Text Adventure

How Lara Got Her Groove Back

2010-09-11T08:21:00.001-06:00

Tomb Raiding has never felt so good!

Vanquish Xolotl
Regain the Mirror of Smoke

Gamerscore = 25 Acquired 10/9/2010

I really liked Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. There, I said it. I didn’t realize before I purchased this game just how much I was to enjoy it. You see, I have had a history with Lara Croft . There is some water under the bridge between us, and we have jumped over it. The difference between Tomb Raider of yore and today’s Lara Croft is that ‘jumping’ that water has never been so effortless and exciting at the same time!

Lara Croft has always been synonymous with the Tomb Raider franchise which is, for good or ill, one of the most storied in gaming history Tomb raider of course spawned movies, comics, and numerous games. In my opinion, Lara Croft got by on her looks for some time after the initial smash hit that was Tomb Raider, but it was clear to me that with each of the ensuing games in the series, each had less of that Lara Croft magic than the original. Developers would continue to resuscitate and reinvigorate the franchise with varying degrees of success and failure, but each refresh only momentarily recaptured my imagination. That was until the developers at Crystal Dynamics took a gamble on the biggest shift for the series yet. A gamble that in my opinion has paid of handsomely.

What is first striking about Lara Croft is that it has abandoned the Tomb Raider name. Using exclusively Lara Croft rather that the recognizable Tomb Raider is a clear effort to separate this game from its past, and I think it is for good reason. If this game were carrying the Tomb Raider brand, gamers may expect a Tomb Raider game. Lara Croft is not a Tomb Raider game… well not exactly. The first major difference is this is a downloadable title, a first for the brand. With a downloadable versus a boxed game come expectations of length, quality, and fidelity. While Lara Croft delivers a full retail experience, it is presented in this fashion. Another major change is the game isometric perspective. I could not help but think of Sonic the Hedgehogs' foray into the isometric with Sonic 3D Blast and what a disappointment that was. Fortunately Lara Croft does not suffer the same fate. The transition to the new perspective was in my opinion a very smooth transition. The action and platforming elements do not suffer at all for it.

Now Lara Croft may be exceedingly different from its predecessors in many ways, but at the same time it still capture the essence of what made the Tomb Raider popular in the first place. Personally, I like to call Lara Croft a Triple-A game. Not in the way that it cost $80 million dollars to create, rather that this genre is an Arcade Action Adventure. The arcade refers to with the speed the action plays out as well as the score and time-attack elements of the gameplay are integral to the experience. This game can travel at a break-neck pace, or you may need to take the time to solve the numerous, yet fair, puzzles that populate the gamescape. The games looks and sounds like a Tomb Raider game as well, the difference being your character model is very small on the screen to allow for the bevy of monsters, mazes, and traps that make up the rest of your perspective. For a downloadable game, it is a real looker.

What would a tomb raiding game be without loot? For me, this is what really separates this game from the rest. Your ability to accomplish tasks and solve puzzles will give you the opportunity to uncover loot such as ancient relics and treasure, weapons, and upgrades. From there you can customize your character to take on those quests you may not have been able to accomplish your first time around. Lara Croft also supports co-op gameplay. Unfortunately I was unable to explore this feature as the online component is still yet unavailable. But if you do have a friend nearby there is always the couch co-op option!

Lara Croft has done an another amazing thing, it has me believing in Tomb Raider as a franchise again. To be honest, the next game I would like to see is another Lara Croft title. While I was thinking about this game and writing this particular review I was thinking of a way to describe this game. It then popped into my head that Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is the ultimate evolution of Activision’s Pitfall for the Atari 2600. If you sit back and you think about it, you will see what I mean, and I will leave you with that.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

-SG

How Lara Got Her Grove Back

2010-09-11T08:21:00.000-06:00

Tomb Raiding has never felt so good!

Vanquish Xolotl
Regain the Mirror of Smoke

Gamerscore = 25 Acquired 10/9/2010

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

-SG

Xtra Points: Prologues and Epilogues

2010-09-01T22:09:00.000-06:00

A Taste of Things to Come
Built a combo weapon. Necessity is the father of invention.

Gamerscore = 10 Acquired 31/8/2010

Purchased my prologue/game trial for Dead Rising 2 yesterday which is aptly subtitled Case 0. Because of my schedule I literally had seconds to play, but in that time I was able to snag the above achievement. I look forward to diving into the game tonight and see what all the fuss is about. Should help me decide if Dead Rising 2 is still a must play this fall amongst a sea of Triple-A heavy hitters.

With BioShock fresh on my mind with the exciting announcement of BioShock Infinite I have recently had a hankering to return to my BioShock games. With the release of the BioShock 2 DLC, Minerva’s Den, i can have my wish! Once I get my fill of Dead Rising Case 0 I will once again return to BioShock 2 for some more Big-Daddy action.

I thought this was kind of neat. The impressive Cowboy Stadium will be one of the available venues in the upcoming EA Sports MMA title. I would like to see an event here in real life someday.

MUTANT OVERLORD
Play 6 Mutations.

Gamerscore = 30 Acquired 30/8/2010

Nailed the MUTANT OVERLORD achievement. Now awaiting the next round of L4D/L4D2 DLC.

Dead Rising 2 Offical Site

-SG

Xtra Point: Mass Effect 2

2010-08-23T22:18:00.000-06:00

Doppelganger
Help the Justicar resolve her mission

Gamerscore = 10 Acquired 22/8/2010

The best game of 2010 I hardly play would be Mass Effect 2. I have put in over 40 hours into the game, so it is not like I haven’t played it, its just usually gets put to the back of the list in favour of the newer games. I am going to try and make a more concerted effort to complete the game, but with new DLC coming out such as Lair of the Shadowbroker, will Mass Effect 2 ever be done for me? Soon it will rival Fallout 3 for DLC.

More Xtra Points:

More DLC for Left 4 Dead 1 and 2: Some more reasons to keep coming back to your L4D’s. Valve is bringing DLC packs “The Sacrifice” as well as an updated “No Mercy” campaign. All that an a digital comic the expand the story! Not sure how this will all be consumed, but I am sure Left4Dead411 will have more soon! Also, I am still working on getting the Mutations achievement, I just have to wait until a new one that I have not played comes into rotation.

BioWare | Mass Effect 2

-SG

Xtra Points: Peggle Nights

2010-08-21T10:26:00.000-06:00

Go ULTRA!
Ultra extremely cleared all the pegs in a level.

Gamerscore = 15 Acquired 20/8/2010

Peggle Nights: I finally purchased Peggle Nights yesterday. My son has really been into Peggle as of late and I wanted to give him more levels to play through as he already ground through all of the originals. You can’t go wrong for 400 MS Points. As you can see by the achievement above I have taken part in Peggle again as well. Some good, clean fun to be had for certain.

Lara Croft GoL: The XBLA game that keeps on giving! I made my way through 2 more levels last night and I still have a way to go.

The Elusive Man
Break 5 tackles in a game with one player (no OTP)

Gamerscore = 25 Acquired 20/8/2010

Madden 11: Continued with my Franchise last night by hammering the J-E-T-S, JETS, JETS, JETS! I would like to complete at least one season before NHL 11 comes out in early September.

Halo Waypoint: I have to remember to keep an eye on this as the release of Halo Reach approaches.

Peggle Nights

-SG

Introducing: Xtra Points

2010-08-19T17:59:00.000-06:00

If you have been reading my blog over the last 5 years, you may have noticed I have struggled with consistency. Mostly that is due to family and gaming obligations. I have often wanted to be able to produce more, if for no other reason to keep things fresh on the page. With the advent of twitter we are certainly getting used to bite-sized updates and comments that do not stop coming. So every day or two I plan on dropping some Xtra Points of interest from my endeavours in gaming culture. Now it does not mean i will no longer have larger features, it just means hopefully that there will be more content.

Xtra Points: Featuring Lara Croft

Overachiever
Complete any level-specific Reward Challenge

Gamerscore = 15 Acquired 18/8/2010

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light: Very pleasantly surprised with this game! The Summer of Arcade is now ever, and for me they saved the best for last. Played for the better part of 3 hours last night and had lots of fun. I hope to have a more extensive feature on this soon.

Madden 11: Another August winner! I played my first co-op game last night and hope to play many more. Check out the attached video to see the game-winning touchdown!

EA Sports: Madden NFL 11 Video Highlight

Left 4 Dead 2: Need 1 more mutation to earn the MUTANT OVERLORD achievement.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

- @superghost

Halo Highlight Reel: Reach Beta Post-Mortem

2010-05-24T09:27:00.000-06:00

The beginning of the beginning of the end!

It is almost hard to believe after all the months of waiting in anticipation for the Halo Reach multiplayer beta, that the beta is all but a distant memory. In my travels the prevailing sentiments over the beta have been mixed. While many of the gamers were impressed with the great new modes and armour abilities, others ere taken back by the lack of polish on the visuals and some of the way the game was playing. Fortunately the issues that most gamers’ had could be chalked up to the beta state of the game. There are still a lot of coats of paint to go on the final product, in fact I recently read on Bungie.net that the blandest of all the maps, Sword Base, is well into receiving its overhaul and will look quite different in the final product.

The main thing that I took away from the beta is that Halo Reach is still Halo, but is Halo ++, Halo on steroids, it had made the game exactly the same yet completely different at the same time. I know that this will come off sounding weird, but long time Halo gamers will understand what I am talking about. When Bungie built the first Halo, they came up with the ultimate console FPS. With each iteration they have always left the core gameplay intact but have kept tweaking the formula. The guns, ‘nades, and melee combination is still there, but now with the inclusion of armour abilities and a host of new weapons the gameplay is more varied than ever!

I could go into a deep analysis of what Halo Reach had to offer as far as modes and the back-end had to offer, but that would take up a serious amount of page real estate. Instead I thought I would highlight and briefly describe my favourite components of the Halo Reach beta:

Level Up: Persistent character creation and modification has arrived to Halo and much like it has in other shooters. We just had but a taste in the beta.
Cool New Game Types and Modes: Arena, Invasion, Headhunter, and Stockpile were the highlights of the beta for me. It is nice to have some fresh game modes to add to the already legendary library of Halo game types
Armour Abilities: Running, flying, sneaking, and shielding are all cool new additions to the game, and your choices effect how you approach each match and situations within each match.
File Share: While not new to Halo, I really explored this feature in the beta.

Halo Reach Invasion Mode: Closing Moments

Now that the beta is over and Bungie prepares for its recently announced September 14 release date there is still much to be revealed regarding the single player as well as the multiplayer. I believe we have only scratched the surface of what Halo Reach has to offer. I remember looking back post Halo 3’s release and thinking what a complete package that game was. Reach will have the feature set of Halo 3 plus all off the newly announced features, and perhaps we will even see Firefight make it over from ODST. June’s E3 will reveal that much more for us, and I can hardly wait.

-SG

Re-Emerged Into Gears of War 2

2010-05-15T09:53:00.000-06:00

It is good to chainsaw together!

Battle-Tested Gear
Reached level 25 in multiplayer

Gamerscore = 30 Acquired 11/5/2010

I have had a passion for Gears of War since the earliest days of its announcement. In fact if you dig way back into my personal blog archives you can find some Gears dedicated blogs that I posted, in particular, focusing on the Locust and what they may be like when we finally got our hands on the game. All the information I had on Gears at that time was taken from interviews with Cliff Bleszinski or from an online scan of Destroyed Beauty, an art book of sorts introducing people to the Gears universe. I played the life out of the first Gears, playing through the campaign several times and many, many hours of multiplayer as well.

Next we had Gears of War 2, and like Cliff said, it was bigger, badder, and more badass. The launch of Gears 2 even had me standing out in the cold Saskatchewan winter awaiting its midnight release. I took to the game straight away, ripping through the campaign, and loving the new Horde mode as well as all the multiplayer improvements, but one day I just stopped playing. I can’t really pin down why, I think other games just stepped up and I never looked back. Fortunately for me I have some friends who were dedicated, day in and day out, Gears of War 2 multiplayer players.

Recently I decide to take up my friends invitation to return for some matchmaking. It was a rough start. What skills I may of possessed before had severely atrophied, that and the fact that everyone else had their skills finally tuned making game after game a quick march to death for myself. So why would I continue taking this punishment? Usually repeated spankings drive me running for cover in game-land. What kept me in the game was the lure of the achievements. I had scanned which achievements I could relatively earn quite easily, there were quite a few just within reach. So I took my punishment and earned some achievements, but along the way I started to get my Gears legs back again, then I started to run, then I started frag some fools!

So even in the face of the Halo: Reach beta, which I have putting most of my gaming energy into, I have been finding myself wanting to put in some Gears multiplayer each day. I still have some attainable achievements to earn and I am having some fun in the process. The recent announcement of Gears of War 3 has only driven me closer to Gears. I expect to be playing a fair amount of Gears 2 before its launch so when the last chapter arrives, I will be ready with Lancer in hand!

Gears of War - Official Site

-SG

SG’s Arcade: My Game Room Launch in Review

2010-03-28T18:27:00.001-06:00

Insert Quarter to Continue!

I managed to circumvent the initial hurdles that Xbox LIVE had thrown at me (inability to load Game Room, server connection issues) on day-one and get into the thick of the Game Room experience.

My initial impressions of the Game Room are extremely positive. The other evening I garnered the ‘4 Hour’ achievement for time spent playing games in the arcade. I have also won my first challenge! Game Room really takes me back to my gaming roots, I look forward to see what other great games are coming down the pipeline in the next several weeks so that I can relieve other great moments from my youth as well as discover those games that eluded me.

As for the initial batch of games I added 4 to my arcade (after all, what is an arcade without games). I actually have been very pleased with my initial purchases. Here is a quick rundown of my purchases, year released, weapon of choice (controller preference), my high-score, and a twitter-sized impression. Enjoy:

Game: Asteroids Deluxe (Atari)

Released: 1980

Weapon of Choice: Arcade Stick

Hi-Score: 23,560

TwitteReview: #AsteroidsDeluxe: Reflexes will be tested! Fast paced shooter w/ enemies galore! Use your shield to advance! Best #GameRoom Day1 purchase!

Game: Gravitar (Atari)

Released: 1982

Weapon of Choice: Arcade Stick

Hi-Score: 14,050

TwitteReview: #Gravitar: Most excited to purchase #GameRoom. Great concept, difficulty spikes quickly! Much practice time required to advance!

Game: Tempest (Atari)

Released: 1980

Weapon of Choice: Xbox 360 Controller; D-Pad / Analog split

Hi-Score: 26,611

TwitteReview: #Tempest: Always been curious about game. Was better once I discovered #SmartBomb. #QtrMuncher! Surprised how much I like this one #GameRoom

Game: Mountain Madness Super Pro Skiing (Intellivision)

Released: 1988

Weapon of Choice: Xbox 360 Controller; D-Pad

Hi-Score: N/A

TwitteReview: #MountainMadnessSkiing: Good old-skool skiing game. Menu is clunky but once on slopes it is fun! Don’t get sideways out there! #GameRoom

Game Room

-SG

SG’s Arcade: My Game Room Launch in Review

2010-03-28T18:21:00.000-06:00

Insert Quarter to Continue!

I managed to circumvent the initial hurdles that Xbox LIVE had thrown at me (inability to load Game Room, server connection issues) on day-one and get into the thick of the Game Room experience.

Game: Asteroids Deluxe (Atari)

Released: 1980

Weapon of Choice: Arcade Stick

Hi-Score: 23,560

TwitteReview: #AsteroidsDeluxe: Reflexes will be tested! Fast paced shooter w/ enemies galore! Use your shield to advance! Best #GameRoom Day1 purchase!

Game: Gravitar (Atari)

Released: 1982

Weapon of Choice: Arcade Stick

Hi-Score: 14,050

TwitteReview: #Gravitar: Most excited to purchase #GameRoom. Great concept, difficulty spikes quickly! Much practice time required to advance!

Game: Tempest (Atari)

Released: 1980

Weapon of Choice: Xbox 360 Controller; D-Pad / Analog split

Hi-Score: 26,611

TwitteReview: #Tempest: Always been curious about game. Was better once I discovered #SmartBomb. #QtrMuncher! Surprised how much I like this one #GameRoom

Game: Mountain Madness Super Pro Skiing (Intellivision)

Released: 1988

Weapon of Choice: Xbox 360 Controller; D-Pad

Hi-Score: N/A

TwitteReview: #MountainMadnessSkiing: Good old-skool skiing game. Menu is clunky but once on slopes it is fun! Don’t get sideways out there! #GameRoom

Game Room

-SG

Mission Accomplished: Left 4 Dead 2

2010-03-26T10:46:00.000-06:00

The Greatest Game I Never Play…

BRIDGE BURNER
Survive the Parish campaign.

Gamerscore = 20 Acquired 21/3/2010

This achievement came way too long after the fact. I remember prior to Left 4 Dead 2’s release that I had proclaimed in my head that this was the game I was most excited to play over the Christmas season. As it turned out games like Forza Motorsport 3, Borderlands, and Modern Warfare 2 took hold of me in a serious way, leaving Left 4 Dead 2 left behind.

In the months between its release and now I have hipped away at it with a few play sessions, some being more successful than others, but until this past week I had never even seen the Parish campaign. So I gathered up my brother and decided that enough was enough and I was going to see this level through.

And I did see the game through, but my adventure is not over. It was recently announced that this game along with the original Left 4 Dead will be expanded and storylines intertwined as The Passing downloadable chapters are added to the L4D epic. The Passing will arrive before Summer and will carry with it a serious shifting of gears as one of the survivors…will not survive!

I look forward to see how The Passing handles the story integration as well as the death of a survivor. For me, this really meshes the zombie movie with the zombie video game. If you have ever seen a zombie flick you know one thing…that Nobody Survives Forever!

Left 4 Dead 2 - HOME

-SG

SG’s Arcade: Enter the Game Room

2010-03-23T20:51:00.000-06:00

Take a Trip Back to Gaming’s Golden Age!

Being a child of the 70s and 80s I had fond memories of arcades and the early video game console scene. I think that is one of the main reasons I am very excited for the Xbox 360 launch of Game Room tomorrow.

Growing up in a rural environment my visits to arcades and opportunities to play video or pinball games were few and far between. Each time that I had an opportunity and a spare quarter (which when you are a kid can be sparingly at best) I could be found plugging it into some arcade cabinet and getting minutes or (and depending the game) seconds of satisfaction! I cherished these moments, often going to extreme measures and great distances to even have a moment to cherish, but these early days of gaming formed my love of gaming that is stronger than ever over thirty years after the fact.

So the games of my yesteryear will be front and foremost with Microsoft’s newest gaming platform, the Game Room. I am excited to once again experience favourites from my past, or to try games that I always wanted to for the first time. Some gamers and pundits have been sour on this initiative saying that it is too expensive for old games. I say the present 240 point per game price tag is very acceptable for a game experience, considering the additional work and features that they have built around these games.

Tomorrow after work you will find me hanging out in SUPERGHOST’s arcade. While it may not be overly impressive day one, you can expect it to be the place to be as time goes on. Make sure your joystick wrist is in good shape because the challenges for old school gaming supremacy starts tomorrow! You can put your initials on that!

Xbox.com | Game Room - Game Detail Page

-SG

Rolling Start: Nascar Knights and Blur Beta Impressions

2010-03-14T17:16:00.000-06:00

Nights of Thunder!

Rubbin’ is Racin’: Late Wednesday evening I mentioned to my friend TormentX that we needed to have a Nascar racing night. A night where we would purchase a stock car body from the store in Forza Motorsport 3 and then purchase somebody’s design from the game’s Storefront. Torment did one better and suggested that we design our own Nascar-themed paint-jobs and bring them to the race. I thought that was an excellent idea, so the race was on!

We went on to spend the next couple of hours designing our own cars. My design can be seen above and is also currently available through my in-game Storefront. So after the designs were done myself and three friends took to the game’s ovals to attempt to recreate the Stock Car experience. To make it in some ways more authentic and in others more forgiving I forced the view to in-car only, but left the damage as cosmetic.

