New dashboard and more from Microsoft!

Well, Lets hope this works out, but where will I use my themes?

Rock Band 2

...Over at Gameproarcade.com As if the mere thought of another Rock Band so soon wasn't shock enough for you. How about the ability to have all the DLC added to your game as well as music from the original disc. This will push the set list for the game to an all time high, especially since Rock Band 2 will already have over 100 songs from an Unrivaled Blend of Classic, Developing and New Artists. This is big news for Harmonix and will definitely keep people happy since a lot of content was put on DLC for the first game. Also DLC will keep on flowing onto the market since they will be ported over to the next installment anyway, so don't expect them to slow down for one second on the albums and packs released on a weekly basis. Rock band 2 will also have an Upgraded World Tour, Battle of the Bands, Set Challenges and Drum Trainer which you should have know would have been added but the biggest addition is the ability to Compete Against Other Bands Online. This of course is a great inclusion to the franchise since last time around you could only play with others online, not compete head to head. I for one am truly excited to get a group of friends together to take on another set of people and rock their faces off. The Harmonix press release breaks down all the new features and modes for Rock Band 2. · Local and global online modes to connect the entire Rock Band community · World Tour mode, now online, simplifies the best of gameplay from the original Rock Band by fusing Solo Tour and Band World Tour modes and cranks it up a notch with an all new collection of opportunity gigs, challenges, cities, venues and hirable staff · Tour Challenges that offer rockers a chance to play through mini-campaigns focused on the best songs by instrument, decade, genre, artist, album and more · Battle of the Bands mode challenges players to go head to head against other bands in constantly refreshed contests* created by Harmonix (*internet connection required) · Quickplay makes it easier than ever to get in and jam without hassle while allowing for new prefab characters or customized characters that can play on any instrument plus lets you make your own set lists and organize your song lists in a variety of categories (genre, era, etc.) · Customizable Set Lists keep the music rolling and your band rocking in Quickplay mode · Drum Trainer mode gives players the fundamentals of different beats and fills, translating gameplay into real drumming skills · Character Creator completes your look with all new choices in clothing, accessories, tattoos, hairstyles, instruments and more to keep your unique rock avatar playing the full rock part · Backwards compatibility with all Rock Band downloadable music content released to date · Disc Export Feature gives owners of the original Rock Band the ability to export most of the Rock Band disc tracks and upgrade them into Rock Band 2 gameplay--the first time ever in videogame history! Of course, what is a music based game without the song's? Well Rock band 2 is to have over 80 songs on disc plus an additional 20 bonus tracks which will be made available for free download this fall. That brings the set list to over 100 songs which is plenty to keep you occupied over the holiday season. And with all of the tracks being master tracks, as well as having huge names like Pearl Jam, Metallica, Allman Brothers, Motorhead, Devo, Jane's Addiction, Megadeth, Paramore and Modest Mouse, as well as some exclusive artist such as AC/DC with "Let There Be Rock", Bob Dylan with "Tangled Up In Blue" and Guns N' Roses giving an exclusive track from their upcoming album Chinese Democracy with "Shackler's Revenge". Harmonix is sure to give its competition a run for its money. With music also come the instruments to play it with. Rock Band 2 will feature the officially licensed Rock Band 2 instruments and expand them with third party options. Also, Harmonix and MTV Games have become the first companies to officially support third party instruments and accessories in a music videogame. So you get new and improved officially licensed products from Harmonix including a Fender Stratocaster Controller which takes on a new authentic look plus adds a reinforced strum bar, quieter buttons, wireless functionality and a built in calibration tool that automatically sets your AV setup to an ideal setting for maximum rock. A new drum set that goes wireless, while also featuring quieter, velocity sensitive drum pads and a metal reinforced pedal. And finally a microphone that showcases authentic styling and weight. Harmonix also introduced the third party lineup of instruments as well. Featuring the Fender Telecaster Controller which features soft buttons with lower action to help you shred faster than ever. A Fender Bass Controller, the first bass guitar controller ever, takes the shape of the Fender P-Bass with extended length, tuning pegs and a split strum bar to replicate finger-bass style picking. A Full-sized Squire Stratocaster Guitar Controller multiplies the authentic guitar experience by featuring a controller built into an actual Squire Stratocaster body. Also a Cymbal Expansion Pack is a straightforward but amazing upgrade to the Rock Band 2 drum set featuring add-on cymbals. Also Rock Band 2 takes instrument authenticity to a whole new level with a high-end peripheral from ION, with the ION Drum Rocker, a real electronic drum kit that functions as a game controller, brings the Rock Band fantasy to life featuring a simple substitution that takes the drum kit from a controller to a real instrument. Rock Band 2 will make its debut on Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft this September and have an exclusive launch window in North America. Rock Band 2 will be available for additional platforms later this year. Rock Band 2 will be available for the PLAYSTATION 3 and PlayStation 2 computer entertainment systems and Wii later this year. So get ready to rock again and get your friends prepped to take the fight for rockstardum over the net.

The Duke is back...

...over at gameproarcade.com Yes, it is actually going to happen. Duke Nukem is coming back and he is going to hit the market hard. Apogee Software is brining back about 30+ of its classic titles as well as some new unannounced titles. Apogee of course has had success in other episodic releases with the releases of Commander Keen, Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein 3-D, Raptor, and Rise of the Triad, just to name a few. Among one of the classic franchises, Duke Nukem is going to be brought back to life in 3 different missions known as the Duke Nukem Trilogy. Under a license agreement with 3D Realms and MachineWorks Northwest LLC the missions consist of three episodes: Critical Mass, Chain Reaction, and Proving Grounds. I for one am excited, considering I am a fan of the Duke Nukem series and I think this will bring back the franchise. An since Apogee is making handheld versions of the games, the series can have some new twist if it is ported to something like the DS or the PSP. They have stated that the games will be made available on both systems, as far as what the game is about we will have to sit back and wait. and hope for the best. With Apogee's track record I dont think we will have another Duke Nukem Forever on our hands. So expect more news and coverage as soon as it can be made available.

sorry for the lack of content

It has been hectic with me getting more hours at work and taking some time off to spend with the girlfriend. I went to see Dethklok about a week ago and it was amazing, definitely check them out and watch the show on [adult swim]. I have started working for gamePRO arcade and gamercenteronline has used a review or two of mine. So thing are getting crazy and with E3 right around the corner I have a lot of work coming up and expect a pre E3 podcast and a post and during E3 podcast.

Hail to the Chimp XB360 Review

What do a monkey and clams have in common? They are what you have to collect in order to get the electoral votes in the new political comedy Hail to the Chimp. This quirky multiplayer game is one of those hit or miss titles that not many people will know about. It is essentially a collection of mini games where you collect clams in order to do something with them. That's about it for game play. You do this for the rest of the game but each level has something special you need to do. In any of the game modes, you can of course fight your opponents to knock the clams they're carrying from their hands. This is done by slapping or jumping onto them or using a power-up. Unfortunately, the fighting system feels cheap thanks to the fact that the computer will take charge and gang up on you so more than one opponent can cripple you in a game. While using these moves you of course slow down your opponents and also can slap out clams. But clams show you in increments of 5, but wont show how many you have total or how many you lose when you yourself get hit. This of course can also make the game too easy with the AI getting stuck in corners or just simply killing themselves over and over again by running of the sides. So of course playing with friends is what they are trying to do but it doesn't always work that way.

