only favoring Nintendo. Sony's response to the lagging sales is basically that their share of the market is 619,000 compared with Xbox's 528,000 and Nintendo's 997,000 so they are still in second place. This is kind of sidestepping the question of Sony's problems with the PS3. But admitting that they have a problem is just not something that Sony is ever willing to do.

Hellgate London Major Content upon Retail Release!

"Major Updates to Hellgate: London

For those of you playing the Beta version of Hellgate: London, you will be pleasantly surprised to know that the game is going to be receiving MAJOR content updates that will be made available upon the game's release this October 31st, 2007.

The content update list applies to both non-subscribers and subscribers of the game. Subscribers will be receiving many more features in addition to what everyone else gets, too. The list follows:

DX10 Update
The build of Hellgate: London which you are reviewing includes both DX9 and DX10 versions of the graphics library. The DX10 version of this build has a few known issues. They include a slow framerate compared to the same scene in DX9 and black loading screens. We’re currently working on a fix for the black loading screens. The slower framerate is due to the fill-rate intensive special features that only our DX10 engine has, including: soft shadows with proper contact hardening, depth-of-field, motion blur, interactive GPU-simulated fluid smoke, texture-array animated rain, and soft particles. The extra fill rate costs are mitigated by an initial depth-only render pass, which is now being tested and will be ready for release. When Hellgate: London hits retail, we expect the framerate of our DX10 target to be as high, if not higher than DX9, including these special features.

Multiplayer Updates – All Players
We are continuing to push both new multiplayer features and bug fixes to the Beta. Things that may or may not be in during their review time (depending on when they do it), but will be in by launch are:

Buddy Lists
Much better and easier ways to organize your friends!

Guilds
While only subscribers can start one, anyone can join a guild. Special name colors and tags on characters show their affiliation.

Buddy and Guild Chat
Special chat channels so you can keep your conversations clear.

Bigger Levels in Nightmare Mode
These increase the time players get to spend in each area, giving the game a more expansive feel at higher difficulty levels.

PVP
Players can both duel and elect to enter free-for-all PvP Mode. To duel, a player invites the person they wish to duel into a group, and heads into an adventuring area. Duelers, then right-click on the portrait of the person they wish to duel and select the Duel option from the displayed list. Dueling can only take place outside of Underground hubs.

Players can also choose to enter into PvP mode which means they can be attacked and harmed outside of Underground hubs by anyone else that has chosen to enter PvP mode. That is, those in PvP mode, must always be ready for PvP. This is a way to have wide-ranging free-for-alls, or create your own “friendly-fire” way of playing the game.

Tuned Game Progression
Level and monster progression is more thematic in nature. While this does not affect the overarching layout of the world map, it does make each act feel more defined and focused.

Gossip
We’ve added loads of additional details on the people and places in the game through various NPCs in the world. This definitely helps make the stations feel more alive and provides players with more of the back-story.

More Quest Information
Quest NPCs do a better job of getting you prepared to know what you’re fighting and why. The overall story flows much better, the named demons that are encountered are given more story weight, and players gain a much better sense of overall direction.

NPC Tweaks
The vocal responses given by NPCs have been tuned so that they tend more towards the serious and “normal”, reserving the twisted commentary for specific player characters or in rare moments for the general populace.


*Subscriber Features*

Elite Mode
This is for those players that always feel a game is too easy. The demons are tougher, deal out more damage, move faster, travel in larger groups, and have more champions at the ready. Numerous tweaks to the overall balance and progression of the game make this an extremely challenging mode.

Hardcore
Hardcore mode takes away the various resurrection options. For the gamer that wants the ultimate test, try playing an Elite Hardcore character!

Themed Events and Items

Halloween (October 31 – November 4)

*Zombot - A special pet just for All Hallows’, this amalgam of meat and metal is sure to frighten and delight those players that are willing to put in the time to find all the necessary pieces in order to construct him.

*All Hallow’s Visage - A Unique Helm that has not only very special properties, but as well a look unlike any other helm in the game. Ghost Rider would be jealous!

