Monday, March 1, 2010

New Releases : March : An Evil God's Fantasy



It's March Madness. You know what that means, right? No, not basketball. It's November's slightly smaller, yet just as awesome cousin! He's in town, and he's bringing the goodies. Final Fantasy XIII, RE5: Gold Edition and God of War III are just a few of the awesomeness that March is bringing.

March 1
  • Mega Man 10 (WiiWare)
March 2
  • Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (360, PS3)
March 3
  • Resident Evil 5 DLC: Desperate Escape (XBLM, PSN)
March 9
  • Final Fantasy XIII (360, PS3)
  • Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition (360, PS3)
  • Yakuza 3 (PS3) 
March 11
  • Mega Man 10 (PSN)
    March 14
    • Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver (DS)
    March 16
    • Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (360, PS3)
    • God of War III (PS3)
    • Metro 2033 (360, PS3)
    March 17
    • Perfect Dark (XBLA)
      March 23
      • Red Steel 2 (Wii)
      March 24
      • Left 4 Dead 2 DLC: The Passing (XBLM)
      • Xbox Live Game Room (360)
        March 28
        • WarioWare: DIY (DSiWare)
        March 31
        • Mega Man 10 (XBLA)

            Wednesday, February 17, 2010

            Tosh.0 does a live rendition of Super Mario Bros.

            Tosh.0
            Live Mario Brothers
            www.comedycentral.com
            Web Redemption2 Girls, 1 Cup ReactionDemi Moore Picture

            As I'm watching Tosh.0, which has to be the best, original show Comedy Central has put on in a while, they pull out a well played Super Mario Bros. reference.

            Sadly, the embed code is riddled with useless crap - seriously, there is a LOT of code in there - so I couldn't filter out the useless shit quickly enough; the 2 Girls 1 Cup Reaction link will have to stay.

            Friday, February 12, 2010

            I am officially psyched for Halo: Reach

            I knew I was going to buy Halo: Reach when it comes out. I know I'll be all up in the beta like stink on shit. But I am now psyched for the game because of the first ViDoc that Bungie released.

            ...and the game comes out at the end of the year. Great. Thanks, Bungie!

            Thursday, February 11, 2010

            Major Nelson's 10 Things to Know from X10

            Major Nelson's blog is the only coorporate man-to-gamer community that I consistently read, or better yet, subscribe an RSS feed from.

            One feed that came through that is chock full of info is his list of 10 things that came out of X10 that you should know. Believe me you, you should know all but...none:

            March
            Toy Soldiers - March 3 
            Final Fantasy XIII Special Edition Xbox 360 Bundle - March 9, $400
            Perfect Dark - TBA
            Scrap Metal - TBA
            XBL Game Room - TBA

            April
            Splinter Cell: Conviction - April 13 

            May
            Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta - May 3
            Alan Wake - May 18
            Lost Planet 2 - May 18 

            August
            Dead Rising: CASE ZERO - Prior to DR2's launch
            Dead Rising 2 - August 31

            Holiday
            Fable III

            Nothing fairly groundbreaking, except we get definitive release dates - or something tangible - for Perfect Dark HD, Halo: Reach's beta, Alan Wake, Lost Planet 2 and Dead Rising, as well as the announcement of the interquel (told you I'd be using it sooner than later) that is Dead Rising: Case Zero, which ties together the first and second, hopefully explaining why Frank West's ugly mug isn't the facade we play by.

            Alan Wake Limited Collector's Edition unveiled by Walmart, Best Buy

            In the ongoing effort to completely destroy your wallets and shelf space, Alan Wake is getting the special edition treatment, in the image of a "Limited Collector's Edition," complete with the tag line "A Psychological Action Thriller." Honestly, I hate when a game that shows this much promise and awesome needs to have lines like this to entice otherwise uninterested buyers to even glance upon the game on a shelf when it's poised next to other, fantastically awesome games, and in Alan Wake's case, it's going to be right next to Assassin's Creed II.

            On the Walmart listing for the game, you've got this sporty box shot for the game, as well as a list of your clichéd (L)CE contents (taken straight from the listing):

            Hardbound in quality linen, the Limited Collector’s edition is designed to resemble a hardcover book. The Limited Collector's Edition will include:

            • Game Disc in box with unique art
            • Exclusive In-Game Audio Commentary and Hints by Remedy
            • “The Alan Wake Files” – a 144pg book that includes a short story written by Alan Wake and compiles the FBI dossiers investigating the events in Bright Falls, WA
            • Exclusive Audio Disc with Soundtrack and Score
            • Game Add-on token redeemable on Xbox LIVE for the first Alan Wake add-on content pack
            • Exclusive Xbox disc with special content: Alan Wake Xbox Live Theme and Alan Wake Avatar for Xbox LIVE

            "Designed to resemble a hardcover book," huh? Sounds interesting.

            Unique artwork for the box? Go on.

            144-page short story as penned by a fictitious character with fake files from a real beauro? Color me intrigued.

            Code redeeming the first DLC pack? Get the fuck over yourselves. You can't simply put that in the game? Why are you doing this? If you're releasing a DLC pack the day of release, then it should have been just included on the disc. That is, unless, you meet one of the two following criteria:
            1. You've run out of space on the disc
            2. Microsoft told you to

            Tuesday, February 9, 2010

            Ghost Recon: Future Soldier announced for later this year


            It's official: Ghost Recon 4 is Future Soldier. Everyone's initial skepticism is something similar to Battlefield 2142.