The fun part is watching the odd antics of all the political banter that is shown between each segment. it goes through a number of candidates and all have their very own style of what they bring to the party. Who knew that a hippo would totally support that we all go threw life commando style. But you don't get to pick the character you want to be, you have to play as the character in the infomercial and try to get them elected. While there is no big payoff for this game it is kind of funny to watch at some points but overall just has too many failing points to recommend it.

Overall - D

Unreal Tournament III XB360 Review

Well, its finally here. The next installment on the Unreal franchise has hit the 360 and let me say its not one to miss. This first person shooter offers up enough to tear you away from the Call of Duty run you have been on for so long. Of course it is the same old song and dance with the usual modes, weapons and art style. What is new to the party is the maps and the odd attempt to change up some of the previous games modes to make them fresh and new to the user. Controls might not be as good as using a keyboard and mouse, but the 360 does a nice job at trying to keep the speed of the unreal games while still giving a lot of support to keep your eyes focused for frags. So yes the game runs fast and furious but not enough to make the game hard to play. The rest of the controls feel very good, with swapping weapons being just a breeze. Visually the game looks good, while not having the best visuals out there it does have a decent frame rate with no real slowdowns at all. Same can be said about the sound quality, with the only annoyance being that they AI likes to spout out one liners that are just terrible.

Fans of course will be use to the modes and game play elements of the franchise. Newcomers wont have a problem as well getting in on this. It has a lot to offer especially in the online department, however, the single player is kind of a failure in my opinion. The very odd try at a story mode, spanning four chapters with numerous missions in between. Modes consist of capture the node and capture the flag as actual events in a war style story that is just in poor taste. I know what they are doing in a sense, getting you ready to take your onslaught online. But it would of been best to just scrap a story and just make some tutorial levels. The saving grace in single player is the addition of online co-op which makes playing through the story mode more enjoyable since you actually have someone to help you out on some of the more difficult missions. Vehicles are back and in full force as well. Vehicles made their first appearance in Unreal Tournament 2004 and the roster has only grown. Of course the controls are nothing to drop your jaw at though. Meaning that you point your targeting reticule to an area, push forward on the left stick and your vehicle will try to make its way there, and hopefully not explode. It's when doing battle in small areas that this can be a bit touchy due to the lack of movement. You also for some reason cant move the canon on the Goliath while moving which is kind of dumb, but nothing to be too concerned with. The AI throughout is very good as well, being very ruthless and cunning to keep you pushing and pushing until you finally over come them. They will flank and use all the tricks in the book to overcome you and take you down.

Online is of course where the game shines. The amount of modes and weapons is sure to keep you clutching your controller to get one more frag in before the round ends. the maps as well are a reason to keep playing. With the 360 version coming packed with all three of the maps released thus far on PS3 and PC as download able content as well as five exclusive levels. Of course they are all built for the specific mode you are playing but all have a very good feeling to them. The game runs very smooth and of course having XBL on your side your sure to get an easy connection with tons of players. Online is the major chunk of this game and it does everything right.

So this of course is a great online experience and is user to keep you away from the modernized combat zone for awhile, having you yell out MULTI KILL!! Every time you see it flash up on your screen. So go out and pick this one up and I'm sure you will enjoy. Hopefully we will be seeing some type of user created downloads to XBL for use to have another frag fest in.

Overall - A

Fact or Fiction???

So, looking around I came across this pic of a Samsung "X-Series" LCD TV. The Tv is rumored to be the first television to incorporate the 360 hardware inside of it. This does seem like a very good diea so people who dont have the HDTV or the 360 yet can get the best of both worlds in one package. The TV itself will have of course a 360 in it, four USB ports, 512 MB of hard drive space (where did the 20gb HDD go?) and a "ring of light" style power button. The biggest debate is whether or not this is a legit item or not. I personally would not care if it did or not since it seems like it would just have all sorts of problems with it, especially if its saying 512mb of memory. I cant be for the movies since a lot of the movies are pretty good sizes and that 512mb would get full in 2 seconds. Maybe it utilizes the portable HDD to use space to allow them to be used to store but this is all just a rumor so odds are it can be anything. Or nothing at all.

wall-E movie review

I know I know, I dont do movie reviews but I thought I would do this one since I took time out last night to go to a midnight showing of this new pixar film. First thing it was packed with tons of adults and kids and that made me glad to see that everyone wants to see this film and its not just kids movies that Pixar is creating its films for all ages. Wall-E is a tale about a robot as you already know but the message behind why he is there and his job are what makes the adults think a little bit and the kids laugh and giggle at his antics. The film gives out a good message to us all and I will not spoil that message and I hope that you can figure it out on your own but it is one we need to consider. The visuals are amazing in this film and the laughs keep on coming one after the next. Wall-E gets at your funny bone and attacks your heart strings and is one I highly recommned everyone go see. Great soundtrack, amazing scope and visuals, tons of laughs and equal heartfelt emotions make this a blockbuster hit and possibly the biggest movie of the summer.

If for some reason you missed any trailers and I dont know how that is but here is one of the trailers to check out what is wall-E. This is a spoiler free trailer since some of the enws ones give away alot of stuff you didnt know wbout, I had only seen this one and felt that the movie was afr better because of this.

Overall - A yea an A for a kids film

Some leaked Gears of War Vids!!

Yea, check out these videos on soem multiplayer gameplay and enjoy. I got my popcorn ready do you? You hear some commentary in the second video, which gives some cool info on the flamethrower and some mechanics for the multiplayer itself.

Space Invaders Extreme DS Review

This is a very good revamping of a classic shooter from the 1970's. The standard gameplay is still intact but a new style has been put into place to make it fresh and new and especially fun. This addicting classic shooter has new modes and ways of playing that are sure to keep you picking up the DS over and over again to play even if its just for a few minutes. Startegy and skill have increased somewhat to make the game more fun for everyone as well as to keep you guessing. The inclusion of power-ups is new and very fun, especially when you get a one you have been craving an entire level and are able to finally finish of that boss or last alien ship. The new style reminds me alot of REZ in a since of the techno theme song and the trppiy color displayed throughout. This of course brings new color and life to the game making it a joy to watch and listen to. Having not much else to say about the game it is a very good title and one you should not pass up.

Overall - A

Battlefield: Bad Company XB360 Review

Battlefield: Bad Company has been in development since back in 2006 and has certainly come a long way since then. This EA shooter has been tested and reworked a number of times and I can safely say all of it was worth it. The game simply does what everyone wanted it to do and more. First thing is the single player, you play as Preston Marlowe who has been sent over to B-company instead of been shipped off to prison for some sort of crime. Their you team up with three other guys who were put in the same company based off their own personal screw ups. From their you proceed to take on enemies as well as find gold left by the mercenaries. The story is not what your in this for your in it for the game play and action and this game delivers it on a hot platter with some extra side fixing's. The environments themselves are very destructible and you will be glad they are when a group of enemies run into a house. You will just line up a shoot and BOOM! Down goes that wall as well as the troops inside, that being said don't think the enemies are all that stupid. While some will stay in the line of fire and get popped in the head, others will be flanking you and blowing up walls themselves to get to you. Sometimes they will hide out and wait for tanks to blow up a wall and then start to fire upon you and move in. buildings are not the only thing that is very destructible the trees and barricade's are as well. A gun turret on top of a vehicle can move down the treeline as well as take out other enemy vehicles. Tanks, choppers, boats and other deadly weapons will be at your disposal as well including an air strike and mortar. These will all come in hand in taking out the enemy and all can be used differently throughout parts of the game. But the true gem of this title is the sound. This has by far the best sound I have ever heard in a game. The way the bullets echo as you shoot down a street or when a building has its side blow up from close range or a far it sounds very good. The tanks as they roll in or the commands and shouting of enemies and your squad mates make the scenarios sound like your really there. This is definitely a game to test out that home theatre systems. The same goes for the visuals while not the best, they are very good and detailed. The games only problems is that near the end its gets kind of repetitive and lackluster. Also the AI is either really good or really dumb, but it varies up enough to where it doesn't get too annoying. The lack of co-op play is another thing that is kind of a bummer for this game. Especially since you are with the other players throughout the game. It would of been easy to have a 2 or even a 4 player co-op experience to this game.

