Well, It has been a bit, nearly a month I think. Sorry guys, didn't mean to disappear on you like that.

Anyway, lemme get down to the bussiness at hand.

I recently sat down to consider going back to an old hobby of mine. Years ago, I was a target shooter, pistols and rifles mostly. I worked at a gun range, so I feel easily into it at the time. However, when I started working better jobs, it became obvious to me that I didn't have the time or money to do it, and I slowly drifted away from it.

I recently started a new job, about 4 months or so back. With the job going great, and my money coming fairly steadly, I decided to go back

As of now, I own my first ever personal side arm. A taurus 24 7 series handgun.

Now, having worked at a range,I understand gun saftey better then anyone, and take all the natural precautions. I don't have the weapon loaded unless it's being shot on the range. Otherwise, it's unloaded and kept in a locked case.

Having handled a gun again, after years and years of gaming, it brought into sharp context just how different it is to use a gun in a game, vs using one in real life.

Lotta times, idiots like Jack thompson make wild claims that games train people to kill.
This I have always belived was bull shit. But handling a real gun made me even more sure.
Real guns have recoil, kick, drift, weight, heft. You need to know how to breathe properly, how to aim correctly, how to squeeze the trigger smoothly as opposed to pulling it.

Games bring all this down to pointing a cursor and pushing some buttons. Not even close to an accurate way to train to use a weapon.

Gaming doesn't remove the fear or excitment that comes from handling a weapon in combat. Handling a gun the first time in real life is a nerve wracking and shocking experiance, as the shock of the recoil from firing a round can be particularly shocking. Even after five years, I had the idea that I would return to the range able to adjust. I wasn't, it took three clips of ammo for me to get used to the feel and sound of the gun, the kick of it firing, the flash from the muzzle.

Real guns, and real violence are far removed from pretend guns and pretend violence. To try and link the 2 is the act of a person who is either dishonest, crazy, or so idealologicly bent, that they can't accept reality.

Stupid, crazy, or lying. That what you have to be to link pretend violence to real violence.

Ok, so, I know it's been a bit.

First, E3 stuff. Im gonna make this quick.

Nintendo: All is forgiven so long as the new metroid doesn't suck.Fuck that up, and you can all go rot in hell.

Microsoft: Natal looks good, now get someone other then Peter "Im fucking bonkers" Moneloux to do shit with it. Just a suggestion. Fight night, NATAL. Def Jam, Natal. Halo, NATAL. You get the idea.

Sony: The wand thing is a cool piece of tech, now lets see some games for it that put it to good use. Im thinking you boys need to contact lucasarts, like, right the fuck now. Your game line up is awesome to. One thing thought. NO PRICE CUT? Are you fucking insane? Your losing money left and right already, simple cause YOUR NOT SELLING THE PS3. Nut up, drop the price, and take your lumps already. Jesus.

Ok, anyway, onto the segment I like to call:

What I'm playing.

Currently, my life is abosorded in the glory of the awesomeness that is the game Prototype. I recently picked up a 37 inch high def flat panel. it rocks, and seeing a game like prototype in high def like that is just JAW dropping.

However, at the heart of any good game is game play, and Prototype is loaded with it.

I wont spoil the story, but put simple, your Alex Mercer, you wake up in a morque with super human shape shifting powers.

Now fuck up new york city however you want to. Theres more to it then that, but thats the basic backdrop. Play the damn game if you want to know more.

Right from the start, Prototype lets you loose with some super powers, and from there, you just get more and more powerful. Eventually you reach god like levels of power and can devistate a small army with a single attack.

Tanks, Choppers, solders, mutants, doesn't matter, you got the power to wipe them out.

Thats not to say this game is easy, as with each mission, new challanges, oppoenents, and side missions open up. Some missions are as simple as "Go here, kill everything". Others, have you racing against the clock to try and hit al the check points, many times both vertical and horizontal in nature. Other times, you must use your glide power to try and magesticly float down to the ground level with expert precesion.

If your into open world games and dig super powers, Prototype is for you. If your one of those scarface worshiping dolts who can't handle open world games if you can't jack a car or shoot hookers, fuck off back to GTA 4.

THe rest of use will play a Good open world game over that over hyped mess any day.

On a side note. I also recently got and beat Ghost busters.

Put simply, a fun, if at times confusing game that does a great job captureing the humor of the origional movies. Good clean fun, and worth a rent if your a moderate fan. If your a hardcore fan, you already bought it. Like me.

Thats all for now. Have a good one folks.

Well, been a while hasen't it?

First, personal update to anyone who still reads this blog.
Yes, Im still alive, but m life is a bit more hecktic now what with the working and the earning of money and the long nights at the office. So, long story short, Im not getting as much free time as I used to when I was unemployed. So, less time for blogging, among other things.

But, enough of that. Lemme give you a rundown on the newest Ps3 exclusive.

InFamous, and yes, thats how they spelled it.

Spelling aside, the game is yet another great example of why I lost intrest in gta a while back. GTA takes a beautiful, open ended world and then locks it down the rules and regulations of real people in the modern world.

