Pink Floyd - Shine on You Crazy Diamond

Synopsis: It's time to do your part in the action packed battles of the World War II Pacific Campaign! Pick your path - be it as a rifleman crawling the trenches, a steel fisted tank commander or an ace fighter pilot dog-fighting to protect the skies. Play as a lone wolf or with your friends, coordinating to turn the tide of battle. Whatever you choose, you get to enjoy the thrill of a fully featured online shooter with the unique Battlefield gameplay. bf1943.com


Review: Battlefield 1942 has been revamped for the Xbox 360 and PS3 and retitled Battlefield 1943. It's hard to imagine that anyone who considers themselves a first person shooter fan would not have tried the Battlefield series by now. In a nutshell, this is team-oriented combat based on capturing and holding points on the map. Obtain a majority of the five points, and the other team's point ticker moves towards zero. The more your team captures, the faster the other team moves towards a loss.

The game ships with only three maps, and the bonus map that was unlocked (Coral Sea) is dog fighting only. Honestly, that is the only knock against the game. For $15, I dare you to find better value for your money. This is the best selling XBLA/PSN game for a reason, and people will be playing this for months and maybe even years to come. Now give us more maps, EA!

Rating: Buy

Labels: 1mr, games, xbox 360

Rock Band 2

I know I haven't posted in a while. Blame videogames. Specifically Street Fighter 4 and Rock Band 2. Oh, and Link.

I'll make a real update one of these days.

Labels: games, xbox 360

Ok Go - Oh Lately It's So Quiet

Fall 2007 Preview

Synopsis: Hellgate: London is the first original title from premier developer Flagship Studios, whose team hails from such blockbusters as the Diablo, StarCraft, and WarCraft series. Set in the near future, Hellgate: London introduces a world devastated by a demon invasion. Players are thrust into a desolate city scorched by hellfire where the survivors meld science and sorcery to gain a foothold against the minions of darkness and save the bloodline of humanity.


My Take: Well, this is more of a hands on impression now that I let a month and a half pass and the game has been released. Basically this is Diablo updated for 2007, and either you're going to love or hate that. The action now is real time instead of point and click, allowing you to go into first person or third person. Classes such as engineers and marksman will usually play through in first person mode in pseudo FPS-style gameplay, while classes like Blademaster and Guardian will usually prefer third person play. Aside from that, if you like dungeon crawling and collecting mad loot while leveling up, this is your game. If you're expecting anything else, like so many in the media seem to be doing, you will be disappointed. I'll try to post a decent review once I've had more than a dozen hours with Hellgate.

Labels: computers, games

G4 Halo 3 Special (terrible)

Fall 2007 Preview

Synopsis: The epic saga continues with Halo 3, the hugely anticipated third chapter in the highly successful and critically acclaimed Halo franchise. Master Chief returns to finish the fight, bringing the epic conflict between the Covenant, the Flood, and the entire human race to a dramatic, pulse-pounding climax. Halo 3 represents the third chapter in the Halo trilogy—an international award-winning action series that grew into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 14.5 million units worldwide, logging more than 650 million hours of multiplayer action on Xbox LIVE, and spawning action figures, books, a graphic novel, apparel, an upcoming film adaptation, and more.


My Take: Ever since I camped out at Best Buy for the Xbox 1 and picked up Halo for no reason other than needing the latest thing (didn't know jack shit about Halo other than it was made by Bungie), I've been a fan of the series. That's really all that needs to be said, everything else can be found on exactly one billion websites. See you on the other side.

Labels: games, xbox 360

Stone Temple Pilots - Plush (Lucy XM54)

Fall 2007 Preview

Synopsis: From the makers of Far Cry, Crysis offers FPS fans the best-looking, most highly-evolving gameplay, requiring the player to use adaptive tactics and total customization of weapons and armor to survive in dynamic, hostile environments including Zero-G.



My Take: This is the kind of game that you pick up to see what your system can do. It's not like anyone will ever see, but you just want to know how the best looking game ever made works on it. Beyond that, the concept of the game is new and interesting. Your character is wearing a "nano muscle suit" that allows you to switch your style of play on the fly. Someone can be ready to finish you off; have you near death. In any other game, you have a second or two to live. In this game, you can switch to sprint, run off, switch to strength and jump incredibly high, and just after you jump, switch to cloak and disappear.

Unlike Far Cry, Crytek is putting a lot of effort into the multiplayer part of the game. That isn't to say they're neglecting the single player at all. You'll be playing in different environments than just a jungle, including the ice level gameplay that was released on Thursday. The game looks solid at this point, and should give Halo 3 and Half-Life ep 2 a run for their money.

