"When the Dark Lord of the Sith offers you five, you take it!" Ken Levine.

  In recent weeks I've been noticing the steady decline of ye olde Gamespot.  I've noticed with their revamp, it's made their site harder to load and made some their features a little harder to navigate.  I cancelled my subscription when they fired Jeff Gerstmann so I'm not exactly complaining, just observing.  But I will say one thing, they know what to video and what not to.  This Ken Levine Keynote at PAX was the highlight of the show.

   If your not a member of the site at all, you might have to join or at the very least sit through some advertising to see the keynote but it is worth it.  Also I didn't want to embed it here; because while I love the content, I don't much care for the content provider. So follow the blue linky and enjoy.

    As far as Gamespot; well if they completely ever fall apart it will be both a sad time and a just end to all they have wrought.  It will just be too bad for all the people who still like Gamespot or feel loyalty to them.   So that's my post.  But don't worry a review of Too Human should be coming soon.  So keep an eye out.

Technorati Tags: Gamespot,Ken Levine,Bioshock,PC,XBOX360,PS3,PAX,Pennyarcade

Star Wars Force Unleashed Demo: Wow I allmost don't miss multiplayer.

 

   When this game was originally announced there was going to be online multiplayer lightsaber and force dueling.  This game was going to be just like the Wii version except with online rather than just offline.

   The game has taken a LONG TIME to get here and still needs all most one more month.  For what I don't know, considering when doing an Interview with X-PLAY the lead guy on the project said that the game is done.

   But this is all a digression because this demo blew me away.  You are allowed to use Force Lightning, Force push, Force grip, and probably some other stuff I didn't get to play with.  This is going to be the BEST STAR WARS game EVER!  I think it has handily blown away KOTOR and KOTOR 2 as the undisputed king of the franchise.

   The demo allows the player to run through most of the first level of the game after you actually become the Apprentice.  The controls are great and with the exception of a few instances where you run out of Force Juice(which you have to wait a second or two to recharge), you feel like a god.  The only thing I couldn't do that I wanted to was snatching a TIE FIGHTER out of the sky and crashing it.

   I can't wait to play the final version on September 16th.  I only wish the game was coming sooner.  I'm just hoping there is some replayability here.

Technorati tags: starwars, starwarsforcedunleashed, lucasarts, xbox360, sony, PS3, playstation3, microsoft, Wii

Here's YOUR FREAKING DEMO, now shut UP! TOO Human's demo and related stuff.

   I didn't go to E3 this year.  Which I am not alone in, neither did lots of big companies.  But I did stay home and work and download stuff from XBOX LIVE MARKETPLACE.  Including to my absolute delight the TOO HUMAN demo.  Now if you have not done this yet; stop reading this and go start downloading.  It's a 1.09 GB download so unless you have a 3 MB connection or better like I do, then it's going to take you a while.  So just go do that now....

    Done?  Good...  Now, I was pleased to also see a couple of wonderful little videos about TOO HUMAN as well.  Which took significantly less time to download.  So I watched these before the demo was done downloading.  So they certainly occupied my time and I was interested in them, even if it felt slightly academic.

     Come to find out however, that these videos were actually training films for the demo.  The films were about the Champion class and about leveling skills.  So when presented with these in the demo, I was well aware of what to do, and what to expect.  How fortuitous...

    So what was the demo like?  Was it a mind blowing experience?  Did this change the way I thought about games?  Well, sort of....

    The cool thing about Too Human is that it is really framed like a movie.  With a real story arc and a nice way of telling that story.  It felt very much like an action movie.  Maybe, Aliens or Starship Troopers.

     But more than that.  The combat was interesting and fun.  I really got the impression that I could bang on those guys all day and night and never get bored of it.

   Also there was gear in the demo.  Lots of gear.  Some I could use right away, some I had to wait to level 6 to play.  Level 6 is the built in level cap for the demo.

    But all of this really wouldn't have made me psyched about the game.  Considering the Champion Class was the only one you could play in the demo, or so I thought.  Just want to say that although the Champion Class is fun, it is by no means the best class in the game.

    I happened to head over to the Too Human website.   There was a little cheat that allowed the player to play ANY of the 5 classes available in the final game.  Apparently you just have to unplug your ethernet cable, turn off your XBOX 360, then turn it back on and change to the date to one that is in 2009.  Then the rest of the classes will be unlocked until you plug the cable back in again.