As for multiplayer its good enough to keep you in that chair a lot longer then just a few times. It has all the features that the single player has with the variety of weapons and vehicles as well as the environmental destructibility. It has a five class system with different weapons and extra gear for you to change in an out as well as an achievement system for doing some good things during a match. As you increase your rank you will unlock weapons and other gear for you to use during your online battles as well. This is pretty much the same as COD4 minus the whole perk system. The game plays has you attacking and defending gold crates scattered throughout the map and with 8 playable maps this should keep you satisfied until more game play modes are possibly introduced in the future. You can spawn at the camp or with your teammates so if your the last man standing in a firefight take some cover or else everyone starts back at the base.


Overall - A

Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 XBLA Review

Looking for non-stop action as well as a game to get your live buddies to play with you? Well Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 has got you covered soldier. Developed by Backbone Entertainment and published by Capcom this shooter puts you in the shoes of one of three operatives Wolf, Coyote or Fox. Each of the three characters' you can play as all have slightly different types of stats and abilities to use during your onslaught. They must take on General Ratiev, a tyrannical despot pent on global domination. That's pretty much it but then again you're in it for the action not the story. This is a 3rd person shooter with controls similar to geometry wars where the left stick moves and the right stick fires your weapon. The trigger buttons throw grenades and activate a super move which of course differs from character to character. Throughout the game you pickup and drive a number of different guns and vehicles to help in you fight. You also traverse through five different levels ranging from an outdoor to some indoor areas. The art style for this title reminds me of Team Fortress 2 with the character designs and the comical feeling when you get hit with a splurge of characters pop up showing what would be cursing from the character. The major problem I had is with the game feeling either too easy or too tough due to the lack of proper enemy balancing. That seemed to be the only problem I had with the game other than that I enjoyed playing through the game. Of course thrown in with the purchase of the game, players get an exclusive beta key to Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix will be available to all on June 25.

Show is coming

Sorry guys I had a busy week again with a lot of games to finish but I shall be back and I also will be deciding on an official co-host period! So expect that and more info about your favorite games!

Alone in the Dark Review

Alone in the Dark is one of those survival horror classics from the old days. It had a few titles on PlayStation and some other systems. Well now we are on what would be the next chapter in the series and apparently this one takes place after the first one where you are following drowsy Edward Carnby,who is the main character. Your main environment is New York's Central Park which you explore and pretty much spend the whole game in. You are basically trying to figure out your past and what is going on through out the majority of the game until you figure out you are actually from the 1920's and somehow are in our time period. You now must figure things out and find out what is happening to New York in general with everything falling apart and craters popping up all over the place and destroying things. This sounds like a cool story, unfortunately playing in this world is an abomination. So yes, the controls are bad, sometime very bad. The movements are very twitchy and it feels as if your character is just a on a delay sometimes or just wont move they way you want him to at all. The camera is fixed and becomes a big pain in the ass in a lot of areas causing you of course to die. Along with the movement controls the driving areas are the worst part about this game. With the game penalizing you for driving over a jump to fast or making a jump or turn to only randomly slip the car or have it get wedged/stuck in a crevice and then get killed. The driving courses are usually linear but with things happening all around you you will probably have to do some of these driving sequences a few times to learn the pattern, if you wan to that is. Yes this game actually comes with a level selector right at the beginning. It allows you as a player to skip an area you find to difficult and move on to not worry about that chapter you just need a certain number of them to go to the last level. This was a good idea for people who want to skip areas they find difficult and what not, but also seems like something put in due to some broken things with the game itself. Minus having a few other problems with a pop in problem and the physics sometimes being way to sensitive the game itself has got some very unique ideas to it. The menu system having an open jacket inventory and such made it very cool having to like open your jacket and pull your gun and stuff. The creative stuff with the combination of the different types of items was also kind of cool making a stick bomb to use on baddies was cool with tape and a bottle of gas. Also being able to throw the items and get a slowdown to only shoot it to have it spray flames over an area to burn fools. you also can go into a first person mode to heal yourself as well as to shoot your gun which has an semi auto-lock on feature. I liked the healing aspect,how I would use the first aid spray to focus on an area hurt and spray it down and heal it as well as use bandages to heal major wounds which you had a time limit to heal before you'd pass out and die. The enemies themselves were not to great with having the zombie/undead humans who you had to set on fire in order to kill to the crab like enemies who act like the head crabs from half-life as well as a bat-like creature. The enemies feel recycled from various other games and just are not that interesting. The fissure is probably the only enemy I thought was really cool which drug you around on the ground and you had to pull yourself out or grab something other than that nothing seemed very inventive. While these tried to helped bring the series out of the shadows a little bit but not enough for you to lay down that hard earn cash. So while they tried to add a few new things to the game they still had alot of problems and for a game I was really looking forward too I wish they spent a little more time fixing some of the problems the game has. Despite having some control issues and some other hiccups the game itself is not that bad but not one that is a must buy.

Overall - D

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Review

Aerosmith, possibly one of the biggest bands in the 1970’s, have teamed up with Activision to create the next installment of the Guitar Hero franchise. Unfortunately Guitar Hero is starting to suffer from the Tony Hawk syndrome and by that I mean that Activision might start running the franchise into the ground. They will just produce the games to get the money because people will buy them and not care what is in it, just look at the title and buy it. This title is the second in that series with Guitar Hero 80’s being the first. It’s just something to put out to get some units sold quick until the next installment comes out this fall.

The career spans 31 songs, with each set of five comprised of three songs by Aerosmith and two tracks by other bands. As well as unlockable songs spanning the list to about 40 tracks in total. I am a fan of Aerosmith and the set list is not quite what I would have expected for this title. It seems that hardcore fans and possibly your parents may be the only one's that find this setlist appealing. The set list consists of a lot of classic titles from the 70’s such as "Train Kept A Rollin", "Mamma Kin" and "Toys In The Attic" with other hits that have made the radio up until the album Nine Lives. But some of the songs were remade for this game, changing some of the impact that the songs may have had. “Dream On” is a prime example of this. I would have much rather of had the original recording of the song than a remade version. While this does have smash hits from the guys, Some songs are missing that I think should have made the cut. Where is "Dude Looks Like A Lady","Cryin"."Same Old Song And Dance","Big Ten Inch Record","Falling In Love (is so hard on the knees)" ,"Janie's Got A Gun", and finally "I Dont Want To Miss A Thing". All great songs I thought should of been included into this set list but for some reason couldnt make the cut.The character models of the band members are a nice addition to the game, but that is about it as far as new content. The game doesn’t offer up much else from the last release, the game plays the same and uses all the same features from before, the visuals are nice and the character models seem to have had a small update but thats about it.