Infamous, gives you a beautiful, if somewhat destroyed open world to play in, but gives you the means to go any where, blow up anything you like with super powers.

Sounds fun? it is.

At a story level, since i've only beaten the game in good mode, not as the bad guy, I can say it was well done, if somewhat predicitable and direct. How the bad mode will play out different is unknown, but there does appear to be a major story shift if you play as a bad guy.

THe main charecter himself isn't a slouch either, he can clamber and climb up most any surface with relitive ease and can navigate the city with little effort. A so called urban explorer, he's adept at parkour in a way that makes Faith from Mirrors edge look like an amauter.


Speaking of which, INfamous makes unique use of the well known "Good" VS "Bad" mechanics put to use in other games like fable and Kotor.

Unlike many games where you can chose to walk the neutral line as you would in some games, in InFamous, your reward for consitantly doing good or evil. As a good guy, you can use attacks that allow you to by pass defenses, while the bad guy can unleash torrents of chain lighting on a crowd to indisciminantly obliterate them.

This also determines what unique effects the standard attakcs will bring. A heros electric grenade will tie his enemies down for him, while a villans grenade will diverge and rain mass destruction on an area.


This adds a bit of flavor to your charecter, as this also changes his appearance and his powers appearance.

Video, audio wise, the game is great, with bright colors and proper locals offset by the electric red or blue of the main charecters powers.

IF your into open world games, And like to be given free run to play around in them, InFamous is perfect for you.

Ill have more later, after I play through the game as a bad guy.

Ok folks, first things first, I got some stuff to say about my last post. First, nintendo has recently stated there is NO delay on the Wii motion plus. That being said, there 2009 line up is still crap.

However there are 2 VERY good, Very adult games from third parties now on the WII.

1. House of the dead: overkill
It is, what it is. it's house of the dead for the wii. Or, more like Grindhouse of the dead. The games got this amazing grind house infused vibe and feels like an early 60's drive in flick. Worth a rent, but only die hards should buy.
2. Mad world. Well, if your into big, bloody, crazy brawls, then this is the game for you. It's an excessive, brutal, highly violent game. It has an interesting plot and storty, a comic book visual style, and great voice and sound work. If your into creative, violent, bloody action, Mad world is great fun.

Now, theres something I've never brought up before, but I started gaming on consoles, not Pcs like some. Like most Nes era kids, I started off with Atari, nintendo, sega. I didn't get into pc gaming for quite some time. Once I did, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Inparticular, I've always loved the Space combat games, like Wing commander and Elite.

However, my absolute favorite has, and will always be, the Freespace series. Freespace one was a brilliant and stylish game that was well executed, visually impressive, and fun as all hell.
Freespace 2 upped the ante with new stories, new enviroments including the beautiful and haunting Nebula, and new visual candy, like Beam cannons and Giant ships 5 times the size of the largest ship in the first game.

For years after I finished it, I would still pop it in and play it now and then. But a little over a year ago, I got word of something special. Violiton, the company who made the game, had released it for open source use. In short order, a community effort opened up and suddenly, the game was being remade, with new graphic abilities, visual enhancments, and even new stories and secnarios.

It was called, the Freespace open source project. http://scp.indiegames.us/

If you own a retail copy of Freespace 2, this project can update it, improve it, and add to it, giving you new games, campaigns, and features.

Among the campaigns I recomend, which are included in the basic installer, Derlict, Blue planet, and Silent threat reborn.

If you love pc gaming, This is a chance to experiance one of the best pc games of all time at it's absolute best.

Try it out, and support open source gaming.

I've thought about doing a piece on nintendo and the WII since it's release, but I never quite know how to view the Wii. hardware wise, it sells, and sells well. Software wise, it's loaded with Crappy shovelware and other inane garbage.

But up untill recently, I was reluctant to start in on nintendo simply be cause, as a former nintendo fanboy who moved on to Xbox and PS2, well, I didn't feel it right to bash them now that they had gotten back on top.

All that changed over the course of the past year, and came to a head with the Release of wii music.

Wii music, to me, proved, beyond doubt, that nintendo is taking a short term, BIG money approach to gaming, and in the end, will pay for it.

Now, first, a disclaimer. As of the time of this writing, nintendo was sitting pretty in terms of hardware sales, but software, on the other hand, not so much, especially for its big name games.

Wii music, inparticular, was pounded by critics, sold poorly, and generally laughed at in the video game community as a Failure.

But why? When one looks at some of nintendos efforts over the past year, its like, they don't even CARE anymore. There line up for 2009 is a joke, limited and minimal with only a few good Third party titles like Mad world to break up the slew of CRAP.

So what happened?

To put it simply, success happened. Nintendo saw the money it made of Wii fit, wii sports, and the mountians of shovelware and dropped any Quality standards from it's production. Pretty much, they'll give a license to anyone who wants to put out cheap, poorly made crap to make a buck, but you can't play an import from a good japanese developer without being called a pirate.