            There will be a private beta in the summer, with invitations tied to Splinter Cell: Conviction (maybe reason for delay?), and the same team behind GRAW will be the guys behind this. With that, expect more red and blue diamonds on your screen...again.

            The one thing I'm taking away from this? No funny acronym homonym. "GRAW" was awesome. "GRFS" really doesn't go anywhere. "GRiFS"? "GRuFS?"

            No.

            [Via Joystiq]

            Monday, February 8, 2010

            Maybe that new Nintendo hardware actually isn't the DSi XL...

            In an acceptance speech, Miyamoto casually mentioned he's working on a new piece of hardware, as well as a new MotionPlus-enabled game.

            If you remember my initial skepticism when it was rumored Nintendo would be unveiling a new piece of hardware at GDC 2010 next month, I said it could be one of three things: a proper North American unveiling of the DSi XL, the Wii HD or a new GameBoy. Well, no specifics were given in Joystiq's article - not even a quote - however, this can lead speculation that the DSi XL is not the topic of GDC, however, if it's not not the DSi XL, the Wii HD is continuously downplayed, and the GameBoy was killed by the DS, then where is there to go from here?

            Me? Well, I believe it's completely unrelated to the DS. Why make an announcement about a new handheld when the newest unveiled one isn't even out yet? The DS was supposedly the third tier of Nintendo products (sorry, but no, it's not; Nintendo successfully killed the GameBoy with their own system), so I'm going to say it's Wii related. Nintendo doesn't do hardware refreshes of it's main systems (that is, unless, you count the slimmed down NES and SNES they released, and that was about 500 years ago), so it would be contradictory. Then again, Nintendo was the company that pioneered pack-in games with Mario on the NES, and nobody has done that at launch except for Nintendo themselves with Wii Sports.

            Final thought: Wii something. Break out the scorecards, people. GDC is going to be very interesting.

            LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars Announced

            Please let this be a horribly timed April Fool's Day joke, because they really are milking the LEGO game franchise. Quick recap before my head asplodes:

            1. LEGO Star Wars (2005)
            2. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (2006)
            3. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (2007)
            4. LEGO Batman (2008)
            5. LEGO Indiana Jones (2008)
            6. LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues (2009)
            7. LEGO Rock Band (2009)
            8. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (2010)

            I originally typed that list up by memory (and sorted by franchise source), then went to Wikipedia for release years; my list was in chronological order before I knew it. Is that a bad thing?

            ...

            Yes.

            That makes 8, yes, eight LEGO games in...5 years. How in bloody fuck can you crank out that many games based off of...5 intellectual properties that fast?

            Sunday, February 7, 2010

            Heavy Rain Demo Impressions

            I just got finished with the Heavy Rain demo, and I must say, I am thoroughly impressed. More over, I am grateful I pre-ordered the collector's edition at HMV; only £3-4 more than the regular edition ($4.67-$6.24 more, akshuly).

            The demo starts off by letting you tweak a few options, like the difficulties, which are odd, but better than merely "Easy" or "Hard:"

            • Easy "I play video games quite regularly. I am familiar with the wireless controller."
            • Medium "I play video games occasionally. I am not very familiar with the wireless controller."
            • Hard "I play video games very often. I am perfectly familiar with the wireless controller."

            A bit on the strange side, again, but the choices did confuse me a bit. I wouldn't know where to begin to even think of where a difficulty would come into play in a game like this, but it probably increases the variety of the contextual button jamming.

            After that, you can either start a new demo, or choose to go to each area of the demo separately. You have the tutorial, a sleazy place, the crime scene and the trailer. I'm not making these names up, these are the names from the game.

            The tutorial is basically you playing as P.I. Scott Shelby getting out of his car and walking down an alley. However, this alley has the tutorial info, allowing you to familiarize yourself with the gist of the game, ranging from opening the car door to getting his inhaler out for an asthma attack.

            The sleazy place has our star, Scott, going to what is apparently a whore house, looking for a certain someone. I won't spoil the story here, but it's here in the demo where you get a feel for the extent to the dialogue, which is almost Mass Effect-esque; multiple answers that branch off, however, you only have a certain amount of time in which to respond. If you don't get your questions in before time's up, sorry, you're shit outta luck and gotta work with what you got.

            Our crime scene, now this is where shit gets fun. You fill the shoes of FBI Agent Norman Jayden who is called to a scene of a death, who the victim is quickly penned as a victim to the Origami Killer, the main antagonist of the game. Again, not spoiling the story, but you get a feel for the clue-gathering side of the game, which shits all over Condemned.

            If you want the demo, you'll have to wait until the 11 when it's out on the NA PSN Store. If you're impatient, like myself, do some Googling to find out how; it's really fucking easy.

            Saturday, February 6, 2010

            Time-Lapse Video of Bamboozle NJ 2009 Setup



            It's fun to watch this, knowing you where there, and you probably walked into the video several times throughout the entire day. Those are the two main stages from the show, and the video is taken from atop the Giant's stadium.

            God I miss Bamboozle.