If you’re looking for something new to play with your Fischer price guitars, then of course you can pick this title up. But if you are not a fan of Aerosmith than you can put those hard earned pennies in your piggy bank for the 4th installment of the series this fall. Especially since you wont be able to download any content at all for this title no further hope for extra songs should be had. This title should have just been a download pack instead of a $60 waste pack. Just picked all the big hits from this game and just made them available for download for like $10-$15 dollars. At least then I could have gone back to playing the songs I loved on Guitar Hero III.

Overall Score - C

Lego Indian Jones Review

Dr. Jones! Dr. Jones! Your game has come out! Yep thats right it is finally here the next installment in Lego and its not another Star Wars one. This time they tackled Indiana Jones, one of my personal favorites. The game of course covers all three classic films and doesn't include the new film at all. The game itself is not that bad although it is favored for the kids it still has some challenges for all ages to enjoy. It of course plays just like the Lego star wars games with the fighting and the puzzle solving and the building. Its the same great formula thrown into another universe with some added fixing the previous games didn't have like the ability to switch people from anywhere and not having to move next to them. The two big complaints I have about this game is that they didn't include any online play at all? What the hell is with that. Games should have online play by now anyways especially a co-op game which plays better with two people. As well as that the game itself is far to short. It goes by way to fast and I don't really feel the need to play through again other then for the achievements or something. So unfortunately with the lack of online play I cant give this a great score. It does not mean it is a bad game at all it is a very good game with a lot of fun things to see and do, its just that factor to allow people to play with one another is kind of a stupid move on their part.

Overall - B

Dragonball Z: Burst Limit Review

Dragon Ball Z has had a long long run with a slew of games ranging all the way back to the classic consoles. This time we are brought back to the saga again with this new title Burst Limit. This is a throw back to the Budokai style of fighting so no 3D style of fighting and its brought back to the 2D/3D environments fighter. I think this was a good move and fans are thinking the same as well. Of course this does have a story mode which you have played a few times but unfortunately it stops in the Cell Saga and doesn't finish out the last chapter of the series. That aside this is a very good fighter with tons of characters and transformations. This will be enough to please newcomers and fans of the series. The visuals of course also get a huge upgrade and the combat gets some good fine tuning to make it worth your time. This will be kind of short due to the fact its a fighting game and is a dragon ball game that we all have seen in some point. But with the addition of online play and the new upgrades DBZ: Burst Limit is a very solid title minus the fact the last Buu saga is missing.

Overall - B

Classic commercials!!

Who doesn't remember this Zelda commercial from back in the day. My dad showed it to me on a tape he got from Japan on a business trip when I was a little tyke. I was taking a trip down memory lane and thought id post this for those who haven't seen it. The others below are just some ones I found funny and cant believe made it on TV.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Review

Well, I have to say that besides being one of my most anticipated games in a long time I also have to say this is the most impressive game I have played in a long time. Not since Resident Evil 4 have I felt that a game has impressed me in all aspects, and MGS4 does this and does it well. This is, in my opinion the first true next gen game to hit the home console. Nothing has looked this good nor has had this much immersion to it that has hit the current consoles. First lets just get them out of the way is the few complaints that I have about the game. I cant really pinpoint anything that was a major complaint for this game actually. I know that sounds very odd with tons of people saying um installs? and 90 minute cut scenes? Well, I actually never felt that the cut scenes were boring or went on to long. I was so into what was going on and the info that was being given to me that I could not look away for one second. Same with the installs, their is a 8 minute install to start up and between each chapter is a 3 min install and through all of these installs you are treated to a few quirky comments from the creators to poke fun at you or give you some useful information. The best I got was playing well over 10 hrs straight and getting the "Wow, You need to take a break. You have been playing for a long time and should go take a 15 min break or so". I thought that was funny and just shows kojima's crazy Easter eggs that get added to the game. These things are spread out through the game and without giving anything away you feel a huge feelings of nostalgia for fans of the series. This treats you to a few things from the past and some things that have been redesigned from the past for a new experience. I cant really go into the story without possibly spoiling anything for you so unfortunately I will leave out a lot of that stuff for the review. But after finishing it I felt that all my questions have been answered and that the story has come to a definite ending. I can now look forward to the new chapter in the Metal Gear franchise. Lastly is the audio and the visuals. The sound throughout the game is amazing. All the voices and dialogue was very well prepped and done with care. The same with the sounds of the environments. The guns sound like real guns as well as the explosions sound like they are happening all around me and do a great job. The beauty and Beast unit has an amazing mixture of male/female voices that make it very creepy and cool on the same level. That also goes with the games score. The score for this title is just as good as the others have been with some very memorable songs that will stick with you and have you putting them on your IPOD just as snake does in the game. The controls feel a lot better and are the best in the series with a mix and match from all the previous games and re utilizing them to a degree that feels very comfortable and easy to use. The only thing is that I'm so use to using O to do actions and having that changed to X was kind of odd but nothing to big that matters. So you should already have this game period because it is the first true next gen game to come out and has everything an action fan would want. My only recommendation is to do some research on the previous titles to fully understand everything from the metal gear solid series. While its not required and you do get some back story to catch you up but its not the same from playing the previous titles and coming into the final chapter. But you should own this if you don't have a PS3 and if you don't its worthy of buying a PS3 for.


Overall - A+

Defend Your Castle WIIWARE Review

So you're sitting at your Wii wanting to try out one of the new WiiWare titles and are curious as to which one to get? Defend your castle is one of the launch games for the new WiiWare games put onto your Nintendo Wii. This browser based game is basically what is in the title. You defend your castle from an army of characters that for some reason are hell-bent on bringing down your walls. Each level occurs during a day night cycle where you start in the morning earning points by picking up characters with a sandwich tie to then throw them in the air to die. Then working your way through the night where you can use the points you have amassed to expand on your castle in a number of ways. These items include having the ability to strengthening walls themselves and building a conversion pit which turns enemies into flowers who will then try to help you defend your castle. However in order to use these guys you need to set up points for them to defend and you do this by adding towers to your castle. In these towers you can use different abilities ranging from an archer, a mason who can repair, a mage and the ability to have an enemy explode killing all around him which helps a lot in the later levels. Up in the left hand corner once you have the mage ability you can use another set of items to help you as well. While this game looks like a 3 year old made it with its spelling errors and very basic style. The game is fun but unfortunately its only fun for a little while and then you get bored or frustrated when a ton of enemies start to flood the game.

STAR OCEAN 4!!!

Above is the newest trialer for the next installment to the star ocean franchise. This was in my opinion the better of the JRPG's to hit the playstationa and one of the only titles that could rival the playstations final fantasy series. So sit back and enjoy as we cover mroe from the microsoft rpg release party as I call it.

Metal Gear VGA Special!

This episode we dealve into my favorite series of all time. METAL GEAR!This episode I got a slew of guest and ill let you hear from all four of them as you listen to the show, just know its a good cast. We discuss throughout the show how,when,what got you into Metal Gear. Our favorite and least favorite game,characters,scenes and moment. Some questions,comments and concerns about the series itself. And we wrap things up with some talks of the future and what we can expect from the series. So sit back and enjoy our take on some things metal gear!

