Nerdpocalypse Now

System of a Down to Headline Download 2011

2010-11-30T11:23:00.000-06:00

After a 4 year hiatus, nu-metal revolutionaries System of a Down are reuniting at this year's Download 2011 festival. The news comes as a great relief to many of the System of a Down fans that have been closely following the “will they or won't they?” rumors that have been circulating since immediately after the hiatus was initiated.
In the time between the break up and now, most of the members have moved on to various solo and collaborative projects. Lead singer Serj Tankian has had a relatively successful solo career, releasing two albums. Guitarist and backup vocalist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan went on to form the band Scars on Broadway. The one album they released received a lukewarm critical reception at best. Bassist Shavo Odadjian has done work with the RZA and funk legend, George Clinton.
Based on the wording of the statement issued on System of a Down's official site, it doesn't seem as though the reunion will be anything but temporary at the moment. “We are excited to announce that System will be playing some dates together in 2011,” the band's front page states. All of the dates will take place in between June 2nd and June 19th and will take place in western Europe and Britain with the Download festival at Castle Donington in Britain with Avenged Sevenfold, taking center stage. You can find the specific dates, times, and ticket information over at www.systemofadown.com

REVIEW: Serj Tankian - Imperfect Harmonies

2010-09-23T12:37:00.002-05:00

For the past few weeks I've been listening to new albums by bands that I listened to incessantly throughout high school. Most of these experiences were disappointing at best. Disturbed's Asylum? Boring. Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns? Losing focus. Mindless Self Indulgence's Heart? Entirely out of tune and overprogrammed. Stone Sour's Audio Secrecy? Generic and safe.

I came into Serj Tankian's Imperfect Harmonies with tempered expectations. After all, he was the lead singer of one of my top 3 bands in high school, System of a Down (SOAD). However, I am pleased to report that he has managed to create a truly interesting and enjoyable record here.

The album ranges from merely competent to truly phenomenal. He takes Elect the Dead and takes it in it's logical direction by focusing more on the use of orchestral sounds and a greater focus on programming throughout. Vocally it is very much like SOAD was; a little out of tune, but harmonically competent. Most songs on the album start slowly and layer on instruments as it progresses. A very well-paced album, as well. The 52 minute album only feels like it takes about 30-40 minutes to listen to.

The best and most consistent aspect of the entire album is undoubtedly the awesome destruction that takes place on the drums in every track. Serj manages to inject an almost unbelievable amount of energy into his songs using drums. Listen to “Borders Are...,” Left of Center,” and “Electron” for some perfect examples.

In summation, if you enjoyed Elect the Dead or any form of melodic/symphonic rock (Apolyptica, you should pick this up. The songs range from hectic and loud (Elecron, Left of Center) to soft and melodic (Deserving?, Peace be Revenged), but overall it is a truly enjoyable record.

REVIEW: Weezer - Hurley

2010-09-16T12:11:00.001-05:00

Hey man, do you like Weezer? If so, you'll probably like this album. Pretty much everything you've come to expect from them over the years. Simple instrumentation, sort-of to really dumb lyrics, moderate attempts at genre shifts from one album to the next. One thing I don't get is I why I found this under “indie rock.” While it's certainly more indie than “Raditude” was, by no means does that make this indie. The album is pretty mediocre, with the exception of one song: Time Flies.

Oh, this song. Where do I begin? The whole song is played out of tune and then, on top of that, is distorted to such a degree that the song is completely unlistenable. On top of that, there's a full 25 seconds at the end of the song where there is nothing at all. I was actually getting physically angry about halfway through the track. “How can anyone possibly think this sounds good?” “How could such an abomination be allowed to be commercially produced?” “What the hell were they thinking?” Just a few choice statements that ran through my head throughout the song. Time Flies is the worst thing I've heard in the past 12 months, bar none.

Besides that song, however, the rest of the album is trademark Weezer. Strange dissonance occasionally that can be jarring. A track or two for various commercial radio formats. Save for a few tracks, the whole album just sort of blends together. Brand New World is probably the closest thing to a stand out song on the album. Other than that, you've really heard it all before.

Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns

2010-09-14T11:04:00.001-05:00

Linkin Park's music has been morphing into a pop-rock/soft rock/hip-hop/adult alternative mish-mash for some time. Their latest album, A Thousand Suns, seems to exist to showcase the final stages of this
transformation. This is a textbook case of the cliché "jack of all trades, master of nothing." While all the styles the band plays are executed competently, there is nothing that stands out from the pack. You have your three songs that are tailor made for various formats of radio (hip hop, soft rock, and pop rock), and everything else is just sort of bland and is seemingly just there as filler. The fact that six of the album's fifteen tracks are 30 second long transitional bits (two of those are for the intro) seems to back up that statement.

The lyrics are just the same as they've ever been with Linkin Park. Very moody and angst-ridden lyrics that make you want to lock yourself in your bedroom, apply copious amounts of mascara, and cry yourself to sleep at night.

Vocally it's pretty good. Some interesting stuff with chords and multi-track vocals. However, none of that matters when you notice that all of the vocals are HEAVILY autotuned up and down the album. Also, you can't even hear the instruments on most of the album. Even when you can hear the instruments they've been programmed, quantized, and leveled down so much there's really no point in them being there at all. The album may as well just be "Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda - Occasionally Singing With a Jamaican Accent."

I can't say I can recommend it to anyone who is resistant to modern pop music, like myself (obviously). If you like listening to top 40 hits stations on the radio I can heartily recommend this to you because it is tailor made specifically for your personal enjoyment.

30 Second Album Review: Stone Sour - Audio Secrecy

2010-09-09T10:39:00.003-05:00

Let me preface this by saying that I am a huge fan of Corey Taylor's vocal style. Good register, decent screaming, decent singing. Just soothing to listen to in any capacity. It's a good thing I like his voice because it's the only interesting thing on this whole album. The instrumentation, with the exception of the drums in the intro and chorus of Nylon 6/6, is very simple throughout the album. Whenever there was a guitar solo it oftentimes completely finished before I realized it was supposed to be a solo.
The album sounds like if you added an extra guitar to Daughtry's outfit and replaced him with Corey Taylor. Unfortunately, this leads to fairly generic tracks. Most tracks go a little something like this: acoustic lead in, half band with growly verses, “epic” full band instrumentation with melodic and catchy vox in the chorus, bridge with screaming, repeat the chorus a few times. It gets a little tedious in a 14 track album. At least they try to do interesting things with the chords and key changes, I guess. Musically the album is fine, it's just a bit boring.
The worst track, by far, is Miracles. Seriously the sappiest, most melodramatic emo crap you've ever heard in your life (at least moreso than the usual Stone Sour/Slipknot fare). It was almost unbearable. Definitely drifting more towards pop rock, rather than the pop metal range where they've been sitting since their creation, with this album. The main problem with the album is the overabundance of programming and multi-track vox. It just gives me this feeling that it's all just artificial; its really unsettling.
If you're really into radio rock/metal then give this a shot. Otherwise I can't say I'd recommend it.

Isis - Panopticon/MC Frontalot - Zero Day reviews

2010-09-08T09:31:00.002-05:00

Isis - Panopticon

Good music to have on while doing other stuff. Tried to actively listen to it for 4 of the 7 tracks, but wasn't interesting enough to hold my interest any longer than that. I'm sure the 8 minute average track length wasn't helping. Started writing at that point and wrote an article and a half by the time the album finished. So, I can definitively state that Isis increases productivity by 200%.

