I was feeling a bit under the weather, and for once it was raining all weekend so I was stuck inside. When this occurs, a rather grumpy monster forms inside my brain that craves new media. Be it movie, anime, or game, I must consume something. I happened to have some Microsoft points gifted to me (as I tend to hoard all gift cards and points for explosive spending binges like this) so this seemed like a good time to spend them. After seeing an ad for Crysis on the Xbox 360′s feature link for instant download, I decided to take the plunge and see if it could amuse me for a while. There are no words for what I’ve been missing since 2007.
Most of you have prolly seen this hotness already. If so, please just shake your head at my slowness and move on. For the rest of you — check it, you’re gonna want to see this if you dig first-person shooter games with a story — you know, at all.
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Disney's 2010 Tron Legacy Film (Picture courtesy of Disney's Tron Legacy Website)
Sean posted a great blog post about the ten things he learned from Tron 1982. I know I’m late to the party, but after just seeing Tron tonight, here are ten things I learned from seeing Tron Legacy
Normally action games aren’t really my style but in this case Bayonetta has more style in general than you can shake a really sexy stick at. In this world, Heaven and Hell had the out and out battle of the ages throwing hell into the loser’s bracket – which put the world out of balance. Fresh from a nap under a lake for 500 years Bayonetta, the last true Umber Witch, intends to fix that. How do you put the world back in balance you ask? Why by killing angels of course – this is the awesome! Continue reading »
I realize that I’ve already posted about Dragon Age Origins recently but there is something of great note I discovered a few days ago – there is a playable dog character. That’s right, take a gander at my new pup Bronx.
He’s a playable, levelable character just like any of the others. I named him after Bronx from the show Gargoyles. It’s kinda fitting since they are both about the same shape and look fierce but are really sweet pups. He’s mostly tan colored but this is right after the battle in which he joined the group so he’s still got blood on him – he is a war dog after all.
Only Fable II came this close to character perfection but was just a hair off the mark. I vowed to uncover every war dog quest and level him to the utmost without delay. My strategy for playing just became much easier, no more storyline just for progressions sake. My strategy now will be, “How does this help Bronx?”
I can now forgive BioWare for letting you switch paths in Mass Effect 2 – I have a new puppy!
Dragon Age Origins [BioWare]
Part of the Xmas loot this year was Dragon Age Origins for XBox 360. Both my brother and I got a copy and spent the day after playing it up. After spending about 8 hours with the title I can say without fear of contradiction that Bioware is becoming my favorite developer. Oh, and did I mention the chick in the above image is voiced by Claudia Black? Yeah, hotness.
Two years ago this month a game arrived in an overly saturated market that changed the gaming landscape forever — and my perception of first person shooter games. That game was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare from Infinity Ward. It was the third game of the series and a quantum leap up from Call of Duty 2. Modern Warfare combined a great story, great graphics, and an addictive RPG-like structure with multi-player gaming. More importantly, it changed the way I felt about the feel of firing a weapon in a video game.
I’m a big fan of fighting games. It’s something of a lost art here in the 21st century. The console has largely killed the tightly-packed throngs of teens waiting their turn at the controls of the latest button-masher. It is my most sincere hope that Tekken 6 helps turn a bit of that around.
True to my word, I picked up a copy on release day at lunch and had the fidgets the entire rest of the day ’till I could crack what I was sure was fighting nirvana on a disc. To my great relief I was rewarded with perhaps one of the most balanced and deep fighting games I’ve played in close to ten years. Not since Tekken 3 have I been this happy with a fisticuffs title.
Zachary Quinto stopped by the Video West arcade in Glendale, CA, last week to get his game on and help promote Stride Gum’s mission to help Save the Arcades. To help choose which local arcade will get a $25,000 boost from Stride, old-school gaming fans can play the online Flash game Zapataur — then choose which arcade gets their earned in-game points. The arcade with the most points in the end gets the cash.
As most gamers know, the arcades of the 70s and early 80s met their demise (mostly) with the increased popularity and affordability of home consoles. The Wikipedia entry on arcade history explains how arcades began to develop a reputation for being “seedy, unsafe places” while home gaming technology like the Nintendo NES, Sega Genesis, and eventually the PlayStation advanced to become equal to and eventually better and cheaper than arcade gaming — not to mention longer playing times.
When I first made the jump to an iPhone I was very worried about becoming one of the pod people who can’t put them down. As it turns out, that’s a total non-issue — however, I did find a bunch of sweet, downloadable, free games from producer Storm8 that are wickedness personified.
There are seven games in the Storm8 arsenal: Kingdoms, Vampires, World War, Racing, iMobster, Rockstar and Zombies. Each has its own unique setup and bend to the overall game play but if you learn how to play one, the others will quickly follow.
I thought I could resist — I really tried, honestly, but Fable II was calling me. Even after the engrossing social aspects of Eve, I still felt the need to download the new “See the Future” expansion pack for Fable II. It’s a sickness really, a wonderfully crafted sickness.
If you’ve played the game at all, even for a few minutes, you’ve met Murgo the trader. He’s the guy who sold you the music box at the very beginning of the game. Well now Murgo is back and hanging around the Bowerstone town square with his stock of cursed magic items that just happen to take you to other worlds. Each world has a few problems that need someone like you to help fix them. Commence with the fun!
Following in the wake of Star Wars Galaxies and a supposedly-coming-soon Star Trek MMO comes Auran Games’ announcement of a BSG MMO which will take place during the first Cylon War. Sleuth site MMOCrunch says Sierra Online will publish, though no dates have been set.
One bit of bad news: you’ll only be able to play as human. No Cylons for you!
Battlestar Galactica MMO Announced [MMOCrunch]
An online gaming site confirmed today that lucky 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, and DS players will indeed be able to step inside the black suit and play as Darth Vader in the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed game — but only in the first level because the man in black is just too powerful. From that point forward, players will proceed as Vader’s “secret padawan.”
While this is good news for most people, it’s bad for me — and for Sean. We never got past the level in Battlefront II in which Vader’s playable because each time one of us became Vader we relentlessly force choked everyone, including each other. Though team-killing is normally de rigueur-no, it’s completely permissible when you’re playing Luke’s dad. Why? Because you’re Vader, of course.
Here’s to enjoying the first level a few times before we give up.
Vader Playable In SW: TFU [QJ.net]
GWCers on Flickr
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