The races were what you would expect, left turns, drafting, a little bit of paint traded, but all in all it was a lot of fun! What is cool about Forza Motorsport 3 is that the game is very flexible, especially in the multiplayer department. There you can create your own fun my making races with rules that don’t just end with the fastest lap times. Feeling creative? Well you can paint your car, take photos, or make videos that detail your experience. I am hoping to once again have a Nascar Knight, and next time I hope to have a full field of competitors. Do you have what it takes?

Blur Beta Impressions: Speaking of full fields, Blur is at its best when a full field of twenty (that is right, TWENTY) cars take to the track where rubbin’ is not only racin’, it is a necessity! I didn’t mean to jump into an impression without a more sound lead up, but that full-field transition was just to perfect.

Blur for me started as a bit of a slow burn. My initial impressions were not the most favourable. Coming from Bizarre Creations most recent racers, Project Gotham Racing 3 and 4, I had more of an expectation regarding the cars handling in the game. But once I started to earn better cars and get my head wrapped around the ‘Kart-Racing’ mentality things started to come around for me.

Yesterday I had my most extensive runs with the beta and was very pleased with how things went. What is tough that early on you may have the underpowered cars that make the experience fairly rocky, but as you build in-game ‘fans’ you will unlock better cars and mods that allow you to compete or excel (it is up to you). But even in losing the game can be wildly fun. As I mentioned earlier, a field of 20 cars all frenzied for crumpled metal creates a gaming atmosphere quite like no other.

So my advice for you regarding this beta if you find yourself with an opportunity to play it, give it some time, level-up, and if possible, gather some friends up to play. The beta has literally taken me from curious about, to not buying, to must buy. While the visuals are not stunning, the player count is, that with twitter intigration it looks like Bizarre Creations may have their grove back!

That is all for this edition of Rolling Start. Hope to see you on the track or in the comments section. Until next time, don’t let off the accelerator!

Home Page | Forza Motorsport

-SG

Rolling Start: Forza 3 Drifting and Blur Beta

2010-03-07T15:36:00.000-06:00

Much like I have expanded my Zombie Action News blog into the Survival Horror genre with ‘Scare Tactics’, I am now pushing my video game racing blog posts beyond Forza and into other racers. ‘Rolling Start’ is now my catch-all video game racing blog post that will appear when I have some racing game news or stories I would like to share. In this, my first edition, I will recount my success on obtaining a certain drift achievement in Forza Motorsport 3, my impending Blur beta key, and a little introduction on one of my new favourite Zune Marketplace TV shows.

Drift Lap
Earn over 100,000 points in a single lap.

Gamerscore = 5 Acquired 6/3/2010

Achievement Unlocked – Drift Lap: I had previously made several attempts to gain this achievement to no avail. I did have a feeling though that my Ford Focus RS would be the car to take me there. The only thing was that I did not think that this front-wheel drive car had the hp to make my drifts score high enough to get the total of 100,000 points that I needed.

So yesterday I decided that another attempt needed to be made, this time though I auto-tuned my car into the ‘B’ Class to give it the power it would need to keep those tires spinning after the fact. My first lap was somewhat of a failure, only garnering me 87,000 points, but it did allow me the practice I needed to get the feel for the new upgrades I applied to the car. So next up was lap 2, and I was not going to be denied.

Right from the get go I could feel that with each corner I was producing more points. At the half-way point I was already at 50,000 with nothing but down hill in front of me. The picture above was taken near the end of my run, but I almost got ahead of myself as I was able to produce just enough points to get the achievement. I have only a handful of achievements yet to earn in Forza 3, all surrounding the season mode. So I hope to earn the rest over the next few months. Stay tuned for that.

A Bizarre Turn of Events: I thought I had sworn off Bizarre Creations. I have been a staunch supporter of their brand since the days of Metropolis Street Racer on the Sega Dreamcast until the release PGR4 a couple of years back. When BC was picked up by Activision, lost the PGR brand, and then was off to make a ‘Mario Kart’ style of racer, I figured they had jumped the shark so to speak, and I would move onto bigger and better things.

Sometimes for me my interest can turn on a dime, and with the recent buzz about the Blur beta, I suddenly have found myself back on the BC train! At present I am waiting for my code to enter into the beta (thanks to twitter-friend @thewesker). I actually once again find myself excited for an arcade racer. I know if anyone can pull this off it is the team at BC. And with features like twitter integration, challenges, and massive multiplayer racing, it is no wonder Blur has my attention. Stay tuned for some of my Blur impressions in an upcoming post.

Top Show, Top Gear: My brother introduced me to this show and I now I am a die-hard fan! If you like cars and like being entertained you will love Top Gear. Heck, I wager that even if you did not like cars you would still love it (I made my wife watch…she loved it). It is hard to explain why it is so good, I just recommend that you go to your Zune Marketplace and download an episode and see for yourself. Even the culture barrier is shattered as both North Americans and Europeans will find common ground and common laughs during an episode.

And that is all for now. Be sure to check in on my Storefront in Forza Motorsport 3 (Gamertag SUPERGHOST of course). While there please be sure to view and rate my photos as well as do a little shopping. Check out my latest creation above for my 2010 FIAT Abarth 500 esseesse. Get it while it is hot! On the web, check out my Profile Page at forzamotorsport.net. Until next time, don’t let off the accelerator!

Home Page | Forza Motorsport

Twitter: @superghost

Scare Tactics - Episode #2: Featuring Deadly Premonition

2010-02-27T13:28:00.000-06:00

It Wasn’t Wrapped in Plastic

Part of being scared certainly is the ‘surprise’ factor. Episode Two of Scare Tactics is what I would consider a ‘surprise’ edition as that I did not know up until the last hour that I would be writing this post. This edition looks at two budget conscious and curious additions of survival-horror games to my Xbox 360, Ignition Entertainment’s Deadly Premonition and Atari’s Alone in the Dark.

Did Not See Deadly Premonition Coming: I follow former 1UP.com ‘man –god’ and current Director of Business Development at Ignition Entertainment, Shane Bettenhausen, via his twitter feed as I do many other industry types. I did see several mentions of Deadly Premonition, but sometimes I skim the feed so quickly I do not get all the detail I need. So when I saw Shane tweeting about this game I automatically assumed that it was another Wii game as I was under the impression that it was all they were doing.

Last night my brother joined my Xbox LIVE party late at night and started raving about this new game, Deadly Premonition. Using key descriptors like Twin Peaks-like, open-world, survival-horror, and most importantly, $25 price tag, I was quickly sold on this game and knew I had to have it! Now that I was sold on acquiring this game my next hurdle would be to actually find this game in stores. Knowing how GameStop/EB operates, I knew this game would be short-ordered, with perhaps one or two copies to be made available per store. But if I have been in the dark about this game, more than most would be as well. So this morning my search ended as quickly as it began, I snagged the last copy of this niche title from my local EB Games.

Now that I have it, I look forward to playing it. I am going to go into it cold, not reading any previews or reviews to cloud my judgement. All I have to go on is the brief description given by my brother and the back of the game’s box which I am looking at right now. It certainly looks and sounds to be very interesting. The one glaring negative that was expressed to me by my brother was that the game’s graphics lacks much to be desired. But recent plays and purchases of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Silent Hill Origins has already prepped me for less than perfect graphical fidelity. So tonight I will journey to Greenvale to investigate the town’s deadly secrets. Wish me luck!

Third Time ‘In The Dark’ is the Charm?: Another unusual pickup for me this week was the re-acquiring of Alone in the Dark for the Xbox 360. I have had a long history with this game without actually ever playing it. At first I had i pre-ordered and ready to go when I got scared off by poor reviews. Now normally I don’t let reviewers dictate my gaming picks, but when money is tight and choices between games have to be made, Alone in the Dark was voted off my island.

My next encounter with Alone in the Dark came when I purchased a discounted version of the game (complete with a AitD T-shirt) for $18. I actually got as far as putting this disk into my console and dabbling for a few minutes, but that was as far as I would get. It wasn’t meant to be as later traded the game off in a massive purge of my 360 collection.

Finally, this week I was picking up some Microsoft points at my local EB when I saw AitD sitting on the shelf with a $4 price tag. I will buy any Xbox 360 game for under $5, even if it is just for the possibility to acquire a nice game case. So I once again have the game in my possession (as well as the game’s soundtrack which was included with the game), I am unsure when I will try to play it again, but since it was so cheap I am sure I will never trade it in, so it is with me for good. I have always had an interest in the game. Perhaps it would be a good warm-up for Remedy’s Alan Wake which is set to arrive this May.

So in conclusion, it looks like al signs point to Alan Wake. Like Deadly Premonition, Alan Wake has been compared to Twin Peaks. As for Alone in the Dark, its episodic styling's and fire/light combat have oft drawn comparison to the upcoming Alan Wake. Rest assured I will be focusing on Alan Wake as its release draws closer. For now, just be sure to check under your bed and close the closet door before going to sleep!

Deadly Premonition

Twitter: @superghost

Scare Tactics - Episode #1: Featuring Silent Hill Origins

2010-02-15T14:29:00.000-06:00

For Games That Go ‘Bump’ in the Night!

Previously in my blog I would post on Zombie games with ‘Zombie Action News’. Since I have a strong interest in Horror-themed games I thought I would expand my scope beyond the Zombie menace and branch out into ‘Survival Horror’ games as well as others that will fit the into this genre.

For as long as I can remember I have always been a fan of ‘scary’ games. in the 90s we saw the rise of the ‘Survival Horror’ genre with the arrival of Resident Evil franchise. Soon after we saw the sophistication of the genre with the more cerebral Silent Hill games. Now many games and series of games have come, gone, or hung around in this space, but certainly Resident Evil and Silent Hill are the biggest names on this block. For my first edition of ‘Scare Tactics’ I will some of my recent goings-on with each of these two franchises. Stick around for some old news and personal perspectives on the survival of horror games if you dare:

Origin of the Species: I recently posted about my adventures in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, the most recent of Silent Hill titles. I have had a strong desire, if I ever can find the time, to play through the entire catalogue of Silent Hill games. Over the past several months I have been acquiring all the games, some of which I already had, some on eBay, others waiting for the price to be right. Regarding Silent Hill Origins, I thought I would need to buy a PSP in order to play it, something this weekend I was strongly considering. I liked the idea of having a portion of the series playable on the go (Silent Hill, Shattered memories, and Origins).

On vacation this past weekend I was in a used game store in Calgary when I noticed Silent Hill Origins on the shelf for the PS2. I have been so out of the loop regarding Playstation releases that I did not even realize the game arrived on the PS2 as well. I picked it up and now I believe I have all of the core releases in the franchise. The only thing with ‘Origins’ is that I know nothing about it. I had heard in passing that the game is not particularly good. I will be the first to admit that most Silent Hill games suffer from control issues. Nevertheless, I am excited for this addition to my collection.

Here is a rundown of my Silent Hill collection along with the corresponding system that I have it on in order of its release. Hopefully I can find the time to marathon these games in the near future:

Silent Hill (PS1)
Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams (Xbox)
Silent Hill 3 (PS2)
Silent Hill 4: The Room (Xbox)
Silent Hill: Origins (PS2)
Silent Hill: Homecoming (Xbox 360)
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (PS2)

Back to the Mansion: The 2009 Tokyo Game Show gave word that new downloadable scenarios would be made available For Resident Evil 5 in early 2010. "Lost in Nightmares" is essentially the prologue to RE5 as you play the alluded to adventure of Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine infiltrating the Spencer Estate in 2006 which clearly resembles the mansion from RE1. The next episode, "Desperate Escape", allows you to play as Josh Stone and Jill Valentine post Jill’s liberation as they race to assist Chris and Sheva in their quest. We will also get to see for the first time in next-gen, Rebecca Chambers and Barry Burton, as they make their respective return to the series in the Mercenaries reunion.

Personally I am looking forward to the “Lost in Nightmares” Chapter as I was very intrigued by that flashback in RE5. Also, word on the street is that it plays like a next-gen version of the original mansion. My favourite parts of the Resident Evil franchise take place in the original mansion and the streets of Racoon City in RE2 and RE3. Like Silent Hill, I too would love to run the table of Resident Evil games, again time is the factor that most stands in my way.

My core collection of Resident Evil games is complete along with one of the side games. Here is a list of what I have:

Resident Evil (Saturn and Nintendo DS)
Resident Evil 2 (Dreamcast)
Resident Evil 3 (Dreamcast)
Resident Evil: Code Veronica (Dreamcast) Code Veronica X (PS2)
Resident Evil: Outbreak (PS2)
Resident Evil 4 (PS2)
Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360)

The completes my first edition of Scare Tactics. In the next instalment I plan on getting up to speed with Dead Rising 2, BioShock 2, and Alan Wake. Until then make sure to check under your bed and close the closet door before going to sleep!

-SG

Massively Effective: Mass Effect 2 and the Cerberus Network

2010-02-03T18:43:00.001-06:00

Missing in Action
Save your crew from an overwhelming attack

Gamerscore = 5 Acquired 26/1/2010

One of the question I have about Mass Effect 2 is how they are going to keep it the game journalist minds 10 months down the road when ‘Game of the Year’ voting rears its ugly head. I am only a dozen hours into the game, but you only really need to see the first hour of the game to acknowledge that Mass Effect 2 is not only heads and shoulders above its predecessor, but that it is one of the finest games of this generation. By blending genres BioWare has created the unthinkable, a hardcore RPG that anyone can play.

I could write thousands of words comparing the two Mass Effect games, the improvements and changes that were made, the graphics, the sound, everything that makes this package special. What I think perhaps the most important change/addition to the new title is the inclusion of the in game news feed/DLC delivery system, the Cerberus Network.

The Cerberus Network is very important in several ways. Firstly it almost ensures that BioWare/EA will see money when a used copy of the game is purchased. In order to enable the Cerberus Network you need to input a one-time use code that is included in every new copy of the game. If you buy used you eill have to shell out 1,200 MS points to have access to this portal. I am sure some gamers will find this upsetting, but developers are always looking for new ways to have gamers buy new copies of the game.

Secondly, the Cerberus Network is the realization of a promise BioWare made prior to the release of Mass Effect 1. Some years back we were told that new and interesting chapters of downloadable content will be made available for Mass Effect, bridging the gap between the sequels and keeping gamers engaged with the property. We are all too aware of how that worked out. In the years between games, BioWare was only able to squeeze out two content packs, one of which was more of a game mode that a add-on. I have heard several reasons from project director Casey Hudson why that was the case, but that is the past, what is done is done. The Cerberus Network has already added two DLC packs and promises much more in the future including vehicle missions. The regularly updated news feed from around the Galaxy contributes to the games’ flavour. These things will keep me checking back with the game over the following months.

Mass Effect 2 is designed to keep us coming back for more. With so many choices to be made and ways to play the game, plus the ability to port over the decisions from the first Mass Effect and take all that data beyond into Mass Effect 3, BioWare is creating an RPG dynasty the likes of which we have never seen. It even has me wanting to once again go back into ME1 so that I can play both games all over again, and I am not even close to being done my first ME2 playthrough! So when 2010 draws to a close I believe BioWare has set a stage so that we all will not forget ME2 when comes to choosing the Game of the Year. In fact, we will probably be playing an all-new mission from the Cerberus Network.

BioWare | Mass Effect 2

-SG

Massively Effective: Mass Effect 2 and the Cerberus Network

2010-02-03T18:43:00.000-06:00

Missing in Action
Save your crew from an overwhelming attack

Gamerscore = 5 Acquired 26/1/2010

BioWare | Mass Effect 2

-SG

Silent Hill: You Are Always on My Mind…

2010-01-24T17:58:00.000-06:00

Not Your Father’s Silent Hill

I have always made a point that the is blog was “All Xbox, All the Time” and I have stood behind that for nearly five years. But in the realm of Silent Hill games, one of my favourite game franchises of all time, only three of the core six titles have appeared on the Xbox or Xbox 360. So In my mind that is enough to consider Silent Hill as an Xbox franchise. Having just played and been blown away by the PS2 version of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, I feel compelled to discuss this game right here and right now. So I hope you enjoy my take on Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. –SG

I had originally planed a grand write up for Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, but when I try to go on I find I have to much to say, the completion of the game still to fresh in my mind. So I am going to try and keep this simple on point. I put my playing of Silent Hill: Homecoming on hold for a bit in favour of the fresh experience that Shattered Memories had promised. I wasn’t expecting just how much a departure it would be from the Silent Hill games we have come to know and love , but it is a departure in all the right ways.

Developer Climax streamlined the Silent Hill experience by replacing the tedious combat, item collection, and open-door hunt with a chase/escape mechanic, a cell phone/camera collection system, and a very straight forward world exploration which relies heavily on the story to propel you forward. While some of these changes may seem counter to the core Silent Hill experience of the past, they are refreshing, allowing players to enjoy the Silent Hill universe in an entirely different way. I personally liked the lack of combat. Being a coward in real life, my first inclination would be to run for my life, just like you have to in this game.

Two of the other big changes, the therapist sessions and the world shifting to ice rather than rust add significantly to the experience. At first I didn’t think I would like the shift to the ice world, but in the context of the game it works very well. Playing this game in the dead of winter just adds to my appreciation for it. Your in-game session with the therapist creates a very unique twist to the game you play. If you play through this part of the game honestly as ‘yourself’, you will be surprised how it impacts the game as well as the ending. I was quite surprised with how personal the game’s ending was for me.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, as I have said before, is one of those rare games that just will not let you put it down. You just want to see what is around the next corner. This game also represents game music legend, Akira Yamaoka’s last work on the game series as he has since left Konami. I don’t think Silent Hill games will be the same without him. He has been there from the beginning and his signature haunting melodies have put the series on the map.

Replayablity for me with this game may be an issue. Now this game has all the different endings which Silent Hill games have traditionally had, but if you play this game true to yourself, it has that one-shot special feeling that I don’t think you could recapture on further playthroughs. On the other hand I really want to play through it one more time because I now that I have seen the end I would like to see the game through with knowing eyes.

In conclusion I would like to leave you with this thought. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is the most ‘real’ game in the series, more of a psychological thriller than a survival horror game. I will leave you with that. Enjoy your trip to Silent Hill!

Silent Hill | Shattered Memories

-SG

Borderlands

2009-10-22T14:41:00.001-06:00

Wow I'm totally blown away by Borderlands. Here's a game I've been watching for a while now and wasn't sure what to expect. Yeah I knew that Id bee getting a cell shaded wasteland featuring coop play , but the game had some stiff competition it that category with Halo ODST being released a few weeks prior to it.

As far as I'm concerned this game blows Halo ODST away in the coop department. Not that ODST was a bad game it just wasn't meant to be a coop game in my opinion, Borderlands was built from the ground up for coop and it shows. It also lends its self at being a great single player game to.

The game is all about picking up loot. From weapons (tons of them) and shields, to boat loads of cash and rare items. This game does for me what I wish Too Human could have done and that's get me addicted to it. Borderlands also succeeds at being a great FPS and RPG all at the same time, a formula that doesn't always turn out to well. I guess there's something about the wasteland setting that makes these two genres work great together…think Fallout 3.

So why should you buy a copy of Borderlands

Its a First person Shooter
Its also an RPG
4 player online coop !
Addictive as hell
And a Gagillion Weapons !

-TX

Be your own Lego developer !

2009-10-16T07:16:00.001-06:00

Lego fanboy I may seem like but not really. Thing is have 2 boys who love Lego's and love the video games even more. Enter Lego Indiana Jones 2. The Lego games have always been great fun but one huge thing was missing from the games until now and that was a level creator. Checkout the video below and see what Indies new game has to offer. Now all they need to do is release a stand alone Lego creator game.

Source: Kotaku

-TX

Introducing Lego: Left 4 Dead ! Not Really ….

2009-10-05T14:38:00.001-06:00

First lets thank whom ever it is that you pray to that there is no true a Lego:Left 4 Dead game because that would just be plain old silly. What's not silly is checking of pictures of your favorite game turned in Lego's. At Saber-Scorpion’s Lair.com You can check out many more games turned into Lego's such Mass Effect, Half Life, Assassins Creed and many more …..