Gametrailers Retrospective - http://www.gametrailers.com/game/6748.html



Kurse brings you this link about raiden and some neat things about the series. http://www.deltaheadtranslation.com/MGS2/DOTM_TOC.htm

Microsoft To Show Off Xbox 360 RPG Line-Up In Tokyo Tomorrow

Yes we all know that xbox doesnt have the secure line of RPG's that everyone wants. But hey at elast microsoft is trying to get the job done, they just had to have a few shit titles before a good one came along like LOST ODYSSEY.Tomorrow in Japan the company is holding a press conference to focus on its RPG line-up, presumably to show off future wares geared toward the market like Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant from Square Enix, but it may have more than that. News from the event should start to hit late tonight, very early tomorrow morning in the West. This seems like amazing news to me especially since Sqaure is excited about launching games on the 360, which of course fans will buy simply because ehy they made dragon warrior and final fantasy. But im very curious to see what is in store for us as 360 owners so expect me to be up early to view this conference and fill you guys in as soon as possible.

Delay?

I know your saying to yourself whats up nox? Why no new post? Well the best answer I can give you is Metal Gear! Yea, with the release so close now leaks and other special things have come into play with this title resulting in a huge amount of spoilers and such. I have not watched a trailer or anything since the first couple were shown almost a year or so ago. So I have taken some time off from the net to finish some other things goin on in my life to prep for what will be my favorite day of the year. Rest assure that I will be back in full swing with a review on both MGS4 as well as select other titles that have come out including Dragonball Z: Burst Limit, Incredible Hulk im actually waiting to see the movie first then do a movie/game review, Prizefighter and of course LEGO Indiana Jones which is finished just have to throw in the movie review as well for the 4th installment. So I appreciate all you guys checking out the site as well as the podcast and get ready cause I have a SPecial Edition of VGA coming with special guest and we discuss all things METAL GEAR!! So look forward to that before the launch! And as always KEEP THE GAMING LOVE STRONG!

VGAnonymous Ep 6 Pt 1

Is up and running with me and my boy KURSE, talking about Backlogs. So listen to the show that wil explain what a backlog is and why you should care about it. But expect Part 2 to hit sometime tomorrow! So hit up itunes or podcast pickle or even click the feed here to pick up the episode and listen in.
-- OHH YEA!--


http://www.backloggery.com/

GRID Review - XB360

If you have played DIRT, codemasters rally racing driver you have played GRID. The difference is of course that this is more of a street version of the rally circuit as well as a drifting section to this game. Codemaster have improved on a number of things for this title that in my opinion make the game that much better or worse depending on your mood after the race. The detail to the cars and tracks is very nice with a clean crisp look to all of it. The same can be said about the damage to the vehicles themselves, it looks good and has real damage as if I was the one who really crashed this car. This of course can mess up your race if you fracture something major on your car. You can dent in the car enough in the front end that it literally makes you veer off to the left or the right and cause the race to be that much harder for you to control the game. This si not a bad thing its just frustrating when an AI car causes this incident. But there are ways to fix this issue, GRIS has a rewind feature that allows you to go back in time via prince of persia style and redo a turn or so that may have make or breaked the race itself. This of course also helps when you total the car so you dont have to restart the race completly, but you are limited on the number of times you can rewind so use wisely. Another thing I thought was cool is that the game has a list of prerecorded names for you to pick and the game will talk to you. I thought this was kind of cool, just nothing to shout about and buy this over. Overall GRID is a good racer sim but nothing in the means of Gran Turismo 5 or Forza standards. But if your into rally racing and want a unique type of game with a lot of cool features then definetly pick this game up.

Overall - B

Ninja Gaiden II Review - XB360

Ninja Gaiden is one of those games that you either love or hate due to a number of things. And unfortunatly the sequel to last generations version of the game suffers from alot of the same problems. The first thing of course is the difficulty. This game is tough and new people to the series will probably get turned off by this, even with the easiest difficulty. Another turn off is the camera angles, while not as bad as last time around it still suffers from those problems and will cause you to put down the controller due to shady deaths. As far as those two things, other than the very odd and very hard to follow story the game does not really ahve any other problems. I have nothing but praise for this game. The visuals are very nice with the blood splashing everywhere and the special attack moves will blow you away with the head and body slicing that will be going on. That being said this game is very bloody, VERY BLOODY. Its odd that this game was not all over the papers saying kids are going to start killing people with samurai swords or other japanese cutlery. Speaking of cutlery, lol. This game has a ton of weapons to use with them all have a unique set of moves which make you as giddy as a school girl when you use them. The story as I said is kind of odd and sometimes unclear but your not in this for the story your in it for the action and thats what this game delivers, ad it does it very well. So of course this is the game I would say is the one to make you put down GTA IV. But as I said in the beginning, newbies be very cautious caus this is not a easy title this is made to be tough and has always been this way so be warned and enjoy a great action title and possibly the greatest one for the 360 this summer.

Overall Score - A

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Review - XB360

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars was a hit on the PC with a lot of people playing on the servers and enjoying the game. Now its the 360's turn to take a crack at it and it didnt do so well. Quake wars is an attempt at the battlefield formula with the all types of classes, vehicles and terrain for you and 16 other multiplayer buddies to frag eachother. This of course is not a bad formula but with a poor execution in a lot of areas it doesnt live up to what the PC had to offer. The first and biggest complaint is the visuals. The graphics took a massive dive compared to the texture and such that the PC version was pushing out. Everything is very bland and looks very blocky with no real textures on the maps. Same goes with the characters having very bland animations with many of them not doing anything at all due to server lag. Oh lag, an app killer! Yes, its very present in this title, some games I was in I could not even move at all and had to kill myslef a few times to reboot the map to another local to allow me to play. This is something that should only occur in a beta not in the retail. Ok, enough about the bad stuff lets talk about the positives. The game does a good job of giving you specific types of objectives to accomplish in order to win the round. Not just a deathmatch game, its an objective based type of game as well as gives you the ability to capture points on a map for different things to be done. The classes as well are very cool with each one having an advantage to winning the rounds, that made it cool to have one of each type on your team and not all soldiers or something. Also a cool feature is something similar to the perks system from Call of Duty 4. As you do specific task or do something achievement worthy you earn stars as well as abilities that make you run faster, load quicker or something like that. Now there is a single player game sort of you basically play all the maps against the AI, so practice really for the online version as also seen in shadowrun. Overall, this is going ot be a game that unless you have some buddies who are willing to play with you and you guys could work as a team to get the job done. You wont really find this game too appealing, when you could get a far better game that uses this same structure. It was a good attempt to bring a fun PC title to the 360, it just failed in many of the points that could of made it a fun title.