MC Frontalot - Zero Day

Not metal, I know. Liked his other stuff, saw he had a new album out, had to listen. Hooks are generally catchy as hell; Jacquelyn Hyde, Disaster and Your Friend Wil in particular. John Hodgman has a pretty phenomenal skit performance. Pretty good stuff.

Disturbed - Asylum review.

2010-09-07T10:34:00.004-05:00

I have been following Disturbed pretty closely throughout their 10 year careers as one of the top dogs in the nu-metal/modern rock scene. I think that this album is their least interesting or inspired. While the songs have plenty of variation within themselves, I just can't help but feel that they have lost the hunger to push themselves in new directions. Believe, Ten Thousand Fists, and Indestructible were all revelations on their sound; Asylum just sounds like more of the same. You have songs that mainly comprise of staccato growling intertwined with stretches of growl-singing. Nothing that they haven't been doing for the past decade. I honestly could barely tell the difference between tracks 2-6 on the album. If you really, really like Disturbed and just want more of their sound but with different lyrics, then go for it.

Should have an MMA article and a few other album reviews (some stuff that Zune told me I should like, as well as the Scott Pilgrim game soundtrack by Anamanaguchi) up this week.

Speed Cameras not a Quick Fix for Budget Woes

2010-08-09T14:55:00.001-05:00

Speed cameras are a wonderful concept. They take two photos of your car as you drive past to determine whether or not you're speeding. If you are speeding, the camera recognizes your license plate number and mails a ticket to the address of the offending party. The speeder then mails a check to the police department and learns a valuable lesson in the process, right?

Not necessarily.

The Des Moines city council has approved and is setting up speed cameras on stretches of roads across the city. Each of the speeding tickets issued by the automated system range from $65-85. The city of Des Moines is expected to make at least $100,000 per camera off of the system. However, this number doesn't take into account the amount of people who will refuse to pay their tickets or those who will file appeals because there is no proof that the driver of the car is actually the owner.

The state of Arizona, the first state to implement this kind of system, shut down it's speed camera program last month after nearly 2/3rds of all speeders caught by a similar system never sent the money they had been fined. The state had set up cameras on interstates in addition to residential roads where speeding is likely to occur. Even with the added coverage, the state failed to earn even 1/4th of the $12 million that it was projected to earn in the first year of activity over the entire length of time the program was active.

The state of Minnesota stopped using most of it's red-light cameras (cameras that automatically ticket a driver when their car runs a red light) when a large number of disputes were filed on the grounds that there is no proof that the owner of the car (and the person whose insurance rates the ticket will affect) was the person who committed the traffic violation. In essence, someone could steal your car and go on a high speed joyride through several areas surveyed by these cameras and you'd have a half a dozen tickets in your mailbox and be short a couple hundred dollars in a week or so when the ticket gets sent to you.

Therein lies a third problem with speed cameras: the delay between the time the illegal act is committed and the time the punishment is brought down.

Let's say someone drives through a poorly marked 35 MPH section of road at 50, and has done so consistently on his way home from the graveyard shift at the plant for a few years now. All of a sudden a speed camera is set up on this road without his knowledge. Between the time of the first offense and the time that the notification that he committed an offense has been delivered, he has likely driven through that section of road numerous times. With each ride home from work in that time period, most of his daily pay flies out the window until he receives notification that he had done something wrong.

While sure the couple hundred dollars he'll have to pay will likely get him to change his driving habits, a single $65 fine probably would have sufficed, and if he would have been pulled over and given a ticket, the change could have taken effect immediately and more cheaply for the offender.
The city council of Des Moines' response to these three major problems? “We'll set our profit projections lower”, “deal with the fine within your own home, insurance rates be damned,” and, “...,” respectively.

A total of six states have outright banned speed cameras from their roads: Arizona, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, and West Virginia. However, even as more states and communities are shutting down their cameras, Des Moines and the surrounding area has plans for even more cameras to be put up.
However, after the camera experiment inevitably fails after much controversy there is one golden carrot still hanging in front of law enforcement institutions the world over: Satellite-based speed tracking.

GameZen News: November 17th, 2008

2008-11-17T23:41:00.002-06:00

Cooking Mama's Murderous Tendancies; MMO obsessed teen passes out; Weird Advertisements

New Beginning

2008-11-17T22:23:00.002-06:00

I am going to attempt to get back into blogging and doing newscasts again. However, now I will mainly be posting audio news updates as opposed to text.

GTA 4 First Impressions.

2008-04-30T23:05:00.002-05:00

I've played GTA4 for about 4 hours today and I have to say that it is fantastic so far. For the majority of the time I played the story, and I have to say that you can tell the demeanor and behavior of a character within the first 5 seconds they are on screen. The way characters move on screen is fantastic. People in passing cars turn their heads to watch you beat up a hobo, if you run into someone they pull out their weapon, and groups of people converse and watch as you crash into walls.

Occasionally I would take a break from missions to go careening down the sidewalk to watch ragdolls rocket over the top of my car. If getting giddy while hearing the screams of the innocent crying out over a cocophany of scraping sheet metal, police sirens, and breaking bodies makes me a bad person then call me Adolf Hitler.

Also, I saw the most painful looking thing ever while attempting to wheelie over the tops of cars. At a certain speed motorcycles cannot wheelie. I did not realize this and thought the idea of launching off of the top of a Ferrari at 90 MPH was too awesome to resist. I ended up smashing into a Ferrari at full speed (which the impact itself killed me), the color washed out, the game slowed down as I careened through the sky; but then the game sped up and I watched my helpless corpse smash into an overpass and I heard the unmistakable sound of every bone in the human body breaking simultaneously. This is the one reason that I wish the game had replay capabilities.

All in all, I love the game so far and expect a full review soon.

GTA 4!!!

2008-04-30T12:28:00.002-05:00

I will be playing GTA4 later this week so expect a review of it by the end of next week. I have been studying my ass off for finals (which are next week) and I haven't really had a lot of time to review or play games.

I should be back playing games and doing news posts regularly in a few weeks.

Review: Ranbow Six: Vegas 2 (Updated)

2008-04-22T19:47:00.009-05:00

*online gameplay may have subtle differences*

I was sitting in a friend's room one day and another buddy of mine came in and said, "Hey, wanna come play Vegas 2 with me?" To me the answer was simple, "Most definitely." While I have never really been all too interested in any of the Rainbow Six games that were previously released, I decided to give this game a try. I found myself enthralled in the gameplay mechanics and some unique features, but then all of a sudden the euphoria I was feeling was prematurely aborted.

The co-op storyline lasts all of three and a half hours. While I'm sure that the single player storyline is a bit longer, I don't understand why the co-op game's length was so short. Me and my friend had a great deal of fun with Army of Two (we even played through the game again) and that game took a good 6-7 hours to complete. That's a good length for a co-op experience if the game has enough content and variation in gameplay to fill it. Based on my short time with the game, it definitely could have included a full 6 hour co-op story. Another thing that made me feel unfulfilled was that by the time we had played through the story mode, neither of us had unlocked many guns.

*SPOILER ALERT* THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS. HIGHLIGHT THE DARK TEXT TO READ.