-TX

Forza 3 Demo vs. Grand Turismo 5 Prologue

2009-09-29T17:18:00.001-06:00

The long awaited Forza 3 Demo had finally made its way to the XBL Marketplace 2 weeks ago and so far it really impresses. The Forza franchise is the number one racer when it comes to user created content and online play. Forza 3 looks to push the envelope even further this time around with a more stream lined marketplace for buying and selling user created vehicles that either have custom paints , tuned engines or even both !

The competition against Forza is slim right now. Games Like DiRT 2 and NFS Shift offer fast and furious racing action but they do it in a more arcady sim fashion. The only other sim racer looking to go head to head with Forza is GT 5 and for now all we know is that wont be releasing till sometime in March in Japan and the U.S. shortly after.

But while we still have to wait to play both games, we do have playable version of both games in a demo form of sorts. GT5 Prologue has been out for some time now and is basically a very small portion of the game wrapped up in a $30 package. And of course like I mentioned XBL just received the Forza 3 demo not to long ago. Id like to do a little comparison of the two “demos” based on graphics, gameplay and presentation.

For starters Forza 3 is a beautiful game. The 60 fps, the lighting and the over all overhaul in graphics just makes this game some serious eye candy. GT5 Pro is just as pretty of a game and even edges Forza out a bit in this area. While both games have a great frame rate and lovely environments to race in GT5 has the better lighting effects and I think the in car cam is a bit better in GT5. Its still great in Forza but again its just edged out a bit that's all. The same could be said for the car models as well. Over all they are both breath taking to look at and worthy of showing off each consoles capabilities.

I think when it comes to gameplay both games excel in the sim department as they should, but I feel Forza 3 not only handles the “sim” part of racing better, but also it allows new comers the chance to ease into the game. Forza 3 and GT5 both allow for customized driving difficulties with the option of turning driver assists on and off, but as of right now only Forza 3 allows for the player to have the auto brake feature that slows the car down with the proper braking to help keep you on the track and in the race. The addition of the rewind feature will be loved by the hardcore player as well as the new comer. You screw up and just do it over again !

I think the A.I. still and has always gone to the Forza franchise. The A.I. keeps true the real life style of racing for position as opposed to be programmed to stay in a certain line like GT5. I felt that Forza 3 was heading in this direction a bit, but after some more time with the demo I've come to realize that the A.I. is a bit more aggressive then before , but still makes the moves it needs to win the race on its own.

As far as production values and game presentation both games impress. I think that GT5 Prologue being in more of a game state gives it the upper hand here so I think Ill pass judgment till The full retail version of Forza 3 comes. The demo did show a much cleaner presentation, but again it wasn't much to go on.

With both games landing and consoles soon I think gamers choosing one way or the other wont be disappointed. For me my I have to stay with what's made me happy over the past few years and that's Forza 3. Both games are going to demand a lot of time and energy just to play so to have both would be setting ones self up for gaming fatigue. That being said I need to go pre-order my copy of Forza Motorsports 3.

-TX

BioShocked! Where Has My Interest Gone?

2009-09-23T21:22:00.000-06:00

In the Summer of 2007 (2008 for PS3 owners) gamers were treated to an incredible gaming experience, one which won the heart of gamers and critics alike, 2K Boston's Bioshock . Many of you I am sure were left with an indelible impression of wonder and excitement as a result of your exploration of the city of Rapture, its inhabitants, and the adventure of which you just partaken of. The game's environment set the mood and the story took you on a wild ride through the underwater city and, in the end, left one wanting more of Rapture. At least that is how I felt, and so with that I waited for word on an impending sequel.

When a sequel was finally announced I was excited indeed and I followed the news for the upcoming game very closely, but a funny thing has happened to me on my path to the Sea of Dreams. I have noticed that recently my desired return to Rapture was not what it used to be, that it has waned significantly, almost to the point of myself giving a big shrug to the games recently (and finally) announced release date of February 9, 2010. How could this have happened? How could my interest for the sequel for one of my favourite games of all time fall away so? I took some time recently to analyse this situation, and I have came up with a few points that may be responsible for this phenomenon:

The Man They Call Levine: Ken Levine was widely considered the mastermind behind BioShock, and for good reason, he was the mastermind behind BioShock and its trippy and wonderful storyline. When the sequel was announced we were also made aware that the development would fall to the dev team at 2K Marin, well stocked with original BioShock development veterans. No offence to the hard working team at 2K Marin, but when you lose a lead like Ken Levine from your project, it is not going to do your game any favours. Early in development it was announced the Ken Levine would have some input on the new BioShock, but I speculate with Ken hard at work on his own super-secret project and no word on his involvement since, that BioShock 2 will be for good or ill a Levine-less project.

Delays: Though we now have a firm release date as I stated above, BioShock 2's pushed back date has put it out of sight and out of mind behind a sea of tripe-A games. It will be about two-and-a-half years between games, while not a huge amount of time between sequels, it does give one time to forget possibly why they were excited in the first place.

Competition: Remember that sea of triple-A games I just mentioned? Sure fire hits like Halo 3: ODST, Forza Motorsport 3, Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Assassin's Creed 2 as well as games like Borderlands, Tekken 6, and Lost Planet 2 will be arriving before BioShock 2. Each of these games are not only highly anticipated, but also have serious legs. Will we be ready for BioShock by February? Will we care if we are knee-deep in our Modern Warfare 2 or Halo 3: ODST multi players?

Increased Financial Expectations: BioShock 2 is already earmarked as one of Take 2's flagship franchises and with all the expectations that go along with it. Like the Grand Theft Auto franchise, much of Take 2's fortunes ride on BioShock and its sequel. With sales expectations of more than 5 million for this game (much more than the games original sales) the company has a lot riding on it's success, and I fear that these expectations will not be met. What would that mean for BioShock going forward?

Too Many Cooks: With all these expectations heaped upon BioShock 2, 2K Games is sparing no expense in order to ensure this game's release schedule slips no further. No less than four separate development teams are involved at this point in order to bring the game to market. With lead developer 2K Marin creating the core of the game, 2K Australia has taken over the testing with Digital Extremes creating the games multi player component and Arcane Studios lending a hand with the art design. BioShock 2's Sea of Dreams appears to be spread all over the globe. Will they be able to pull all these desperate pieces together into one cohesive collection of a game?

This is Not the Prequel I was Looking For: Yes I am judging this very early, but I think it is because I had certain expectations from what I wanted to see from this game, particularly from the prequel/multiplayer portion. Early on when rumours were swirling about the next BioShock game, the idea that it was to be a prequel really caught my interest. I really wanted to experience Rapture before the fall and interact or see the story unfold for Ryan, Fontaine, Doctors Tenenbaum and Steinman, Sander Cohen and all the great Rapture personalities which were alluded to in the first game. I imagined a Rapture before the fall being a bright, vibrant, world that Andrew Ryan envisioned when creating his undersea utopia. BioShock 2 will visit Rapture before the fall, but only as a component of its multiplayer, therefore bypassing all that potential and esthetic. The multiplayer takes place in the thick of the Rapture civil war, ignoring all the great stories that could have been told. Perhaps we will get the prequel I wish for someday.

Big Daddy, Big Problem: Everybody loves the Big Daddy, right? I think we can all agree on that. But to play the entire game as one? I am not so sure about that one. Yes we will be able to explore Rapture's undersea back yard, but we will miss that feeling of being a helpless every-man trapped in this strange world. Will the first Big Daddy versus the Big Sister sustain through the game? <SPOILER> I think I may miss being the prodigal son returning.

It appears that I have some major concerns with the potential for this game, and I do. It has definitely slipped off my radar a lot, but it is still there, and I do intend on purchasing the game. I hope to play it and be proved wrong, hoping that 2K Game's army of developers can recreate the magic of BioShock and climb out from under Ken Levine's shadow. As I stated before, I loved the original and want to once again be immersed in this world. While I am not sure if BioShock ever needed a multiplayer component, it appears we are getting one anyway. So February 10, 2009 will be the test, lets hope that we have room on our calendars and in our hearts for this sequel with the uphill (up swim) climb.

-SG

A Halo Launch

2009-09-21T08:23:00.001-06:00

In the past I would do a blog post that gave an hour by hour detailed schedule of what Id be doing up until the midnight release of a Halo game. It was fun considering that I happened to be off of work for both Halo 2 and 3 making the anticipation for each release that much longer through out the day while others at least had an 8 hour work day to kill some time. (today is no different)

What was it about this franchise that made these midnight release dates such a big deal ? What made myself plus millions of other gamers lineup in the brisk fall weather to wait for the game ? Well I think it stems back to the original Halo Combat Evolved. Never before has a console shooter come a long with such spot on gameplay along with a story and new a Hero that intrigued us all. With all the overwhelming amount multiplayer options the first Halo had, it left just one thing out. Online play !

Well due to the fact that it was released on the launch day of a new console I think made it kinda hard to just jump online. That didn't stop hardcore gamers from finding out which was the better team, Red or Blue. Halo became a phenom in the multiplayer community with people packing up their TV’s and Xbox’s and driving to friends house or even tournaments to play the greatest first person shooter ever !

Then it happened, on November 9th 2004 Microsoft and Bungie Studios released Halo 2. This would be the biggest launch in video game history. Why ? Because for the first time ever you could take the Master Chief online and lay the smack down on the rest of the world. Oh and a little added bonus was the incredible campaign that came along with Halo 2.

That's leads us to the only game that would be bigger then the Halo 2 launch and that would be Halo 3 of course. Halo 2’s campaign ending really left some us (most of us) feeling empty inside and wanting to “Finish the Fight”. Well not only would we get that chance, but we'd get to do on the box 360 the new home of the Master Chief in all of his high definition glory. So with New maps, new weapons and the chance to hand the Covent their ass its no wonder why this was the single most biggest console exclusive game ever !

I think that most of us were apart of all the excitement of the last two Halo games, but there's one more on the way tonight. So where's all the excitement for this one ? While it may not seem as big as the last two games that dropped (get it, dropped…) it still generating some new buzz for the fans of the Halo Universe. So no we wont be suit up in our Spartan armor this time around, in fact Master Chief will be no ware to be found in this Halo title.

What's the big deal then ? Why all the excitement ? ODST ……Orbital Drop Shock Troopers ! Now we get to play as the highly trained Marines that do a lot of the dirty work behind the scenes we never got a chance to see. These guys bring us a whole new campaign that takes place during Halo 2’s timeline. The ODST’s also pack in all of the Halo3 multiplayer maps plus 3 new ones and even bring us an entirely new game mode called Fire Fight. In Fire Fight you and up to 3 other buddies can take on waves of Covent scum while trying to survive. Top it all off with co-op campaign and its another Halo recipe for success !

So while I wont be blogging about my entire day till the midnight launch or even the fact that I may not even be going to it tonight, that doesn't mean I'm not excited about the new Halo game and all its new modes and features. I think I'm more excited about this Halo game with its high emphasis on co-op play more then ever before . Halo ODST…….. T minus 13 hour 40 mins till DROP !

Playstation 3: It only does Everything ….sorta kinda

2009-09-12T09:54:00.001-06:00

So it does everything they say……. Well I guess it does. Thing is how well it does “everything”. From my personal experience it just doesn't measure up to the Xbox 360 in terms of being stream lined and ease of use.

What I mean by this is the simple things like downloading a game demo or navigating the systems dashboard or menu. Even the slick looking Playststion store could use some fine tuning.

I guess this should be the part where I mention that I purchased a new PS3 Slim. Yes that's right me, Mr Xbox 360 Fanboy has yet again sold his second Wii to buy a PS3 for the a second time. Again folks when it comes to video games and myself never ask why I do the things I do. Lets just call it a sickness or something.

I picked up my new PS3 along with Uncharted and Ratchet and Clank. Both of these game are a blast and I must say that Uncharted already has me looking forward to the sequel. Of course due to the PS3’s latest firmware update vr3.00 I had some difficulties with Uncharted in the beginning freezing up on me. Seems to be working fine now though, Ill keep my fingers crossed.

Being the economy that we are in right now and not to mention my butt is still jobless it doesn't make sense to support two different consoles especially while I have 3 Xbox 360’s already in use in the house. For now Ill be fine with the couple games I have and there's always the option of a couple cheaper games on the PS Store like Wipeout HD and Flower.

I've always been known for bashing the Wii and the Playstation 3 and well for the most part its deservingly so. I mean who could forget my day after Christmas 08 PS3 story ….If you missed it or forgot Click Here. Now though I think things are ok between the PS3 and myself. I'm almost certain that's its gonna stick around for a while. After all Star Wars has to come out on Blu-Ray one of these day. And Kill Zone 2 you may look pretty but you still cant hang with Teh Haloz.

-TX

My Dark times with the Dreamcast

2009-09-08T09:11:00.001-06:00

Like most gamers this week I'm more than happy to wish the the Sega Dreamcast a Happy 10th Birthday. I loved things my Dreamcast did for me like giving me some true next gen graphics, online play and a true hardcore gamers line of titles. Unfortunately not everything was all fun and games at times ……

I can remember taking the day off of work to pick up my new Sega console. Everything was pre-ordered and paid for all I had to do was go get it. After picking my Dreamcast I stopped on the way home to pick up some lunch because I didn't want to game on an empty stomach of course.

So I popped in Soul Calibur and was blown away instantly,I knew I had something special here. Things got even more impressive after playing my first game in what was to become the series to dethrone the almighty Madden. NFL 2K1 was a master piece on both sides of the ball. Hey but what was the deal with not being able to call a timeout if you were the second player though ?

Now I'm ready to get into some serious boxing action with Ready 2 Rumble. Oh wait what's this ….its not working ???? Lets try it again. Nope nothing, lets give it one more shot its sure to work now……again nothing. Well I think we can all remember when The Dreamcast launched there were a few games that just didn't work properly or at all. No biggie I just took it back and got myself another game instead. Well my fellow gamers that was “strike one” for the Dreamcast for me.

I almost hate to admit this but I don't think I had my Dreamcast tens days and I returned after getting a few games that didn't work and was really just not happy with the whole situation that I dealt with. I figured Id buy some games for my PS1 and some new duel analog sticks. I walked out my locale game store was a ton of new PS1 stuff and said to myself “hey the PS2 will be out in a year, I can wait”. Pretty drastic I know .

The fact that I was a Sega Fanboy at the time didn't make long before I had gone out and purchased another Dreamcast a couple months later with a new batch of game. I do need to mention that the Sega Saturn and Sega Rally Championship is the reason I am the gamer I am today. I was Hooked on Sega Rally and played it for hours on end. Fast forward back to the Dreamcast and you can imagine my excitement when Sega Rally 2 finally shipped after many delays here in the states. Honestly I would never need another game after this. That was until I played it anyway. Long story short, I was less the pleased with one aspect of the game and that was the split screen play. My friends and I played the heck out of the first game this way and to find out that Sega Rally 2 was just unplayable this way due to the horrible frame rate in split screen. I was not happy, neither were most of my friends. “Strike two”.

One thing I realize today is not to try and relive your past gaming experience in sequels or remakes. Take Sega Rally for the Xbox 360 and PS3. While not a bad game it still doesn't measure up to the first game back on the Saturn. This of course leads me to “Strike Three”. Sega’s World Series Baseball franchise “was” and I stress “was” the best in the business at the time until it came out with literally uncontrollable outfielders. Yep it was all up to the A.I. not you. Anyway you can see why this would be my “Strike Three”.

Don't get me wrong here folks I still loved that little white console with the swirl logo and red light on it. I can never forget the first time I played Shenmue. Or going online the for the very first time in NFL 2K1 and Phantasy Star Online. The list goes on with Test Drive Le Mans, Resident Evil Code Veronica, Sonics Adventure, Virtua Tennis and more. So while I may have had some issues in the past with the Dreamcast, deep down inside I still wish to this day that it had become successful from a business stand point. For now I just want to say Happy Birthday Dreamcast !

-TX

Sega Dreamcast: A Console of Firsts

2009-09-01T19:44:00.001-06:00

September 9, 2009 is the tenth anniversary of the North American launch of Sega’s last entry (to this day) to the console hardware market. After the better part of two decades of highs and lows as a hardware manufacturer, Sega managed to save their best console for last. Though clearly not the commercial success that they had hoped (it had faltered in the face of the competition from Sony, Nintendo, and later Microsoft), it managed an amazing library of software, cutting edge hardware, and a cult following that remains strong to this day. Ten years is a long time, the Dreamcast today is often considered a retro gaming system, though if you can get your hands on it and its games, you may question the retro tag.

Personally, I loved the system, and if you could see my massive Dreamcast collection that I still have to this day, it would testify to my dedication. The Dreamcast ushered my gaming life into a whole other level. It provided myself with experiences that at the time were unique amongst the gaming culture. So it is with this post that I honour the Sega Dreamcast on its tenth anniversary as a console of firsts, a console that provided unique software and hardware and truly brought gaming into the next millennium. The following points detail why this console for me was a console of firsts:

First Next-Gen console: Every new console generation that comes out is referred to as the ‘Next-Gen’. That term is not only used to distinguish the current console generation from the later, but to also let the public know that this is the bleeding edge technology and one should own it if they are serious about their hardware. I graduated from the Sega Saturn and the Nintendo 64 to the Sega Dreamcast and was blown away by the divide in graphics, hardware design, control, and features. A lot of the things we take for granted in current-gen gaming, particularly online, was standard on the DC. I won’t get into all the features here as some will make up some of the next points. Needless to say, when you bought the DC on day-one, you had next-gen technology for a gaming system.

First Online Gaming: For me the Sega Dreamcast ushered me in to the online gaming scene. A fun little combat-puzzler game entitled Chu Chu Rocket was my first online game. I remember the night when my brother and I played our first online game against each other. Growing up we played a lot of games against each other so it was good to know that from then on, no matter where we were, we could still game together. The Dreamcast also was responsible for my online handle / Gamertag. I have been know as SUPERGHOST ever since.

First Internet: As a poor 20-something, I struggled finding my way in the world. I didn’t own a PC, so when the opportunity to surf the internet via the Dreamcast came along, I jumped at the chance to use it for my exploits on the world wide web. While it was not the greatest way to surf, it did allow me to have that experience. Today, it is not unusual to have your console browse the internet (unless you are Microsoft), but back then it was a first.

First Arcade at Home: Sure, there had been arcade game conversions on home consoles for years, but the power of the Dreamcast brought the arcade experience home with comparable, or in some cases improved, quality. Games like Soul Calibur, Crazy Taxi, Dead or Alive 2, and Power Stone allowed gamers to save their quarters and perfect their skills in the comfort of their home living room.

First Motion Control: Well, kind of. With light gun games like House of the Dead 2 and Confidential Mission as well as Sega’s own fishing controller for the Bass and Marine Fishing games, I wasn’t just stationary on the couch anymore. With the Mad Catz light gun I was able to enjoy the quality light gun games from the arcade in my home, and with the fishing controller I was able to cast a reel in the fish with the best of them. If I had the money I would have also shook all night long playing Samba De Amigo (which has a new lease on life thanks to the Wii). The DC had you off your couch before it was cool.

First Emotional Impact: This certainly will be different for everybody, but for me personally two games on the Dreamcast stood out for me as having huge emotional impacts, Kenji Eno’s D2 and Yu Suzuki’s Shenmue. Two games that pushed the envelope and that could be found no where else. I don’t think the world was ready for these two games as their costs and pushes on technology made success hard to grasp. But I am thankful that I had the opportunity to experience them and for the feelings they brought out of me. I get such fond memories just thinking back on them now.

First Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO): Phantasy Star Online was a phenomenon. There was nothing else like it in the console space. Such an incredible marriage of simplicity with complexity, Phantasy Star Online has since gone on to spawn several sequels, but for me they still cannot compete with the original (but I will give Phantasy Star 0 a try). The Diablo-esque ‘Loot-and-Shoot’ was many peoples first exposure to the joys (and pitfalls) of the MMO scene. While you adventured in parties of four, you could still converse with thousands of other gamers spread throughout the game’s lobbies. What is sad that this game arrived just as Sega was giving up on the console. What could have been for the Dreamcast?