Labels: computers, games

Stone Temple Pilots - Big Bang Baby (Squizz XM48)

Fall 2007 Preview

Synopsis: A science-fiction action and role-playing game (RPG) created by BioWare, the commercially and critically acclaimed RPG developer of "Jade Empire" and "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic." "Mass Effect" will deliver an immersive, story-driven gameplay experience with stunning visual fidelity. Published by Microsoft Game Studios, "Mass Effect" is an exclusive title for the Xbox 360 video game system.


My Take: Having been a huge fan of BioWare games before they started making Xbox games, I'm looking to get back into the fold. Baldur's Gate was one of my favorite computer RPG's, and permanently glued me to the Bioware brand. Now that that Star Wars bullshit is out of the way (sup Guakus), they can finally get back to making good, non-light saber related RPG's.

The main quest in Mass Effect is supposed to take anywhere from 20-30 hours, with an extra 20 hours of additional side quests. On top of all this, Bioware will be releasing downloadable content for the game over Xbox Live. I've said about as much as I can handle about this game until it comes out on the recent #videogames podcasts, so if you want to hear more, head over there. The race for RPG of the year is between this game and The Witcher. It'll be fun playing through two incredibly different styles of games to see which comes out on top.

Labels: games, xbox 360

Trust Company - Stronger (Squizz XM48)

Fall 2007 Preview

Synopsis: Experience the ultimate team and mission-based online warfare, defined by the acclaimed Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, now set in the legendary QUAKE universe. Choose to play as the human Global Defense Forces or the invading alien menace, the Strogg. Each side has distinct classes, vehicles, and weapons to choose from, giving players countless ways to join the battle.


My Take: Quake Wars is one of those games that completely replaces something you already play. In this case, it's impossible for me to go back to Battlefield 2, because it feels way too slow compared to the complete anarchy of ETQW. The demo was released today and there's a hojillion fools running around getting mowed down by the dumbest shit. Makes me feel like I'm actually good at this game.

If you're wondering about my opinion on this versus Wolfenstein ET, I have no idea; never played it. However, I can say that ETQW is an incredibly well put together team FPS, and looks like it'll only get better by the time retail hits. I say this, because I've put in 25 hours or more on one map. The replay value to the game is just as high as BF2, and the pace of the game makes every game one hell of an experience. strogg...Strogg...STROGG!

Labels: computers, games

New York Giants @ Dallas Cowboys

Fall 2007 Preview

Synopsis: The Orange Box delivers five innovative action games from Valve® - creators of the blockbuster Half Life® franchise, in one box. The Orange Box includes Half Life® 2: Episode Two, Portal™ and Team Fortress® 2 in addition to full versions of award-winning Half Life 2 and Half Life 2: Episode One for an engrossing first-person action experience.


My Take: These are some solid games. While Half-Life 2 isn't my favorite FPS of all time (blasphemy!), it was a fun game to play and I'm anxiously awaiting playing through episodes 1 and 2. Nothing additional is even needed to sell Team Fortress 2. This is a game that people have been waiting on for the better part of a decade now.

Finally there's Portal, which looks like it'll either be a lot of fun, or full of mouse breaking frustration. Of all the new games in the pack, this is the one I'm looking forward to the least. However, even if it's not the best, I have nothing but praise for Valve throwing in another game. The Orange Box, hands down, has the most potential hours of fun of any release this Fall.

Labels: computers, games

Andy Ling - Calling Angels (System XM82)

Fall 2007 Preview

Synopsis: The Witcher combines spectacular and visually stunning action with deep and intriguing storyline. The game is set in a world created by best-selling Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The world shares many common features with other fantasy lands, but there are also some distinguishing elements setting it apart from others.


My Take: When I first saw this game a couple years ago, I devoured every image and story I could find on it. As time passed, I completely forgot about it and was happy in my state of ignorance. Then one day SoulBlade (from #videogames) brought the game up, and here we are talking about it in the Fall Preview.

The Witcher is an old-school RPG with a few twists. While you can change the controls to support WASD, the preferred method is to move the character through mouse clicks Fallout style. The action, however, is real time, using timed mouse clicking sequences to produce chained combos with your sword(s). The latest gameplay trailer is absolutely amazing, and makes this look like a serious contender for RPG of the year.