On top of the brevity of the story, the level design and story didn't make a whole lot of sense in some portions. In one level in particular you start off in a library, then you go outside and just across the parking lot there's a residential area. Makes sense to me so far as libraries are often near residential areas. However, here's where things get weird. The residential area turns into a junkyard that is full of broken pieces of neon signs and old structural supports. Then, without going up in altitude, you are on the roofs of buildings and a helicopter comes to pick you up from a heliport. What? Also, the graveness of certain situations are not fully realized it seems. Late in the game it is discovered that your old colleague has betrayed you and the terrorists have the personal information of you and your teammates. this includes address and addresses of immediate family as well as credit card numbers. After the final "Boss fight" though, everything is happy go lucky. You get a promotion and everyone pretends that nothing bad ever happened.

One of the somewhat unique features in Vegas is that when you kill guys you get experience and as you gain levels you unlock new articles of clothing, armor, and camo patterns. You unlock guns by getting kills that are categorized in one of three categories Marksmanship, CQB, and Assault. Marksmanship points are earned by getting kills at long range, getting headshots, or killing running opponents and they unlock sniper rifles and accurate assault rifles. Close Quarters Battle (CQB) points are earned by killing enemies that are up close or that have their backs turned to you and unlocks SMGs and pistols. Assault points are earned by killing enemies with grenades or killing opponents through other objects and these points unlock shotguns and light machine guns. Each action gives a different number of points as well, so in co-op it feels like a competition to see who can do more difficult things. You don't really feel like you're working with the other player as much as you're working against them at some points in the game.

There are also some really weird glitches that I experienced while playing. These may be due to a lack of split-screen optimization, but they are present nonetheless. The first glitch I encountered was one where enemies would glitch to and from cover. For instance, an enemy pokes out from behind cover and I shoot at him with my sniper rifle and he jumps back behind the pillar as the bullet is flying through mid air. This wasn't very prevalent, but it occured a half a dozen times to me over the 3 hour experience. Also, invisible edges of cover that prevented bullets from hitting enemies was a problem.

Second, there was a glitch where the game would freeze if both players turned on nightvision or thermal vision at the same time. This happened numerous times throughout the game and really broke the flow of the game. It basically prevented us from using the "Throw smoke grenade and use thermal vision to see enemies through it" tactic unless we staggered our activation of thermal vision.

Thirdly, there was massive framerate reduction in rooms that had a lot of color in them. When we ran into a room that had multicolored rock climbing walls the framerate chugged down to 20-30 frames per second. Also this same thing occurred in the boss fight of the last level. This made beating the level terribly difficult. Another indication that this game wasn't optimized for split screen play was the fact that anytime the game had a video it wanted to show you, a screen popped out of the upper left hand corner and took up half of player two's screen, thus neutralizing his effectiveness in shooting and seeing where he was going and forcing us to wait until the video was completed. I found this to be very frustrating throughout the game because theres a video shown at nearly every checkpoint.

The game was by no means horrid though, regardless of my gripes with the coding. The weapon customization was fantastic. You can put any scope on any gun with the exception of the 12x scope which is only exclusive to the sniper rifle. The clothing and camo options are pretty fun to fool around with too occasionally. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is the team AI that you are presented with in co-op.

I still don't truly understand this addition in co-op besides the fact that these two yahoos are the only people that can defuse explosives or hack computers. Some of the levels feel very crowded having four guys there cramped against a single entrance to a room. One unique thing is that you can command your team to prepare to enter a room, then you have the option for them to throw a flashbang or frag grenade in the room before they enter. Most of the time this is only useful for distraction or incapacitation purposes because only the AI team have the ability to open doors and throw a grenade in without being noticed. Sometimes though, the AI refuses to enter a room and you end up running in and have to attempt to take out 7 enemies with only you and your friend.

EDIT: In single player these guys are very useful and the AI works better as long as you always have them with you and have a decent semblance of military tactics.

Even though the game experience was greatly compromised for the split screen aspect of this game, it was still time well spent. If only the game was longer, less glitchy, and more comprehensible would it be a truly great co-op experience. As long as you and a friend have coordination and are familiar with tactical shooters, you should enjoy this game.

I give Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (UPDATED w/ SP) 2 1/2 stars out of 5

UPDATE: Single-player also has a few of the glitches above. I got about halfway through the SP game and the game froze as well as the cover issues I stated earlier. The game is also not any longer in the single player and all of the guns of the same type feel exactly the same when you shoot them. I have updated my score to reflect these new discoveries.

MK Vs. DC and News for the Future.

2008-04-21T09:56:00.001-05:00

Sub-Zero V. Katwoman

As most of you who are reading this are probably aware by now, the worlds of Mortal Kombat and DC Comics are colliding. Here's the trailer that was released earlier this week:

The big news about this game is that they are attempting to make it T rated. Although it does look like there will be a decent amount of gore, one can't help but feel like they are selling out their tried and true formula to try and sell the game to a larger audience. To be frank, Mortal Kombat hasn't been relevant for years now and aligning with DC doesn't help all that much.

I personally don't plan on even renting the game because I don't really like fighting games that much. I also never really understood the draw of making games based on comic books or putting comic book characters in games in order to sell more games. I understand that comics are probably a big seller in some parts of the country, but I don't even know of a place that sells comics within a half hour's drive of where I currently live.

It's just a regional thing I'm sure, but the addition of 15 or so comic book characters along with the Mortal Kombat essentials that won't have brutal fatalities just doesn't sound like an intriguing game to me. Unless of course they change their minds on the "T rating" thing and you can cut dudes in half as Batman or blow someones head off with you laser eyes as Superman. Then I may rent the game.

Recent Goings-On in my Life

My apologies for the delay since my last post but I got my gaming PC back from repair on Wednesday of last week and I have been playing some games on that; both new and old. I've been getting back into Company of Heroes and Counter-Strike as well as playing GTA:San Andreas to get into the mood for GTAIV. Also, Nick and I will probably be playing through Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 later this week so expect a review on that soon. My updates will likely be sparse for a while because I have finals in 3 weeks, but after that I will be getting as many reviews up as possible as well as starting to make video reviews which I will post to my youtube channel here.

Also, don't forget to go visit my friend Chris's blog. He will be getting some video reviews up soon, most likely for Ikugara and some other games. If you're into politics and you think that a majority of the people on this planet are terribly stupid, go to my roommate Jeff's blog here and read some of his rants about society and politics.

SoulEdge, MGS4 Online Beta, and Wii Exclusive RB Songs

2008-04-16T23:36:00.005-05:00

The Legend Will Live on Forever

Soul Caluibur 4 will be released on XBox 360 and PS3 this fall, but the 360 has an exclusive download on it's system. That exclusive is the original Soul Calibur that was released for Dreamcast 9 years ago. Not much is currently known about the game in it's current state but it has been confirmed that all of the characters from the original will be included as well as all the levels and features. There will also be online multi-player and online leaderboards.

This is fantastic news to anyone who wants to play the original Soul Calibur, but doesn't want to go rummaging for their old DC and controllers that have been sucked into the quicksand that is in everyone's storage spaces. No word on a release date or price yet, but look for more news here soon.

There is no Antidote for This Snake Bite

If you pre-ordered Metal Gear Solid 4 for PS3, you can go and download the MGS4: Online beta using the key you received when you preordered the game. The 700 MB file requires you to create an account via Konami.com before you can beging shooting others in the face.