In the end, the sign that told me that nintendo was about to hit the peak and then nose dive off the edge, was this weekend when I went into a Game crazy to look around. For years since it's release, the Wii was almost unobtainable. You had to have an inside track at a game store to get one. This weekend, not only were Brand new wiis just sitting on the shelf, but used ones lined the cases. USED.

That was all i needed to see to know I had guessed right.

Nintendo sold the wii on a gimmick, on a premise, but as that gimmick fades in innovation, and the games become more and more repetive and similiar, the wii is now faced with a slow, but building crisis.

Can it get back the lost droves of purest game players, such as myself, who turned aside from the wii as it became more and more clear, that it was becoming a toy, not a game system.

The answer, no, I don't think so.

The problem is, like it was in the N 64 and Game cube days, third party support, or, in this case, Lack off.

Look at the walls of any game store where you see xbox or ps3 games. Count the number of good, high quality 3rd party titles you know of for that system. Now try it on nintendos.

Ratio? About 10 to 1. Not including classic packs, mini game sets,virtual consol, and so forth, nintendo has the WORST software libary out there, and it's showing in the market. People can't find games WORTH playing on the wii, and so, it seems at least, they are moving up to the more advanced, more high quality fare of other game systems. Thanks in part of a number of rapid price drops in america. the xbox is still gaining strengh, and whats more, with the BEST online service, compared to nintendos, its got a major advantage to gamers who want to play multiplayer games. ((Lets face it, Friend codes were a HUGE mistake, and nintendo knows it and even admitted it))

Nintendo has however, trumped all others in one area. It's downloadable content. Lets face it, Virtual console ROCKS. It has a massive libarary, more being added all the time, and WII ware is awesome. See for example, the upcoming sam and max port, world of goo, Strong bads cool game for attractive people, and so forth. Sadly, even this has been hampered by nintedos own foolishness and absurd fear of piracy. The minimal memory on the WII prevents it from storing more then as HANDFUL of games, and with some games being large and complex, like strong bad for example, that one game often will take up 50 percent of the space on the system. Yet as of this writing, 2 years after the first complaints of the problem started, nintendo has YET to release a solution or even offer alternatives. A smart move would have been to release a custom made hard drive for use with the wii. But no, they didn't.

So now, the wii, rapidly colapsing in terms of software viability and slowly losing public intrest, is left with a critical situation. Do they accelerate the development of the next system, the Wii 2 so to speak, so that they can regain the publics attention, or simply try to tough out the market with the massive supply of cash they made initialy. Knowing nintendo, I bet it will be option 2.

To make matters more complicated, nintendo has apparently had to delay the much anticipated and sought after Wii motion Plus, the device that was Finally going to give the wii the functionality it was supposed to have from the very beginning. One must wonder if this may not be the golden opportunity for microsoft and sony to release there wiimote knock offs and try to push nintendo out of the market. Lets face it, without the Wiimote, the wii has almost nothing to offer. If the ps3 and Xbox gain wiimote capability, on top of high def and online play, it could be the end of the Wii's run at the top.

So whats nintendo got to do to change this slowly but steadily developing trend? It's simply.

Enforce quality control.

No more shovel ware, no more mini game collections unless there absolutly top class, I.E Boom Blox. No more licensed crap clogging up the shelves. And nintendo must sink Serious and considerable resources into developing first party, high quality games and putting them out swiftly to keep the public's attention and prove they can still make top rated games. While nintendo did well with recent efforts, such as Smash, Galaxy, and so forth, those games were drowned out by the mountains of Crappy shit on the shelves.

Nintendo has changed from it's days as a bastion of childhood memories. It's now become a large, self serving company, much like MS or Sony, the only reason most people refuse to see it is the weight the name Nintendo carries. Soon, that name won't stand for "Good, wholesome childhood fun". IT'll soon stand for "Crappy, gimmicky wastes of money." If it doesn't already.

If you doubt me, ask yourself this. What was the last Non virtual console game you played on a wii. Smash bros? Zelda, Mario galaxy?

Lets see, whats hit the xbox that was good in the last years.

Mercs 2, Dead space, Mirror edge, Gears of war 2, Fallout 3. Soul calibur 4. The list goes on, and on, and on.

Nintendo was riding high on the wii's gimmicky controls and user friendly nature. But wii sports only goes so far.

It's gone as far as it can, and now people are getting bored and starting to look for more deep, innovatie and engaging fare.

There not finding it with nintendo.

They are finding it with Xbox and Sony.

Course, this is all just how I see things. Its not just one store that I saw wiis lined up on the used rack. It was many.

Perhaps soon nintendo will see the trend and scramble to correct it, I just hope by then, it's not to late to stop it.

If the gamecube and N64 showed us anything, it was that Not having 3rd party support almost inevitably leads to being crushed in the market. The Playstation brand has several heads of consoles mounted on it's walls. Dream cast, N64, Game cube, one could even argue the First Xbox,Halo not withstanding. But the wii shocked the game world out of apathy by showing that, hey, games can work differently.

The problem was, there weren't enough games to back that claim up.

Meanwhile, xbox live hit something like 11 million users this past year, seeing as how it was at 10 million on June 2008.

