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.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
XBox LIVE Downtime and CoD4 Map Video Released
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.
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.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
GTA4 Cinematic Beauty and Hasbro XBLA Releases
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."
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."
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Night of Bush Capturing!
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
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
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Achievement Glitchers Get Their Just Desserts
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
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
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.
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.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Review: Condemned 2: Bloodshot
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
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
Thursday, March 13, 2008
XBox & Blu-Ray News
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.
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
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
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
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Activision/HMX Settle Out of Court and Atari Jumps on the Steam Bandwagon
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.
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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!
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.
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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
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Take-Two/EA Deal Comes Closer to Fruition
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.
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.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Top 50 Devs of 2007 Announced.
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.
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
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.
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.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Got a Blog!
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.
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