Oh, another thing. You can't play it until Monday when the beta officially goes public. Sorry to lead you on like that. My sincerest apologies.

If I had a friend with a PS3 who pre-ordered the game I would be all over this like a fat man on a ham. Unfortunately my friend's and I are cheap. Again, my sincerest apologies.

Rock Band has a Wii Amount of Songs

To make up for the lack of Downloadable Content (DLC)and the delays that were made to the Wii version of Rock Band Harmonix are including some DLC for free on the game and a slick white drum kit. The following songs are going to be included in the soon to be released Wii version.

=-"Dirty Little Secret" -- All American Rejects
=-"Don't Look Back in Anger" -- Oasis
=-"Roam" -- The B52's
=-"Rockaway Beach" -- The Ramones
=-"Roxanne" -- The Police

In my humble opinion, this is a rip-off. I understand that you want free songs and a sweet white drumset, but the game lacks all of the online components that add replayability to the game. I have convinced one of my dorm-mates to get shitloads of DLC and he's just borrowing my copy of Rock Band. The online components help to add new, better songsto your library as well as playing online with and against others and without those features I don't see how the 170 dollar price tag can be justified. The songs that are included aren't even very good when you compare it to the higher quality stuff thats on there like the Grateful Dead Pack, Boston Pack, Harmonix Pack, and Still Alive. If you own a 360 or a PS3, go buy Rock Band for those systems, you get more value for your hard-earned dollar.

DLC Reviews and Homestar Wii.

2008-04-10T10:24:00.003-05:00

Review: Rock Band "Harmonix Pack 01"

*This review is based on Guitar, Bass, and Vocals*

Harmonix released a new song pack on Tuesday titled "Harmonix Pack 01." As you probably could have guessed, the pack include songs by artists who have been featured prominently in bonus songs in GH1, GH2, and Rock Band. These songs include "Shake" by Count Zero, "Sprode" by Freezepop, and "Rock Rebellion" by Bang Camaro.

I'll start with the worst song first. "Shake" is not a very good sounding song. The vocalist must be tone deaf. half of the song is this bozo screaming "SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE" to the tune of the guitar except about 70 cents sharp. The guitar part is alright. It isn't particularly hard. The bass part is easy as sin. This is by far the weakest song of the three and it really sticks out like a sore thumb considering how awesome the other 2 songs are.

"Sprode" is basically what you've come to expect from Freezepop. The vocals are pretty easy, just the same melody every line with different words (including "throw your undies on the stage, no wait you're underage"). The guitar part was cool. Nothing too fantastic about it. The bassline kills babies while they sleep. 90 percent of the song is G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B, G, B with occasional transitions to R, O, R, O, R, O, R, O. My hand was on fire by the end of this song. That doesn't take away from the fact that the song is awesome, though.

"Rock Rebellion" is by far the best song for people who like listening to rock music. The vocals are basic and easy. Just the basic Bang Camaro fare. The guitar is relatively easy considering how far down on the list it is. The solo is fairly difficult, but nothing too terribly bad. The bassline is the most rocking thing you've ever heard in your life. I can't do it justice in words it's so awesome.

All in all the pack is fantastic. even though one of the songs was a dud, the adage "two out of three ain't bad" definitely applies here. Also, each of the songs only costs a dollar but purchasing the whole pack at once doesn't give you a discount like most of the other packs do. So basically, buy Sprode and Rock Rebellion, but leave Shake on it's own.

I give the DLC 4 stars out of 5

Strong Bad Loves His Wii

The makers of the Sam and Max series are now making a game based on Homestar Runner's angry, violent co-star. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People will be released on WiiWare this June. There will be episodic content released 5 or 6 times. I'm definitely excited for this. Look for a review of this once it is released.

Uwe Boll Will Stop Making Movies

2008-04-07T19:05:00.004-05:00

Sign this petition if you want Uwe to stop making horrible movie adaptations of video games. he says he wont stop until it gets to a million. This is all for now. I'll post other things later.

Review: Army of Two

2008-04-04T12:24:00.004-05:00

*This review is based on co-op play only. Single-player play may differ*

If you take Gears of War, mix it with gun customization and throw in a sprinkle of unique features, you get Army of Two. The plot is very much like Hitman: Blood Money where you get sent on a few missions by your employer, and then they turn on you and you need to find out what happened and why. The plot is far more intricate than I initially thought it would have been. It is also executed well, which is a big plus considering how many "unexpected" twists there are. The game is not overly long and it finishes right before the gameplay gets stale.

The one big, unique feature of the game is the aggro system. One person with a big gun shoots a lot and draws the attention of the enemies while the other one sneaks around and shoots them in the side of the head. Most of the levels appear to be designed for this feature to be implemented that way, so sometimes environments feel the same because you use the same strategy consistently. All in all though, the levels are in environments that are unique enough to keep things interesting.

Another unique feature is that you can buy new guns as you progress and customize them to fit your playstyle. The guns are rated in 4 categories: Damage, Accuracy, Ammo, and Aggro. The first three are rather self-explanatory, but aggro is basically the gauge that tells you how quickly you can gain aggro. Some things that attribute to this is mounting a shotgun or grenade launcher to the front of your gun, increasing the barrel size of your gun, pimping out your gun and plating it with gold or silver, or putting a suppressor on to lower aggro.

Every single upgrade drastically effects how the gun works and makes you really feel like the money you spent was worth it and allows players to customize the same gun for completely different tasks. For instance, Aggro guy uses a gold plated M4 with mounted grenade launcher that has 100 round clips and a shield on the front of it while stealth guy uses an M4 with a stock and suppressor the size of the gun itself. Gun customization is implemented well and is something I would like to see in future games.

There are some weird things that happen in the game though. In every firefight there is a moment where you see an enemy is hiding in cover but you can see either the top of their head or their knee poking out from behind cover. However, if you shoot at this exposed part while you are anywhere in a 90 degree cone in front of the enemy, you cannot hit that part of the body. Instead, it looks as if the bullet hits the cover and a puff of white smoke comes out of their leg or head. This gets annoying after you unload an entire clip of Deagle ammo at someone's shins to get no result about a dozen times in the first half of the game.

Also, the third-person viewpoint is very bothersome in some spots. This problem only arises if you are dumb enough to run up to enemies and engage in a close-range firefight instead of just punching them in the face. What happens is that if you are any closer than 10 feet away from a target, all of your bullets go a foot or two to the left of where the reticule is. While this rarely happens, it tends to happen at the most inopportune time. For instance, when you are healing your partner and someone runs up to you, the one getting healed cannot effectively aim and you have to go all the way back to the last checkpoint.

This is another minor gripe I have with the game. The checkpoints in some spots are spread out ridiculously far apart. At some points there are 4 or 5 firefights in between checkpoints, where in others there's simply a hallway to walk through to get another checkpoint. Many fights get very frustrating after beating them and then dying because of an unlucky grenade or a lapse in concentration.

All in all the game is good if you and a shooter-loving friend have 6 hours to kill and you both love gratuitous amounts of violence. Which lucky for me, I have both.

I give Army of Two 3 3/4 out of 5 stars.

Rock Band DLC Review, Dualshock, and Statistics.