    Awesome right?  Well, it is.  Playing as the Defender or the Berserker completely changes the way you play the game and certainly teaches you about combat in ways that the Champion cannot.

  I've played through the demo around 6 times now.  It is very fun just to play through for the different experiences and the sheer joy of combat.

   Too Human will definitely be a must play game this year.  I think it may even be the Bioshock for this year.

   But why was my title so dreary?  Well, it's because Microsoft doesn't seem too interested in Too Human.  Not when they have their XBOX LIVE EXPERIENCE AND GEARS OF WAR 2!  Well, that's all fine and dandy, I'm sure Gears of War 2 will sell lots of games.  In NOVEMBER!  And the XBOX LIVE EXPERIENCE doesn't come out til LATE FALL?  Whatever that means,  is that code of December or November?

   Too Human comes out August 19th!  Less than a MONTH FROM THIS WEEK!  This game should have been the headliner!  It looks AWESOME, it has some incredible cut scenes and it plays amazingly.

   Where are all the developer interviews, the behind the scenes footage, and the viral ad campaign?  I know what your saying.... Wasn't that all about 2 months ago?  Exactly, they had all this crazy stuff come out before anyone could even get their hands on it.  It is like Microsoft said to the fans:

   "Here is your FREAKING DEMO, now SHUT UP!"

   As Microsoft, circles deeper and deeper into the incredibly crappy world of casual games it is good to see that there are still some descent hardcore titles coming out.  Even if at the core they just want to be fat and happy like Nintendo.

    Back to TOO HUMAN though; I suppose I shouldn't be surprised when Microsoft ignores this title, given the four star treatment they gave Bioshock.  I think all told Bioshock had two or three trailers and a demo before it launched and everyone gave it GAME OF THE YEAR that year.  Perhaps it's just Microsoft's commitment to their own particular product that keeps them from.... Wait, Microsoft it producing Too Human... Oh well... Who knows why they are ignoring it.

   This game is an incredible time sink and people will be playing this game when Gears of War 3 comes out.  Silicon Knights has all ready promised LOTS of DLC.  Which even taken with a grain of salt translates into at least a few more things coming out.  An arena style fighting mode where you have to survive wave after wave of steadily harder enemies would be nice.  Just a suggestion, no charge...

   Finally I have one question for Microsoft, who in BLOODY HELL likes Kung Fu Panda SO FREAKING MUCH?  I have never seen so much content come out for a kids game SEQUEL in my life.  The Furious Five is so far the best promoted game of E3.  What is up with that????

Technorati tags: TOOHUMAN, microsoft, XBOX360, siliconKnights, gearsofwar2, kungfupanda, xboxliveexperience, xboxlive, xbox

Sony's Online Rental and Purchase service. Wow was this a MISTAKE!

   Upon hearing that Sony had decided to make an online service available allowing people to download movies and television shows for both purchase and rental and then those movies could be shared on your PSP as well.  I was thrilled.

    Well, I was unfortunately unable to view this service when it was SUPPOSED to be launched last night.  Rather I booted it up today to take a look.

    Upon my first entrance into the service I was hit with one of the most poorly planned interfaces I've ever seen.  I'm sorry XBOX LIVE MARKETPLACE for all the bad things I've EVER said about your organization.

   I entered New Releases thinking that since this service hasn't even been active for 24 hours that I would get all the available movies.  However this was not the case, it was simply a random grouping of movies based, I guess, on when they were posted to the site.

    I then entered the view all movies area.  Which simply gave me a bunch of letters and a couple of numbers.  I supposed this is better than showing all the movies available but then they should have a heading saying, Movies by Alpha Order or something.  Not View ALL MOVIES.

    OK, now let's get into the inexcusable part of this service.  The rental part is pretty standard except that some movies that are made by Sony and available in BLU-RAY are not available in HD like: Resident Evil 1, 2, or 3; for instance.  They are $2.99 for Standard Definition and $5.99 for High Definition.  Now this would be fine except that the movies to purchase are $9.99-$14.99 for STANDARD DEFINITION ONLY!

    So you can buy a BLU RAY FOR $30 or a DVD for $6-15.  But they want you to get a digital version with no box or media for $10-16?  Excuse me?

    Why?  These downloads come with nothing!  No director commentary, no deleted scenes, nothing.  And I'm sorry but I don't own a PSP so I can't avail myself of the sharing service.  Nor would I want to.  Watching a movie on that little screen is pointless.