*All Hallow’s Treats - Delicious and devious, these different candies do everything from temporarily boosting stats to temporarily altering the appearance of the devourer.

*All Hallows’ Quests - There is a pair of special quests available, including one that is repeatable for continuous fun.

*Nemo ~ Master of Festivities - This special NPC can first be found in Covent Garden Station to greet players and send them on their way with quests specifically crafted for the season.

Guild Creation
Buy purchasing a Guild Herald, a character can form a new guild. Characters can only be part of one guild at a time and should a Guild leader decide to abandon their post, they can pass leadership of the Guild to another subscribing guild member.

Achievements
These are long-term goals for players. The player starts with a few new goals in an Achievement Log. These can be as simple as slaying a certain amount of specific demons to something as difficult as completing quests without the benefit of armor! Players uncover new goals as they start to meet the requirements of that achievement. For example, after 50 zombies have been slain, an “Achievement Unlocked” message displays on the screen. Checking the Achievement Log shows how many zombies must be eradicated to complete the achievement. Rewards for completing achievements can be anything from reputation to tags on the player to special particle effects to items to special skills to – well, anything is possible!

Extra Character Slots
While everyone gets 3 character slots, subscribers can have a maximum of 24 characters.

Larger Stash
Each character’s storage locker is doubled in size with an extra 6x8 section, making the hoarding of all sorts of goodies that much easier. Packrats rejoice!

Founder’s Perks
Name Color
Forum Icon
More to come… (this will be an on-going area, as well)"Sol Invictus

This is the reason that people playing a beta or alpha shouldn't judge the final game solely by what they see in these builds. Can't wait for Halloween!

Hellgate London Preview


"Beta NDA Lifted

The NDA period for the general Beta test is officially over! THANK YOU all for being as good as you have been on this. Feel free to post, email, phone call, and alert your local news station about your play experiences!

How Our Beta Process Works
We wanted to take a few minutes to talk about how we run our Beta tests, the differences of and timing for getting builds out to the testers, and basically let you in on what makes our test tick.

Our development path is quite different from that of the vast majority of game developers. We utilize what we call an organic process, which is basically shorthand for our way of constantly iterating, tweaking, tuning, and making changes that are difficult to set months or years ahead of time in a traditional design document. When we get into the last 6 - 9 months of development time, this process really kicks into high-gear. We are making an immense amount of changes, both large and small, and if we tried to push these out to our Beta testing community, we’d literally be giving you new code up to a dozen times a day. Obviously, this isn’t going to be of any great benefit, so we wait until we have done a lot of internal testing and can batch changes into larger, meaningful updates.

We have a core team of testers on-site dedicated to working with our programmers and designers to give immediate feedback and address bugs in a focused manner. We also have a massive amount of testers at EA that work on builds that have been promoted as release candidates. When we get a patch release candidate that we feel is solid, we then promote that to being a Published candidate, and it undergoes patch testing. When we get something here that we like, we push it to you, the Beta testers.

What this means is that we are, at a MINIMUM, 2 weeks further down the road on the game than the testers see. Commonly, this time gap can be upwards of 4 weeks. We push hot fixes as quickly as possible, but please remember that we have also been working on numerous language builds, the single-player gold master, and of course, the fixes and features for our first day online – what we call Patch 0.

We know that it can be frustrating at times to hear that things are different in our internal builds than what you have, but it is just how timing has to work in order for us to meet all of our deadlines and make sure that the testing time we get with you is as beneficial as possible. Thank you all for the hard work, the hours of testing, and your continued support and excitement for the game."Hellgate Guru.

This is great news... Hellgate London is a really great game. The gameplay systems that bear a very strong resemblance to Diablo, work very effectively in their new context.

The game starts out with the player picking his/her avatar from among different classes: Templars: Blademaster or Guardian, Cabalist: Evoker or Summoner, and Hunter(or Ranger): Engineer or Marksman. These can be boiled down into their base abilities: Templars are basically sword wielding warrior types, Cabalists are basically magic users, and Hunters or Rangers are basically centered around the FPS mechanic in the game where the player can shoot enemies from a first person perspective. Using these characters the player enters into a post apocalyptic world where demons have taken over and a few humans that remain struggle to survive against them.