Ps3 still struggles, but may have finally gotten the foothold it needed. Now if the price just drops, it could start selling big.

If nintendo doesn't get to work on fixing the Very real problems with it's console, it could soon be washed under as the Xbox and Ps3 gain momentum and over take it in the money race.

We'll see what happens. In the end, nintendo may not even care anymore. having made a boatload of money on the Wii gimmick they may not try to save it and instead refocus on the wii's successor. For there sake, lets hope that if they do, they don't suddenly find there user base erroded by legions of bad games and user frustration from there bad design choices.

Don't think thats an issue. Ask MS what the RROD fiasco cost it.

Yeah. Nintendo could be heading the same way with it's memory issues and software library.

Least, thats what I think.

PS. I am well aware that rock band did well on the wii. It did well on the PS3 and Xbox 360 to, and they make more money cause they have downloadable content. Nintendo can't, cause the wii doesn't have the ability to do that as easily. Just a thought.

Personally, I love parody when it's done right. Video games often don't do humor very well, it's either an accident, or simply the result of some TRULY bad work in the world of writing. With that as the theme for todays subject, lets talk about a few recent pick ups.

1. Fifty Cent: Blood on the sand:

Holy, fucking, shit. how the hell, does Fitty and his posse go from making the worst game ever, 50 cent bulletproof, to making a fun, straight up Rediculous Third person arcade style shooter. I don't know, but it's a massive improvment. Fun, simple, and shockingly fast paced, the game doesn't try and take its story to seriously, instead, it gives you a basic back drop then says "ok, heres some guns, shoot the fuck out of everything that moves" Yes, that's right, its G unit Vs Generic terrorist scum My money is 50. Now that being said, let me make the following statement. I FUCKING HATE RAP. I do, I just do. But I can accept that it works well as background music for violent subject matter. In this regard, basing a 3rd person shooter on a rappper still seems insane. But the game works. Rent, or buy depending on how much you love 50, but over all, not a bad game, and worth a look, double so if you like co op.

2. Halo wars: The first truly effective and enjoyable RTS made specficily for the console. It's story is set many years before Halo 1, and follows a single ship in it's quest to stop the Covenant forces from uncovering some major secret. Game play wise, it's effective, it controls excellently, and is worth your money if your like RTS or HALO.

3. Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard.
Never before has FACT game hero had such hype behind him. EL:TRMH, is the story of Matt Hazard, a washed up action star from the early 80s looking to have a comeback on the Next gen platforms, and gets tricked into entering a game that is actually built around the single objective of destroying him completely. WIll arnet and Neil Patrick Harris play the main hero and villian and do a great job. It's action meets parody done well with plenty of gags. I love it, your milliage may vary. For more info. http://www.eatleadvideogame.com/

Anyway, still job hunting like crazy, but have finally cancelled all my debts, so Im clean and no longer worried. Hopefully my job hunting will come to fruition soon.

have a great weekend everybody.

Hi all. Im back. sorry I've been away from the scene for a while, I know I know. Lifes been sucking lately, what can I tell ya.

Anyway, on to the subject at hand.

Firstly, i wanna apologize to the guys at insomniac games. I recently got on there ass about a creature in the game Resistance 2, and while my grip was well founded, Something happened lately that has since made me forget all about it.

Ratchet and CLank Future, Tools of destruction.

AWESOME!

It's games like this that remind me that gaming is about fun. Thank you Isomniac, thank you.

Now then, one to some other stuff.

First off, Saints row 2. If you liked the first one, you'll love the second one, as it's the same game with just TONS MORE SHIT! Not much else to say.

Next up, Prince of Persia. Ok, I know that it's hard to make a game like this, especially considering how beautiful it is, but Someone really needs to tell the guys who made it that making us Back track over and over again, even if the backgrounds look awesome? Not FUN!

Moving on.

Naruto: The broken bond. Just sad really. When rise of a ninja came out, it was unique enough at the time that I didn't think much about it's gameplay limits or issues, but now, with the follow up out? Im disapointed, no major improvments, not serious expansion. Hell, Rock lee still doesn't have Either of his major Finishers. Thats BULL SHIT!

Stick to naruto Ultimate ninja storm naruto fans. This game was a bust.

Now, some movies to talk about.

Twilight: JOSS Whedon should find whoever made this move, and whoever greenlighted it, and Run them both threw with wooden stakes. Im serious, this movie is a fucking mockery of vampire lore and movies and is both poorly written, badly acted, and is also BORNING. Do not waste your mone.

The day the earth stood Still: The sad thing is, this was actually a visual good movie, but it still didn't hold up in terms of acting or directing when compared to the original, even with nods to the first move put in. Just sad.

Ok, now some anime to discuss.

1. Devil may cry: Well done fight scenes, strange story direction, but fun show more or less. Good for fans.

2. Hellsing Ultimate: FUCKING BUY IT. It's the most amazing, adult, intense vampire releated entertainment since Buffy or blade or Van hellsing the move. And it's Better then all of them combined.

Ok, thats it, Im tired. Have a good night.