2008-04-02T18:14:00.005-05:00

"Boston" is Definitely "Still Alive"

*This review is based on guitar part only*

2 Tuesdays ago the Boston 6-pack was released and I must say, all of the songs are pretty damn good. More Than A Feelin' being the easiest of the bunch and Smokin' being the hardest (I'm the only one of my friends to beat it in solo), the rest of the songs are good, but feel the same. The solos and tone of the each song are the only real difference between each song. The chorus and verse of most of the songs are very much the same, but I still enjoy playing them. I'd say that this is a great deal for 10 bucks, and if you're a fan of tricky guitar parts this is s must-buy.

*this review based on Bass, Vocals, and Guitar*

"Still Alive" is a song that is more nostalgic than anything else. None of the parts are very difficult, but it's still a very fun song to play if you have played Portal. If you haven't played portal and like tricky guitar parts or tricky vocal lines, this is not the song for you. However, the song is free(!) and how can you pass up a free DLC?

The TwoShock Three?

The Dualshock 3 is (finally) being shipped worldwide. It should be readily available by the end of the week. The going price is set at $54.99.

For all you PS3 enthusiasts who miss that familiar rumble in your hands when you get shot, punched, or crash your car into a concrete wall, your prayers have finally been answered. However, not all games already out that support the rumble feature. You can look at a complete list of them here. All of the important games seem to have the feature (Burnout Paradise, Devil May Cry 4, Resistance: Fall of Man), so it seems to be a moot point to me that the rumble wouldn't work with some games.

One other thing that pokes me in the ribs with a pointy stick is the fact that the controller costs $54.99(!!!). While this is only $15 more than the wireless 360 controller ($23 more than a wired controller on Amazon), this is the controller that should have come packaged with the PS3 16 months ago. Nintendo sent out their Wii condoms for free because they meant to have them developed by launch day, but didn't get it done in time. This should be the same way. The Six-Axis controller should not be tolerated.

Regardless of the crazy price point, this controller, I hear, is the cat's meow, the bee's knees, the $30 porterhouse of controllers and I'm glad to see it's return.

*I don't even own a PS3, so don't accuse me of trying to get free stuff*

Gaming Population Rises!

It has been reported the NPD Group that 72% of the US populous plays video games, up from 64% last year. Some of the statistics within are somewhat surprising though.

-65% of people who say that they play games online regularly are over the age of 24.

-only 2-3% of console owners own more than one of the three "Next-Gen" game systems.

-90% of gamers who said that they play online regularly play on PC, 19% play on console, and 3% play on phones and other mobile devices.

-It is also stated in the report that, "despite all the buzz in the industry about online gaming, it is still relatively small compared to offline gaming."

Good report overall, and good news for gamers.

April Fools Day is Afoot.

2008-04-01T09:52:00.005-05:00

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Big Screen

IGN has released a trailer for the Legend of Zelda theatrical release. It looks alright; they prevent Link from talking for the whole thing, the special effects look like butt, and the acting sounds horrendous.

However, that is where this analysis comes to an end. Because at the end of the trailer it says "Coming out April 1st, 2009." Thus proving (in my mind) that this is an April fools joke and a pretty good one (and probably expensive one) at that. It had me going until I saw the credit page and IGN's logo was on it. Watch the trailer here.

Fake News! How Original!

As I stated in earlier posts of mine, I dislike Gamespot now. However, I just had to go to their site to see what kind of April Fool's day joke they were going to pull. I went to the site and the first thing I saw was "Rock Band PSP!" and I thought, "Wow, what a fail of an April fools joke" so I clicked on it and it took me to the homepage. Needless to say, I was confused. It turns out that the whole front page is an irony-laced jab at game news, fanboys, and the Japanese.

One thing that makes a good April Fools day joke is subtleness. This is one thing that the Gamespot joke lacks. When you type in Gamespot.com, instead of the normal text at the top of the window, it says, "Gamespot April Fools Home Page." As if that wasn't bed enough, when you get to the real front page, the first thing you see in their headline box is "APRIL FOOLS DAY! [...] FOOOOOOOOLED YOU!"

The page is filled with a bunch of failed attempts at irony. the only thing I even found slightly funny was the "User Soapbox" with poilite, eloquent discussion about the console wars. Also the "Hands-On: Xbox 360 Paperweight add-on [...] (Also plays HD-DVDs)" was amusing. However, they're so proud about the fact that they tried so hard to be like The Onion that they put a poll on the page asking "Did you for a moment actually think that this page was real?" with options being, "Pfft, NO! What do you think I am, brain damaged?!," "Yeah. Oh, Gamespot, you're such a card," and "Wait. This is fake?" No buys Gamespot, no buys...

Bikinis and Zombies and Swords. OH MY!

I don't think that this movie trailer is an April Fools day joke, but I found it on the front page of 1up.com and had to post something about it. so... Something.

In Other Stuff!

I now have 2 friends who have blogs that you should go visit. I've got my friends Chris's blog where he reviews games. He just reviewed Super Smash Bros. Brawl for all of you interested in reading that. Also, my friend Jeff has a blog about ridiculous things in society and politics and you can look at that here.

Also, I was at the Hy-Vee earlier in the week and found Jolly Rancher soda. I got the Green Apple, Cherry, and Blue Raspberry flavors and they were all decent. Green Apple tasted like a sub-par green apple soda, Cherry tasted like melted, carbonated icee syrup, and the blue raspberry tasted exactly like blue raspberry jolly ranchers. Blue Raspberry was the real stand out of the bunch, but I'm going to be looking for Jolly Rancher FIRE soda to see what that tastes like.

In Conclusion...

I'll have a quick review of the Boston song pack and Still Alive Rock Band DLC tomorrow along with more delicious news. I'm out.

Original Video Content, Cruisin' USA, STILL ALIVE, and More.

2008-03-31T12:45:00.004-05:00

Original Film Releases on LIVE Marketplace.

Mediaweek is reporting that Safran Digital Group is going to be releasing six original short films that are going to be exclusive to the XBox LIVE Marketplace. However, the man who runs SDG, Peter Safran was a producer of an abortion of a movie. Maybe you've heard of it. It's called Meet the Spartans.

When I first read the news story, I was excited because I'm not going to rent movies on my 360 that I can go buy for twice the price and watch as much as I want and this allows me cheap access to some experimental indie films. However, now that I know that this yahoo is in charge of the company that is going to be releasing said films, I have little to no faith that this experiment will work on a business level.

"Cruisin' Virtual Console"

Cruisin' USA has been released on Virtual Console on the Wii this week. The mid-late 90's arcade racing game that was very much like outrun in it's gameplay, but had it's own unique feel to it. This just brings me back to my childhood. Playing this game for hours on end on my N64 with my friends was awesome. I can hardly wait to DL and play this game.

Rock Band DLC is "Still Alive"

Rock Band DLC this week is the Jonothan Coulton epic, "Still Alive" from the game "Portal." By the way, it's also free.The VP of product development at Harmonix, Greg LoPiccolo, stated that the free song is a kind of "Thank You" to all the supporters of their game.

This song is probably the best video game song ever created. If someone knows of a song from a game that is more melodic and more entertaining, please post here to refute my claim. The fact that this song is being released at all for Rock Band (much less, for free) really shows how in tune with gaming culture the higher-ups at HMX really are, and thus my respect for them is massive.

XBox LIVE Downtime and CoD4 Map Video Released

2008-03-29T10:03:00.004-05:00

April Fools Joke?