The player begins with basic armor and weapons. Most of the time the player can pick up a descent sword or gun between the 1st-3rd encounter. The real power of the game comes from augmenting the weapons and armor found using raw materials gleaned from destroying weapons and armor that the player's class cannot use. Most of the time this, coupled with the straight augmentation that must be paid for, will give the player much more powerful weapons and armor than anything randomly picked up in a dungeon. From time to time as the player moves higher in levels they find some good armor or weapons. This results in the player rarely really needing to buy any weapons or armor from vendors. This isn't immediately understandable by the beginning player due to slow flow of armor and weapons in the beginning. This was the case in the beta build I played, this could change in later builds or in the final game.

All of the classes in the game are well balanced and have interesting traits and skills. The weaknesses as far as exciting skills lie most with the Guardian who has defensive and offensive auras which allow the player to regenerate health or do more damage in combat. The higher levels of the Guardian have some interesting skills but the lower levels are not quite as fun to play as the Blademaster. This too could be changed by the time the game reaches the final build.

This game has had so many changes over the builds that I've seen, it is conceivable that the final retail build of the game will be different from the builds in the Alpha or Beta to the point of them being unrecognizable. The enemies in the game are many and most act like those in popular MMOs like World of Warcraft. They respond to Aggro and can be debuffed into destruction. The beta could have benefited from more varied enemies but the idea that the enemies live in these locations and that is why they are so plentiful is a good reason. For the player however, beating the same zombies or variants on those zombies over and over again can get a little annoying. However, this is a very small point.

Being a Blademaster normally makes the player feel the most powerful because even with enemies all around the player just tapping a couple of skills and attacking with double blades can take down all most anything. The other very satisfying class is the Summoner who can summon elementals by the handful and bigger demons that act like battle pets. These battle pet demons can be very helpful and it is certainly worth dropping lots of skill points into them to yield a really powerful ally.

The story in the game is pretty good. But it should be taken with a grain of salt that everyone in the game has been seriously mentally affected by the invasion of the demons and are teetering on the edge of madness. Many times people will be so jovial about horrible occurrences partly because this is an MMO and people don't like to read dramatic overly dark stuff and because everyone is all most insane. Bearing this in mind makes the game more understandable and even funny. Hopefully some of the quests could be a little more serious; considering EA's own fiction about the game is very serious and dramatic. It would be like having Ken Burns Civil War and then making a game where all the soldiers are wise cracking as their compatriots are dying all around them. While a little battle fatigue and shell shock is understandable but sometimes this is taken too far and makes the story less impactful. Hopefully this will be juiced up for the final retail.

I loved the time I spent with Hellgate London Beta(about 20 hours, maybe a little more). But I am REALLY looking forward to the final build, because the resolution of all issues will make the game a hot property this year. See you online on Halloween!


Nintendo says that Games don't need hype!



The article on Multiplayer Blog talks about the problems journalists have covering Nintendo Games because Nintendo doesn't want to talk about them. This is just another sign of Nintendo backing out of the game industry. They are becoming a toy company. They seem to have the same attitude about the rest of the game industry as I have about professional soccer. I acknowledge it exists but I don't care about what happens in it.
Even with their horrible game sales for games like Metroid; Nintendo still won't help their sales with larger marketing campaigns. I guess this is because Alpha Moms and little kids don't read enthusiast press magazines or websites.
I don't really think that this is much of an issue. If Nintendo doesn't want to talk to press about their games; then I guess only Nintendo can be blamed when the games don't sell well. Finally, as Nintendo veers further away from the mainstream industry it will have a harder time getting developers to work with them. I'm sure Nintendo will do well with this new strategy, because Tiger Electronics has has been in business for as long as I can remember and that is the industry that Nintendo is entering.

Okami on the Wii, Confirmed!