First Voice Chat / Conversational Game: Alien Front Online, a simple futuristic tank versus alien tank combat game was my first experience with online voice chat in a game. Like with Phantasy Star Online, I was drawn in to the games community and quickly the success at the game became secondary. I spent many an hour with my brothers and my cousin having a blast with it. Consoles still today struggle with online chat, but the Dreamcast was making it happen on a 56K modem. And I would be remiss if I did not mention Seaman. Seaman would probably be considered a non-game today. You not only raised your little human-faced fish/amphibian creature, but you also talked to him…and he talked back! Seaman wouldn’t hesitate to analyze your life. And like a tamagochi, if you did not take care of him properly, he could end up dead. You certainly wouldn't want to kill a video game character you had a relationship with would you?

Personally I could go on and on about the Dreamcast. I could talk about it’s library of fighters, its founding of 2K Sports, in particular its groundbreaking Football games, its VMU’s (playable memory cards) but for all its triumphs, in the end it just didn’t have the muscle or support to keep up with the industry leaders. It is usually the brightest candles that burn the fastest, and the Dreamcast burned brightly indeed. Please leave a comment of some of your Dreamcast firsts, or perhaps what Sega and the Dreamcast did that holds a special place in your heart. I would like to hear from you and share some Dreamcast memories.

-SG

The River City Revival Hits Xbox in Downtown Smash Dodgeball

2009-08-29T13:42:00.001-06:00

Normally I don’t copy-n-paste others blog entries, but when I noticed this game on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace under the ‘Indie Games’ banner and later this blog entry from 1UP’s Retronauts blog by Ray Barnholt, I thought I could do it no better justice other than the re-post. It is an interesting read, especially for those who played these Kunio games back in the day. Enjoy the post, and if you pick up the game, let me know what you think. -SG

Did you like Super Dodge Ball on NES? I mean, really like it? Would you believe there's a small group of Japanese gamers who feel the same way? A couple of years ago, those gamers formed the company Miracle Kidz, and went ahead and made an unofficial remake of Super Dodge Ball for PC, and just recently brought it to Xbox 360 via the Indie Games program, where it's known in English as "Downtown Smash Dodgeball." You can find it there for 800 Microsoft Points. Keep in mind that the game explicity takes after the original NES game, and not the later sequels for Neo Geo, Game Boy Advance, and so on. Aside from a higher color palette, you're getting graphics, gameplay, and other elements straight from the 8-bit version. In that regard, it's actually rather well-done, and is worth checking out if you want to see what a widescreen, flickerless version of the game would be like.

"But it's 800 points," you say. "That's ridiculous for an XBL Indie Game!" Well, I don't have much of an argument there; it is way higher than the other titles in the Indie catalog. Fact is, Smash Dodgeball is a "doujin" game from PC, and doujin games are more aspirational than the typical notion of an "indie" game; they're often made by larger groups of people (a "circle") and sold in physical form -- discs and fancy manuals and so on. In other words, this isn't a typical XBL Indie Game, where it's rarely more than one person making the thing -- Smash Dodgeball is a concentrated semipro effort that has a higher degree of polish, and probably a higher degree of passion behind it as well.
Besides, being a very blatant "homage" to the Technos classic, Miracle Kidz would have trouble getting the game on the more legit Xbox Live Arcade. Putting it on Indie Games, where releases are governed by Microsoft's community of outside XNA developers, makes it easier to get a game that is already considered a "rip" out the door... even if it is full-price.

It's clear Miracle Kidz loves the games in the River City Ransom/Kunio-kun "universe." In fact, I wasn't entirely honest in calling them mere gamers. Though their productions aren't officially endorsed by the current Kunio series rights holders, the group was started by Mitsuhiro "Yoshimitsu" Yoshida and Hiroyuki "Mokeke" Sekimoto, who were key members in the production of many of the early Kunio games, particularly the NES/Famicom ones. The fact that the men behind the original games can't let go of them is a strong testament to the undeniable charm of those games, and their intention to accurately reproduce them on modern platforms is mighty appreciated. I'm not demanding you buy Smash Dodgeball (even though it is just 10 bucks...), but it wouldn't hurt to consider where it comes from, and maybe show your support one way or another.

Virtual Steelers on the road to Greatness !

2009-08-28T10:03:00.001-06:00

I started off my franchised mode with the Pittsburgh Steelers in Madden 10 with a controversial loss to the Tennessee Titans after the officials called for a review from the guys upstairs in the booth. After reviewing my amazingly acrobatic touchdown catch by Heinz Ward the “guys upstairs” in the booth felt the need to over turn my touchdown which would have tide the game at least sending it to overtime.

That's the NFL for you my friends and just like real life even in the Madden 10 sometimes you need to cures out some bad calls made by the officials. From there the rest of the season has been flawless After going down to the Titans 17-10, I was able to rally the troops back for 3 straight victories in a row. With a record or 3-1 this is what it looks like so far.

Titans 17-10 L
Bears 28-7 W
Bengals 31-3 W
Chargers 42-24 W

After one bad call and 3 straight wins the road to the Superbowl seems pretty bright for the my Steelers. Madden my be a game that gets a lot of criticism for being the “same” every year, but for me I've only owned the game twice in the past 6 years or so and find it to be a real treat to play.

-TX

The Return of the Playstation Brand

2009-08-27T10:31:00.001-06:00

Ok those of you that know me know that I've bought some things then turned right around and sold them shortly after. Examples would be the PSP, Wii and PS3. Don't ask why I do these things because I really couldn't tell you. Call it a case of trail and error.

Then of course there are times when I repurchase the same product all over again. Like I said don't ask. That brings me to the title of this post “The Return of the Playstation Brand”.

Im referring to the PS3 making its way back to the TormentX home front. Not only that but the PS2 will see its way back as well thanks to Sony not having backwards compatibility in the PS3. Again Im sure your asking yourself why. That I can answer.

Now more then ever it makes total sense to buy PS3 for the Blu Ray. At $299 its a no brainer to a have a high def movie player that also plays games. Well what about the PS2, what's the sense of buying a system over 10 years old ? Ill tell you…..

I guess I should mention first that something has to go before I get all of this. It wouldn't be me if I didn't. Yes you guessed it…. the Wii for the second time will be leaving the house. Why would I get rid of it again you ask ? Well two reasons.

One lack of use. Although I think EA Active is awesome my foot still hurts and it will not allow me to use it to its fullest potential (plus I'm hoping for a better Natal version). Two ……my kids hardly touch the darn thing. Not to mention that my 4 and 1/2 year old still doesn't get that he needs to point the damn remote at the screen to play it. So Wii is out….. again !

Now the PS2 part of the whole deal is so that my young one can get the Dora's, the Diego's and the Sponge Bob type games without the motion control gimmick not to mentions so many other games on the cheap !

It will be a good couple of months or so before it all goes down , maybe even after the holidays. I think the Playstation brand may stick around a bit longer this time around…..maybe a just a bit.

-TX

So What's in a Price Drop ?

2009-08-24T10:19:00.001-06:00

The next wave of price drops are soon to hit us for the 09 holiday season. So there's no better time to jump into the High Definition gaming platform ……or is it? While Sony has already announced its new PS3 Slim with a price drop of $299, we are still awaiting the “official word” from Microsoft on the “new” Elite SKU of $299.

So now you can get a Xbox 360 top of the line Elite system for just $299 or can you ? Like Sony before it the new 360 SKU comes with more the just a price change. It also comes with a bit of a down grade. Yes you still get the Black Xbox, 120 GB HDD, headset and Ethernet cable, but the one thing you don't get that is the HD component cables which now need to be purchased separately. Instead just “standard” A/V cables are packed in.

What's the big deal you ask ? Well for anyone using an HDTV set it would mean spending more money to get the true next generation experience. Now a days a simple $10 HDMI cable will do the trick so the cost isn't that bad. My biggest problem here isn't the added cost, but the fact the average consumer may not even know that that they would have a choice to maximize their gaming experience. Here's to hoping that most people are educated in the world of High Definition. Folks gaming on a normal TV set would be good to go.

On the brighter side of things the price of gaming is coming down at a time when the we are in a economic state of BLAH which is great for the industry going into the holidays season. $299 for a High Definition gaming system is a great deal. And as always there's still the $199 entry level Xbox 360 Arcade unit and the $250 Nintendo Wii.

-TX

Because You WANT to see more FORZA 3

2009-08-21T12:00:00.001-06:00

-TX

In The Mail Today

2009-08-17T19:05:00.001-06:00

Courtesy of NeoGaf:

- Schu

Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition: The Great Debate

2009-08-14T15:14:00.000-06:00

I have been having an internal debate as of late in regards to the recently announced Prestige Edition of the Modern Warfare 2 package that will be hitting retail this November. With three SKU’s on the books, gamers once again are going to have to decide how ‘big’ of a fan they are of their beloved franchise. Two years ago I declared myself a huge fan of Halo by spending the big bucks on the Legendary Edition of Halo 3. I do not regret the purchase, but had I waited a few months I could have saved big time on the ‘cat-helmet’. So once again decision time will be rearing its ugly head, this time for the Call of Duty franchise.

Initially I was stoked about the package as I have always wanted to own my own pair of night vision goggles (even if they are just a low-grade version). That and the whole box and collection looks very cool. Then I began to look at the slew of Fall releases leading up to Christmas and began to realize that spending $150+ dollars for one game and no game-related peripheral probably is not the best idea. It is a rare occasion when I come to my senses and think responsibly when it comes to game purchases and Collector's Editions. I wouldn’t come away empty handed in this situation. The Hardened Edition still comes with all the really cool stuff like the download code for the first Call of Duty and a Modern Warfare art book. Not a bad haul indeed.

I was pretty comfortable with the decision I had made until Robert Bowling, Infinity Ward’s community manager had to open his big mouth. Robert went on the record and said that the Prestige Edition would truly be limited, and once the game launched, no more of this particular edition would be produced. That tugged at the collector heart-strings in me and once again made me second guess my choice. Now I should not put too much stock into that statement, I happen to remember Bungie stating the same thing two years ago with their Legendary Edition. Too this day you can still find it at a greatly reduced price.

In the end I believe common sense will win out, not because I am smart, but rather I am poor. Between all the cool other games, guides, and extras I plan to pick up I will need every last cent. So I think the debate just may be over…for now.

Modern Warfare 2

-SG

LTTP: Uncharted: Drakes Fortune

2009-08-11T15:02:00.002-06:00

Text Adventure: So Schuey, what were your initial thoughts going into Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, which was originally released in November, 2007.

Schuey: Uncharted in my mind had a lot to live up to. Not only was it my initial foray into the PS3 landscape, but Uncharted in many people’s eyes is still regarded as one of the top titles for the system. Going into the opening sequence of the game you are treated with a well put together opening cinematic, which shows of the solid animation and voice acting in the game, which I will come back to later. Into the first jungle level proper though, I felt a little underwhelmed by the graphics.

TA: Underwhelmed, how so?

Schu: I guess it was probably the jaggies. With the jungle environment being pretty busy, it seemed to be more noticeable.

TA: Did you opinion change on the graphics change as you proceeded to play through the game?

Schu: Most definitely. The jaggies become less noticeable and the subtle details started to show themselves from the swaying of branches in the wind, the movement of the grass, to solid texture work and lighting on the rocky surfaces. However the thing that stood out the most was the animation, which as I said earlier is not only great in the story sequences, but also in gameplay. From Drake’s little stumbles while running, reloading of guns, melee combat and grasping at ledges after a big jump, Uncharted is beautifully animated.

TA: How does the animation compare to other games in the genre, like say Tomb Raider or even Gears of War?

Schu: Very well, actually much better in fact. Not only were animations well done and varied, the controls still felt responsive. The fact that Uncharted 2 is supposed to surpass the first game on many of these fronts, it bodes well for the sequel.

TA: Speaking of controls, what did you think? Many of the gameplay/control conventions seemed to be stripped right from Gears of War, especially the cover system and gunplay.

Schu: Your right. Gears was clearly an influence, from the one button cover to the over the shoulder gun play. The shooting and cover mechanics were solid enough, but not quite as polished as Gears in my opinion. I’m hoping that U2 improves on this. At times it took too many shot sas well to take down your enemies. This seemed to be mentioned a lot by others after its initial release.

TA: Moving on from the controls, how did the story hold up for you?

Schu: I really enjoyed the story, even though it kind of stuttered a bit near end. Playing Nathan Drake, who was modeled to be somewhat of an every man, who can make mistakes from time to time seemed very believable. Not only Drake, but the supporting characters around him stood out as well. Give me Drake and Elena every time over the tired Lara Croft!

TA: Uncharted has only one game still remember, there is still plenty of time for Drake and co. to become tired!

Schu: True. I’ll give you that. The new leading lady in U2 looks very interesting as well. Hopefully the characters will continue to evolve and be given more depth.

TA: How long did the game take to complete?

Schu: Oh, I would say about 8 to 9 hours, which felt like the perfect amount of time. The fact the I was motivated to beat the game very quickly after getting it shows that it was able to draw me in.

TA: So it’s safe to say you will be picking Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, after your experience with Drake Fortune?

Schu: Most definitely. It is easily one of my most anticipated games in the Fall line-up, 360 or PS3.

TA: What’s next for you on the PS3?

Schu: I’m already into Valkyria Chronicles, which is a tactical strategy game set in a WWII setting, with a Japanese take. So far I think it’s fantastic.

TA: How about for the Xbox 360?

Schu: Just working on my backlog until the Fall onslaught with some Battlefield 1943 thrown in as well.

TA: Well that’s about it, thanks for your time Schu.

Schu: Your welcome…………Playstation 3!

Steam Powered: Dawn of War II

2009-07-31T14:21:00.001-06:00

Last night when I got home I received a pleasant surprise when my Facebook page had informed me that Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II went 50% off at Steam. When I was planning on buying my new laptop, one of the things I had in mind for it was to do some PC gaming. Dawn of War II caught my eye early on as an interesting starting point to delve into PC gaming, after all what is more PC than a Real Time Strategy game (RTS).

Granted I did not know much about it other than it was developed by Relic who created the critically acclaimed Company of Heroes (which is on sale as well) and that it was not as intensive as other PC RTS games tend to be. Last but not least I was also intrigued by the fact that I could earn LIVE achievements to pad my Xbox LIVE Gamerscore.

I did download and enjoy the demo, now I just need a little time to get immersed into the game. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous to be using the mouse and keyboard for controls, but I am happy that it is not a ‘twitch’ game, so I think I should be able to handle it. Interesting times ahead!

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War® II

-SG

SCHUEY F1: Gaming in the 4th Dimension

2009-07-27T10:07:00.002-06:00

Last week I picked up a Playstation 3, disappointing I’m sure my fellow blogger’s Superghost and TormentX. I have been waiting to get one for some time, but haven't came across a good deal or I have been waiting for the price to drop (which will probably happen shortly no doubt!).

I managed to get a pretty solid deal. For $450 I got the 160gb sku (reg. $520), which comes with Uncharted. I also got Killzone 2 for free, which I may just trade in. I traded in a few 360 games and was able to knock the price down to $340 and with $100 already saved up from a few months ago that equals $240, not bad , even if the price drop happens!

I haven’t been able to give it a proper run through yet, but I briefly tested Uncharted, MGS4 and Flower. I also have Valkyria Chronicles, but due that strategy nature of the game, it will need a bit more time. From what I played, I though the quality was really nice, even though the games I played are over a year old now I think. From what I have seen of Uncharted 2, it definitely looks like an upgrade. Flower gave me a good taste of proper Sixaxis controls, like most people though, I think Sixaxis is best left alone for most games. The XMB interface is elegant. I think I still prefer NXE though. Maybe the PS3 will get a new interface at some point.

Overall I’m happy with the purchase and I’m looking forward to some the PS3 exclusives coming down the pipe (Heavy Rain!).

- Schu

My Fantasy Zone: Reviving Classic Sega Franchises

2009-07-24T09:50:00.000-06:00

Like many of you, if you were a fan of video games, particularly in the 1990s, you were either a Nintendo or a Sega fanboy. My path followed closely that laid out by Sega. I remember buying my first video game console with my own money, the Sega Genesis. Later, I became a fierce fan of the Sega Saturn. Finally, the Sega Dreamcast highlighted my dozen or so year love affair with Sega hardware. But all good things come to an end as Sega, after a rocky decade, could no longer support its hardware business and went on to exclusively be a third party publisher, supporting Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and others in their future hardware ventures. As a Sega fan I have seen the fruits and failures of Sega’s new direction.

So indulge me if you will as I imagine that Sega has hired me, a long time Sega supporter, to be in charge of a newly created department that would be responsible for developing games based on some of their most illustrious and notorious franchises. So I have selected several properties I think Sega needs to revive or reboot and how they need to go about doing so. So I have gathered my inner circle at Sega headquarters for our first meeting. Here are the games my staff will making:

Sonic the Hedgehog: The biggest name in Sega’s pantheon of characters is in need of the biggest reboot. Though Sonic has seen several launches over the last decade or so, yet it still has not been able to get close to recapturing its former glories. So I would decree to give the fans what they desire most, a return to the glory days. Sonic’s next game would be a 2.5-D revival based on the original two games of the 8-bit era. I would drop all of his friends except for Tails (useful in co-op situations) and use him in clever new ways to assist sonic. Like Epic’s Shadow Complex, once in a while Sonic would break the 2-D plain for some 3-D action. Leader boards, collectables, puzzles, and Chao raising (an amalgamation of Sonic Adventure’s Chaos and Night’s ‘A-Life’) would be incorporated to give the game legs. All this and a friendly price point to reel in the masses and I think Sonic would be once again on top of the world.

Phantasy Star Online: One of my all-time favourite games has already seen its own ‘next-gen’ remake, but I say don’t fix was is not broke. Forget Sony’s Home or Microsoft’s Avatars, my idea for a PSO revival is to reintroduce the series as a downloadable title via each consoles respective download service. Phantasy Star Online would once again become gamers social destination as the games lobbies would be filled by players wishing to chat or party up for experience earning, loot-grabbing expeditions. No subscription would be required, the game would become a gold mine via micro-transactions. You could tweak your look by buying unique styles for your existing armour, weaponry, and Mags. Also, new episodes would be made available for purchase to ensure you keeping coming back for more. The game would also support itself with in-game advertising (In all truth I hope that somebody at Sega actually reads this and gets them thinking along these same lines).

Crazy Taxi: the original Crazy Taxi was a runaway success, unfortunately its sequels could not recapture the originals fire and the franchise soon disappeared from our radar. Imagine if you will Crazy Taxi Online. Think of what could be done with a city not unlike Paradise City, where online players would compete for fares, do crazy stunts, and cause general mayhem. Crazy Taxi Online would be a licence to print money.

Seaman and Jet Set Radio: Two franchises that were made for the new generation of camera and motion control. Before there was Natal’s ‘Milo’, there was Seaman. This half human, half fish ‘lived’ in your Sega Dreamcast. As you raised it, it communicated with you and via a microphone included with the game, you communicated back. Now imagine Seaman brought to life with the Natal or Eye Toy. It would recognize your face, perhaps even sense your mood. Via motion control you could interact with Seaman and his environment. You could even map yours or someone else's face to the Seaman (creepy)! Like many Sega franchises, Seaman was ahead of its time. Natal was made for games like this.

Imagine Jet Set Radio using he motions of your arms and hands to spray paint or ‘tag’ your environment. Uh oh, the bad guys are on to you so it is time to book. You take off with the motion of your legs, or perhaps your Wii balance board to mimic skating. You direction changing or shifting of weight allows you to perform stylized stunts. Again I believe Jet Set Radio would be a perfect match for this generation of motion-based controls.

Panzer Dragoon: One of Sega’s most storied franchises, Panzer Dragoon has a rich and detailed universe that is begging to be remade for the next generation. I would like to rerelease the original Panzer Dragoon Saga along side the creation of its sequel. Saga’s unique melding of Dragoon’s patented combat in a RPG setting made this game an experience like no other. So much work has already been put into creating this properties universe, including its own spoken language, that it would be a shame that we never get to experience its colourful universe again. We were blessed to have four solid games out of Panzer Dragoon, but how many people really got to play them? I think we can do better for this franchise.