The main story in The Witcher unfolds over nearly 30 hours of gameplay. For those who don't want it to end, there's an additional 50 hours worth of side quests, bringing the game up to 80 hours total of Mountain Dew and Taco Bell fueled gaming. Moral decisions abound, but according to CD Projekt (the developer), they will be more vague than the status quo supervillain or angel motif most games use. It's so cliche to end articles like this, but this is one game I really can't wait to play.

Labels: computers, games

1up Yours (8/31/07)

Fall 2007 Preview

Synopsis: War rages on in the fourth edition of Activision's acclaimed war game. For the first time in the series, Call of Duty moves away from WWII to the modern battlefield.


My Take: I guess when your game is going to sell no matter what, you don't need an interesting synopsis, huh? The beta has been going around for the 360 lately, and I've had a good amount of fun with it. What adds to the experience is that I've been able to play the game with people I know, and it's been a while (Gears) since I've been able to play multi with those people. That is the sole reason why, if I lay down the cash, it would be for the 360 version and not the PC version.

The multiplayer demo is fast paced (read: people spawn behind you and kill you), and the mechanics seem to be on for the most part. There's even a Counter-strike, as imitated by Infinity Ward, mode that's fun to play. This Fall it's going to come down to two multiplayer games on the 360: Halo 3 and CoD4. Fortunately they play nothing like each other, and both should be able to foster some pretty strong communities. Finding a match at 3am on a Monday night in either game should be no problem.

Labels: games, xbox 360

Audioslave - Be Yourself

Fall 2007 Preview

Synopsis:Originally released in 1997, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is a portable update on the classic turn-based strategy game that gave birth to the world of Ivalice. New features include all-new CG sequences, all-new jobs, new 16:9 widescreen presentation, new head-to-head multiplayer and new storyline elements that refine the genesis of the Ivalice Alliance.


My Take: I'm not very big on most Japanese games anymore, let alone their rpg's, but strategic rpg's are fun. Not only is this game in a great format, where you can pull it out of your bag for a few quick moves in a battle, but it's a remake of a game I never played years ago. This was during the time where my brother decided to borrow my Playstation for 3 years. John Guakus, a friend of mine, used to play this game religiously and I remember him saying at one point that he had over 200 hours into it. I'm not sure that I'll give it that much time, but after playing some Jeanne D'Arc recently, it occurred to me that I'll need another portable time sink. FFT: The War of the Lions should fit the bill.

Labels: games

Rangers @ Angels

This is the Fall 2007 preview of the top 10 games I may or may not buy. Exciting, huh? I can't contain myself; let's get right to it.

Synopsis: Tabula Rasa™ is a massively multiplayer online action game that takes you into the heat of battle at the frontlines of an epic war between a xenophobic alien race bent on galactic conquest and the coalition of rebel soldiers who've traveled across the galaxy to stop them.


My take: I've never been involved in any kind of MMORPG. I remember back when Subspace was big, there were a lot of players lost to Ultima Online when that came out in 1997. I was incredibly excited by the idea of World of Warcraft, because, for some reason, I thought the game would be more focused on battles where each unit was a piece of a bigger army. Turns out that wasn't the case.

So coming full circle, Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa lands somewhere between an RPG and a third person shooter. Each character in the game (even NPC's) play their roles in a large scale war, where territories can be gained and lost in realtime. This is my kind of MMO. You can see several gameplay videos over at gametrailers.com.

I've been in the beta now for several months, and I've enjoyed it enough to where I'm seriously considering buying the game. At least enough to preorder the collector's edition through Amazon.com anyway. There's a little voice in the back of my head that keeps reminding me that this game has a monthly fee. He better get used to it, though, with Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures showing up in the Spring.

Labels: games

Syndica - Second Thoughts

It's not often that you get to really relive something from years and years ago, but Command & Conquer 3 is about as close as you can get in gaming. The cut-scenes are cheesy, the gameplay is direct, and the feeling of the game is identical to the old stuff. I've been playing until I can't play anymore, and it's a great game. Time really seems to fly by.

Tonight I was reminded of the infamous Warzone.com and how Nick Fisher (trixter) completely sold everyone, including GameFan Online, down the drain. Can't believe that was so many years ago. This is the site where a lot of very popular blogs and fan sites either got their start or served as a pitstop at one point in their existences. Voodoo Extreme, Blue's News, Something Awful. I wonder what old Nick Fisher is up to these days, outside of probably being an asshole to everyone in his new online game of choice.