Overall Score - C+

The Bourne Conspiracy Review XB360

The Bourne Conspiracy is one of those games you think would be kind of lame, since its a movie based game. Well I can finally say that this is one of the few movies based games that is actually very decent. The game of course is about Jason Bourne and him trying to remember his past. But what seperates this from the actual movie is that the game is broken up into two parts. You will play in scenes from the movie as well as flashbacks from Bournes previous endevours. So you actually get to see what Bourne did in his past as a hitmen. The game itself has four parts that you will use in order to play the game. There is the fighting which is self explanitory, its just you fighting hand to hand against thugs. The second is gunplay, where you use weapons that are scattered around the level as well as ones from enemies. Third is the quick time events and this has a lot of them. This game constantly throws them at you so be ready at all times to quickly hit a button but its very forgiving as far as timing so your not really having to redo alot of these parts because it goes to fast. Last is of course the driving sections. You will drive a car through the level and dodge cars and cops coming at you from all over the place. These are the main elements from the game and you will switch to them numerously throughout the level and the game does it quite well. I had no problem getting use to the cover system then moving into the hand to hand combat then back to guns and finally ending with a quick time event. Blending all of these together is the "Takedowns"! The takedowns are basically events that will help you through one of the three types of gameplay (quick time doesnt use it). How it works is you fill up a meter through shooting baddies as well as beating their asses. You can fill it up basically three tiers full and execute them by pressing B. The cool thing is that if you have multiple guys on you and you have a full takedown meter you can use it and a quicktime evnt will commence and allow you to take all three down with a ultimate combo. The same goes with the guns, you can use the takedown for the guns and a quicktime will pop up having you special kill a baddie with a gun. This adds a cool feeling to the game since Bourne will use the environment as well as certain finishers to kick ass. Visually the game looks good and flows very well. The only problem I had with this is the cutscenes. They seem to have a grainy feel to them adn it just looks really odd, nothing to really take away from the game just odd. The controls also feel good with a run button as well as the gears cover system thrown into the mix. This was a decent game and I highly recommend it for the Bourne fan! but even non Bourne fans will have a good time with this game simply because it gives you a different type of action game which will keep you on your toes.


Overall - B+

RESIDENT EVIL 5

New Gametrailer TV with the Resident Evil 5 Trailer YESS!!! just watch its actually a good episode!

Prince Of Persia Trailer for 08

I hope you said the same thing I did after seeing this trailer. WOW! This looks very good and after reading up on the new prince in the latest Game Informer im ready to dive right in. The new character reminds me a lot of strider. For those out of the loop it was a PS1 title which dealt with action and lots of it. Maybe its the blue and red scheme on some parts of the prince but I like it. I loved the other prince games no matter how difficult they made them. This time its a prince not the prince from the previous sands of time series. This one is set in Persia but its an ancient fantasy version of Persia. Some story elements revealed include God of Light, Ormazd versus his brother Ahriman, the God of Darkness,. Our Hero arrives just in time to witness the destruction of the legendary Tree of Life – an act which threatens to plunge the entire world into eternal darkness. In this new tale, the new prince will find himself in a fantasy world of light and dark, caught up in the battle between the God of Light, Ormazd versus his brother Ahriman, the God of Darkness. After the destruction of the tree of life the prince has to fight to stop the rise of Ahriman, the god of destruction. It ios said that some of the elemnts used in Assassins creed will be implimented into this game som im hoping its just the free roam movement and scaling, not the combat. So I hope your as excited as I am to play this new chapter of a great previous series. Lets hope they dont try to hard to make it a Tech demo for the sequal as did Assassins creed!

How I want my Wii fit !!

Yes, If wii fit came with her it be nice! I guess ill try my GF to do this, just wont be filming.

Dragonball Movie? or Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li? Uder failures or Glorified classics?

Now that Video Game Movies are all the rage. What can we expect from the two newest and possibly biggest films being made as we speak. Now I know dragonball isnt a game, its an anime. But the TV show has been over for ages and the games have been pumped out like lube at a brothel. So many peopel will associate this with oh yea this is about that Dragonball game. But back to the real question at hand, will these titles flop or go down in movie/game history. Honestly, I dont really care how good/bad they are im just excited that they are being made. The previous movies based on games were not blockbuster smashes and I really never cared they had that nestalgia for when a song or a character showed up I got all gitty inside. Even the original Street Fighter movie holds a special place in my film collection as bad as the film is its cool to have. The same can be said about the Mario Bros. movie. It was not good at all but still its got mario and luigi and a very odd story line, but I love it just the same. So with these two films coming out in 2009 or so we will still see lines of gamers coming out to see this film and enjoy seeing the characters they play with on the big screen.


With the plots not ebing the main focus in my opinion, im curious as to what spins or twist they put into the stories and characters on these two films. It will be kind of cool to see what they changed to finish the film. ZThis kind of stuff can make or break the films. Hence the Resident Evil movies having cameo's of some characters but not fully living up to the narrative the games told you. Same with the first Final Fantasy movie, had it been called spirits within it of been a good CG movie. But taking on the Final Fantasy name and not having anything remotly similar to the series is just fucking weird. So look for these two films coming to a theatre near you and enjoy!

Killer Instinct 3 Rumors

Yes, its all aboput the Killer Instinct again. For all you kiddies who are too young to rememebr this title it was a fighter for the SNES along the lines of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter with some very odd and unique characters.EGM's Quartermann brings up one we've been hearing for as long as we can remember, one that shows the publisher of the original Rare hard at work on a new Killer Instinct. This one, code named Killer Instinct 3D: Death, Destruction and Doom, The longest and quite possibly the lamest title Ive heard in awhile. Well unless you throw in some of those cheesy WII titles. This time it is said to bring the delightfully goofy fighting game that pits boxers against skeletal pirates, lizardmen against werewolves into the world of 3D. This sounds pretty good to me since I was a fan of the original one that was on the SNES, not so much on the 64. Next we will eb hearing of Clayfighters for the WII or xbla/psn title. Well I hope the rumors are true and this franchise is being resurrected and has a glorious comback. I mean if Mortal Kombat can fight the superheroes of DC why cant Killer Instinct come back to rule the day. Ill leave you with my fave quote from the game.......ULTRA!!!!

Well Lego sure is doing things right! I was not a huge fan of the Star Wars lego games simply because im not as big of a fan of Star Wars as I use to be *Cough* Anikin *cough*. But the batman and Indiana Jones ones look amazing. I am a huige fan of those two franchises and will definitly get them on day one. Above is the new trailer for the Lego batman one to come out this fall. Also just shown was Mr. Freeze who looked very cool. So get pumped for Lego Batman and I am almost sure that a demo will hit later this summer. As for Indy fans get ready for that plus the movie coming sooner than you think!!

**Also this was pointed out to me, check out Comissioner Gordon in the first seconds of the trailer! AO rating on the move lol!**

So you like Ninja Gaiden huh? well get a glimpse at what you might look like while playing this game! Above is the mens side of things and below is the girls. How come the girl looks like that lol, is hse just in soo much awe of this game?

Ugh plastic all over the house!!!

So by now you all should have read up on Guitar hero: World Tour. More like world of space consumption! What the hell is it now with adding peripherals all over the place. I dont have enough room for all these goddamn guitars, drums and mics! Whats next a keyboard or a trumpet or some shit. Just stick with one universal set of instruments and let us the consumer have room to play your fucking games. So now we have 3 sets of drums, like 4-6 guitars and mics well luckily the mic is the only thing I have found thats universal on all the consoles as well as the pc. I mean I have a small room that has very little space. So adding more stuff liek this discourages me from buying it sine I wont have anyplace to sit or sleep. I know im not the only one since college kids are loving this type of stuff as well as people living in apartments. I hear all the time of people not wanting to have to get more stuff and put it in a closet or some place that will hold it. Ugh that frustration aside the new World Tour game could be good it just seems to be a rip off of rock band so we know what to expect unless they drop some sort of bomb on us that completly changes it. Oh yea they did song customization, but wait is it really gonna be that good? Probably not due to the fact that copyright laws are so strict you wont be able to make a song not featured in the game, but maybe an off sounding version perhaps? This is getting kind of rediculous. All I want is a fantastic song list, nice visuals for the notes, downloadable content thats good, amazing sound quality and the ability to play with frinds on and offline. Thats pretty basic stuff I dont need a new set of drums every 5 months to have to deal with nor do I want to have a game where I get DL content then in 3 months a new game comes out and my old stuff wont work. Wow this is going to take the typical Tony Hawk syndrome that activision has already done and do it again with Guitar Hero. But all in all this could be a great game especially if i can use the rock band set and not have to worry about the new drums cause we already know rock band 2 is on the way as well as konami's game. So check out the trailer and get ready for the new way to play games with tons of plastic instuments and no space to put them in.