Shenmue: Say what you will about this franchise, but one thing is for sure, we need closure. GTA III changed the face of open world games forever, leaving games like Shenmue in its wake. So instead of trying to compete with that level of detail, I would like to produce either a series of interactive movies or one great episode to conclude the Shenmue storyline. Again, so much effort was placed into this franchise that it deserves a better fate. At the end of the day it may just be fan service, but with the guaranteed millions of earnings from the above titles, I think we can once again role the dice on Sega’s most notorious game series ever.

So far I think I have my new division at Sega off to a tremendous start. I think the above are the keys to returning Sega to its former glory. New Phantasy Star and Skies of Arcadia RPGs would be in the next wave. Also I need to put Chu Chu Rocket into the downloadable space as soon as possible. What Sega franchises would you like to see resurrected, retooled, or remade? I would like to hear from you, so please leave a comment. Sega has one of the most rich and beloved library of properties in the video game world. They need to get out there a grab the gold ring! Make it happen Sega.

SEGA

-SG

Ok Bioware…..You Got Me!

2009-07-15T19:16:00.004-06:00

Up to this point I have been on the fence about whether or not to purchase Dragon Age, which is a RPG set in a mix of low and high fantasy and is the spiritual successor to Baulder’s Gate. Today though, they revealed the Collectors Edition, which comes with….are you ready…a cloth map!

Cloth maps, which tended to be more or less standard with computer RPG’s back in the day (see the Ultima series) are pretty high on the nerd scale, but I think they are great, and that they are the kind of swag I like to see with CE’s. I’m also a fan of Mass Effect and the Dragon Age CE is also supposed to come with something a little extra for Mass Effect 2.

However, what I will not be buying is the “Prestige Edition” for Modern Warfare 2, which comes with working night-vision goggles! I don’t want to end up like this guy below…

* picture courtesy of NeoGaf

- Schu

MechWarriors…Come out and Play!

2009-07-14T21:17:00.000-06:00

An interesting bit of news surfaced this past week that caught my attention. IGN reported that Smith and Tinker and Piranha Games are rebooting the storied PC Mech franchise with an all new game on the PC and Xbox 360 entitled MechWarrior. Now you can read the article in its entirety and watch a teaser trailer for the upcoming title here, but what I want to write about today is what this announcement means to me by looking back on my Mech battling past.

To start of I am going to go way back. All the way back to 1988. I was in my mid teens and a Commodore 64 owner looking for a fresh and exciting RPG to sink my teeth into. I was recently wowed by my first experiences with the Robotech animated series and was looking to find a game that was comparable in story and scope. Via the magazines of the time I was introduced to the Battletech series, seeing ads for the game Battletech: The Crescent Hawk Inception. Even though the C64 version was mildly ‘nerfed’ compared to its PC counterparts it was a solid RPG and was an unusual genre for the franchise as future games would focus on the direct piloting of the Mechs. I quickly completed this game, but little did I know that it would be the better part of two decades before I would get to revisit the Battletech/MechWarrior series. This time it would sport a new, hipper title, MechAssault.

In the first days of Xbox LIVE is was really about two games, Ghost Recon and MechAssault. For me I was not as interested in the complex military action of Ghost Recon so I quickly latched onto MechAssault. I appreciated its variety of Mechs, online teamwork, and accessibility of play. A spent many an evening playing the multiplayer component if favour of the single player campaign. I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that this game was a moderate success on the platform. It also brought twitch gameplay to the franchise that had been firmly rooted on the PC since A couple of years later a sequel was released entitled MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf.

When MechAssault 2 came out it appeared that it would be a sure fire hit as it looked to have improved on the original title in everyway possible on paper. One of the big bullet points for this title was a persistent online conflict where your conflicts had an overall effect on the balance of power within the games universe. While the game pushed forward the mythology of the Battletech universe the game was mired in several game breaking problems. The games poor matchmaking and lack of flexibility to chose your Mech within its persistent online battle often left me and my friends stuck in lobbies waiting for enough people to make a game. We not so fondly began to refer to the game as ‘Lobby-Assault’. The poor performance of two fan favourite properties (the other being Shadowrun) led to Microsoft disbanding the development studies and selling the rights to Smith and Tinker. Now I led with where that went, but I am not ready to return to that story. Two other great games were yet to be played, Steel Battalion and Chromehounds.

Steel Battalion and its online sequel, Steel Battalion: Line of Contact, were games in my opinion that were well ahead of their time. Unfortunately the game’s greatest strength was its greatest weakness, the prohibitively priced, but oh so awesome controller. Steel Battalion weighed in at a hefty $250 price tag, its price at the time was comparable to the price of the entire console it ran on (the Xbox if you did not know already). Also due to the pricing the game was available in very limited numbers. But those who were able to find the game and pay the price discovered a game experience that you could not find anywhere else on home consoles.

Capcom’s ambition increased ten fold with the release of the online expansion, Line of Contact. The online game supported 5 vs.. 5 Vertical Tank combat, collectable rare items, chat rooms, an action house, and a persistent online conflict where your battles again would effect the state of the overall conflict. I had an awesome personal campaign going in LoC, but two things in this game doomed my interest. When you die in Steel Battalion, you die. Your career is over and all you have accumulated is gone. So when my character died I actually was shocked and felt like somebody kicked me in the stomach. That coupled with the ‘lobby assault’ where it could take up to 30 minutes to get a game together spelled the end for this game for me. Steel Battalion burned the brightest, but certainly not the longest. I often wonder what could have been had this game waited one more generation to be released. Again it would be a couple more years before the torch was picked up again with Sega’s Chromehounds on the Xbox 360.

I was very excited for the arrival of Chromehounds. I had a lot of confidence that the third time would be the charm and this persistent online world thing would finally take a hold in the Xbox LIVE community. Once again though it appeared that poor net coding would be the bane of this genre of gaming on the Xbox console space. While I and my friends had a lot of fun building ‘Hounds and taking part in the battle, in the end we had to settle for playing against the computer as the game could just not handle the scope of the games online play. At the end of the day I am left to wonder if this genre, this style of play had anywhere to go this generation. Fortunately it appears that we will get at least one more opportunity with the franchise that started it all for me, MechWarrior.

While we are only introduced to this game with a teaser trailer, from what I observed it appears to strike a balance between Steel Battalion and MechAssault. The inclusion of 4-player co-op is a huge win as well. So after years of hits and misses in this genre I am very confident that the retooled MechAssault franchise will strike the correct chord once and for all. I will be watching closely any developments on this game. Xbox 360 and PC owners be on the lookout, the new generation of Mech assaulting will soon be at hand.

IGN: MechWarrior Revealed

-SG

EA Active ….One week later

2009-07-14T13:07:00.001-06:00

So one week later I headed back to EA’s personal home trainer for the Nintendo Wii EA Active. While I wish I could have continued my 30 day challenge I had to pass due to actually injuring my foot while using it the first day. It even set back my normal fitness routine a bit, but I still managed to push on.

I chose to lay off the cardio and focus on my strength training for the last week at the gym and that was sort of my focus on my EA Active workout today.

So I entered my own personal workout today and stayed away from anything that might have me taking many steps like lunges or running in place. I Still burned off 226 calories in 30 minuets all while keeping my feet grounded.

First I did mix of sports, cardio boxing ands upper body training . Sports consisted of playing volleyball, baseball and basketball. These exercises really let you focus in on the motions yours using while actually playing these sports and let you feel the muscles being used. You really don't think about it when your doing these things in a real game , but when you turn it into a workout and push yourself with each and every motion you feel it !

The upper body training consisted or more exercises using the resistance band. I went for a mix or curls, shoulder presses and shoulder raises. The cardio Boxing in this game is great. The trainer has you throwing jabs and straights with left and right crosses then turning to the heavy bag were you are given a different number for reps to complete between 30 and 100. That's when you want punch the hell out of the bag at this point as fast as you can all while trying to maintain a nice balanced form.

I ended my workout with standing squats to give the legs a little burn with out putting a lot of pressure on my foot. I did a seconded workout that was made up of mostly Boxing and Tennis. for a bout 12 minutes and again ended with some squats.

Once my foot is better I'm going to restart my 30 day challenge not only so I can report on how well it went but so that I can further better my own personal fitness goals. For someone who just started studying to be a personal trainer I made a big mistake. I didn't warm up or stretch. I do it in the gym but overlooked it at home. So I still stand behind EA Active and the quality of the training given on screen. So stay tuned for more virtual fitness from me TormentX, my Wii and EA Active.

My Review for EA Active

-TX

SG’s Adventures: The Hiatus Return Edition!

2009-07-13T18:32:00.000-06:00

It has been a long couple of months for me as my focus was turned away from blogging and towards my studies. Now with my exam written and in the books I am free and clear to return to my neglected blogs and show them some love.

As was before, Fallout 3 is once again the focus of my blogging. Point Lookout is the latest in the substantial series of DLC Bethesda has provided for their smash RPG. I love the feel of Point Lookout, the developers have really captured that Hill-Folk scare factor (see the motion picture Wrong Turn) and incorporated that into their version of post-apocolypticia. As I play this story I cannot help to think how this could be co-opted into a Silent Hill RPG, in fact if it did not have the Fallout 3 trappings, it wouldn't` take much to make the switch. Their is a lot to explore here, possibly more than Project Anchorage and The Pitt combined. This to me is the first DLC package that really feels like a new chunk of land to explore, rather than the mostly linear progression of the previous entries. Once I am done here I think I will begin to proceed to the Fallout 3 endgame, Broken Steel. Right now I am sitting on about 117 hours, think it will soon be time to make a change. As much as I love the capital wasteland, I think I need some new scenery. That is not to say I won’t return, I would definitely come back for visits!

When I went online this afternoon I was pleased to see that Ikaruga is the Xbox LIVE Marketplace ‘Deal of the Week’. I always wanted to purchase the game, even if it was only for Dreamcast nostalgia. Now it is half off and priced at 400 Microsoft Points. If you were like me and too cheap to take the plunge before, now is the time to strike on a classic ‘shump’.

Last year, Mirror’s Edge was firmly on my radar, but time was not on that games side as it arrived in the middle of a crazy videogame season, Fall 2008. As I listened to what people had to say about the game I got a little turned off as well. Earlier today in fact I reiterated those same feeling to my cousin COKTOE (formerly COKTOE 360 of Xbox fame). I basically stated how I let that game pass me by. This afternoon I was perusing the 360 games at a local store when I Mirror’s Edge for a mere $20. Being on vacation right now and looking for something fresh I decided to take the plunge and purchase the game. It is funny how that works sometimes. I has put some serious thought into NCAA 10, but the high price of game lately is scaring me off. Possibly a little purchasing patience may be my new order of the day.

-SG

Review: EA Active

2009-07-07T12:38:00.001-06:00

So can you remember a while back I mentioned that I was going to give the Wii Fit a spin and report back on it ? Well long story short it didn't amount to anything. In brief though the Wii fit has some good to it when it comes to physical fitness , but it is truly split down the middle when it comes to being a game or a serious trainer.

Today I opened up EA Active and started day one of the 30 day challenge. Now I'm not going to promise you that I'm going to complete my 30 day challenge in well….30 days. Most of you that know me know that I workout on a regular basis so to commit to this for the full 30 days will be hard , but ill do my best.

What I can tell you is if you do buy this and you do commit to the 30 day challenge yourself along with a sensible diet you will see results ! I really didn't know what I was getting myself into when I started this today. Like any other game out there you have your difficulty level to choose from and I chose the hard intensity level. Well I can say I was put to the test.

Now I'm no Greek God or anything but I'm also no stranger to working out over the years and this game kicked my butt today. I did everything from walking, running and boxing to inline skating and squats. That was just some of my workout on day one with more to come. I worked out for 32 minuets and burned 260 calories ! Folks I was trenched in sweat when I was done. I was planning on using my stability fitness ball afterwards but was way to tired.

You can choose from the 30 day challenge or set your own customizable workout and set it at the skill level that's right for you. Plus you can keep track of it all in a journal as well as your nutritional intake all in game . Sounds great !

I think for beginners and even the moderate workout enthusiast EA Active is a great home personal trainer. For those of you that feel your a bit advanced well you can step it up a bit more just by going faster or being more intense in your actions. I think at some point though everyone would need to go out and buy a new resistance band. You use this for doing curls, triceps kickbacks, bent over rows and more. Its either going to break or your just going to out grow it and need more resistance for more weight.

Over all I think EA Active is a great product and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick and intense workout at home. I give it a Text Adventures Big Thumbs Up ! I'm looking forward to the follow up this fall and I cant wait to try the controller free version on the Xbox 360 Natal.

-TX

Multiplayer Only ?

2009-07-03T11:23:00.001-06:00

So would you pay 60 bucks for a multiplayer only game these days? I think most people would say no including myself. But….what about 15 or 20 dollars, sounds like a sweeter deal right. Even better all you need to do is download the game. No need to run out and buy a retail copy.

Next week Battlefield 1943 will be hitting the XBLA and PSN for just $15.00 or 1200 MS points. Battlefield gives players the opportunity to control land and air vehicles as well as shoot it out on the ground with a complete arsenal of weapons on 4 huge maps. So now you can have all the fun of a multiplayer mode without the full game price tag.

I think this a great start to a new trend we will be seeing over the years. In fact I think some games could have benefited this way instead of being full retail games. Games like Quake Wars: Enemy Territories and Shadow Run which were basically multiplayer only games with some offline BOT matches could have done much better as digital distribution content at a discounted price instead of a full retail price tag. Unfortunately neither of the games faired to well.

Sony even tested the waters early with its multiplayer heavy game WARHAWK. The game was available in both retail and digital form. While you can download it cheaper from the PSN, you were given a packed in headset if you purchased it from retail. And lets not forget that the PC has been doing games like this for awhile now, think Counter Strike.

The trend looks to continue with the highly anticipated return of Quake Arena III now know as Quake Arena Arcade. Still no date and price on this game but just knowing you can purchase it for multiplayer purposes only at the right price is a beautiful thing.

Even games like World War and CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars on XBLA offer the multiplayer game only at a budget price. So while its a time to pinch pennies its not a bad time to be a online gamer. Personally Id like to see the multiplayer mode from Return to Castle Wolfenstien come out on XBLA. It would save me same cash next month. Beach Invasion anyone ?

-TX

The beginning of the end for Sony ?

2009-06-20T11:07:00.001-06:00

Could Sony really be headed for Doom ? With the recent threat of Activision’s CEO Robert Kotick they just might be.

"I'm getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don't make it easy for me to support the platform. It's expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation,"

"They have to cut the price, because if they don't, the attach rates [the number of games each console owner buys] are likely to slow. If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony."

Could this happen ? Would this happen ? Will the industries largest third party developer bail on Sony. In these times Its very possible with the economical cut backs over the last year. Sony is already losing money on the PS3 so a price cut is going to help them out even if it generates more sales for the system.

Of course more systems sold would benefit the publishers, but how many more would Sony need to sell to make worth the development costs ? Quit a bit I'm sure. So no more Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk or Call of Duty in the PS3’s future…… Is that enough to bring down the all mighty gaming giant that is Sony ? That and just maybe along with other third party titles that Activision publishes could be enough to send Sony’s gaming division into a downward spiral.

Of course Sony could go out and buy EA and screw everything up for Nintendo and Microsoft. Imagine Madden, NHL, NBA Live, Need for Speed, Rock Band, Skate, Mass Effect and Dead Space along with the rest of EA’s stable only available on the PlayStation brand. That would be crazy. That was just a “what if” on my part. It just shows what can happen if something like that did happened.

With Activision though the possibilities of bailing on Sony are close to a reality and could really hurt a company like Sony. I'm sure Sony will do what ever it takes to keep such a thing from happening, but in the mean time until they do they have to be a bit concerned with such a threat.

-TX

Things to do while Xbox Live is Down

2009-06-15T13:30:00.001-06:00

Don't forget Tuesday Xbox Live will be down for maintenance so here are a few ways to keep you busy.

1. Read a book, may it would be a great time to start the Walking Dead if you haven't already.

2. Watch those show piled up on your DVR. How many Family Guys can you record before you start watching them again ?

3. You could spend some time with a loved one or the family.

4. You could use your (If you have one) Playstation 3, Wii or DSi for some online gaming….Nah you'd still be alone.

5. You could get some sleep and go to bed early.

6. You could chat on your favorite ‘IM’ or Skype with you friends.

All that or you can just do what it is you love to do. Pop in one of your favorite Xbox titles and enjoy a nice quiet night of some one on one time with you and your 360 !

-TX

Text Adventure Q & A

2009-06-14T19:22:00.005-06:00

QUESTION: DO YOU REPLAY GAMES?

ANSWER: Yes: For me, the reasons for replaying games tends to be for three reasons, 1. The game offers a compelling reason to replay the story (ex. Mass Effect and Fallout 3, which provide the player multiple choices as they progress through the game), 2. The game has an upcoming sequel and I want to refresh myself with the narrative again (ex. Gears of War and the Halo series) and 3. The game was fantastic and I want to experience it again (ex. also see Mass Effect).

I can understand people wanting to move on to the next big thing, but some games are just worth repeating, however I think I’m probably in the minority amongst gamers.

Text Adventure readers, do you replay games?

- Schu

10 Year Life Cycle

2009-06-13T10:24:00.001-06:00

Sometimes you can beat me over the head with something and I just wont have it. What am I getting at ? Well fellow writer SUPERGHOST and myself have been having this debate about the this so called “10 Year Life Cycle” of gaming consoles. He's for it …I'm not.

The PS2 is a Phenom when it comes to consoles with over 10 years of active sales and with well over a 1000 titles available world wide. There continues to be support for the PS2, minimal… but support none the less. At $99.99 the PS2 still continues to sell, sometimes out selling its younger and more powerful buddy the PS3.

So a console can last 10 years maybe even more. Did Sony know this would happen or even plan for it ? I really doubt it. So last years at E3 when Sony started talking about the “10 year life cycle” of consoles it was really something they had to play up considering that the PS3 was just having poor sales in general.

So can the Xbox 360 have a life span of 10 years? Sure it can, but will it ? I think the Wii is the new 10 year console of this generation of gaming. Its cheap and has not shown any sign of slowing down. The PS2 is in the same boat. A consumer that doesn't wanna spend a lot of money on gaming can buy a PS2 at the best value and a Wii for the gimmick if they choose to.

The PS3 and Xbox 360 are so far more advanced I just don't ever see them going any lower then $200.00. Do you ever plan on seeing a $99 PS3 w/ Blu-Ray ….didn't think so. Yes the 30 Arcade SKU is already at $199.99 but it really is a poor option for some one looking to get into the next generation of gaming. Its really just a quick fix for your RROD when you need a new console. In fact Microsoft and Sony both made a mess for consumers this gen with so many SKU’s.

So this all boils down to the rumor that Microsoft would be re-launching the Xbox 360 with Project Natal built in as well as newer chip sets. Another SKU great. Well its is kind of. If they can release the “newer” system at a affordable price and still have just one other SKU like the 60 GB Pro System ay a valued price that would clear things up for the consumer. The Elite is on its way out and will only be for limited edition packages and the Arcade really needs to go with no hard drive.

So Microsoft looks to be taking the right steps towards extending the life of the 360. In these economic times it would be silly not try and get as much out of one console. Just like Sony and MS are still trying to do anything to get the crowd that the Wii already own which seems like an up hill battle. Microsoft trying to accomplish something Sony didn't even know they had till they were desperate for anything positive seems like a shot in the dark at this point.

For me I’ll buy the new improved Natal version of the 360, but I'm still banking a new full blown console buy fall of 2012. Are you willing to play your 360 for 10 years before jumping into the next generation of console gaming ? That being said the 360 will not last 10 years for me, Ill be moving on to bigger and betters things.

-TX

If You cant beat em… Join em !

2009-06-08T18:55:00.001-06:00

I've always considered myself to be a “hardcore gamer”. I don't even mind being called a “fanboy” towards my favorite console of choice. So it always bothered me when Microsoft pushed so hard to be come the Family gaming console.