Ok, sorry for the dramatic title, but theres a subject I had to bring up and I fiqure now was the time to do it. Specificly, the subject is the trend in big name action games to have a type of enemy in the game that serves only to act as a one hit kill if you fall into it's area. Dead space had one, one that stalked you constantly. While it wasn't a bad way to build drama, it got annoying quickly when 5 seconds after you laid the big walking tank out, it got right back up for another beating. Yeah, thats just annoying. Now, in Resistance 2, the game has a new example of this. The furies. Underwater annoyances whose mere touch is fatal. if you see them in the water, its a clear indication that YOU can't get in the water. Now in other games with water based annoyances, IE, Hal life, you could, to an extent, Take out these enemies if you were acurate enough to hit them with the right weapons. In Resistance 2 however, it don't matter WHAT weapon you got, you still can't touch the furries, even if part of them is exposed above that water.

Thats BULLSHIT! Insomniac, I love your work most of the time, but COME ON, thats just being a dick right there.

If I can see it, and it's not under more then 3 feet of water, then I can shoot that bastard. might not die as fast as above water, but should still die.

Anyway, that aside, the game is really fun and was very enjoyable. I"m looking forward to the third chapter if there is one. The cliffhanger ending of this game is rather shocking. All in all, save for the water baddies, I liked this game, but as im not into the multiplayer, I'll likely trade it in shortly.

Have a good holiday.

Ok, it's time.

Naruto: Ultimate ninja storm.

So, whats the word?

Awesome! Not perfect, but damn cool anyway.

Naruto:UNS is probably the closest any single game will ever get to looking like the cartoon. The graphics are fantastic, bright, vibrant, colorful, fast, intense, and beautiful. If for no other reason to see what the PS3 can do in action, get this game Naruto fans.

Gameplay wise, it's a fast, intense, simple 3d fight, with all the jutsu, special moves, and support charecter combos you could want. Customization is there, along with some intense Ultimate techniques and finishers. In the long run, it's exactly what a naruto game should be. Fun, simple, intense, over the top.

Sound, music, and audio, it's a full package on that front. Sounds are clean, the music is true to the series and features a number of recognizable tunes. Plus, you can have english or Japanese voices.

For Naruto fans with a PS3, Get it, Just, go, GET, IT. For everone else, download the demo off PSN and see what you think.

Me, i'm gonna get back to playing.

So, been a while since I hit up my blog. To be honest, and even a bit morbib, I'm not exactly in the best of moods about the world situation now that BO is elected. Don't get me wrong, the guy seems nice enough and I can't say I hold any personal issues with him, I just think that in terms of political ideals or planning, he may be the next jimmy carter, and for those of you to young to remember, Carter sucked.

Anyway, enough about politics. Lets talk games.

So, first off, Fallout 3.

Bethesda, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Ok, first of, the game is amazing and looks and plays great, but it has some major, MAJOR bugs, some of which actually make the game unplayable. Thats right, Unplayable. I mean, I know it's complicated to make a game like this but for fucks sake, at least make sure the game can be played without locking up so bad that it can go no farther.

Ok, secondly, Naruto Ultimate ninja STORM! Finally, I've waited for this game for so long, and it's everything they said. It's an intense, simple fighter with the same over the top crazy nature of past Ultimate ninja games. The graphics are some of the most amazing applications of cell shading yet, and looks as close to the show as anything ever likely will.

Now, last on the block for today is Mirrors edge. Having played the demo ,I feel hopefull that this game may finally fucking breathe some life and innovation back into the industry. It's a first person parkour, or free running game. It's not about fighting or blowing stuff up or shoting, it's about navigating unique, impressive enviroments using high speed running and jumping in first person. In other words, it's a first person prince of persion.

FUCK YES!!!

Can't fucking wait.

Cause by that point, the ugly alien freak has already killed ya and tossed you aside.

So, for those of you looking for the first big game of the holiday season, it's out now. it's called dead space.

It's Fucking AWESOME!!

It's also Fucking CREEPY!!

While I haven't beaten it, so far, I've loved it for the most part. It's got 1 or 2 little things that bother me, but overall, it's the type of game that scares the crap outta you and yet, you keep coming back for more abuse.

As a game, it follows the resident evil 4 route with over the sholder, monster blasting action and terror.

It's an intense game,with dark, creepy atmosphe, impressive zero g puzzles and levels, and some of the most hideous monsters ever.

It also has cleaver weapons. Sure, you got the rifle and flame thrower, but you have a rock cutter tool, a remote control saw blade, A particle colider beam gun. An boulder splitting line gun, and all of them can be upgraded.

Why such strange weapons, which focus on dismemberment? Cause guns don't slow down your enemies, no no, they can't be killed by normal means, you have to take them apart, limb by limb by limb. Only when they can no longer move, do they stay down, and some times, not even then.

Which brings me to my one grip. And this goes out to all horror game makers.

DO NOT MAKE UNKILLABLE BADDIES!!!