XBox LIVE will be down to "Undergo a scheduled upgrade" starting at 2 AM PST on April 1st. There's a debate as to whether or not the downtime is an april fools joke. I, personally think that it isn't so much an April Fools joke as it is preparation for an April Fool's joke. Like last year when Steam (or XBox, I can't remember which at the moment) changed all of the game names in people's "Most played" lists to ridiculous things like, "Hello Kitty's Island Adventure" and "Barney's Pleasure Palace." I expect something of this nature to be implemented after the update.

Broadcast Gameplay Video!

A video showcasing the map Broadcast from the upcoming Call of Duty 4 map pack has been released. It shows a bunch of clips of a guy kicking ass on the map while playing HQ mode. It looks like the 2nd level in the TV room is now accessible, as well as the entire parking lot outside and some parts of the roof that you couldn't get to in the campaign. All in all, this gives a good idea as to how the map looks and will play and I'm now very excited for this map pack to be released.

In Other News...

I have released a new review of the movie Layer Cake on youtube. It is schizophrenic, but fairly entertaining. Check it out!

Also, don't forget to check out my friend Chris's blog! If you like my reviews, pop in there to get your review fix until I start reviewing games again.

GTA4 Cinematic Beauty and Hasbro XBLA Releases

2008-03-27T23:34:00.006-05:00

Everyone's a Rat!

The newest GTA4 trailer was released earlier today. The trailer shows off a number of things, but it really showcases some the cinemeatics of the game more than anything else. Oh, and they look fantastic, by the way. Lifelike body and lip movements, quality interaction with the environment, just very well made stuff. It also kind of shows off a bit of the physics in the game. From what I saw it seems to be a bit better than Havok, but it's hard to say until I can actually compare the two in-game. The music also fits well with the whole package. It's not too rap heavy, but it still keeps the tone of the other games. All in all, I'm more excited for this game now than before I watched the trailer, and thats all I can ask for, really.

Classic Board Games on XBLA: Coming Soon!

It has been reported by 360sync.com that Monopoly and Scrabble may soon be announced for release on XBox LIVE Arcade. Although they may have creatively interpreted the true wording of the press release, I still can't help but get excited to play these classic games on my 360. Who knows, maybe this recent press release will open the floodgates for other Hasbro games to be released onto the marketplace. Very exciting news from the gates of "The Evil Empire."

Night of Bush Capturing!

2008-03-26T13:05:00.008-05:00

The News: Wafaa Bilaal, maker of Quest for Sadaam, is making a game entitled "Night of the Bush Capturing!" Basically you play as a Muslim extremist and you work your way through the United States to assassinate the president. *sigh* Bilaal goes on to state that video games are " medium of our time." he goes on to say that he changed the game because Quest for Sadaam had thinking in it that was the norm, then he modified it and now it is labelled as propaganda and a recruitment tool.

My View: This is just stupid. How on earth does anyone expect to make a political statement through video games? Most gamers are very apathetic in terms of politics and the American government doesn't give a shit about a game made by an indie developer. I just don't understand how anyone thinks this is going to change anything. I don't get how he doesn't realize that making a game in which you assassinate the president would get you labeled as an extremist whack job. This man's intellect just baffles me to no end.

Source: http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/37743/Night-of-Bush-Capturing
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=128537

Achievement Glitchers Get Their Just Desserts

2008-03-25T17:21:00.002-05:00

The News: MS has announced that people who glitch games and use game saves to cheat to get achievements will now be punished. They will have their gamerscore returned to 0, all previous achievements earned will become locked, and their gamer tag will be branded like this.

My Views: Huzzah! This is a change that needed to be made. There were far too many games that could be glitched like this, Guitar Hero 3 being one of them (enter the "unlock everything" cheat and you unlock all the achievements for buying everything in the store), among others. Although gamerscore isn't exactly something that comes up in everyday conversation, it's a way to gloat to friends every so often about how much you (go figure) achieved in a particular game. This announcement helps establish gamerscore as more than just an arbitrary number.

Source: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/861/861823p1.html

Review: Burnout Paradise

2008-03-25T10:29:00.004-05:00

I remember the days when arcade racing ruled the genre. Games like Top Gear and Penny Racers that sucked out all of my time as a child. However, since Gran Turismo was released companies have tended to shift towards making simulation racing games. The arcade style racing genre is pretty much dead outside of the arcade, but Burnout Paradise gives console-based arcade racers a defibrillator shot to the chest.

Burnout Paradise is basically what you've come to expect from the series, but on a much grander scale. All the blistering speed you've come to love about Burnout games (as well as the glorious crashes) is still intact. The main difference in Paradise is that you drive around a large-scale world and pull up to intersections to do races. While I initially thought that this was a bad idea, after playing for an extended period of time it seems like this was the right direction for this series to go. The way that this open world differs from the ones in Midnight Club or other games that have open-world racing is the fact that they place tons of objectives around the world that you can achieve while not racing or crashing. There are 400 shortcut gates that can be collected, 120 billboards to smash, and 50 super jumps to find and this adds about 10 hours of playtime to the experience.

Most of the events are still intact even though some of them are hidden under different names. Race, Burning Route, and Road Rage are still intact and are just what you would expect them to be. Burning Route has a new twist though, where each car has one burning route and if you complete it, you get a version of that car that has more boost power. New events include Stunt Run, where you need to go off jumps and smash things to accrue points and meet the goal, and Marked Man, where you need to get from point A to point B while 3 or 4 opponents try to take you down. Crash mode is in the game under the name "Showtime", but now you can activate it at any time by pressing RB and LB. You flip and twirl down the road smashing into cars and getting money for hitting cars, multipliers for hitting buses, and more money for distance moved total.

You progress in the game from having your learner's permit to earning your Burnout (or Burnout Elite if you want to do every event) License. You get upgrades by winning events, and every so often a new car is introduced in to the game world for you to chase, take down, and add to your collection. These chases can get very frustrating at times, but you feel a wonderful sense of satisfaction when you finally take them down. Also, the difficulty of the Road Rages, Stunt Runs, and Marked Mans slowly increase over time.

One thing that bothers me in the game is how in any event if you get hit by an enemy car and then touch a wall anytime within the next 10 seconds, your car erupts into a giant fireball. Also, Having DJ Atomica/Stryker mocking you every single time you fail an event (Which happens quite often. I'm looking at you Manhattan Burning Route) isn't all that fun. Another thing is that a lot of the races take you up into the mountains where the event selection is sparse and can easily be completed in the first few hours of the game, forcing you to drive all the way back to the city to start another event in the later stages of the game.

All in all, the game is a fantastic representation of what arcade racing should be. Midnight Club: LA is gonna have to kick some serious ass compared to it's what it has done in the past in order to beat this great game.

I give Burnout Paradise 4 & 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Review: Condemned 2: Bloodshot

2008-03-23T14:39:00.006-05:00

Sorry for the prolonged absence. I was having a kick-ass spring break and playing some new games; Condemned 2: Bloodshot being one of them.

Plot: In Bloodshot, you take control of former SCU agent Ethan Thomas. He is now a raving alcoholic and his former co-workers come to get him and bring him aboard for one more mission. Also, SKX IS BACK! DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN! All in all, the plot ended up being alright, if not a little insane. I found it odd that even the characters in the game noticed how odd the plot points were and explicitly stated this to Ethan. "It's pretty far-fetched, to be sure." Yes, yes it is, but at least it's executed well.