From the newly packaged Arcade unit, to the Family Game Night Advertisements on Xbox Live as well as Xbox.com, I just kept saying to myself “Not me , not my console”. I always felt it was just a cheap and desperate attempt to steal some Buzz away from Nintendo and the Wii and it was. I just didn't like it.

Now I'm not anti Family Gaming or anything , but I felt that there was a system out for that and my 360 just needed to worry about my needs not the needs of my 4 and 9 year old sons. Isn't that why I purchased a Wii so “the family” has something to play ?

This years E3 made it perfectly clear that not only Microsoft, but Sony as well are not sitting back when it come to the motion controls. I was very impressed with Project Natal in its early stages. As far as Sony's double fisted ‘Wii like remotes’ it just makes me think “what were they thinking” ? (That's the Fanboy in me)

So motion controls are part of the future and are here to stay it seems. Nintendo did a great job pulling this off with the Wii and capturing the casual crowd as well as bringing in the non-gamers such as the moms and the aunt and uncles.

So that's were the family crowd should be on the Wii.. Right ? My kids, they play with the Wii all the time right ? Wrong ! My 4 years old son proved to me how wrong I was to feel that my “hardcore console” couldn't be a family machine. He likes the Wii, but doesn't get the waggling part of the whole thing. Instead he can figure out how to use the Xbox 360 controller and its 10 buttons. For that matter even my 9 year old son prefers Master Chief over Mario. Go figure.

I downloaded several demos for my 4 year old son such as The Bee Movie, UP, Shrek The Third and Monsters Vs. Aliens just to name a few. After seeing the movie and playing the demo he was hooked on Monsters Vs. Aliens. So I wasn't sure If I should buy it for him on the Wii or just get him the 360 version since he was already playing that one form the demo.

Well I bought the 360 version and he's doing very well with it. Turns out the game has coop and makes it a blast for my two sons to play together or it even makes fun for myself or my wife to jump in and play with him as well. Turns out that a lot these game geared towards the younger crowd have coop and make great for ..uh…er…. Ah “Family game nights”.

So do I feel that my Hardcore only Xbox 360 is a great place for the whole Family to gather around and and have some fun ? I most certainly do. I think Microsoft and Sony both share the same third party licensed titles that are geared towards the younger audience and make for great family titles with coop play. Both companies have a lot ground to make up, but in the mean time I guess if you cant be em …..Join em !

-TX

85 hours….

2009-06-06T18:53:00.002-06:00

..is how long it took me to complete Persona 3, which as of now is probably in my top 5 RPG’s of all time.

I won’t go into much detail about the game, but I’ll just say even though it shares a lot of similarities with other JRPG’s it still felt fresh (fresh to me anyways since it actually came out several years ago!) primarily due to the setting and story.

Completing the main story is not the end however, Persona 3:FES comes with an additional chapter, which contains another 30+ hours of gameplay, which I’m going to jump right into, and after that Persona 4.

- Schu

Forza Fever

2009-06-06T16:45:00.001-06:00

You know its only been the last few months or so that I would here on a podcast or read in the gaming media that the racing genre has taken a fall. I find this to be strange to me considering the fact that I own 7 racing titles.

Well there's no better way to get people excited about getting behind the wheel then with the official announcement of Forza Motorsports 3 at this years E3 this past week.

Do you remember E3 a few years back when Jay Allard was introducing the Xbox 360 and talking all about what it can do on technical and community level ? Yeah, well then you might remember him talking about “Velocity Girl”. She was the “non-gamer” that could create content like t-shirts and other user created content and put them up for sale in on Xbox Live.

Well Forza Motorsports is as close to that as we've come so far. Behind a incredible racing game is something much deeper and that's were Forza’s community lies. Even if you couldn't steer that car around the track for even one lap you could spend hours at a time playing Forza.

If you know what your doing under the hood of a car you could spend the time to fine tune a vehicle for others that cant even change their own oil (Me). The you put that car in to the Forza auction house for bidding.

Or if your the creative type with some artistic talent you can truly make some breathtaking paint jobs and put them up for bidding as well. For all you A/V buffs out there the new game will also include a video editor for uploading and posting to the net. And this is what people in the Forza community do.

You don’t need to be an expert to tune your car and paint it in the game, but the opportunity to get a car from someone who might be is there. Turn 10 the producers of the series make this very easy to do in game and also provide a great site for the community at ForzaMotorsports.net

Forza also takes the racing genre one step further with its superior controls and handling. Now there's plenty of games that can utilize a force feedback steering wheel, but non of then give the true drive experience like The Forza series. Yesterday I dusted off the old Microsoft steering wheel and fired up Forza 2 and was blown away all over again by just how great of a game it is.

If your thinking about getting into Forza for the first time of even if you have been playing the franchise for the past 4 years or so I highly recommend picking up a Racing wheel to enhance your gameplay. You can get the Microsoft wheel for around $99.99 and it is a great wheel. If your wanna be a bit more hardcore about things and spend some more cash you could checkout Fanatec.com for some higher end racing wheels.

With the release of Forza 3 this October I think Il be spending more time with Forza 2 and my wheel to get warmed up for the season and just maybe this year I'll reintroduce The Ballad of TormentX. See you on the track this fall !

-TX

GameBooks: Silent Hill & Dead Space

2009-06-05T17:33:00.001-06:00

Sometime you just can't play video games all the time. So instead it is good to take time and read stories based or supplementing video games. Last weekend I ordered a couple of books online, graphic novels to be more specific. Today I received them,here is what I got:

Silent Hill Omnibus: This book is a collection of several comic book stories set in the Silent Hill universe to the tune of 400 pages. This collection includes Silent Hill: Dying Inside, Silent Hill: Three Bloody Tales, and Silent Hill: Dead/Alive, all written by novelist Scott Ciencin and featuring art by Ben Templesmith. Since they announced Silent Hill: Shattered Memories I have been really inspired to complete my Silent Hill game collection and have since brought Silent Hill and Silent Hill 3 back into my collection joining SH2 and 4. When I saw this in the book store recently I thought it would be a good way to build up my Silent Hill passion. I will let you know if it any good.

Dead Space: Another game I have been waiting to play for some time. And since I have heard nothing but great things about I wanted to jump into the Dead Space universe with both feet. So in the last few months I have purchased the movie, the game, and finally the graphic novel. Apparently the game designers have made the story a trilogy with each medium supplying a chapter. I plan to put them all together and see if they fit. Again I will let you know how this trilogy turns out.

IDW Publishing: Silent Hill

-SG

Bargain Bin: Raiden Fighters Aces & Condemned 2

2009-06-03T18:05:00.000-06:00

I have been away from my blog post over the last few weeks, and being in the middle of my personal X-mas (E3) I really should be more focused on those events. Instead I am going to talk about a couple of the cheap, cheap games I saw on my excursion to the mall last week.

While rooting through a discount bin at my local Wal-Mart I uncovered this little gem. While it is a brand new title, it also comes in at under $20 in price. Raiden Fighters Aces is a great package for old-school 'shumps' fans. The disc contains 3 full games in the series as well as a bevy of options to tailor your experience to your liking. Being under $20 and in the mood to buy a game I thought why not give this game a try. While I just spent one evening with it so far, it is a good little experience. And with most XBLA titles of the same calibre being worth up to 1,200 points each, RFA is a great value. So if you are in the mood for something a little different, why not test your reflexes with this 'shump' package.

Same night as I found the above I went into the EB in the same mall as was the Wal-Mart. In their I found Condemned 2: Bloodshot on sale for $15! What a steal! I love both Condemned games and the fact that a year later this game is only fetching $15 is a crime. If you have not had the pleasure of playing either game and are interested in survival horror or perhaps an FPS with a different hook, C2 is the game you have to play. At that price I should have almost bought a second copy! In all seriousness this is a fantastic game.

From what I have seen at E3 though I am going to have so many games to play this Fall that it will make my head spin. Owning an Xbox console is kind of like Wrestlemania, every year it is the best ever, except in the case of the 360, it is.

Raiden Fighters Aces - Valcon Games

-SG

Say Cheese ?

2009-06-02T16:52:00.001-06:00

So what did you think of the Microsoft press conference at this years E3 ? Not to shabby eh? We Finally saw the light of day for Alan Wake and yes Facebook is coming to the 360. While Microsoft impressed with a new Halo and 9 other exclusive game to look forward to, I still cant get over the fact that they are still trying so hard to be the Wii.

Now for me I felt that “Project Natal” was cool……BUT I dont wanna play games with a camera or waggle controller for that matter. I wanna sit on my butt and enjoy the skill that's needed to pick up a remote with over 10 buttons on it. I hope this isn't the “Future” of gaming.

While the camera itself impressed (especially with “Milo”) I just think its an add-on and maybe to late to capture the crowed that's used to playing games that really aren't any good all while waggling a remote around. Now don't get me wrong I will buy this product due to my nature of buying just about everything MS has to offer, but that's me. What about that target audience Microsoft is trying to reach…..? When they already own another system will the consumer want to run out and buy another console with an add-on that will probably cost them more?

On top of that this same consumer are the ones who really aren't gamers. They are moms and grandparents, they are aunts and uncles who thought that the Wii was neat and affordable. They are people who buy the Wii for themselves and for the younger kids in the family and play the game 2 to 3 times a month at the most (this statement is only from personal observations).

Yes the kiddies are playing their Wii more often and enjoying “some” good games with smooth motion controls. Others just get caught up in a name on the box that draws them into buy 3rd party garbage.

Enough of my Wii bash , but really I was promoting the Wii. They have that consumer that Sony and Microsoft are trying to capture. Nintendo came up with the multi million dollar seller and it doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon.

That's why I feel as cool as “Project Natal” is, it just maybe to late for Microsoft and the Xbox 360 to pull in that crowd. I haven't watched Sony’s press conference yet but I’m willing to bet they stuck to what they know and thats games.

I think If Microsoft keeps trying to play catch with the Wii they might get burned by the PS3 ! The Natal camera tech is impressive like I said. I just think its to late for the consumer to buy into now or maybe tad bit to early thinking they should have given this time to develop more for the next generation console war in 2012.

Update: I just read up on Sony’s motion controller, now they are both chasing a dream !

-TX

Its ALIVE !

2009-05-26T09:03:00.001-06:00

For over 20 years I've been holding on to my original Atari 5200 “Advanced Video Entertainment System” with the hopes that one day I would play it again. It was old but in great shape and I had a library over 15 old school games collecting dust. The only two controllers I had were in parts due to the fact that they took a beating over the years and I needed to do my own repairs.

Well about 3 years ago for Christmas my wonderful wife Teresa bought 2 refurbished controllers and a new power pack to fire up the old system. Great ! The only thing I needed was the old TV/Game switch box to make it all work now.

Well time went by and all I had to do was go online and find one, something not hard to do. Well 3 years later I was still without that switch box. Now my wife being the Ebay guru that she is spends a lot of weekend mornings at garage sales looking for that diamond in the rough. Of course some junk comes home with the kids a lot, but its pennies on the dollar compared to a new toy they would use for a day or two and forget about after that.

That being said I get some stuff brought home for me as well. Over time my wife has brought home boxes of video game stuff like old NES’s, Atari 2600’s and Genesis systems with a bunch of games and random parts. I usually hook them up for a day or two and then they end up on Ebay.

Well this past week was the jackpot ! She again brought home a bargain box deal for $5.00 that contained 2 NES's and 2600 systems with games and etc….. So after digging threw I found this TV/ Game switch box from RadioShack . I was like this it this is the one that will work with my 5200 !.

Sure enough I hooked it all up and it worked. Before I knew it I was playing Pac Man, Pole Position, Jungle Hunt, Kangaroo and many more. Now I don't see myself playing this every day, but the fact that after 20 years its 2nd system I ever owned and it still works to this day makes it all worth having. Now that's what I call old school !

-TX

Get off my Lawn !

2009-05-24T08:35:00.001-06:00

Its a beautiful sunny day. The grass is green, the sun is shining and the birds are singing. But then in typical fashion when it comes to video games it all goes wrong. Your lovely day is ruined. What happens when your front lawn becomes overrun by Zombies ? What are you going to do ? Nothing. That's right Nothing !

Your lawn takes so much more pride in its self than your you ever could dream of and is ready to fight back in Plants vs. Zombies. Your front Lawn is hardcore From the Sun Flowers right down to those measly little mushrooms that seem to pop up from time to time.

I know I may be a little late to the party here with this one, but I just downloaded a demo yesterday and loved it. The game is what I would describe as a strategy defense game with mini games. You use your sun flowers to collect sun witch gives the energy you need to grow more plants to defend your lawn.

You have “pea” shooter turrets, walnuts that acts as a blockade defense and cherries that bomb multiple zombies at once (get it cherry bombs). Every level you unlock new weapons or defense seeds to grow in your garden. Once you have a full arsenal you can only choose to have a certain number of weapons to bring to the party so choose wisely . Every few levels or so the game throws some faster paced mini games at you to keeps things fresh. Brilliant I say !

This game is so much fun and so addictive that I'm going to delete the demo I downloaded yesterday and find a new one to download now (timed demo). I suggest checking the Link below and downloading the trail version yourself. Also checkout the video ICandee posted at her blog , its priceless. If this game isn't announced for the the 360 or at least iPhone by the time E3 comes, this my very well be the first ever PC purchase I make.

Pop Cap Games: Plants vs. Zombies

-TX

I'm Gonna Knock You Out !

2009-05-18T18:39:00.001-06:00

Never has it been a better time to be a fan of the fighting genre. With in past year we’ve seen games such as Soul Calibur 4, Mortal Kombat vs DC, WWF Legends of Wrestling and Street Fighter 4. We can still look forward to Marvel vs Capcom, Tekken 6 and King of Fighter XII when it comes to traditional fighting games.

In just the past few years the UFC has become more popular world wide. Though its been around for about 10 years its just now being more accepted as a true sport and not a “blood sport”. The UFC is a combination of different fighting styles, such as boxing, wrestling, jujitsu and Karate for short MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) and makes for some exciting fights.

Enter UFC 2009 Undisputed. The game ships this week and is already getting great reviews. In the past there has been a couple of UFC games, but they were just button mashers and not very fun to play. UFC 2009 has already won over the fans with a demo that released just over a month ago.

The demo allowed fans to hop right in the Octagon and get a feel for the game. With a deep learning curve, the demo was also equipped with a hefty tutorial to teach you how to throw more then just punch and kicks. UFC 2009 Undisputed is going to be BIG!

The most anticipated fighter of the year has to be Fight Night Round 4. When this series debuted on Next gen consoles it was highly accepted by fans and reviewers alike. Heck it even caused a bit of change in how people score their reviews after one publication gave it a “10”.

With FN RD 3 the game was a great port of FN RD 2 (last gen) with a major jump in graphics. The Only issue was the solid but slower 30 fps. FN RD 4 looks to lock in 60 fps and have collision detection like no other game has ever seen. With the addition of Iron Mike Tyson in his prime you cant tell me your not looking forward to knocking someone's A** out !

So it doesn't matter in you like 2D or 3D, punching, kicking or wrestling The past year has had plenty of options for your butt kicking style. I love my fighting games and I look forward to seeing you in the ring, octagon, squared circle, arena …..which ever !

-TX

A Fading Melody

2009-05-15T20:13:00.002-06:00

Recently I finally purchased my first Xbox 360 Community Game: A Fading Melody (200 MS points). A Fading Melody is a simple platformer, which takes cues from last years XBLA hit Braid.

The narrative, which is told by scrolling text at the start of each level, is about a woman who is fighting a coma by bringing light and colour back into the her (subconscious) world and hopefully in the process, discover why she is in the coma in the first place. As you take out enemies, it helps prevent you from going deeper into your coma and lightens up the screen with each kill.

The main character and enemy designs are very simple (as you can see in the screenshot below), but the slightly more detailed backgrounds help draw the player in a bit more. The first thing though that should get your attention is the beautiful classical music score.

The gameplay mechanics, like the art style are also very simplistic, making the game feel like a platformer from the Commodore 64 days! Having to retry jumps or miss stomping on enemies can be a bit frustrating.

A Fading Melody, I would say is in the “art game” category, so if your not into that sort of thing I would pass, but if you like good music, the story concept and have a bit of patience I suggest giving a try (it’s also only 200 points remember!).

- Schu

Two Cents on Six Days in Fallujah

2009-05-15T10:30:00.000-06:00

Several weeks ago I was getting ready to write a blog in regards to why it was a good thing that Konami was going to publish Atomic Games first person shooter Six Days in Fallujah. The game was to be based on the events of the second battle of Fallujah during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Unfortunately as I was going to begin, the word had dropped that Konami decided to no longer publish this title as a result of mounting criticism from veterans groups and others sensitive to Atomic's portrayal of the conflict. Now I can not defend freedom like the brave men and women in our armed forces do day in and day out, but I can defend this game, and for better or for ill state why it is important we have the opportunity to decide for ourselves the fate of Six Days in Fallujah

The Call of Duty franchise Is easily one of the greatest first person shooter franchises of our time. All but one of the titles in the series have taken place during World War II, the most important and Earth-shaping conflict in recent memory. Still to this day many still carry the memories of those events, yet their has been no significant backlash to these titles, rather the purchasing public is begging for more. Even Call of Duty: World at War's depiction of extreme violence, be it in your face or unleashing a flamethrower on your enemy did nothing to slow the franchise momentum, rather it accelerated it. Yet Six Days of Fallujah felt the heat so harshly it will never see the light of day. Is it too soon? I argue the time is right now.

Now it may seem in the last paragraph I was down on Call of Duty, rather it is the opposite. I wanted to discuss it to make my point about Fallujah. When I started playing Call of Duty, it was with Call of Duty 2 on the Xbox 360. I was blown away at the time by its attention to detail and its portrayal of the events of World War II. For the first time in my life I became keenly aware of the sacrifices our soldiers went through defending our freedoms. I used that interest as a springboard to learn more about the conflict, to ask questions to what happened and why, and in the end have more respect and admiration for those who have served in the past, present, and future. Playing the game, you realize that this isn't exactly how it goes down as your health doesn't regenerate in real life, but it is just a way for us that get just a tiny glimpse or a feel for what those soldiers faced, to spark that interest and curiosity.

That is why we need Six Days in Fallujah more than ever, to reach those who may not watch the news on TV, or listen to the radio, or read the newspaper. Even if the game is just an adequate first person shooter that does nothing to push the genre forward, by the fact that is taking place in a theatre of operations that has such a profound effect on all our lives, this game could be the catalyst for some person out there to be awakened to what has and is going on in Iraq or Afghanistan. Think of it as the gateway drug to explore their countries involvement in wars that are going on to this day, and perhaps learn more about the sacrifices that have been made and are still being made today. That is why I think Infinity Ward dropped the ball a bit with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Such an incredible game with moments the likes of which we have never seen, but I always felt that the absence of a real-world middle east 'villain' took away from the games impact. I can imagine the difficulty they must have had, even with the decisions they made, in particular, the detonation of a nuclear device, but at the end of the day they still took the easy road out.

In conclusion, I hope that Six Days of Fallujah sees the light of day and makes it onto our gaming consoles. I myself was rather excited at the prospect, now in light of all the controversy I would like to hear and see what discussion would arise surrounding its release. As hey say, their is no such thing as bad publicity, I guarantee that because of the backlash and the news stories that followed, this game would sell through one million units in no time and be a guaranteed financial success. All we need at the end of the day is for one brave publisher to step forward.

Six Days in Fallujah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-SG

E3: What's Old is New Again

2009-05-14T09:38:00.001-06:00

We are just a little over two weeks away from this years new and improved E3 show. The past two years saw a more toned down quiet E3 without all the glitz and glamour. It was down to business for the gaming industry.

Instead of the loud music, lights and booth babes. It was all scheduled meeting for the press and media. E3 now looks to return to its somewhat former self with publisher looking to bring back the Hollywood style show.

Now matter what E3 looked like on the inside it was always about the the Big 3 and the press conferences that delivered the news we waited all year for. Whether its once again Microsoft trying to implement motion control to the 360, The “New” PSP Go, or a Wii price drop, rumors are a big part of the weeks leading up to the show.