Im serious, knock it off. IN dead space, thers several very very tense encounters with a specially created monster that no matter what, keeps getting back up. Now, while normally this would make a situation more tense, the problem is when you take him down, it's not for more then 10 seconds. WHich makes it hard to think logically about your next move or what to do.

If you want to create a big brute force enemies, a sorta Monster Jason, that's fine, but don't make it unstopabble cause then you lose the fear factor to annoyance and frustration. If I take this thing down, it should stay there for a few minutes, and if i'm still hanging around for some reason, then it should get up and come after me. But NOT after ten second.

Anyway,That aside, Dead space rules, it's a great game, and minor gripes aside, it is one of the best games of the year.

Heres the launch trailer for you guys.

For anyone with an xbox 360. The last three months have been a cavalcade of AWESOMENESS, mostly in the form of xbox live. With Bionic commando, Aces of the galaxy, Duke Nukem 3d, downloadable games were big hit over the summer.

But for me, one game hacked them all apart.

Castle Crashers.

I haven't played a good beatem up in years on a mainstreem home console. To get my hands on this game, it was like being given a shot in the arm and remembering my love affair with Final fight, Golden axe, and more.

Hands down, make not bones about it, this is the game to get for Xbox live, especially if you love some co op multiplayer.

It's a simple concept. Take a color coded Knight out into the world to beat the living crap outta anything that gets in your way so you can collect loot, rescue the girls, beat the bad guys, and overall be fucking awesome.

Made by the BEhemoth, known for Alien homonid. It has a quirky visual style, fantastic action, and a suprising about of depth.




Check it out when you get the chance. It's worth every penny. It's as much concentrated awesome a game of it's kind can ever get. Also, it has a massive soundtrack and awesome hand drawn graphics.

You know, I recently picked up the special edition, Ps3 version of Stranglehold, just to add to my somewhat small list of Ps3 games, and was suprised that I could actually see a differance between this version and the Xbox 360 version. While it was minor, it was still there.

Regardless of that, Stranglehold is a great game that I honestly can't get enough of. While on the surface a simple, max payne still 3rd person action game, even down to the main heros ability to slow down time,what set it apart for me was the level of polish and style the game has. Taking all the right cues from Action movie master John woo, the game is a follow up, in fact a direct follow up to hard boiled, the legendary gun foo movie that rocketed cho yun fat and John woo to super stardom.

Like most PS3 titles, it has a few bugs not seen on the Xbox version, but these were minor enough not to be deal breakers.

It reminds me that, while I love the unique, off the wall stuff like No more heros and Penny arcade adventures, some times, when it gets right down to it, you gotta just go in there and waste some bad guys.

"Four gods wait on the windowsil, Where once Eight gods did war and will. And if the gods themselves may die, what does that say for you and i? "

For those of you who aren't in the know, The above line comes from the recently released and Absolutly fucking AWESOME penny arcade adventures. A unique mix of RPG and Adventure style gameply, it takes a unique and interesting approach to the art of gaming, combining unique writing, interesting art style, and fun, albiet simple, game mechanics. All in all, a great game for Penny arcade fans, and a fun game for rpg fan.

I would love to see more games take the sort of strange, of the beaten path approach to story and writing that PA adventures does. SO much of modern gaming is FPS this, 3rd person action that. The writing, the story, often they get left behind in search of some gameplay mechanic. Overall, PA adventures is a great change of pace.

I definatly recomend it.

Ok, it's offical, I will have to buy a Ps3 now.



For so long I resisted, for so long, I fought the urge to get that system, knowing there were no games I wanted on it.

Curse you sony. CURSE YOU!!!

::Gets out 500 bucks to go buy a ps3::

Update: I recently played a demo for this game. God help me, I want it even more now. not just more, enough to pre order it some time in the next week.

It's so good, the video is 100 percent accruate to the game itself.

I know most of you, least, if anyone actually does read this, knows I'm pretty big in my support for the industry. I love games, maybe to much but that's not the point.

However, there is one fucking thing that pisses me off more then you could possibly imagine.

REGION ENCODING!!!!!!!!

I FUCKING HATE IT!!

Lemme get to the point. I love anime, and find japan has some of the most absurd and wierd games that sadly, america never gets to see. For example.

In japan, the Naruto series had roughly 30 games more avalible for it then in the us, due to license issue and other problems. Another example, the simple 2000 series. Simple, straight forward, no frills game play. In particular, the Earth Defense force games, which did come to the UK but not the US, are some of the most fun possible. And all you do is run around BLASTING GIANT BUGS! SO why isn't a game like this playable in the USA.

Region ENCODING!!!!!

Any game bought outside of your country, nine times out of ten, won't work on your home system even if it's a legal game. WHy, cause the industry frequently uses methods from hardware parts to software to lock the region of a game system, preventing you from playing games bought outside the country. Not to sound confrontational, but to the industry I have this to say in regards to Region Encoding.

You sirs, CAN FUCK RIGHT OFF!

PS1, Ps2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube, Wii, fuck, 90 percent of home consoles are Region locked.

And the industry wonders why piracy took off? It's cause you made buying and playing Legal software more hassle then it's worth.