     There is absolutely no point to have this service except for the rentals.  Which with Netflix having Blu-Ray and if you have PS3 you have a BLU-Ray player; it's pointless to not spend the same amount as 2 movie rentals on the PSN service and get a month of rentals from Netflix.

    Sony should have allowed people to download the HD versions of their movies for between $15-$20 and made a fortune.  Rather than STILL TRYING TO PUSH BLU-RAY and making no money at all.

  Oh and by the way Sony, Microsoft has been showing SD and HD movies on their Rental service for about  a year now, so keep trying to upgrade and maybe one day you'll at least reach the same level as Microsoft.  Oh but wait, you can watch Netflix instant downloads for free this fall as long as you have a Netflix account.  Oh, well I guess Sony has some MORE catching up to do.  It must be hard to be Sony.  The PS2 era seems SO LONG ago, doesn't it....

Technorati tags: Sony, microsoft, PS3, PS2, playstation, PSN, videogames, movies, rentals, DVD, BLURAY, HD, SD, downloads

The Death of the Hardcore?

    According to IGN we are all just kidding ourselves when we call ourselves Hardcore Gamers.  I'm not sure exactly what IGN thinks a hardcore gamer is; but apparently they no longer exist.

    I know lots of people who have all ready finished both Metal Gear Solid 4 and  Ninja Gaiden 2 and they don't work in the press.  I think that's pretty hardcore.  I know a bunch of folks that have taken their characters in World of Warcraft from 0-70 in about 2 weeks; that's pretty hardcore as well.

   I've been playing World of Warcraft, Grid, Ninja Gaiden 2, and just starting Metal Gear Solid 4.  So much that I haven't had time to write this blog or my World of Warcraft blog.  I think that's pretty hardcore.

    The fact that Gametrailers, X-PLAY, Gamepot, IGN, and 1UP seem obsessed with

the Wii and Nintendo DS are not signs that the Hardcore Gamer is dead just that they are no longer being represented by the Gaming Press as a whole.

     The fact that people play PC games and make mods for years and years after a game comes out is another sign of the Hardcore being alive and well.  But there is only one PC gaming magazine on the market now to represent those people.

     Rather it is  Gaming Journalism in the mainstream that has decided to pull up their plots and go home.  It seems that there can be 25 magazines about which dog, house, car, or kind of clothes to buy but when it comes to gaming magazine there are FAR TOO MANY.  Even though gaming as a whole far outsells even the movie industry as far as yearly revenue.

     So IGN should look to yourselves for the death of the Hardcore Gamer not the world of gaming.  Because there are plenty of Hardcore gamers out there and most the folks playing World of Warcraft that have multiple level 70 characters should be all the evidence anyone needs of that.

Technorati tags: gaming, gamers, PC, pcgaming, XBOX360, PS3, blogs, gamingpress, Sony, Microsoft, NintendoDS, Nintendo, hardcoregamer, hardcoregaming

Playing to Win in the video game industry but failing miserably.

      The journalist of the mainstream seems sincerely convinced that people in general want to learn about the video game industry of between 1-30 years ago.  The latest edition of the this is the CNBC show, "Playing to win in the video game industry."

     With an opening that makes everyone interested.  An economic breakdown of what is currently going on in the industry.  They then quickly move into the FULL history of Electronic Arts.  Which is about as interesting as it was when it was on Techtv about 7 years ago.  This is not to say it's interesting, it's more to say it's the same freaking thing.

     This show, much like all the others in recent history is so caught in the past that it is pointless to show to a modern audience.

    The video game industry that has taken blogs and on demand video websites as  home.  Imagining that something like a TV show that is based around things that happened 10 years ago could be even the slightest bit popular or interesting.

     People who make these shows like: Game On, Rise of Videogames, etc...  Are pandering to the lowest common denominator like tabloid TV, while pretending to be providing information to the general public.  The fact that these shows appear on News or documentary type cable/satellite networks makes it even worse.

    As someone who has become more interested in the PC end of video games can attest.  Most people who play video games are adults who are in technical fields or professional fields these people use video games as a stress releasing outlet or a social activity. 

   Perhaps that's why there is so much money in it.  The other people who play, kids.  Generally do so, because if they weren't they would be watching television and movies which wouldn't be any better than video games.  No matter what anyone says.