Is Halo this generation's Star Wars? While I saw Star Wars as a kid, the movies did come out before my time and I never saw a single one of them in the theater. I guess that's why I really don't care about the movies at all. Halo, on the other hand, invokes the same kind of response from me that people seem to get when remembering great movies, books, music, etc of the past. Just a few chords of Halo's soundtrack, and all the memories start rushing back.

I'll get to Borat soon, but I'm sure no one's waiting on my advice. On the other hand, I did promise to talk a little about S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (hereafter referred to as Stalker to keep me sane). The game has an incredible sense of atmosphere to it. While the graphics definitely are a bit out of date due to the long development cycle, the combination of music, effects, and environment make Stalker a different experience from anything I've played before. Stalker gets a lot of its charm from the fact that it was developed in the Ukraine by people who probably grew up hearing stories about Chernobyl and had their own ideas about what happens in the 30km zone that no one is allowed to enter. I even read recently that a real life Stalker (think scavenger) saw some of the game at their offices and was very impressed with how the game shed light on the situation.

The gameplay is very difficult. If you like your games extremely easy, you may want to find your way to another game. I usually prefer easier games, but Stalker is so compelling that I can't stop playing (despite what the malfunctioning xfire would have you believe). So compelled, actually, that I applied the recent patch and started completely over to get the intended experience. After the patch, the game is even harder...

But that aside, Stalker addresses the uncertainty behind Chernobyl in a way that couldn't be satisfied by your standard id corridor shooter or people who simply visited the site to take photographs. The ability to explore, and run into radiation that you have to back away from, for example, keeps the game from being standard FPS fare. Instead the game treads almost closer to an RPG than it does something like Doom 3 or even Half-life 2. It's only $29.99 shipped from Amazon and worth every penny.

Labels: games

Days of the New - The Down Town

GFW Radio takes on the controversial subject.
(Warning: Language)

Labels: games

Led Zeppelin - Tangerine

I love GoGamer's 48 hour madness sales. I managed to pick up a couple of games I've been eyeing for a while without breaking the bank.


I played and enjoyed Fallout a ton, but I never got around to playing Fallout 2 or Tactics. Sometimes you can just get caught up in all of the new releases in a certain year that a game or two manages to slip by. Thankfully it's easy to pick it up again 10 years later for very cheap, and in this sleek, new veneer photographed above. Thanks GSP for repackaging an awesome release for the UK on a single DVD.

Company of Heroes is something roadie's been bugging me to get for a while now, and after playing through the campaign on the demo I folded. If the game is as great as it seems, I might dip back even further into old releases and pick up Dawn of War. The number of great RTS's that are coming out in recent years is substantial, and when mixed with the number of Xbox & 360 releases, it's hard to keep up.

I'll be back again soon with a 1MR of Borat and some impressions on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.
Early, early impression: Buy it!

Labels: games

SportsCenter

Labels: games

Rage Against the Machine - Bulls on Parade

No time for a real update; here's something better.

Labels: games

The Rakes - Open Book

Labels: games

Presidents of the United States of America - Peaches

Synopsis: The ultimate quick-hit of on-the-go gameplay, Burnout Legends includes tracks from Burnout, Burnout 2: Point of Impact and Burnout 3: Takedown, completely redesigned for aggressive racing on the PSP.


My thoughts: In last year's fall preview, I covered Burnout 3. Not only was this the most fun game I played last year, it was also the first game since Halo 1 where I completed the game 99% of the way through. That last pesky 1% was from the "signature crashes" that drove me to the brink of insanity trying to collect. So...I stopped.

Legends takes the best tracks from Burnout 1, 2, and 3 and combines them into portable form on the PSP. Taking advantage of Burnout 3's gameplay, it's focused on the takedown more than anything else. For the 3 of you that never played Burnout 3, takedown is when you force your opponents into a magnificent crash sequence, that hopefully leaves them at least paralyzed. This is about the most healthy way to take all the thoughts that pass through your mind on the interstate, and carry them out on virtual cars.

The developers have stated that the crash mode will remain in the game. A little less certain is whether or not the game will have infrastructure (online) play, but EA and Criterion have said they're working as hard as they can to make sure it's included. The game's coming out a mere 3 weeks from today, and anticipation on this blog is high.

Labels: games

Chumley's Toy - Blame

Just as I did last year, I'm gonna give some previews of games coming out this Fall that I'll probably be getting one way or the other. Sorry to you folks that read through this and couldn't care less about games...