So, here's some advice Game industry.

Microsoft: Drop ALL REGION ENCODING. From your systems, from your disc, from Live, all of it. Fucking DROP IT!

Sony: Same to you fuckers. Some of the best PS2 games ever never hit american shores, and when I found them, i couldn't play them without modding my system cause YOU dicks region locked the fucking things.

Nintendo: This goes super mega TRIPLE for you. Knock IT OFF! You jerks Region locked every system you ever damn made up until the DS. What the HELL is wrong with you idiots! If people here wanna buy Japanese games that aren't released here, whats it matter to you.

You Would all STILL BE MAKING MONEY!!!

Get it? Im not advocating Piracy, I just wanna be able to buy and Play games that I can't Buy in my own fucking country. Stop being assholes, stop attacking your customers, and stop preventing importers from playing legally purchased foreign games on there systems. If you wanna stop piracy, then stop making legal games not worth buying.

Sony, you got the idea right, you made the ps3 region free for blue ray games, but not movies, not Ps2 games, not ps1 games. What the FUCK?????

Microsoft: You barely release anything in japan thats exclusive anyway, why region lock your damn system? The one game I wanna import I can't cause there would be no way to play it.

Thats BULLSHIT!

Nintendo: You fuckers are the worst. I love nintendo, and this one thing makes me wanna smash a wii with a sledge hammer some times. Some of my favorite games on the wii and game cube only came out in japan, so I have to import them, yet you all act like I broke the law of something cause I want to play a legally purchased game on my system just cause the game came from another country?

((For note, no Im not being sued by anyone, but given the Ice mod chip raids and all, it wouldn't suprise me))

All three of you, stop it. If you wanna stop piracy, deal with Piracy, and let the legitimate importers play there games in peace.

ASSHOLES!

Well, been playing alot of games lately. And while I have no delusions about if anyone really reads this blog, I fiqure I might as well speak me peace, if only to be able to say that I did.

1. First, theres some stuff for the WII. Played five new games on it, and fiqure it's best if I keep this simple.

First, theres One Piece: Unlimited Adventure. A good action platforming game, it's hampered by it's flaky combat and "Collect a thon" nature, but is still fun for fans of the series. Wait till it goes on sale used before getting it if your a fan.

Second, theres No More Heros. It's hands down THE action game on the Wii. Created by Suda 41, the man behind the interesting but ultimatly failed Killer 7, suda drops the Acid trip story and Rail system gameplay of that game and instead has a third person sword swinging action game with a crazy, sex starved, but loveable otaku named Travis touchdown, and some of the best Bad guys ever made for a game.

Third, we have Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, or, to put it more simply. Resident evil of the DEAD! Ok, thats kinda unfair I know, but it's basicly 3 resident evil games turned into a rail shooter, not exactly highly complicated stuff.

Fourth, We have dragon ball z Budokai Teknikaichi 3, which is simply a massive update to number 2 with better graphics, 150 charecters, and some online ability. Not anything that ground breaking, but good for dbz fans.

Finally we have Lego Star wars, the Complete saga. it's lego star wars on the WII. Not much else to say about it really. if you like Lego star wars but thought it would be fun to use the wii mote for it, this is a game for you. Otherwise, you might wanna just hold off on it and get lego batman or Indy instead.

Now, moving on to the Xbox 360.

Theres only been one major game that came out lately that I really freaking loved. Devil MAY CRY 3. It's a return to form, with a new lead, who is not the Raiden of DMC, but instead is pretty awesome even if he is like a younger dante, theres some new gameplay mechanics including a new grapple system, and to add to the fun you get to play as dante in the second half of the game. Admittedly however, he only goes through the same levels backwards, which winds up kinda sucking and is sort of a cop out but still isn't all that bad really and the games finale is absolutly fantastic if you like big boss battles.

As for pc, truth be told, not much to speak about other then Portal by Valve software, which most anybody with even the remotest intrest in gaming has played. Theres also Turning point, fall of liberty, a great, if somewhat by the numbers first person shooter that suffer cause at the time of this writing the game seems Broken. Even with an 8800 gt oc running on medium the game will still chug, and not when the bullest a flying, but just walking down corridors. It's silly, and shows that the games code wasn't optimized for PC.

Other then that, not much I can think off right now. Were all bracing for what the PS3 brings come this summer, but all in all , I think the winners this time around were the 360 and the WII, even if the WII has a criminally short library of good games and the 360 has more hardware trouble then dell computers.

Either way, it's gonna be a big year for the industry, I just hope that the xbox 360 works it's issues out, Nintendo gets some good 3rd party support, and Sony gets it's head out of the sand and stops creating 30 different models of the same system that STILL cannot do what I want it to.

Happy gaming all, and remember that all games are about fulfilling a fantasy. Should I be worried that I play games that allow me to beat, shoot, smash, and blow up everything in my path?

Hows it going out there folks? Having fun? Had a good holiday and all? Good.

It's been a while since I blogged, been busy as hell at work. So, I wanted to give you a little update about an amazing new game I picked up. It's called universe at WAR. It's a RTS game, with a new style and some truly epic combat. LIke any good rts, it's got three unique factions, and alot of cool units.