Graphics: The graphics were good, but were glitchy at points. For instance, when you get really close to a wall and the game runs a smooth 60 FPS. However, when you back away from said wall, the frame-rate chugs down to 30 FPS. It's not a huge issue, but it bugged me a bit. All of the trippy psychological effects and filters that are the series' hallmark look really good. There are some very minor clipping issues that are odd at times, but nothing too serious. Overall, the graphics are very good.

Movement, animations, and actions are good for the most part. One gripe I have is that every so often I could only pick up a desired weapon when standing in exactly the right place and looking in exactly the right direction. Again, this isn't a huge issue, but something that bothered me. your characters movements seem natural and fluid throughout. However, looking into a mirror and pressing either of the punch buttons results in a raucous amount of laughter erupting from anyone who sees it.

Combat: The combat is intuitive and well executed. Each fist is linked to one of the trigger buttons, or a forehand or backhand attack when holding a weapon. There is a combo system that has been implemented where you hit an opponent with a series of punches, an indicator appears, you hit your opponent, and then that hit is given a multiplier based on the type of combo that was executed. This is a good idea in theory, but some of the moves that are required to be used in order to complete are nigh impossible to do. Apparently there is a way to throw a hook in the game, and this is necessary for most of the combos, but it is never explained how to do so. Also, apparently there is a way to kick a man in the testicles in the later stages of the game. Again, it is never explained how to do this.

"Chain attacks" have been implemented. These are short quick-time events that do massive damage to your opponents. As you do more of these, the attacks require more trigger hits and are more brutal. Also, environmental kills are good, but not a truly large part of gameplay. There are some really good ones (Pneumatic press, hanging rebar, face through arcade machine), but there are also some really bland ones (generic table smash, generic wall smash).

Multi-Player seems like an odd addition to the game. It feels a bit out of place. Most battles involve 2 players dancing around each other, then another guy coming and bashing one of them in the back of the head, then those 2 guys dance for a bit. also the Crime Scene mode is just blatantly one-sided. It pits 4 SCU players with guns against 4 hobos with melee weapons. If that wasn't enough of an imbalance for you, 2 of the hobos are forced to carry around "evidence."
These are basically boxes that prevent you from attacking and make you move slower. also, it's round based as well so it's always 2v4 with the 4 having superior weapons. All in all, it just seems like an unnecessary addition.

Overall the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. Analyzing each portion individually brought my spirits down, but then I remembered how much fun I had in the 8 hour process of completing this game.

I give Condemned 2: Bloodshot 3 & 3/4 stars out of 5

XBox & Blu-Ray News

2008-03-13T11:27:00.004-05:00

The News: Now that the format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray is over, there has been a lot of speculation as to whether or not Microsoft would begin development on a Blu-Ray player for the 360. Those rumors have been squashed today as Project Manager for the XBox 360, Aaron Greenberg stated that there are no negotioations going on to bring Blu-Ray technology to the big, white box.

My View: I don't understand why a company wouldn't go out and try and get the most up-to-date technology. Maybe it's too soon for MS. Maybe they feel like the forlorn girlfriend whose boyfriend has gone away to a foreign country for a research trip and the boyfriend fell in love with an exotic Brazillian woman and never returned home. I think MS needs to get over whatever emotional feelings it had for HD-DVD, get on with it's life, and get some hot, Blu-Ray ass.

Review: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

2008-03-13T00:38:00.005-05:00

Infinity Ward returns to the Call of Duty series with a vengeance in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. They took a break from the series for CoD3 (which was developed by Treyarch) and the game was vastly worse. It appears that the men and women at Infinity Ward were aware of this and decided to kick everything up a notch, run on all cylinders, and create a new cliche to describe how hard they worked.

Single-Player: The single-player in the game is fantastic. There are tons of memorable micro-events in the game that prevent the combat from ever getting stale. These run the gambit from having to snipe a terrorist while having to take wind and the Coriolis effect into account, to manning a helicopter-mounted grenade launcher in between battles, all the way to crawling out of your helicopter after a nuke goes off, only to die minutes later of radiation poisoning. Also, the fact that the SAS and USMC characters play so vastly differently greatly helps keep players on their toes. The SAS levels are played out in a more covert manner than the USMC levels, where you just need to go kick some terrorist ass. Although the narrative dwindles to a single perspective about half way through the game, it still manages to keep things interesting. Also, the narrative in the game is thrilling to say the least. you actually care about most of the characters you encounter, which is a great feat for most FPS games nowadays.

The only negative thing I have to say about single player is that Veteran mode with the 360 controls (i.e. NO LEAN FUNCTION) is fucking impossible unless you are made of lightning and Tahitian Treat.

Multi-Player: The multi-player function is wonderfully done. The level system that has been implemented is fantastic. Basically, as you play you level up and with each of these levels you can use a new gun or ability. This process can be repeated (otherwise called a "Prestige Run") up to 10 times in the console version. This adds some replay value to the multi player aspect of the game, unlike Halo 3, where at some points it felt like getting to that next rank was impossible. All of the levels are very well balanced and the majority of the game modes are implemented well.

However, there are a few modes that are, in my mind, an EPIC, EPIC FAIL. For starters, I'll just say that Old School mode (a mode where you have super jump, super life bar, and you have to go around and find your weapons) is very much unwelcome. Also, the Sabotage game mode is nearly impossible to complete without running the time limit and going to sudden death. Another, more minor issue in the console version is the fact that some people in the Search and Destroy playlist have grenade placements memorized and can easily thwart any rush by lobbing a single grenade the length of the level and killing 3 people.

Conclusion: Overall though the good far outweighs the bad. The controls are intuitive, the graphics are smokin', and it managed to keep me entertained for hours on end.

I give Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 4 and 1/2 stars out of 5

Activision/HMX Settle Out of Court and Atari Jumps on the Steam Bandwagon

2008-03-12T21:23:00.007-05:00

The News: HMX has dropped a lawsuit against Activision-Blizz that was claiming 14.5 million dollars in unpaid royalties from Guitar Hero 3. HMX left the GH name with Activision when they left to go make Rock Band for MTV Games. There will be an out-of-court settlement.

My View: Good thing that an olive branch has finally been extended between these two warring factions. This can only lead to good things within each of the companies. Activision isn't really losing a whole lot of money and HMX is getting the money it deserves. Also, this may be a sign of things to come; soon there may be an agreement for an official patch that allows the PS3 GH controllers to be compatible with Rock Band.

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

The News: Atari is now a part of the ever-growing family of companies that are selling their games on Steam. The games that are being sold in this initial wave are: Act of War: Direct Action, Act of War: High Treason, ArmA: Combat Operations, Atari: 80 Classics in 1, Death to Spies, Desperados 2, Indigo Prophecy, and Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. The Witcher and Neverwinter Nights 2 (and it's expansion) have been announced for release at a later date.

My View: I think that Direct-to-Drive game purchases are definitely a technology advance that needs to be made throughout the industry. It's a win-win situation for both the consumer and the publisher; The publisher doesn't need to make hundreds of thousands of discs (which cuts costs, and thereby prices), and the consumer has more time to indulge in his leather computer chair without having to run off to the store to buy games. Laziness is the way of the future, I say! I'm off to go invest in my flying car now!

EDIT: Be sure to check out my good friend, Nukesniper's blog at some point!