"Okami prowls on Wii
Capcom enlists the help of Ready at Dawn to bring Clover Studios swan song to Nintendo's console next spring.
By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
Posted Oct 19, 2007 2:01 am PT

Just prior to its dismantling, Clover Studios finished a pair of PlayStation 2 games that stood out from the pack: God Hand, a fighting game with an over-the-top style to match its daunting difficulty, and Okami, a critically acclaimed adventure game that added a unique "celestial brush" gameplay mechanic to a framework reminiscent of the Zelda series. Today, a full year after Capcom first announced that it would be dissolving Clover, word has arrived that the publisher is porting Okami to the Wii.

With Clover gone, Capcom has turned to another highly regarded developer to bring the game to the Wii. The Wii port of Okami will be developed by Ready at Dawn, the studio behind the highly regarded Daxter on the PlayStation Portable and the highly anticipated God of War: Chains of Olympus, which is also for the PSP.

As would be expected, the game's controls will be revamped to make use of the motion-sensing Wii Remote. For example, players will use the controller as if it were main character Amaterasu's celestial brush, painting symbols to invoke powers that help solve the game's puzzles. Okami is expected to see release on the Wii in spring 2008."Gamespot...

I loved Okami on the PS2. I even still own a copy of this classic. But on the Wii? I know the controls might make the paintbrush more exciting but even with all those Wiis out there, it seems impossible for it to sell as well or better than the PS2 version especially by Spring of 2008. Super Smash Bros Brawl will be out by then right?


Thursday, October 18, 2007

Join Up Now! Combine Nation: Do Your Part! Ignis Solus Does it Again!

Head over to Lit Fuse and watch the latest video. If you don't have a way to play DIVX format movies all ready, you can download a player there.

The Reviews are in and Oramge Box is the King!

Beyond Bioshock, Beyond Halo 3, Beyond everything else on XBOX 360! Orange Box with one point more than it's competition on Metacritic beat out everything. After having played it for myself. I have to agree that this is the best package I've ever seen and there is really FINE content in this box. So don't wait for my review, go get a box of your own and open it. Just remember, the Cake is a Lie!

Capcom's BIG Announcement! Lost Planet?




Capcom's announcement from 1UP"Capcom Reveals New Games, IP in London
Lost Planet PS3, sci-fi Dark Void, SF2 HD delay, more.
By Patrick Klepek, 10/17/2007
What happened in London was supposed to stay in London until embargoes expired, but Games Radar defied the marketing folks at Capcom this morning and published a story detailing many of the announcements coming out of their media briefing overseas today. Games Radar has since taken down the article, but the announcements are no less intriguing.

As Street Fighter IV is announced, another is delayed. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD will not find itself on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network this year, as Capcom works on reducing the effects of lag for online multiplayer. The remake will also introduce true widescreen support and remixed music.

Capcom also revealed a brand-new sci-fi IP, Dark Void. Does Dead Space have some competition? Not much is known about Dark Void, but Games Radar said the trailer showed "third-person and air-vehicle gameplay with a character wearing a steam punk jetpack, skydiving and landing in the cockpit of a gyroscopic aircraft, and then jumping and climbing through airbase fortesses [sic]."

And confirming something we all suspected would happen eventually, Lost Planet is arriving on PlayStation 3 in early 2008. The PS3 version will include all content released over Xbox Live, bonus characters from the PC version and apparently support up to 16 players over PSN.

Additionally, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney made an appearance on Nintendo DS, but we already knew about that one, along with Wii Love Golf from the studio behind Mario Golf.

1UP is at Capcom's event now, but our lips are sealed until later this week -- stay tuned."
Some cool announcements but Lost Planet for the PS3? Is this a big deal? I dunno, I guess I'll give it a shot, but it seems a little anticlimactic.

Gamasutra tells Folks how the ESRB rates games!

This is a must read for parents and players a like. Find out why games are rated as they are!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Ken Levine on Bioshock DLC!


"Diablo II, to me, was a great model for an expansion, because it enhanced the original game, but also extended the game, too. I'm not a really big fan of expanding things just by linearly adding to the experience, adding a new campaign, as much as I am of enhancing the original experience and adding replayability to that experience," said Levine in a post-release interview in the latest issue of Games for Windows Magazine. "I think that certainly BioShock's combat experience is great, but it could be broader. I'm a little more confused as far as how to expand the narrative experience."1UP...