Synopsis: Earth is under siege by an alien race. The Strogg are cybernetic warriors--a mechanical frame and decaying body parts stabilized by flesh consumed in a systematic annihilation of other species and civilizations. In a desperate attempt to survive a Strogg attack on Earth, an armada of Earth's finest warriors is sent to take the battle to the Strogg home planet. Earth's initial assault force is nearly annihilated immediately, but one marine manages to infiltrate the base, bring down their planetary defense systems, and kill the Strogg's collective brain and leader--the Makron. Earth assumed the destruction of the Makron would end it all, but it didn't. That's where QUAKE II leaves off and QUAKE 4 begins.


My thoughts: The second big id Software franchise to be released in as many years. This one's actually being produced by Raven Software while id works on a Quake title of their own, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Picking up where Quake 2 left off, Raven has promised that this game will have a single player mode with some thought put into it (video). It looks like something of a cross between Halo 2 and Call of Duty.

Even if the single player doesn't turn out, the multiplayer is a lot of fun. Through some schmoozing at the Intel VIP booth at QuakeCon, I was able to hop on the game for a while and play with/against some of the Intel people in CTF. It feels a tiny bit slower than Quake 3, and the guns feel a lot more substantial than they did in Quake 3. Both of which are huge improvements to me. The game has a release date of October 11th at EB; I'll be there.

Labels: games

Doubledrive - 11:59

This really isn't going to make sense if you read the Vegas post first. I'm actually posting this one afterwards, but dating it earlier. I'm tricky like that.

We decided not to go to E3 this year, and this might have been my last chance to do that. Looking at the academic calender for next year, I'll be taking finals the same days that the convention is going on. I wouldn't be able to make it to the show, much less the press conferences a couple days earlier. Crappy, but school is more important than vacations.

Last year was a ton of fun, because we weren't as focused on the show as we were being out and about in Los Angeles. Rainbow bar & grill, Roscoe's chicken & waffles, Sunset strip, Hollywood & Highland, etc. It was good to be able to forego the scantily clad strippers for a couple days, and instead see the sights. Los Angeles is such a great place to visit, and I honestly couldn't tell you why I like it so much.

On the topic of this year's E3, though, I'm glad I didn't go. Not only did I have a great time in Vegas, but reading reports by others that did make it to the show this year is kind of depressing. Everyone went in with such high hopes of a great show. This was going to be the year that Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo were gonna burn the mf'er down with all of their new systems, and games.

Instead, it was pretty tame. Sony showed off some CG of what they think PS3 games, could look like. What they hope to achieve. They showed off a console that's half as big as Ken Kutaragi, and nearly as ugly. But don't worry, it has 6 USB ports. As if any person in the past 5 years ever used the USB ports or Firewire port on the revolutionary PS2. You'll also get a blu-ray DVD player, nevermind the fact that not even a single blu-ray DVD exists yet. You can also use a controller that loosely resembles something you'd get from an adult novelty store. All of this is coming to a TV near you sometime in 2006. Don't mention the PSP, btw, Sony sure didn't.

Microsoft wasn't much better. I remember reading something once, and I can't remember who at Microsoft said it, that they learned their lesson with the Halo 1 showing at E3 2001. People go to the show expecting to see five minutes of highly polished gameplay demo'd for them. You can have the extra 2 hours of game, but if you can't blow people away with a short snippet of the game, then you've failed. Evidently they must have gotten rid of whoever said that, because half of the 360's games at the show looked like revamped Xbox 1 titles. They completely swept Perfect Dark Zero under the rug, and all of their games were still running on dual-dual PowerMac G5's, with a 360 in decoy mode.

Finally there was Nintendo. I'm sure that their business model is great, because it seems like they're always making money, but it's sad to see how far they've fallen. Every person in America used to know what a "Nintendo" was. I bet 80% of them couldn't tell you who the hell makes a "Gamecube" now. How does Nintendo fix that? By releasing 4 new Mario games, of course! Mario Soccer, Mario Baseball, Mario Dance Dance Revolution, and Mario Party 7. As if we haven't had enough Mario in the past 10 years, we now get four more games to satisfy the 12 and under demo. Then they show the Gameboy Micro...a portable game system so small and akward, that only the tiniest of hands could appreciate it. We'll see if Nintendo makes a killing by selling it to 11-15 year old boys, and petite college girls. I'm guessing not.

Anyway, that was the show from the perspective of someone sitting at home, waiting to catch a plane to more entertaining destinations. After all of this, I'm sure I'll still play games as often as I ever have. That would be about 1 hour a week anymore... :P

Labels: games