Rock Band Vs. Guitar Hero

2008-03-12T12:15:00.005-05:00

My View: I just thought I'd take a break from looking at business related matters within the industry and discuss the differences between Guitar Hero and Rock Band today. I'll spare you the mundane details about peripherals (with the exception of me saying that I prefer the Rock Band guitar) and get right into the nuances in gameplay.

When many people compare the guitar parts in Rock Band to the guitar parts in Guitar Hero 3 they often bring up the issue of difficulty in the songs. While it is true that in the song that IGN chose to compare the two on (The song is Mississippi Queen, for those who can't watch the video), the difficulty in GH is greater, other songs like Sabotage and Paranoid are made more difficult because of the fact that the hammer-ons aren't as easy to do. I'll explain the difference for those who don't know. In GH3, to accomplish a hammer-on all you need to do is press the next button some time in between the 2 notes and hold it until the note passes the bar on the bottom. whereas in Rock Band the hammer-on style from GH2 is used and there is a predetermined window of time in which you need to press the button in order for it to register; if you hit too early, it counts as a missed note. I could easily complete the hardest song on Rock Band if the GH3 hammer-ons were used in this game.

Also, the fact that Rock Band has been releasing a constant stream of DLC since launch day is a fantastic feat. Rock Band hit shelves with 58 songs total, while Guitar Hero had 73. However, now Rock Band has 126 songs available to play, while Guitar Hero has 106. The most recent DLC pack for Rock Band includes a song from Serj Tankian titled "Beethoven's Cunt." This shows their willingness to release good tracks, even if the title of the song is vulgar.

Overall, I believe that Rock Band surpasses Guitar Hero in numerous ways: Replay value, Content, Multi-player, and their overall philosophy. The only area that GH has a significant advantage is in the single-player career mode. While each game has their niche in gaming culture, GH with it's hardcore competitive scene and Rock Band with it's exceptional party gaming reputation, I firmly believe that Rock Band is a far superior game.

Take-Two/EA Deal Comes Closer to Fruition

2008-03-11T11:25:00.008-05:00

The News: EA's bid to merge with Take-Two, the publisher that owns Rockstar (GTA, Bully), 2K Games (Bioshock), and 2K Sports (2K sports series', duh) is that much closer to becoming a reality. Let me take you back to last month when EA made public their proposal to buy Take-Two Entertainment for 1.9 billion dollars. Many analyists believe that this was done in order to pressure Take-Two to take action or to influence their stockholders and by jove did it work.

There was a report released today stating that Take-Two's largest stockholders have slashed a massive amount of their stock that they hold in the company, from 23% to 11.5% in the case of the top stockholder. On Feb. 25th, immediately after the initial the initial rejection, Take-Two's stock hit $26.89, The companies highest price since June 24th 2005 when stock was at $26.26. The price has since dropped to $24.65.

My View: All in all, this merger can hurt no one. EA, while it doesn't necessarily need the money, can gain a lot from this company. Obviously the massive cash cow that the GTA series is will help them monetarily, as well as the fact that the NBA games that 2K Sports makes have consistently been better than EA's LIVE series. Take-Two really has nothing to lose either. They have made poor PR decision after poor PR decision; having a corporate giant behind them with an established damage control team can do nothing but help them.

We are getting closer to having 3 or 4 sole publishers in the video game industry. This can be viewed in one of two ways: The industry will turn into something akin to the oil industry and will start charging 100 bucks a game, or that this will lead to more defined competition within the video game market which is ultimately better for all parties. The latter being my opinion, and the former (in my experience) being expressed by many forum-dwellers who don't understand economics.

Top 50 Devs of 2007 Announced.

2008-03-09T19:06:00.005-05:00

Game Developer magazine has released it's list of the top 50 game developers of 2007. You need to get the magazine in order to look @ 30-50, but I have noticed a trend here.

For one, the notable games from each of the top 20, all of the developers have some sort of sequel in their repertoire with the exception of 3 (Boston 2K with Bioshock, Harmonix with Rock Band, and Nintendo Kyoto with Brain Age and WiiPlay). While this in and of itself may not directly effect the quality of a given game, it does shine a light on the how many quality studios are picking up unique games. Some people out there may have great ideas, but lack the means to get make a quality game themselves or the means to get in touch with the people who make decisions within developers. A successful developer may throw some of these original ideas by the wayside to instead develop a spin-off of FFVII or Ratchet & Clank just to make a quick buck. Also, a few of the studio's "notable games" solely consist of yearly releases (EA Tiburon with Madden and NASCAR, Neversoft with Guitar Hero 3 and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, and EA Canada with FIFA Soccer and NBA Street: Homecourt) Again, this demonstrates developers fear of stepping away from well developed franchises.

Gerstmann-gate: 3 Months Later

2008-03-09T12:09:00.006-05:00

Prologue: I was a huge fan of Gamespot. All the other sites like IGN, GameInformer, and 1UP were nice, but Gamespot's reviews and articles were written in a manner that I found to be more interesting and memorable than the others. I also had massive respect for their strict editorial policies. If a member of the editorial team did a preview story about a game, they were barred from writing the main review for that game in order to avoid a biased score

The Climax: However, then this bombshell dropped and my views about game journalism were flipped asunder. long-time employee, Jeff Gerstmann was fired for giving a game a bad review score when that game's publisher had hundreds of thousands of dollars of ad money invested in the site. Officially he was fired because management didn't like his "tone." The editorial integrity of the entire industry was called into question for a dark period of time in early December. Other editors around the industry wrote in support of Jeff, but the damage had already been done to Gamespot, to the industry as a whole, and to Jeff. Over the next few months, long-time editors would slowly file out of the company to embark on their own endeavors.

Fast forward 2 months: Jeff Gerstmann and long-time friend and co-worker at Gamespot, Ryan Davis decided on a spur of the moment to start a podcast. The topics discussed in the podcast range from EA and Take-Two's recent fight to Manzanita Sol. A week later they brought former Gamespottenite/current Rock Band A-NI-MAL, Alex Navarro, in to the podcast fold. The following week it was #2 in America and #1 in the UK on the "Video Game Podcast" charts. After the third week, Giant Bomb, Jeff's brand new gaming website was announced and had it's soft launch. It will be fully operational by summer of this year. He said that the site will be very opinionated, almost as a jab at Gamespot, I feel.

My View:My opinion on this whole situation is that this is the start of a new way to go about game journalism. In his most recent podcast Jeff said, "I think we offer something that not many other gaming podcasts have, and that's intense discourse about beverages." In all seriousness though, the content they promise to have on the site excites me. the APD podcast is going to be changed to the Giant Bomb podcast; where they will basically do the same thing, but under the Giant Bomb banner. Also, having opinionated and unbiased reviews without having the suits try and adopt an editorial policy that favors those companies that pay more for advertising. Also the fact that all of the members of this site have been in the industry for a long time and have tons of experience in the fireld. I believe that a brave new world of game journalism is about to unfold before our very eyes over the next few months, and I can hardly wait to go out on an expedition within it.

Got a Blog!

2008-03-08T22:59:00.002-06:00

This site is where I will be posting many of my musings on video games; the industry, current trends in style, What I think of a particular genre, etc... Basically anything that is related to video games, I will most likely write about. I'll get some of the news that has intrigued me as of late up here later, but it is sleepy time now. Stayed up 39 hours straight at this point for Kaleidoquiz and I think I'd like to get some sleep before I start on this wonderful journey.