That's really cool, hopefully we will see more than just more plasmids; although if that is all we get. I would be happy...

Tim Schafer's Debut Trailer for Brutal Legend!


It's like Evil Dead, but in a good way!

Directly from the Playstation Blog a new game revealed: Rat Race!

Rat Race Revealed!

"Hey people! My name is Greg Easley and I’m one of the founders of Super-Ego Games, a development studio with a different take on making games. We’re finally announcing our new title and labor of love, Rat Race. You’ll read more about this in the game press soon, but I wanted to tell you about it here first.

Rat Race is a PS3-exclusive comedy/adventure game – yeah, another one of those! – that will be available as individual episodes on PSN beginning this winter. Rat Race has been written and voiced by some really funny people with credits on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, My Name Is Earl, Saturday Night Live, South Park, Flight of the Conchords, Sex and the City, Ugly Betty, Comedy Central, and so on. Our team includes some of the best stand-up comics in New York City, where half of our studio is based (the other half is in San Francisco).

Rat Race is set in an office - an extremely dysfunctional one. The company is called BiggCo, and the people who work there make the Enron guys look like Nobel Prize laureates. Your job is simply to make it through the day as bombs go off all around you. As the clock ticks toward quitting time, you’ll encounter a rogues gallery including: Joy Chung, an impossible, and impossibly hot, PR exec; Chip Bratsby III, a pompous jerk whose career focus is getting you fired; and Dr. Ron Durfman, a research scientist who may or may not be intimate with his lab monkey.

Our goal is to give you the feeling of “playing” inside an episode of your favorite TV show. Sometimes we describe Rat Race as an interactive sitcom, but that doesn’t do it justice. There’s more to the experience than funny dialogue. Along the way you’ll sneak, sprint, solve puzzles, eavesdrop, steal, and even “neutralize” that lab monkey.

Look for more info about Rat Race in the coming weeks.

rr_office7Rat Race - Office Talk

"

Wanna Beat Valve at their own game? This is what you need to do!




"This Friday a baker's dozen of Valve developers will be taking to Xbox Live to take on all comers in Team Fortress 2. Xbox Live Gold members will need to add the following Gamertags to their friend's list for a chance for pwnage.

• gamewithdev1 (Matt W.- Level Designer)
• ValveArtist1 (Matthew S. - Artist)
• ValveAnim (Matthew R. - Animator)
• ValveProg1 (Vitaliy - Programmer)
• ValveProg2 (Adrian - Programmer)
• ValveProg3 (Kerry - Programmer)
• ValveProg4 (Robin - Programmer)
• ValveProg5 (Jim - Programmer)
• ValveLevelDes2 (Dave - Level Designer)
• ValveArtist2 (Nick - Artist)
• ValveLevelDes3 (Scott - Level Designer)
• ValveProg6 (David - Programmer)
• ValveWriter (Chet - Writer)

Then at 6 p.m. Eastern hop on Live and invite away.

STORM THE STUDIO: PLAY TEAM FORTRESS 2 ON XBOX LIVE® WITH VALVE

October 16, 2007 - Valve, a leading entertainment and technology studio, today announced a special Xbox LIVE®online entertainment network event to celebrate The Orange Box (www.whatistheorangebox.com), now available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.

On Friday, October 19 from 3-7 PM PDT (6-10 PM EDT), Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers will have the chance to take on Valve in a friendly game of Team Fortress 2, the sequel to the game that put class-based, multiplayer team warfare on the map. While playing, gamers can chat with the level designers, programmers, artists, writers, and animators who created Team Fortress 2 and learn helpful play tips and favorite "insider" strategies.