    Anyone who doesn't understand this by now is either stupid or isn't paying attention.  I don't think either should be listened to.

   So don't bother listening to people who haven't been in or done anything with video games in ten years.  Or journalists that simply want to be sensationalist and try not to add in too much real information.  After all, what fun would that be.

Technorati tags: console, xbox360, ps3, ps2, Sony, Microsoft, news, media, nintendo, journalism

Killzone 2 from Sony Gamers Day

Rise of the Argonauts HD interview

Interview for Viva Pinata Trouble in Paradise.

Zero Punctuation Reviews GTA IV!

The Creative Abyss

Considering how much I've been around the digital water cooler these days I'm kind of the equivalent of the guy who shows up and says,

"What's Lost?"

Well maybe not, that bad. You get the idea, though. Who knew that working on a whole new blog and trying to keep up on games would be so much work.

Taking my red eyes and looking over some of the recent occurrences in up coming games and some that have been announced aren't looking too good. Something that could be all most as bad as the glut of movie adaptations we get every year.

The retro revival trend. I'm not talking about Pac-Man Championship edition here(don't say anything bad about that game, YOU!). No, instead what I'm referring to are the growing number of modernized ancient licensed IPs that no one in their right mind could still care about and most modern gamers have never even heard of.

I'm somewhat into this sort of thing on XBOX LIVE ARCADE. Although I would really prefer to see original IPs on the platform rather than some big company's rehash of an old game. But at least that is an appropriate enviornment for such games. Rather than the AAA game arena that so many of these games are aspiring to in the recent announcements by some companies. Games like:

Alone in the Dark

Splatterhouse

Street Fighter IV

Bionic Commando

Sonic Unleashed

Street Fighter IV probably isn't a fair addition to this list considering it never really left the public conscience. Much like Pac-Man... Sonic however, has had SO MANY rehashes that this series is SO DEAD that someone should be digging it a very deep grave as we speak.

The other games are really not the spiritual successors of their former counterparts as much as concepts perhaps originally created in those games but when recreated they bare little no resemblance to their name sakes. Why not make up new games with new IPs using similar mechanics.

Some of this is the inability for the gaming industry as the film industry to take risks. It is better from a business stand point to use something familiar to people than it is to make something totally new. It's also easier to rehash comic book characters in a movie than it is to create a whole new world with new characters. So while this is just another illustration of the point. It seems like the industry has sequelidous even after the vast success of Bioshock.

Perhaps it takes a visionary like Ken Levine (Bioshock) or Denis Dyack(Too Human) to create a totally new IP. While there are certainly more examples of new and different in the game industry than in the movie industry. As the budgets grow closer together the worse this situation becomes. So remember when you buy the next episode of Grand Theft Auto or that copy of 50 cent bulletproof. that you aren't just helping those companies to continue doing business but also contributing to the total lack of creativity of the industry. Now, how about we all play some Okami or Bioshock and think about all this some more?

Technorati tags: movies, videogames, adapatations, bioniccommando, marvel, DC, Too Human, Bioshock, KenLevine, XBOXLIVE, XBOXLIVEARCADE, XBOX360

Come visit our new sister site PATH OF ARTHAS

Follow this link. Here you will find everything World of Warcraft you could possibly desire. Head over and make it your source for all your World of Warcraft news, tips, guides, etc...

Brett the Cover man for Madden

According to XBOX 360 Fanboy

"Confirming an earlier report that appeared on GameDaily, Brett Favre announced he would be honored as the cover athlete for Madden NFL 09; the 20th Anniversary of the series.

The announcement was made during an interview by Late Show host David Letterman. While news may come as a surprise considering Favre recently retired from the sport, his accomplishments alone warrant the appointment.

In his career Brett Favre was awarded one Super Bowl championship, 3 AP NFL MVP awards, was a Pro Bowl and All-Pro selection 9 and 7 times respectively and holds over 7 NFL records, including most career passing yards (61,655 all-time yards).

Finally, a cover athlete that can end that silly Madden curse. Unless Favre falls off his fishing boat this summer or something.

Madden NFL 09 is set to release on August 12"

This comes as little surprise considering the amount of press that Favre has all ready received this year.

WoW is Coming......

 

WOW is Coming.

    Check back

       for More....

                 Soon..

Technorati tags: worldofwarcraft, blizzard, pc, pcgaming, blog, journalism, warcraft, wow, mmorpg

Star Wars Unleashed Console Differences Video