Infinite Undiscovery

If your like me you love the Final Fantasy series, but you also own an xbox 360. With the details on FFXIII being very scarce and new IP's not hitting anywhere close to the production and style of the series. We are then forced to wait it out. Well after February's success with LOST ODYSSEY on the 360 this lack of RPG's on the 360 is starting to dim. Now Square has seen that people want RPG's so they are developing Infinite Undiscovery which looks amazing. Its got great visuals a unique story line as well as the type of combat that is very fun. Now all we have really seen so far is a trailer and in the May 2008 issue of OXM there is a tidbit page about the game with some screenshots. From what Ive read the story is basically a imprisoned guy is freed by some radicals, because he is the key to getting the moon back. Yes, I sais the moon a group of bad guys stole the moon from the people forcing a huge meltdown on the planet causing all types of chaos. Well this person in prison is suppose to be able to save them, upon rescuing him the leader finds out that the two (him and the prisoner) look just a like and from there you quest on to see if it was suppose to be you saved or was it you who was put into place to save the other guy? We will find out this september when the game releases on 9-2-2008. Below is a clip from the game hope you enjoy!

Gears of War 2: Too violent for some?

UGH! just as I post something about Mature content I switch to yahoo and read this headline! A article published by Yahoo news and written by Mike Smith tells us why the game is being banned in some places.

As the gaming press gathers on the West Coast for a week of preview events,
the sequel to 2006 smash hit Gears of War was by far the biggest news to come
out of Microsoft's Tuesday press conference. Gears 2 takes over the story six
months after the close of the original Gears, as humanity faces a new and more
deadly threat from its Locust enemies -- and features even more explicit
violence than its notoriously bloody predecessor. Could Microsoft's newest
action game have gone too far?

Gears of War was famously banned in
Germany, after the country's ratings organization declined to issue the game an
age certificate. Gears 2 covers much of the same ground, but adds in more
realistic visuals, a deeper plot, and battles that concentrate more on mobility
and dynamic combat than the original, which some decried as a prettier version
of the old "whack-a-mole" parlor game.

Graphics and plot aren't just
what raised eyebrows at the press event, though: instead, attendees caught a
glimpse of one of the game's many melee kill moves. Whereas Gears 1 included an
up-close attack that used a chainsaw blade on the lead character's main weapon
to dismember a foe, Gears 2 adds a reverse attack that actually slices an enemy
in half -- from the groin upwards. Elsewhere in the demo, presenter Cliff
Bleszinski, the celebrated lead designer behind the Gears and Unreal series,
showed off a new ability that let him use the corpse of a fallen enemy as a
"meat shield", soaking up bullets while he returned fire around its head.

One thing's for sure, though: the Gears of War gameplay Xbox 360 owners
know and love is alive and well, and although it's definitely kicked the
violence up a notch, like its predecessor it's going to be a good fit for the
"Mature" ESRB age category, which will bar its sale to youths under 16. Whether
or not the German censors will take a different view on its violence this time
round remains to be seen -- but we're not going to be betting on it.

Gears of War 2 is expected in November, just in time for the hustle and
bustle of the holiday season, but we're expecting to see more of the game at
this year's E3 trade festival in July.

At least this time we are not dealing with something too terrible to us. Just Germany has a little issue with the violence. Hmm, Germany huh? the same people who have videos of people shitting on onme another as well as some other very odd fetish material is saying the game is a wee bit to violent for them. Wow, this is a huige shock to me and seems a bit odd that they would wnat this. But oh well someone has to bitch about every M rated game on the market right? So whatever I dont care cause I will get my copy of Gears of War II and I will enjoy every second of it."

Parents Get you Sh!t together!!!

Will all the talk in the news concerning GTA IV as a cop killer simulator, a prostitution ring and apparently a chainsaw weilding massacre that allows one to tear a human to shreds is killing th youth of America. Well as an American citizen, a gamer as well as a teen not so long ago I for one am appaled at all this nonsense. It boils down to the parents taking responsibility for what their son or daughter is doing. I remember being about 5 or 6 and playing DOOM and wolfenstien on the pc. I never had that urge to go pick up a gun and kill someone or think about killing someone or even act violent. I had this thing called common sense that allowed me to tell myself its just a game its not real. Even my parents were ok with what I played I was never censored as a kid from a lot of things. Now I wasnt allowed all freedoms I still had to live by rules the typical kid stuff. But for video games I had no limit. If my parents felt something was a little too bad we discussed it like people should and I learned about whys oemthign was wrong or why something was the way it was. This will be the same teachings I pass onto my children cause I want them to be gamers as well and support a media that I find will only get bigger and better as they grow. Parents need to step up and take the blame for the lack of what they are doing. If you dont feel your child should play thise game then sit them down and tell them why it is inapprpriate and explain to them why it isnt something that they want them to play as of now but in a little while it will be ok. This jump up to an AO rating is absurd and until we get people who will think clearly and go OH this is a Mature game this is for adults, since a vast majority of gamers today are about 19 - 33 years of age, We will never be able to have freedom of media. The censoring will start happening more and more as well as new inventive ideas being shot down because companies will want to play it safe instead of giving it a shot. So parents START PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT THE FUCK IT IS THAT YOUR KIDS ARE DOING! They have magazines and oh yea this fucking thing called the internet to allow you to do research. I can look up every game out on the market in seconds and learn all about it, why can you take that time out for your children. It shows how much you really care!

Project Origin Trailer!

Hey do you guys remember F.E.A.R. or any of its expansions extraction point and FEAR Files? Well, I do and those games were ok but had a lot of probelems when ported to the 360 and the PS3. But the overall horror/FPS twist that monolith put into this game was kind of interesting. Well they are back again this time with a title known as Project Origin, Basically F.E.A.R. 2 just for some reason due to legal matters they lost the right to that name. Even though the name sounds kind of lame the gameplay looks rather good and taking things that worked well from the previous games and refining them and reworking them is a plus in my book. So check out the trailer and look foreward to more info in the next couple months.

Too Human Preview

IGN posted a video preview on Too Human and its pumping gamers up more and more. For a game that took about 10 years to get out to the public and Denis Dyack is 100% positive that we will fully enjoy this game and not be dissappointed at all with it. I am one of these people who are stoked for the game and hope that the 10 years has paid off and will deliver with a wonderful story and awesome visuals and gameplay. Even though the recent drop to 2 player co-op has occured I have no doubt that this issue will affect my urge to want this game. So here is a look at some co-op and some newer clips of Too Human!

DEAD SPACE Game footage!!

Yep thanks to Gametrailer TV we got a exclusive look into the world of dead space and you get the first look at the story element trailer. This gives a good start into a game that I am very much looking foreward to. If your into this please check out the online graphic comics and a video that will hit the streets just before the title comes out. You will also see GRID and command and conquer: Red Alert 3 trailer as well. But look for more covergae on Dead space this summer as well as at E3!