To get the chance to play in the developer showdown, gamers will need an Xbox LIVE Gold Membership. Subscribers need only sign into Xbox LIVE and add the following Gamertags to their friends list:
• gamewithdev1 (Matt W.- Level Designer)
• ValveArtist1 (Matthew S. - Artist)
• ValveAnim (Matthew R. - Animator)
• ValveProg1 (Vitaliy - Programmer)
• ValveProg2 (Adrian - Programmer)
• ValveProg3 (Kerry - Programmer)
• ValveProg4 (Robin - Programmer)
• ValveProg5 (Jim - Programmer)
• ValveLevelDes2 (Dave - Level Designer)
• ValveArtist2 (Nick - Artist)
• ValveLevelDes3 (Scott - Level Designer)
• ValveProg6 (David - Programmer)
• ValveWriter (Chet - Writer)

On October 19 at 3 PM PDT (6 PM EDT), gamers can launch Xbox LIVE and invite or be invited by Valve team members to play a round of Team Fortress 2.

For more information, visit www.xbox.com/gamewithvalve"Kotaku...

Art of Midway is coming!

"Want to be a video game designer?

This diverse collection of concept art highlights the most recently released video games of Midway Games, including the rich mysterious worlds of Mortal Kombat, the science fiction of Area 51 and Psi-Ops, the high fantasy of Gauntlet, the eerie horror of The Suffering, as well as several new games that have not yet been announced. Of special interest to many fans will be the inclusion of art from Stranglehold, the recent project (due May 2007) from Visual Design Director Stephan Martinière. Most of the images contained within have never before been published in any form."From Designstudios press...

I all ways love these art books, they are SO COOL.

December, the Last issue of PSM, sort of....

The news that PSM is going the way of the dodo after this month isn't news. But what is news is that they are actually changing the name of the magazine to Playstation: The Official Magazine. Early this month it was announced that Future was bringing Playstation: The Official Magazine out to the US. What wasn't stated was that it is taking the place of PSM. My reviews of PSM have been unfavorable, but I don't think changing the name and maybe including a demo disk are really going to enhance the writing. At least Future isn't in fantasy land about the number of Sony magazines that this market will support. All the best to Future and their new prospects...

Perfect Dark 2: A Rumor that is Probably true?



Gamespot says,"The latest to take sprout is from Indian blog GameGuru, which has apparently landed details on the "Xbox 360's next humongous killer app." Citing unnamed sources, the blog states that Microsoft's next big push will be for Rare's Perfect Dark 2, which will officially be announced "sometime during the latter part of next year." Whereas Perfect Dark Zero was a prequel to Rare's acclaimed Nintendo 64 game, Perfect Dark 2 will be a sequel proper, the blog claims.

GameGuru also states that PD2 will feature a Joanna Dark that is "darker than usual to give the player a feeling of a twisted edge," and that all of the characters will have tinted gray auras. This is likely in relation to what GameGuru calls Perfect Dark 2's "morality system," in which "choices are going to have a huge impact on the gameplay, giving players a variety [of] branches in the storyline itself." The blog also says that Rare's engine will feature a fully interactive environment, and that "there are probably going to be no cutscenes in the entire game."

Despite being peppered with rampant hyperbole, the blog is likely right about a Perfect Dark sequel being in development. Having sold more than 600,000 units and being one of the system's first Platinum Hits, Perfect Dark Zero performed respectably as an Xbox 360 launch title in 2005, which would warrant another installment in the series. The extended development time could also be plausible, considering that Rare has been neck-deep in copulating papier-mâché with Viva Piñata for the Xbox 360, as well as upcoming Nintendo DS and PC versions of the original game.

Whether or not Microsoft plans on matching its $10 million Halo 3 marketing effort for PD2 is a whole other can of worms. Given that Rare is owned by Microsoft, the game will undoubtedly be an Xbox 360-exclusive, which is a, pardon the pun, increasingly rare occurrence in this multiplatform era. As a result, a significant marketing push is to be expected. However, considering how prone to hyperbole the blog is, the reports of its size could be greatly exaggerated.

It's also worth noting that Viva Piñata was a risky investment for Microsoft, one that hasn't paid off quite as well as the company might have hoped, considering the game has moved less than 290,000 units to date in the US. Given that, Rare should be looking to make safe bets (read: sequels in established franchises) with its next projects. The upcoming Banjo Kazooie sequel is one such project, and a new Perfect Dark is the most natural other candidate.