I know myself I don't need to see “motion” in my 360. I think Lips and We’re in the Movies should have proven to MS to leave that market to Nintendo. Being a 360 Fanboy some of the things Id like to see would be….

A release date and gameplay footage of Alan Wake.

Peter Jacksons Halo Project.

New Exclusive titles.

New Live features like a Facebook feature or some sort of blogging option.

New Face plates !

I could go on forever, but Id like to keep the discussion open for the rest of you. What are you looking forward to at this years E3 from the Big 3 ?

-TX

And The Winner Is ????

2009-05-11T11:46:00.001-06:00

Well we’d like to thank all of you, yes all 3 of you that were eligible for entering in our Final Fantasy XI (PC) giveaway. One randomly selected winner has been drawn.

And the winner is ……………… ICandee ! Congratulation to you. I know with all your free time being a mom, wife, career women and gamer that you should have no problem finding time to play an online MMO !

Please contact me Via Xbox Live at gamer tag TormentX or at tormentx@hotmail.com for your shipping information.

Again thanks to all who entered and once again Congratulations to ICandee for becoming our winner !

When feeling like a Bad Ass has gone a little to Far !

2009-05-06T07:27:00.001-06:00

Normally I wouldn't I do a post that subjects the previous post, but this has to be seen. Now I think its safe to say that the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine game is a huge success so far and kicks some major booty ! Hey Kratos eat your heart baby !

Wolverine is a true Bad Ass in the Marvel world of comics and movies and now even more so in video games. But what happens when it goes to far ? What happens when the it becomes all to real ?

Well I’ll tell ya. It leads to a video that features some seriously awesome (and dangerous) home made claws and one dork that just looks hysterical try to pretend he is really Wolverine. Enjoy Folks !

Source: GiantBomb.com

-TX

Wolverine Killed Richard B. Riddick

2009-05-03T17:09:00.001-06:00

What an inflamitory title, but around my house there is a ring of truth to it. I have been a vocal Chronicals of Riddick supporter since it was released 5 years ago on the original Xbox. Ever since the announcement of the remake/sequel was made for the Xbox 360, I have been chomping at the bit to get my hands on it. A couple of weeks ago I picked up the game and was enjoying it. Recently my gaming time has been diminished, so once I started along the point in the game where there are several 'fetch-n-fight' quests punctuated by load screen after load screen, my interest started to wane in the face diminished returns. I actually was feeling a little stressed at the prospect of completing the missions that I started as weird as that may sound.

A funny thing happened that I did not quite expect. After a dreary session of load screens in Butcher's Bay, I realized that I had downloaded the X-Men Origins: Wolverine demo off of the Marketplace. Once I started playing I knew that this was the cure for what ailed me. Instant action, instant gratification, and the feeling of being a total bad-ass that I have not felt since Too Human. So on Friday I did what I often loathe to do, I traded in Riddick to help pay for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Friday night I took my son to the movie, that evening I started my adventure, and the rest is history.

It has ben an odd gaming year for me, often dictated by time and what my group of friends are playing. In purchasing Wolverine, a game that I would normaly shy away from, I am having as much gaming-therapy as I am fun. If you are a Marvel Comics fanboy from way back, or you are just looking for some crazy fun, Wolverine is a great gaming tonic. Now just because I traded in Riddick, it doesn't mean we are through, just think of it as a little cryo-stasis, I will wake you when I am ready.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Official Video Game Site

-SG

Win Final Fantasy XI at Text Adventure!

2009-04-27T17:39:00.002-06:00

Here it is folks the first ever Text Adventures give away contest . One lucky reader can take home the PC version of Final Fantasy XI (online MMO only) with 4 expansion packs (monthly fee required). All you need to do is leave a comment under this post for a chance to win.

The contest will run for two weeks, then a randomly selected winner will be drawn. Just make sure to check back to see if you have won. The contest is only open to the residents of the United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii). The winner will be announced on May 11TH. You will have ONE week to claim your prize after that another winner will be drawn. Good Luck to everyone !

FINAL FANTASY XI

-TX

xPod: Inside Xbox 360 App

2009-04-26T18:16:00.003-06:00

Do you have an Xbox 360, do you have an IPod Touch or IPhone? If you do I would recommend downloading the Inside Xbox 360 app.

The Inside Xbox 360 app (which is the only app endorsed by Microsoft) allows you to keep track of you and your friends gamertags (up to 12 friends). You can also view community news, check out what the latest game and video downloads that are available on the marketplace, watch game trailers linked to YouTube and listen to latest Major Nelson podcast. There are other similar Xbox Live apps available, but I have found this one to be the most comprehensive and fastest. The Inside Xbox 360 app is also available for Blackberries and Windows Mobile Devices.

- Schu

GWIBT: Sunday Sales Madness!

2009-04-26T17:54:00.001-06:00

When you can't help yourself, you just can't help yourself. Today I unexpectedly got the itch to do a little shopping. This time I found a lot of interesting deals, so without further adieu, 'Guess What I Bought Today'!

Tom Clancy's EndWar - Limited Wireless Headset Edition: Here is my deal of the day. Since I purchased H.A.W.X. a few weeks back I had a hankering to complete my next-gen Tom Clancy collection. As I was only missing EndWar I decided today to keep my eyes open for it. When visiting WalMart earlier today I spotted the EndWar headset bundle for only $38! That is a huge deal as the headset itself will run you $60-$70 CDN. So needless to say I grabbed that straight away. So big-up myself on that one. Chalk that up as my deal-of-the-day!

Fallout PC Collection: This is a close second for deal-of-the day. I was able to complete my Fallout game collection today by taking advantage of a promotion over at Good Old Games (gog.com). I picked up Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics for under $15! If you have never been to gog.com before, you should really check it out. They have some fantastic deals on old school PC games. Heck, they will even run on my computer!

The Elder Scrolls III - Morrowind: Here is a blast from the past, I brought Morrowind back into the fold after all these years. I made the mistake though of not buying the Game of the Year edition that contained the expansions. But for $5 who am I to complain. I put quite a few hours in this game back in the day. I am glad to have a copy again just in case I want to head back and do some exploring.

Resident Evil - The Essentials: Now while I owned all three of these games already, I am a stickler for good boxes and manuals. So I returned my unopened Resident Evil Outbreak and traded in my copy of Resident Evil 4. Since this collection was recently reduced, I actually came out $3 ahead. I am about 12 hours along in RE4 so I need to get back to that game soon.

So all in all it was a pretty crazy afternoon. On a related note I also picked up the latest copy of Game Informer which has the Assassin's Creed 2 cover story and I also snagged a free RE5 Limited Edition Laser Cel from the good kids at my local EB.

-SG

Oh What Fun It Is !

2009-04-17T15:33:00.001-06:00

I was over my buddy Ed’s (Rican Havoc) house today and had a chance to revisit one of the Playstations best racers Sled Storm. You either remember this game or don't. It was one of those games that did well critically as opposed to selling off the charts.

Normally I couldn't see myself going back a generation in hardware to play a game and have a good time, but to go back two generation and find myself having a blast was just amazing !

This game still hold up after all these years. Honestly I though I was playing PS2 game just because I was playing it on a PS2 and forgot that it was older then I thought.

The games controls were just as tight as I remembered and the sense of speed for a game that old was just incredible. And like I said I though I was playing a PS2 game so it still looked pretty damn sweet.

Its just to bad that the sequel wasn't as good. It was put under the “EA BIG” brand and was basically turned into a cheesy SSX rip-off which didn't do the game any justice at all. I highly recommend this game to anyone who can find it that still owns a PS1 or PS2. It was a great trip down memory lane that almost brought a tear to my eye. Oh did I mention that I played Halo 3 multiplayer as well today and enjoyed the living hell out it …A LOT !

-TX

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

2009-04-13T12:05:00.000-06:00

With all the talk about Resident Evil as of late I would be remiss if I did not mention RE's survival-horror rival, the oft scarier Silent Hill franchise.

I am not going to just bring Silent Hill up out of the blue, but rather I wanted to quickly mention that there is a new game in the series at work, this time we are going to go back to the beginning. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a re-imagining rather than a remake of the First Silent Hill game. I remember nearly ten years ago how I was blown away by the creepy atmosphere in Silent Hill. With an upgrade in technology and some unique advances in how this game will be played (click the below link for more) this may the most interesting instalment in the series in some time.

Now I did mention an upgrade in tech, but here is the kicker, the game will be available on Wii, PS2, and PSP. So you may not get the full HD experience we are used to, but we will get the experience, and it is one for sure I am looking quite forward too.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories - Wikipedia

-SG

Heading Back

2009-04-12T09:29:00.001-06:00

As I’m sure you may have noticed my other fellow adventurers have been taking a trip down memory lane lately by purchasing PS2’s. This is also kind of mind boggling for me considering that they both always felt like they had more than enough games to play on one console.

Now enter my own need to head back to some gaming of the past. While I wouldn't mind picking a PS2 now that its just 99 bucks, I just know that I wouldn't put to much good use. But wait there's more !

After completing the Resident Evil 5 campaign I’m getting the itch for some more zombie hunting action. Now you see I've played my fair share of R.E. games, but have only completed games 4 and 5 in the series.

So I have this Wii thing that also plays Game Cube games. I knew it was good for something. I figure I have the console now I can go back and try and beat the R.E. game of the past that have gotten the best of me over the years. Now of course I’ll have to buy the Wii dual stick controller and scrape up a Game Cube memory card, but hey I’ve got the Wii already ….might as well put it to good use.

-TX

Playstation Two Déjà Vu

2009-04-11T18:02:00.004-06:00

No I didn’t put a gun to my head to try and prevent myself from buying a Playstation 2 again (I apologize for the poor taste :P). Before becoming a so called Xbot, I used to be part of the Sony Defence Force. I had a pretty good collection, but I shed the system and the games to go towards Xbox hardware and games.

I have been waiting for a PS3 price drop, but with none in sight the announcement of a PS2 price drop, Sony pushed me to there older system, which in my opinion and many others in not the Sony console that needed it. My fellow Text Adventurer Superghost recent purchase of a PS2 also made me think more of picking up the console again.

Some of my favorite franchises are from the PS2 days, such as Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid, plus there are several titles I have been interested in that I haven’t had the chance to play since moving to the Xbox.

So along with getting the slim, silver PS2, I also picked up Final Fantasy XII, Shadow of the Colossus, Persona 3:FES, Persona 4, God of War, Yakuza 2 and most recently the Metal Gear Solid Essentials.

I haven’t touched many of these games yet, just a bit of God of War and a lot a bit of Persona 3. In a short amount of time I have already accumulated 20+ hours in Persona 3. The social aspects of the game, which I find engaging, but certainly are not for everyone, help to break the more hard-core dungeon crawling. The dungeon crawling is a bit repetitive, but the combat is quick and you can see the enemies on the screen so you can attempt to avoid them.

After tackling Persona 3 I’ll probably move to the MGS titles, which now that I think about I’m going to need a PS1 memory card to play the first Metal Gear Solid :(.

- Schu

SG's Game Collection: Dead Rising (Xbox 360)

2009-04-10T18:23:00.001-06:00

When I and my partners set up the Text Adventure blog, part of its mandate was to explore the games of our collection, be they old or new. Now as part of that vision I am going to start grabbing games from my collection and provide a quick glance at that game as well as adding some personal reflections on that particular title. The first instalment belongs to Dead Rising on the Xbox 360.

Time to take a trip back into my Xbox 360 collection. I have recently been infected with zombie fever! No, I am not turning into an undead monster, but rather I am enjoying the fiction that surrounds the genre of zombie horror. Two and a half years ago (has it been that long already?) Xbox 360 owners were treated to one of the best zombie games ever produced. Dead Rising put you in the shoes of photojournalist Frank West who finds himself in the middle of a zombie outbreak smack dab in the heartland of the United States of America. As a fan of Zack Snyder's recent Dawn of the Dead remake, DR captures the feel of that movie, yet ramps up the number of zombies and madness. The game also does add many humorous elements and also throws in some 'Pokemon Snap' style gameplay for good measure. I have not played DR rising in some time but it is one of the games I need to revisit as to get a better ending than the crappy one I produced. Another reason I would like to play DR again is to beat the game before its recently announced sequal arrives. On a related note, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop has recently been released on the Wii, but if you have to chose, be sure to play the 360 original. Enjoy this game and eat a brain! Dead Rising...is in my collection!

DEAD RISING

-SG

GWIBT: A Whole Bunch of Games!

2009-04-09T21:20:00.003-06:00

A little game TormentX and I play while chatting is "Guess what I bought today?" or GWIBT for short. Now with 'GWIBT' more often than not the conversation would centre around video games. Since we at the Text Adventure do not shy away from game and game related purchases, this is our venue to share them with the world. This week was a particularly interesting one for purchases and finds, so without further ado, GWIBT:

The Chronicals of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena: Ever since the Xbox 360 announced that certain games would be backwards-compatible on the system I wished that Chronicals of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay would make the cut. Unfortunatly, due to developer Starbreeze's programming magic, it was all but impossible to make it on the 360. Fortunatly good things come to those who wait, so not only did Starbreeze create an all-new Riddick adventure to the Xbox 360, but they also brought Butcher Bay along for the ride, updated, and on the same disk! For me this wil be one of my Games of the Year just based on the strength of Butcher Bay alone!
Yakuza: This purchase came out of nowhere today. I was poking my head in the used PS2 games at my local EB when low and behold, there was a copy of the first Yakuza, and for $10 no less! This will match nicely with my Yakuza 2 which I recently purchased and wrote about here at Text Adventure
Resident Evil: Outbreak: Another PS2 and Resident Evil game for the collection. The 'Outbreak' games have been increasingly difficult to find in my town since the release of RE5, so when i saw it today, I snagged it! Not in the greatest shape, but beggars can't be chosers.
Chrono Trigger: Last but not least, I picked up Chrono Trigger for my DSi yesterday. I have had an increasing interest in J-RPG's of late, especially now with all the access I have to portable ones on my DSi. I thought Chrono Trigger was a good bet as it doesn't have scads of history surrounding it, plus it is well spoke of amonst gamers and pundints alike. This game too I had dificulty tracking down, but now it is safely in my possesion!

Now that is a pretty good haul for one week, and I didn't even get into my DSi purchase. More on that though when I discuss DSi Ware.

CHRONO TRIGGER SQUARE ENIX

-SG

The Professor is in!

2009-04-07T18:16:00.002-06:00

My son Joshua picked himself up a Nintendo DSi this past weekend and I must say its a nice redesign of what was already a nice handheld system. A bigger screen, sturdier feel to it and a camera to. So other then playing the new version of Phantasy Star Online this fall with my buddy SUPERGHOST, I've really had the itch to play Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

Professor Layton is a point and click-puzzler adventure game. The Professor and his side kick Luke have been called in to solve a murder mystery. This done by using simple but yet challenging mini game puzzles to uncover clues.

One thing that really drew me to this game other then solving a crime was the European art style. The old world look just adds to its beauty. I think I’ll be picking this game up shortly. For now I was able to try a demo of the game at its official website which you can find the link to below.

I know this game has been out for a bit and I'm late to the party here, but its been on my mind for a while now and after playing the demo I’m totally in.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

-TX

Hex Adventures: The Settlers of Catan

2009-04-05T22:12:00.002-06:00

The Settlers of Catan is probably one of the most popular, award winning games of the German style. German style board games are defined as follows:

a broad class of games that generally have simple rules, short to medium playing times, high levels of player interaction, and attractive physical components.^[1] The games emphasise strategy, downplay luck and conflict, lean towards economic rather than military themes, and usually keep all the players in the game until it ends. German-style games are sometimes contrasted with American-style games, which generally involve more luck, conflict, and drama. (Source Wikipedia).

Other popular German style board games include Carcassonne and Puerto Rico.

In The Settlers of Catan the goal is for the player (3 to 4 players, up to six with expansions) to score 10 points by building settlements (1 point) or cities (2 points). Additional points can also be acquired by having the longest road (roads connect settlements and cities), largest army (playing Knight cards) or acquiring victory point cards.

To build cities, settlements, roads or to buy development cards, the player must have the correct resource cards , which consist of wheat, brick, wood, ore and sheep (To build a settlement you must one of each of the following: wood, sheep, brick and wheat). You obtain resources by having cities and settlements adjacent to to resource hexes. Each resource hex has a number on it, which range from 2 to 12. Generally, it’s best to place settlements and cities (cities provide 2 resource cards) adjacent to hexes with numbers that provide better odds of being rolled (5,6,8,9).

Placement of settlements is critical to insure you have good range of resources as well as numbers. Resources can also be traded between players. Another element of the game is the robber, which is moved when a player roles a 7 (If you have more then 7 cards when a 7 is rolled you lose half of them as well. When the robber is placed on a hex, it blocks resource production from that hex until another 7 is rolled or when it is moved by a Knight card. Getting blocked by others at critical times can be pretty infuriating.

In my group of friends. Settlers of Catan has proved to very popular, between men and women alike. Friday’s at work a group of us play at lunch as well. Needless to say the game can be pretty addictive. Settlers provides good balance of luck and strategy.

The Settlers of Catan can also be found on the PC as well as Xbox Live Arcade. Catan, the XBLA version is very solid, providing challenging A.I. and online play. If someone is looking to play some games online send me a message!

- Schu

Club Nintendo

2009-04-05T18:21:00.000-06:00

Today was a highly anticipated day for me as I anxiously awaited the arrival of my brand new Nintendo DSi. In a nutshell the improved sleek design is in my opinion a dramatic overall improvement over the last DS, not so much in its esthetic, but rather its functionality. The DS has now caught up to its gaming counterparts, and surpassed them in some ways, with the addition of 2 cameras, SD card support, an online store, music player, and a streamlined interface. At the end of the day it still is a Nintendo DS (minus the GBA back-compat support), but it is the best DS you can buy.

I once owned an original Nintendo DS (the 'fat' one), and when I did I jumped through all of Nintendo's online hoops that they had set up at the time. Fast forward a few years later with my new DSi in hand, and I decide to see what is the current state of their websites. Even though I had not logged on in years it still retained my account which I originally signed up for December 17, 2005! All of my account info was there, but now it has been transferred to there latest online portal, Club Nintendo.

So what is the deal with Club Nintendo? When you purchase Nintendo goods, you earn 'coins' which can be redeemed for neat Nintendo prizes! For me this is Nintendo's counterpart to Microsoft's Gamerscore. By registering my DSi I earned a pile of coins, I also earned for all the registrations I signed up for my first time a round with the DS. At the end of the day I am near 'Gold' status which will earn myself some sort of prize. My next purchase will put me over the top. A dangerous thing I see these coins being.

All in all it was an interesting Nintendo day. After all my previous Nintendo history of the SNES, N64, GameBoy, DS, and now the DSi, I will see if I can make Nintendo stick around my house for a while. After all, I have some coins to earn!

Club Nintendo | Nintendo Member Rewards

-SG

Oblivion DLC: Completing the Collection

2009-04-02T20:28:00.000-06:00

Bethesda has a funny way of celebrating April Fools. Here is the excerpt from The Elder Scrolls website:

04.01.09 - OBLIVION 360 DLC ON SALE (MOST OF IT, ANYWAY)
In celebration of the arrival of April, the wackiness of April Fool’s Day, and the upcoming 3rd anniversary of the release of Horse Armor (Friday, April 3), we are pleased to announce that for the next week (through April 7) all Oblivion DLC for Xbox 360 is half price, except for Horse Armor, which is twice as much as usual.

Nice! So I picked up all the DLC that I didn't already own including Knights of the Nine pack. I had to skip on the Horse Armor this time (I wonder if anyone will bite on the increased price?) but who knows, perhaps when it goes on sale...

Between Oblivion and now Fallout 3 I have spent 160+ hours between the two games. With these DLC purchases and the Shivering Isles expansion, I really have to go back and continue my adventures and gather achievements in the province of Cyrodiil

The Elder Scrolls

-SG

i Health

2009-04-02T17:51:00.001-06:00

Its hard these days to get by without using some sort of techno gadget. It doesn't matter if your using a GPS to get some place, a MP3 player for music or cell phone or digital camera to snap a shot of life's most precious moments.