First theres the Hierachy, this games version of the bad guys. With Massive Walkers acting as mobile, and very hard to destroy bases, they are the heaviest, and most powerful units in the game. But they have limited base abilities and relay heavily on the big walker to do there job. On the other hand, the novus are the middle ground, gurellia tactics fighters, using there unique ability for fast movment between bases and there faster, more numourus units, they are able to attack and destroy even large enemies with swarm tactics.

Lastly, the Masari are the ultra powerful, heavy strike force, with the best weapons, but the least numbers. Playing with them is a defense deal, but damn can the deal out the pain when the time comes.

Anyway, check it out if you get a chance.

I recently completed a number of games on the 360 and pc.

Firstly, lets talk about everyones favorite orange jumpsuit wearing ninja.

Naruto!!!

Rise of a ninja, a western exclusive 360 naruto game, breaks the norms of Naruto games by being more then a fighting game or action game, but blending in elements of both with the series trademark story and style. While the english dubbing features most of the cast from the show, some are missing and had to be replaced by stand ins. However, the japanese audio track on the other hand, is avalible for download as of this writing.

Now, you might ask, how does ROAN play? Basicly, it's what you get when you boil the platforming of prince of persia,the fighting of the clash of ninja series, and the growth of the Ultimate ninja series together into one game.

The games main activity takes place in The city of Konoha, a recognizable place to naruto fans. Rendered beautifully and with amazing care, exporing this forest city is nothing short of fantastic, and has tons and tons of hidden crannies and roof tops to explore.

Outside the city, the game feels like a stardard platformer, though simplified compared to Prince of persia, or mario. Thats not to say naruto doesn't have some skills, including dash jumps, wall runing, double jumps and water walking. He also has special abilites like the Shadow clone jutsu, which breaks walls and so forth.

In the naurto world, Jutsu is a form of special ability ninjas possess that grants them super human, almost magicl power. To perform these in most games it really simple. a button or 2. But in ROAN, the game uses a neat system that has you moving the analog sticks to mimic the hand signs of the show.

When engaged in combat, the game uses a seperate 3d fighting engine. While not like virtual fighter, it's fast and fun enough to keep you in the game, while at the same time being true to the style of combat seen in the show. Each charecter has unique fighting abilities and special moves, and the game makes these moves interactive instead of just making you watch, much in the same way that The Ultimate ninja series does. Some charecters have Quick time event style items, while others are more interactive, such as the 64 palms technique,which plays like a target hitting game where you must hit at least four of the targets to get the full attack.

The game has any number of side quests and missions, and all in all has some suprising replay value thanks to an interesting online component.

For naruto fans, this game is a no brainer. For new comers ,give the game a test run first before purchase.

Now, on to other games.

Firstly, Black site, Area 51.

A good shooter whose biggest flaw is how By the Numbers it is. While competent it's nothing special, and feels like it could have been much larger then it was.

Next up, FEAR: Perseus mandate. A good expansion to fear, but the series is getting long in the tooth and starting to lose steam since the original development team jumped ship. While fun for fans of the series, we'll have to wait for Project origin to see how the series evolves.

Now, assassians Creed: Put simply, it's perhaps the most innovative and impressive game out right now, and a must own for gamers, both casual and hardcore. It's engrossing story, interesting gameplay, and beautiful world, make it a must have for anyone with an intrest in interactive entertainment.

Lastly, Crysis. If you have the hardware to play it, GET it. If not, don't even bother. It's just gonna leave you wanting better hardware.

Well, thats about it for this post. have a good holiday. I'll check back when I can.

Ok, for those of you not getting the titles refrance, its cause you never read Conan the barbarian.

Anyway, I just picked it up for my Xbox 360. It's pretty awesome. When you boil it right down, it's a Licensed version of god of war, and that aint bad.

I told you all a while back that I got the naruto import games. This includes both Narumite hero 3 and Shippuden Acel.

However I"m super pumped for the upcoming Rise of ninja on 360. it should be a blast.

Now, for all your pc gamers, I have a question.

have you bought portal yet?

If you haven't, do it, either get a copy of the Orange box, or buy the damn thing on steam. It's the best 20 fucking bucks you'll spend this year. Don't argue, don't debate, just fucking DO IT!!!!!

If you bought the orange box and don't wanna play portal, just team fortress classic, go FUCKING KILL YOURSELF YOU CRAVING DOUCHE BAG!!

Ok, rant over, sorry.

Portal is perhaps the first major step in game becoming more intelligent, thoughtfull games instead of the mindless twitch athons that currently dominate the market. Don't get me wrong, I lvoe a good twitch game as much as anyone but when thats all there is being released it gets fucking borening.

Anyway, Portal is perhaps the best game out there and should be on every pc and xbox gamers list. It also feature the best ending credits song in history.

As for jack thompson, he looks to be losing his license soon, which is fun, and is cause for celebration, but fact is, the asshole had this coming, for years!!

That it took this long ia a sad comment on our legal system.