The official story: Microsoft had not responded to request for comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: Not bogus that there will be a sequel. No call on the details."

This is interesting, I'm just wondering if Microsoft truly believes that Rare was worth the money they paid for it. They have yet to truly get enough money from any franchise that they have come out with. The next game should be Banjo Kazooie but we haven't seen anything on that game since E3. So this would certainly be a welcome announcement in the place of that game which doesn't seem like it's going to make any money. Considering that the mechanics in PDZ were good, I would like to see updated graphics and style in the new game. If they manage that, it will be a great game.

Looney Tunes Acme Arsenal: Why do Licensed Games all most all ways SUCK?


Going into Looney Tunes Acme Arsenal I really hoped it would be a good game. In the demo there were a few sniggly problems with the camera and a few problems with jumping across this or that ledge. But on the whole the game was pretty good. Certainly not a 4 star, AAA title. But with multiplayer looking very fun and absent from the demo, everything was looking hopeful.
Alas, the finished product was actually no better than the demo. But over the course of the EXTREMELY long levels. The main thing the player is wondering is why this game wasn't finished. Yes, finished! Turning the crazy camera allows the player to look through walls, PS2 style. The enemies are repetitive to the point of nausea. The feeling of goofiness, looniness, or even the game being funny never really materializes. A few statements made by your in game persona are funny but nothing hysterical.
The arsenal part of the game is only evident from the weapons that are spread so thinly throughout that they are all most an afterthought. Your main weapon is a melee weapon that evolves with a Sonic the Hedgehog style collection system that makes your main weapon more powerful but if you are hit repeatedly you will lose some of that powerup and may end up with a much lower powered weapon. But this is one of the few situations where you would want to grab one of the "arsenal" weapons.
The biggest problem with the game though is that it is just annoyingly punishing. There too many enemies and the combos that your character does are usually too weak to really clear out the enemies in proper order. The platforming is easy and the puzzle solving is very easy as well. If this game is for children, it is unfair to make the game so punishing; if it is for adults the camera will probably make most sick to their stomach.
If the developers could have fixed the camera, I would still be playing this game. I might have even tried the multiplayer. Please don't buy this game! I give it a 4/10!

Hollywood Throws in the Towel: September Box Office slump due to Halo 3?


The stories on this are rampant but the one that is really most appropriate to the mood of this is the Kotaku story.
So it's finally over, video games are more popular than movies. I guess Hollywood can start converting their studios to video game development houses and reinvest their tens of hundreds of millions into video game projects. Or will they simply invest in video game to movie projects. Like World of Warcraft the movie and Assassin's Creed the movie. Sounds good, folks. Can't wait....
I hope actors and actresses are ready to be the voice talent in the next feature game. At least they won't have to worry about being in shape.
This story just goes to prove that Fact is all ways stranger than Fiction. I don't think we could have even dreamed this up...

XBOX LIVE MARKETPLACE: Stop Hiding Content!

First off I just want to say that I LOVE XBOX LIVE MARKETPLACE. I am on there just about every night looking for new content for games, videos, free gamer pics and themes, and of course any other goodies that might be up for grabs. Problem is this, the content can be REALLY hard to find. It also changes not only the place where it is at but what is in those places often. The last straw was today when I heard that a new Halo 3 Short Film had popped up on the service and I went to look for it. I couldn't find it. So I had to go to the internet, specifically to XBOX360fanboy.
These folks had actually explained where exactly to go to find this video because it was THAT hard to find. All this would mean for the service would be to simply actually put the new videos on the front pages rather than just everything that came out in the last two weeks for one area. I wish they would actually cut up the content not directly put up with a game in a separated form rather than just all clumped together and shoved somewhere. I'm sure most of these videos have little to no download rank. I hope for the Fall update they decide to properly categorize these ridiculous general areas. No more clips, Community Game Videos, and the ever elusive Game Videos.
All of this was fine when there were a couple of hundred of pieces of content on the service but as Microsoft says, "There are over a 1,000 pieces of content on XBOX LIVE MARKETPLACE." Well, that's great guys, now make sure everyone can find all of it.