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Yep Its coming out in 2008. Actually its coming out a few days before my birthday so that gets me more pumped. As you can already see im excited, especially since im a huge fan of the mummy series. But I dont consider the scorpion king as a part of the series even though it was an ok film. But this is great news since now its also confirmed that the first two movies will be on Blu-ray this year. So ramp up and get ready for the third installment in one of my favorite new franchises over the past couple years.

Left 4 Dead is one of the newest games valve will be pushing out this year hopefully and is high up on my anticipated games list for this year. Here is a quick trailer brought to you by Gametrailers.com which shows some cool Zombie killing gameplay!

Konami have announced 'Rock Revolution' (Xbox 360/PS3/Wii/DS) that aims to provides an unmatched rock experience. Breaking new ground with its definitive drum experience, Rock Revolution also gives players a chance to rock out on the bass and lead guitar. The realistic drum kit will have six drum pads and a kick pedal arranged and there is a five-note guitar peripheral (PS3/ Xbox 360). The Wii version will not require any additional peripherals with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk being used for an air-drum and air-guitar experience. For the PS3/360 versions the game will launch with 40 songs with DLC to follow. I dont know about you guys,but this sounds like a good idea just im sick of having to buy all these plastic instruments that take up a ton of space. Rock band drums arnt easily able to be stored. Plus the cost is a bitch so im assuming this will be 150+ on all this shit on top of the DLC. Lets just make a universal instrument set and let us all use them. Sell me on the game itself with the unique display and the style of play not on a new fucking plastic toy to sit in my room. Especially since I know if I want this it wont work with the rock band drums or the guitar hero guitars, since we already have this problem. Also looking to the future Guitar Hero 4 will have instruments I bet as well so another fucking set of plastic to purchase, this is a fucking joke. I know your going to say well dont buy it. Im a game-aholic so I will buy the shit also its the ebst thing to own since everyone enjoys it and its a great idea that I love playing. So this was my rant on Plastic music generation we are moving into.

VGA Episode 6 this week

We will be reviewing HAZE as well as discuss some of the games coming out over the next couple weeks. Simply because the GTA hype is over and people should be finishing the single player by now and will be moving on to the next thing. So join me and my guest for another exciting episode coming to you sometime this week. I will update more as I get time and make arrangements.

Ok here we go!

Well, I finally did it. I broke down and got myself a blog, so now all of you can read my opinions on news,games and whatever else I deem fit to discuss. So feel free to leave comments or email me with questions or concerns at evildeathsyth@gmail.com

Iron Man PS3/XB360 review

Now I will be seeing the movie today, and I know it will be pretty cool and hopefully will be as good as I am anticipating. The game however wasnt something I was looking foreward too and if you have played the demo you will probably agree with me on a lot of stuff. First thing that really bugged me was the controls to fly. They are soooo damn touchy and hard to get use to that you crash pretty much everywhere and it pisses you off. They story fallows along witht he movie like any other amrvel or movie game. So nothing really com[elling or different there. The visuals are evry detailed and iron man himself looks badass. Too bad everyone else looks the same all the tanks helicopters and what not, it looks like they spent all the money on iron man's glossy coat and just copied and pasted the baddies so they all look the exact same. Besides the crappy flying controls the powerups and moves iron man does are kind of cool, like the energy beam shot from the chest or catching a rocket then hurling it back at soemthing. So while this isnt going to take you away from GTA, this would be a fun game to mess around with over a couple of days to give you a break or if your a fan of iron man as I am. So go see the movie then play the game its not that bad just not something I can tell you to buy.



Rating: C+

GTA IV Review

The Grand Theft Auto series has had its up and downs over the past few years. It’s had its big releases, upgrades and its share of controversy. With this new one we have a lot of ups and downs but mostly more up than down. So this is definitely worth all the hype that you have been hearing about. Popping in the game for the first time I went back to that feeling I had when I first started playing GTA III. There isn’t a menu or anything like hat when you start it up, it just starts going with Neko coming in on the ship and making his way to Liberty city. That’s the basic start premise and I won’t ruin anything else for you since I feel its better to go in knowing nothing really and that way you enjoy every bit of this game that it has to offer.
The game play is pretty much the same as the last titles with some major upgrades in certain areas. The biggest and most noticeable is the combat/gunplay aspect. They really took the time to try to get this right this time around by looking at what some other titles have done and giving it that GTA twist on it. You have three different types of attacks that’s you can use. X is the kick, A will be used to dodge, block and disarm an enemy in some form or fashion, B and Y are the main attack buttons with the fist or weapon you use. The left trigger will set you up on your lock on to do either of these two actions by setting a redical/enemy health bar on the enemy. This feels really good and is easy to pull off and execute, speaking of execute there is now an ability when the redical flashes to execute an enemy. With the driving all I can really say is that it isn’t the best and feels rather tough at times to not hit every damn car, person or object that is in the environment around you. The driving feels kind of sloppy because its so tough to control a car. The turning is my biggest grip it feels like it either isn’t enough and I cut it too wide or I cut it way to tight and I turn myself around. Then again this could all depend on the cars and I haven’t drove them all yet.
As far as visuals/audio this has the best cut scenes I have seen in awhile as far as content. When I say content I am meaning that when the characters interact and chat with one another it feels like I am watching a TV show or a cop/robber movie. The characters feel real and seem like people you would meet in New York. The facial features look very good and sync up very well, my only problem is that I had to have subtitles on because it was hard to understand some people. That’s not a huge issue and isn’t something I would frown upon because the accents are kind of cool, since not many eastern European guys are main characters. The problems I had with the 360 version was that the game has a ton of pop-ins with the city objects and buildings. The cars and people don’t really pop in much so that’s not a huge issue but the surroundings themselves pop-in like crazy at some points. The frame rate as well has issues and isn’t a huge deal but some clipping does occur when you try to enter buildings or when you get to close to certain buildings. These issues are not major and don’t really break the game, but I want to see if the PS3 version fixes this issue since it will have a install to the HDD. The audio is very good as usual with the slew of radio stations and sounds of the people screaming of the streets and the sounds of the city itself all sound fantastic. The only sound issues I see is that if you don’t have subtitles on or change the sound options, you will have a hard time listening to someone who is in the car with you or on the phone with you. Yes, I said that you can call people on your cell phone while driving. I wont go into more about the phone as again I want you to go in blind. But it is very cool and customizable.
Finally Multiplayer, Multiplayer is easy to get into with you phone and once there it’s basically all the modes you can think of being available to you and are all easy to jump in and out of. The biggest issue I will have and I had wit it is that in the missions were you have objectives and stuff to do, if you’re not playing with friends you will not be able to complete them because people fool around and want to do their own thing. Issues with pop-ins and such greatly increase in this mode even with only two people messing around in “free mode.” All in all multiplayer will be a fun addition to this game but the game itself has so much content to it alone you will have plenty to do without having to worry about playing multiplayer all the time, but I definitely say you should check it out.
So GTA IV as I said is well worth the wait and is probably going to be the biggest game of the spring/summer next to MGS4. The presentation is well done even with a few minor hiccups here and there. That is an issue you can overlook and you have overlooked it for the last three games that have released, so nothing to really worry about because the game is just that good. So when you see this in the store shelves and you have not picked it up yet, slap yourself and go to the counter and purchase this title.


Overall: A