Most everyone has some sort of little gadget that they carry with them most of the time. Myself it happens to be my iTouch. I love taking it to the gym for music, sitting back for some ten minuet gaming sessions and falling asleep with it while listening to podcasts.

Lately though I've found another use for my iTouch. As I'm sure most of you know the iPhone and iTouch have an incredible amount of apps to choose from. Well over the last 6 months I've taken a turn for the better when it comes to my health and have been using the Weight Watchers program to shed some pounds.

Well I found a great app for only $0.99 that lets me track my food all day and log my points as well ! Its called iWatchr. It also has the wonderful points calculator built in which lets me find out the point value of food while on the go or even if I'm out food shopping so that I can make a smarter choice when buying food.

You see it doesn't have to be all fun and games with today's latest technology. It can be about being a better you as well.

-TX

Fantasy Blunder: My loss is your Gain !

2009-03-31T14:14:00.001-06:00

So my copy of FF XI came via UPS today and I was excited to open it and start the 3 hour 8 GB install. BUT…….. to my surprise the copy that was sent me wasn't for my beloved Xbox 360 , it was for the PC.

OK so now I have an issue. Some people may have been like hey I’ll just keep this and play it on my PC. Well not me ! PC’s are for creating games not playing them in my book.

I immediately called the EB Games customer service number and got ready for the usual B.S. you have to put up with. After explaining that I ordered the 360 version the customer service rep was like “ok we’ll send you a new copy right away”. I was like ok cool but what do I do about sending you back the game I have. The guy says “don't worry about it, it was our mistake you keep it.”

Well now I have the PC version of Final Fantasy XI (with the first four expansion packs) that I’m never going to open or play. So what do I do with it. I’m thinking the first ever TEXT ADVENTURE GIVE AWAY ! Stay tuned to see how you can win.

-TX

My Resident Evil

2009-03-29T16:46:00.000-06:00

I, like most other gamers out there, have really been enjoying the latest installment in the Resident Evil franchise. Leading up to RE5's release I had got to thinking about the franchise as a whole and my participation with the series. This post will be about my history in brief with Resident Evil and how I have thought of it throughout the years.

Resident Evil: The game that started it all. Sure there were 'horror' games before Resident Evil but for me this was the first one that really came alive and impacted me as a gamer and a fan of spooky stuff. I remember the day my cousin 'COKTOE' (online alias) purchased the Playstation 'big box' version of RE (pictured left). I also remember quite distinctly the games first big scare when the zombie-dogs pounces through the window and panic ensued. I knew from that moment that this game was special. As I never owned a PS1 I had to bide my time until the Sega Saturn version arrived. Once I had my own version I was finally able to play the game fully and in my home. I still own my Sega version and hope to bring it out again some day. Recently I purchased Resident Evil: Deadly Silence, all I need now is my DSi and I am in buisness.

Resident Evil 2: My favourite game in the series to date. What I liked best is the urban environment of Racoon City and the chaos that ensued after the incident at the mansion. for this game I took the unsual path of playing the N64 version. While I no longer own the N64 version, I did make amends and buy the Dreamcast port of the game which I still own today.

Resident Evil 3 - Nemesis: The game in the core series of games that I have played the least. I did pick up the DC port like RE2 but have never got around to completing the game, in fact I only played it for an hour. I reallly regret my lack of play of this one as like with RE2, I love that urban-Racoon City environment. Perhaps the next time I pull out my DC I will give this game another shot.

Resident Evil - Code Veronica: The once Dreamcast exclusive gem that was a feather in the cap of Dreamcast owners eventually saw ports accoss other consoles with longer legs. The first 'next-gen' Resident Evil game wowwed me with its awesome graphics and cut-scenes...but I still only got half way through the game. I picked up the PS2 'X' version yesterday. As my PS2 is hooked up at present I am interested in taking Code: Veronica for a spin once again!

Resident Evil 4: I was really late to the party on this one. This winter I picked up a PS2 to catch up on some titles I missed from the last generation, Resident Evil 4 being first on my list. I am over 10 hours into the game and besides the shoddy acting, I am really digging it. In the end it was a recent session of RE4 that sold me to get RE5.

And the Rest: At the time of his writing I am hip deep in RE5, and at this point I am looking forward to finishing just so I could start all over again. Before RE5 I could easily find the Outbreak RE games, but since everyone is RE hyped now, they are gone. The Gun Survivor series I could care less about...but the Wii shooters look pretty tight!

So what does the future hold? Resident Evil is hot on the current-gen systems and is looking to attack the Wii in short order, expeanding on their curent offerings. The recent animated movie, Degeneration, just added more flavor to the canon as well as an all new avenue for the franchise. All I know is I am interested in seeing what will be next.

RESIDENT EVIL 5

-SG

Life is Just a Fantasy

2009-03-28T19:56:00.002-06:00

So the other day I was home surfin the net and got caught up in yet another impulse online purchase. For the past year SUPERGHOST has been thinking about picking up Final Fantasy XI and always asked me to get in on it. I was always like no way dude not me. Well guess what ? Yeah that’s what I picked up, FF XI. Its was $ 15 on EBgames.com.

The game includes ……

FREE 30 day subscription to play FINAL FANATASY XI

RISE OF THE ZILART expansion pack

CHAINS OF PROMATHIA expansion pack

TREASURES OF AHT URHGAN expansion pack

WINGS OF THE GODDESS brand-new expansion pack

Not a bad deal right ? So whether or not I’ll actually play this game is still up in the air. I need partner in crime to play the game with and I think that boat already sailed with SUPERGHOST, but I do have a back up partner in mind. I've always wanted to give an MMO a try and with a 30 day free trial for a game that cost 15 bucks seemed like the way to go.

If anyone has played this or is interested in giving a shot let me know. We could run around together doing whatever it is you do in MMO’s.

Final Fantasy XI

-TX

OnLIVE

2009-03-26T19:59:00.001-06:00

During this weeks Game Developers Conference (GDC), the OnLive Game Service was unveiled. OnLive provides the user the ability to play games by servers streaming the gameplay to a set-top box or PC in your home, eliminating the use of physical media. With partners such as EA, Codemasters, Epic and Ubisoft, the service is set to launch this December.

Looking at the current trend of digital distribution of games and movies and the wish of the publishers looking at a way to eliminate piracy, etc., OnLive or future competitors is undoubtedly where gaming is headed and has inherent benefits such as never having to upgrade a system or worrying about it breaking down (i.e. RROD).

But is this technology, at a quality to satisfy gamers really almost upon us? The connection required for the service to stream gameplay data at 720p is about 5 Mb/sec. A consistent connection of this speed is not common, not to mention a large amount of the population is not even connected to the internet. I kind of have gotten used to playing in HD, 480p won’t cut it! Other potential issues game latency, ownership, IP bandwidth/download limits, bypassing retail for games, etc., may prove that such technology is not ready for primetime.

Myself, I’m not only skeptical of the quality that OnLive will provide (will it even be available in Canada???) , but personally, at this point in time, I’m still attached to physical media whether it’s games, movies, magazines, whatever. I like have the package in my hands, on my shelf and not having to worry about a server going down and not being able to play when I want to play.

It will be interesting to see if the next Xbox or Playstation will be a disc based system, use servers or both?

- Schu

Technorati Tags: GDC,OnLive

Who You Gonna Call?

2009-03-25T15:01:00.002-06:00

If I have to think back to one of my favorite movies of my youth Ghostbusters definitely comes to mind. This one goes down as a classic with likes of Back to the Future and The Goonies. Fast forward way to many years later and we are now going to be graced with hopefully a proper video game version of the Ghost “Busting” Heroes.

You now can join the Ghostbusting team as the new kid on the block known as the Rook (Rookie). The best part of this continuing story is the the voice talent from the original movies are all in on the game. Join the likes of Bill Murray , and Dan Akroyd and now Alyssa Milano in the new story, and don't forget everyone's favorite green glob ,Slimer.

So now that you get to be apart of this elite group what could be better ? I guess playing some co-op with a buddy online right ? Well here are some slight details on the the co-op and multiplayer modes of the game.

Oddly, Atari gave me a handout detailing the ins and outs of multiplayer in Ghostbusters, but Atari didn't demo any multiplayer modes. I'm glad to have the info -- which I'm about to pass on to you -- but it seemed like an awkward way to introduce something Terminal Reality has never really said all that much about. Still, there are going to be two co-op modes for Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Instant Action allows players to just jump in and start busting ghosts where Campaign Mode will set you up in one of the four multiplayer environments -- library, streets, cemetery, and museum -- and have you bust ghosts to earn money for equipment upgrades.
What's interesting about these modes is that they provide you with the opportunity to play as both the single-player star known only as the rookie and the four original Ghostbusters. Also cool -- or at least sounds like it could be cool -- are the six possible job types you'll face in a multiplayer game. Survival pits you against a "paranormal onslaught;" Containment is all about capturing every single ghost out there; Destruction charges you with destroying a bunch of ghost-spawning artifacts; you'll need to protect Egon's devices in Protection; Thief wants you to stop ghosts from stealing artifacts and Slime Dunk asks you to "dunk the most slimers," which I'm assuming means slamming them into the ghost traps. Helping you tackle these jobs are six power-ups such as the Ghost Shrinker and Ethereal Shield

Sounds like you wont have to be afraid of no ghost while bringing a friend along to get the job done. Ghostbusters is set to release June 16th , “Who you gonna call” ?

Source:IGN.com

Ghostbusters: The Video Game

-TX

The Sports Anomaly: MVP of the Week!

2009-03-24T18:05:00.000-06:00

Not being one to toot my own horn (who am I kidding, I will take any chance I get to toot), this week as I was listening to one of my favourite 1UP.com podcast, The Sports Game Guy's Sports Anomaly Podcast. Each episode they have an MVP of the Week, more often than not it is a pro sports athlete, coach, etc. who did something noteworthy the prior week. Sometimes though the MVP is just a regular Joe like...myself, SUPERGHOST! If you get a chance, take a listen for yourself and see why this humble gamer is The Sports Anomaly's MVP of the Week!

If you have never listened to SA than you are missing out. Todd Zuniga leads his fearless band of podcasters is such timely discussions about video game sports, real-life sports, television, movies, and all around crazy chat! The show weighs in at less than an hour each week and is just a fun show. So if you like your podcasting light, fun, and sports centralized, look no further than the Sports Anomaly. They are MY MVP of the week!

The Sports Game Guy's Sports Anomaly - Podcast

-SG

Still Racist ?

2009-03-22T09:29:00.001-06:00

When the Resident Evil 5 trailer first debuted it caused a bit of racial tension. It seems that people were not happy that “Black” people were these evil zombies and portrayed as the “bad guy”. Never mind that the game was set in a fictional country in Africa where a terrible virus was being spread by some evil minds.

If you ask me right now if I think the game is racist Ill say NO ! Last night I was listening to the Listen.up podcast and after talking about the the RE 5 game they brought up the whole racial issue to debate. Now myself being a middle class white American of Italian decent not once was I ever upset that in RE 1-3 that mostly white people seemed to be evil zombies. Nor was I ever upset in RE 4 that European zombies were the target of many of Leon's bullets. I don't remember Europe getting to upset over it either.

The participants in the podcast really dug to deep into the whole thing in my opinion. They really looked for anything to put some sort racial label on the game, even if they didn't believe that the games as whole was 100% “racist”.

I could go on forever as to why I don't believe that game is racist, but then I would just bore you I’m sure. I’ll say this ….. I can see how this game might offended a very small portion of people in the world, but I'm usually in favor of the term “the majority rules”. I live in New York, a place that is mixed with many people and cultures probably more then anywhere else in the world. I've seen it all when it comes to racism.

This post is 100% the opinions of myself Aaron Ferguson aka TormentX and should not reflect upon my fellow contributors to this blog. Thank You.

-TX

Battlestar Galactica : The Frakkin End

2009-03-20T08:46:00.001-06:00

Battlestar Galactica is the greatest show to ever grace a television set. If you disagree then that means you haven't seen the show and are probably still watching reruns of The Sopranos. Tonight on the Sci-Fi channel the long awaited last episode airs.

I truly love this show and all its drama. It goes beyond sci-fi. It touches on religion, good and evil and what's right or wrong. These are all things we face in our everyday lives and its no different for the folks aboard the Galactica.

Many questions will be answered tonight (I hope). Is being human all that its cracked up to be ? Are the Cylons religious beliefs in just one God correct ? Will the humans find peace with the Cylons and be able to live together or will they just wipe each other out ? And finally what's the deal with Starbuck. Is she the harbinger of death on humanity ?

Tonight's 2 hour season finale should hold all the answers. “So Say We All” !

-TX

The Zombie-pocalypse is Nigh!

2009-03-19T19:40:00.001-06:00

Everyday I walk to work, usually along the same streets. Recently I noticed a sign spray-painted onto the sidewalk. Now to the casual observer it may not be noticed at all or appear to be a rudimentary house-shape. But to someone who is keenly aware of what threat Zombies pose in today's day and age it is clearly an indication of a nearby safe house!

Now I have two projects. One, document the safe house sign. Two, find that safe house so that when the Zombie horde hits my city. Always be prepared, because duck-and-cover won't help you here!

Left 4 Dead

-SG

SNK vs Capcom: The Match of the Millennium

2009-03-18T22:20:00.001-06:00

Recently I had the privilege of briefly owning Street Fighter IV on my Xbox 360. While I found it to be a most excellent product I just did not have the time that I would need to devote to it to make it worth my while. But with my brief re-encounter with Street Fighter fever I decided to dig back into my personal archives and play one of Capcom's, and their 2D fighting game rival, SNK's finest fan-service titles SNK vs Capcom: The Match of the Millennium on my Neo Geo Pocket Colour.

A little background on the of you out there who were gaming in 1999 probably missed the Neo Geo Pocket Colour all together. It did not last on the store shelves long before SNK recalled the units, it simply was no match for the power of Nintendo and its GameBoy. While its library was fairly limited it was famous for its collection of 2D fighters and its ability to link with Sega's Dreamcast console. The greatest of the 2D fighters would be the above mentioned Match of the Millennium.

Not only did this game pit some of Capcom's greatest fighter against SNK's counterparts, but also it had a variety of mini games grouped together in what was called the Olympic mode. In the Olympic mode we got more fan service from such venerable gaming franchises as Ghost n' Goblins and Metal Slug!

But back to the fighting. After warming up with Street Fighter 4 I felt right at home in this game. I took Ryu and was immediately able to pull off his power and ultra moves and quickly cruise through his story mode thanks to my SF4 experience. The Neo Geo Pocket Colour's control stick was one of the finest ever made on a handheld and works perfect for fighting games. Though the lack of a backlight and 2 face buttons kind of limit the handheld, it still is a neat little package.

Part of the Text Adventure experience is to write about the games and consoles of yesteryear so that we can share our experiences with you. The NGPC was a system few played and even fewer own. While it serves me as my alarm clock everyday, once in a blue moon I will take it for a game spin. NGPC, we hardly knew ye!

SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium

-SG

Introducing Face Off

2009-03-17T15:56:00.001-06:00

Text Adventure is proud to present to you Face Off. In Face Off myself TormentX along with fellow adventurers SUPERGHOST and Schuey will take part in a short , but sweet discussion about our favorite games.

Less of a review more more of just pointing what we really enjoyed about a game or even what we may or may not be looking forward to in a upcoming release.

Taking the the typical topics such as graphics, gameplay and innovation we will go one on one or maybe even 3v3 and “Face Off’ against each other while breaking down our subject.

Look for Face Off to make its way to Text Adventures real soon !

-TX

Yakuza 2: Play or eBay?

2009-03-16T18:58:00.000-06:00

In my previous post I wrote about my recent purchase of a PS2 and the backlog of excellent titles that I picked up for it. This weekend I spied a rare copy of Yakuza 2 on a store shelf of a nearby game store. As I have heard a lot of positive comments about the quality of this game, that and it being a spiritual successor of sorts to the Shenmue franchise (a personal favourite of mine), I decided to pick it up and add it to my PS2 collection of games.

Or did I? The one thing about picking up a rare or hard to find game is that they often have the ability to pull in some nice coin, especially when they remain factory sealed. I had a quick look on eBay and noticed that 'Buy it Now's for Yakuza 2 could fetch double the price that I paid for it. So with the pile of games I still have to play, would I miss this game? I could turn around and buy possibly another great game with the proceeds from that sale. It makes one think.

At the end of the day I more enjoy owning and playing the rare game rather than profiting from a quick sale (plus I am eBay lazy). If anyone out there as played the game I would love to hear about it. While I likely won't play it anytime soon, I think it would be one of those 'rainy day need a fresh game' games. I am interested to see how the Japanese mafia lives.

Yakuza 2

-SG

Who's in control now ?

2009-03-16T09:50:00.002-06:00

Well after a weekend away from gaming it was nice to come home and hop right into Afro Samurai and Resident Evil 5. I really wanna touch on Resident Evil 5 though. One thing this game has been getting as of late is a lot negative response about its “out dated controls”.

You know nobody bitched when when RE4 came out. In fact it was praised for its new and improved controls and leaving behind the old 2-D pre-rendered control scheme. I do believe that first and foremost that gameplay should be the most important thing about a game. Without it even the greatest story would just be and awful chore to play through.

This brings me to the rant most people have with the RE5 control scheme. “You cant move and shoot” Yeah that kinda sucks, but does it ruin a game that has played on that one aspect of the controls since the beginning ? No it doesn't or at the very least shouldn't.

I hopped into the game last night after only having time with the demo and I was very pleased with the everything from the graphics to the controls. Do I wish I could move and shoot at the same time ? Yes I do, but by no means does this take anything away from the game.

Heck it reminds that I am playing RE game. I say reminds me because If I had a complaint about the game after putting about 3 hours into it, it would have to be that the fright factor seems to be gone from the series. Yeah the creepy zombies and the grotesque looking creatures of virus gone bad are still all in the game,but so far that seems to be about it. I will admit thought the first time I ran into the dogs I jumped, just a bit. You remember the good old dogs don't you ?

So RE 5 is what it is and that's a darn good game with fine gameplay. The controls maybe dated, but by all means they do nothing to take away from the game at all. I think if your not playing this game because you have an issue with the controls then your just foolish and you’ll be the one missing out. RE 6 …… Now that's when I will be looking forward to the new move and shoot control scheme !

-TX

myTunes

2009-03-14T21:19:00.002-06:00

After listening to the Rebel FM podcast last week (the podcast can be found on iTunes, Zune marketplace or at there website at www.eat-sleep-game.com), which had a segment about music in games, it made me think back to some of my favorite tunes.

Probably some of the earliest videogame music I can remember that I really enjoyed was from Ultima IV for the Commodore 64. Music from the game such as the Lord British and overworld theme, still stick with me. The game also had a neat feature allowing you during the to cycle through the different songs, which I would do time to time. It’s funny how such low fidelity music can stick with a person.

Some years later the next title impacted my perception of how good music in games could be was Final Fantasy III (VI in Japan) for the SNES. Like Phil Kollar from Rebel FM, the opera scene in FFIII was fantastic. I played through the game several times just to get to that scene and other great musical moments. Subsequent FF’s continued to churn out more memorable music (ie. One Winged Angel from FFVII).

One my all-time favorite videogame tunes though has to be the main theme from Metal Gear Solid 2, which is written by Henry-Gregson Williams. Last year I was able to hear to the piece performed at Video Games Live. Like movies, great music can really elevate a game. Rare is another developer, which puts of well-polished, orchestrated music (see both Viva Pinata and Banjo Kazoozie: Nuts and Bolts).

Games that I have played recently with great music include Braid, Mass Effect, the Halo series and Bioshock. I also can’t forget music game genre with Rock Band and Guitar Hero providing a whole new game music experience (Elite Beat Agents on the DS is also another one of my favorites).

I’m sure there are others, which I can’t think of at the moment. What are some of your favorite video game tune?

- Schu